Project Chronicles

Stimulus Money Puts Shovels In The Ground for the Environment

2009-04-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

The recent stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by the President included money to aid existing Superfund cleanups, especially orphan sites, to the tune of $600M. This NY Times article discusses the situation by highlighting an orphan site in NJ.

Congress and the President intend to reinstate the defunct Superfund tax. Money from the tax would advance EPA's other missions of finding polluters, holding polluters accountable for their actions, and cleaning up sites. It will help relieve the financial burden from the taxpayers.

Regardless of the fate of the Superfund tax, it's good to see stimulus money putting shovels in the ground for the good of everyone.

Five Beginners’ Steps to a Greener Home

2009-03-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

RECENT Amazon.com search for “green home” pulled up more than 15,000 book titles. Who has time to read them all? So this week, The Green Home tracked down Eric Corey Freed, the author of “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies,” and asked him to distill this growing cottage industry of green advice into five must-do steps.

What’s the first and most important thing every green-minded dweller should do? Look at all the vampire loads that are sucking energy even when you’re not using them.

You mean like the toaster with a digital clock and the cellphone charger?
Yes. Anything with a ready light. Collectively, vampire loads cost Americans about $3 billion a year. The biggest culprits are stereos, DVRs, game systems and plasma TVs. Simply unplug them when they’re not in use. Or purchase smart power strips, which cost about $25 and shut off automatically.

What’s the second step for making our homes greener?
Take an empty two-liter soda bottle, wash it out, fill it with water, screw the lid on tightly and set it into your toilet tank, as far away from the flapper valve as possible. This prevents two liters of water from being used every time you flush.

Your third recommendation?
Install an ultra-low-flow shower head. A 1992 federal law requires all shower heads to be “low flow,” which means 2.5 gallons shoot out every minute it’s on. Switching to ultra-low-flow means you could go anywhere from two gallons all the way down to half a gallon a minute.

What’s No. 4?
Install a gray-water system that collects soapy water and diverts it to the toilet. Instead of clean water, you flush with soapy water. WaterSaver Technologies (watersavertech.com) makes AQUS, a $300 system that installs under the sink.

What’s the final step people should take?
This is probably the most important: replace old thermostats with a programmable one. It’s kind of like a TiVo of thermostats. It lets you turn the heat down when you sleep and back up before you wake. It can also tell the difference between Monday and Friday, so you can turn down the heat while you’re at work. A good one costs about $20, and saves about $180 a year on energy bills.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

EPA moving toward regulation of greenhouse gases

2009-02-24T15:24:00.000-08:00

Agency will decide if emissions blamed for global warming are a danger to human health and welfare.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming.In an interview on Tuesday with the Associated Press, Jackson said the agency would decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.

Jackson said the EPA owes the American people an opinion. "We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country," Jackson said.Recent EPA decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using the Clean Air Act to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.Jackson took a different position Tuesday during one of her first interviews since winning Senate confirmation Jan. 23."

It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed," she said."If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she said. "It is a very fundamental question."Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, headed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 until 2008.

Click here for the full LA Times article.

Southern California Edison Signs Solar Power Contract

2009-02-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

Edison International's (EIX) Southern California Edison unit, the largest electric utility in California and a major U.S. purchaser of solar energy power, has contracted with privately-held BrightSource Energy for 1,300 megawatts of solar power, or enough to serve nearly 845,000 homes.

The first of the solar power plants could be operating within four years, said the utility, which serves a population of more than 13 million, signed two contracts on Tuesday for almost 2,000 gigawatt-hours of wind power. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The deal comes as the solar-power industry has become increasingly pessimistic about the sector's short-term future, with many in the industry cutting production or lowering their outlook to reflect lower demand. Clean energy's momentum is also being stalled by the financial meltdown and lower oil and gas prices. Still, longer term the companies are expected to profit as governments seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, demand for solar power in California is soaring despite the economic downturn, according to a report state regulators issued in late January. California homeowners, businesses and local government agencies installed 158 megawatts of solar panels in 2008, double the amount installed the previous year, the California Public Utilities Commission said.

Click here for the full CNN article.

HOUSE DEMS’ STIMULUS BILL INCLUDES $14 BILLION-PLUS FOR WATER, ENVIRONMENT

2009-01-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

Democrats in the House of Representatives have introduced an $825 billion stimulus package that includes more than $14 billion for water- and environment-related programs, along with $32 billion for the development of a smart power grid and more than $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy projects. In the water and environment area, $6 billion would go to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF), $2 billion to the Drinking Water SRF, $4.5 billion for Army Corps of Engineers civil-works projects, $500 million for Bureau of Reclamation drinking-water projects, $224 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission’s water projects, $800 million for the federal Superfund program, and $300 million for the federal underground storage tank cleanup and brownfields cleanup programs.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the bill is just a first step in Congress’s development of a comprehensive economic stimulus package and is likely to go through several changes as the relevant House committees review it— to say nothing of the likely differences between the House’s final legislation and any forthcoming Senate package. The House Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce committees are scheduled to vote on their portions of the package this week. Pelosi said that a floor vote will take place next week.

Article from EBJ's Weekly News Update.

Is Solar A Net Environmental Loss?

2009-01-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

A growing concern in the solar energy market, specifically, and the green market, generally, is the fact that much of the manufacture, distribution, and disposal of solar photovoltaic cells causes environmental damage. It is argued that the manufacture and distribution of solar panels use more energy than the panels save in their lifetimes.

In addition, silicon is a hazardous material and many of the discarded panels could end up in landfills (whether at the end of their useful lives or when materials are replaced with upgrades). In this LA Times article, Solar energy's darker side stirs concern, many of these newly-realized concerns are explored.

When you're purchasing solar panels, take care to look for companies (like Tempe, Arizona's First Solar) who offer cradle to grave handling of panels or research the emerging market of 'organic' solar cells. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions through use of alternative energy is not the only reason to think and act green - there is the factor of environmental cost throughout a product's lifecycle.

Sustainable Development Practices Provide Meaningful Benefits to Developers and Local Communities in Challenging Economic Times

2009-01-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

With ongoing economic uncertainty and a lagging real estate market, Brownfield redevelopment is just the latest example of a sustainable development practice that is showing measurable benefits for both local communities and developers.

Virtually every major city within the United States, today, is burdened by abandoned manufacturing facilities and industrial sites that are impacted by known or perceived environmental contamination, known as Brownfields. Historically, the contamination of existing buildings and surrounding lands has spawned environmental concerns, discouraging many developers from taking on Brownfield redevelopment. The cleanup and development of contaminated lands is further complicated by costly and strict environmental oversight.
However, thanks to current economic development and regulatory incentives to support sustainable development, Brownfield redevelopment activity is helping reduce urban decay and reignite growth and investment in local communities throughout the United States. In addition, with a new Administration on the horizon, the environmental movement and a trend towards sustainable development practices could soon dominate community development strategies at both federal and state levels.

"Brownfield redevelopment will undoubtedly be a hot button issue in 2009, particularly with respect to government incentives for sustainable development endeavors," said Robert Fabricant, Chair of Akerman's Environment and Natural Resources practice group and former General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "This could be a win-win situation for both communities and developers in an otherwise challenging economic time."
Federal agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Economic Development Administration (EDA) under the U.S. Department of Commerce have partnered in the mission to lead the federal economic development agenda by encouraging Brownfield redevelopment projects that enhance job creation and overall community revitalization. These collaborative efforts have led to innovative government incentives, including an environmental remediation tax incentive that was signed into law in October of this year and $1.5 million of funding for Brownfield Training, Research, and Technical Assistance Grants. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has also encouraged developers to utilize Brownfields in order to help achieve the coveted USGBC LEED certification.

Akerman was instrumental earlier this year in passing Florida legislation addressing Brownfield and voluntary cleanup tax credit issues that offer a range of economic, environmental, and public health benefits to communities in which Brownfields and contaminated sites are located.
"The new bill provides important incentives and tools to encourage the voluntary cleanup and restoration of Brownfields and contaminated sites throughout Florida and bring a range of added benefits to local communities," said Jason Lichtstein, Akerman Shareholder and recently elected President-Elect of the Florida Brownfields Association. "We are very pleased about this legislation and excited about what these enhancements will do for Florida's Brownfields program and growing the program in the future."

Recent Akerman Brownfield work also includes a California project where Akerman attorneys assisted a national developer with its proposal to acquire and construct a regional shopping center on a portion of a formerly hazardous waste landfill. In Florida, Akerman assisted a client with the development of a hotel that now sits on a former Brownfield site. And in New York, Akerman is currently helping to redevelop a Brownfield, located along the Hudson River, as the site for a hotel and conference center that is expected to meet the standards for USGBC LEED Gold certification.

Click here to view the full PR Newswire article.

The Energy Challenge: Nuclear Power May Be in Early Stages of a Revival

2008-11-13T06:12:00.000-08:00

After three decades without starting a single new plant, the American nuclear power industry is getting ready to build again.

When the industry first said several years ago that it would resume building plants, deep skepticism greeted the claim. Not since 1973 had anybody in the United States ordered a nuclear plant that was actually built, and the obstacles to a new generation of plants seemed daunting.

But now, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 21 companies say they will seek permission to build 34 power plants, from New York to Texas. Factories are springing up in Indiana and Louisiana to build reactor parts. Workers are clearing a site in Georgia to put in reactors. Starting in January, millions of electric customers in Florida will be billed several dollars a month to finance four new reactors.

On Thursday, the French company Areva, the world’s largest builder of nuclear reactors, and Northrop Grumman announced an investment of more than $360 million at a shipyard in Newport News, Va., to build components for seven proposed American reactors, and more for export.

The change of fortune has come so fast that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which had almost forgotten how to accept an application, has gone into a frenzy of hiring, bringing on hundreds of new engineers to handle the crush of applications. Many problems could derail the so-called nuclear revival, and virtually no one believes all 34 proposed plants will be built. It is still unclear how many billions they would cost, whether the expense can be financed in a troubled credit market, and how the cost might compare with other power sources.
But experts who follow the industry expect that at least some of the 34 will be built.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

Third Passaic River Symposium are Now Available on the Web

2008-11-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

Full presentations (and abstracts) from the Third Passaic River Symposium are now available on the Symposium web site, http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/pri/symposium2008/
The program booklet, which includes all abstracts, is available on the web site as well.

The Symposium was organized by the Passaic River Institute of Montclair State University, held on October 16 2008 on the University campus. It featured the "Lower Passaic River Restoration Project" as well as projects and issues in the upper River and tributary watersheds such as flooding and phosphorus loading. Congressman Bill Pascrell gave opening remarks. The heads of three major agencies spoke (USEPA Region 2, NJDEP, US Corps of Engineers NY District), giving an update on Passaic Basin issues from their agencies' perspectives. The Symposium attracted about 280 participants.

You can read a wrap-up story about the Symposium on from the Montclair State web site,
http://www.montclair.edu/news/article.php?ChannelID=7&ArticleID=2761
This page also has links to media coverage of the symposium.

LEGISLATION TO SHIFT BURDEN OF FUNDING SUPERFUND FROM TAXPAYERS TO POLLUTERS

2008-09-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced legislation to renew support for the Superfund Trust Fund by reinstating fees to ensure that polluters provide a dedicated revenue source to fund the cleanup of the most contaminated toxic waste sites across the country. The Bush Administration shifted the burden of funding the Superfund from polluters to taxpayers when it allowed the trust fund to go bankrupt five years ago. As a result, the number of cleanups has dropped dramatically. Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Barack Obama (D-IL), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) joined as cosponsors of the legislation.

“New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any other state in the nation. Right now, the Superfund Trust Fund has run dry, stalling the clean-up of toxic chemicals in our communities,” Senator Lautenberg said. “It's critical we get these sites cleaned up and we need to make the polluters – and not taxpayers – foot the bill.”

“This administration has cared more about shielding polluters than protecting Americans from harmful toxic waste. Without a dedicated revenue source, the Superfund simply cannot effectively complete its important cleanup missions. This legislation will put the responsibility for cleaning up toxic sites back on polluters and off of the American taxpayers,” Senator Clinton said.

Senator Boxer said, “I am proud to join Senator Clinton and my other colleagues to ensure that polluters pay to clean up the most contaminated toxic waste sites.”

Originally signed into law in 1980, Superfund is the federal program for the clean-up of hazardous waste sites. At the heart of the law is the commitment to ensure that the polluters responsible for the contamination, and not the general public, pay for the cleanup.
In the mid and late 1990s, Superfund cleaned up an average of 86 sites per year, but this number fell dramatically under the Bush Administration. One important reason for the decline in cleanups is that President Bush has failed to support reinstating the fees on polluters that had long supported the Superfund. The Superfund Trust Fund ran out of money five years ago, and since then the program has been funded completely with general revenue.

Since losing that source of funding, the Superfund program has seen dramatic reductions in the number of cleanups of hazardous sites completed nationwide. The Environmental Protection Agency completed construction on only 24 sites in fiscal year 2007, far less than the 87 achieved in the final year of the Clinton Administration. More than 1250 toxic waste sites on the Superfund National Priority List still await cleanup, while more wait to even be listed for Superfund cleanup. New York has 86 sites on the Superfund list.

Click here for the full article.

House Approves Offshore Drilling Bill

2008-09-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

Legislation to increase domestic energy supplies through expanded offshore drilling and investment in renewable energy and conservation won approval in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday by a vote of 236-189.

If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act will allow oil and gas drilling in federal waters more than 100 miles off the coast and provide for drilling between 50-100 miles off the coast at the discretion of individual states. Senate approval before the November election is considered unlikely.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who has opposed offshore drilling in the past, now supports this bill, which she said Tuesday, "will be significant in ensuring American energy independence and strengthening our national security."

"This energy legislation is the result of reasonable compromise that will put us on the path toward energy independence by expanding domestic supply, protect consumers with strong action to lower the costs of energy and to protect taxpayers by making Big Oil pay for its fair share of our transition to a clean, renewable energy future, ensure a clean, green future through energy efficiency and conservation, and commit America to renewable energy and help create millions of good-paying green jobs."

Click here for the full Environmental News Services article.

Tapping Power From Trash

2008-09-15T06:41:00.001-07:00

WHEN talk turns to alternative energy and global warming, let us not forget stinking piles of garbage. Buried in airless pockets deep inside landfills, the organic matter in these great mounds of waste is consumed by bacteria that give off gas rich in methane, increasingly used to generate electricity and heat.

In fact, power from landfill methane exceeds solar power in New York and New Jersey, and landfill methane in those states and in Connecticut powers generators that produce a total of 169 megawatts of electricity — almost as much as a small conventional generating station. The methane also provides 16.7 million cubic feet of gas daily for heating and other direct uses.

There is ample opportunity for energy-producing projects at more landfills, according to the EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program and officials and groups in the three states. As scouring for alternative energy intensifies, landfill methane is getting more attention from state, federal and local governments together with private energy and waste-management companies, landfill owners and energy entrepreneurs.

If it is not captured, the E.P.A. says, landfill methane becomes a greenhouse gas at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, when it rises into the atmosphere. The agency estimates that landfills account for 25 percent of all methane releases linked to human activity.

Click here to see the full NY Times article.

EPA: General Electric Must Revise River Clean Up Plan

2008-09-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

General Electric's cleanup proposal for PCB contamination of the Housatonic River south of Pittsfield, Massachusetts raises more than 150 concerns, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The river sediment is polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, south of the GE property where the company formerly manufactured electrical equipment such as transformers and capacitors.

In comments sent to GE in a letter Tuesday, the federal agency details issues that are inadequately addressed in the company's Corrective Measures Study, especially regarding impacts on the river ecosystem during cleanup work, and impacts on aesthetic enjoyment of the area by local residents.

GE must now address the concerns raised by the agency and submit additional detailed information within 90 days. Following review of the revised GE proposal, the EPA will propose its own preferred clean up alternative for a final cleanup remedy.

"Cleaning up the portions of the Housatonic River south of Pittsfield is one of the most significant environmental challenges for this generation of New Englanders," said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England office.

"It will be complicated and challenging for us to both remove elevated levels of PCBs from the river, while also protecting the valuable aesthetic and recreational values of this beautiful rural waterway," he said. "We can all agree that we need to do this work, and get it right."

During the review of the 700-plus page Corrective Measures Study, EPA received hundreds of comments from area residents and involved parties, including several state government agencies in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Varney said the public comments "reflected EPA concerns that the CMS as submitted did not adequately address impacts to the river ecosystem, to sensitive species, and to aesthetic, recreational and quality-of-life values of the river for area residents." He said the EPA also is concerned that the GE study does not provide adequate detail on potential placement of a landfill for consolidation of, or facilities for treatment of, the contaminated sediment that will be removed from the river.

Click here for the full Environmental News Service article.

Technology Review: How Obama Really Did It - The social-networking strategy that took an obscure senator to the doors of the White House.

2008-09-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign manager and Internet impresario, describes Super Tuesday II--the March 4 primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island--as the moment Barack Obama used social technology to decisive effect. The day's largest hoard of delegates would be contested in Texas, where a strong showing would require exceptional discipline and voter-education efforts. In Texas, Democrats vote first at the polls and then, if they choose, again at caucuses after the polls close. The caucuses award one-third of the Democratic delegates.

Hillary Clinton's camp had about 20,000 volunteers at work in Texas. But in an e-mail, Trippi learned that 104,000 Texans had joined Obama's social-networking site, www.my.barackobama.com, known as MyBO. MyBO and the main Obama site had already logged their share of achievements, particularly in helping rake in cash. The month before, the freshman senator from Illinois had set a record in American politics by garnering $55 million in donations in a single month. In Texas, MyBO also gave the Obama team the instant capacity to wage fully networked campaign warfare. After seeing the volunteer numbers, Trippi says, "I remember saying, 'Game, match--it's over.'"

