Joshua Zaffos at High Country News writes:
The push for green power could spawn a rush for small hydropower projects in the Northwest
Thanks partly to Boeing's new jet factory, Snohomish County, Wash., is one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. The north Seattle county's energy demand is expected to increase 25 percent over the next decade, and its local utility is scrambling for new sources of power.
Currently, the Snohomish County Public Utility District gets 80 percent of its energy from massive dams on the Columbia River. But with big dams and fossil fuels losing favor, it's looking to alternative sources: solar, wind, geothermal and biomass and, perhaps the most controversial of all, small-scale dams, which utility managers consider environmentally and economically viable.
Boosters tout small-scale hydroelectric projects -- defined as generating less than 30 megawatts, or enough to power up to 30,000 homes -- as carbon-neutral and more fish-friendly. And the resource has staggering potential: Just a fraction of the possible sites on Washington's waterways could power millions of homes.
But although utilities, investors and speculators are getting into the game, small-hydro development won't be easy or cheap without policy incentives and tax credits. And not everyone thinks it's a good idea. "We look at our watersheds and waterways in the Northwest as pretty stressed already. The impacts are apparent everywhere," says Rich Bowers, Northwest coordinator for the Hydropower Reform Coalition, a network of 140-plus environmental and outdoor recreation groups. ...
Whether or not they're certified green, however, the potential proliferation of new dams worries most environmentalists. "These small projects in many cases have the biggest impacts relative to their size," says American Whitewater's Thomas O'Keefe.
[...]
New projects often use "weirs," low dams that allow water to spill over the top, but O'Keefe says such structures still de-water streams to turn turbines, thereby annihilating boating runs. And even small projects require habitat-disturbing transmission lines and maintenance roads. One plant on a salmon-free creek might be OK, but critics worry that the cumulative effects of numerous small dams will stifle river systems and fish populations. O'Keefe and other opponents believe new hydroelectricity should come instead from efficiency upgrades and the addition of turbines to existing dams. |
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The diary rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
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gmoke wants no changes or weakening in Section 201 of the climate bill still working its way through the Senate. He explained why in Building Codes to Save More Emissions than 100 Nukes: "Because all other energy and emissions reduction approaches pale in comparison to what Section 201 will accomplish. Without it, we simply cannot meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets called for in the bill. We won’t even come close. ... Building Codes to Save More Emissions Than 100 Nukes? ... The proof is in the data. There’s simply no comparison. Whereas the 100 nuclear power plants only act as a replacement energy source, the updated building energy codes of Section 201 actually reduce energy consumption, eliminating the need for more plants. The codes also achieve more than six times the emissions reductions as 100 nuclear power plants. The codes accomplish all of this at a fraction of the cost."
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The Overnight News Digest is posted. Included is the story, 79% - Talkin' 'bout my Generation.
In a terrific catch, KingOneEye pointed out that Foxaganda supports eco-terrorism in Fox Nation Touts Grand Theft As A "Fun New Sport": "So the right-wing, Republican, law and order, traditional values, pretenders at Fox nation think that it's ‘fun’ to steal the property of innocent people and destroy it by, amongst other things, throwing it into canals. This obviously creates a burden for the victim, but it is also impacts the insurance companies, the car dealerships, the municipalities charged with retrieving the vehicle, and the police who must allocate resources to the case. What amuses the Fox Nation hypocrites is the fact that the targets of the criminals' animus are people who have elected to purchase environmentally responsible vehicles. Apparently these folks deserve to be victimized. I wonder if Fox would regard it as equally humorous if vandals went around slashing the tires of SUVs? Of course, when Earth Liberation Front activists torched Hummers on dealer lots (not private owners), they were labeled ‘eco-terrorists.’"
ids wrote about Taking these jobs and shoving them: "Chicago's Mayor Daley's environment commissioner last week on why his efforts to clean the air ignores the biggest polluters, two dirty old coal plants, responds with the approach that gives any business that’s employing hundreds of people in the Chicago area time . . . is the preferable approach.". Illinois Governor Quinn this week signed a so-called renewable energy bill to support construction of renewable energy and clean coal projects that will create jobs. President Obama said this week of his support for ACES, from my perspective, from an economic perspective, this is a job creator. This diary looks at the jobs argument to support coal."
Muskegon Critic lamented how cyclical Great Lakes levels have offered another entry point for Global Warming Deniers: Good news. After almost a decade of dramatically falling water levels in the Great Lakes, during which Lake Superior hit a record low, water levels are starting to rebound. For an idea of how low the waters got, here's a pic of a lighthouse in Grand Traverse Bay in 2007. And now the water is coming back. ... When water levels had hit dramatic lows, the effect of global warming on the Lakes was an easier sell. Now, as levels rise, the Global Warming Deniers are making ‘global cooling’ cracks and making general asses of themselves as they gleefully point out that rising water levels are proof that Global Warming or ‘Climate Change’ is a bunch of hooey."
DavidSewell alerted us to Forged letters from anti cap-and-trade lobbyists: "There is a fine piece of local reporting in today's Charlottesville, Virginia, Daily Progress that deserves to get some national attention for the spotlight it focuses on deceptive tactics used by hired-gun lobbyists. The lead: As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure. The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries."
