Wall Street Journal poll: Most popular spending cut is subsidies for new nuclear plants:
It is no big surprise that Americans don’t want cuts in Social Security, Medicare, or K-12 education. But the new WSJ/NBC poll does have some surprises:
The survey found that the most popular potential spending cuts were subsidies to build new nuclear plants, with 57 percent support….
Of course, nuclear is absurdly over-subsidized (see “Nuclear Pork—Enough is Enough“). In fact, a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, Nuclear Power: Still Not Viable without Subsidies (the source of the chart below), finds:
Government subsidies to the nuclear power industry over the past fifty years have been so large in proportion to the value of the energy produced that in some cases it would have cost taxpayers less to simply buy kilowatts on the open market and give them away ….
Of course Republicans don't mind waste when it enriches their large energy donors, their love of nuclear power despite safer, cheaper alternatives is no surprise. Speaking of power plants:
Three environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing the Lower Colorado River Authority of violating the Clean Air Act for nearly a decade at its coal-fired power plant 90 miles west of Houston.
The groups allege that the Austin-based utility has made modifications to three generators at the 1,760-megawatt Fayette Power Project but failed to install modern pollution control equipment.
As a result, the power plant has released massive amounts of tiny particles, or soot, that can cause lung damage and premature death, the groups claim in the suit, which was filed at the U.S. District Court in Houston...
EPA tells Oklahoma utilities to clean coal plants:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants power utilities in Oklahoma to reduce air pollution at three coal-fired power plants or convert the facilities to natural gas to improve visibility and protect human health.
The EPA did not name all the plants in its release but said they include OG&E Corp's (OGE.N) plant near Muskogee, OG&E's 1,046-megawatt Sooner plant and an American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP.N) plant northeast of Tulsa.
The EPA said the plants were built more than 30 years ago, and the reductions were necessary to meet regional haze requirements under the Clean Air Act.
Of course
Senator Jim Inhofe is very upset at the "over reaching" of the EPA to keep Oklahoma's air clean, a state's right to sell its citizens out to utilities should never be challenged.
Pacific Northwest sends coal a Dear John letter:
Dear Coal,
We've been together a long, long time, but I'm sorry, I'm leaving you for another. Don't try to argue: like it or not, I need you to move out by 2025. My friends at the Sierra Club have been pushing hard for this for a while, what with the lobbying and their Beyond Coal campaign, and I finally have to concede they're right.
You might as well know there's a new love in my life. We've been flirting for a while; that's why between the two of them, Oregon and Washington possess 38 percent of the nation's hydropower capacity. Throw in some natural gas and a little wind and you can see where this is going. I've got needs, and I can't in good conscience satisfy them in a fashion that's unsustainable. It's for the children.
Yours,
The Pacific Northwest
Why is Chris Mims so confident that coal will be gone in the Northwest? Because the Last coal plant in Pacific Northwest to shut down starting in 2020:
The last coal-fired power plant in the Pacific Northwest will shut down completely by 2025 under an agreement announced Saturday by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. The first boiler of TransAlta's 1,460-megawatt plant in Centralia, Wash., is set to go offline in 2020 and the second in 2025.
“This agreement is sending a message that states are getting serious about combating global-warming pollution and are taking steps to open up markets for home-grown clean energy,” said Bruce Nilles, deputy conservation director with the Sierra Club, whose Beyond Coal Campaign has been involved in the negotiations. Nilles hinted at the breakthrough during a keynote speech at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Ore., but commented only after the announcement.
The only other such plant in the Pacific Northwest, the PG&E plant near Boardman, Ore., is already under an agreement to go offline in 2020.
With the
possibility of marijuana decriminalization and
single-payer in the Northwest, seems like an ideal place to perhaps move...
Environment bills get past important deadline:
“I think we’re having a great conversation about how smart policies can improve the economy and clean up our environment,” said Environmental Priorities Coalition spokesman, Craig Benjamin. “As difficult as things are, we’re realistic about things moving forward, but we’re also optimistic.”
A bill to phase out coal power in Washington passed the Senate 36-13 Saturday; another measure to limit when and where people can use fertilizer that contains phosphorus passed the House in a 58-39 vote last week, and bills in both houses that would add a fee to petroleum products to pay for stormwater cleanup had hearings in February.
One of the most significant steps forward so far, said Benjamin, was the announcement Saturday that the governor and TransAlta, the state’s only coal-fired power plant had reached an agreement to shift entirely to greener electricity sources.