The Obama campaign could get marching orders to the Texans registered with MyBO with minimal effort. The MyBO databases could slice and dice lists of volunteers by geographic microregion and pair people with appropriate tasks, including prepping nearby voters on caucus procedure. "You could go online and download the names, addresses, and phone numbers of 100 people in your neighborhood to get out and vote--or the 40 people on your block who were undecided," Trippi says. "'Here is the leaflet: print it out and get it to them.' It was you, at your computer, in your house, printing and downloading. They did it all very well." Clinton won the Texas primary vote 51 to 47 percent. But Obama's people, following their MyBO playbook, so overwhelmed the chaotic, crowded caucuses that he scored an overall victory in the Texas delegate count, 99 to 94. His showing nearly canceled out Clinton's win that day in Ohio. Clinton lost her last major opportunity to stop the Obama juggernaut. "In 1992, Carville said, 'It's the economy, stupid,'" Trippi says, recalling the exhortation of Bill Clinton's campaign manager, James Carville. "This year, it was the network, stupid!"

Click here for the full Technology Review article.

Corporate types getting into blogging

2008-09-03T14:26:00.001-07:00

With the connection between new media and business development, many corporations have turned to blogging to try and better communicate with their customers. Project Navigator has developed a PRP blog, http://www.prpblog.com/, and uses this tool to facilitate information exchange with our own clients.

Excerpt from LA Times Article: Corporate types getting into blogging
Experts say it’s a useful tool for talking directly to customers or giving a personal touch to a big business. Jason Calacanis, who got into blogging early and big, has quit.

He co-founded a network of blogs called Weblogs in 2003, before the medium cracked the mainstream, and then sold it to AOL in 2005, working there until 2007. Today he is chief executive of Mahalo, a search engine guided by editors rather than algorithms.

After five years of writing on tech industry topics as well as personal ones and building an audience of 10,000 to 20,000 daily visitors, Calacanis said, he got tired of all the nasty comments and “link-baiters,” people who post comments just to promote their own blogs. So he signed off, leaving the blogosphere to others.

One group that has been firing up its keyboards is corporate types. Of about 112.5 million blogs on the Web, almost 5,000 are corporate, according to blog indexer Technorati. Calacanis blogged to start conversations and be a part of a virtual community, but corporate bloggers are in it for other reasons: to talk directly to customers or give a personal touch to a big business.

“It’s a phenomenal promotion vehicle for a company, or a great crisis tool or a great customer service tool,” said Geoff Livingston, a public relations strategist and social media expert.
Honest Tea Inc. of Bethesda, Md., launched its blog in late 2005 as a way to get close to customers. With a name like Honest Tea, Chief Executive Seth Goldman said, “we’re trying to be as open and disclose as much information as we can.”

When the company announced that Coca-Cola Co. would acquire a 40% interest in the brand, many of Honest Tea’s customers who opposed the agreement took their complaints to the blog.

Click here for the full LA Times article.

EcoDriving Through the Green States

2008-08-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hypermiling, a way of driving to maximize fuel economy, has gone mainstream and bipartisan.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers started a new website today, http://www.ecodrivingusa.com/, to promote driving and vehicle maintenance habits that can reduce fuel consumption. Its first two spokesmen for the effort are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican governor of California, and Bill Ritter, Democratic governor of Colorado.

Underscoring their united efforts, the site proclaims: "Red State. Blue State. Through EcoDriving, we can all be green states." The interactive site lists a variety of ways to wring the most miles out of every gallon of gasoline, from avoiding idling the car for more than 30 seconds to using the "recycle inside air" feature to reduce air-conditioning demands. In a video message posted on the site's home page Schwarzenegger underscores the immediate benefits of learning how to "ecodrive."

"We hear a lot of ideas from politicians about lowering the gas prices and fighting global warming, whether it is biofuels, offshore drilling or nuclear power," he says. "But none of those will affect gas prices right now. Only you can do that. ... Each of us has the power to make a difference right now." How? The site lists 26 driving and vehicle-maintenance tips that it says can collectively boost fuel economy by 15 percent. For example:

- Drive with a feather foot rather than a lead foot, avoiding rapid acceleration and hard stops.
On warm days, roll down the windows to cool off if driving slower than 40 mph. At speeds above 40 mph, using air conditioning is more efficient.

- Use cruise control selectively. The feature saves energy on flat terrains, but on hilly routes, cruise control may cause the engine to speed up unnecessarily while climbing hills and slow down while descending.

- Check tire pressure regularly, use "energy conserving" motor oil if available and appropriate for your engine, replace clogged air filters and keep vehicle properly tuned.Schwarzenegger says that if every driver followed "ecodriving" practices, the reductions in climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions "would be an equivalent to heating and powering nearly eight cities the size of Los Angeles."

"Ecodriving" is also known as hypermiling, a term coined by Wayne Gerdes, owner and administrator of http://www.cleanmpg.com/. That website is billed as an online community of people guided by the motto, "Learn to raise fuel economy and lower emissions in whatever you drive."
Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the trade group Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said much the same thing in a statement introducing his organization's campaign.

Click here for the full Environmental News Service article.

Court Rejects E.P.A. Limits on Emissions Rules

2008-08-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out an Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting the ability of states to require monitoring of industrial emissions.

The 2-to-1 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is the most recent in a series of judicial setbacks to the Bush administration’s efforts to reshape federal policies under the Clean Air Act. Under 1990 amendments to the original Clean Air Act, states were allowed to issue permits limiting pollution emissions from industrial facilities, like refineries or utilities. To ensure compliance, Congress required states to set more stringent monitoring requirements if they deemed federal requirements inadequate.

The E.P.A. gave states this leeway until 2006, when it reversed course and prohibited the states from requiring new monitoring. Environmental groups challenged the agency, saying that the new rule kept public agencies from gathering and making available the best data about industrial contributions to air pollution.

“E.P.A.’s about-face means that some permit programs do not comply” with federal law, Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote in the majority opinion. He added that thousands of permits allowing the operation of industrial facilities might not comply with the law “because their monitoring requirements are invalid.”

Judge David B. Sentelle joined Judge Griffith’s opinion. The ruling by the court, which has jurisdiction over most federal agency rules, was another judicial rebuke to the E.P.A.’s recent policies, leaving few of its major initiatives on air pollution intact. The suit, brought by the Sierra Club, was opposed by the environmental agency and several industry groups, including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute.

“I think it is fair to say that the D.C. Circuit has repudiated the vast bulk of the Bush administration’s clean-air regulatory reforms, which were the administration’s most notable and significant (if not always wise) environmental policy initiatives,” Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, commented on the case on a legal affairs blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. In an interview, Professor Adler said the agency “was giving business a bit of a break; was saying to states: You can’t do more.”

Click here for the NY Times article.

Changes in Environmental Reviews Are Sought

2008-08-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is proposing to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants, according to a draft of planned rule changes obtained by The Associated Press.

The proposed regulations, which do not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday that the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act not be used as a “back door” to regulate the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats. “We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good,” Mr. Kempthorne said in a news conference organized quickly after The A.P. reported details of the proposal.

“It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species,” he added. “It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse-gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species.”

If approved, the changes would represent the biggest overhaul of endangered species regulations since 1986. They would accomplish through rules what conservative Republicans have been unable to achieve in Congress: ending some environmental reviews that developers and other federal agencies blame for delays and cost increases on many projects.
Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the proposed changes illegal.

The new rules were expected to be formally proposed immediately, officials said. They would be subject to a 30-day public comment period before being made final by the Interior Department.
A new administration could freeze any pending regulations or reverse them, a process that could take months. Congress could also overturn the rules through legislation, but that could take even longer.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

Two Large Solar Plants Planned in California

2008-08-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.

The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store.

The power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, which is under a state mandate to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The utility said that it expected the new plants, which will use photovoltaic technology to turn sunlight directly into electricity, to be competitive with other renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and solar thermal plants, which use the sun’s heat to boil water.

“These market-leading projects we have in California are something that can be extrapolated around the world,” Jennifer Zerwer, a spokeswoman for the utility, said. “It’s a milestone.”
Though the California installations will generate 800 megawatts at times when the sun is shining brightly, they will operate for fewer hours of the year than a coal or nuclear plant would and so will produce a third or less as much total electricity.

OptiSolar, a company that has just begun making a type of solar panel with a thin film of active material, will install 550 megawatts in San Luis Obispo County. The SunPower Corporation, which uses silicon-crystal technology, will build about 250 megawatts at a different location in the same county.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

Turning Waste Material Into Ethanol

2008-08-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.

Gasification is a process that turns carbon-based feedstocks under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled atmosphere into synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.

It’s basically the same technique that was used to extract the gas from coal that fueled gas light fixtures prior to the advent of the electric light bulb. The advantage of gasification compared to fermentation technologies is that it can be used in a variety of applications, including process heat, electric power generation, and synthesis of commodity chemicals and fuels.

“There was some interest in converting syngas into ethanol during the first oil crisis back in the 70s,” said Ames Lab chemist and Chemical and Biological Science Program Director Victor Lin. “The problem was that catalysis technology at that time didn’t allow selectivity in the byproducts. They could produce ethanol, but you’d also get methane, aldehydes and a number of other undesirable products.”

A catalyst is a material that facilitates and speeds up a chemical reaction without chemically changing the catalyst itself. In studying the chemical reactions in syngas conversion, Lin found that the carbon monoxide molecules that yielded ethanol could be “activated” in the presence of a catalyst with a unique structural feature.

“If we can increase this ‘activated’ CO adsorption on the surface of the catalyst, it improves the opportunity for the formation of ethanol molecules,” Lin said. “And if we can increase the amount of surface area for the catalyst, we can increase the amount of ethanol produced.”

Click here for the full Science Daily article.

Using Live Fish, New Tool A Sentinel For Environmental Contamination

2008-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

By measuring rates of oxygen use in developing fish, which are sensitive to contaminants and stressful conditions, the technology could reveal the presence of minute levels of toxic substances before they cause more obvious and substantial harm. It could be used as an early warning system against environmental contamination or even biological weapons, said Purdue University researcher Marshall Porterfield, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering.

Respiration, the process wherein animals and other organisms burn oxygen to produce energy, is often the first of a fish's bodily functions affected by contaminants. The technology uses fiber optics to quickly monitor this activity and produce results within minutes, Porterfield said.
"Say you are exposed to the common cold virus," he said. "Before symptoms develop and you become aware of the bug's presence, it has already begun to attack your cells. Similarly, fish and other organisms are affected by contaminants before behavioral changes appear. Our technology detects heretofore undetectable changes to act as an early warning system."

In a study published online last week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the system detected the presence of several common pollutants such as the widely-used herbicide atrazine – even at levels near or below those that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems acceptable for drinking water. "This means the technology could not only help monitor environmental quality but may be used to enforce important water quality standards," said Marisol Sepulveda, lead author and assistant professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue.

Testing also registered noticeable changes in the respiratory activity of fish embryos when the heavy metal cadmium was present at levels 60 times lower than the EPA limit, she said.
Throughout the study, contaminants did not destroy the eggs of laboratory-raised fathead minnows, a commonly studied fish species. This further demonstrates the tool's ability to discern subtle changes before they become fatal, Sepulveda said.

In the laboratory, researchers first manually positioned a tiny optical electrode, or optrode just outside individual embryos of two-day-old fathead minnows. At 1.5 millimeters in diameter, they were slightly smaller than the head of a pin, said primary author and Purdue doctoral student Brian Sanchez.

A fluorescent substance coated the electrode tip, its optical properties varying predictably with oxygen concentration. This allowed researchers to take quick measurements at locations only micrometers apart, moving the electrode via a computer-driven motor, Sanchez said. These readings then allowed researchers to calculate respiration rates within the eggs, he said.

Click here to read the full Science Daily article.

Climate Experts Tussle Over Details. Public Gets Whiplash.

2008-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

When science is testing new ideas, the result is often a two-papers-forward-one-paper-back intellectual tussle among competing research teams. When the work touches on issues that worry the public, affect the economy or polarize politics, the news media and advocates of all stripes dive in. Under nonstop scrutiny, conflicting findings can make news coverage veer from one extreme to another, resulting in a kind of journalistic whiplash for the public.

This has been true for decades in health coverage. But lately the phenomenon has been glaringly apparent on the global warming beat.

Discordant findings have come in quick succession. How fast is Greenland shedding ice? Did human-caused warming wipe out frogs in the American tropics? Has warming strengthened hurricanes? Have the oceans stopped warming? These questions endure even as the basic theory of a rising human influence on climate has steadily solidified: accumulating greenhouse gases will warm the world, erode ice sheets, raise seas and have big impacts on biology and human affairs.

Scientists see persistent disputes as the normal stuttering journey toward improved understanding of how the world works. But many fear that the herky-jerky trajectory is distracting the public from the undisputed basics and blocking change. “One of the things that troubles me most is that the rapid-fire publication of unsettled results in highly visible venues creates the impression that the scientific community has no idea what’s going on,” said W. Tad Pfeffer, an expert on Greenland’s ice sheets at the University of Colorado.

“Each new paper negates or repudiates something emphatically asserted in a previous paper,” Dr. Pfeffer said. “The public is obviously picking up on this not as an evolution of objective scientific understanding but as a proliferation of contradictory opinions.”

Several experts on the media and risk said that one result could be public disengagement with the climate issue just as experts are saying ever more forcefully that sustained attention and action are needed to limit the worst risks. Recent polls in the United States and Britain show that the public remains substantially divided and confused over what is happening and what to do. Some environmentalists have blamed energy-dependent industries and the news media for stalemates on climate policy, arguing that they perpetuate a false sense of uncertainty about the basic problem.

But scientists themselves sometimes fail to carefully discriminate between what is well understood and what remains uncertain, said Kimberly Thompson, an associate professor of risk analysis and decision science at Harvard. And, Dr. Thompson said, the flow of scientific findings from laboratory (or glacier) to journal to news report is fraught with “reinforcing loops” that can amplify small distortions.

For example, she said, after scientists learn that accurate, but nuanced, statements are often left out of news accounts, they may pre-emptively oversimplify their description of some complex finding. Better, but more difficult, Dr. Thompson said, would be to work with the reporter to characterize the weight of evidence behind the new advance and seek to place it in context.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

Garbage as Fuel?

2008-07-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

We all remember the end of 'Back to the Future' when the Doc fills up his DeLorean with garbage. Well, one of the areas of biofuel technology that must be watched is 'garbage as fuel'. A recent New York Times article, Gassing Up With Garbage, solidly summarized the existing condition of the quest.

As with most venture capital projects, there is no agreed-upon timeline, for full-scale production, but the market is making the research and long-term viability spring to life. Much of the garbage will be agricultural waste (see the photo of pine waste collected by the Forest Service). Garbage as fuel can be part of the mandated 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022 solution.

Perhaps the day will come when landfills will be mined for organics and the operators can get paid twice for our waste!

It's Easy Being Green: Save Money, Save Emissions—Work from Home

2008-07-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

The commuter lifestyle is on its way out, and it’s taking some 26 billion pounds of carbon dioxide pollution with it. Telecommuting, or working from home, is a practice that could be the answer to ever-increasing gasoline prices and help the environment at the same time. If employees who could telecommute did so at least two days a week, their fuel consumption and cost would decrease by 40 percent—and that’s just one of the benefits.

Telecommuting is a work arrangement that allows for flexibility in hours and location. It provides more time with family members, and replaces productivity time that is normally lost in commutes. Technology plays a part as well; virtual private networks and videoconferencing are shrinking the gap between the workplace and home.

Many U.S. workers have been forced to move away from city centers in pursuit of a more affordable house and lifestyle, but they now face extraordinarily high transportation costs. Nearly half of all commuters travel more than 20 miles round trip to and from work every day, and with the average price of gas at more than $4 per gallon, it can cost hundreds of dollars to commute every week.

In addition, traffic congestion continues to worsen in American cities of every size. Not only do commuters spend 4.2 billion hours in traffic each year, this idling wastes 2.9 billion gallons of fuel—enough to fill 58 fully loaded supertankers.

Click here to read the full Center for American Progress article.

Hydrogen Cars Will Need Multi-Billion Dollar Jumpstart, Experts Warn

2008-07-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, DC, July 18, 2008 (ENS) - It will take massive subsidies from the U.S. government to make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a significant part of the nation's transportation future, according to a National Research Council report released Thursday. The study finds that even under a best-case scenario only about two million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be on American roads by 2020, less than one percent of the nation's estimated total number of cars and trucks.

Achieving that goal would require the government to pump at least $55 billion in subsidies over the next 15 years to make hydrogen vehicles cost competitive with conventional cars and trucks, the report concluded. Current government spending has equaled some $879 million since 2004.

But the chair of the committee that wrote the report said the suggested government funding should be put in perspective with other subsidies.

If current funding and policies continue, the federal subsidy for corn-based ethanol over the same time period is on pace to reach $160 billion, said Mike Ramage, a former vice president for research and development at Exxon Mobil and chair of the 17-member panel. "We need durable, substantial and sustainable government help to make this happen, just as there is for ethanol," he said.

The 249 page report, which was requested by the U.S. Energy Department, contends that the funding may well be worth it as it could set the stage for accelerated adoption of hydrogen vehicles by mid-century. The allure of hydrogen fuel cells is their potential to help shift the U.S. transportation sector away from oil and to cut emissions linked to climate change. The only byproduct from a hydrogen fuel cell is water.

The environmental benefits of hydrogen would be "less in the early years but would be dominant" over a longer time period, Ramage told reporters on a telephone briefing.
The committee's best case scenario envisions that if the technical and economic obstacles are overcome in the next 15 years, the growth of the technology could accelerate dramatically.

Click here for the full Environment New Service article.

