Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. For one day of the year, you get to be someone (or something) else. Today, a few of us dressed up as green jobs workers and delivered a message to our Virginia Senators: We want clean energy jobs NOW! Wearing green hard hats, work boots and tool belts, we delivered our messages in style- by presenting the staff of Senator Webb and Senator Warner with a Frankenstein halloween bucket filled with candy and petitions from folks all across the Commonwealth who want Congress to pass a strong climate bill this year. We think they got the message!
Would you want these kinds of benefits?
Late last week, after resolving a lawsuit by environmental and public health organizations, EPA officials announced that they have set a deadline for developing standards to limit mercury and other toxins emitted from coal-fired power plants by Nov. 16, 2011. According to the EPA, coal-fired plants in this country emit nearly 50 tons of mercury each year, or about a third of the nation’s total mercury emissions. Initially when the suit was filed last year, only 28% of coal plants used scrubbers for pollution controls. However, these scrubbers are creating another environmental problem: contaminated drinking water. According to an article in the New York Times, one of the biggest threats to our waterways is coal-fired power plants. Yet there are no federal regulations on the proper disposal of toxins from coal plants into waterways or landfills. The EPA announced earlier this week it will begin looking into the contamination effects of fly-ash, a coal by-product created when coal is burned.
In a report released by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation earlier this month, mercury emissions from the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s (ODEC) proposed coal-fired power plant for the Hampton Roads region in Surry County would further damage waterways leading into the Chesapeake Bay where state advisories are already posted due to the high levels of mercury contamination.
All of this comes on the heels of a report by the National Academy of Sciences stating that the annual cost of health issues related to emissions from coal-fired power plants was about $60 billion in the United States.
Surry County and the rest of the Chesapeake Bay community don’t need these kinds of “benefits”. Join us in saying NO to this plant.
Video: 7 Arrested in WV Governor's Office
I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with these inspirational activists.
Md. Businesses Decry U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Stance on Global Warming Policy
Business leaders in Maryland today spoke out against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its obstruction of climate legislation. A number of major companies, including Apple and Levi Strauss & Co., have recently resigned from the Chamber because they disagree with the Chamber’s stance on global warming. Local businesses joined the national companies in declaring that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t represent them. Continue reading
350 in Times Square
This just in from 350.org‘s Jamie Henn
(drumroll please…)
The 350.org team has just secured permission to display the 350 photos from around the world on the MASSIVE screens in the heart of New York City, with global media standing by to broadcast the story worldwide! That means that your photo can appear 30 feet tall for the world to see. We’ve always said that we want to inject this number deep into the information consciousness of the planet, and Times Square is about as close to the the mainstream as you can get.
The photos from the big day will all have the number 350 depicted in them somehow, and will act as a huge visual petition that we’ll send to world leaders. On the Monday after October 24th, the 350.org crew will be visiting UN headquarters to hand-deliver the photos to diplomats and delegates the world over.
As if you needed another reason to sign up for the blowout event in DC. Join CCAN, the Hip Hop Caucus, DC’s own go-go band “Backyard Band” and thousands of your closest friends. 350.org/dc!
Continue reading
Boxer-Kerry Climate Bill Improves on House Version, but Consumer Rebates Are Needed and Nuclear Subsidies Must Go
CCAN congratulates Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) for their work to curb global warming emissions and shift to a clean energy economy. It is absolutely critical that the United States take action to show its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, introduced September 30th, would put the U.S. on the right path, although it doesn’t go far enough.
Boxer-Kerry Climate Bill Improves on House Version, but Consumer Rebates Are Needed and Nuclear Subsidies Must Go
Statement on the
“Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act”
Statement on the
“Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act”
Statement of Mike Tidwell, Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
October 1st, 2009
“CCAN congratulates Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) for their work to curb global warming emissions and shift to a clean energy economy. It is absolutely critical that the United States take action to show its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, introduced September 30th, would put the U.S. on the right path, although it doesn’t go far enough.
“The bill is an improvement over the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act for two main reasons: there is a 3% increase, from 17 to 20%, in the 2020 target for emissions reductions and, more significantly, it upholds the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate global warming pollution from coal plants and other stationary sources of emissions.
“However, there are a number of areas that need strengthening or clarification when the bill is marked up (amended) by the full Environmental and Public Works committee:
“It is unclear how many of the permits to emit pollution will be auctioned and how much of the revenue raised will be returned to consumers a direct way to help offset higher energy bills during the transition to a clean energy economy. (CCAN continues to believe a “cap and dividend” approach would be far superior in this regard than the “cap and trade” approach passed by the House). Over the summer over 1,000 hand-written letters were sent to Maryland Senator Ben Cardin urging him to include strong protections for consumers. CCAN looks forward to Cardin’s continued leadership on this issue as the bill is marked up in committee.
“While the targets are stronger, the Senate bill falls short of what scientists say is necessary to avert catastrophic climate impacts: a 25-40% reduction in emissions below 1990 levels by 2020. And allowing for 2 billion tons of ‘offsets’ each year (equal to 27% of the U.S.’s total annual emissions) could mean that there will be very little actual reductions of emissions by polluting plants in the U.S. for a decade and a half.
