Tag Archives: nebraska

Nebraska is a loser in the wind-energy boom

by LucasHarbin Posted on October 29, 2013

Nebraska is a loser in the wind-energy boom

By

Ben Carlisle

It’s hard to find anywhere in America that’s windier than Nebraska, where sweeping flat lands offer little to break up the gusts. So why isn’t the state dotted with turbines?

The AP reports that the Cornhusker State is the nation’s third windiest state, yet it ranks 26th in wind-energy generation. It trails neighboring Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas in producing wind power.

But some state lawmakers and officials are trying to do something about that. From the AP article:

Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha said he’s considering wind-energy legislation next year that would provide a tax credit to wind farms, similar to one offered by the federal government and other states.

“The state still has a considerable way to go to become a truly wind-friendly state,” Mello said. “I’m trying to work now to see what can be done with my existing bill to help make Nebraska more competitive.” …

Earlier this month, the Omaha Public Power District said it would buy 400 megawatts of power from a wind farm being built near O’Neill, in northeast Nebraska. The utility’s board voted to approve a 20-year contract for the electricity, which is enough to supply power to 118,000 customers. The utility currently serves about 350,000 customers in and around Omaha.

Lawmakers approved a bill last year that extended new sales-tax exemptions to wind-energy companies, and shelved another bill that would have made it easier for firms to qualify through an existing state program.

Here’s hoping the talk from Mello and his colleagues amounts to more than just hot air.


Source
Nebraska lawmakers look again at wind energy, Associated Press

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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Keystone XL opponents dominate raucous Nebraska hearing

by OfeliawWeeks Posted on April 19, 2013

Keystone XL opponents dominate raucous Nebraska hearing

By John Upton

Reuters / Dave WeaverRandy Thompsen tells State Department officials why Keystone XL is a terrible idea.

More than 1,000 people traveled from far and wide to snowy Grand Island, Neb., on Thursday to tell the State Department what they think of plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Commenters had a maximum of three minutes apiece to speak their minds during the hearing at the Heartland Events Center, which, according to Reuters, is “a venue more used to hosting monster-truck derbies and antique shows.”

Thursday’s eight-hour hearing allowed members of the public to formally comment on the State Department’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement on the pipeline. It’s the only hearing State is expected to hold on the report, which effectively concluded that there is no environmental reason not to build the pipeline. That conclusion is, of course, hotly disputed, especially in the wake of the recent spill from a tar-sands oil pipeline in Mayflower, Ark.

The Lincoln Journal Star describes the crowd at the hearing:

[H]undreds of critics with rural addresses, young, old and in between turned out in red, white and blue shirts with the words “Pipeline Fighter” spread across their chests. Tribal leaders also weighed in strongly against the project.

There to counter them were busloads of union workers from Omaha, plumbers, welders and pipeline fitters wearing blue and orange shirts, many of them bearing the words “Approve the KXL pipeline so America works.”

But the sides were not evenly matched: “for every voice of support there were at least a dozen against” the pipeline, reports The New York Times.

The hearing … drew hours of emotional testimony, mostly from opponents of Keystone XL, who whooped and applauded when anyone from their ranks spoke, and solemnly hoisted black scarves that read “Pipeline Fighter” during comments by the project’s supporters.

“The Keystone ‘Export’ pipeline is not in the national interest, and it is most certainly not in Nebraska’s interest,” said Ben Gotschall, a young rancher, one of the first speakers at the hearing, which was held in a large events hall at the state fairgrounds here.

“Our landowners have been left to fend for themselves against an onslaught of dishonest land agents and corporate bullies,” Mr. Gotschall said.

Nebraska has been a rallying point for environmental groups, landowners and ranchers who oppose the 1,700-mile proposed pipeline, which would carry diluted bitumen from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Many who didn’t make it to the Nebraska hearing have submitted written comments on the environmental impact statement — at least 807,000 of them. More comments will be accepted through April 22, and the State Department is considering a request to extend the comment period for another 75 days. State said in March that it wouldn’t release the comments publicly, but this week it reversed course and said all comments would be posted online, Bloomberg reports.

