An urgent message for President Obama: Put Solar on It!

“In 1979, President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House. In 1986, President Reagan removed them and they were never replaced. Years later, Unity College in Maine adopted the panels where they have lived ever since. Until now.” Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org has organized a solar road trip from Unity College down to Washington, DC to ask President Obama to re-install solar panels on the White House roof as part of the 10.10.10 Global Work Party events.

“Nothing replaces legislation that really cuts carbon,” said McKibben. “But one way to build support for those changes is to show how easy it is to start to work. It’s time for President Obama to roll up his sleeves and get to work at his own home and in Congress.”

The movement to get solar back on the White House is spreading rapidly and CCAN’s Mike Tidwell weighed in on the efforts. “President Obama’s stimulus package included many incentives for Americans to ‘go green’ in their daily lives,” said

Take that King Coal!

Today is a great day for fighting coal in Virginia! Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) has announced its plans to delay moving forward with a 1500 MW coal plant proposed for Surry County in Hampton Roads. Citing a down economy, reduced energy consumption and pending federal regulation by the EPA, ODEC announced it will wait up to two years before resubmitting permit applications to the state.

Make no mistake though, there is still a fight ahead of us. We will continue to build a community of opposition to this proposal until this project is permanently withdrawn or rejected.

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Supporting wind in Virginia

Op ed in the Roanoke Times
September 2, 2010

From the severe winter storms in the Mid-Atlantic to the horrendous flooding in Pakistan and the intense heat waves facing many areas of the world, it is clear our climate is changing. While no one weather event can be linked to global warming, there is mounting evidence that climate change will result in more severe weather events, as the world has been experiencing over the last nine months. Because of this pattern, it is more urgent than ever that society acts to stop climate change by whatever means necessary. Every step we can take, big or small, brings us incrementally closer to solving the climate crisis. Locally, one such step is the Poor Mountain wind project.

Wind power is a clean, renewable energy resource that does not pollute our air with dirty fossil fuel emissions, which is why the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is giving its full support to the Invenergy Poor Mountain project. As the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC, we see the need to move forward with clean, renewable projects to seriously curb the harmful effects of climate change. With more than 3,000 miles of shoreline, Virginia is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise, making it imperative that every region of this great Commonwealth does its part. This wind project has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 98,000 tons annually in the Roanoke region, which is the equivalent to taking 20,000 cars off the road. In 2008, Virginia’s Commission on Climate Change recommended that Virginia return to year 2000 greenhouse gas emissions levels by 2025. Virginia cannot meet this goal without reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. Continue reading

Step right up to the CarnivOIL!

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Yesterday I joined with friends from Environment Virginia at Monroe Park next to Virginia Commonwealth University to celebrate CarnivOIL, a traveling carnival for the oil industry where everything’s free (because the oil industry never has to pay!) The tongue-in-cheek event highlights the cozy relationship between the oil industry and Congress- particularly the Senate that has failed to act on climate change. The lively event attracted many VCU students who stopped to play games like “Tar the Goldfish” where you tossed tar balls into fish habitats and the “Spill-O-Rama” which measured how strong you are by how much oil you can get away with spilling. In the boxing ring, a crab battled an oil executive. A fair fight, until the referee made the crab remove his gloves so the oil exec could clobber him. A great, fun event but it highlights a sad reality. Luckily, CarnivOIL-goers know it’s time to put a stop to the fun and games and get serious. At CarnivOIL, they signed a petition calling on Senator Warner to take action and pledge to take action themselves by signing the Power Vote pledge.

More pictures after the jump. Continue reading

Infamous climate change denier sees the light

In a shift that shocked many in the climate movement yesterday, infamous climate change denier Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book The Skeptical Environmentalist, has stated that he believes at least $100 billion a year should be spent to fight man-made climate change.

British newspaper The Guardian reports that in a new book to be released next month, Lomborg says that anthropogenic global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront.”

In his new book, Lomborg presents eight methods to stop climate change, including pouring money into researching and developing clean energy sources such as wind, wave, solar and nuclear power, and more work on climate engineering ideas such as “cloud whitening” to reflect the sun’s heat back into the outer atmosphere.

In a year when the world continues to be pummeled by outrageous extreme weather events due to climate change, Lomborg’s stunning flip flop can only further bolster the climate movement’s position. Let’s hope he truly believes what he’s saying– not just trying to sell more books. Then again, if supporting climate action does help him sell books, who knows which prominent denier will be next to join the good guys. Perhaps one of our favorite former Alaskan politicians, Sarah Palin and Lisa Murkowski? Stranger things have happened.

Read the original Guardian article here. Continue reading

It's Not Pepco's Fault the Weather is Changing

By Mike Tidwell

Here’s the truth about the increasingly painful and widespread power outages in our region: It’s not Pepco’s fault.

The freakishly strong winds of late? Not Pepco. The unprecedented flooding? Not Pepco. The record snow last winter and heat this summer? Not Pepco.

We all want reliable power, but it’s time to stop barking up the Pepco tree and start recognizing the real problem: Our weather is definitely changing. It’s part of a worldwide climate shift, the evidence for which has reached avalanche proportions. Until we come to terms with this weather weirdness, no amount of screaming at Pepco will create a long-term solution.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no huge Pepco fan. I’ve spent my share of days battling the monopoly’s bureaucracy over bill discrepancies. But when it comes to storm restoration, my lights tend to come back on within 24 hours in Takoma Park. This despite newly intense and frequent storms that longtime residents say defy memory. Continue reading

EPA Holds First Public Hearing on Coal Ash Proposal

This is a guest post by Jason Von-Kundra, a student at George Mason University. It is crossposted from the Mason Goes Green blog.

On Monday, August 30th, the Environmental Protection Agency held its first public hearing on a proposal to address risks of unsafe coal ash disposal. The EPA is proposing an unprecedented national rule to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. Students from George Mason, Virginia Tech, and University of Maryland joined hundreds of other citizens at the hearing in Arlington, VA to deliver statements in support of strict regulation of this hazardous waste.

Coal is dirty from mining to burning. Coal ash, a byproduct of the combustion of coal at power plants contains contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which are associated with cancer and various other serious health effects. Coal ash is disposed of in liquid form at large surface impoundments and in solid form at landfills. The dangers associated with structurally unsafe coal ash impoundments came to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment holding disposed waste ash broke open, creating a massive spill in Kingston that covered millions of cubic yards of land and river. The spill displaced residents, required hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs and caused widespread environmental damage.

In testimony at the hearing, GMU student Emily Miles criticized the coal industry for “continually putting profits over people”. She urged the EPA to regulate the coal industry to limit their destruction. “As a concerned citizen, I am here today to tell the EPA to do its job and protect people and the environment.” Kara Dodson, a student at Virginia Tech working on their Beyond Coal Campaign, described the negative health effects that coal ash from her campus’ coal-fired power plant has on students. Jason Von Kundra, an earth science major at Mason, delivered a statement urging the EPA to put stricter regulation on the coal industry to embrace the “clean energy economy that our country and our president are calling for”.

Six more hearing on the proposed rule to address coal ash are scheduled for September. Public comments may also be submitted by email to rcra-docket@epa.gov and should be identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640. Continue reading