Tag Archives: business & technology

Happy 25th anniversary, San Jose’s useless light rail!

by donnajansen Posted on January 11, 2013

Happy 25th anniversary, San Jose’s useless light rail!

By Philip Bump

For part of the time that I lived in San Jose, Calif., my apartment was downtown, across the street from a light rail station. I used to take the train to work, which was great for the first 80 percent of the ride: The car was almost always near-empty as it chugged along down the middle of streets, passing dozens of automobiles at each stop light. When I reached the stop closest to my office, I’d get off — and start the 20-minute walk in, having to either walk well out of my way or, if I was in a hurry, dash across a busy highway with no crosswalk. It was an hour’s journey, easily, for a trip that took 10 minutes by car without traffic.

My friend Michael and I took to calling the light rail “the Buzz,” both because it sounded confusingly like “the bus,” which amused us, and because it implied a speedy, futuristic system, which the light rail very much is not. A guy I knew who worked with the union that represented bus and light rail operators called it the “ghost train,” since you’d often see it passing by at night, lit up and empty.

pbumpSprawl in Silicon Valley.

The Atlantic Cities’ Eric Jaffe has a good look at the light rail as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. From his article:

Less than 1 percent of Santa Clara County residents ride [Valley Transportation Authority] light rail; the per-passenger round-trip operating cost is $11.74 and taxpayers subsidize 85 percent of costs — third and second worst in the country, respectively. There are problems with measuring costs per passenger mile on light rail, but ouch. …

In November, [the Mercury News‘ Mike] Rosenberg reported that a VTA plan to extend a light rail line 1.6 miles to Los Gatos, home of Netflix, will cost $175 million while drawing only about 200 new riders. Back in May, a local news station found a culture of fare evasion on VTA that gives the system a rate of 7.2 percent — highest in the region.

Jaffe has a series of quotes from people nearly as dismissive of the light rail as I am above. But one word is curiously missing: density. The problem with the light rail is that it serves a county that is home to one of the least-dense cities in America; San Jose, the nation’s 10th largest city, is not in the top 125 in people per square mile. Offices and strip malls and housing complexes are scattered around the valley floor, the result of City Manager Dutch Hamann‘s ’50s-era small-town-incorporation spree. San Jose contains land extending far beyond what even its now 1 million residents have use for, making a skeletal light rail system like platform sidewalks in a massive bog — barely providing access to anything.

I tried to be a good resident. I tried to give the light rail my business in part because I liked the aesthetic of it. Step out of my apartment and hop the train to work. It’s what I’d do now in hyper-dense Manhattan, if I didn’t work from home. But in San Jose, it didn’t work.

So I did what everyone else does. I got a car.

Source

Silicon Valley Can’t Get Transit Right, The Atlantic Cities

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Happy 25th anniversary, San Jose’s useless light rail!

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RE-volv is making a community pot of solar gold

by olikellopas Posted on January 10, 2013

RE-volv is making a community pot of solar gold

By Susie Cagle

What if every dollar you donated to a worthy cause generated two, three, or more dollars? That’s the idea behind the RE-volv community solar fund project, currently closing in on the end of its first stage of fundraising.

Like Mosaic, RE-volv is tapping the collective for funding to back solar projects. But instead of individuals investing for their own individual good, RE-volv envisions a big pot-o-gold seed fund that would be invested and reinvested in community solar infrastructure. These are investments in solar’s future — essentially donations to RE-volv’s fund. Here’s how RE-volv explains it:

The Solar Seed Fund will use the donations to finance solar installations on community-serving organizations such as schools, universities, hospitals, and places of worship. RE-volv recoups the solar installation cost and earns a return on the investment through a 20-year solar lease agreement. The lease payments go back into the Solar Seed Fund allowing the fund to continuously grow, and finance an expanding number of solar installations.

According to the group’s numbers, once 14 RE-volv systems are in place, the revenue from those systems will be able to fund another solar-power system of roughly the same cost — and on, and on.

RE-volv has already raised almost $12,000 via its crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo, surpassing its initial goal by nearly $2,000. Combined with $20,000 raised from other sources, that’s more than enough funding to install its first solar project.

“This confirms our idea that lots of Americans support renewable energy, and are excited to have a tangible way to invest in neighborhood solar as part of a collective effort,” said Andreas Karelas, executive director of RE-volv.

If you’re looking to make your money back, Mosaic is a great, and feel-good, way to go. But RE-volv is kind of like a solar Rolling Jubilee, knocking out unsustainable energy by leveraging community cash. Collaborative consumption has become collaborative construction. Um, sharing economy, anyone?