U.S. Corn Production Feeds Expanding Gulf Dead Zone

2008-07-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, DC, July 15, 2008 (ENS) - This year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to be the largest on record and growing U.S. corn production is a primary cause of the worsening conditions, federal and state scientists said Tuesday.

The research team predicts that the dead zone - a stretch of water without enough oxygen to support marine life - could cover some 8,800 square miles this summer, an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey.

The forecast was announced today by scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University, LSU, who predicted the dead zone would be the largest since official monitoring began in 1985.

The dead zone forms annually off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, fed by nutrient heavy water from the Mississippi River. The country's largest river drains some 40 percent of the United States, including much of its agricultural heartland and its corn belt. From as far north as Minnesota, runoff water laden with fertilizer nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous flows into river and into the Gulf, stimulating an overgrowth of algae. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and decompose, depleting oxygen levels in the water and choking out marine life.

The strong link between nutrients and the dead zone indicates that excess nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed during the spring are the primary human-influenced factor behind the expansion of the dead zone," said Rob Magnien, director of the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research.

Last year's dead zone reached some 7,900 square miles, but the record came in 2002, when the area totalled nearly 8,500 square miles. Record corn harvests throughout the Midwest are clearly adding to the problem, according to Eugene Turner, a scientist with LSU, and leader of the research team. U.S. farmers are planting "an awful lot of corn and soybeans," he told reporters, adding that both crops leach nitrogen easily into soil and groundwater.
Corn production in the United States has shot up dramatically in recent years, driven by demand for corn-based ethanol. The U.S. Agriculture Department estimates some 87 million acres of corn were planted this year.

Turner warned that the economic impact of the dead zone would again ripple through the Gulf's lucrative commercial and recreational fishing industries. "The fish and shrimp have left this area and it is inconceivable that you could have that much change on the bottom and not change the fisheries in some way," Turner said. "This area is about 25-30 percent of U.S. fisheries - it is a pretty big fishery that is under threat."

Changing conditions to prevent the annual dead zone won't be easy, he added. "It is not just a matter of turning the switch today." "It is going to have to come from changes in land use," Turner said. "We will have to reduce the amount of nitrogen coming off the watershed."

Click here for the full Environment News Service article.

Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps

2008-07-14T05:39:00.000-07:00

Any major steps by the Bush administration to control air pollution or reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases came to a dead end on Friday, the combined result of a federal court ruling and a decision by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the morning, a federal appeals court struck down the cornerstone of the administration’s strategy to control industrial air pollution by agreeing with arguments by the utility industry that the E.P.A. had exceeded its authority when it established the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005. The court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said the rule, which set new requirements for major pollutants, had “fatal flaws.”

A few hours later, the E.P.A. chief rejected any obligation to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide under existing law, saying that to do so would involve an “unprecedented expansion” of the agency’s authority that would have “a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy,” touching “every household in the land.”
Taken together, the developments make it clear that any significant new effort to fight air pollution will fall to the next president.

The comments by the E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, reinforced a message that the administration had been sending for months: that it does not intend to impose mandatory controls on the emissions that cause climate change. John Walke, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group, said, “As a result of today, July 11, the Bush administration has failed to achieve a single ounce in reductions of smog, soot, mercury or global warming pollution from power plants.”

Mr. Johnson said he was “extremely disappointed” in the court decision “because it’s overturning one of the most significant and health-protective rules in our nation’s history.”
But on climate change, he said laws like the Clean Air Act were “ill-suited” to the complexities of regulating greenhouse gases.

Mr. Johnson’s comments appeared as a preface to a report by the E.P.A. staff sketching out how the emission of heat-trapping gases, particularly by vehicles, might be handled under the Clean Air Act. The report was intended to address a Supreme Court directive that the agency decide whether such gases threaten people’s health or welfare. But it also reflects the deep disapproval of controls on such gases by the White House and agencies like the Transportation, Agriculture and Commerce Departments.

Click here for the full article.

Richest Nations Pledge to Halve Greenhouse Gas

2008-07-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

RUSUTSU, Japan — President Bush and leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged Tuesday to “move toward a low-carbon society” by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the latest step in a long evolution by a president who for years played down the threat of global warming.
The declaration by the Group of 8 — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — was the first time that the Bush White House had publicly backed an explicit long-term target for eliminating the gases that scientists have said are warming the planet. But it failed to set a goal for cutting emissions over the next decade, and drew sharp criticism from environmentalists, who called it a missed opportunity.
On Wednesday, leaders of developing nations took up the climate change issue and said that they too supported “a long-term global goal for emission reductions,” but they were not specific and fell short of supporting the Group of 8 declaration.
In a sense, the Group of 8 document represents an environmental quid pro quo. In exchange for agreeing to the “50 by 2050” language, Mr. Bush got what he has sought as his price for joining an international accord: a statement from the rest of the Group of 8 that developing nations like China and India, which have not accepted mandatory caps on carbon emissions, must be included in any climate change treaty.
European leaders, who have long pressed Mr. Bush to take a more aggressive stance on global warming, said the declaration could enhance efforts to reach a binding agreement to reduce emissions when negotiators meet in Copenhagen next year under United Nations auspices.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

States Can Pursue Their Own Emissions Standards, says Federal Court

2008-06-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of whether California, and 15 other states, can set their own emissions standards, a Federal Court gave a win to environmentalists and threw out a suit brought on by 10 automakers. The lawsuit was an attempt to block implementation of a California law. The California law under question requires an average mileage rating of 41 mpg by 2015 (the recent federal law requires 37 mpg by 2015).

In Monday's decision, the judge took what environmental lawyers described as an unusually strident tone in denying appeals by the automakers to delay implementation of the California law until 2017 in the event that a Clean Air Act waiver from the EPA was granted.
The judge also rejected the automakers' interpretation of a federal statute -- revolving around the word "or" -- that would make California's law unenforceable.

"The interpretation requested is without support in law, logic, or grammar," the judge wrote, denying all the motions filed by the auto industry and calling for the case to be wrapped up within 30 days.

Remember, California requested a waiver from the Clean Air Act in order to set their own emissions standards. The EPA declined the waiver, for one of the few times in EPA history and its rationale has been shady, at best.

As a side note, Congress asked the EPA for documents related to the December 2007 Clean Air Act waiver denial be handed over in an investigation, but the White House refused and cited 'executive privilege'. Both Senators Obama and McCain support the waiver.

The Little Solar Guys May Lose in the Long Run

2008-06-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

A New York Times article today outlines the growing pains of the nation's solar market. When states, such as New Jersey and California, offer solar rebates they find that the rebate program lags too far behind to satisfy customers, the State, and small installers.

New Jersey's answer is to phase out the rebate program in favor of an energy credit market. Larger companies would gain a distinct advantage and would force smaller companies out of business merely because of their size and access to capital. They can purchase energy credits and/or gain credits through new installations. Small companies will be squeezed out of this market because of their lack of working capital.

Large companies are already working with customers through power purchase agreements. These agreements give customers lower rates on electricity and the installation company finances and owns the equipment.

The agreements are a good plan for many residential customers and they will become more commonplace in years to come. Energy credit markets are also inevitable. The question remains: do we allow the small installers to survive in spite of these initiatives or are they fallout from the solar industry's growing pains?

Bush Will Seek to End Offshore Oil Drilling Ban

2008-06-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

President Bush, reversing a longstanding position, will call on Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling, according to White House officials who say Mr. Bush now wants to work with states to determine where drilling should occur.

The move underscores how $4-a-gallon gas has become a major issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, and it comes as a growing number of Republicans are lining up in opposition to the federal ban.

The party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, used a speech in Houston on Tuesday to say he now favors offshore drilling, an announcement that infuriated environmentalists who have long viewed him as an ally. Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, a Republican, immediately joined Mr. McCain, saying he, too, now wants an end to the ban.
Even before the disclosure of Mr. Bush’s decision, the drilling issue caused a heated back-and-forth on the campaign trail on Tuesday, as Mr. McCain sought to straddle the divide between environmentalists and the energy industry, while facing accusations from his Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, that he had flip-flopped and capitulated to the oil industry.
In Washington, the White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Mr. Bush would urge Congress to “pass legislation lifting the Congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling,” adding, “The president believes Congress shouldn’t waste any more time.”

Click here for the full NY Times article.

Latest Honda Runs on Hydrogen, Not Petroleum

2008-06-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Honda Motor celebrated the start of production of its FCX Clarity, the world’s first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production. In a ceremony at a factory an hour north of Tokyo, the first assembly-line FCX Clarity rolled out to the applause of hundreds of Honda employees wearing white jump suits.

Honda will make just 200 of the futuristic vehicles over the next three years, but said it eventually planned to increase production volumes, especially as hydrogen filling stations became more common.

Honda said even the small initial production run represented progress toward a clean-burning technology that many rejected as too exotic and too expensive to gain wide acceptance.

But the technology has faced many hurdles, not the least of which has been the prohibitive cost of the fuel cells themselves. Honda says it has found ways to mass produce them, which promises to drive down costs through economies of scale. On Monday, it showed reporters its fuel-cell production line, which resembled a semiconductor factory more than an auto plant with its humming automated machinery and white smocked workers in dust-free rooms.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

China Pulls Ahead in the Great Carbon Race

2008-06-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

For awhile it was neck and neck, but China has now clearly pulled ahead of the United States and become the world’s dominant source of carbon dioxide emissions. Elisabeth Rosenthal reports Friday on the results of a new analysis of emissions trends by the Dutch government. Here’s the lede:

China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year’s global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found.

The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, found that in 2007 China’s emissions were 14 percent higher than those of the United States. In the previous year’s annual study, the researchers found for the first time that China had become the world’s leading emitter, with carbon emissions 7 percent higher by volume than the United States in 2006. Many experts had been skeptical of the earlier study, whose results were less clear-cut than those released Friday. The International Energy Agency had continued to say only that China was projected to overtake the United States by the end of 2007. Now there is little doubt.

“The difference had grown to a 14 percent difference, and that’s indeed quite large,” said Jos Olivier, a senior scientist at the Dutch agency. “It’s now so large that it’s quite a robust conclusion.”

Click here for the full NY Times article.

Running in Circles Over Carbon

2008-06-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions is a fine idea, and a lot of companies would be proud to do it. But they would prefer to be second, if not third or fourth.

This is not a good way to get started in fighting global warming.

As efforts to pass a global warming bill collapsed in the Senate last week, companies that burn coal to make electricity were looking for a way to build a plant that would capture its emissions. There is a will and a way — several ways, in fact — to do just that.

Capturing carbon from these plants may become a lot more important soon. Emissions from coal-fired power plants already account for about 27% of American greenhouse emissions, but as prices for other fuels rise, along with power demand, utilities will burn more coal. And if cars someday run on batteries, a trend that $4-a-gallon gasoline will accelerate, then the utilities will burn even more fuel to generate the electricity to recharge those batteries.

This could be good news, because controlling emissions from a few hundred power plants is easier than controlling them from tens of millions of house chimneys, or hundreds of millions of tailpipes. And in the laboratory, at least, there are three very promising systems for capturing carbon dioxide before pumping it underground.

But supplying electricity is not like most other businesses. Unlike the companies that make microchips, clothing for teenagers or snack foods, the companies that make electricity can see no advantage in going first. This is true for the traditionally regulated utilities that can charge everything to a captive class of customers (if regulators approve), and it is also true for the “merchant generators,” who build power plants and sell their output on the open market.

Click here full the full NY Times article.

The Truck Stops Here

2008-06-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Price of Diesel Is Forcing Truckers Out of Business

Newspapers across the country are leading with coverage of new, record-breaking gas prices, which hit the $4 mark for the first time this weekend. Even more worrisome is the price of diesel, which in addition to squeezing the pockets of truck drivers across the country, is beginning to drive up the cost of all consumer goods transported by trucks, which in the United States is 70 percent. What’s more, 80 percent of communities receive all of their freight by truck, which means that these primarily rural areas, which are already hit the hardest by rising gas prices, will also be squeezed the most as prices of other consumer goods rise with the cost of diesel.

With 8.5 million Americans employed in the trucking industry, and an increasing number of truckers being forced out of business every quarter, it’s time that we find effective solutions to combat rising gas and diesel prices in the short term—such as the Center for American Progress’ proposed “reliefbate”—and make the system more efficient and sustainable in the long term.

Click here for the full Center for American Progress article.

Industrial Nations Vow to Cut Oil Use

2008-06-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

The world’s leading economies and oil consumers are pledging greater investment in energy efficiency and green technologies to curtail petroleum use.

In a joint statement on Sunday, energy ministers from the Group of 8 countries, the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, joined by China, India and South Korea, also urged oil producers to increase output, which has stalled at about 85 million barrels a day since 2005.

They also called for cooperation between buyers and producers. But with little prospect for a surge in production anytime soon, the focus of Sunday’s meeting was on what wealthy nations should do to rein in consumption, while reducing carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

US EPA Report on the Environment

2008-06-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Recently the US EPA released the Agency's 2008 Report on the Environment, also referred to as the EPA 2008 ROE. This provides the American people with an important resource from which they can better understand trends in the condition of the air, water, land, and human health of the United States.

The report discusses environmental indicators by region, such as air, water, land, etc

Click here to view the report.

Los Angeles' carbon footprint is a light one -- sort of...

2008-06-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

According to the Brookings Institution, a prestigious Washington think tank, the Los Angeles metropolitan area emits less planet-warming carbon per capita than any big city except Honolulu, at least by some criteria.

In a report to be released today on energy use in residential buildings and highway transportation, Brookings ranks Los Angeles as greener than New York, with its network of subways; more virtuous than Portland, Ore., with its smartgrowth greenbelt, and, yes, even better than San Francisco, its eco-vain rival."We are not at all surprised," said Nancy Sutley, L.A.'s deputy mayor for energy and environment, citing the city's "moderate climate, with fewer heating and air-conditioning days, and its relatively newer, less drafty housing stock" than in many parts of the U.S.Moreover, she added, "sprawl is a lot worse in other parts of the U.S."But before the boasting starts, some words of caution: The calculations did not account for the fact that half the city's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants.

Instead, Brookings used a state-wide average that included the hydroelectric and nuclear plants in Northern California. Omitted from the data are emissions from industries and commercial buildings, and from local roads apart from federal highways.The researchers also chose metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Those areas may allow for a uniform geographical comparison, but in the case of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area, that omitted commutes from as far as Ventura, San Bernardino or Riverside counties.

"The data is fuzzy," said Andrea Sarzynski, a senior research analyst at Brookings. "We do the best we can."The 83-page report gives much of the credit to California's overall carbon-saving plans, including a stringent state building code and strict utility pricing rules for energy conservation.

Three other Golden State cities -- San Jose, San Francisco and San Diego -- rank among Brookings' top 10 in small per-capita footprints.By contrast, the report highlights the heavy carbon footprints of Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern regions of the country.

Click here for the full LA Times article.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS: Green Crude

2008-05-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

A one year-old company in San Diego, Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and non-potable water to make "green crude" that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil.

Chief Executive Jason Pyle said that the company's green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks. It has the potential to be the great 'silver bullet' that creates the environmental paradigm shift that many people claim will be required to combat global warming.

Sapphire Energy expects to introduce its first fuels in three years and reach full commercial scale in five years.

While each acre of corn produces around 300 gallons of ethanol per year and an acre of soybeans around 60 gallons of biodiesel, EACH ACRE OF ALGAE THEORETICALLY CAN PRODUCE 5,000 GALLONS OF BIOFUEL EACH YEAR!

The company's Chief Executive wouldn't cite the price tag for producing a barrel of green crude, but he described the expected cost as competitive with extracting oil from deep-water deposits and oil sands. In other words, it won't be cheap - but they expect it to be clean in the refining process and cleaner from the tailpipe. Independent studies on the content of its emissions are ongoing.

There are plenty of companies working toward producing oil from algae. The idea isn't new, but interest and research have grown so significantly that websites such as Oilgae.com are devoted to the topic.

City dwellers produce less carbon, report suggests

2008-05-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

While cities are hot spots for global warming, people living in them turn out to be greener than their country cousins.

Each resident of the largest 100 largest metropolitans areas is responsible on average for 2.47 tons of carbon dioxide in energy consumption each year, 14 percent below the 2.87 ton U.S. average, researchers at the Brookings Institution say in a report being released Thursday.

Those 100 cities still account for 56 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide pollution. But their greater use of mass transit and population density reduce the per person average. "It was a surprise the extent to which emissions per capita are lower," Marilyn Brown, a professor of energy policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of the report, said in an interview.

Metropolitan area emissions of carbon dioxide are highest in the eastern U.S., where people rely heavily on coal for electricity, the researchers found. They are lower in the West, where weather is more favorable and where electricity and motor fuel prices have been higher. The study examined sources and use of residential electricity, home heating and cooling, and transportation in 2005 in the largest 100 metropolitan areas where two-thirds of the people in the U.S. live. It attributed a wide disparity among the 100 cities to population density, availability of mass transit and weather.

Lexington, Kentucky, had the biggest per capita carbon footprint: Each resident on average accounted for 3.81 tons of carbon dioxide in their energy usage. At the other end of the scale was Honolulu, at 1.5 tons per person.

Click here to read the full CNN article.

Well-Oiled Machine?

2008-05-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

The June issue of Time magazine is out and in it an article featuring the petroleum bonanza in Canada's tar sands.

Time is considered to be a credible magazine and readers may deem it forward-thinking. Unfortunately the author of this article is a little too short-sighted for yours truly.

"The mega-projects across Alberta's oil sands rival some of the humankind's greatest engineering achievements, including the pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China," claims Time. "Canada may become the new Saudi Arabia, the last great oil kingdom, right on the U.S. border."

