The Earthwatch Institute is teaming up with HSBC to put on a series of professional development workshops – and there are some happening right here in Maryland this fall! This specially designed workshop is part of a much larger program called the HSBC Climate Partnership, a five-year global partnership between HSBC (the world’s largest bank), The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and WWF to reduce the impacts of climate change for people, forests, water, and cities. Earthwatch is focusing its climate partnership efforts on forest research and employee engagement at sites established in five unique forest ecosystems across the globe
Kaine's Coal Plant Approved, Fight Headed to Court
Just two days after America’s top climate scientist warned that new coal-fired power plants would doom the global climate, the state of Virginia gave final approval to a massive new coal plant that will send dirty electricity to Northern Virginia. But the fight is far from over. We are headed to court where we believe the controversial $1.8 billion plant will be rejected — in part on global warming grounds.
Over a hundred people from all over Virginia came together in Wise County last week to show the Air Board that there is broad opposition to this plant, not just in southwest Virginia but throughout the Commonwealth. Despite massive efforts on the part of plant proponents, we far outnumbered the plant supporters at Tuesday’s public hearing.
In response to the outpouring of public opposition, the Air Board made a number of significant changes to the permits. These changes drastically curtail Dominion’s ability to emit mercury, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and carbon monoxide.
But ultimately the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board awarded final permits for a new 585-megawatt coal-burning plant that has no technology whatsoever to capture greenhouse gases and still fails to meet federally required maximum controls for the neurotoxin mercury and 60 other hazardous air pollutants. Despite a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Massachussetts vs. EPA) that establishes carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, the state of Virginia has now approved a plant that radically departs from the nation’s new clean energy focus. Continue reading
Health Risks of Global Warming
A volunteer passed this Washington Post article on to me, and I thought it was scary enough to share. As if we didn’t have enough reasons to fight global warming, what with threats to the economy through sea level rise and the imminent extinction of the polar bears, it will also have significant effects on public health worldwide.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, the average atmospheric temperature rose by about 1 degree Fahrenheit. By 2000, that increase was responsible for the annual loss of about 160,000 lives and the loss of 5.5 million years of healthy life, according to estimates by the World Health Organization. The toll is expected to double to about 300,000 lives and 11 million years of healthy life by 2020.
The article is also summarized in picture form! (Pretty terrifying, isn’t it?)
Dispatches from Wise County, Part 2
This week I’m going to be in Wise County, where Dominion Power is planning to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. Members of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and CCAN are putting on events around the meeting of the Air Board on Tuesday.
Today I attended the first day of the hearing of the Air Pollution Control Board. As appropriate to hearings, all the arguments were vetted today
Nukes don't solve warming.
CCAN opposes the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs.
There, I sa
id it.
The secret is out. CCAN, a climate group, also opposes the development of new nuclear power. We’ve joined up with the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition to fight this new Maryland reactor.
Why is this? Isn’t nuclear power going to be part of the climate solution? How are we going to shut down all the dirty, carbon-emitting coal plants and have enough electricity to power our laptops and tvs and i-pods and microwaves without nuclear energy?
Here are some answers for you. First of all, nuclear power is going to be a part of the climate solution – existing reactors that are already pumping energy into our grid shouldn’t be shut down as a matter of course. However, investment in new nuclear power as a climate solution is disingenuous, at best.
One commonly-touted claim is that nuclear power is carbon-neutral:
While electricity generated from nuclear reactors does not directly emit global warming pollution, the nuclear fuel chain does produce greenhouse gases. As the world demand for nuclear energy and uranium rises, the quality of uranium that will be available will decline, and require more energy intensive (and more costly) processing. Eventually, global warming pollution from nuclear energy may be higher than that from natural gas plants. (click here for full factsheet)
In addition, investing in energy efficiency is a far more cost-effective way of dealing with both global warming pollution and energy shortages. Other, cleaner forms of energy, such as solar and wind, can compete economically with nuclear power, and cause considerably less environmental degradation.
This brings me to my next point. Cost.
Calvert County already has granted $300 million in tax breaks to Constellation Energy. This is equal to $4,500 per taxpayer in Calvert County. The new plant will add 450 full-time jobs in thecounty, but at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $750,000 per job. Constellation will seek additional subsidies from the federal government and may seek additional financing from the state.Constellation could also potentially seek to have some of the cost of the new plant paid for by electricity ratepayers, by adding the cost of the plant to the rate base that customers pay. (click here for full factsheet and sources)
With all of this tax money getting poured into a nuclear reactor, especially during a budget crisis, do you really think that there will be money left over for the state to invest significantly in renewable energy like home solar tax incentives or offshore wind farms? Yeah, I don’t either.
If you’re starting to get fired up, there are plenty of ways to get involved. The MD Public Service Commission will be holding a series of public hearings in August, so stay tuned for opportunities to submit your comments. Not only that, but I’ll be continuing to post updates on this fight throughout the summer – including more information on this particular plant, resources for you to learn more, and ways to connect with other activists.