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RE-volv is making a community pot of solar gold

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Colorado to scrutinize oil and gas pollution

by trasze2aja Posted on January 10, 2013

Colorado to scrutinize oil and gas pollution

By Philip Bump

Colorado suddenly got pretty cool, guys. I’m not talking about the weed thing; that joke is beyond played out. I’m not even talking about the wind energy thing, although I’m kind of talking about that, in a way.

I’m talking about how the state has decided to do more testing to track pollution from oil and gas drilling. From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Colorado oil and natural gas regulators on Monday approved rules making the state the first to require energy companies to do groundwater sampling both before and after they drill.

The sampling is meant to show whether supplies of drinking water have been affected by energy development.

Seems like something worth testing, I guess!

Here is Colorado Springs, a city in Colorado, because I wanted to add a picture.

Moreover, the Summit County Voice reports:

Colorado officials took another small step to address growing public concerns about the impacts of the state’s energy boom by announcing a $1.3 million study of emissions from oil and gas drilling operations.

According to a press release from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the study will help provide information about how oil and gas emissions behave, how they travel and their characteristics in areas along the northern Front Range.

A second phase would assess possible health effects using data collected in the first phase.

The emissions study comes after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that oil and gas operations in Colorado were leaking twice the amount of methane originally estimated.

As is always the case, the tests are not as robust as many would like — and oil and gas companies are already wringing their hands about how onerous the studies will be. The Environmental Defense Fund suggested to the Gazette that the water-sampling test was “the weakest program in the nation.” The program will allow the companies to determine the test sites, which leaves some room for deception.

Nonetheless, steps in the right direction. Therefore: COOLER-ado. Colo-RAD-o. My jokes are stupid and I am ashamed of myself.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Keystone protesters take the fight to TransCanada offices

by iscciaglewstrone123 Posted on January 8, 2013

Keystone protesters take the fight to TransCanada offices

By Susie Cagle

Not content to protest from the trees, anti-Keystone activists mobilized on Monday at two different offices of pipeline builder TransCanada.

Tar Sands Blockade

Nearly 100 activists took over the lobby of TransCanada’s Houston office to dance, chant, prance with puppets, die-in, and then be kicked out by police.

At one point a blockader dropped to his knees and pleaded with a line of police holding batons: “Help! There are eco-terrorists upstairs! They’re killing me!” Officers arrested two of the activists once they’d been ushered from the lobby.

Police, who were probably having a bad day, also did this:

Just as the action in Houston died down, eight college students and recent grads were chaining and gluing themselves inside TransCanada’s corporate office in Westborough, Mass. They were promptly unchained and arrested, because that’s how much TransCanada cares about your Harvard degrees, kids.

Tar Sands Blockade

These weren’t huge actions nor were they sustained blockades, but they mark another escalation in tactics that protesters are using to fight the Keystone XL pipeline. Activists in the Northeast are gearing up for protests on Jan. 23 and 26 against tar-sands transport through New England. And a Feb. 17 anti-Keystone rally in front of the White House could attract 20,000 people, 350.org says.

Meanwhile, TransCanada twirled its mustache and released this statement Monday afternoon:

TransCanada has the legal authority to construct the Gulf Coast Project, and this is another example of the protestors’ attempt to stop a project that is currently providing thousands of jobs to American workers. This project is also a key component of the ‘all of the above’ strategy to enhance American energy security — especially refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Then executives laughed manically over their tiny model of the Keystone XL pipeline, and wondered if it was broken or something, because it just keeps leaking. Weird.

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GMO labeling initiative gets rolling in Washington state

by olikellopas Posted on January 4, 2013

GMO labeling initiative gets rolling in Washington state

By Susie Cagle

Label It Yourself

A ballot measure that would have required labels on all genetically modified frankenfoods failed in California this past fall, but 2013 is a new year with new hope and a new roiling labeling movement, this time in Washington state.

Supporters of a GMO-labeling ballot measure have collected far more signatures than necessary, and if they’re certified, the proposal will hit the state legislature in the upcoming session and then likely be on the ballot in November. The movement’s colorful spokesperson is spreading the word, as The Seattle Times reports:

“Here we go, Round 2,” said the Washington initiative’s sponsor, Chris McManus, who owns a small advertising firm in Tacoma. “They got us the first time in Cali, but we’re stitched up, greased up and ready to go.”

McManus told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the measure is not a scare tactic.

“A little bit more information never hurt anybody about the foods they eat.”

But opposition is beginning to coalesce. Farm industry representatives call the proposal an attempt to scare people away from food sources that have no known health risks. If the initiative wasn’t about scaring people, asked Heather Hansen of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, why did supporters deliver their petitions in an old ambulance?