And as for the "chunk of boreal real estate" (did they really print that?!)? The National Resource Defense Council states the following about Canada's boreal forests -- "Like the Amazon, the boreal forest is of critical importance to all living things on earth. It is home to the one of the world's largest remaining stands of spruce, fir and tamarack. The thick layers of moss, soil and peat of the boreal are the world's largest terrestrial storehouse of organic carbon and play an enormous role in regulating the Earth's climate. Boreal wetlands filter millions of gallons of water each day that fill our northern rivers, lakes, and streams. "

A slight disconnect? ......I think so.

Carbon Emissions Increase Again....

2008-05-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Energy Information Administration just released preliminary data showing that carbon dioxide emissions from energy sources in the United States grew by 1.6 percent in 2007—the single largest year-over-year increase since Bush took office. This one-year increase of 96 million metric tons is like adding 14 million cars to the road. And if we look at the increase in carbon dioxide pollution from energy sources during the entire Bush administration, that sum rises to 230 million metric tons—a nearly 10 percent increase.

The jump this year comes after a small decline last year that was driven by a mild winter and summer in 2006 that enabled Americans to use less energy for heating and cooling. With weather returning to normal last year, higher electricity use is one of the largest drivers of emissions increases in both the commercial and residential sectors.

Overall emissions from the electric power sector increased by 3 percent in 2007. Coal-fired electric plants were the number one stationary source of emissions last year, accounting for a 35.3 million metric ton carbon dioxide increase between 2006 and 2007. Some utilities have turned to natural gas to try to reduce their emissions. And the increase in natural gas emissions in 2007 slightly exceeded coal—a 35.6 million metric ton increase of carbon dioxide.
Petroleum-related carbon dioxide emissions experienced a tiny decrease in 2007, mostly due to a decrease in emissions from oil-fueled electricity. Nonetheless, petroleum still generates the most emissions of all fossil fuels, surpassing coal in 2007 by 429 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. And emissions from petroleum use have grown the most since Bush took office—4.6 percent since 2001.

Click here for the full article from the Center for American Progress.

Bottlemania - The Continued Debate Over Bottled H2O

2008-05-20T12:09:00.001-07:00

Enough already with the constant debate about bottled water. We all know it's unnecessary and frankly buying bottled water these days is more than slightly taboo. Rightly so! Don’t get me wrong, bottled water is essential for emergency circumstances, but on a daily basis it is hardly necessary.

I recently came across and article that highlights some obvious truths….

- From a marketing perspective, you couldn't ask for a more ideal product; imagine owning a commodity that literally everybody not only wants, but actually needs, on a daily basis. You'd be sitting on a $60 billion a year industry--just like the corporations who are in the process of privatizing the world's water supply. (GULP!)

- The bottled water industry has made a fortune playing on our fears about whether the water that flows from our faucets is really safe despite the fact that tap water is held to a higher standard than bottled. With a few exceptions, the quality of our tap water's actually quite high.

I think Kerry Trueman said it best—“At a time when there's less water to go around and more people demanding it, Bottlemania makes the case that it's not in our interests to let private multinational corporations float their boats on our nation's water. That's not democracy, it's dam-ocracy, and it could damn us all if we let their unquenchable thirst for profit take precedence over our right to clean, safe, free drinking water.”

Source: The Huffington Post

Drilling for Defeat?

2008-05-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Nearly two decades ago, Republicans won the West by linking Democrats to environmentalists, who supposedly cared more for the spotted owl and other favored species than they did for the jobs of loggers or miners. But now, as a boom in natural-gas drilling reshapes the region, Western Democrats have found success recasting environmentalism as a defense of threatened water supplies, fishing spots and hunting grounds. As a result, the party may hold the advantage this fall in the region’s key Congressional races. The simultaneous rise of Western energy production and the Western Democrat is no coincidence.

The Rocky Mountain drilling boom has been aided by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which was once considered a partisan political masterstroke. In providing incentives for energy development, Republicans delivered a profitable gift to an industry that directs most of its campaign contributions to G.O.P. candidates. That gift was sweetened by the Bureau of Land Management, which, under President Bush, has expanded the amount of federal land open to energy development and increased the number of drilling permits.

But the acceleration of energy exploration has split the national Republican Party from local Republicans upset by the downsides of the energy boom. “Republicans created a monster for themselves,” said Rick Ridder, a Colorado-based Democratic consultant. “They put public policy in direct conflict with their base voters.”

In Wyoming’s Upper North Platte Valley, Jeb Steward, a Republican state representative, helped lead the successful 2007 opposition to the B.L.M.’s proposed sale of 13 oil and gas parcels. “We have customs and cultures that have developed over a hundred years based on the utilization of multiple renewable resources — agriculture, tourism, wildlife, fisheries,” Steward said. “When B.L.M. proposed issuing the leases, residents were asking, ‘What does this mean to the lifestyles that we’ve all grown accustomed to?’ ”

Click here for the full NY Times article.

The Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species

2008-05-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

The polar bear, whose summertime Arctic hunting grounds have been greatly reduced by a warming climate, will be placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced on Wednesday.

The polar bear is being stressed by melting sea ice but scientists say the species would not vanish entirely for a century or more. But the long-delayed decision to list the bear as a threatened species may prove less of an impediment to oil and gas industries along the Alaskan coast than many environmentalists had hoped. Mr. Kempthorne also made it clear that it would be “wholly inappropriate” to use the listing as a tool to reduce greenhouse gases, as environmentalists had intended to do.

While giving the bear a few new protections — hunters may no longer import hides or other trophies from bears killed in Canada, for instance — the Interior Department added stipulations, seldom used under the act, that would allow oil and gas exploration and development to proceed in areas where the bears live, as long as the companies continue to comply with existing restrictions under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

With low-carbon diets, consumers step to the plate; total energy used in food production.

2008-05-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Not every student in line at the University of Redlands cafeteria was ready for self-sacrifice to save the planet. "No hamburger patties?" asked an incredulous football player, repeating the words of the grill cook. He glowered at the posted sign: "Cows or cars? Worldwide, livestock emits 18% of greenhouse gases, more than the transportation sector! Today we're offering great-tasting vegetarian choices."

The portabello burger didn't beckon him. Nor the black-bean burger. "Just give me three chicken breasts, please," he said -- and with that, swaggered off to pile potato wedges onto his heaping plate. Although this perhaps wasn't the most accepting reaction, it resulted in the desired dietary shift as Bon Appetit Management Co. rolls out its new Low Carbon Diet in 400 cafes it runs at university and corporate campuses around the country. Chicken, it turns out, has a lower carbon footprint than beef.

Conscientious consumers who want to tread lightly are increasingly concerned about their own carbon footprints. They've changed lightbulbs. They covet a Prius more than a Porsche. Now their anxiety over global warming has shifted to the supermarket and dinner table. The global food and agriculture system produces about one-third of humanity's contribution to greenhouse gases. So questions about food are shifting from the familiar "Is this good for me?" or "Will it make me fat?" to "Is it good for the planet?"

But what's the right thing to do? It's not just paper versus plastic anymore. Is throwing out leftovers better than taking them home in a plastic container? Is refrigerated better than frozen? A French brie sandwich or chicken salad? Sensing this, the country's major food service companies are talking about energy efficiency, waste reduction and, now, how to reduce carbon emissions associated with the food they serve.

Changing the meaning of "carb" in "low-carb" has been kicking around for years. Those who preach eating local, such as the locavores, have hogged much of the attention with a focus on "food miles," the distance that food travels from farm to fork. Food science has begun to look beyond transportation, to the smorgasbord of contributors to carbon dioxide and other gases with even greater atmospheric warming potential, such as methane.

Researchers tally emissions related to each of hundreds of steps in the life cycle of various foods, from the energy-intensive process of manufacturing fertilizer for crops to the leftovers scraped from plates that end up rotting in a landfill, burping methane. As they perfect these life-cycle assessments, scientists are ready to answer the question raised by a cartoon-book character in a Roy Lichtenstein-inspired poster outside the university cafe: "Is my cheeseburger causing global warming?" It was a sparkling spring day at the Getty Center in the Brentwood hills. Instead of heading into the sunshine for their lunch break, museum staffers filed into a darkened auditorium to hear a lecture: "Play With Your Food."

The crowd appeared to be a thoughtful bunch, many of them foodies, and more receptive than a famished football player to weighing the environmental and social consequences of their food choices. Helene York took the stage with her PowerPoint slides, fulfilling the directive of Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit's blunt-talking chief executive: "Customers make choices for us. We need to educate them."

York, who directs the Low Carbon Diet initiative, explains that the diet is to slim down the company's greenhouse gas emissions by 25%, beginning by changing the 80 million meals it serves a year.

"That sounds like a lot," she said. Yet it's nothing compared with what can happen if Bon Appetit persuades its parent company, Compass Group, to follow suit, as it did with the switch to sustainably caught seafood. Compass Group is the largest food-service company in North America, with 8,000 accounts including sports arenas, hospitals and Chicago's public schools. Other food service companies, such as Sodexo (Marriott), are also considering menu changes.
To start, Bon Appetit has targeted those items with the biggest impact. That means reducing the amount of beef and cheese.

"Inherently, beef and lamb are worse than every other form of animal protein," York said. The reason? These ruminants incessantly belch methane gas. She points out that methane has 23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Vegetarians think they get a free ride, she said. Yet if they nibble on a grilled cheese sandwich, they buy into the same industrialized system, which is fertilizer-intensive. Overuse of fertilizer releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere, a gas that has 296 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.

"Does your sushi get more frequent-flier miles than you do?" another poster flashes on the screen. It draws a laugh from the audience -- until York explains that Bon Appetit is phasing out fresh seafood brought in by air freight.

About 80% of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, and nearly all of it takes to the skies. That means delicate slabs of fresh halibut and salmon carry a long contrail of aircraft exhaust to the table. Bon Appetit is setting up supply lines to buy Alaskan salmon fillets and other fish frozen at sea. York said top chefs swear that diners cannot tell the difference if fish is properly prepared. Bon Appetit, which long ago joined the buy-local movement, is slowly eliminating out-of-season produce flown from Chile and other Latin American countries and cutting by half its imported tropical fruit, such as bananas, pineapples and papayas.
It has also phased out imported bottled water, she said. No more San Pellegrino. No more Perrier.

"Voss water, what's that? It's water that comes in a fancy glass bottle from Norway, of all places," York said, revealing her Brooklyn accent. "Don't we have enough water here?"
York told the group that plastic packaging, despite its bad reputation, is only a minuscule part of the carbon footprint. So if it's a question of taking leftovers home in plastic containers or leaving the food to be thrown away, she said, take it home.

"The food with the highest carbon footprint is the food we don't eat," she said, explaining that 3% of America's energy use is tied up in food trucked to the dump. Although Americans are piling more food onto their plate than ever, studies show that not all of these extra calories are expanding waistlines. As much as 25% of those leftover peas and carrots and gristle ends up buried in the landfill. Deprived of oxygen, the mash of rotting food produces methane gas. Bon Appetit has begun to reverse the trend of super-sized meals. Burgers on many college campuses, for instance, have been downsized from one-third to quarter-pounders, with prices adjusted accordingly.

York, a Harvard- and Yale-educated MBA, is part carbon cop -- "I spent a lot of time beating up our suppliers" -- and part mom, reminding customers that their mother was right: You should eat more vegetables. You shouldn't waste food. She's also a food detective. She leads the company's effort to track the origins of Bon Appetit's food purchases to assess carbon emissions.
That's not always easy. She has found confounding things, such as San Joaquin Valley-grown tomatoes that get shipped to Massachusetts and back because of the peculiarities of the nation's food distribution system.

She isn't the only one who's frustrated. The Tesco supermarket chain in England wants to affix a carbon score to each item on its shelves but has been bogged down in the complexity of the task.

The U.S. Congress in 2002 took a step toward unmasking food supply lines by passing a law requiring meat and produce to carry a label revealing the country of origin. But under pressure from food suppliers and grocery chains, legislators have repeatedly postponed the law's implementation for all but seafood.

That leaves supermarket shoppers staring at well-stocked shelves from around the globe without any sure way to tell where the food is from. Bon Appetit has brought together a group of scientists to help consumers sort through the thicket with an online carbon calculator at http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/.

Later in the week, York is off to Redlands to train the Bon Appetit managers from various university campuses about today's national rollout of Low Carbon Diet day. The University of Redlands cafe is the test case. A poster invites students: "You've changed your light bulbs, now change your lunch. Find out how food choices affect climate change."

Source: LA Times

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

2008-05-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited. In Denver, for example, ridership was up 8 percent in the first three months of the year compared with last year, despite a fare increase in January and a slowing economy, which usually means fewer commuters. Several routes on the system have reached capacity, particularly at rush hour, for the first time.

“We are at a tipping point,” said Clarence W. Marsella, chief executive of the Denver Regional Transportation District, referring to gasoline prices.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

FOOD: Vertical Farming!

2008-05-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

When a region starts to run out of space for their people, they go vertical. Considering the recent concern over food supplies and prices, partially caused by increased use of food for fuel, it makes sense that someone thought of 'vertical farming'! That someone is Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University.

His class experiment's conclusion is that growing food in a 30-story building — one square New York City block — could supply a balanced diet for 50,000 people. One building could supply the same amount of food as 588 acres of land. One hundred and ten buildings could feed New York City.

The goal: Replace all traditional, horizontal farming including plowing, planting and harvesting with a vertical greenhouse that grows every crop including grains (ie., wheat, rice, barley), vegetables, fish (salt and freshwater, crustaceans), poultry and pork (not cows).

The farms would be supplied with renewable energy and the crops would be watered and fertilized with treated waste material. The carbon footprint savings would be substantial because most products would be distributed locally!

Michael Pollan, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, estimates that for every calorie of food, we burn 10 calories of oil! That means a head of lettuce that costs $1.49 a head has 75 cents of oil in it. If I don't have to transport it, store it or even wrap it in cellophane, I can sell it for half price and still make a lot of money.

According to professor Despommier, there will be a vertical farm within the next four years.

Should the U.S. Invest In Tar Sands?

2008-05-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

A year ago, Congress agreed that the federal government shouldn't be in the business of investing money into alternative fuel projects that produce fuels more polluting than oil and gas.
The provision prevents federal agencies from buying liquid coal, or oil from tar sands and oil shale projects, like the Alberta tar sands in Canada, which has been called "the most destructive project on Earth."

The government has already invested in coal-to-liquids technology, oil shale exploration and development and other suspect fuel sources. When most people hear "alternative fuel," they think of plant-based oils or hydrogen fuel cells, not coal or oil melted out of rock.

Congress is considering a repeal of that ban, known as Section 526, and environmental groups from across North America have sent letters to members of Congress urging them not to invest in dirty fuels.

Source: The Daily Green - Click here for the full article.

Masdar Initiative: A Green Powerhouse in the Desert

2008-05-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

MASDAR

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company is a multi-faceted,multi-billion dollar investment in the development and commercialization of innovative technologies in renewable,alternative,and sustainable energies and sustainable design. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is the CEO and in charge of implementing the vision. Masdar is a highly strategic initiative with four primary objectives. The first is to help drive the economic diversification of Abu Dhabi. The second is to maintain,and later expand ,Abu Dhabi's position in evolving global energy markets. The third is to position their country as a developer of technology. The fourth is to make a meaningful contribution towards human development. A message from the Chairman " A new era is now upon us, challenging us to venture beyond the achievements of the past and lay ground work for the next 50 years of progress."

I maintain it is the forward thinkers of the world that look at visions 50 to 100 years out will do more to sustain our way of living for us and the children of the world. History, has always been a gauge to not repeat mistakes. It is time we put forward thinkers in charge of global companies not just people who watch the next quarter results on wall street.

Budman

San Fran: A City Committed to Recycling

2008-05-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO officials and residents found out a few weeks ago that they were keeping
70 % of the disposable waste out of local landfills. The mayor embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates, but the city wants more.

So Mr. Newsom will soon be sending the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal that would make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended. “Without that, we don’t think we can get to 75 percent,” the mayor said of the proposal. His aides said it stood a good chance of passing.

With the exception of Chicago, which boasted a 55% rate in 2006 — the most recent year for which national comparisons are available — Eastern and Midwestern cities lagged well behind their California counterparts. According to the most recent annual survey of the trade magazine Waste News, in 2006 New York City was at 30.6%, Milwaukee at 24%, Boston at 16% and Houston at 2.5%.

San Francisco’s system is being noticed overseas. Mr. Blumenfeld’s calendar is full of meetings with officials from Germany and China, most of whom visit Norcal’s facilities, including the food-waste composting centers.

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

E.P.A. Proposes New Limits on Lead in the Air, the First Revision in 30 Years

2008-05-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

For the first time in 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new limit for lead concentrations in the air. The agency is under court order to complete a new rule by Sept. 1, because of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists.

Air, however, is no longer the most common source of major exposure to lead, which can cause I.Q. loss, kidney damage and other serious health problems. In most places, water and lead paint are more troublesome sources.

Lead emissions in the air have dropped by more than 97% in the last three decades, because the U.S. has banned lead as an additive in gasoline. That step was taken to allow cars to have catalytic converters, which cut the ingredients of smog, and reduced lead in the air as a side benefit.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

The "Green" and "Renewables Energy" Push

2008-05-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

With the "green" and "renewables energy" push in full steam, the conversion of landfill gas into power now even makes its way into GQ Magazine: The bioconversion of trash into renewables such as landfill gas (LFG) is an industry which has been around since the 1970s. Much of the initial work was simply performed to collect the landfill gases (mainly methane and carbon dioxide) to control odors, and then subsequently for health and regulatory compliance reasons (methane in air at >5% is explosive). But in recent years, with the realization that landfills located in and around major metropolitan areas, are a renewable power source with as much as a 50 year gas collection lifetime, the landfill gas to power business is booming. This article in GQ, describes a trip to the Puente Hills Landfill in Los Angeles. A large fraction of LA's trash goes there every day, and the operation is immense.
Project Navigator is very familiar with Puente Hills Landfill and found the article to be interesting, informative and well written.

