It’s been five days since the US Supreme Court decided to upstage Wal-Mart in the art of deep discounting and slash Exxon’s punitive damages in the Valdez disaster case from 2.5 billion down to 507 million.
Two billion dollars Continue reading
A few spots still available for the Brita Climate Ride!
That’s right, there are still a few spots available for the Brita Climate Ride.
The ride is a fundraiser like none other
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 3
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 was the final day of the Air Board Hearing concerning the Wise County coal plant. The room was full of hope after yesterday’s comment period, and the board acknowledged the powerful citizen outcry over the plant’s health and environmental impacts. But ultimately, they unanimously approved the plant. While they significantly strengthened the emissions regulations, they did nothing to address mountain top removal mining or CO2 emissions.
They went as far as they could, without doing more harm than good. Fearing litigation from Dominion, they made no strong statement about regulating CO2 Continue reading
Video: Get to know CCAN's staff in Maryland
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.
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
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
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
Dispatches from Wise County, Part 1
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.
There’s been a lot of talk about the old ways here in Appalachia. Today is the first day of my trip to Wise County to see what we’re fighting for, to get to know the people who are fighting in this community to stop this plant and to attend tomorrow’s Air Board meeting, where they will decide whether or not to grant Dominion’s final permit.
We started the day by helping the Clinch Coalition build a trail in Jefferson National Forest. The forest is a glorious example of the Appalachian eco-diversity. Hickory, Red Oak and Beech gave way to rhododendron and hemlock. Hemlock is rare these days because of a small beetle, the woolly adelgid, which has infested large numbers of hemlock stands in Virginia. But these hemlock were free from infestation, as was the forest in general. There are few invasive species there, even though the roads and more populated trails have numerous examples of invasives like kudzu. The rhododendrons were still in bloom, and as we looked out over the vista of mountains and deep forest, the scars from mountain top removal mining were clearly in view.
A quarter of this county has been destroyed by mountain top removal mining. We visited black mountain with Larry Bush, whose family has been living there for generations, and we witnessed the intense scarring that mountain top removal mining cuts into this landscape. Miles of land, where a mountain once stood, was leveled, barren and destroyed. Continue reading