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Indonesia to seed clouds, try to put out huge plantation fires

by Susan Ellie Posted on June 21, 2013

Indonesia to seed clouds, try to put out huge plantation fires

By John Upton

Record-breaking air pollution caused by peatland fires in Sumatra has Malaysians and Singaporeans locked indoors — and Indonesia today plans to try an unconventional approach to tackling the flames.

The Indonesians will dump chemicals from aircraft high above smoldering palm plantations in hopes of changing the weather. The goal is to seed clouds and force them to rain their moisture out over the stubborn conflagrations, which were triggered by slash-and-burn forest-clearing by the palm oil industry.

NASA Goddard

Smoke from fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island is polluting Singapore and Malaysia.

From the Straits Times:

Two Casa 212 aircraft will be flown to the province’s capital, Pekanbaru, on Friday morning and a C-130 Hercules Air Force aircraft will also be readied for the effort.

Personnel, equipment and seed material to induce rain over clouds have already been sent to Pekanbaru on Thursday night, the agency in charge added.

Cloud seeding is an unusual approach to firefighting. But, then, this is no ordinary fire. From Agence France-Presse:

About 100 firefighters tackling the blazes were finding them difficult to extinguish as they were smouldering underground in carbon-rich peatland, mostly in oil palm plantations, he said.

“It is extremely difficult to extinguish the fires that are burning under the surface of the peatland,” [Indonesian Forestry Ministry official Raffles Panjaitan] said.

He said the success of the cloud-seeding operation would depend on weather conditions.

“Hopefully there will be lots of clouds so that we can produce a lot of rain,” he added.

The worst-hit area was Bengkalis district, where 650 hectares of land was ablaze, he said, adding that 555 fires had been detected in Riau, up from 356 the previous month.

The smoke is fraying tempers in neighboring countries. From the BBC:

Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state.

The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) – the highest in the country’s history.

The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country.

But Indonesia said the other affected countries share in the blame for the blazes. From CNN:

“The slash-and-burn technique being used is the cheapest land-clearing method and it is not only used by local farmers, but also employees of palm oil investors including Singaporean and Malaysian companies,” Hadi Daryanto, a senior official at Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry, told Indonesian media.

“We hope the governments of Malaysia and Singapore will tell their investors to adopt proper measures so we can solve this problem together.”

(Americans share in the blame, too. Palm oil is used in everything from lipstick to margarine and biofuel, and American imports from cleared Southeast Asian forests continue to skyrocket.)

Cloud seeding may sound futuristic, but it’s been practiced in the U.S. since the first half of the last century, including by water managers in California [PDF] eager to fill their reservoirs. It’s controversial because it can be unreliable and because it involves dumping chemicals, such as silver iodide, into the atmosphere. We’ll soon find out whether it’s enough to douse Indonesia’s unneighborly fire problem.

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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Study: Trees save at least a life a year in each of 10 major U.S. cities

by pfmufle Posted on June 20, 2013

Study: Trees save at least a life a year in each of 10 major U.S. cities

By John Upton

Keith Wagner

These trees in Central Park are doing their arboreal best to save the lives of New Yorkers.

Next time you hug a city-dwelling tree, be sure to whisper quiet thanks for the lives it is helping to save.

Researchers recently calculated that urban forests help save one or more people from dying every year in each of 10 major cities studied.

Trees growing in cities help clean the air of fine particulate air pollution — soot, smoke, dust, dirt — that can lodge in human lungs and cause health problems. Trees clear 71 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from Atlanta’s air annually. And they suck up enough pollution to save seven or eight lives every year in New York City.

These are the findings of researchers with the U.S. Forest Service and Davey Institute, published in the journal Environmental Pollution [PDF]. They calculated the health and economic benefits of air-cleansing urban forests in 10 U.S. cities and found that trees save lives, reduce hospital visits, and reduce the number of days taken off work. They do that mainly by sucking pollutants out of the air. Economic benefits, mostly from reduced mortality, ranged from $1.1 million a year in Syracuse, N.Y., to $60.1 million a year in New York City.

From a Forest Service press release:

Overall, the greatest effect of trees on reducing health impacts of PM2.5 occurred in New York due to its relatively large human population and the trees’ moderately high removal rate and reduction in pollution concentration. The greatest overall removal by trees was in Atlanta due to its relatively high percent tree cover and PM2.5 concentrations.