Because that’s awesome! I bet it doesn’t get great mileage, but sirens, wheee!

If anything is deserving of sirens, it’s the frankenfish that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently deemed safe, which would be labeled under such an initiative but likely not otherwise.

The initiative would require special labels on any raw or processed food sold in Washington with any genetically modified ingredients. That would include fruits and vegetables, processed foods and even some seafood like genetically modified salmon, McManus said …

Opponents said that would create big problems for farmers and food processors, who would have to put different labels on the same products if they’re sold in Washington and in other states.

It seems like threatening those of us who don’t live in Washington with unlabeled monster salmon is a real scare tactic. Get ready with those stickers, folks!

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GMO labeling initiative gets rolling in Washington state

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Surprise: Shell’s rig ran aground in Alaska because the company was trying to avoid taxes

by greenenergy4 Posted on January 4, 2013

Surprise: Shell’s rig ran aground in Alaska because the company was trying to avoid taxes

By Philip Bump

kullukresponse

On New Year’s Eve, in the middle of a storm, Shell was trying to tow its Kulluk drilling rig from Alaska to Seattle. Why then? Why risk the bad weather, which, as it turned out, caused the rig to break free from its tugboats and run aground on Kodiak Island?

To avoid paying state taxes, of course. From Alaska Dispatch:

A Shell spokesman last week confirmed an Unalaska elected official’s claim that the Dec. 21 departure of the Kulluk from Unalaska/Dutch Harbor involved taxation.

City councilor David Gregory said Shell would pay between $6 million and $7 million in state taxes if the Kulluk was still in Alaska on Jan. 1.

Ah, but the weather had other plans, sorry to say. Shell will end up having to pay that money after all, and then some.

Gregory said the departure of the Kulluk took money away from local small businesses servicing the rig. He predicted the maritime mishap will prove very costly to the oil company.

“It will cost them more than that $6 million in taxes. Maybe they should have just stayed here,” Gregory said.

The Kulluk grounding is costing taxpayers too. The 630 people working on the unified relief effort include employees of the state of Alaska and the U.S. Coast Guard. Twenty-one vessels are on the scene or nearby, and that doesn’t include aircraft.

Last night, the unified command held a press conference to update reporters on the status of the recovery. In short: Not much has changed. The Kulluk remains where it ran aground. Efforts to determine damage are still incomplete. The tens of thousands of gallons of fuel onboard don’t appear to be leaking.

One reporter asked a pointed question about how forthcoming Shell will be in sharing its assessment of the accident. You can guess the response.

Margie Bauman [reporter from Fishermans News Seattle]: [G]iven the seriousness of this incident, why would Shell’s own investigation of this not be made public along with the Coast Guard investigation? Thank you.

Sean Churchfield [Incident Commander and the Operations Manager for Shell Alaska]: OK. So I think the main point I’d like to make on the investigation is Shell will collaborate, completely cooperate—collaborate—collaborate completely with the Coast Guard and other investigations that are required.

Margie Bauman: Yes. But I’d like to know (cross talking)…

Captain Paul Mehler [Coast Guard Federal On Scene Coordinator]: (Inaudible). But the Coast Guard investigation, as I say, we’re bringing up investigators from the Center of Excellence, and we have our investigators working that. And of course the results of those findings will be made public.

Margie Bauman: And would that include Shell’s …

Amy Midget [unified command representative]: And we will have those said (ph) remarks posted online for anybody who—on the phone system who is not able to hear them.

In other words, don’t hold your breath for Shell to be forthcoming.

There is some good news in all of this, for Shell anyway: The U.S. government shows no indication that it will reconsider the company’s permit to drill in the Arctic.

“The administration understands that the Arctic environment presents unique challenges and that’s why the [interior] secretary has repeatedly made clear that any approved drilling activities will be held to the highest safety and environmental standards,” Salazar spokesman Blake Androff said Thursday. “The department will continue to carefully review permits for any activity and all proposals must meet our rigorous standards.”

Salazar has not given Shell permission to drill deep enough to actually hit oil. The company hopes to get that approval this summer.

Shell didn’t get that permission last year because it was unable to demonstrate to the government that its spill-containment system would work, even after repeated testing.