GQ Magazine article: May 2008:
At dawn The landfill looks nothing like what most people picture when they imagine a landfill. Nothing messy, nothing gross, nothing slimy, no trash anywhere at all. It looks, perhaps disappointingly, like an enormous, lonesome construction site, a 1,365-acre expanse of light brown dirt filling canyons reaching innocently toward the horizon—buried trash from yesterday and several thousand other yesterdays. The scale of the thing alone boggles the mind, and to stop and ponder the fact that forty years of trash forms a foundation 400 feet deep is to simply grow fretful with some unnamed woe about America’s past and the planet’s future.

The first truck to arrive is no. 4272, a seventy-three-foot-long tractor-trailer, driven by Herman Snook, 67 years old, wiry, chewing a toothpick. He is quick to point out that he, too, thinks the landfill looks nothing like a landfill, and he believes it doesn’t smell like one, either. He allows that he may have just gotten used to the odor. (He has.) When fellow truckers arrive, pulling up next to Herman, the ground—so deep with trash—is so soft it bounces.

At six o’clock, the truckers are allowed to start dumping, and so Herman pushes a red button inside a panel on his cab. The back end of the trailer rises obediently and 79,650 pounds of debris comes thundering out, most of it wood and plaster and nails and shreds of wallpaper. Beside him a truck is dumping decidedly more organic garbage, pungent indeed, and way down the row, off¬ to the side, a guy is pouring a truckful of sludge, sterilized human waste, black as ink.

The Puente Hills Landfill, about sixteen miles east of downtown Los Angeles, serves 5 million people in seventy-eight California cities, one of six landfills operated by the Sanitation Districts of L.A. County. Every day 13,200 new tons of trash are dumped here. That’s enough to fill a one-acre hole twenty feet deep.

In five years, on November 1, 2013, the landfill will be out of room, and all that trash will have to go somewhere else.

Herman gets a broom, sweeps his trailer clean, then heads back to South Gate Transfer Station, twenty miles away, for another load. He will make five trips in a day, stopping only once to eat Oodles of Noodles and cheese crackers and a cookie. On the ride home, he eats a green apple. He is careful to note that he is just about the only one of his entire eighth-grade graduating class of 1954 who has not yet retired. “Why would anyone retire from a place like this?” he asks. “I enjoy the sunrise. I enjoy being part of nature.” Having spent more than a week at the landfill, by now I am getting used to hearing workers here, from the highest to the lowest ranks, speak like this. Concerning the landfill, they are all pride and admiration and even thanks. It seemed, at first, like crazy talk.

A landfill, after all, is a disgusting place. This is a 100-million-ton solid soup of diapers, Doritos bags, phone books, shoes, carrots, watermelon rinds, boats, shredded tires, coats, stoves, couches, Biggie Fries, piled up right here o¬ the 605 freeway. It’s a place that brings to mind the hell of civilization, a heap of waste and ugliness and everything denial is designed for. We tend not to think about the fact that every time we toss out a moist towelette or an empty Splenda packet or a Little Debbie snack-cake wrapper, there are people involved, a whole chain of people charged with the preposterously complicated task of making that thing vanish—which it never really does. A landfill is not something we want to bother thinking about, and if we do, we tend to blame the landfill itself for sitting there stinking like that, for marring the landscape, for o¬ffending a sanitized aesthetic. We are human, highly evolved creatures, remarkably adept at forgetting that a landfill would be nothing, literally nothing, without us.

In America we produce more garbage per person than any other country in the world, 250 million tons a year. In urban areas, we are running out of places to put all that trash. Right now, the cost of getting rid of it is dirt cheap, maybe $15 a month on a bill most people never even see, all of it wrapped into some mysterious business about municipal tax revenue. So why think about it?

Electricity used to be cheap, too. We went for a long time not thinking about the true cost of that. Same with gas for our cars.

The problem of trash (and sewage, its even more offensive cousin) is the upside-down version of the problem of fossil fuel: too much of one thing, not enough of the other. Either way, it’s a matter of managing resources. Either way, a few centuries of gorging and not thinking ahead has the people of the twenty-first century standing here scratching our heads. Now what?

The problem of trash, fortunately, is a wondrous intellectual puzzle to scientists and engineers, some of whom lean, because of the inexorability of trash, toward the philosophical. The simple conundrum—the intrinsic disconnect between human waste and the human himself—becomes grand, even glorious, to the people at the dump.

“nobody knows we’re even even here,” Joe Haworth is saying, as we make our way around the outside of the landfill, winding up and up past scrubby California oaks, sycamore trees, and the occasional shock of pink bougainvillea vine. He is driving his old Cadillac, a 1982 Eldorado, rusty black with a kerry-edwards sticker on the bumper. He wears a Hawaiian-print shirt, a straw hat, and wire-rimmed glasses, and the way he leans way back in the driver’s seat suggests a simple, straightforward confidence. “People driving by on the highway think this is a park,” he says.

Click here for the remainder of the GQ article.

It's a Tidy Answer to Global Warming

2008-05-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

The LA Times has reported on a air CO2 "scrubbing" system which would process the air's CO2 and then store it underground. Seems like the technology works on a bench scale in Tucson warehouse, but scale up will be EXPENSIVE. the article optimistically reports that to remove all 28 billion tons of CO2 released worldwide each year, would require spreading machines over a land area the size of Arizona. Then there's the expense...estimated at $200 a ton, which equates to an annual vacuuming bill of $5.6 trillion....hmmmm!

Here is the Los Angeles Times, 2008-04-29 article by Alan Zarembo:

Here's a simple solution to global warming: vacuum carbon dioxide out of the air.
Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University, said placing enough carbon filters around the planet could reel the world's atmosphere back toward the 18th century, like a climatic time machine.

After a decade of work, his shower-sized prototype whirs away inside a Tucson warehouse, each day capturing about 10 pounds of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas as air wafts through it.
Only a few billion tons to go. In the battle against global warming, technology has long been seen as the ultimate savior, but Lackner's machine is a clunky reminder of how distant that dream is.
He estimates that sucking up the current stream of emissions would require about 67 million boxcar-sized filters at a cost of trillions of dollars a year.

The orchards of filters would have to be powered by complexes of new nuclear plants, dams, solar farms or other clean-energy sources to avoid adding more pollution to the atmosphere.
Despite the scope of the proposal, the allure of high technology is irresistible for modern humans. Salvation has arrived again and again over the last century: the automobile, the jet, the Internet, the iPod.

That dream has pushed scattered groups of scientists to work on massive schemes to reengineer the planet. One idea is to block sunlight, either by constructing artificial volcanoes to blast sulfur particles into the atmosphere or by launching millions of tiny satellites into space and arranging them into a giant mirror.

Another concept is sprinkling iron over the oceans to nurture plankton colonies that would absorb carbon dioxide from the air and transfer it to the depths.

But while the science of dialing back the planet's thermostat is straightforward, the execution is fabulously expensive, complex and grandiose on a scale that boggles the mind. Nobody doubts it is possible to take CO2 out of the air," said David Keith, a professor of engineering and economics at the University of Calgary in Canada and one of several scientists around the world working on the problem. "The issue is, 'What does it cost?' "
Some policy experts argue that blind faith in technology is a harmful distraction from the hard sacrifices needed to control global warming.

"The temptation is to say, 'Let's get John Wayne on horseback or Bill Gates . . . and solve this problem,' " said Dale Jamieson, director of environmental studies at New York University.
But some scientists say that the potential of such ideas cannot be ignored given the world's political paralysis on controlling emissions and its myopic addiction to cheap and dirty coal. "There are not that many alternatives," Lackner said.

The attraction of a technological silver bullet lies in the failure of the world to solve global warming through the obvious solution: reducing emissions. The 1997 Kyoto accords were supposed to bring the world together to address the problem, but the two biggest polluters, the United States and China, have refused to cap their emissions, and Europe is failing to meet even its modest targets.

Worldwide annual emissions of carbon dioxide -- the main culprit in global warming -- have climbed 28% over the last decade, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The rise has been largely driven by industrializing countries, such as China and India, which argue that they have the right to exploit their coal reserves to catch up with the West.
It is clear that cheap energy is a drug that civilization will not give up. But big technological solutions could allow society to keep its drug.

Among the options, carbon filtering is the most direct and best understood. If industrialization is a process of transferring carbon stored in the earth to the atmosphere, filtering seeks to put it back. The technology is decades old. Bottled oxygen used in hospitals started out as plain air before nitrogen, carbon dioxide and other gases were filtered out. Space capsules and submarines extract carbon dioxide to maintain breathable air for crew members.
The process for removing atmospheric carbon involves putting one compound, usually a hydroxide, in contact with the air, setting off a reaction that grabs CO2 and incorporates its carbon atoms into a carbonate compound.

Then, in a reaction that requires a large input of heat, the carbonate compound is broken apart, reconstituting and trapping the carbon dioxide. Researchers propose pumping the captured CO2 into the ground, a practice already used to increase the pressure in oil wells. Geologists say there is room in subterranean rock formations to lock it away forever.

The beauty of carbon capture is that it scrubs the planet without intruding on it, unlike artificial volcanoes and sun reflectors, which could cause enormous planetary damage in the form of acid rain or giant shadows that stunt crops. The filters could be placed anywhere in the world, since carbon dioxide disperses throughout the atmosphere.

For all its appeal, the process is hideously inefficient. Carbon dioxide makes up less than 0.04% of the atmosphere, and removing climate-changing quantities of it requires filtering massive amounts of air. Lackner calculated that sucking up all 28 billion tons of CO2 released worldwide each year would require spreading out his machines over a land area the size of Arizona.

That seems like a reasonable sacrifice to save civilization, until you consider the expense.
Experts estimate that it would cost up to $200 a ton to filter and store carbon dioxide from the air. That means the yearly vacuuming bill could reach $5.6 trillion. Even filtering the greenhouse gas from smokestacks, where it is hundreds of times more concentrated and thus much cheaper to capture, is still deemed too expensive for commercial use.

The enormous cost raises the question: Who would pay?

It is the same impasse that has stymied efforts toward a global agreement to reduce emissions. China argues that the West should foot the bill because it created the problem over the last two centuries. The United States says China must accept its share of responsibility as the world's new top polluter.

The cost of the technology will surely fall over time, but without government action that is unlikely to happen soon enough to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
Without at least a 50% cut in emissions by mid-century, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the temperature rise will exceed 2 degrees, resulting in worsening drought, a dangerous sea level rise and widespread extinction of species.
Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, said that the failure to cut emissions might force the world to reshape the environment through drastic use of technology. The risks could be enormous, but the risks of failing to reduce emissions could be greater, he said.

Crutzen said that only out of a "sense of despair" had he come to favor the last-ditch option of spewing more than a million tons of sulfur a year into the air. It's a dirty proposition that, in some ways, is its own environmental crime. But it works, as shown by the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, which temporarily cooled the planet by almost 1 degree Fahrenheit. "It might be the last escape route from the problem," he said.

The power to reengineer the planet raises another question: Who gets to control the thermostat? Despite the perception that climate change is a global problem, it is in reality a series of regional transformations that benefits some places and harms others.
Countries in the far northern latitudes have less incentive than tropical countries to counteract the warming. Russia has already laid claim to the North Pole in hopes that the arctic thaw will open access to new oil reserves. Canada is pondering the possibility of its vast expanse of tundra becoming a breadbasket.

With enough carbon filters, a single country or even several rich individuals would have the power to set the world's temperature. "No matter how you go about it, there will be a lot of politics," Lackner said. For now, his machine, a solitary prototype, continues to hum away in the Tucson warehouse. With no good place to store the carbon dioxide it traps, the gas is simply released back into the air.

What's the Most Expensive Climate Policy? Doing Nothing

2008-04-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Policymakers are right to ask about the cost of climate change policy. But which path is more expensive: solving climate change or ignoring it? There is a growing understanding that ignoring climate change is the most costly and dangerous course for our economy.

But don't take our word for it. See what others are saying:

"Agriculture faces serious decline from global warming."
Center for Global Development report, 9/13/07

"Climate change impacts will place immense strains on public sector budgets."
University of Maryland study, 10/16/07

"If you don't take action on climate change, you can be sure that our economies will go down the drain in the next 30 years."
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker

"Global warming threatens roads, rail lines, ports, airports and other important infrastructure." National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, 3/12/08

"Climate change poses a serious threat causing widespread political instability."
Center for Naval Analysis report, 4/16/07

US oil imports will be $20 billion higher each year without action to cap greenhouse gas pollution. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) analysis, 2/25/08

In confronting climate change, there is no option without costs. But we do have choices. We can invest a modest amount now - less than 1% of GDP in 2030, according to a survey1 of independent economic analyses - and get cleaner air, greater energy security, new energy jobs, and a brighter future for our children.

Or, by choosing to do nothing, we can pay much more later in rising insurance rates, greater government spending to maintain public infrastructure, agricultural damage from droughts, the spread of insect-borne disease, increased international instability, and more intense hurricanes and storms.

Acting now will allow us to manage those economic risks, while also enabling the U.S. to win the race for the clean energy jobs and technologies that will power the 21st Century. The most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing. It's time to cap emissions.

Source: Environmental Defense Fund

EPA Celebrates National Volunteer Week

2008-04-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

National Volunteer Week (April 27 – May 3) honors Americans who serve others in their communities through volunteerism and encourages all citizens to get involved in volunteer service. This year's theme is "Volunteer to Change the World." "America has a long and proud tradition of volunteer service. And now more than ever, volunteers are renewing their commitment to helping others and bringing us closer together," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "I encourage you to volunteer this week – and every week – to help make your communities and our environment a better place."

Throughout the year, EPA honors individuals who are answering the call to volunteer service, environmental education and pollution prevention with the President's Volunteer Service Award. In a recent ceremony at the White House, Administrator Johnson, along with President and Mrs. Bush, presented awards to students from across the United States who are making a difference in our environment. "Environmental responsibility is everyone's responsibility," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "These outstanding students have made protecting our planet an everyday commitment, and proven that together we can create a cleaner, healthier world."

EPA's Web site, www.epa.gov, is hosting several online features to mark National Volunteer Week including a Green Scene video and podcast. In addition, the EPA home page will highlight a history of National Volunteer Week with a link to the Agency's 2007 Volunteer Report. In other volunteer events, Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Marcus Peacock, today gave remarks and joined volunteers from EPA to help beautify and clean up the Anacostia Park along the riverbanks of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. Home and Garden Television (HGTV) was on site to film the activities. For information, go to: http://www.epa.gov/ or http://www.volunteer.gov/

The Truth About Oil and Gasoline: An API Primer

2008-04-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

To keep consumers and the economy supplied with the fuel they require, the nation needs energy policies that encourage efficiency, investment in long-term initiatives and advanced technologies, and the elimination of barriers to domestic oil and natural gas supplies.

“Our industry believes that the best way to deal with price volatility is to allow markets to function and follow well-reasoned, workable energy policies that enable oil and natural gas companies to attract the investment they need to meet U.S. energy needs,” said API President and CEO Red Cavaney.

To foster an informed public policy debate, API has produced The Truth about Oil and Gasoline: An API Primer. From the primer, consumers and policymakers can learn how a combination of factors has driven crude prices to record highs. See the primer here: The Truth About Oil and Gasoline: An API Primer.

Some of the factors shaping today’s crude oil and gasoline markets discussed in the API Primer include:

Global demand, which is forecast to continue to grow in the decades ahead. The International Energy Agency estimates that sustaining an annual 3.6 percent rate of global economic growth to 2030 will require another 33 million barrels per day in oil supplies. Even with significant growth in renewables and improved efficiency, more than half the world’s primary energy demand in 2030 will be met by oil and natural gas.

The depreciation of the U.S. dollar, which has helped push up prices for all commodities, including petroleum.

The lack of access to potential supplies due to a shift in ownership structure abroad, causing about 80 percent of all reserves to be held by state-owned oil companies, and an inability to explore and develop potentially vital resources in the United States.

Source: API

SAN FRANCISCO HAS MORE RECYCLING TRUCKS THAN GARBAGE TRUCKS

2008-04-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

San Francisco’s garbage companies now operate more recycling than garbage trucks, according to Sunset Scavenger and Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling. The city’s fleet includes 321 collection trucks—174 recycling, 147 garbage. All run on alternative fuel, and eventually the recycling trucks will outnumber garbage trucks 2 to 1.

Source: EnviroBiz Weekly Update

CURRENT AFFAIRS: EPA Scientists Complain of Political Interference

2008-04-23T18:36:00.001-07:00

An outside survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists of EPA scientists found that 60% of the respondents complained of political interference, i.e., one instance of interference in the last 5 years (the negative responses were: 900 out of the 1,600 respondents in a 5,400 person survey.

PNL Stories (Current Affairs on 3/18/08) previously reported on the story of Dr. Deborah Rice accused by the Bush Administration of conflict of interest even as many of the EPA's panels are loaded with scientists who work for the very companies whose chemicals they are evaluating.

In 850 anonymous essays (optional in the survey), almost 100 scientists singled out the Office of Management and Budget for inserting pressure at early stages of the evaluation process and then delaying the release of studies until changes, more to its liking, are effected. On numerous issues—ranging from mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate change— political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations.

On a positive note, 1,282 scientists (81%) respected the integrity and professionalism of their direct manager or supervisor, while 686 (43%) said the same about the EPA’s senior leaders. A spokeswoman for the Union admitted that only those who are disgruntled might reply to the online survey, but stated that 900 responses was far too many to ignore. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday asking him to be prepared to respond to the findings at a hearing next month of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

EMISSIONS: LA Requires LEED Buildings, but with Lean Enforcement

2008-04-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

LA mayor Villaraigosa used Earth Day to sign a new law that requires new and renovated buildings and residential towers bigger than 50,000 square feet to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards - approximately 150 buildings and 7.5 million square feet per year (most builders say that it will not increase the cost of construction). Los Angeles joins Connecticut and 14 cities in requiring LEED standards compliance of developers.

