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We’ve heard it all before: E15 opponents trot out tired arguments at Congressional hearing

by Posted on February 26, 2013

We’ve heard it all before: E15 opponents trot out tired arguments at Congressional hearing

Posted 26 February 2013 in

National

Today, executives from AAA and the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) are on Capitol Hill, attempting to cast doubt on the safety of the renewable fuel known as E15. Since we expect to hear the same tired arguments trotted out once again this afternoon, let’s take a look at the parties involved:

According to its own website, AAA touts “tools to help motorists save on the high price of gas.” But if AAA were truly trying to help their members save money on gas, they would support increased access to lower-cost renewable fuel. AAA also prides itself on helping Americans drive safely. If that’s the case, they should support the most extensively trialed fuel in history: E15. E15 has been put through the paces exhaustively, with 6.5 million miles of testing. It seems strange to us that a group ostensibly responsible for protecting American motorists would spend time and resources attacking a renewable fuel that saves consumers money at the pump and provides a much needed alternative to oil.

As for the AMA, the EPA states explicitly that E15 is not intended for motorcycle engines, so we’re mystified as to why they’re testifying today: is it possible they signed up for the wrong hearing?

The most egregious part of today’s proceedings is not so much who is testifying, but who is not. Despite this being a hearing on the safety of E15, not a single ethanol expert has been invited to speak. So in lieu of a balanced panel, here are a few questions we’d ask this afternoon:

Has the EPA approved E15? Is E15 approved for use by any car or light truck model year 2001 or later? Is it legal to use E15 in a motorcycle?
Did DOE conduct extensive peer-reviewed, standardized testing of 86 cars that represented all major vehicle models, which were each operated up to 120,000 miles—or over 6 million miles in total—to ensure that E15 would not harm a vehicle?
Did DOE find any increased risk of engine damage from using E15?
As the House Science Committee members know, methodology can often skew the results of any study. How does CRC’s testing methodology compare to that used in millions of miles of testing conducted for EPA by DOE and various national laboratories? Was this testing conducted over an extended period or just a few months? How many cars were tested and how?
Do the witnesses on this panel receive funding from the oil or refining industries in support of their work on E15, fuels, or any other portion of their organization’s portfolio of policy work?

Hopefully, the members of the House Science Committee will make sure that these questions receive the answers that American taxpayers and consumers deserve.

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We’ve heard it all before: E15 opponents trot out tired arguments at Congressional hearing

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International cops are on the pirate fishing case

by AshleaMelina844 Posted on February 21, 2013

International cops are on the pirate fishing case

By Susie Cagle

Shutterstock

Pirate fishing is an entertainingly named but actually terrible scourge of the oceans.

“It leaves communities without much needed food and income and the marine environment smashed and empty,” according to Greenpeace, which has estimated that there are upwards of 1,000 illegal industrial-scale fishing ships at sea. “Pirate fishing compounds the global environmental damage from other destructive fisheries. Because they operate, quite literally, off the radar of any enforcement, the fishing techniques they use are destroying ocean life.” The practice is rampant in Central America and parts of Europe and Africa.

But now the super-intimidating international policing ubergroup INTERPOL is convening for the first time ever to talk about policing these pirates at next week’s International Fisheries Enforcement Conference in Lyon, France. “High-level Chiefs in the field of fisheries law enforcement are invited to join together with the aim of sharing expertise and strategies to prevent and combat fisheries crime,” says INTERPOL.

More from Mission Blue:

This high level gathering will address questions like “What are the challenges of transnational organized fisheries crime and how can we fight it?” Fisheries managers from all over the world will collaborate and share strategies and information to build a future where reprehensible illegal fishing must answer to the law. INTERPOL will outline a program of National Environmental Security Security Task Forces that have real teeth to identify, apprehend and prosecute criminal activity on our high seas.

Great news for the oceans! And for the Discovery Network, because you know it’s like T minus a year or two until it finds extra-charismatic INTERPOL ocean cops to star in a high-stakes documentary series.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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International cops are on the pirate fishing case

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Could extreme weather save farmers from extreme weather?

by RubinkJoseph Posted on February 21, 2013

Could extreme weather save farmers from extreme weather?

By Susie Cagle

After a seriously dry run, some drought-stricken farmers have gotten a bit of a reprieve. Snow dumping this week on the country’s potential future dust bowl is great news for suffering, parched wheat crops.

larsongarden

Reuters reports:

Nearly a foot or more of snow fell across key growing areas in Oklahoma and Kansas in the last 24 hours, and more was coming.

“I feel a lot better this morning,” said Kansas wheat farmer Scott Van Allen, who has about 2,300 acres planted to winter wheat in south-central Kansas. “It snowed all night on us. I was getting very concerned with the lack of moisture we’ve had.”

Well, Scott, here are some scientists to rain on your parade (except without any actual rain, sorry). This extreme weather isn’t nearly extreme enough to make up for the other extreme weather.

“This is not going to put a big dent in the drought,” said [University of Nebraska Drought Mitigation Center climatologist Brian] Fuchs. “The moisture is welcomed, but is it a drought-buster? No it is not. We need several more storms like this to really start turning the tide.” …

Kansas is typically the top U.S. wheat producing state and Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado are also top producers. But a nagging drought has plagued the region, leaving agricultural producers struggling. Without adequate soil moisture plants either die outright, or yield poorly, if at all.

The wheat crop will be emerging soon from winter dormancy and will require good soil moisture to grow.

A report issued Thursday by a consortium of state and federal climatologists said that as of Feb. 19 more than 82 percent of the High Plains region, which includes Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, was suffering from “severe” or worse drought.

Fully 100 percent of Kansas was engulfed in severe drought or worse, the Drought Monitor report said.