All this mess so Shell could avoid $6 million in state taxes — an amount equal to 0.1 percent of its profits in the third quarter of 2012. Good to know that Shell puts money over safety. Bodes well.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Surprise: Shell’s rig ran aground in Alaska because the company was trying to avoid taxes

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It probably shouldn’t have taken Exxon 46 minutes to shut off a broken pipeline

by Myrna Posted on January 3, 2013

It probably shouldn’t have taken Exxon 46 minutes to shut off a broken pipeline

By Philip Bump

usfwsmtnprairie

Oil soaks the Yellowstone River shoreline, thanks to the fine folks at Exxon.

You can imagine the scene at Exxon headquarters. The team responsible for spill response has just learned that a pipeline near Laurel, Mont., has ruptured. “Wow,” some team members probably said. A few might have said bad words.

In short order, one pipes up: “What should we do?” Someone suggests shutting the line down partially; this is quickly agreed to. Then, for 46 minutes, the team sits around a heavy oak table, stroking chins and mumbling “hm”s. No one is quite sure what comes next. One guy, like that one kid in fifth grade, is only pretending he’s thinking about it; in reality, he’s thinking about the movie Captain America (this is in July 2011).

Then someone says: “Maybe we should shut the control valve?” General agreement, nodding. The valve is closed; the flow of oil stops. Hearty congratulations all around. Backs are slapped. The team retires for the day, spending their  commuting time (in their Hummers) elaborating the story to make it more interesting. “Man,” one guy plans to say upon opening his front door, “you would not believe the day I had.”

Anyway, that’s the scenario I imagined on reading this AP story:

Delays in Exxon Mobil Corp.’s response to a major pipeline break beneath Montana’s Yellowstone River made an oil spill far worse than it otherwise would have been, federal regulators said in a new report.

The July 2011 rupture fouled 70 miles of riverbank along the scenic Yellowstone, killing fish and wildlife and prompting a massive, months-long cleanup.

The damage could have been significantly reduced if pipeline controllers had acted more quickly, according to Department of Transportation investigators.

Well, yes, in theory, Mr. or Ms. Department of Transportation. But in the moment, how was the Exxon team supposed to think of using the “control valve”? How was it supposed to remember to “notify pipeline controllers that the river was flooding?” I mean, that’s some seriously advanced stuff, there. Like, I’m not a pipeline engineer or whatever, but once my house caught fire and it took me about 15 minutes to decide I should stop flinging canisters of gas onto it. In an emergency, the best thing to do is take your time and not do the obvious thing. That’s just what the emergency would expect.

Anyway, Exxon is chastened.

Spokeswoman Rachael Moore said the company will continue to cooperate with Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and “is committed to learning from these events.”

I strongly recommend a mandatory training session featuring a large poster showing a control valve. Superimposed on that image should be the words “TURN THIS.”

Source

Feds Say Delay Made Oil Spill Worse, Associated Press

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A new year, a new Keystone XL blockade

by hanhuogekennog Posted on January 3, 2013

A new year, a new Keystone XL blockade

By Susie Cagle

Late Wednesday night, the Keystone XL blockaders launched a new tree-sit in Diboli, Texas, coinciding with kickoff of a direct-action training camp.

Last month, TransCanada, which is constructing the southern leg of Keystone XL, got around an 85-day treetop blockade by rerouting the pipeline. With this new tree-sit, located 150 miles south of the old one, “blockaders have found a location around which the pipe cannot easily be rerouted,” activists said in a statement.

A number of protesters on the ground have been arrested so far today, but the two activists in the trees are still untouched, and there have not (yet) been reports of police using force against anyone. In the past, police have put blockade activists in choke holds, dragged them on the ground, and pepper-sprayed them into compliance.

Blockaders say this latest action is being done in solidarity with Idle No More, an ongoing movement of Canada’s First Nations peoples who have, among other battles, been fighting against tar-sands pipelines on their native land. “Rising up to defend our homes against corporate exploitation is our best and only hope to preserve life on this planet,” Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson Ron Seifert said in a statement. “We must normalize and embrace direct, organized resistance to the death machine of industrial extraction and stand with those like Idle No More who take extraordinary risk to defend their families and livelihoods.”

A diversity of tactics and an ability to roll with the punches pepper spray are necessary to any movement’s success. The sustained energy around this series of blockades in Texas is notable, especially after the group’s December defeat. As opposition against the Keystone XL pipeline heats up on the ground in 2013, it seems safe to say that it’ll stay strong in the trees, too.

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GOP Congressman’s first priority: Party with the coal lobby

by ghd12australia Posted on January 3, 2013

GOP Congressman’s first priority: Party with the coal lobby

By Philip Bump

Meet Andy Barr.

Gage Skidmore

No, not the guy with the winning smile and the lapel pin in the foreground. The guy doing the deer-in-headlights impression in the background. That’s Andy. Or, rather, that’s Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), as of a few hours ago.