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Keystone XL opponents dominate raucous Nebraska hearing

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Keystone XL: The Science, Stakes, and Strategy Behind the Fight Over the Tar Sands Pipeline

by oe8o7kdg Posted on April 2, 2013

green4us

<!– table background #fff; border-collapse: collapse; float: left; margin: 15px; th, td border: 1px #000 solid; th background: #eee; –> Join us for a Climate Desk Live event focused on Keystone XL. tarsandsaction/Flickr On February 17, more than 40,000 people rallied in Washington to convince the president to reject the Keystone XL, a proposed 875-mile pipeline running from the Canadian border into Nebraska and slated to transport oil from tar sands (which is 17 percent more greenhouse gas intensive than standard crude oil). The crowds outside the White House provided overwhelming proof that opposing Keystone has mobilized a new and powerful grassroots constituency. But in the US Senate, the mood was different. In a nonbinding vote, 62 Senators—including 17 pro-Keystone Democrats—voted to approve the pipeline. Just 37 Senators voted against it. In fact, the amendment was co-sponsored by four Democrats, including Max Baucus of Montana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. So are activists’ efforts all in vain? What will happen to the environmental movement if President Obama ultimately lets Keystone go forward? And more broadly: What does this say about the best strategy for fighting climate change? Does compromise, horse-trading, and winning industry allies ultimately work best—or do you have to push the limits of the possible? You’re invited to the next Climate Desk Live event—hosted by myself—for a debate and discussion between some of the leading voices on this issue: David Roberts, Grist magazine, who has been covering Keystone regularly and recently wrote about the “Virtues of Being Unreasonable on Keystone.” Michael Levi, director of the program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of the new book The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle For America’s Future (Oxford, May 2013), where he writes that combating climate change will require “doing deals [with those] who want to expand production of oil and gas.” Michael Grunwald, senior national correspondent for Time magazine, author of The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, who recently declared that on Keystone, “I’m with the Tree Huggers!” Join us for a Climate Desk Live event focused on the Keystone XL: Thursday, April 18, 2013, 6:30 p.m. at the University of California Washington Center, 1608 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036. To attend, please RSVP to cdl@climatedesk.org

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Are municipal utilities more resilient during disasters?

by Sylvesterax6 Posted on March 15, 2013

Are municipal utilities more resilient during disasters?

By Susie Cagle

Boulder, Colo., wants to dump its investor-owned utility and start up a publicly owned one that’s more in line with the city’s pinko-commie agenda aggressive environmental goals, as Grist’s David Roberts has written about (twice). But even cities and towns without pinko-commie tendencies are looking to switch to municipal utilities in order to lower rates and get faster responses to outages caused by our new extreme weather.

Not everyone agrees, though, that public utilities are better capable of getting their act together in an emergency. The New York Times reports:

In Massachusetts after Hurricane Irene in 2011, for instance, municipal utilities in some of the hardest-hit areas were able to restore power in one or two days, while investor-owned companies like NStar and National Grid took roughly a week for some customers. According to an advocacy group called Massachusetts Alliance for Municipal Electric Choice, government-owned utilities on average employ more linemen per 10,000 customers than the private companies. …

But supporters of investor-owned utilities say that restoration speeds vary among government-owned and private utilities. The large electric companies, they say, are often in a better position to muster resources after storms like Sandy and Irene because they can call on extra staff from other companies and regions.

“Very few utilities can really maintain the full complement of crews and equipment that they may need — it’s not economic,” said James P. Fama, vice president of energy delivery at the Edison Electric Institute, which represents private utilities. “Municipal budgets are under pressure, just as investor-owned utility budgets are under pressure because state commissions are hesitant to pass through rate increases.” …

[I]n New York, where the Long Island Power Authority was harshly criticized for its failures after Hurricane Sandy, a commission handpicked by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended privatizing the public authority, created under his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, as a successor to the Long Island Lighting Company and its Shoreham nuclear plant.

But the push for local utility control is spreading nonetheless. Even if folks aren’t worried about monster storms, they’re concerned about big bills. This New York Times map shows how much more or less private utilities cost than public utilities. In most of the country, the private utilities charge higher rates. (Hawaii is apparently frolicking in the sunshine off the grid. Who knows what Nebraska is doing.)

The New York Times

Click to embiggen.

When it comes to superstorm stability, though, the solution may be less in the ownership and more in the tech. Your repair-people are nice, municipal utility, but hyperlocal and supercute microgrids could isolate problems from the start. Uh-oh, does that make them job killers? Well, at least your power might be cheaper …

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Getting off oil, protecting our land

by Posted on February 20, 2013

Getting off oil, protecting our land

Posted 21 February 2013 in

National

A recent study that purports to show the conversion of grassland to corn and soybean crops is not only off the mark, but it also distracts from the real threat facing our nation’s land.

The study, published in the proceedings of the National Academies of Science, relies on hard-to-interpret satellite imagery to come up with estimates, which are, by the authors’ own admission imprecise.