The City has an aggressive goal of reducing carbon emissions by 35% below 1990 levels by 2030. This new law will prevent about 85,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 5 years (the equivalent of 15,000 cars off of the road).

The City of San Francisco is considering an even more aggressive ordinance (all structures over 25,000 square feet to a higher standard than LA's) with stricter enforcement. The Los Angeles law is light in enforcement - only every seventh application will be scrutinized for violations.

Carbon Finance Comes of Age

2008-04-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

The cap-and-trade market for emissions - coming soon to America - is creating huge new opportunities for business.

If all goes according to plan, the business of buying and selling rights to pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases - carbon trading, as it is known - will curb global warming and save the world. That is its only purpose. Along the way, a lot of people will get rich.
Last year traders bought and sold about $60 billion worth of emissions allowances, mostly in Europe and Japan, where governments regulate greenhouse gases. If, as expected, regulation comes to the U.S., this country's carbon-trading market is expected to be worth $1 trillion annually by 2020. That's why investment banks, utilities, industrials, and hedge funds - among them GE, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and AES - are rushing into the business of carbon finance. To succeed they will have to master what is surely the most bizarre, complicated, and controversial new industry of the 21st century. We'll try to break it down, beginning with a couple of things any Fortune reader can understand: a pile of pig manure and a private jet.

Daniel Co and his family raise about 10,000 pigs on a farm called Uni-Rich Agro Industrial in the province of Tarlac in the Philippines. Until recently pig manure was shoveled into concrete ponds, where it decomposed, emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and a putrid smell. Daniel Co knew that he could install biogas technology to seal the ponds, trap the gas, and produce electricity, but he didn't want to spend the $200,000 or so it would cost until he heard that pig farms could collect money from Europe for capturing methane: He would be paid not to pollute. The Uni-Rich farm is a very small player in a very big global experiment that was set in motion when the Kyoto Protocol was ratified in 2005. Thirty-six industrial countries (but not the U.S.) have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over time; they can do so, in part, by financing "clean development" projects in the developing world. This has led to a global scramble for cheap ways to reduce emissions, like Daniel Co's biogas project; the invention of a new tradable commodity, called a Certified Emissions Reduction, or CER; the development of competing markets to buy and sell CERs; and the rise of an army of regulators to oversee the entire business.

Daniel Co got involved when he was approached by EcoSecurities, an Irish company that has developed more carbon-mitigation projects than any other firm. Its experts calculated that trapping his farm's methane would generate 2,929 CERs a year. A CER is created when the equivalent of one ton of carbon dioxide is prevented from entering the atmosphere. (Because methane creates more global warming than carbon dioxide, trapping one ton of methane generates 21 CERs.) CERs are sometimes called carbon credits.

EcoSecurities offered to pay Uni-Rich $4 per credit, or $12,000 a year, every year, until Kyoto expires in 2012, and to handle all the paperwork at the UN, which registered the project late in 2006. Uni-Rich then installed the methane digesters.

Now, thanks to the magic of carbon finance, Daniel Co and his family treasure their pig waste. They use it to produce electricity, which has reduced their utility bills by about $48,000 a year. They collect their $12,000 a year in carbon revenues. EcoSecurities, in turn, will sell the credits for about $18 each, or $54,000 a year, to a big French bank called Caisse des Dépôts. Caisse des Dépôts can hold onto the CERs as an investment, betting that their value will rise, or sell them to a client, most probably a European power generator or industrial firm that needs credits to meet its regulatory obligations.

Pig farmers are not alone in bringing home the bacon. Methane can be captured from chicken farms in India, landfills in Mexico, and coal mines in Thailand. Industrial gases can be destroyed at refrigerant and fertilizer plants in China. Carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided by building dams in Guatemala and wind farms in Mongolia. These are among the 4,000 clean development projects in the UN pipeline, and together they add up to real money.

What's more, everyone in the business thinks this is just a beginning. Virtually every new clean energy project in China is seeking carbon credits. As carbon finance evolves, it's possible that big emitters in the U.S. and Europe will pay landowners in Brazil and Indonesia to refrain from cutting down trees (nice work if you can get it). There's even talk of generating carbon credits from the use of energy-saving light bulbs in China, or efficient wood-burning stoves in Africa, or pills to influence the digestive systems of cattle so they emit fewer methane-producing burps or farts. Seriously.

And the jet planes? While carbon emissions by airlines aren't yet regulated, the European division of NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), decided last year to become carbon neutral. It turned to EcoSecurities and now buys carbon credits from pig-farming neighbors of Daniel Co.

Click here to read the full Fortune Magazine article.

The Right Shade of Green...

2008-04-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

The green marketing buzz has reached a roar, prompting all manner of marketing techniques. While the overall intent may be to increase market share and build brand, a poorly-crafted strategy can actually damage both. These green efforts can quickly take on a life of their own as marketing or communications departments charge ahead under the CEO's blessing.

Selecting the right shade of corporate green takes planning and a strategy that integrates a range of factors. But the very first step in any public pronouncement on greenness must start with the fundamentals, namely, a rock-solid environmental management system. Once this is accomplished, there are a number of tools to test whether a marketing plan is sound.

Click here for Richard MacLean's full article, 'Choosing the Right Shade of Green - Keeping your marketing programs in sync with the environment'.

Florida utility jumps into California solar market

2008-04-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

Utility giant FPL has filed plans with California regulators to build a $1 billion, 250-megawatt solar power plant in the Mojave Desert. The move marks the first time that a major player — in this case a Fortune 500 — has jumped into the nascent Big Solar market.

Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL’s renewable energy arm, FPL Energy, will operate the Beacon Solar Energy Project, which will connect to the transmission system operated by Los Angeles’ municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. FPL Energy spokesman Steve Stengel declined to say whether the company had struck a deal with LADWP to buy the electricity produced by the Beacon project. “We are currently in discussions with a potential customer on a power purchase agreement for this project,” he wrote in an e-mail. “However, due to confidentiality considerations, I cannot elaborate at this time.”

California law requires the state’s investor-owned utilities — PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020. But public utilities like LADWP only have to set green energy targets, 13 percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2017 in Los Angeles’ case. Under California’s global warming law, the state’s greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020.

Those renewable energy mandates have been driving the market for large-scale solar power plants, but so far California’s Big Three utilities have placed their bets on startups like Ausra, BrightSource Energy and Stirling Energy Systems.

FPL Energy, however, is no stranger to the California solar market. It currently operates seven of nine “solar trough” power plants that were built by Israeli solar pioneer Luz International in the 1980s and early ’90s in the Mojave at Kramer Junction and Harper Dry Lake. The plants use long rows of parabolic mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on tubes of synthetic oil suspended above the arrays. The hot oil is used to create steam which drives electricity-generating turbines. The company’s new power plant (artist rendering above) will built on 2,012 acres of former farmland near California City and will also use solar trough technology.

FPL tends to be tight-lipped about its plans but in a recent interview with Green Wombat, FPL Energy senior vice president Michael O’Sullivan acknowledged the company is bidding on contracts with utilities throughout the Southwest. “We do not develop through the issuance of press releases,” he says, “and there’s a lot of thinly capitalized solar developers trying to get attention by running around the Southwest announcing projects.” Unlike competitors developing new solar technology, FPL is sticking with the tried and true. “One reason we’re focused on solar trough technology like we have out at Kramer is that it’s a proven, financeable technology,” O’Sullivan says.

In a letter accompanying the Beacon Solar application to the California Energy Commission, O’Sullivan estimated the project would create 1,000 jobs during the two-year construction phase and 66 permanent positions once it goes online in 2011.

Source: Fortune Magazine

REGULATION: EPA DNAPL website

2008-04-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

The US EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation has constructed a website that compiles available information related to the cleanup of dense nonaqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs) at hazardous waste sites. The website was developed in response to a recommendation of the EPA Ground Water Task Force, which identified a need for the creation of a comprehensive compilation of DNAPL resources. The Task Force purpose is:

The task force will serve as the main technical/policy/communication/networking resource for OSWER on groundwater issues.

The task force will promote cross-program coordination and communication on technical and policy issues related to the cleanup of contaminated groundwater.

The task force will identify, prioritize and work to solve and/or provide guidance on groundwater issues and projects that will benefit multiple clean-up programs.

The Ground Water Task Force is one component of EPA's One Cleanup Program, which is integrating the assessment and cleanup efforts of solid and hazardous waste cleanup programs to increase the speed and efficiency of environmental cleanups and improve the sharing of information with affected citizens. Task Force efforts are conducted under Initiative I: More Effective and Consistent Cleanups of the One Cleanup Program.

Bush Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Goal

2008-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

President Bush called Wednesday for the United States to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and challenged other countries, including major polluters like China and India, to abandon trade barriers on energy-related technology and commit to goals of their own.
The White House cast Mr. Bush’s announcement in the Rose Garden as an ambitious effort by a president determined to lead on the climate change issue, even with just 9 months left in office.

But critics — including environmentalists, scientists and lawmakers — said the effort was too little, too late. They accused Mr. Bush of trying to derail legislation that would curb emissions even further. And because he did not offer any specifics for how to reach his 2025 goal, they dismissed the speech as irrelevant.

“It is now time for the U.S. to look beyond 2012 and take the next step,” Mr. Bush said, a reference to his previously stated national goal, announced in 2002, of an 18 percent reduction in the growth of emissions of heat-trapping gases relative to economic growth by 2012. Mr. Bush said the nation was on track to meeting that target.

The speech was intended to influence an international conference on climate change, which is convening in Paris on Thursday. The conference is the outgrowth of a process Mr. Bush initiated last year, when he called together major polluting nations and urged them to come together by the end of 2009 around a common goal for the long-term reduction of emissions.

But Mr. Bush’s talk was also a slap at the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is about to consider legislation that would impose limits on emissions and allow companies to trade pollution credits — the so-called “cap and trade” approach. The White House vehemently opposes that approach, a point Mr. Bush restated on Wednesday.

“Bad legislation would impose tremendous costs on our economy and on American families without accomplishing important climate change goals we share,” Mr. Bush warned. But rather than outlining his own legislative proposal, Mr. Bush emphasized advances in technology, like clean-coal energy, wind power and farm-grown fuels like ethanol, as a means to achieving emissions reductions. As he has in the past, he said the route to reducing emissions was through the free market and incentives for companies to invest — as opposed to mandates or new taxes.

“The wrong way is to raise taxes, duplicate mandates, or demand sudden and drastic emissions cuts that have no chance of being realized and every chance of hurting our economy,” he said. “The right way is to set realistic goals for reducing emissions consistent with advances in technology.”

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines

2008-04-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects. No one tracks the number of small-scale residential wind turbines — windmills that run turbines to produce electricity — in the United States. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, has caused a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California.

“Back in the early days, off-grid electrical generation was pursued mostly by hippies and rednecks, usually in isolated, rural areas,” said Joe Schwartz, editor of Home Power magazine. “Now, it’s a lot more mainstream.” “The big shift happened in the last three years,” Mr. Schwartz said, because of technology that makes it possible to feed electricity back to the grid, the commercial power system fed by large utilities. “These new systems use the utility for back up power, removing the need for big, expensive battery backup systems.”

Some of the “plug and play” systems can be plugged directly into a circuit in the home electrical panel. Homeowners can use energy from the wind turbine or the power company without taking action. Federal wind energy incentives introduced after the oil crisis of the late 1970s helped drive large-scale turbine use. But the federal government does not currently provide a tax credit for residential-scale wind energy, as it does for residential solar applications, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group for wind-power developers and equipment manufacturers.

A number of states, however, have incentive programs. In New York, “we have incentive levels for different installations, but a homeowner could expect to get approximately $4,000 per electric meter for a wind turbine,” said Paul Tonko, president of the New York State Renewable Energy Development Authority, which administers the state’s renewable energy incentives. “That would cover about 30 to 40 percent of the project cost.”

Click here to read the full NY Times article.

EPA Increases Transpanency of Regulatory Development

2008-04-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

EPA is making federal environmental regulation more transparent by providing on-line information as soon as the agency begins the development of a new rule. Starting today (April 14, 2008), EPA is using Action Initiation Lists (AILs) to notify the public about new rules and other regulatory actions. AILs will be posted on the EPA Web site at roughly the end of each month; each will describe those actions that were approved for commencement during the given month. Formerly, the public had to wait for EPA's Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, which is updated only every six months, to learn about new regulatory actions. The AILs provide summaries, agency contacts, and other information about the rules EPA has approved for development. For example, the March 2008 AIL announces the agency's plans to issue an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for greenhouse gases in late spring. This notice will solicit public input as EPA considers the specific effects of climate change and potential regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary and mobile sources under the Clean Air Act. The March AIL also announces the agency's plans to propose a rulemaking that builds on EPA's existing renewable fuels standard program. The expansion of the program was mandated by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. The February and March 2008 AILs are now available. EPA expects to release the April AIL around April 30. Action Initiation Lists: http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/search/ail.html EPA's Semiannual Regulatory Agendas: http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/search/regagenda.html

Sizing Up the Utilities, if Carbon Caps Take Hold

2008-04-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

FUEL prices and dividends are usually big drivers of the share prices of utilities. Now there is a new variable to consider: how much carbon their power plants emit. Federal regulations over the next few years could limit the carbon emissions of these companies, and Wall Street analysts have begun compiling lists of potential winners and losers, based on that possibility.

All of the leading presidential candidates say they favor such measures, and some kind of legislation affecting utilities is likely at some point after the November election, Citi Investment Research said in a January report.

If “carbon caps” — limits on carbon emissions — eventually become law, the winners may include operators of nuclear power plants (which don’t emit carbon), while the losers may include power companies that mainly burn coal, analysts say. Beyond that, who wins and who loses will depend on the details of possible future regulations, which can’t be predicted with certainty. Still, a cottage industry on Wall Street has begun to evaluate these questions.

“I think the time when you can keep your head in the ground is just over,” said Hugh Wynne, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

Some analysts have begun to evaluate the potential impact of carbon caps on stock prices.
“Carbon has been an ongoing issue for the investment community for the last three or four years,” said Brian Chin, an equity analyst at Citi Investment Research.

Federal carbon rules might be similar to regional efforts in the Northeast and California. These plans are to place emission limits on plants that emit carbon dioxide, and, in the case of California, on other greenhouse gases as well. Allowances or credits to emit a certain level of greenhouse gases are either auctioned or granted free.

Under such a system, called “cap and trade,” utilities that stay below emissions quotas can hold credits for the future or sell them on the open market. In Europe, the cost of one credit has averaged $25 a metric ton of carbon dioxide since January 2005, when the European Union's emissions trading plan began.

Companies like the Exelon Corporation, the Constellation Energy Group and the Entergy Corporation, which operate nuclear power plants, would benefit from cap-and-trade plans under consideration, like the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which is pending in Congress, Mr. Chin said.

“They all potentially get a very large benefit from higher power prices being pushed up by carbon,” he said.

Click here to read the full NY TIMES article.

Washington Road in Augusta,Georgia

2008-04-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, if you are lucky enough to walk through the Masters'Gates At Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday, you will see winter blaze into colors of green grass to the pink azaleas to white dogwoods.It is place where you only observe one logo "Masters" and the beauty of many foot prints left by history.

As, I wonder if Tiger can bring home one more green jacket or will it be Trevor Immeiman first time to win a major. All the excitement that plays out on the course, I want to step back and appreciate the messages that comes from Augusta National Golf Club.

One logo, nature and beauty at it's best, respect for history, and mind set to save this event for future generations.

If we and our companies could adopt some of the same commitments to sustainability and life perhaps the next generation would be able to enjoy more than one Sunday a year in Augusta, Georgia.

Budman

The Human Side of Global Warming

2008-04-12T08:15:00.000-07:00

Daniel Weiss and Robin Pam for The Center for American Progress have recently published an article that focuses on the human side of the global warming crisis.

They discuss the most severe health effects linked to global warming include the following:
1. More illness and death resulting from heat waves.
2. Worsening air pollution causes more respiratory and cardiovascular disease.
3. Vector-borne disease infections will rise.
4. Changing food production and security may cause hunger.
5. More severe and frequent wildfires will threaten more people.
6. Flooding linked to rising sea levels will displace millions.

The time to act is now.

EPA Launches Environmental Indicators Gateway

2008-04-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

EPA today launched the Environmental Indicators Gateway Web site to provide enhanced public access to environmental and health information generated by EPA. Information is presented in the context of "environmental indicators," numerical values that provide insights into the status and trends of environmental and public health conditions over time. The Gateway establishes a single catalog of EPA's indicator work that allows browsing and searching among existing EPA Web sites and indicator materials. The site allows users to browse EPA's environmental indicator reports by geography, topic area, or time period. For each report featured on the site, users can find information on key details of the project including geography, project purpose, contact information, and data quality considerations. In addition to enhancing public access, the Gateway provides a resource for EPA and other federal agencies and partners to better coordinate their own environmental indicator work. By sharing key information and best practices among existing projects, EPA can improve its ability to generate environmental indicator information in the future. To better accomplish the goals of EPA's Environmental Indicators Initiative, EPA plans further enhancements to the site, which will improve coordination among existing indicator work and provide additional tools for accessing environmental indicators and information across EPA. New Environmental Indicators Gateway: http://www.epa.gov/indicators

Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods

2008-04-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

The next time you stop at a gas station, wincing at the $3.50-a-gallon price and bemoaning society’s dependence on petroleum, take a step back and look inside your car. Much of what you see in there comes from petroleum, too: the plastic dashboard, the foam in the seats. More than a tenth of the world’s oil is spent not on powering engines but as a feedstock for making chemicals that enrich many goods — from cosmetics to cleaners and fabric to automobile parts.