And these findings cover only the effects of cleaning up fine particulate pollution. The study didn’t investigate the economic and life-giving benefits of trees sucking up larger soot particles, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, or other types of air pollution.

“This research clearly illustrates that America’s urban forests are critical capital investments helping produce clear air and water; reduce energy costs; and, making cities more livable,” Forest Service researcher Michael Rains said in the press release.

The study comes after some of the researchers’ Forest Service colleagues discovered a correlation between loss of trees and higher human death rates, which they described in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. As we told you last week, the scientists found that the more trees there are in an area, the less likely people there are to die.

More hugs for trees, please.

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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Coal companies get sweetheart deals on federal leases, shortchange taxpayers

by William V. Wainscott Posted on June 12, 2013

Coal companies get sweetheart deals on federal leases, shortchange taxpayers

By Claire Thompson

Shutterstock

As if climate disruption, air pollution, health problems, and landscape destruction weren’t bad enough, here’s another reason to hate the coal industry: Coal companies are shortchanging U.S. taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars they should be paying for the rights to mine federal land.

A new report [PDF] from the inspector general of the Interior Department reveals that the Bureau of Land Management routinely underestimates the value of coal, letting companies like Peabody and Arch Coal snap up federal mining rights for a song, often with little or no competition. More than 80 percent of coal leases up for auction in the past 20 years received only one bid, the report found.

The New York Times reports:

The report said that the process by which the value of the leases is computed is faulty, costing the government millions. At the current rate of coal leasing, the inspector general found, every penny-a-ton undervaluation costs the taxpayers $3 million.

Further, the Bureau of Land Management allows coal companies to expand their leaseholdings by as much as 960 acres with no competitive bidding and little oversight, the report says. The bureau has approved 45 such lease modifications since 2000 without adequate documentation, the report states, potentially costing taxpayers $60 million.

Allowing coal companies to pay bargain-basement prices for mining rights supposedly keeps coal-fired power cheap for Americans. But as we turn to cleaner and increasingly cheaper sources of energy, coal’s share of the electricity market is falling — from 50 percent to 40 percent over the past decade. That’s leading U.S. coal companies to ship their goods to Asia, where coal sells for four to seven times more than it does in the U.S., yet the BLM isn’t properly accounting for that higher export value, the report found.

Interior is conducting a separate investigation into whether coal being exported to Asia is properly valued by the BLM. Meanwhile, at the request of Congress, the Government Accountability Office is taking its own look at coal leasing programs.

Luke Popovich of the National Mining Association called the loss of value highlighted by the inspector general’s report a “rounding error” compared to the $2.4 billion in royalties and lease payments the government collected from the coal industry last year. Hardly. An independent study published in 2012 estimated that the BLM’s consistent undervaluing of coal cost the government $30 billion over the last 30 years. Add in all the hidden external costs of coal mining and production, and this is looking like a really terrible deal for taxpayers.

The BLM says it’s revamping it process and convening a task force to consider how it values coal leases. Green groups like the Sierra Club are unimpressed; they’re calling for a moratorium on all coal leasing on federal land.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Coal companies get sweetheart deals on federal leases, shortchange taxpayers

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Bloomberg unveils ambitious plan to protect NYC from climate change

by colord8609 Posted on June 11, 2013

Bloomberg unveils ambitious plan to protect NYC from climate change

By Claire Thompson

azipaybarah

Michael Bloomberg.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out an ambitious plan today to fortify the city against the extreme weather and storms we can expect thanks to a changing climate. “This is a defining challenge of our future,” Bloomberg said in a speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The plan, estimated to cost $20 billion, includes 250 recommendations in all, covering everything from erecting bulkheads and levees to retrofitting old buildings to protecting the city’s power infrastructure. (Fifty-three percent of NYC’s power plants currently sit within the 100-year floodplain, and by the 2050s, 90 percent could be in that danger zone.)

The New York Times reports:

The plan covers so many different parts of the city and calls for such a wide array of proposals that the estimated price tag could change – and given the history of large infrastructure projects, that means the cost is likely to grow.

The price estimate also does not include some of the more ambitious projects envisioned in the report that require further study, like the construction of a so-called Seaport City, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan, modeled after Battery Park City, which would protect Lower Manhattan but cost billions.

The administration said that roughly half of the currently estimated $20 billion cost of the next decade would be covered by federal and city money that had already been allocated in the capital budget and that an additional $5 billion would be covered by expected aid that Congress had already appropriated. Most of that money was allocated, through a variety of programs, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, according to the report.