Then John Kerry, yes that John Kerry, weighed in on the subject in a diary that made the Rec List, Forgeries to Distort Climate Change Debate?: "Nothing should surprise us anymore after we’ve seen powerful interests mislead about the science, twist the facts about climate change, resort to a whole host of tactics to try to hide a simple fact: the earth is in trouble because of manmade greenhouse gasses, our planet is getting closer and closer to a dangerous tipping point, and we must do something about this immediately. But I have to say, this appears to be a desperate distortion too many. As also written about on Kos here, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported today that a DC lobbying firm working for big corporations opposed to climate action actually forged letters from major minority groups, pushing for delay and inaction."
In the Weekly Mulch series, Raquel Brown at the The Media Consortium wrote about Why Diplomacy is Key to Fighting Climate Change: "On Tuesday, the world’s two leading polluters, the United States and China, finally signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’ and pledged to work together to create a global solution to arrest climate change by December’s United Nations summit in Copenhagen, as Stephen Robert Morse reports for Mother Jones. The two countries have long disagreed on the best way to control climate change and used each other as an excuse for inaction. Disagreements have centered around which country should pay for clean-ups and new technologies."
Tokar reported on some little-known good news on the environmental front, I suppose...: "Even with all this global warming talk, green energy talk, the C.A.R.S. rebate talk, and electric car talk among other things, one thing has gone under the bus, entirely. The main stream media has made no mention of it at all. I really don't expect them to, either. Not because I think the MSM fails in journalism (although I believe they do fail at journalism for the most part), but because there has been no activity. I speak about none other than the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season."
One Pissed Off Liberal arrived a few weeks late with his DK GreenRoots diary, Mother Earth: " This unbelievably beautiful blue orb we call earth is everything to us, yet it is far less than it for so long seemed. For most of human history we did not recognize much in the way of earthly limitations. The planet’s territory, resources and capacity to sustain us seemed more-or-less infinite at a global scale, and as a practical matter and generally speaking it was...until recently. The handwriting was on the wall as early as the Industrial Revolution, but we came slowly to the reading of it. It has only been within my lifetime that we have begun to awaken in any real sense to what it means to exist on a finite planet whose inexhaustible resources are no longer any such thing."
sarahnity posted her weekly series, Frugal Fridays: The Psychology of Money: "Welcome to Week 2 of the periodic event ‘Let's Clean Out the Bookmarks Folder.’ It's sort of like spring cleaning - you'll never know what you'll find. This week I've tried to cull out articles and tips that I've saved that have something to do with how our subconscious motivations can influence how we earn, spend, and save money. We may like to think that we are logical beings with good reasons for our actions, but all too often, we have internal influences we don't even realize exist."
And then there was a follow-up flurry of diaries about the suspended, not-quite-suspended, revived "Cash for Clunkers" program. If only Congress could move that fast on all programs.
The diaries started with docjess posing a means for How to Save the Cash for Clunkers Program: "I have an idea, because I know where there is $300 billion (less about a quarter of a million or so) hiding out, unspent. We wrote a few months ago about a Baby Bush program to save homeowners from foreclosure. There was ONE recipient.
Jimdotz then noted that the White House was saying Cash for Clunkers is NOT over: "Christina Romer, Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, just said unequivocally on CNBC that within the White House, Agencies, and Congress, there is a flurry of activity regarding the wildly-successful ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program and that the program will have the money to continue despite rapidly burning through its inital funding."
mka193 pointed out the lame GOP attempt to make connections in Cash for Clunkers = Mismanagement of Health Care?: "House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said lawmakers were working to bring the measure to the House floor on Friday but it was unclear how many Republicans would support on the plan. '’There are a lot of questions about how the administration administered this program. If they can't handle something as simple as this, how would we handle health care?'’ Boehner told The Associated Press."
proseandpromise offered Some Quick Math Showing that Cash for Clunkers Looks Encouraging.
maxomai caught the news that the House PASSES $2B Cash for Clunkers extension: " House has passed an extension to the Cash for Clunkers program right now, after a quick debate on the House floor."
"Cash for Clunkers" critic A Siegel asked if we could CFC Toward a Better Economy? and do it truly green: "Well, the $1 billion that the nation's auto dealers look to have gone through in just one week sparked, quite easily, $4 billion or more in sales at those dealers. Right off the top, that implies about $200 million (or more) in sales taxes, salaries (commissions) for workers in auto dealerships, work in junk yards for the old cars, etc ... We are talking a quick leverage effect, moving cars off the lots, with a trickle up occurring boosting the stock prices of auto companies and their suppliers. ... Now, I'm among the many who criticized the C.A.R.S. program for fundamental problems in its structure. While I stand behind those critiques, I believed and believe, even as highlighting the structural problems, that a ‘clunkers’ program can make sense when well structured."
And woolie discussed the end of the line for clunkers being retired in Euthanasia of the Cars: "The cars must be destroyed to prevent parts recycling or export. Lethal injection is the method of choice -- quick, painless, effective, and as in Huntsville, the parts cannot be harvested to prolong the lives of others. ...In contemplation, I was overcome with sadness. Who will terminate the cars, will they do it all at once, one at a time, so many details in this cruel task."