The Renewable Fuels Association takes the study to task in this blog post:

A recently published study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science suggests that native grasslands in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota have been converted to cropland to facilitate increased corn and soybean plantings between 2006 and 2011. The study’s findings stand in stark contrast to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) acreage data, which show increased corn and soybean acres in the region have occurred via crop switching, not cropland expansion. Further, the extremely high rate of error associated with the satellite imagery used by the authors renders the study’s conclusions highly questionable and irrelevant to the biofuels policy debate.

And there are some key facts to consider:

Total planted cropland in the five states in 2011 was the lowest since 1995. Total planted acres in 2011 for the five-state area were 3.6% below the 10-year average (2001-2010).
While North Dakota planted 540,000 more acres to corn in 2011 than in 2006, total acres planted to all crops in the state actually fell 3.25 million acres (15%) between 2006 and 2011. Total planted crop acres in 2011 were also lower in Minnesota. This strongly suggests the expansion in corn area took place on land previously planted to other crops.
Data from USDA show that the increase in corn and soybean acres in the five-state region was primarily achieved via crop switching rather than cropland expansion. That is, farmers increased corn/soybean plantings on land previously planted to hay, wheat, and other crops. Indeed, USDA shows total crop acres in the five-state region actually declined 2.1% from 2006 to 2011.

While this study leaves us with more questions than answers, here is what we do know is happening on America’s prairies: the relentless hunt for fossil fuels is having a devastating effect on land, air and water. Developing shale oil in the Dakotas for example is poisoning the soil and water, while “flaring” – or burning excess natural gas, a byproduct of extracting oil from rock formations – is spewing carbon dioxide into the air.

Meanwhile, American farmers are working hard to make the most out of their farms, often producing multiple, beneficial products out of each acre, including renewable fuel and animal feed. Production has become increasingly more efficient, with higher yields resulting in more crops without significantly expanding land use.

At the same time, advanced biofuels present the opportunity to use marginal lands for perennial energy crops – such as switchgrass – in ways that are compatible with land conservation. A study last month from researchers at Michigan State and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that using marginal lands to produce biofuel from plants like grasses could yield as much as 215 gallons per acre along with “substantial greenhouse gas mitigation.”

If we are serious about protecting our natural resources, we need to address our addiction to oil and support clean alternatives like renewable fuel.

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U.S. ends record streak of days without tornado fatalities

by nension Posted on January 31, 2013

U.S. ends record streak of days without tornado fatalities

By Philip Bump

Climate Central reports that a weather-related record ended yesterday morning: the longest the U.S. has gone without a tornado-related death, 220 days.

[A] large and powerful tornado struck Adairsville, Ga., killing at least one person in a mobile home park. That tornado, which may rank as an EF-4 — the second most powerful on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — overturned cars on I-75 and damaged numerous buildings in downtown Adairsville, which is about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta.

A local news broadcast included a helicopter flight over the area damaged by the twister.

One reason the no-fatality record stood so long was the unusually hot and dry weather of 2012.

During 2012, the same weather pattern associated with the record heat and drought also stifled tornado activity by keeping a very hot, dry, and stable air mass in place across Tornado Alley. The heart of Tornado Alley was where the drought was most intense. For example, Nebraska had its driest year on record last year, and extreme drought conditions were present in Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, and other states where spring and summer twisters are typical. While natural climate variability likely played a major role in initiating the drought, climate scientists said global warming may have made the drought worse by making conditions hotter, and therefore drier, than they otherwise might have been.

The man who died was named Anthony Raines. He was 51, and was killed when a tree crushed his mobile home while he slept.

Source

Deadly Georgia Tornado First in a Record 220 Days, Climate Central

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Will 2013 be the year of ag-gag bills?

by ansonsten Posted on January 30, 2013

Will 2013 be the year of ag-gag bills?

By Susie Cagle

The U.N. has declared 2013 to be the Year of Quinoa. But it’s also shaping up to be the Year of Ag Gag, those bills that make it illegal to covertly investigate factory farms for animal and ecological abuse. From Bruce Friedrich of Farm Sanctuary:

In 2011, the meat industry backed laws in four states to make taking photos or videos on farms and slaughterhouses illegal. In 2012, the industry pushed similar laws in 10 states. This year, we expect even more.

Shutterstock

In 2011 and 2012, Iowa, Utah, and Missouri all enacted some version of an anti-whistleblower ag-gag law, while similar proposals were struck down in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, and Tennessee.

This year, more such laws are proposed in Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Wyoming.

