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Proposed wind farm gets the OK to kill bald eagles, which will definitely not backfire

by HartkePoundstone568 Posted on January 17, 2013

Proposed wind farm gets the OK to kill bald eagles, which will definitely not backfire

By Philip Bump

epw

“Please do not kill me,” asks the symbolic embodiment of American exceptionalism.

This is probably not the sort of publicity that the wind industry needs. From the Star-Tribune (and via Midwest Energy News):

A bitterly contested wind farm proposed for Goodhue County [Minnesota] got the go-ahead Wednesday to pursue a permit that would allow it to legally kill or injure eagles, in what could be the first case of federal authorities issuing a license to kill the protected national symbol.

The 48-turbine project would kill at most eight to 15 eagles a year, a number that would not harm the local population, federal officials said in a letter to state regulators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said its estimate does not include possible strategies to reduce the number of eagles killed and, that if a permit is eventually granted, the goal would be a much lower figure.

At most eight to 15! Could be as few as six chopped-up bits of Americana!

Bird deaths are one of the most common arguments used by opponents of wind energy. Case in point:

A number of studies have suggested that the damage done to bird populations by wind energy is small, though real. Nor is the fossil fuel industry safe from similar critique; one study suggests that half a million to a million birds die each year at oil producing facilities. Even Trump’s beloved skyscrapers are likely responsible for more bird deaths than wind farms. But bird deaths are a persistent exaggeration, in part because it’s tangible and gruesome, in part because opponents of wind energy continue to harp on it.

Which is why this story, coming on the heels of a very bad year for the industry, is not good news. Not only is a wind farm in the news for killing birds, and not only is it in the news for killing endangered birds, and not only is it in the news for getting a permit to kill endangered birds — it is killing bald eagles. It’s like the plot to a bad Rocky and Bullwinkle movie: Boris and Natasha start a vind farm so that zey can kill zose American birds. It’s a giant gift to opponents of wind and of the president: Obama’s Fish and Wildlife Service gives his green cronies the OK to murder bald eagles. It’s almost enough to make me want to hold a sign covered with tea bags outside the White House.

Proponents of the farm and the government have suggested steps to ameliorate the problem.

In an interview, [Fish and Wildlife field supervisor Tony] Sullins said possibilities include moving turbines away from risky spots, turning them off during migrations or other times when there are a lot of eagles in the area, and removing animal carcasses and roadkill, which are a major food source for the birds.

“[The company] has put on the table a lot of things they are willing to discuss,” Sullins said Wednesday. The company has said that it estimates a kill of one eagle per year.

Only one? Now that they have that cool permit, they can go for an extra seven to 14. Have some fun with it, guys!

If the farm is built, there will be another risk factor: The constant hordes of wind industry opponents and right-wing shills tramping around beneath the turbines, looking for that one dead eagle. When they find it, a quick photo shoot, then it gets stuffed and mounted and installed in John Boehner’s office, and Boehner looks at it and weeps at least until we get past the midterms.

Source

Feds decide Goodhue County wind project’s eagle toll is OK, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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

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Proposed wind farm gets the OK to kill bald eagles, which will definitely not backfire

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More Hill staff go on to lobby for the oil industry, because this is how politics works

by HartkePoundstone568 Posted on January 15, 2013

More Hill staff go on to lobby for the oil industry, because this is how politics works

By Philip Bump

Here’s more of this nonsense. From The Hill:

The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) has hired a pair of House GOP staffers to promote oil-and-gas development in Western states and the Gulf of Mexico.

The industry lobbying group said Tuesday that it’s expanding its government affairs staff by adding Mallori McClure, who was an aide to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and Samantha McDonald, who worked for Rep. John Fleming (R-La.).

“Mallori’s and Samantha’s experience on Capitol Hill, both advising legislators who not only sat on the House Natural Resources Committee, but who represent important energy-producing states primes them perfectly to advocate for America’s independent oil and natural gas producers inside the Beltway,” said IPAA President Barry Russell in a statement.

Bullshit. Mallori and Samantha’s relationships on Capitol Hill prime them perfectly to advocate for the industry with their friends and former associates.

