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Read our statement on EPA’s 2014 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs)

by Posted on November 15, 2013

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Read our statement on EPA’s 2014 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs)

Posted 15 November 2013 in

National

The Fuels America coalition responded today to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal related to the amount of renewable fuel that will be blended in the nation’s fuel supply next year:

We are astounded by the proposal released by the Administration today. It reflects an “all of the above, except biofuels” energy strategy. If implemented, would cost American drivers more than $7 billion in higher gas prices, and hand the oil companies a windfall of $10.3 billion.

The impact of this proposal on the renewable fuel industry– both first and second generation – cannot be overstated. It caps the amount of renewable fuel used in our gasoline far below what the industry is already making, and could make next year, using an approach that is inconsistent with the RFS.

It would siphon investment in cellulosic and advanced renewable fuels off to other countries and put U.S. jobs at risk. And it will idle ethanol plants, adding to the unemployment rolls and devastating rural economies.

This proposal embraces the fictional ‘blend wall’, a narrative created by the oil industry to stifle competition and deny Americans higher blends of renewable fuel. Oil companies have slowed the adoption of higher blends by discouraging and intimidating station owners from upgrading their infrastructure, fear mongering around E15, and filing lawsuits.

First and second-generation renewable fuel producers have invested billions in America and in clean fuel technology that will move us forward. Lowering renewable fuel targets will wipe away years of that progress.

We appreciate the Administration’s sentiment that they are committed to the renewable fuel industry and look forward to working with them to ensure the final proposal reflects realities within the industry, and a smarter, cleaner energy future for the U.S.

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Read our statement on EPA’s 2014 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs)

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Bangladesh’s biggest power plant will harm world’s biggest mangrove forest

by Sue Allen Posted on November 1, 2013

Bangladesh’s biggest power plant will harm world’s biggest mangrove forest

By

lepetitNicolas

Burning coal is a surefire way of damaging the climate, and harming mangroves is a surefire way of worsening climate impacts. Which makes the planned construction of Bangladesh’s largest coal-fired power plant at the edge of the world’s biggest mangrove forest doubly troubling.

Construction is beginning on the 1,320-megawatt Rampal power plant less than 10 miles from the Sundarbans, the sweeping mangrove system that straddles Bangladesh and India, helping to protect an eastern chunk of the Subcontinent from floods and cyclones.

An estimated 20,000 people recently marched to protest the project. Scientists warn it will produce pollution that feeds acid rain over the mangroves and suck up vast quantities of the ecosystem’s water.

The Bangladeshi government says the plant is needed as part of an effort to ease blackouts and help half the nation’s population access electricity supplies for the first time. But when it comes to the plant’s environmental impacts, government officials are stuck in obstinate-denier mode. They say the plant will be built using “the latest ultra super critical technology” and burn “high-quality imported coal” meaning that it “would not affect the environment of Sundarban.” Yeah, right. From an article in e360:

The construction of the Rampal plant is part of an ambitious government strategy to increase electricity generation to 20,000 megawatts by 2021 — a goal that relies heavily on coal. The current administration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is proposing a dozen new coal plants, with more likely to come. Until recently, less than five percent of Bangladesh’s electricity production came from coal. Instead the country produced most of its energy from natural gas and biomass.

Critics of the Rampal plant and the country’s growing embrace of coal argue that it is a reckless strategy for a nation that is consistently rated as one of most vulnerable countries to global warming. Few nations are as low-lying as Bangladesh, and the Sundarbans is one of the country’s most important bulwarks against rising seas and intensifying typhoons and other extreme weather events.

Bangladesh endures frequent cyclones and, with much of the country laying less than five yards above sea level, it frequently floods — with deadly results. Bangladeshis deserve access to electricity, but they don’t deserve this filthy project. There are much better ways.


Source
A Key Mangrove Forest Faces Major Threat from a Coal Plant, e360

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.N. lists air pollution as carcinogen

by Susie Quan Posted on October 18, 2013

U.N. lists air pollution as carcinogen

By

Shutterstock

If you want to avoid lung cancer, the United Nation’s cancer-research body has some advice for you: Don’t breathe.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer on Thursday added air pollution, and the particulate matter that it contains, to its list of carcinogens.

The airborne poisons were classified as “Group 1″ carcinogens, meaning there is “sufficient evidence” that they cause cancer in humans. They are mostly produced through the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants, and stoves.

And it’s not just lung cancer that can be triggered by air pollution. In a statement [PDF], the agency noted “a positive association” between polluted air and bladder cancer.

“Our task was to evaluate the air everyone breathes rather than focus on specific air pollutants,” agency official Dana Loomis told Reuters. “The results from the reviewed studies point in the same direction: the risk of developing lung cancer is significantly increased in people exposed to air pollution.”