“The Senate bill also differs from the House version in that it subsidizes expensive and unsafe nuclear energy. The Chesapeake Bay region has abundant renewable energy sources, including a huge potential for offshore wind. Investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency is a safer, faster and less expensive alternative to nukes.
“Finally, the Senate bill allows for new coal plants to be built from now until 2025 without any need to sequester carbon until as late as 2027.
“As we did for the House bill, CCAN will work actively to oppose efforts to weaken this bill and will support efforts to strengthen it.”
Virginia Coal Industry Moving to Get Vanity Plates
This is cross posted from the Wise Energy for Virginia Blog
This is the vanity plate that the Va Mining Association is pushing for. Virginia law requires the sponsoring organization (in this case the Virginia Mining Association) to collect a minimum of 350 prepaid licenses plate applications. Here is more on this from them.
I’m not even sure what to say about this, its just gross. Maybe we could get “Friends of Sanity” plates? More likely we could get “Friends of the Mountains” or “Stop Mountaintop Removal” plates.
If your interested, email me, seriously: mike@appvoices.org
Misleading "Energy Sprawl" Study Pollutes Climate Debate
Misleading “Energy Sprawl” Study Pollutes Climate Debate
This is cross posted from The Huffington Post and iLoveMountains.org
As Congress was returning from the August recess, there wasn’t much news about the climate bill. The only energy-related news breaking through the coverage of the rancorous health care debates and town-hall tea parties was a study on “energy sprawl” published by five staff members of the Nature Conservancy.
“Renewable Energy Needs Land, Lots Of Land” was the headline of an August 28th story on NPR about the study.
“Renewable technologies increase energy sprawl,” was the headline summary on the journal Nature’s website.
Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, in an Op/Ed published in the Wall Street Journal, summed up the message that was heard by legislators and the public from the news coverage of the study:
“we’re about to destroy the environment in the name of saving it.”
The interesting thing about the news coverage is that none of it addressed the actual analysis. The study didn’t actually measure the impacts of different energy technologies, but rather compiled estimates from a smattering of reports, fact sheets and brochures from government and industry sources in order to arrive at an acre-per-unit of energy figure for each energy technology. Those figures were then applied to the Energy Information Administration’s modeling of four climate policy scenarios under consideration by Congress.
So the coverage was generated not by the study’s results, but entirely by the assumptions that went into it about the relative impacts of renewable versus conventional energy technologies. Looking at the counter-intuitive findings (wind is 8 times as destructive as coal), it’s no wonder that the media took such an interest.
To put those assumptions in perspective, the habitat impact of the Mount Storm Wind Farm in the first image is assumed to be 25% greater than the impact of the 12,000 acre Hobet mountaintop removal mine in the second image (images are taken from the same altitude and perspective; the bright connect-the-dots feature in the windfarm image is the actual area disturbed):
Climate Ride: CCAN director bikes from Baltimore to DC
One hundred and forty brave climate activists left New York City’s Central Park on Saturday September 26th with the idea of wheeling down to Congress with a message: Fix the climate now! By the time I caught up with the group on Tuesday night just north of Baltimore, the cyclists had already ridden through rain, hail, headwinds and punishing crosswinds. “I was literally riding at a severe angle, my bike tilted toward the ground,” said one participant from Northern Virginia, describing his trek across Pennsylvania.
Welcome to the 2nd annual Brita Climate Ride, 300 miles of leg-testing, spirit-challenging work (and fun) to beat global warming. Hearing the stories of bad weather, I realized this was the perfect metaphor for the climate movement as a whole. It has NOT been a smooth and sunny ride trying to get strong climate legislation passed by the U.S. Congress this year. We have experienced lots of rain and hail and crosswinds in the House of Representatives. And now more storms are likely in the Senate as we push toward the international Copenhagen conference in December.
But we have to keep on riding until we reach our destination: Clean energy now. No new coal plants. Green jobs for a green economy! Continue reading
Video:"We simply ask that you let us live"
On Monday I had the privilege of meeting one of the global climate movement’s greatest new leaders, President Nasheed of the Maldives. The Maldives is a nation of tiny tropical islands located in the Indian Ocean off the tip of the Indian Sub-continent. (Don’t worry I had to look it up too. Map here). This archipelago is the home to 350,000 people who will have their lives destroyed by the climate threat if we fail to act.
I met President Nasheed on Monday night in New York City at a Climate Justice event in which we both spoke at as part of Climate Week NYC. A man of short physical stature President Nasheed has a commanding presence with his illuminating humor and tremendous bravery.
When Mary Robinson, the event moderator and former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, questioned him about what policy platform he was proposing to the UN he paused and said with a beaming smile: “We simply ask that you let us live.” The audience, myself included, joined him in laughing at his whimsical tone. However, mid-chortle I was suddenly overcome by a deep sadness. I will not soon forget the gravity of his simple plea for human decency and survival. For the 350,000 people of his nation clean energy is not about a lifestyle choice. It is the choice between life and death.
In President Nasheed own words: “Sea level rise of even half a meter would make much of it [the Maldives] uninhabitable; meanwhile, ocean temperature spikes could destroy the coral reefs that protect these islands from the waves.” In his passionate speech to the UN General Assembly (video here) he said that failure to reach a deal in Copenhagen will mean that “our country will not exist.” Wow. Almost unimaginable.