A 2010 report found that three out of every four oil industry lobbyists had previously worked for the government.

Even considering the generally friendly relationship between K Street and Capitol Hill, the number of well-connected oil lobbyists is remarkable. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics calculates that fewer than one in three registered lobbyists in 2009 had revolving-door connections — less than half the oil industry rate found by The Post.

Officials with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group that tracks Interior Department officials who cross over to the oil sector, said they were surprised by the findings. “With these numbers, you can see how the revolving door between the Hill and industry allowed problems in the agency to happen and not be addressed,” said Mandy Smithberger, an investigator for the group.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America is one of 195 organizations and companies lobbying on oil issues. The oil and gas industry employs 736 lobbyists. In 2012, those lobbyists have cost their clients $103 million. That is more than eight times the amount spent by environmental advocates in 2011.

And that explains that.

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

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More Hill staff go on to lobby for the oil industry, because this is how politics works

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Pinnacles in California named as 59th national park

by ghd12australia Posted on January 12, 2013

Pinnacles in California named as 59th national park

By Susie Cagle

While California’s state parks are perpetually troubled, at least the Golden State can celebrate a new national park. On Thursday, President Obama signed into law a bill by Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) that makes Pinnacles National Monument in central California a protected national park, the 59th in the country and ninth in the state.

ericinsf

The San Jose Mercury News has more:

“The park’s sanctuary for the California condor and native wildlife, its red crags, caves, impressive displays of spring wildflowers, and opportunities for star-viewing under its noteworthy dark skies make Pinnacles a special place and worthy of its national park status for future generations to enjoy,” said Neal Desai, Pacific Region associate director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

Farr had tried to make the bill stronger, but was foiled by House Republicans:

[T]he last Congress, which ended Jan. 3, was the first Congress since 1966 not to designate a single new acre of public land in America as federally protected wilderness, where logging, mining and other development is prohibited.

Farr’s bill originally called for designating 3,000 acres inside Pinnacles boundaries as wilderness. The area is where biologists in recent years have been releasing California condors as part of a captive breeding program to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. But that provision was stripped out by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Resources Committee.

Last month, Obama proposed adding 2,700 square miles off the coast of Northern California to the national marine sanctuary system, permanently protecting the area from oil and gas drilling.

That’s all well and good for the (adorable) sea otters and (unfortunate-looking) condors, Obama, but what about the rest of us? For all he might be doing, Obama is not measuring up to his predecessors when it comes to protecting public lands. According to the usually Obama-friendly Think Progress, under this president, the U.S. has protected less than 10 percent of the acreage protected under Bill Clinton, and less than 25 percent of what was protected under George W. Bush.

I know it’s cold out, but you’d best hustle outdoors this weekend if you’d like to see any of this country’s wild places before they’re turned into one giant drilling field. At least we’ll always have Pinnacles.

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House Republican politicking is obviously more fun than supporting Sandy victims

by biglermyrta910 Posted on January 11, 2013

House Republican politicking is obviously more fun than supporting Sandy victims

By Philip Bump

According to House Speaker John Boehner’s master plan, the House will next week consider the other $51 billion in Sandy relief funding that it punted on earlier this month.

House Republicans will absolutely not approve all of it. The question is how much they’ll sign off on. With a coda for pessimists: if any.

drpavloff

Advertising distribution mechanism Politico.com outlines how the vote is expected to go.

First, the House plans to call up a bill by Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) that totals $27 billion in relief. Then, it will immediately amend the bill to deduct the $9.7 billion in flood relief passed before Congress recessed — bringing the bill’s total to $17 billion.

Amendments will be allowed — including spending reduction amendments — and then the House will vote on passage of the Rogers amendment. This would set up $17 billion to be sent to the Senate.

But then leadership will allow Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) to offer an amendment that offers an additional $33 billion. Republicans think this can pass as well.

But efforts by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who abstained from voting for John Boehner for speaker, could change the equation.

The South Carolinian has already offered multiple amendments seeking spending offsets, which if made in order could seriously complicate the pledge of Majority Leader Eric Cantor to move the legislation quickly.