While a $20 billion price tag sounds staggering, Bloomberg pointed out that Hurricane Sandy alone did $19 billion in damage to the city, and that a future storm could cause as much as $90 billion worth of destruction.

Bloomberg presented the plan a day after the New York City Panel on Climate Change — formed in 2008 to address climate change as part of PlaNYC, the mayor’s long-term sustainability vision — released an updated set of data [PDF] about how the Big Apple can expect to fare in a hotter and more volatile climate. The new findings, the AP reports, “echo 2009 estimates from the scientists’ group … but move up the time frame for some upper-end possibilities from the 2080s to mid-century.” And those upper-end possibilities — even the mid- and low-range predictions, for that matter — are certainly scary enough to justify an ambitious big-picture solution. From another New York Times article:

Administration officials estimated that more than 800,000 city residents will live in the 100-year flood plain by the 2050s. That figure is more than double the 398,000 currently estimated to be at risk, based on new maps the Federal Emergency Management Agency released Monday.

Administration officials said that between 1971 and 2000, New Yorkers had an average of 18 days a year with temperatures at or above 90 degrees. By the 2020s, that figure could be as high as 33 days, and by the 2050s, it could reach 57 …

In 2009, [the panel] projected that sea levels would rise by two to five inches by the 2020s. Now, the panel estimates that the sea levels will rise four to eight inches by that time, with a high-end figure of 11 inches.

New York is already trying to do its part to slow climate change; the city is halfway to its goal of a 30 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. But, given the latest projections of what climate change will look like for the rest of this century, Bloomberg and co. recognize that they need to start preparing for climate change as well as fighting it.

Funding and implementing Bloomberg’s plan will largely fall to his successor; he can’t run again, so a new mayor will take the helm in January. But he hastened the plan’s development after Hurricane Sandy. “We refused to pass the responsibility for creating a plan onto the next administration,” he said in his speech.

Ironically, the Bloomberg administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars to revitalize waterfront districts and lure upscale condo developers, while at the same time warning of the risks of such development given rapidly rising sea levels. More people living along the city’s shoreline complicated evacuation efforts before Hurricane Sandy.

Bloomberg’s speech today at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was preceded by introductory speakers and videos that struck a resolutely uplifting theme of resilience, suggesting that a changing climate should not force anyone to leave the greatest city in the world. But some homeowners are already grappling with the cost of staying, forced to choose between paying a small fortune to have their houses raised up on stilts or paying soaring flood insurance costs. AP reports that many of them don’t believe more big storms are coming: “They think” — or perhaps hope against hope — “Sandy was a fluke, a storm to end all storms, the kind they won’t ever see again.”

The climate-change panel’s report makes painfully clear how wrong they are.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Fracking accident leaks benzene into Colorado stream

by hanhuogekennog Posted on May 24, 2013

Fracking accident leaks benzene into Colorado stream

By John Upton

Garfield County

Officials in Parachute, Colo., stopped the flow of creek water into a reservoir following a natural-gas fluid spill.

Once again, Colorado’s fracking boom has residents wondering if there’s something in the water — carcinogenic benzene, in this case. A plant for fracked natural gas processor Williams Energy, near Parachute, Colo., spilled an estimated 241 barrels of mixed natural gas liquid into the ground, some of which eventually washed as benzene into Parachute Creek.

More than two months after the spill was discovered, neighbors of the plant are wondering why the energy company is being put in charge of the cleanup — and why the state has failed to issue any fines.

Benzene levels in Parachute Creek rose above a safe-to-drink 5 parts per billion following the spill, which was caused by a faulty pressure gauge on a four-inch pipeline.

The safety limit for benzene in Coloradoan drinking water sources is 5 parts per billion. But the state doesn’t define the creek as a source of drinking water, and the limit for such water bodies is 5,300 parts per billion. Less than two miles downstream from the Williams Energy plant, headgates that control the flow of water from Parachute Creek into an irrigation reservoir have been closed since the spill was discovered.

From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent:

“I’d like to say they’ve cleaned it up,” said [downstream rancher Sidney] Lindauer on Wednesday, referring to the combined efforts of Williams Midstream and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).

But he said he is skeptical about the wisdom of leaving the cleanup in the hands of the company that owns the facilities from which the liquids leaked.