Ag-gag laws are hardly the first attempt to keep the prying eyes of the public — activists, journalists, eaters all — away from the truths about animals raised en masse for food. Kansas, Montana, and North Dakota passed less restrictive versions of these laws back in the early ’90s, when the Animal Liberation Front was running around in balaclavas, being surprisingly organized and effective at freeing moneys and minks and smashing up butcher shops. In 1992, Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, boosting penalties for these crimes.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, passed in 2006, went even further — like, way way further — making it illegal to “intentionally damage” a company’s physical property or its potential profits, even by nonviolent civil disobedience. Under the AETA, activists have been arrested and held for running websites and peacefully protesting animal testing.

But the corporate- and Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council wanted to crack down even further. In 2003 it proposed model legislation that would make it illegal to “enter an animal or research facility to take pictures by photograph, video camera, or other means with the intent to commit criminal activities or defame the facility or its owner.” Today’s ag-gag bills are a direct descendant of that far-reaching legislation. From Alternet:

Ag-Gag laws passed 20 years ago were focused more on deterring people from destroying property, or from either stealing animals or setting them free. Today’s ALEC-inspired bills take direct aim at anyone who tries to expose horrific acts of animal cruelty, dangerous animal-handling practices that might lead to food safety issues, or blatant disregard for environmental laws designed to protect waterways from animal waste runoff. In the past, most of those exposes have resulted from undercover investigations of exactly the type Big Ag wants to make illegal.

The three state bills proposed so far this year would require people with knowledge of animal abuse to promptly report it to officials. But if you just upload those photos and video and don’t report them to the government within a day or two, you’ll be breaking the law. Friedrich again:

It’s certainly possible that animal-friendly legislators are supporting [these kinds of bills] out of concern for animals, but of course undercover investigations, whether of a drug ring or organized crime syndicate or factory farm, require that the investigator document the full extent of the illegal activity. If the FBI or CIA stopped an investigation at the first sign of criminal activity, wrong-doers would be inadequately punished, if they were punished at all, because the full extent of the criminal behavior would not be known. Similarly, if an investigator witnesses illegal abuse of animals and immediately turns in that evidence without thorough documentation, the plant may receive a slap on the wrist (at best), the investigator leaves the plant, and business-as-usual continues.

The more of these laws that pass, the more free speech is chilled, and the less likely we are to see the uncovering of abuses. (Activists, you are fucking badass, but I know you also don’t want to go to jail.)

So is 2013 the Year of Ag Gag? Or is that actually every year now?

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Nebraska governor signs off on new Keystone XL pipeline route; TransCanada laughs maniacally

by HartkePoundstone568 Posted on January 22, 2013

Nebraska governor signs off on new Keystone XL pipeline route; TransCanada laughs maniacally

By Philip Bump

Somewhere in Canada, a TransCanada executive has a big checklist on his wall. At the bottom, circled in red: “Approval of Keystone XL!!!!” Until today, only two checkboxes remained unchecked. But now, there’s only one, because he’s put a big fat X next to “Get OK from Nebraska.” The Times reports:

Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska approved on Tuesday a revised route for the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska, brushing aside vocal opposition from some citizen groups and putting final approval of the pipeline project squarely in the hands of the Obama administration.

Governor Heineman, a Republican, said in a letter to Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that his state’s review found that the new route avoided sensitive lands and aquifers. Mr. Obama had rejected the previous route last January on the grounds that construction of the pipeline threatened Nebraska’s Sand Hills region and that a spill could contaminate the critical Ogallala Aquifer.

Thomas Beck Photo

For now, anyway.

This was basically the bare minimum of what TransCanada needed to demonstrate: that a spill wouldn’t permanently ruin a critical source of water used for irrigation. Last October, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality OK’d the new proposed route. Last month, hundreds of Nebraskans attended a public meeting to dispute those findings — and to suggest that any spill would be hugely problematic.

The governor has a response for that.

Mr. Heineman said that the pipeline’s operator, TransCanada, had assured him and state environmental officials that the chances of a spill would be minimized and that the company would assume all responsibility for a cleanup in case of an accident.

Pipeline spills are like pregnancy. There’s only one guaranteed way to prevent them: abstinence. But tell Nebraska that you’ll always be there for it, and the state is ready to be screwed.

It wasn’t just TransCanada’s VP of Checkbox Checking that was giddy.

The American Petroleum Institute, a strong advocate of the project, applauded Nebraska’s action, saying that it removed a critical hurdle to completion of the pipeline.

“With the approval from Nebraska in hand, the president can be confident that the remaining environmental concerns have been addressed,” said Marty Durbin, the oil lobby’s executive vice president. “We hope President Obama will finally greenlight KXL as soon as possible and get more Americans back to work.”

Though not as many Americans as the industry likes to pretend.