Smart precedent by a representative of a state whose most tourist-friendly city lies right on the Atlantic Ocean.

House Republicans are particularly concerned about measures in the package that don’t go directly to providing aid to the affected and displaced. Among those measures are ones meant to ameliorate future storms: to improve prediction ability, to bolster federal facilities, to encourage smarter reconstruction in affected areas. Given that Republican members of the House are far more interested in symbolic penny-pinching (particularly when it can screw over East Coast libruls), much of that will likely end up on the House floor. So to speak.

It’s been noted with some regularity that an aid package of $60 billion was authorized by Congress 10 days after Hurricane Katrina. Superstorm Sandy was 75 days ago. Meaning that private relief services have dried to a trickle while public ones are increasingly strained. For example, housing aid, as reported by the Huffington Post:

Nearly 1,000 Long Island households displaced by superstorm Sandy are waiting to find out whether their federal funding for hotel rooms will be extended beyond Sunday.

That’s the current “checkout date” for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s transitional sheltering assistance program, a spokesman for the agency said. However, the spokesman, John Mills, said Thursday that a decision about whether to extend the program could be made by the end of the day Friday.

Roughly 970 Long Island households — individuals or entire families — are staying in hotel rooms funded by the program, Mills said. Statewide, the program currently funds hotel rooms for about 2,360 households, he said.

There are two bright spots in this story. The first is that the “checkout” date has already been extended twice. The second is that FEMA is the only federal agency to have received aid from the Sandy bill the House passed last week — but just enough to keep it solvent.

Nonetheless, the checkout-date dilemma highlights the larger problem. The Sandy hourglass is down to its last few grains. More and more of the families that have spent nearly 11 weeks patching their lives back together will be unable to do so without help. Support is needed. Has been needed. And with each day that passes, we are 24 hours closer to another hurricane season for which the East Coast is only more vulnerable than before.

Update: FEMA extended the residency deadline until January 26.

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

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House Republican politicking is obviously more fun than supporting Sandy victims

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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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Congress to act on Sandy aid — but grudgingly, late, and with a fraction of what’s needed

by iscciaglewstrone123 Posted on January 4, 2013

Congress to act on Sandy aid — but grudgingly, late, and with a fraction of what’s needed

By Philip Bump

Jenna Pope

Within a few hours, the House is expected to finally address aid for Sandy victims, after GOP leadership broke a promise to deal with it on Wednesday. But, true to form, the House is doing as little as possible. And, true to form, because of ongoing inaction, the government will end up losing more money on the deal than it should have.

CNN reports on today’s vote:

The House is poised to vote Friday on a $9.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package after delays over fiscal cliff bickering and a warning from federal officials that funds are running out. …

Lawmakers are expected to pass the first portion Friday and weigh in on the remaining $51 billion in broader aid on January 15.

When the House first began poring over the president’s aid proposal, Republicans sniffily insisted that it was too large, that they could only in good conscience allow about half of the $60 billion Obama wanted. You know, because fiscal watchdogs and screw the liberal East Coast and so on. Now, the brand-new 113th Congress will vote on only a fraction of that amount, $9 billion or so to pay flood insurance claims.

The reason that the House is even doing this little is that FEMA is about to go broke. From Reuters:

FEMA has told Congress that unless its borrowing ceiling was raised, “funds available to pay claims will be exhausted sometime around the week of January 7, 2013,” the agency said in a one-sentence statement.

The FEMA program is essentially the only U.S. flood insurer for residences. It has a $20.8 billion ceiling for borrowing authority.

FEMA estimated Sandy-related flood losses of $6 billion to $12 billion in November, far beyond its cash and $3 billion in untapped borrowing authority.

Today’s vote, then, is an emergency step to ensure that FEMA has the money to pay existing claims. As I said: as little as can possibly be done.

But the irony is that, had Congress acted sooner on addressing climate change, FEMA wouldn’t be as strapped as it is. Had Congress years ago addressed the urgent need to update flood insurance premiums, it might not have to take emergency action today, because FEMA would be more appropriately funded.