Barr was elected to the House last November, running on the Republican/Coal ticket. We noted his contribution to the GOP convention, which consisted of hugging a piece of coal as he walked around Tampa. Probably not literally, but who knows.

Anyway, it’s only fitting that Barr has chosen as the location of his swearing-in party, that celebration of his officially becoming a member of Congress, the headquarters of the National Mining Association. From BoldProgressives.org:

During his campaign, he even had a coal company executive pose as a miner for a commercial he cut. We’ve just been passed on a list of Congressional swearing-in and inaugural parties today, and it turns out Barr is having his party today from 5:30-7:30 PM ET at the National Mining Association (NMA), one of the chief lobbying organizations for Big Coal.

BoldProgressives notes that NMA gave Barr $5,000 for his campaign; he raised a solid $178,000 from mining interests in total. Celebrate good times, come on!

This will not be the first time Barr has been at NMA headquarters. Last September, during his campaign, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hosted a reception for Barr in the organization’s offices.

Nor, I suspect, will tonight be the last time Barr shows up at NMA headquarters. Maybe they should just give him a little office and a desk. If someone needs to cast a vote, I’m sure the NMA would happily send a staffer over to the Capitol to do that hard work.

Hat-tip: Paul Rauber

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Kentucky Republican holding congressional swearing-in party at headquarters of coal lobby, BoldProgressives

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Shell’s Alaska mishap has a big PR cost — and a big cost to taxpayers

by olikellopas Posted on January 3, 2013

Shell’s Alaska mishap has a big PR cost — and a big cost to taxpayers

By Philip Bump

Even at 6:30 a.m. Alaska time today, three hours before sunrise, there was a hum of activity at the unified command center coordinating the response to Shell’s breakaway drilling rig off Kodiak Island on the state’s southern coast. The command — coordinating the efforts of Shell, the Coast Guard, the state, Noble Corporation (the drilling contractor), and local officials — is responsible for figuring out how badly the 28,000-ton Kulluk is damaged, if it’s leaking any of its 143,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and how it can be towed back out to sea. Three days after the rig broke free of two tugboats in bad weather and ran aground, only one of those questions can be answered: It isn’t leaking fuel. Yet.

Hoping to figure out the extent of the Coast Guard’s role in recovery — how many of the 600 people working on the response are employees of the agency, or of the state of Alaska — I called the Coast Guard station in Anchorage this morning, and was quickly referred to the unified command. When I called there, I spoke with Destin Singleton over clamorous background noise. Singleton is the spokesperson for the recovery effort — and a Shell public relations staffer.

For what little progress has been made in assessing damage to the rig, the command has put together a pretty thorough communications system. The effort has a website, KullukResponse.com, a Twitter feed, and a page of photos on Flickr. Singleton, a PR professional, didn’t offer much information beyond what’s available on the website. So here’s the latest update:

A team of five salvage experts boarded the grounded drilling unit Kulluk [yesterday] to conduct a structural assessment to be used to finalize salvage plans, currently being developed by the Kulluk Tow Incident Unified Command.

The five-member team was lowered to the Kulluk by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter at about 10:30 [yesterday] morning. The assessment lasted about three hours. A helicopter safely hoisted the team from the drilling unit at about 1:30 p.m. The Coast Guard helicopter and crew also delivered a state-owned emergency towing system to the Kulluk, which will be used during salvage operations.

It’s clear that the Coast Guard is playing a significant role in efforts at recovery. The video at the top of the page is from one agency flyover of the rig. But Singleton wasn’t able to (or wouldn’t) say how many Coast Guard employees were involved, nor was she able to say how many of the people working on the effort were employed by Shell. (Save one, that is: herself.)

There’s no doubt that the effort is a complex one, requiring interagency coordination and careful consideration of safety risks. One of the main reasons that activists have been concerned about the prospect of drilling in the region is unstable, unmanageable weather like that currently impeding the recovery. But it’s also clear that Shell recognizes the public relations risk of its inability to control its drilling vessel. According to Politico, several environmental organizations plan to unveil a push to freeze drilling in the region in light of Shell’s ongoing problems.

Shell’s mistakes are costing it an enormous amount of money even before a single drop of oil has been extracted in the region. And it’s costing us money, too, though exactly how much isn’t clear — and the company isn’t saying.

U.S. Coast GuardRear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander, 17th Coast Guard District and D17 Incident Management Team commander, observes the conical drilling unit Kulluk from an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter during a second overflight Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Shell’s Alaska mishap has a big PR cost — and a big cost to taxpayers

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