In recent years, this unsettling fact has motivated academic researchers and corporations to find ways to make bulk chemicals from renewable sources like corn and switchgrass. The effort to tap biomass for chemicals runs parallel to the higher-stakes research aimed at developing biofuels. Researchers hope that the two will come together soon to help replace petroleum refineries with biorefineries.

“As petroleum prices go up and climate change becomes a serious concern, the economy will have no choice but to switch to a chemical base derived from plant materials,” said Dr. Richard Gross, director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing of Macromolecules at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.

The chemical industry is beginning to make that transition, at least for a few products. One success story is a method developed byDuPont, with Genencor, to ferment corn sugar into a substance called propanediol. Using propanediol as a starting point, DuPont has created a new polymer it calls Cerenol, which it substitutes for petroleum-sourced ingredients in products like auto paints.

Click here for the full NY Times article.

CLIMATE: Followup to Kyoto Continues

2008-04-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (the group responsible for the Kyoto Protocols) held an Ad Hoc Working Group gathering in Bangkok last week. It was the first session following the December 2007 meetings in Bali (see our January 5, 2008 post for details).

As a followup to the Bali Action Plan from December 2007, at the session this week developing countries, led by China and India, requested the developed world (mainly the US and Europe) pay the bulk of the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The argument goes: in the process of developing, western countries have contributed the bulk of carbon dioxide emissions to date. Representatives from the developed world balked and talks will resume in June in Bonn. As a side note, China brings another coal-fired power plant online each week!

In a related story, indigenous peoples from Latin America, Congo, and Indonesia, dubbed Forest Peoples, met in Amazonas State, Brazil to demand a seat at the table when the UN discusses greenhouse gas emissions and to discuss compensation (see a New York Times article). This was also a followup to the Bali conference in December 2007.

They want to be compensated for incentive to keep the forests intact. In Brazil, forest people own 12% of the country's land. In Bali it was agreed that deforestation accounts for 20% of carbon dioxide emissions in the world. The cost would be around $530 million a year by the tenth year of the agreement for developing countries. If this ever comes to pass, keeping the money out of the government's hands will also be a neat trick.

RECYCLING: Plastic Water Bottles

2008-04-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

I realize that they're convenient, but if we're going to have conversations about energy, climate change, and resources then we have to consider plastic water bottles. I'm no Luddite, but the world moved along quite nicely without this convenience.

It requires 3 liters of water to produce one 1 liter bottle of water. The 25.5 million water bottles produced in the US each year cause 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, and use 17 million barrels of oil.

Consider other options when you intend to purchase bottled water, and tell two friends!

Tartan Day

2008-04-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you can't be part of a parade tomorrow, April 6, then have a mini-celebration for Tartan Day. I'll be tipping a few wee McEwan's in honor of me Scottish heritage. On ya, Jimmy!

Renewable Energy Tax Credit Legislation

2008-04-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Wind- and solar-boosting folk are crossing their fingers that new Senate legislation will succeed in extending renewable-energy tax credits set to expire at the end of 2008. The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act is framed as an economic boon: "If both houses of Congress don't pass a bill and the president doesn't sign it into law soon, we will start to see as much as $20 billion of anticipated investment in 2008 delayed or cancelled and more than 100,000 jobs lost," warns cosponsor Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). The bill has bipartisan support, in large part because, unlike previous failed legislation, it would not seek to fund clean-energy incentives by removing tax credits for oil companies.

Source: http://www.grist.org/

States Sue EPA to Comply With Year Old Supreme Court Ruling on Regulating Greenhouse Gases

2008-04-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

A year after the US Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA, a case in which California was a lead plaintiff, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and facing defiance, delays, and stonewalling from the Bush administration in complying with that decision, California Attorney General Jerry Brown went to federal court yesterday to force the EPA to release a court-mandated determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health or welfare.

California is joined by 19 states and local governments in this legal action—a petition for a writ of mandamus-- including Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, District of Columbia, City of New York, Mayor and City Council for Baltimore. It was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and asks for a court order that would force the EPA to release its determination of endangerment within sixty days.

On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gas emissions after making a formal determination that such pollution threatens public health or welfare. The EPA itself described the Court's mandate as follows: "...the EPA must determine...whether greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare."

In a writ of mandamus filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Brown and seventeen other states and eleven national environmental groups asked for a court order that would force the EPA to release its determination of endangerment within sixty days.

"The EPA said it would take action to regulate greenhouse gases by the end of last year but then broke its word and ignored the Supreme Court's mandate," Attorney General Brown said. "The EPA has rejected the Supreme Court's order, an action which is outrageous and unlawful. We're taking the EPA to court to force it to do its job."

A recent investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that the EPA had already made its endangerment determination--including an extensive scientific review--and sent it to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final approval. Brown called EPA's inaction "a textbook case of unreasonable delay" because the agency already completed its endangerment determination last year and is simply refusing to release it publicly.

Click here to read the full ariticle on the California Progress Report.

Texas to sue EPA over clean air standards?

2008-04-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like Texas might join other states in suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its new, more stringent ozone standards. Ozone, a lung-damaging irritant, is basically smog.
An email obtained by the American-Statesman that was sent this morning from Jeffrey Hunter at the National Association of Attorneys General asked chief deputies of attorney generals the following question:

“Mississippi would like to know if any other state AGs are looking into a possible suit against the EPA to stop enforcment of the new, more stringent Clean Air Act standards for ozone? They have been told that several states’ governors, possibly, AL, LA, TX, ARK, GA, SC, IN, may be interested in filing such a lawsuit.”

I asked Gov. Rick Perry’s office whether it would join in on a lawsuit: “We always keep our options open,” is the response I got from spokeswoman Allison Castle.
Perry is on the record opposing the new standards (announced in Mid-march), which it says will saddle businesses with higher costs.

On March 12 he issued the following statement: “The EPA’s decision to change ozone air quality attainment standards has Texas and other states chasing a moving target at the expense of taxpayers and our economy,” he said. “These new standards are particularly onerous on Texas and punish the state because it includes one of the most comprehensively controlled industrial complexes in the world.”

“Texas will continue to work toward meeting clean air standards through innovations in alternative fuels, technology and other improvements,” he continued. “I think it’s important, though, that federal standards balance a sound environmental policy with Texas’ growing economic engine that has produced the best business climate in the country.”
We’ll let you know more as this story develops.

The sort of interesting thing to me is that no one is that happy with the new standard, which could take years to go into effect, is 75 parts per billion ozone. (The old standard is 85 parts per billion.) Businesses say they’re too onerous, and environmental groups say they are not low enough. (An EPA science advisory panel had recommended even lower standards.)

Click here for the full article on the Austin American Statesmen.

Thinking Green with a little Cabernet Sauvignon

2008-03-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Some observations, over the past four months five mid size Environmental,Engineering firms were purchased by much larger ones. Geomatrix,Secor,Delta,Earth Tech,and LFR.
These firms were in the 100 million plus range for yearly revenues.This is creating a void in mid size Environmental/Engineering companies.Hopefully these firms will be blended in and their core essence will provide value in their new cultures.

While everyone is thinking green,it might be good to sit down and pour a nice NAPA Cabernet, and say a toast to those firms and the people that dedicated their efforts in making things a little better for all. I know what it is like after you say good bye to a 1999 Stags Leap Cellars Cab. You are happy for the experience and taste but a little sad to see it go.

I wish all the people and the firms the best in their new homes.

Budman

Plants Converted Directly Into Biogasoline, Not Ethanol

2008-03-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

MADISON, Wisconsin, March 27, 2008 (ENS) - A Wisconsin bioscience company and Royal Dutch Shell say they have developed a process to convert plant sugars directly into gasoline and gasoline blend components, rather than ethanol.

The collaboration aims to create new biofuels that can be used at high blend rates in standard gasoline engines in place of fossil fuels. This could potentially eliminate the need for specialized infrastructure, new engine designs and blending equipment.

The patented and trademarked BioForming process pioneered by Virent Energy Systems, Inc. of Madison converts plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery. The biomass feedstocks are converted into conventional hydrocarbon fuels and products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

"The technical properties of today's biofuels pose some challenges to widespread adoption," said Dr. Graeme Sweeney, Shell executive vice president Future Fuels and C02. "Fuel distribution infrastructure and vehicle engines are being modified to cope but new fuels on the horizon, such as Virent's, with characteristics similar or even superior to gasoline and diesel, are very exciting."

Virent's Dr. Randy Cortright holds a beaker of the company's biogasoline. (Photo courtesy Shell)

Traditionally, sugars have been fermented into ethanol and distilled. These new "biogasoline" molecules have higher energy content than ethanol or butanol and deliver better fuel efficiency.

"They can be blended seamlessly to make conventional gasoline or combined with gasoline containing ethanol," the companies said Wednesday in a statement.

The sugars can be sourced from non-food sources like corn stover, switchgrass, wheat straw and sugarcane pulp, in addition to conventional biofuel feedstock like wheat, corn and sugarcane.

The companies have so far collaborated for one year on the research. They say the technology has advanced rapidly, exceeding milestones for yield, product composition, and cost.

Future efforts will focus on further improving the technology and scaling it up for larger volume commercial production.

Dr. Randy Cortright, Virent chief technology officer, co-founder and executive vice president, said, "Virent has proven that sugars can be converted into the same hydrocarbon mixtures of today's gasoline blends. Our products match petroleum gasoline in functionality and performance."

"Virent's unique catalytic process uses a variety of biomass-derived feedstocks to generate biogasoline at competitive costs. Our results to date fully justify accelerating commercialization of this technology," said Cortright.

Virent has 68 employees located in a state-of-the-art catalytic biorefining development facility in Madison. The technology is based on the Aqueous Phase Reforming process, which Virent has exclusively licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Redation.

Cortright says the biogasoline process delivers more net energy and offers a scalable, cost-effective alternative to traditional biofuel production routes.

Headquartered in the Netherlands and the UK, Royal Dutch Shell companies have operations in more than 130 countries, with businesses including: oil and gas exploration; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals; and renewable energy projects including wind, solar and biofuels.

Natural Resource Damages (NRD): A Sleeping Giant?

2008-03-27T10:50:00.001-07:00

Anyone who operates a chemical, petrochemical or bulk petroleum terminal facility has likely encountered a natural resource damages (NRD) claim. But since NRD claims have historically only been assessed after a catastrophic environmental contamination event, such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, many risk professionals may not have had any experience with them at all. This may be about to change, however, with many now referring to natural damages as a "sleeping giant" due to the potential lor vast recoveries under a host of federal and state laws. Before moving onto a more detailed discussion of this type of claim, first, it is is important to ensure we understand the necessary language.

Natural resource damages can be defined as compensation for injuries to natural resources sustained in the course of a spill or release of contamination or pollutants to the environment, with "injuries" referring to any measurable adverse change in the physical or chemical quality or viability of the resource.

Damages, (considered residual damages, i.e., they cannot be addressed by remedial or corrective action) may be assessed on the reduction in quantity or quality of natural resource services, with "resource services" referring to the physical and biological functions performed by natural resources, (food, habitat, drinking water and recreation), including the human use of those services.

Natural resources are also governed by a number of federal laws including the Superfund (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act or CERCLA ), the oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) and the Clean Water Act. The protected elements include "land, fish wildlife, biota, air, water, drinking water supplies and other such sources" that are held in trust of the public or trust resources. The State of New York, for example, has designated the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as the natural resource trustee.
An NRD claim is defined as the injury to, destruction of, or loss of natural resources, including the costs for a natural resource damage assessment. Such assessments, which are typically directed by the natural resource trustee, consist of analyzing the injury and determining the appropriate restoration or service options during a damage settlement.

Superfund and OPA-through enforcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as various state statutes-not only hold parties responsible for the remediation of hazardous waste sites, contaminated properties and oil spills not only liable for remediation, but also for the resulting NRD. Historically, NRDrelated fines have been assessed as a result of a catastrophic ecological disaster (Exxon's NRD settlement totaled $900 million after Valdez); however, states are now attempting to seek restoration and compensation for damages involving natural resources involving routine pollution.

Click here to read the full article posted by Red Orbit.

Long-term Management Strategies for Major Liability Sites

2008-03-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Project Navigator, Ltd. has been working with some clients to formulate long-term management strategies for major liability sites. These sites will most likely have to be retained by the company, and not transferred for fee, to another party.

Clients are interested in reducing costs with revenue from green technologies which could operate on the "surficial platform" the site provides. Project Navigator planning work shows that remediated, former waste sites, if appropriately located, could host wind and/or solar farms.
We now note that New York-based Allco Renewable Energy plans to develop a $45 million solar energy project atop a former hazardous waste site near Coventry, RI.

Click here as the following Waste Business Journal press release explains more...

Lawsuit Targets EPA Over Lack of Superfund Financial Assurance Rules

2008-03-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Date: March 24, 2008
Source: Waste Business Journal -News Room

Environmentalists have recently filed a lawsuit to force the EPA to issue Superfund financial assurance rules as required but never promulgated by the agency in the 22 years since it was supposed to have been done. Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club and other groups filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the brief, the bankruptcies of companies like Asarco, the century-old mining giant estimated to be liable for more than $1 billion in environmental cleanup, along with the expiration of the Superfund taxes on industry, underscore the need for the financial assurances as a means of ensuring cleanup costs are not shifted onto citizens.

The EPA has had difficulty developing the rules in part because of the legal requirements to issue them on a sector-by-sector basis. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced legislation to force the EPA to craft rules but Congress has yet to act on it. Similarly, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) introduced H.R. 2262 that includes provisions mandating that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forrest Service require that companies mining on federal lands maintain financial assurances. The environmentalists' CERCLA suit seeks to put the financial assurances on par with those under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and seeks to address electric utilities, metal finishers, solvent and battery recyclers and wood treatment facilities and other industries.

Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

2008-03-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate. Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

BAS researchers were alerted to the break-up by daily monitoring of satellite images. They sent a Twin Otter aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to video what was happening. Jim Elliott, who was on board the plane, said he had never seen anything like it before. He said: "We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. "Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble - it's like an explosion."

A 41-by-2.5km (25-by-1.6 mile) berg appears to be breaking away, with much of the Wilkins Ice Shelf protected only by a thin strip of ice spanning two islands. Since an ice shelf is a floating platform of ice, the break-up will have no impact on sea level. But scientists say it heightens concerns over the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica.

Click here for the full BBC article.

CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights) Secrets for Success

2008-03-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

After a lifetime with incandescent bulbs around the house, compact fluorescents can be confusing. Some tips:

1. Codes for colors: Light from CFLs does not look like light from other sources. The U.S. Department of Energy recognizes six color categories, indicated by a number on the base of the bulb that ends with a "K." The range is from 2,700K (the most yellow, or "warm white") to 6,500K (the most blue, or "daylight").

2. Efficiency standards: Products marked "Energy Star" have met efficiency guidelines set by the federal government.

3. Cost savings: A typical CFL costs much more to purchase than a typical incandescent but saves even more money over its lifetime because it uses less energy and lasts far longer. Online calculators can get very specific.

4. Mercury hazard: The risk from 5 mg in a broken bulb is negligible, but it still must be cleaned carefully. The Environmental Protection Agency guidelines include opening all the windows in the room for 15 minutes and scraping the debris into a sealable plastic bag or jar. The EPA has a 12 step process for cleanup if the light bulb breaks.

5. Disposal: Because of the mercury hazard, CFLs should be recycled (separately from household bottles and cans). Curbside pickup is rare, but some stores and various hazardous-waste programs accept them.

The next big technology: LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are less-developed for household use than CFLs but promise even greater savings eventually.

Source: The Daily Mail

Black Carbon Pollution Emerges As Major Player In Global Warming

2008-03-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2008) — Black carbon, a form of particulate air pollution most often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than prevailing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan and University of Iowa chemical engineer Greg Carmichael, said that soot and other forms of black carbon could have as much as 60 percent of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide, more than that of any greenhouse gas besides CO2. The researchers also noted, however, that mitigation would have immediate societal benefits in addition to the long term effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Observationally based studies such as ours are converging on the same large magnitude of black carbon heating as modeling studies from Stanford, Caltech and NASA," said Ramanathan. "We now have to examine if black carbon is also having a large role in the retreat of arctic sea ice and Himalayan glaciers as suggested by recent studies."

Click here to read the full Science Daily article.

2008-03-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to note, that of the new sites just listed onto the NPL, two of them are sediments sites. While these types of sites, in general, will continue to be added to the NPL in lower numbers, it seems that the response actions and costs will be more complicated and costly, than the more normal "terrestrial sites," we have commonly managed during the last two decades.

For example, I was just looking at the remedial alternatives which are being considered in the RI/FS process at Passaic River, NJ, and the largest scoped solutions, which incorporate substantial dredging, are forecast to exceed $2 Billion....so in a word, there are big opportunities to drive cost savings via value engineering and just sheer straightforward creativity.

New NPL Sites

2008-03-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

EPA Adds 12 and Proposes Six Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List

Release date: 03/19/2008

Contact Information: Roxanne Smith, (202) 564-4355 / smith.roxanne@epa.gov

(Washington, D.C. - March 19, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding 12 new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. EPA is also proposing to add six other sites to the list. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

To date, there have been 1,581 sites listed to the NPL. Of these sites, 324 sites have been deleted resulting in 1,257 final sites on the NPL. With the proposal of the six new sites, there are 60 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 55 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. There are a total 1,317 final and proposed sites on the NPL.