The decision follows findings that air pollution killed 3.2 million people in 2010, including 233,000 cancer-related deaths. Most of the deaths occurred in India, China, and other developing countries with large populations. The Clean Air Act helped dramatically clean up the air that Americans breathe, but anybody who has visited Los Angeles or California’s Central Valley knows that problems persist in the West.

Air pollution and particulate matter now join a list [PDF], nicknamed the encyclopedia of carcinogens, that also contains such nasties as asbestos, plutonium, hepatitis, and tobacco smoke. Oh, and sun rays, estrogen therapy, Chinese-style salted fish, and booze.


Source
Outdoor air pollution a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths, IARC
UN agency calls outdoor air pollution leading cause of cancer, Reuters

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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The Rejected Stone – Al Sharpton

by Myrna Posted on October 9, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Rejected Stone

Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership

Al Sharpton

Genre: Self-Improvement

Price: $12.99

Publish Date: October 8, 2013

Publisher: Cash Money Content

Seller: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc.


Lord knows, Rev Al has had his personal and very public ups and downs – but he's come out bigger and better than ever. Though the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation is as fiery and outspoken as ever about the events and issues that matter most, he's learned that the only way we can get right as a nation is by getting right from within. In this, his first book in over a decade, Rev Al will take you behind the scenes of some unexpected places – from officiating Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston’s funerals, hanging out with Jay-Z and President Barack Obama at the White House, to taking charge of the Trayvon Martin case. And he will discuss how he came to his unexpected conclusions in such areas as Immigration, Gay Rights, Religion and the Family. But the heart of the book is an intimate discussion of his own personal evolution from street activist, pulpit provocateur and civil rights leader to the man he is today – one hundred pounds slimmer, and according to the New York Observer “the most thoughtful voice on cable.” No, the Rev. Al you met ten years ago isn’t the same man you’ll meet today. And he has a simple promise. We can transform this nation and we can all lead better lives if we're willing to transform our hearts and transform our minds.

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The Rejected Stone – Al Sharpton

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Shred: The Revolutionary Diet – Ian K. Smith, M.D.

by Myrna Posted on September 7, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Shred: The Revolutionary Diet
6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes
Ian K. Smith, M.D.

Genre: Health & Fitness

Price: $9.99

Publish Date: December 24, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Seller: Macmillan / Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC


Dr. Ian K. Smith’s Shred is the answer to every dieter’s biggest dilemmas: how to lose that last twenty pounds? How to push through that frustrating plateau? What to do when nothing else is working? Here, Smith has created a weight loss program that uses all he knows about strategic dieting in one plan–like putting all the best players on the field at once to create a can’t lose combination. Shred combines a low GI diet, meal spacing, and meal replacements. Those who follow Shred will constantly be eating (every three and a half hours!), four meals or meal replacements (soups, smoothies, shakes) and 3 snacks a day, over a six week program. Shred also introduces Dr. Ian’s concept of "Diet Confusion". Diet Confusion, like muscle confusion, tricks the body and revs up its performance. In the same way you need to vary your workout to see results, switch up your food intake to boost your metabolism. No matter how often or how unsuccessfully you’ve dieted before, Shred: The Revolutionary Diet will change your life. Shred has taken the internet by storm, and thousands have already joined Dr. Ian’s Shredder Nation, losing an average of four inches, two sizes or twenty pounds in six weeks. Utilizing the detox from Fat Smash Diet , the intense cleanse of Extreme Fat Smash , and varying food of The 4 Day Diet , Shred is a six week plan to a new way of life!

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Shred: The Revolutionary Diet – Ian K. Smith, M.D.

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No one knows how to stop these tar-sands oil spills

by wjtydf3g Posted on July 22, 2013

No one knows how to stop these tar-sands oil spills

By John Upton

Photograph obtained by the

Toronto Star

Oil polluting the ground at Cold Lake in Alberta.

Thousands of barrels of tar-sands oil have been burbling up into forest areas for at least six weeks in Cold Lake, Alberta, and it seems that nobody knows how to staunch the flow.

An underground oil blowout at a big tar-sands operation run by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has caused spills at four different sites over the past few months. (This is different from the 100-acre spill in Alberta that we told you about last month, which was caused by a ruptured pipeline.)

Media and others have been blocked from visiting the sites, but the Toronto Star obtained documents and photographs about the ongoing disaster from a government scientist involved in the cleanup, who spoke to the reporter on condition of anonymity. The prognosis is sickening. From Friday’s article:

The documents and photos show dozens of animals, including beavers and loons, have died, and that [nearly 34 tons] of oily vegetation has been cleared from the latest of the four spill zones. …

“Everybody (at the company and in government) is freaking out about this,” said the scientist. “We don’t understand what happened. Nobody really understands how to stop it from leaking, or if they do they haven’t put the measures into place.”