Last summer, Congress finally approved premium updates, meaning that those in high-risk areas would start paying higher rates. As I wrote at the time:

[G]iven the well-documented rise of sea levels (or whatever the incorrectly political term is), adjusting insurance rates to account for likely flooding will save the government money over the long run.

I’m only good at predicting super-obvious things.

FEMA’s risk map for the hardest-hit area of Staten Island.

Those new, higher rates only kicked in on Tuesday — and, understandably, those whose houses were gutted by Sandy aren’t excited about the prospect.

While many homeowners are beginning to rebuild without any thought to future costs, the changes could propel a demographic shift along the Northeast Coast, even in places spared by the storm, according to federal officials, insurance industry executives and regional development experts. Ronald Schiffman, a former member of the New York City Planning Commission, said that barring intervention by Congress or the states, there would be “a massive displacement of low-income families from their historic communities.”

After weeks of tearing debris from her 87-year-old, two-story house on the bay side of Long Beach, N.Y., Barbara Carman, 59, said she understood the need to stabilize the flood insurance program, but she compared coming premium increases to “kicking people while they’re down.”

Which is lamentable. But it’s also an example of an external cost — the government absorbing the loss when a house is predictably destroyed by a flood — being internalized by the person who chose to live in the high-risk area. Ms. Carman is one of the unfortunate people caught in the transition.

Had Congress acted years ago, however, updating FEMA maps and the concomitant insurance rates, it would have not only lessened the effects of Sandy for people like Barbara Carman, but it would have provided FEMA with more funds to pay out in response. Forethought is not Congress’ forte.

Current American politics being what they are, even today’s small, crucial step is spurring predictable reactions from conservatives, like the troglodytic reactionaries at the anti-everything Club for Growth, who urge Congress to vote no on the proposal.

The House (and then the Senate) will finally take action on Sandy relief today. It will be too little, too late, at a loss, and over inane opposition. Which I probably could have predicted as well.

Update: As expected, it passed the House. The bill will go to the Senate next.

Update: The Senate passed it, too.

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

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Congress to act on Sandy aid — but grudgingly, late, and with a fraction of what’s needed

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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

Source

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

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

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Meat company sues USDA to speed up horse meat sales

by johnsmithwindows Posted on December 27, 2012

Meat company sues USDA to speed up horse meat sales

By Susie Cagle

A lot of people are pretty upset about the fact that we are still without a new farm bill. But no one is upset in quite the same way as this New Mexico man who is suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Humane Society of the United States, and other people who are standing in the way of him slaughtering and selling horses.

A provision passed last year might’ve effectively made horse slaughter legal for the first time in five years, but it turns out the feds are not exactly chomping at the bit to get back to inspecting those slaughterhouses. There’s no telling whether a new farm bill would restore a ban on the practice by defunding the USDA inspections. (The House has recommended that, but the Senate hasn’t.)

Rick de los Santos and his Valley Meat Company want to force the USDA to allow the country’s first horse meat operation since 2007. But it’s hard out there for a guy who wants to profit off of horse meat. The Los Angeles Times reports:

After waiting a year for permits, De los Santos, 52, says he’s using the courts to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resume inspections necessary to open what would be the nation’s first new horse slaughterhouse since 2007.

“I’ve submitted all the paperwork and have been told all along ‘Oh, it won’t be long now,’” said De los Santos, who owns Valley Meat Co. “I followed all their guidelines. I put more than $100,000 in upgrades and additions on my facilities to handle equine slaughter. And then the government comes back and tells me, ‘We can’t give you the permits. This horse issue has turned into a political game.’

“So what else do you do? I figured it was time to go to court.”

Another idea for something to do: not open a horse slaughterhouse?

The U.S. has been without them since the feds defunded USDA inspection of horse meat facilities in 2006. The last three slaughterhouses paid their own million-dollar inspection bills until closing.

Horses aren’t any more or less sustainable than the other hoofed animals we raise for meat, though we inexplicably love them more. De los Santos makes solid arguments for humane slaughter stateside as opposed to the current system of shipping animals to dirtier deaths in other countries, where horse meat is socially acceptable. (This argument being a slippery slope toward dog burgers, cat stews, and A Modest Proposal.)

