Our World and Everything in It

All eight states surrounding the Great Lakes have signed the Great Lakes Compact, an agreement to protect, preserve, and keep in tact all of our available freshwater today in Saugatuck, MI. Two Canadian provinces, Quebec and Ontario, have passed an almost identical agreement. The compact is off toWashington where there is little doubt it will be approved.

I was also glad to read that MI groundwater will be closely monitored too. If you remember there was lack of agreement on that between the House and Senate when signing MI’s new water bills. What was accomplished:

·     Regulations ensuring that water users do not excessively harm aquatic resources by taking too much water.

·     The adoption of conservation principles to be utilized by large water users.

·     More public input into decisions about large-scale water uses that might impact local ecosystems.

·     Overall, 75% of Michigan’s surface waters will be protected from harmful withdrawals. Use of the remaining waters will be subject to rules ensuring availability to all parties for reasonable use.

But I have still been concerned about the 25% of surface groundwater that goes unprotected. One quarter of our entire surface water falls under ambiguous rules that will be enforced by whom?

Well it looks like the governor also signed bills to manage the use of surface ground water in Michigan via a computer system that will determine when and where business can make withdrawals. This might help with enforcing the rules. Kudos for that!

Read the latest: http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/706004.html

I was watching Good Morning America this morning and the news featured a billionaire, ex-oil man named T-Bone Pickens on the subject of high oil prices. He stated that parts of America are known as the Saudi Arabia of wind and had to agree.  His home state of Texas has the largest wind field and is looking to Denmark to explore more off shore wind power along the coast. http://www.windenergynews.com/content/view/945/43/.

He stated there is no sense drilling for more oil in the U.S. There is not enough to sustain us but there is plenty of natural gas and WIND.

Meanwhile, I wondered about the “Saudi Arabia of wind” moniker and found that long-term studies have quantified the amount of mega the U.S. can produce. We’re rich with it.  Back in 2004, the U.S. Energy Dept. reported that wind power in the plain state’s region alone can provide more power than the entire nation’s electricity needs. And wind power is competitive with natural gas prices from way back in 2001. http://www.energyjustice.net/solutions/wind/.

According to Energy Justice, North and South Dakota alone have enough wind energy from its highest wind speed sites to supply over half of the electricity needs of the lower 48 states. A group of 12 states in the midsection of the country have enough wind energy potential to produce nearly four times the amount of electricity consumed by the nation in 1990.

Michigan just restored the monopoly by DTE Energy in Michigan, which allows DTE to limit use of alternative energy to only 10%. Does this  put a damper on overall use of more wind or solar power in Michigan? Does this limit individuals who want to go with solar and/or wind power for residential use?

There were a lot of small boaters out there this weekend. A small boat or pontoon is much more economical these days. There were more aluminum and pontoon boats than usual.  But regardless of high gas prices, the boats came and went. And my neighbor still got a lot of “look sees” from potential buyers interested in his small boat and large pontoon that are for sale.  I started to wonder if someone had invented a boat covered with photovoltaic cells yet and decided to look it up. Sure enough the Dutch have a speedboat like that called the Czeers MK-1. It even sounds fast. http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1693/

A solar panel is also used on the Whitley 2800 30 ft. luxury cruiser, but only to power all the high tech galley appliances, flat screen tv, and audio on board. The cruiser itself is not solar powered but uses twin diesel engines. The company is working on an all solar powered boat.

I want to know if used cooking oil can be used in a marine diesel engine? If not, why not if a diesel auto engine runs on the stuff?

Besides solar power for boats, which seems the most logical energy source to use, there is also a model that plugs in. A small, hybrid, fiberglass boat that can be recharged is available. Three hours of charge gets eight hours of battery time on its 20 hp engine by Yamaha. The boat also runs on gas, just in case I assume. I don’t know how much of a power draw the three hour charge is either.  

Lastly, a DIY solar powered pontoon boat (not a small one) was featured on Treehugger. It runs totally on solar panels or batteries, no gas, no emissions, and no noise.  Although I do like the sound of a fast boat, at least when I’m on it.  http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/the_loon_solar-.php

Late last Friday night our Michigan Senate watered down and passed energy legislation that took months to put together. There was no attempt at bipartisanship here.  As a result Michigan has a pretty shabby RPS or Renewable Portfolio Standards compared to surrounding states. What took the wind out of the sails of this legislation was the deletion of mandates. There will be no mandates on business, which means business may or may not choose to reduce it’s consumption of fossil fuels by choosing other sources of energy.

The Senate decided to go the route where state government would lead by example and be the first to reduce it’s dependency on fossil fuels by choosing alternative energy and also through conservation. The idea is that business would likely follow suit—but they don’t have to!

The positive side of this move by the senate is that taxpayers will be spared the cost of switching to alternative energy sources, and struggling business in MI won’t have to spend more to comply with any mandates. The state will bear the burden for moving forward. This is protectionism and admirable, but it also degrades Michigan’s RPS to nothing. States that have a strong RPS have reaped big  rewards in economic growth as a result. Michigan is missing the importance of a strong RPS. It equates to jobs and investment into the economy.