The disaster raises big, scary questions about the safety of the underground oil extraction method being used:

The company’s operations use an “in situ” or underground extraction technology called “cyclic steam stimulation,” which involves injecting thousands of gallons of superhot, high-pressure steam into deep underground reservoirs. This heats and liquefies the hard bitumen and creates cracks through which the bitumen flows and is then pumped to the surface. …

Oil companies have said in situ methods are more environmentally friendly than the open-pit mining often associated with the Alberta oil sands, but in situ is more carbon and water-intensive.

And perhaps more spill-intensive:

“This is a new kind of oil spill and there is no ‘off button,’” said Keith Stewart, an energy analyst with Greenpeace who teaches a course on energy policy and environment at the University of Toronto. “You can’t cap it like a conventional oil well or turn off a valve on a pipeline.

“You are pressurizing the oil bed so hard that it’s no wonder that it blows out. This means that the oil will continue to leak until the well is no longer pressurized,” which means the bitumen could be seeping from the ground for months.

The spills are happening on traditional territory of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, whose members are understandably seething. From iNews 880:

[Beaver Lake Cree Nation citizen Crystal] Lameman says as a Treaty Status First Nation person she feels her rights and treaties are being violated as she is not being allowed in her ancestor’s traditional hunting ground.

“We should have free access to it as treaty status Indians and we have no access to it and we can’t trust what we’re being told now,” explains Lameman.

… The First Nation is pursuing a constitutional challenge that argues the impacts of the oil sands are infringing their treaty rights to hunt, fish and trap.

In case you’d forgotten, it’s just this kind of tar-sands oil that would be shipped down the middle of America through the Keystone XL pipeline. If the Obama administration approves the pipeline project, even more tar-sands oil extraction is likely in Alberta [PDF] — and even more spills.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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You can look forward to more blackouts in a climate-changed world

by Natalia681 Posted on July 12, 2013

You can look forward to more blackouts in a climate-changed world

By John Upton

Julian Bravo

Climate change can bring with it forest fires, which can threaten power lines.

More global warming will mean a less reliable power system.

That warning comes from the Department of Energy, which released a report [PDF] on Thursday detailing the threats posed to the nation’s power infrastructure by rising temperatures, droughts, storms, floods, and sea-level rise.

“Climatic conditions are already affecting energy production and delivery in the United States, causing supply disruptions,” the report states. “The magnitude of the challenge posed by climate change on an aging and already stressed U.S. energy system could outpace current adaptation efforts, unless a more comprehensive and accelerated approach is adopted.”

Some of the threats listed in the report:

Power plants are threatened by decreased water availability and rising air and water temperatures, which make it harder to keep the facilities cool.
Refineries, oil and gas drills, power plants, and power lines along the coasts are at risk from rising seas, powerful storms, and flooding.
Hydropower, bioenergy, and some forms of solar power can be affected by droughts and rising temperatures.
Power lines carry less current and operate less efficiently in hot weather, and they are vulnerable to damage wrought by storms and forest fires.
Demand for electricity for air-conditioning is expected to rise, though demand for fuel oil and natural gas for heating is expected to fall.

According to The Hill, the release of the report marks the beginning of a larger effort by the DOE to push the energy industry to prepare for the rise in extreme weather events.

The department isn’t just talking in hypothetical terms. Click on the following map of climate-related energy disruptions to open an interactive version on the Energy Department’s website:

energy.gov

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Obama: I will only OK Keystone if it won’t significantly increase CO2 emissions

by fuirpycf Posted on June 25, 2013

Obama: I will only OK Keystone if it won’t significantly increase CO2 emissions

By Lisa Hymas

Reuters/Larry Downing

Big news from President Obama’s climate speech: He says he won’t approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline if it will “significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”

It’s hard to know exactly what he means by that, but it’s a surprise that he mentioned Keystone at all. Pundits expected he would keep silent on the issue.

Here’s what he said:

I know there’s been … a lot of controversy surrounding the proposed Keystone pipeline that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands down to refineries in the Gulf. And the State Department is going through the final stages of evaluating the proposal. That’s how it’s always been done. But I do want to be clear: Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward.

It seems obvious that Keystone XL would significantly increase carbon emissions by encouraging development and facilitating transport of the dirtiest fossil fuel on earth — tar-sands oil. But in its draft environmental impact statement on the pipeline, the State Department asserted otherwise.

The U.S. EPA says State is wrong and argues that Keystone would notably boost greenhouse gas emissions. Even Canadian tar-sands boosters say Keystone is necessary in order to increase their oil production: “Long-term, we do need Keystone to be able to grow the volumes in Canada,” Steve Laut, president of big oil company Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., said last month.