The USDA has until January to respond to the suit, and we have until any day now to stop eating so dang many hoofed animals of any kind.

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EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has left the building

by RubinkJoseph Posted on December 27, 2012

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has left the building

By Scott Rosenberg

We knew this one was coming, but now it’s official: Lisa Jackson, President Obama’s long-embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is leaving her post.

Jackson served for four years as lead environmental regulator for the Obama administration, taking innumerable volleys of criticism from all directions. Serious environmentalists felt she caved too regularly to White House-driven compromises, allowing the climate to become a footnote and essential initiatives to be watered down. Meanwhile, the Tea Party right set her up as a job-killing bogeyperson and marshal of a “war on coal.” (Green types only wished that war was real.)

As the first African American EPA administrator, Jackson brought a more inclusive approach to her environmental work — moving both her agency and the national public far beyond old green stereotypes. The achievements of Jackson’s tenure were real: major improvements in automobile emissions standards, important new controls on mercury in power-plant fumes, and the first-ever federal ruling that greenhouse gases should be classed as pollutants.

And yet no one who is conscious of the climate crisis can fail to see the last four years as, fundamentally, a failure where it most counts — a critical, fleeting, now-missed chance to jam open a closing window of opportunity and alter our global-warming course. Early in Obama’s first term, the White House and a then-Democratic Congress took one futile run at a watered-down cap-and-trade measure, then played dead on the issue. Obama barely mentioned the climate during his reelection campaign. Prospects for stronger action remain dim.

When Grist interviewed Jackson last summer, we asked her what headline she’d write over her administration’s record on climate issues. She joked about not being good at keeping her language short and sweet, then came out with:

“In accordance with the law, we moved forward with sensible, cost effective steps at the federal level on climate, using the Clean Air Act.” And I would have a second sentence — see, I can’t write headlines! But it would be something like, “The progress at state and local levels, combined with the federal level, does not obviate the need” — you can’t use obviate, it’s above fifth-grade level! — “does not obviate the need for federal legislation to address this incredibly important challenge for this and future generations.”

And here’s Jackson’s July 2012, appearance on The Colbert Report:

Source

E.P.A. Chief to Step Down, With Climate Still Low Priority, New York Times

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House GOP wants to crack down on environmental regs because jobs

by biglermyrta910 Posted on December 20, 2012

House GOP wants to crack down on environmental regs because jobs

By Philip Bump

Library of CongressCongress, circa 1912. Or maybe a GOP meeting of some sort. Can’t tell.

The House of Representatives is run by Republicans these days, because that’s what the American people want. We chose to maintain a majority of Republicans, meaning that Republicans get to do whatever they want. If the GOP House gets reelected, that’s a mandate. If the president does, it isn’t. That’s math. That’s politics.

And leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee know what needs to be done: We need to get rid of those flim-flammin’ environmental regulations so we can finally extract some gol-dang fossil fuels! From The Rassafrassin’ Hill:

The House Natural Resources committee will devote more attention to environmental reviews and their effects on advancing energy development in a new subcommittee next Congress. …

“Moving jurisdiction of [the National Environmental Policy Act] to a specific Subcommittee will allow us to better review and address how this law is being implemented and the impacts its bureaucratic red-tape has on jobs, our economy and access to public lands and resources,” Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said in a Thursday statement.

The House Natural Resources Committee, which deals with energy development on federal lands, has pushed the Obama administration to expand oil-and-gas drilling. All applications for such drilling projects must go through a NEPA assessment.

Yes. Go get ‘em, guys. (They are all guys.) Just look what that no-good, fossil-fuel-hating Obama has done to fossil fuel extraction:

Up, up, up! The United States recently hit a 14-year high in oil production; the natural gas boom has been nauseatingly documented.

But not up high enough, apparently. Why not? Maybe this graph, showing another set of data, might help explain.

That shows contributions from the oil and gas industry to members of Congress.

Up, up, up!

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

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