“We’re really excited,” Benjamin said. “This agreement is a model for how you can transition to coal-free energy throughout the U.S.”
Good news from Delaware, Biden unveils plan to target chronic polluters:
The bill, which will be formally filed when the General Assembly reconvenes next week, improves upon Delaware’s 2003 “chronic violators” law.
The proposal gives the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control clearer authority to designate polluters as chronic violators, which triggers enhanced financial penalties for future emissions.
The bill also beefs up those penalties. Currently, a chronic violator can only be fined a maximum of $10,000 per day. Under the bill, violators could be fined a maximum of $10,000 per illegal emission that happens in a given day...
Also from the area, Port of Baltimore goes green:
While port businesses and environmentalists often clashed in the past, terminal operators and marine businesses say they are stepping up efforts to minimize the harmful effects of port operations on the air, water and soil. They are working to make everything from cranes to yard equipment to warehouse lighting more efficient and environmentally friendly.
"The port is becoming the last line of defense in keeping stuff out of the bay," said Richard L. Sheckells Jr., chief of environmental initiatives for the Maryland Port Administration.
Port officials have installed screens in storm drains to keep pollutants out of the Chesapeake Bay, removed underground fuel tanks and used a federal grant to help businesses install clean diesel technology in 142 pieces of equipment. Tugboats with McAllister Towing, one of the port's main tug companies, run on slower speeds to burn less fuel.
Environmental watchdog outlines fracking risks:
Recent revelations by The New York Times that improperly treated wastewater containing brine, radioactive material and other harmful substances is finding its way into the state's bodies of water, along with the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority's consideration of a treatment facility in Hanover Township and two potential natural gas metering stations near the Dallas schools made the presentation timely.
Two main problems with natural gas drilling is the potential for explosions and blowouts at wells, compressor stations and pipelines, and the fact that the state often allows drilling wastewater to get into the environment after inadequate treatment, according to Volz.
Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," involves sending millions of gallons of chemical-treated water to open cracks in the shale and release the gas. In addition to the chemicals, the water picks up salts, naturally occurring radioactive material, barium, magnesium and various other volatile organic compounds....
"Serious, serious, serious" health problems result from drilling wastewater, Volz said. He showed photographs from a study he had done at a brine processing facility in Josephine, where improperly treated water was allowed to pour into a nearby stream. He said people with private wells within 100 feet of the stream could be affected - and so could people in cities like Freeport, Oakmont and even Pittsburgh if the pollutants find their way into the sources of water systems.
Rep. Henry Waxman talked before the Center for American Progress:
“I’ve never been in a Congress where there was such an overwhelming disconnect between science and policy.”
“Republicans in Congress have become the party of science deniers, and that is profoundly dangerous.”
“The gulf between what science tells us and what the governing party in the House believes makes it difficult to find common ground.”
“The new Republican majority in the House has a lot of power to write our nation’s laws, but they do not have the power to rewrite the laws of nature. Republicans in Congress can’t cure cancer by passing a bill that declares smoking safe. And they can’t stop climate change by declaring it a hoax.”
From across the pond, After the floods, Britain's rain defences put to test:
Britain's biggest civil emergency exercise, costing £1.8m and involving 10,000 people, begins today, in response to the country's biggest peacetime emergency – the floods of 2007.
Exercise Watermark is designed to test national readiness for another episode like 2007's disastrous flooding in Yorkshire and the Severn valley in Gloucestershire, which damaged 55,000 properties.
More than 7,000 people had to be rescued, 42,000 people were left without power and 350,000 people had no mains water supply for up to 17 days. And it could have been worse.
If the Ulley reservoir dam near Rotherham had burst – and in June 2007, it nearly did – almost a million people might have been without any power in the Sheffield area.
The floods were so severe the Government commissioned a special study by engineer and former local authority chief executive Sir Michael Pitt, who said in his report that the importance of flood risk should now "be brought up alongside the risk of terrorism or a major flu pandemic".
And we'll end with something practical:
According to the American Public Transportation Association, an average two-person American household can save $825 a month by giving up one car in favor of public transit (those figures include parking). In New York, the city at the top of the list, savings could add up to more than $14,000 per year. In Las Vegas, it would be more like $9,000 -- still some serious change.
Please feel free to share your environmental news in the comments, thanks and have an eco-fabulous day!