Climate activists put so much pressure on Obama over Keystone that he felt compelled to address it. He certainly hasn’t killed the pipeline, but it’s notable that he attached a climate litmus test to it.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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Massive Montana mine has tribes fighting over coal exports

by rezhh8j Posted on June 22, 2013

Massive Montana mine has tribes fighting over coal exports

By Claire Thompson

A huge new coal-mining project just approved by the federal government pits a Montana tribe against native communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Lance Fisher

They may soon have a lot more than litter to worry about.

The Crow Nation in southern Montana overlaps the coal-rich Powder River Basin. The tribe is sitting on a deposit of up to 1.4 billion tons of coal — more than the United States produces in a year — and on Thursday, the federal government approved the lease of that coal to mining company Cloud Peak Energy. The company has begun preliminary work on a mine that could eventually produce up to 10 million tons of coal every year, much of which it hopes to move through three proposed export terminals in Washington and Oregon to sell to Asian markets.

As demand for coal in the U.S. fizzles thanks to the natural-gas boom, the coal industry is banking on a growing Asian appetite for cheap power to keep it afloat. And the Crow Nation is banking on the deal with Cloud Peak to turn its fortunes around. The Associated Press details what’s in it for the tribe:

Cloud Peak paid the tribe $1.5 million upon Thursday’s [Bureau of Indian Affairs] approval, bringing its total payments to the tribe so far to $3.75 million.

Future payments during an initial five-year option period could total up to $10 million. Cloud Peak would pay royalties on any coal extracted and has agreed to give tribal members hiring preference for mining jobs.

The company also will provide $75,000 a year in scholarships for the tribe.

It would have been tough for tribal leaders to turn down such a deal. The New York Times describes bleak life on the reservation:

While coal mining is the largest private sector provider of jobs, half the adult population is unemployed. Homelessness would be pandemic if it were not customary for three or four families to cram into small trailers so crowded that couples sometimes go to motels for moments of privacy and children struggle to do homework through a blare of television.

Three bright days a year come when families receive small bonuses from the tribe, thanks to one coal mine that operates on the reservation, to buy presents for Christmas and beads and tepee canvas for the tribe’s annual powwow. …

The Crow Nation chairman, Darrin Old Coyote, insisted that coal was a gift to his community that goes back to the tribe’s creation story. “Coal is life,” he said. “It feeds families and pays the bills.”

But tribal leaders in western Washington and Oregon feel differently about coal. They’ve been some of the most vocal opponents of the proposed export terminals, warning of the harm that would be done to fisheries, human health, the natural environment, and sacred cultural sites if more and more coal trains start rumbling through the region toward coastal ports. The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission have come out against coal exports. The Crow reportedly lobbied other tribes while trying to win federal approval for the Cloud Peak deal, but it doesn’t look like any officially expressed support.

Cloud Peak says it will take about five years to get the new mine up and running. But if coal opponents succeed in blocking proposed terminals, the whole deal could fall through.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Rampaging pig virus may raise pork prices

by Leon Russell Posted on June 20, 2013

Rampaging pig virus may raise pork prices

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Vulnerable little factory-reared piggies.

A stomach virus that kills most of the piglets it infects is tearing across America, reaching farms in at least 13 states just a month after it was first detected here.

The disease threatens to trim back the nation’s pork supplies at a time when the price of the meat is already rising following last year’s drought.

Scientists say a strain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), which shares 99.4 percent of its genes with a strain that recently killed more than 1 million piglets in China, is harmless to humans and other animals. But you wouldn’t want to be a baby pig that contracted the disease.

From Reuters:

While the virus has not tended to kill older pigs, mortality among very young pigs infected in U.S. farms is commonly 50 percent, and can be as high [as] 100 percent, say veterinarians and scientists who are studying the outbreak. …

When and how PEDV arrived in the United States remains a mystery. The total number of pig deaths from the outbreak is not known, and the uncertainty is fueling fears among traders, meat processors and farmers about the potential impact on pork supplies later in the year.

The outbreak comes as U.S. hog and wholesale pork prices in the large hog-raising states of Iowa and Minnesota have surged to nearly two-year highs. Supermarkets are racing to fill meat cases for the summer grilling season even as supplies tighten, analysts said. Hog supplies were already tight after last summer’s historic drought drove up feed-grain costs, which prompted a higher-than-normal slaughter rate last summer.

The first U.S. case of PEDV was reported on May 17. But researchers at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and other diagnostic labs have since discovered that PEDV arrived as early as April 16, according to the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.

Farmers and county fair goers should be extra hygienic around swine, experts say. From PorkNetwork:

PED typically is spread through the feces of infected swine or contaminated trailers, equipment, boots, clothing and hands. The way it is spread makes it a particular concern now because a number of states will be holding fairs soon, according to [swine specialist David Newman of North Dakota State University].

He says everyone involved in pig handling, including hog operation employees and owners, and those transporting pigs, need to take steps to avoid spreading the virus.

Ew. Time to experiment with veganism?

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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