In conclusion, poor Scott says he and other Kansas farmers will “keep our fingers crossed.” Go ahead; science can’t take that away from you.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Could extreme weather save farmers from extreme weather?

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Laws banning harassment of cyclists spread like a wonderful virus

by Felixct7yh Posted on February 20, 2013

Laws banning harassment of cyclists spread like a wonderful virus

By Susie Cagle

Cyclists may be the happiest commuters, but not when they’re getting shit from passing drivers. Flashback to the summer of 2011, when Los Angeles passed an ordinance to make harassing cyclists a civil and suable infraction. Throw a thing at a cyclist and they can take you to court and seek damages — revolutionary!

digable soul

L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti at the time said, “If L.A. can do it, every city in the country can do it.”

Well, we’re not quite there yet, but in the year and a half since L.A. passed its law, Washington, D.C., and the California cities of Berkeley, Sunnyvale, and Sebastapol have all passed similar ordinances. Healdsburg, Calif., is now considering one, too.

To be fair, Columbia, Mo., was actually the first city to enact an ordinance banning harassment of cyclists in 2009, but it didn’t include the all-important civil infraction bit. L.A.’s law and those modeled after it make it possible for cyclists to take their harassers to civil court, where there is a lower burden of proof.

“The biggest problem with prosecuting bicyclist harassment in the past has been the high level of proof needed in a criminal case — you pretty much needed a police officer to witness the crime in order to get the city attorney to take it to court,” said Chris Kidd, a cycling advocate who worked on the L.A. ordinance.

So, how long until we see a bike harasser takedown on a courtroom reality TV show? I wanna see Judge Judy ream some SUV drivers.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Laws banning harassment of cyclists spread like a wonderful virus

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Another sign of the apocalypse: Coal is making a comeback in the U.S.

by kastijoo8753 Posted on February 15, 2013

Another sign of the apocalypse: Coal is making a comeback in the U.S.

By Philip Bump

If there were a war on coal — which, sadly, there isn’t — it appears that the tide of battle has turned. Coal is making a comeback.

In an extensive article entitled “Coal Claws Back,” the Rhodium Group, a think tank that assesses global trends, outlined the fuel’s resurgence in the U.S. In short:

While the decline in coal-fired power generation, driven in large part by cheap natural gas, has helped reduce emissions to levels most policymakers and climate diplomats thought impossible absent economy-wide legislation, it looks as though it has just about run its course. Natural gas prices bottomed out in April of last year at $1.82 per MMBTU at Henry Hub, and have since climbed to above $3. While still low relative to the high gas prices that had become the norm before the shale boom took hold, this rebound has been enough to stop the bleeding for coal-fired power. Coal’s share of electricity generation increased from 33% in April to 42% in November, the most recent month for which public data is available, and industry consultancy GenScape estimates that coal’s share stabilized at these levels through January.

The picture is more clear in graph form.

Last summer, we noted that electricity generation from natural gas had nearly matched that from coal. This is one reason our CO2 emissions plummeted recently. But the coal-versus-natural-gas trend hasn’t held. (Note: All of the data used below is from the Energy Information Administration; November 2012 data is the most recently available.)

In October and November, the gap between coal and natural gas increased. Coal clawed back.

One reason is that the price of natural gas used for electricity generation increased. Below, it’s compared to the always-cyclical price of residential natural gas. Since April 2012, the price has risen steadily — up 58 percent by November.

That uptick correlates with the trend away from natural gas in energy production. Higher natural gas price, less incentive to use it to power electricity generation.

And the Rhodium Group suggests that, at least for the next year or two, the cost difference between coal and natural gas will hold steady.

Rhodium Group

Click to embiggen.

The EIA, meanwhile, projects that coal will hold a consistent if smaller share of the generation market for another 30 years, with natural gas and renewables inching up in the percentage of generation. Overall amount of generation, which had fallen in recent years, will start going back up.

EIA

Click to embiggen.

More coal use and more electricity produced means more greenhouse gas emissions.

Rhodium Group

Click to embiggen.

Welcome back to the fight, coal. You weren’t missed.

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

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Another sign of the apocalypse: Coal is making a comeback in the U.S.

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Americans are consuming less high-fructose corn syrup

by DenaeTina858 Posted on January 24, 2013

Americans are consuming less high-fructose corn syrup

By Susie Cagle

High-fructose corn syrup was our sweetener of choice in the late ’90s, when we were all high on junk food and the potential for this crazy new thing called The Internet. Those were fast times!

Now we are jaded and less interested in the sweet stuff. According to the USDA, this year only 4.5 percent of the U.S. corn crop is expected to be used for production of high-fructose corn syrup, the lowest amount since 1997.

Fuck you, soda!

Corn costs have tripled since 2004, making the syrup a less cost-effective sweetener. And some health advocates say efforts to combat obesity have helped to curb HFCS consumption, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s much-despised and much-lauded big soda ban.

From Bloomberg the news source, not Bloomberg the mayor:

Americans consumed an average of 131 calories of the corn sweetener each day in 2011, down 16 percent since 2007, according to the most recent USDA data. Meanwhile, consumption of sugar, also blamed for weight gain, rose 8.8 percent to 185 calories daily, the data show.

Even with the increase in sugar use, total U.S. sweetener production remains down 14 percent from a 1999 peak, according to the USDA.

“We’re seeing a real decline, and that people aren’t just switching to sugar,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

Let’s not celebrate just yet, though — the full picture on our sweet habits is a bit more grim.

This week, researchers in Philadelphia found a 70 percent increase in diabetes rates for kids under age 5 over a 20-year period. That scary rise has leveled off over the last decade, as has our taste for corn syrup. Good news, sure, but that decade of living the high life on high fructose has given us a serious public health hangover. And diet cola isn’t going to make it feel any better.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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