PS – If you’re interested in learning more about other worrisome aspects of nuclear power (like terrorism possibilities and waste disposal), CSEC has a some more really informative factsheets. Woo, factsheets
Dr. James Hansen: The Paul Revere of Climate Change
The venerable Dr. James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, whom Representative Markey referred to in his introduction as “the Paul Revere of the global warming crisis,” had the air of a lion of the climate change movement as he addressed the gathering of congressional aides and the public at his commemorative briefing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He wasn’t there to drop any bombs on congress or even convince any global warming deniers, rather he emphasized the sorts of changes that should be made, when we need to make these changes (pretty much right now) and how we might go about accomplishing these changes.
He hit all the big points: cutting CO2 emissions, getting back to 350ppm, raising efficiency standards and moving to a low-loss grid, but many ears perked up in the hearing room when he mentioned that we should take it as a foregone conclusion that all the oil currently accessible would be burned. Wait, what? But we can pass fuel efficiency standards, move to plug-in electric cars powered by a renewable grid. We won’t use Tupperware, I’ll cut down on my use of WD-40. We’re going to burn all the oil?!
Yes. He said that the interests controlling the oil supplies such as the vast state owned operations in Russia, Venezuala and Iran have such a stake in oil that they would never let anything interfere with converting their oil into revenue. End of story.
We should focus instead, he suggested, on making sure that no new coal plans are built in the US (you hear that, Dominion?). This goal is accomplishable and can help curtail the acceleration of CO2 emissions immediately. This comment seemed especially apt considering that the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board votes Wednesday on Dominion Virginia Power’s permit to build a big honkin’ coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA. The members of the board would be wise to heed Dr. Hansen’s advice. There is no greater authority on climate change in the world. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his courage.
Video: Get to know CCAN's staff in Maryland
Clean Energy for Washington DC – being voted on in City Council next week
On July 1st, the DC City Council will be voting on the Clean and Affordable Energy Act (Bill 17-492), an important piece of legislation that would direct investments into energy conservation and efficiency, instead of new sources of electricity – right here in our nation’s capital!
Not surprisingly, PEPCO is opposed to this legislation, which means that the members of the City Council need to hear from citizen activists like you who strongly support taking steps to fight global warming while saving citizens money. If you’re a DC resident, send an email showing your support by clicking here.
The Clean and Affordable Energy Act would revamp the way consumers get energy and would create a sustainable utility to oversee it all. The bill would require a gradual increase in the energy produced by alternative methods such as solar power so that by 2020, at least one-fifth of energy would come from renewable sources. More information about the Clean and Affordable Energy Act.
So why is this important? Besides the fact that increasing in renewable energy and energy efficiency are always pretty good ideas, passing such strong legislation in DC in particular sends yet another message to our elected officials that we want real solutions to global warming – starting in the backyard of the Capitol Building.
Please take a minute now to email the DC City Council in support of the Clean and Affordable Energy Act. Continue reading
D.C.'s newest baseball team: The Washington Exxons
Protesters object to a green baseball stadium sponsored by the world’s dirtiest corporation
Essay by Mike Tidwell
Crossposted from Grist.org
Imagine a Major League Baseball stadium constructed to actually fight lung disease. Imagine engineers eschewing asbestos in every form, using only materials approved by the American Lung Association. Imagine emergency inhalers at every seat, with team officials aggressively marketing the “healthy-lung” park to conscientious fans.
Then imagine your surprise, in visiting the park, to see a huge Marlboro cigarettes ad plastered across the left field fence. Imagine another Marlboro ad behind home plate so TV viewers can’t look away. Imagine, finally, being asked to stand and sing Take Me Out To the Ball Game during the “Marlboro Cigarettes 7th Inning Stretch.”
Sounds absurd, right? Well, welcome to Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., for an inconceivable variation on this theme. With public alarm over global warming at an all-time high, team owners of the Nationals baseball team spent millions for a “healthy Earth” park, with environmental features like low-flow plumbing and energy-efficient lighting. The new park has been officially declared a “green facility” by the National Green Building Council, the first of its kind in American sports.
But visiting fans know the rest: Strike Marlboro cigarettes and substitute “ExxonMobil” and you have the astonishing reality at Nationals Park. Oil giant ExxonMobil, the biggest contributor to global warming of any company in the world, has its name splashed across the left field fence and, intermittently, behind home plate. ExxonMobil, which invests almost nothing in clean energy while gasoline goes to $4 per gallon, is the feel-good sponsor of the 7th-inning stretch, so your child can happily sing about peanuts and Cracker Jacks while the company logo sparkles on the biggest scoreboard in baseball. Continue reading
Hit the showers, Exxon!
Launched! The campaign to get Exxon’s advertising dollars out of Nationals Park is officially underway. There was a healthy press turnout, with FOX News, WJLA and WAMU radio among those present to get the scoop on the campaign to Strike Exxon Out at Nationals Park.
A successful and well attended event with representatives from CCAN, Greenpeace, Hip Hop Caucus, Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International addressing Exxon’s attempt to piggyback on the Nationals’ LEED Silver Certified stadium to “green-wash” their brand. Not on our watch! Keep Nationals Park truly green!
Now we’ve got to keep the ball rolling. The first five volunteers to sign up to hand out literature at Nationals home games will get free tickets to the game. You read correctly, free tickets. To Nationals home games. For the rest of the season. If you want to help educate the public about Exxon’s long history of environmental destruction and funding of global warming denial groups AND get free tickets to a Nationals home game, this volunteer opportunity is for you. But you’ve got to act soon, spots are filling up. Here’s where you sign up.