“We need an independent agency that isn’t associated with the industry, or any industry, to monitor that creek,” he said on Wednesday, lamenting that “they [the CDPHE] pretty much leave it up to Williams.”

He said he has seen unexplained layers of dingy, brownish foam on the creek’s surface in recent weeks, something he has occasionally seen in the past but in masses that were less dense than those he has spotted recently.

“Sometimes that creek is cloudy and off color, so you know something’s going on,” he concluded, explaining that he gets water for his horses and his pastures from the creek, though his domestic drinking water is from the Town of Parachute’s water system.

Following the spill, Colorado lawmakers were shocked to discover that state penalties for such accidents had been capped at $10,000 for the last half century. So they passed legislation [PDF], which was signed by the governor [PDF] earlier this month, that increases possible state fines for such incidents. But that all matters little so far: The state has yet to fine Williams Energy a penny.

From a May 16 article in the Denver Business Journal:

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is launching into negotiations with Williams Cos. Inc. (NYSE: WMB) and subsidiary Bargath LLC for a “consent order” outlining the cleanup of an estimated 241 barrels of natural gas liquids that spilled near Parachute Creek in western Colorado. …

There are no plans at this time for that consent order, expected to be signed within a month, to include fines and penalties on the companies, Chris Urbina, executive director of the CDPHE, said Thursday.

However, he said, fines could be levied if Williams or Bargath, Williams’ pipeline subsidiary, fails to follow the department’s consent order for the cleanup.

Also, Urbina said, “We’re considering other fines and penalties associated with this spill. We take this very seriously.”

Why no fines? That’s one of the many questions neighbors have been asking. The answer is in the Business Times story:

The consent order won’t have a fine associated with it “as the release was not due to negligence but to accidental equipment failure,” the department said.

An accident, you say? Oh, well in that case. So sorry to have disturbed you, fracking company. Carry on.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who

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Facebook

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Big Coal loses out in Indiana, despite employing two state lawmakers

by Mstyslava7ju Posted on May 3, 2013

Big Coal loses out in Indiana, despite employing two state lawmakers

By John Upton

Indiana state

Rep. Matt Ubelhor moonlights as a Peabody Energy employee. Or is it the other way around?

Tough break for the coal industry in Indiana. Plans to build a $2.8 billion plant in Rockport to convert coal into synthetic natural gas have been doomed by new safeguards that protect ratepayers.

That’s despite the best efforts of two senior coal industry executives who serve as lawmakers in the state legislature. There, they had tried, unethically and unsuccessfully, to prevent their colleagues from imposing the new standards, which will protect the state’s gas and electricity customers from being ripped off.

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ (R) administration signed a deal with the plant developers in 2011, which Indiana University researchers found would leave the state’s ratepayers on the hook for all of the financial risks associated with the project. The researchers concluded [PDF] that the project would hurt the state’s economy in the long run.

The deal was negotiated when natural gas prices were much higher than they are today, and when coal-to-gas technology was seen as being more lucrative. A court has ordered that the contract must be amended, and the newly approved state legislation will trigger a tough review before any amended deal can be signed.

We told you recently about the funny business going on in the state Capitol around all this. Senate Utility Committee Chairman Jim Merritt (R) is vice president for corporate affairs with the Indiana Rail Road Co., which makes most of its money hauling coal, and Rep. Matt Ubelhor (R) is an operations manager for Peabody Energy; both of their companies could get new business from the plant. The two lawmakers had pulled various procedural maneuvers to try to shield the project from new ratepayer safeguards.

But they failed, and Big Coal lost. From the Evansville Courier & Press:

Developers of the proposed $2.8 billion Rockport coal-to-gas plant will see their ongoing legal battle through to its end, but are suspending all other activity related to the project.

The decision comes just three days after state lawmakers approved a tough new regulatory measure that developers had warned would kill the state’s 30-year contract to buy and then resell the plant’s synthetic natural gas — and therefore the entire effort.

“The judgment of the state is very clear: Neither the legislature nor the governor support the contract or the project,” said Mark Lubbers, project manager for Indiana Gasification …

He said if the Indiana Supreme Court does not opt to weigh in on the battle between his company and a coalition of opponents led by Vectren Corp., “the project is dead.” If the five-member high court does take up the case, he said, developers could win there.

“If we win, however, only a clear reversal of position by the governor would enable the project to go forward,” Lubbers said.