So there’s only one last checklist item. TransCanada still needs approval from the Obama administration to build Keystone XL across the Canadian border. The decision ostensibly lies with the State Department, but, ultimately, it’s with the president himself. Yesterday, he pledged to combat climate change, in stronger language than he’s used in years. Whether or not the Keystone pipeline meets his standard for combat remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, that guy at TransCanada HQ has his marker hovering over that tantalizingly empty box.

Source

Nebraska Governor Approves Keystone XL Route, New York Times

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Nebraska governor signs off on new Keystone XL pipeline route; TransCanada laughs maniacally

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Winter storm ‘Draco’ will solve, cause many problems

by biglermyrta910 Posted on December 19, 2012

Winter storm ‘Draco’ will solve, cause many problems

By Philip Bump

I guess “draco” is the word for “dragon” in Latin. I didn’t know that, despite Mrs. Marino spending two years teaching me the language in high school. (We got to choose our own Latin names; I chose “Aesculapius,” because I was a dork.) (“Was.”)

Draco is also the name for the giant winter storm dropping snow over the Midwest. See if you can spot it on this map. If you know where the Midwest is, it should be easy.

NOAA

This is good news, for a reason that you might not expect: It’s precipitation in a region desiccated by drought. As we mentioned last week, cities across the region have been setting new records for days without snow. A lot of those records are about to end.

From Weather Underground:

Blizzard warnings are posted over portions of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and snowfall amounts of up to a foot are expected in some of the affected regions. While the heavy snow will create dangerous travel conditions, the .5″ – 1.5″ of melted water equivalent from the the storm will provide welcome moisture for drought-parched areas of the Midwest. Though much of the moisture will stay locked up as snow for the rest of the year, runoff from the storm may help keep Lake Michigan and Huron from setting an all-time record low for the month of December, and may also keep the Mississippi River at St. Louis above the -5′ stage though the end of December.

That Mississippi River point is big; it has been at risk of having to halt shipping traffic due to low water levels. The storm also means that some areas may see a white Christmas, if the snow sticks around. (This latter point is less important than the Mississippi River.)

Draco’s wintry breath isn’t being felt everywhere. Washington, D.C., has been 7.5 degrees above normal on average so far this month. In Texas?

Lubbock, in west Texas, had a storm of its own.

So Draco is the exception for this warm, dry month. But none of that is the point of this article. The point of this article is: If you were going to name a potentially massive, powerful storm something, why on Earth would you choose Draco over Drago?

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

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New Jersey train derailment dumps chemicals into waterway

by Myrna Posted on November 30, 2012

New Jersey train derailment dumps chemicals into waterway

By Philip Bump

One of the reasons that Keystone XL has faced so much opposition is the threat of a leak. Nebraska forced TransCanada to reroute vast stretches of the proposed pipeline to avoid a key aquifer.

But no pipeline doesn’t mean no leaks. As our Lisa Hymas noted yesterday, oil companies have massively increased rail use to bring oil to market. It’s more costly, yes (think Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood), but it gets the job done … until those trains fall in waterways.

From the South Jersey Times:

Four railroad tank cars have been dumped into the Mantua Creek and are leaking vinyl chloride after the train bridge collapsed at about 7 a.m.

Ambulances are being sent to the Paulsboro Marine Terminal where approximately 18 people are reported to be experiencing breathing difficulties at 7:40 a.m.

Initial responders report seven cars overturned and derailed near the 200 block of East Jefferson Street, between North Delaware Street and the creek.

On the plus side: Vinyl chloride is a gas, so it is unlikely to contaminate Mantua Creek, which connects to the Delaware River and then the Delaware Bay. With petroleum or tar-sands oil, the long-term effects could be much worse.

We’ll note, too, the other problem at fault here: infrastructure. The bridge over which the train was running appears to be this one:

It’s an odd bridge, one built almost a century ago. It looks as though it’s incomplete in the image above, but it’s not. It’s open. The bridge, in a process described here, swings open and shut to allow boats to pass by. It’s easy to imagine how such a system, if imperfectly re-aligned, could result in a derailment like the one seen today. In images of today’s disaster, you can see that the accident occurred at the point where the bridge swings open.

A 2008 coal train derailment in Decatur.

So we have toxic chemicals being moved over century-old infrastructure built to cross a waterway that connects to a major river. And, increasingly, we have the same thing happening across the Plains States. While pipelines are generally safer than trains, they’re still infrastructure, bound to degrade over time.

At the heart of it, the problem isn’t the system of transport. The problem is that we want to shuttle toxic chemicals around at all. Until we solve that problem, we will undoubtedly see spills like today’s happen again — but with potentially far bigger repercussions.

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

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