While DC fiddles and runs from comprehensive climate change legislation, a tribe in California and 3 school districts in Chicago recognize that green energy is not just good for our environment but also can sustain communities economically. Both have decided to invest in wind farms as a remedy for the economic shortfalls that each face.
Tonight's Climate Change News Roundup also includes news on how Koch Industries linked to climate denial machine, UN may rein in carbon trading scam, BP settlements likely to shield top defendants, fish beachings may be increasing due to BP gusher, toxic oil possibly found on seafloor, lizard species going extinct now, and even Dems voting NO on climate bill attacked as if they voted yes.
The Campo Kumeyaay Nation, a tribe located near San Diego, "currently leases land for the only large-scale renewable power facility on tribal land in the country." In 2001, the tribal members were excited with the opening of a casino, which provided the revenues for fire department, educational programs and jobs. However, the casino revenue is not sustainable income when the economy takes a hit or half the community is unemployed. So, the Camp Kuemyaay Nation moved on to a wind farm to generate income in 2005, but this project simply leases their land.
Now, the tribe is negotiating to build another wind farm but this time the tribe will be investors with a private energy firm and a local utility. It is projected that the "electricity produced by that plant would be worth about $24 million a year on today’s market. Whatever the tribe's cut, members say it would be considerably more than they make now as leaseholders."
The wind and solar energy potential on tribal lands is shown on the maps.
Instead of a practice of government and corporations stealing and grabbing resources and leaving the mess behind, this investment will help sustain both environment and community.
However, taxes are an obstacle for tribal ownership of renewable energy. As semi-sovereign nations, tribes can't collect federal tax credits that can reduce by 50% the cost of wind or solar projects.
President Obama has worked to enable tribes to secure financing from stimulus money and federal aid for energy development. Sen. Dorgan has drafted a bill to provide federal tax credits to Indian tribes.
School districts have also seen the green energy windfall. Three school districts that have been struggling with operating shortfalls even after layoffs and program cuts plan to establish a wind farm to generate electricity and revenues. This may be the first time in our nation that school districts are taking the lead to build a wind farm.
The plan is for the school districts in the Chicago area to sell energy in order to defray their own electrical bills. The school districts formed a separate agency to recruit investors and handle the finances of bond issuance, and applying for federal grants." Officials foresee about $3 million in annual revenues for some 30 years — the expected life of the wind turbines."
More news in tonight's Climate Change News Roundup
BP GULF GUSHER
- BP Settlements Likely to Shield Top Defendants due to requirement must waive right to sue BP and other major defendants. There is also a requirement of geographic proximity that will "cut out large sectors of businesses and people that were indirectly but nonetheless deeply affected by the spill." AND, BP fund administrator adopts 6-month "statute of limitations": "For the next six months, anyone claiming an emergency payment can also sue BP at a future date but beyond that period claimants would forfeit the right file against the company, Feinberg said."
- Gulf of Mexico's Fish Beachings May Be Increasing Because of BP Oil Spill.
BP Plc’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be exacerbating a natural phenomenon that causes fish, crabs, eels and shrimp to swarm the shoreline to escape oxygen-depleted sea waters.
Called "jubilees" by locals because of the opportunity to scoop up seafood in buckets, they typically appear during the summer along the Gulf Coast. This year, scientists say jubilees have occurred in open water for the first time, raising concern that low-oxygen areas are expanding because of the more than 4 million barrels of oil BP’s Macondo well leaked into the Gulf.
- Weeks after government claimed "vast majority" of oil gone, Toxic Oil might have been found on seafloor that could harm base of food web: Test results early this week will confirm whether Gulf oil.
By shining ultraviolet light on the samples, the team indirectly detected hydrocarbons in the sample that seem to have the same fluorescent fingerprints as oil from the wellhead, which was capped July 15.
The early results are reminders that the oil hasn't been fully dispersed or degraded away, said cruise member David Hollander, a USF chemical oceanographer.
- Gulf oil spill: Most of the oil remains.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a controversial "oil spill budget" Aug. 2 estimating that a large part of the oil released into the Gulf of Mexico by the Deepwater Horizon spill was gone. But in a hearing on Capitol Hill, a NOAA official conceded that three-fourths of the pollutants from the 4.1 million barrels spewed into the gulf are still lingering in the environment.
Bill Lehr, senior scientist with NOAA’s Office of Restoration and Response, said booming and burning probably cleaned up only about 10% of the spilled oil. Much of the oil has evaporated or dispersed, but remains a source of hydrocarbons in the ecosystem, he said.
...He said agency scientists also have not tallied the significant quantities of methane gas and heavy metals released into the gulf as a result of the spill.
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY
- Rising temperatures reducing ability of plants to absorb carbon, study warns: "Large-scale droughts have wiped out plants that would have otherwise absorbed an amount of carbon equivalent to Britain's annual man-made greenhouse gas emissions."
- Species extinctions happening before our eyes: say goodbye to pretty lizards!
In the past, research has predicted that global warming could lead to the extinction of more than one-fifth of animal and plant species. This research has largely been based on theoretical models. However, now observations can confirm whether reality matches theory. The paper Erosion of Lizard Diversity by Climate Change and Altered Thermal Niches (Sinervo 2010) compares global observations of lizard populations from 1975 to present day. The result? Rapidly warming temperatures are causing lizard species to go extinct before our eyes.
- UN May Rein In Carbon Trading Scam. (H/T rfall)
An obscure U.N. board that oversees a $2.7 billion market intended to cut heat-trapping gases has agreed to take steps that could lead to it eventually reining in what European and U.S. environmentalists are calling a huge scam.
..."The evidence is overwhelming that manufacturers are creating excess HFC-23 simply to destroy it and earn carbon credits," said Mark Roberts of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a research and advocacy group. "This is the biggest environmental scandal in history and makes an absolute mockery of international efforts to combat climate change.
- From Anthrax to Allium: Views from a New York Postal Facility's Green Roof. (H/T rfall)
A New York City postal processing facility that was contaminated during the 2001 anthrax attacks is now the site of the largest "green roof" in Manhattan.
...The Morgan facility's green roof and other new energy-saving measures there, such as replaced windows, have saved the Postal Service more than $1 million in energy expenses so far... .
- Coal Industry Drinks Up Massive Amounts of Water: "Out of the 410 billion gallons drawn from US waterways everyday for a variety of the nation’s water needs, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), half of it goes to cooling power plants, which are largely coal fired."
- Increased temps raise cost of nuke power: Hot river forces costly cutback for TVA:
The Tennessee Valley Authority has lost nearly $50 million in power generation from its biggest nuclear plant because the Tennessee River in Alabama is too hot.
Unless the summer cools down, TVA could lose millions of dollars more, pushing up fuel costs and consumer electric bills even after seven consecutive monthly increases.
CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS
WATER & NATURAL RESOURCES