Seems the industry needs to get a few more of its employees elected to the legislature. Two is simply not enough.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

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Insurance companies on climate change: ‘What climate change?’

by Louise6qy Posted on March 11, 2013

Insurance companies on climate change: ‘What climate change?’

By John Upton

SandyRelief

Too many insurance companies aren’t connecting the dots.

Insurance companies have been paying out big bucks of late, funding cleanup in the wake of wildfires, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events likely made worse by global warming. Superstorm Sandy caused an estimated $50 billion in economic losses, and it was just one of 11 American catastrophes in 2012 that wrought more than $1 billion worth of destruction.

So one would logically think that insurance companies would be among the most clued-in businesses when it comes to understanding and bracing for humanity’s horrendous effects on the weather.

Not so, according to the results of an industry-wide survey of 184 insurance companies that operate in California, New York, and Washington state.

From a report published by CERES [PDF], the nonprofit that administered the survey:

In general, almost all companies responding to the survey show significant weakness in their preparedness to address the effects climate change may have on their business. However, a small subset of industry leaders are evolving their business strategies to remain competitive as the impacts of climate change unfold. Given the strong scientific consensus on climate change, the rest of the industry would be well advised to follow the lead of these innovative companies.

Two of the biggest laggards in acknowledging climate reality: Allstate and Travelers, which “express strong ambivalence about the state of the science — specifically, the existence of climate change and what is causing it,” CERES says.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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johnupton@gmail.com

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Fort Collins, Colo., passes fracking ban; state and gas industry threaten to sue

by BakenKesselring341 Posted on March 6, 2013

Fort Collins, Colo., passes fracking ban; state and gas industry threaten to sue

By John Upton

Shutterstock /

Barbara Tripp

Lovely Fort Collins, where frackers are not welcome.

The city council of Fort Collins, Colo., voted Tuesday to ban fracking within city limits. The move has strong support from residents, but it makes the city the target of lawsuits from the state government and the oil and gas industry.

The new regulations [PDF] will block gas and oil exploration and ban the storage of hazardous fracking chemicals within the city, which is 65 miles north of Denver and home to 150,000 people.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) said last week that the fracking ban would constitute an illegal “taking” of mineral rights. He said he doesn’t want to sue Fort Collins, but that his principled approach to his job obliges him to do so. “Bans like the one under consideration in Fort Collins violate state law,” his spokesman said. “The governor takes no joy in suing local government. He respects local planning and control.”

The council voted to keep frackers away from the city anyway. From the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

Mayor pro tem Kelly Ohlson said state regulators have no credibility with him, nor does Gov. John Hickenlooper, who said last week the state would sue the city if it passed a ban.

“I believe the governor should spend his time protecting the health and safety and welfare of citizens of Colorado rather than acting like the chief lobbyist for the oil and gas industry,” he said. “In fact, I think he should literally quit drinking the fracking Kool-Aid.”

That was a reference to Hickenlooper drinking a cup of fracking fluid given to him by none other than Halliburton.

Also planning to sue Fort Collins: the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. This same organization submitted a petition to the city council two weeks ago with signatures showing 55 local businesses opposed the ban. But many of the signatures were apparently faked, and the association attempted to retract the petition after the deception was revealed by the Coloradoan.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

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Enviros slam Keystone findings, threatened species stay silent

by charlenedean Posted on March 4, 2013

Enviros slam Keystone findings, threatened species stay silent

By John Upton

Kenneth Cole Schneider

Whooping cranes: just one of the species threatened by the Keystone XL pipeline.

Environmentalists lined up over the weekend to condemn a draft State Department report that found no compelling environmental reason not to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

The stretch of pipeline in question would bring tar-sands oil from Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. border and down through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The southern stretch of the pipeline, which will carry the oil to Gulf Coast refineries, is already more than halfway built.

The draft environmental impact statement concluded [PDF] that the proposed project would damage more than 100 acres of wetlands, increase temperatures in wildlife-rich streams, and threaten vulnerable species. If there are spills from the pipeline, they could dump oil into lakes, aquifers, and rivers.

The project would also lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, but the department determined that if the pipeline is not built, that could trigger more global warming because the industry might then ship its oil via less efficient methods like rail and oil tanker. That claim drew widespread condemnation from activists and scientists.

From The Guardian:

Aside from the Sierra Club, other prominent scientists and environmental groups have criticised the State Department report. They say that the report ignores the idea that building the pipeline will encourage greater development of the tar sands and boost oil production of deposits that are seen as a highly pollutive resource which can cause widespread ecological damage as it is mined.