Contaminants found at these final and proposed sites include arsenic, barium, carbon tetrachloride, chromium, copper, dichloroethene, dioxins, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans, tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethane, trichloroethene (TCE), vinyl chloride and zinc.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant cleanup funding is required for these sites.

Sites may be placed on the list through various mechanisms:

Numeric ranking established by EPA’s Hazard Ranking System.
Designation by states or territories of one top-priority site.
Meeting all three of the following requirements:

For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for these final and proposed sites, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm

The following 12 sites have been added to the National Priorities List:

Lusher Street Ground Water Contamination (Elkhart, Ind.)

Plating Inc. (Great Bend, Kan.)

Washington County Lead District - Old Mines (Old Mines, Mo.)

Washington County Lead District – Potosi (Potosi, Mo.)

Washington County Lead District – Richwoods (Richwoods, Mo.)

Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek (Gibbsboro, N.J.)

Chem-Fab (Doylestown, Pa.)

San German Ground Water Contamination (San German, Puerto Rico)

Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna, Texas)

Midessa Ground Water Plume (Odessa, Texas)

San Jacinto River Waste Pits (Harris County, Texas)

Hidden Lane Landfill (Sterling, Va.)

The following six sites have been proposed to the National Priorities List:

Iron King Mine – Humboldt Smelter (Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz.)

Nelson Tunnel/Commodore Waste Rock (Creede, Colo.)

Flash Cleaners (Pompano Beach, Fla.)

Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water (Aberdeen, N.C.)

Attebury Grain Storage Facility (Happy, Texas)

Old Esco Manufacturing (Greenville, Texas)

Where Is Our Electronics Recycling Bill??

2008-03-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

The proper disposal of old electronics is an ever increasing problem as we continue to live in the information and digital age. New York City is currently trying to address this problem by passing one of the toughest electronics recycling programs in the country. We'll see how that turns out as currently the bill is facing a veto threat from Mayor Bloomberg (not very surprising).

The NYC Department of Sanitation (Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling) is also being called to action as they recently sent out a Request for Proposal to numerous consultants seeking a comprehensive analysis to understand how current generation and collection practices facilitate or hinder full recycling. Considering that I recently moved out of the Upper West Side ~ 3 months ago and my building didn't have fully recycling, well, I would tend to think the "hinder" part would be most applicable.

Just to help illustrate how big of a problem this is, The New York Times reported that "In 2005, consumers threw out as much as 2.2 million tons of electronics, 25,000 tons from New York alone." Increasingly consumers are looking to properly dispose of tires, paint, glass and other items. There are companies out there to help, which are just starting to be publicized - 1-800-Recycling for instance. This is all good news, although the fact still remains we are in dire need of a bill that would require electronics makers to take responsibility for their products once their useful lives are over, with the intent of encouraging companies to design products that are more recyclable.

Posted by Liz.

ENERGY: US Coal Exports on the rise, but what of Global Emissions Control?

2008-03-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

The worldwide demand for coal coupled with the recent cancellation (see Jan 20, 2008 post) of many coal-fired power plants in the US has begun to drive US coal prices higher. The price for Appalachian and Wyoming coal rose 93% and 67%, respectively in the last year.

Most US utilities have long-term contracts with fixed pricing for coal. But the need for coal for utilities and steel manufacturing in developing countries (e.g., China and India) is rising. US exports rose from 5% of production in 2005 to 8% in 2006, and the trend is expected to continue. This means that sooner or later the US utilities will have to negotiate expiring contracts, the price will go up, and our utility bills will rise. Coal makes up 50% of US energy usage!

Like the discussion about global reduction of greenhouse gases, coal presents another situation where the developed world can try to preach to the developing world about becoming green (e.g., less coal-fired plants, etc.). But, the developing countries counter that we've contributed most to the current climate situation and we've had our industrial boom - why shouldn't they have theirs?

We have 27% of the world's coal reserves and we continue to sell it overseas. It makes 'green' a tough sell around the world.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: EPA Investigated for Spiking Key Panels with Industry Reps

2008-03-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by John Dingell of Michigan (pictured left), will investigate the US EPA for possible conflicts of interest. The Committee sent a letter to the US EPA which states, the chair of an EPA external peer review panel, Dr. Deborah Rice, had been dismissed from her position after the American Chemistry Council complained Rice was not impartial because she had previously expressed concerns about the health effects of the chemical under review.

Meanwhile, the letter notes, at least nine EPA panels assessing the human health effects of toxic chemicals have included individuals alleged to have financial interests in the chemical industry.

Mr. Dingell said, “The EPA seems to have a backwards way of composing these panels. EPA is disallowing scientists who have valid public health concerns about products, while encouraging participation by so-called experts who are paid by the chemical industry.”

Green Branding....Companies Jumping on the Green Bandwagon

2008-03-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Companies have long been willing to pay a lot of money to attach their names to prominent places. The future home of the New York Mets in Queens will be called Citi Field, after Citigroup. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
So at a time when most companies are scrambling for a prime seat on the green bandwagon, why not a company-branded wind farm?

John Deere Wind Energy is building an eight-turbine, 10-megawatt wind farm in Panhandle, Tex., that is scheduled to open in May.

Steelcase, the big furniture company in Grand Rapids, Mich., has committed to buying the farm’s entire output of renewable energy credits — the alternative energy version of carbon offsets, usually just called R.E.C.’s — for its first five years of operation. And it is paying a premium — it declines to say how much — for the right to name it the Wege Wind Energy Farm, after Peter Wege, the son of the founder of Steelcase and a prominent environmentalist in Michigan.

Nancy W. Hickey, the chief administrative officer of Steelcase, said both the name and the purchase fit in with Steelcase tradition. Steelcase is well on the way, she said, toward reaching its goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2012, “and this is another way to help get us there.” Energy credits from the wind farm will offset the equivalent of 20 percent of the power used by Steelcase operations.

Ms. Hickey said the Wege name (pronounced WEGG-ee) is strongly associated with environmentalism, so the naming fits well with the Web-based “Green Giants Campaign” that the company initiated in January to draw attention to prominent environmentalists.
Even without the naming rights thrown in, it is unusual for a company other than a utility to buy all of the energy credits of a project before it is built. But environmental experts say such deals may become commonplace.

“The demand for wind power and for R.E.C.’s is outpacing the supply, so I won’t be surprised to see more companies trying to lock up the renewable energy credits that become available,” said Andrew Winston, an environmental consultant and co-author of “Green to Gold,” a book about environmental marketing.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, are hoping he is right. “After all, the best environmental policies are the ones where there’s a strong economic rationale for doing the right thing,” said Mark S. Brownstein, managing director for business partnerships for the Environmental Defense Fund.
The access to upfront money could also herald a new era for small wind farms, said Elizabeth Salerno, manager of policy analysis for the American Wind Energy Association. “This could really make more communities embrace local wind projects,” she said.

To read the full NY Times article, click here.

Posted by Liz.

CLIMATE: Arctic Melting Ice and Open Sea Channels

2008-03-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

United Nations data show that temperatures in the arctic circle have increased twice as fast as the rest of the globe; that has led to shrinking ice sheet, i.e., 22% less in summer 2006 than in summer 2005.

As a result of this melting, large companies are preparing to benefit by the opening of sea channels near arctic circle; these companies are investing in the necessary reinforced vessels to take advantage of these openings.

These new sea channels will mean increased efficiency in delivering goods around the globe and therefore reduce the cost of some goods. A 11,000 mile trip will be reduced to 7,000 miles and will save over $800,000 in fuel and labor costs. Investment in reinforced vessels, needed to make these arctic journeys, continues to increase each year.

The number of Canadian arctic journeys increased from 78 in 2005 to 132 in 2006.

The dearth of resources for cleanup will undoubtedly contribute to ecological damage when the inevitable disaster ensues. Our oil, wheat, and mineral costs may come down, but at what price?

Public Sends Mixed Signals on Energy Policy

2008-03-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

A recent survey by The Pew Research Center shows that the public continues to be conflicted in its overall approach toward energy and the environment. Here are some results of the survey:

1. When asked specifically about energy policy priorities, 55% favor more conservation and regulation of energy, compared with 35% who support expanded energy exploration.

2. Nine-in-ten Americans favor requiring better auto fuel efficiency standards, while substantial majorities also support increased federal funding for alternative energy (81%) and mass transportation (72%).

By contrast, there is greater division over other energy policies.

3. A majority (57%) favors increased federal funding on ethanol research, but support has fallen over the past two years (from 67% in February 2006).

4. The public continues to be almost evenly split over the idea of promoting more nuclear power (48% oppose vs. 44% favor). And a majority (53%) opposes giving tax cuts to energy companies to do more oil exploration.

5. About twice as many Republicans as Democrats favor drilling in ANWR (63% vs. 31%). Yet both parties are divided ideologically over drilling in the Alaskan wildlife refuge.

To view the full Pew survey, click here.

Posted by Liz.

California Cars to Get Global Warming Stickers

2008-03-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Go shopping in 2009 in California for a new car and you’ll notice some new information on the smog index window sticker. Next to the smog score will be a global warming score. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is putting the finishing touches on the program. You can see some of the details in the presentation from their last meeting.

According to CARB, approximately 13 states have thus far adopted the California’s Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) regulations, which requires the smog labels. At least eleven of those states, including New York, Connecticut, Oregon, and Washington are likely to adopt the new global warming labels.

Vehicles are assigned a score of 1 to 10 based upon their emissions, with 1 for the worst, and 10 for the lowest greenhouse gas emissions. However, calling it a “Global Warming Score” and having 10 be the best is likely to cause some confusion. Perhaps “Planet Saver Score” would be better?

Click here for the full article.

Posted by: Liz

CLIMATE: EPA boss justifies Clean Air Act waiver denial, and off to court we go!

2008-03-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

EPA administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, finally issued his justification for denying California's Clean Air Act waiver (the denial is discussed in a 1/24/08 PNL Stories post). The denial was issued last December after California requested permission to pass tailpipe emissions standards stricter than federal guidelines.

Mr. Johnson, against the recommendations of his staff scientists, denied the request and stated that the new federal fuel efficiency standards, passed in December, were sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that there shouldn't be a patchwork of state's emissions standards.

EPA issued its long delayed 47-page report in the Federal Register, and that clears the way for California and 18 other state to proceed with a lawsuit in federal court to fight the denial.

Administrator Johnson wrote: "While I find that the conditions related to global climate change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify separate state standards."

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown dismissed Johnson's arguments as "obfuscating, sabotaging . . . specious, ill-founded. . . . We're going to fight him until he's sent packing by the next president." State regulators argue that by 2020 California's law would achieve twice the reduction as the federal fuel standards.

A document was released Tuesday by Senator Barbara Boxer who wants the denial reversed. She said the draft (written in conjunction with former administrator William K. Reilly), as well as internal agency e-mail messages she released, demonstrated that the E.P.A. was “in crisis.” Mr. Johnson’s decisions, she said, “went against the professional scientists and the professional legal experts.”

ENERGY: Turn off unused appliances when not in use

2008-02-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Consumer electronics suck as much as 25% of their power when not in use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Your PC grabs 85% when it's not in use.

Eleven watts even when powered down adds 66 cents to a typical Californian's monthly energy bill. These silent siphons of energy, known as phantom loads, add about $28 to the average annual household power bill, according to the energy department.

Because unplugging everything in your home and office is unrealistic, consider buying a SmartStrip, a power strip and surge protector that automatically cuts off power to devices that are shut down.

A top-of-the-line AA nickel metal hydride MaxE battery from Ansmann Energy, distributed in the U.S. by Horizon Battery, costs about $4 and can be recharged 1,000 times. At 3 cents in electricity per charge, the battery's total cost comes to about $34. By contrast, 1,000 disposable AA batteries costing 30 cents apiece would cost about $300.

(classic Bacsik)

How Green Is Your Candidate?

2008-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton (D): Key Points

• Proposes a Strategic Energy Fund that would raise $50 billion over 10 years by taxing the "excess profits" of oil companies and cutting their tax breaks. The money would be invested in "clean energy technologies," including renewable energy, energy efficiency, "clean coal," plug-in hybrids, cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, and more."
• Supports reducing U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 via a cap-and-trade system that would auction off 100 percent of the emission permits as well as other measures.
• Made her campaign carbon-neutral in April 2007, one month after John Edwards did.
• Calls for the U.S. to cut its consumption of foreign oil by two-thirds of projected levels by 2030.
• Supports a goal to get 25 percent of the U.S. electricity supply from renewable sources by 2030.
• Supports raising fleet-wide fuel-economy standards to 40 miles per gallon by 2020 and 55 mpg by 2030.
• Supports coal-to-liquid fuels if they emit 20 percent less carbon over their lifecycle than conventional fuels. On June 19, 2007, voted in favor of an amendment that would provide loans for coal projects, including liquefied coal; the amendment did not pass.

Mike Huckabee (R): Key Points

• Places high priority on energy independence. On his campaign site, he says, "The first thing I will do as president is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. We will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term."
• Is not convinced that climate change is largely driven by human activity, but believes we should take steps to curb greenhouse-gas emissions anyway.
• Supports a mandatory, economy-wide cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States.
• Supports expansion of nuclear energy.
• Supports oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore in U.S. waters, but says, "In the long term, we need to get off oil altogether."
• Supports raising fuel-economy standards for automobiles to 35 mpg by 2020.
• Emphasizes that there's a religious and moral imperative to conserve resources and protect the earth.

John McCain (R): Key Points
• Has said global warming would be one of three key issues for his presidency.
• Cosponsored the first bill in the Senate calling for mandatory reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions, in 2003. The 2007 version, the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, is less stringent than many other climate bills currently in Congress. It would cap global-warming emissions from utilities, industry, and transport at 2004 levels by 2012 and then gradually decrease emissions to about 30 percent of 2004 levels by 2050.
• Supports a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions; opposes a carbon tax.
• Has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's lack of action against climate change.
• Believes the U.S. should embrace nuclear power as a way to generate energy without directly producing greenhouse-gas emissions. His 2007 Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act would take some of the money raised from auctioning emission allowances and make it available for loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants and R&D into new types of nuclear plants.
• Wants to "find a way to use our coal resources without emitting excessive greenhouse gases," and supports public-private partnerships to develop high-tech systems for coal gasification and carbon capture and storage.
• Used to criticize ethanol; now lauds ethanol, but still opposes government subsidies for it.
• Has opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Has been endorsed by Republicans for Environmental Protection for his climate policies.

Barack Obama (D): Key Points

• Calls for cutting U.S. carbon dioxide emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
• Would channel revenue raised from auctioning emissions permits -- between $30 billion and $50 billion a year -- toward developing and deploying clean energy technology, creating "green jobs," and helping low-income Americans afford higher energy bills.
• Calls for 25 percent of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, and for 30 percent of the federal government's electricity to come from renewables by 2020.
• Proposes investing $150 billion over 10 years in R&D for renewables, biofuels, efficiency, "clean coal," and other clean tech.
• Calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuels to be used in the U.S. each year by 2022 and 60 billion gallons of biofuels to be used in the U.S. each year by 2030.
• Calls for all new buildings in the U.S. to be carbon neutral by 2030.
• Supports raising fuel-economy standards for automobiles to 40 miles per gallon and light trucks to 32 mpg by 2020.
• Cosponsor of the Boxer-Sanders Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, the most stringent climate bill in the Senate.
•Cosponsor of the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act. After being badgered by MoveOn and other progressives over the issue, he "clarified" his position by saying he would support liquefied coal only if it emitted 20 percent less carbon over its lifecycle than conventional fuels.

Ron Paul (R): Key Points

• Does not consider climate change a major issue and is not convinced that it is largely caused by human activity.
• Says he would end all subsidies and special benefits to energy companies.
• Has voted in favor of offshore drilling and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
•Has consistently opposed farm subsidies.

--Posted by Liz Fontana

ENERGY: Current biofuels create a 'Carbon Debt'!!

2008-02-12T08:11:00.000-08:00

Two studies released February 7, 2008 (by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy; and Princeton University) determined that almost all biofuels produced today (particularly corn-based ethanol) produced more CO2 emissions than conventional petroleum when all production factors, especially land-use changes, are taken into account. Even though biofuels emit 50 to 95% less CO2 than conventional petroleum.

Holy rain forest destruction, batman!

Basically, many acres of farmland are being converted to products like corn for ethanol instead of for food and the slack has to be picked up somewhere. The studies suggested that the slack is picked up in places like South America and Asia where rain forest, peatland, and grasslands are being converted to crops.

Here's the kicker - the carbon, which is stored in the original plants and soil, is released as carbon dioxide. So much so that the carbon reduction benefit of the CO2 reduction can take hundreds of years to offset!!!

This "carbon debt" must be paid before the biofuels produced on the land can begin to lower greenhouse gas levels and have a positive effect on global warming.
The analysis calculated that a U.S. cornfield devoted to producing ethanol would have to be farmed for 167 years before it would begin to achieve a net reduction in emissions.

The conversion of peatlands for palm oil plantations in Indonesia ran up the greatest carbon debt, one that would require 423 years to pay off.

Researchers did note that some biofuels do not contribute to global warming because they do not require the conversion of native habitat. These include waste from agriculture and forest lands and native grasses and woody biomass grown on marginal lands unsuitable for crop production.

Some European countries (and Canada) are trying to fashion laws that restrict biofuel imports to those that were grown in an environmentally friendly manner. We'll be talking about the pros and cons of these laws later.

(classic Bacsik)

RECYCLING: Pilot Pen Launches Green Line

2008-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Pilot Pen Corporation has unveiled a line of earth-friendly writing instruments dubbed BeGreen.

Pilot says that the products, which include ballpoint pens, rolling balls pens and mechanical pencils, will sell for the same price as their non-recycled counterparts.

All are made from at least 70 percent recycled content and packaged in recycled materials. Retailers that will carry the green line include Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Target.

(classic Bacsik)