So the biggest downside is that Michigan’s economy will not likely pick up soon despite the “Green Gold Rush” that is on right now. On top of that, among all the cities in the country that had dismal spring housing sales where that market dropped again, Detroit area home sales were actually up 8%. That was on the news. So Michigan is primed and salivating for economic growth from anywhere that more than likely will not happen thanks to this senate’s quick and rash decisions last week.

Also, Michigan ranks in the top fifteen states in the country for wind generation, but there were few incentives and little interest in wind production in the bills. Yet according to an article on Metro Mode’s website, “[A] fully harnessed wind industry could result in up to 50,000 Michigan jobs, ranging from construction to assembly to engineering to research.” In this instance, the Republican lead Senate in Michigan is actually blocking progress and job growth. Wind is nothing to overlook in Michigan where there are constant shoreline breezes.

 The last negative to the final version of the bills is whether or not the environmental changes that take place within the state government will require outside contracts. I don’t like the sound of government contracting. Senator Waxman has uncovered billions of wasted dollars in contracts on the federal level both in Afghanistan and Iraq. This kind of thing looks like just another opportunity for friends to get paid.

 Environmentally friendly voters should drop a line to our state senate. The cons outweigh the pros for their decision on this latest round of energy bills relative to the loss of a lot of new jobs, and new money into our economy from somewhere else besides the auto industry for a change. Michigan’s economy is supposed to be undergoing change remember? 

Read about RPS in MI: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/03/12/renewable-portfolio-standards-environmental-resume-for-states/

Entire article on Metro Mode about MI windpower: http://www.metromodemedia.com/features/MichiganWindPower0064.aspx

Since we’re basically back to the drawing board relative to greatly lowering fossil fuel use in Michigan because of the Senate’s bad decision to cut mandates to business from our energy bills last week, Michigan has to look to other ways of cutting pollution from fossil fuel. So it’s already been suggested that our speed limit be lowered.

Personally, I don’t care if the speed limit is lower. I’ve lived through this before and it cut down road rage, traffic accidents, and therefore insurance premiums. If it’s posted 55mph, then we’ll go 70mph instead of 80mph and greater that I witness on the road all the time. Mind you, these speeders are generally juggling cell phones too.

Anyway, if the speed limit is lowered and we don’t like it, we only have ourselves to blame for not paying attention to what’s happening in our state congress relative to cutting pollution, helping the environment, creating more jobs, and enticing part of the Green Gold Rush to come to Michigan. It’s not happening for a reason. Pay attention and be pro-active in responding to our elected officials or we’re never going to turn around.

The news suggested yesterday that skyrocketing gas prices may not be a bad thing. I’ve always believed higher pump prices could be the proverbial kick in the shorts for people to pay attention to what’s going on. It’s working. Demands for greater gas mileage and energy saving alternatives has been just the catalyst needed for a whole barage of ideas to burst forth to a tune of $448 billion dollars so far this year, DOUBLE that of last year already.

Venture capitalists are having a field day. There are even some pension plans racing to invest in a green market.  Some of the inventions are remarkable. There are already plastic bottles created from corn by-products so they are totally biodegradeable. And every thing and any thing is being sought after to accomplish either energy production or energy storage, right down to bacteria.

So it is true, out of something bad can come something very good.  

The party begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday. There are still tickets out there but with an astronomical price. Best bet is to bet on your luck. All day today 93.9 FM, The River, has been handing out Rothbury tickets to the tenth caller at 313 298 7094 when it’s announced on the radio to do so. Tune in if you’re feeling lucky. It’s going to be a great concert and happening just outside of Muskegon.

I read in the Union of Concerned Scientists newsletter, Volume 10, Number 3, Summer 2008, that the U.S. Senate approved bipartisan legislation in March to improve the effectiveness of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Good idea after last summer’s tainted spinach, tainted lettuce, beef recalls, and toxic toys went unchecked.

It seems there has been political interference in the work of CPSC employees like statisticians, psychologists, chemists, and engineers. The legislation is meant to keep science independent of political tactics to ensure consumers remain safe. There are whistle blower protections built in to the legislation that extends to other employees of companies regulated by the CPSC. The agency must also accept anonymous complaints via the Internet.

The Union of Concerned Scientists worked with doctor’s and consumer groups to put this Senate Bill together and encouraged scientists to speak up if they have had political interference in the past.

There is a House Bill that addresses the same problems but lacks the whistle blower protections. The idea now is to combine the bills to become the strongest legislation possible.

I’m certainly glad this is happening, but does it occur to anyone that we are now in the habit of writing legislation to keep the Bush administration’s mitts out of most things scientific, that we’ve had to use the supreme court and federal court judges to get the EPA to act on our behalf relative to the environment, and to get the Dept. of the Interior to move on putting polar bears on the endangered list?

If the agencies that are in existence to keep the public, environment, wildlife and habitat, food, and imports safe are being kept from doing their respective jobs by interference from politicians, then instead of doing this round about and creating new legislation, on top of legislation that already exists, wouldn’t it just be easier to get rid of the politicians affecting the problems? Remember to vote for a heck of a lot more than president this November, like voting out of office those that interfere with our safety, the earth’s safety, and wildlife looking to survive in a safe haven.