“The State Department is overlooking the fact that the pipeline is likely to trigger at least 450,000 barrels per day of additional tar sands production capacity,” said Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, in a statement.

James Hansen, a Columbia University professor who is one of the world’s most respected experts on climate change, also issued a statement attacking the report’s findings. “To say that the tar sands have little climate impact is an absurdity,” he said.

Amid the outcry over climate change, less attention has been paid to wildlife that would be threatened by Keystone. Here are just some of the vulnerable species that could be harmed if the Obama Pipeline is built. The block quotes are taken directly from the State Department report [PDF], which also recommends measures to help conserve the species.

Whooping crane – listed as endangered by the federal government and also protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Whooping cranes could be impacted by collisions with power lines associated with the proposed Project. The majority of the proposed Project route crosses the central flyway whooping crane migration corridor in South Dakota and Nebraska, and the Rainwater Basin in south central Nebraska provides whooping crane migration habitat.

Greater sage-grouse – a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act

Approximately 190 miles of the proposed Project route would cross areas with greater sage-grouse habitat in Montana, of which 94 miles are classified as moderate to high-quality habitat for greater sage-grouse.

American burying beetle –  listed as endangered by the federal government

Approximately 50 miles of the proposed Project Route in Nebraska would affect American burying beetle habitat; approximately 43 miles in South Dakota would affect suitable habitat for the species.

Western prairie fringed orchid – listed as a threatened species by the federal government

The proposed Project would pass near known populations of western prairie fringed orchid in Nebraska, and through land where the orchid may potentially occur in South Dakota. Clearing and grading of land associated with construction of the proposed Project (including pipeline and ancillary facilities) may potentially disturb western prairie fringed orchids, and may introduce or expand invasive species that already contribute to the orchid’s decline

Small white lady’s slipper – a perennial orchid listed as a threatened species by Nebraska

This species may potentially occur within suitable habitat along the proposed Project route in Nebraska.

You will soon be given 45 days to comment on the State Department’s draft report. Threatened plants and animals that could lose breeding grounds and die of electrocution if the project moves forward will receive no such opportunity.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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From red to black: How Philly remade its transit system

by 9ji7g4x Posted on February 26, 2013

From red to black: How Philly remade its transit system

By Susie Cagle

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has come a long way, baby. Back in the ’90s, it was mired in $75 million in debt and under investigation by the FBI. Now it’s being honored [PDF] as one of the top transit agencies in the nation.

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The Philadelphia Daily News has the story of how SEPTA was turned around over the last two decades, in large part thanks to board chair Pat Deon. After years of operating in the red, Philly’s transit systems added revenue-generating advertisements, balanced its budget, and drove right into the black.

SEPTA’s chief financial officer, Richard Burnfield, said the Deon-era board’s commitment to running SEPTA like a business with balanced budgets has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding that riders enjoy through new Silverliner V regional-rail cars ($330 million), 440 new hybrid buses ($232 million) and beautifully rebuilt subway stations such as Spring Garden and Girard ($30 million).

There were also some notable cultural shifts at the agency.

A big accomplishment during Deon’s tenure has been the cessation of hostilities between the 15-member board’s 13 suburban members and two city members.

Rina Cutler, who was appointed to the board by Mayor Nutter five years ago, said, “It was very clear to me that the city and SEPTA spent a long time poking each other in the eye, and that this relationship was not useful.

“I came from Boston, where people have such a love affair with transit, they wear T-shirts with an MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority] route map on them,” Cutler said. “That model didn’t exist here.”

Cutler said she and Deon “have a healthy respect” for one another and “we don’t poke each other in the eyes anymore.”

Deon told the Daily News: “When I first came here, this was just a pitiful operation. For myself and the board, it was like turning around an ocean liner. But we did it.”

Now Deon is pushing for a new smart-card system that would allow poorer transit riders without bank accounts to deposit their checks directly into the system, saving hundreds of dollars in fees and streamlining their rides. The city also plans to phase out subway tokens (!) by 2014.

The problems SEPTA has faced are more or less the same ones facing other regional transit systems that reach across poor urban communities and more affluent suburban ones (give or take an FBI investigation and some bus-related gunfire). If Philly can turn things around, perhaps there’s hope for us all.

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

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From red to black: How Philly remade its transit system

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