Archive for the ‘Environmental Defense’ Category

EPA Administrator Issues Proposed Ruling on Global Warming

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Environmental Defense announced that just today “EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a proposed ruling that global warming pollution “endangers” Americans’ health and well-being.” This ruling is the beginning of a chain of events where the Clean Air Act can be used to establish national emission standards for large polluters to include new motor vehicles and coal-fired plants.

Another effort begins next week when “the House Energy and Commerce Committee will begin hearing on comprehensive energy and climate legislation.” Chairman Henry Waxman plans on moving the “American Clean Energy and Security Act” out of committee by Memorial Day.

Finally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to bring the bill to the House floor this year.

It couldn’t come at a more appropriate time since next Wednesday, April 22, is EARTH DAY!

Posted in Alternative Energy, Automobile, CO2 Emissions, Coalburners, EPA, Environmental Defense, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Industry, Pollution | No Comments »

Carbon Caps Equal Hard Hats Ad

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

 

I received an e-mail from Environmental Defense. Environmental Defense, the United Steel Workers union, and Blue Green Alliance is launching a new ad campaign that says “Carbon Caps = Hard Hats.” A group of unemployed steel workers is featured, as well as, the mayor of Braddock, PA, a town that was better known as the “Jewel of the Monongahela Valley” when it was a thriving steel producer. But the Monongahela Valley has lost 250,000 jobs according to Mayor John Fetterman, and needs a boost.

 

The mayor and the steelworkers know that carbon caps will force green industries to grow and are hoping to cash in on the wind. It takes 250 tons of steel to make a wind turbine. I did not know that! And the steelworkers in Braddock are ready to rock on producing as many turbines as possible.

 

It sounds like a plan to me. But so many people just don’t have the foresight to see that a new green industry will spur our economy. And others fight it because they are tied to our old polluting economy. But, Mayor Fetterman knows that wind energy is “the next big business built from steel.” And if big business from green energy can spur steel jobs in the Monongahela Valley, it can happen in Michigan, Ohio, and other blue-collar states too.

 

Capping carbon will be the catalyst for green industry. A good sense move because it literally tackles two problems with one solution—global warming, and new jobs. Once we go green, I bet we find that we’ve also solved a variety of health problems that are related to the fossil fuel industry from the air we breathe, to the water we drink that affects every living thing worldwide. It’ll be a domino effect, but for the good for a change.

 

Michigan already sees it can benefit by being the next world producer of lithium batteries, a strong competitor in the solar energy market, and creating wind farms instead of coalburners.  It just takes a mindset that looks to the future instead of clinging to fossilized ideas.

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Conservation, Energy Infrastructure, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Defense, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Health, Michigan Environmental Policy, Michigan/Great Lakes, Solar Energy, Wind Power | No Comments »

“Earth: The Sequel” Dismisses Gloomy Future

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

The New York Times bestseller “Earth: The Sequel” has been made into a Discovery Channel presentation set to air tomorrow Wednesday, March 11th at 10:00 pm on the Discovery Channel. If you can, please tune in to catch this showcase of all the truly remarkable alternatives for energy in our future.

This bestseller is a product of Environmental Defense’s Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn that dispels all the doom and gloom of a scorched earth and replaces it with quite a feasible picture of what can be accomplished. The book was excellent. I’m looking forward to this presentation.

Read about it: http://earththesequel.edf.org/

Posted in Alternative Energy, Conservation, Earth, Energy, Environmental Defense, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Science | No Comments »

Gasoline Brewskies Anyone?

Friday, June 20th, 2008

 

 

I got an e-mail from Environmental Defense about brewing gasoline from yeast. That goes for diesel and jet fuel too.  Here’s the video about it on You Tube. I guess any type of fuel can be produced with a little genetic engineering. The nice part is the CO2 produced from this gasoline is the same CO2 used to make it, so there are no additional CO2 emissions.

 

http://edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=22627

 

 

Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, Environmental Defense, You Tube | 1 Comment »

America’s Climate Security Act Not Secure Enough Yet

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Now that the polar bears made the list, the push is on for global warming legislation. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has scheduled the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act S2191 for a floor vote in early June.

 

It looks like another senate vote that requires 60 votes. Currently about 40 senators support the bill, and another 20 are undecided. Environmental Defense Action Fund  “is working to find the votes and to strengthen, protect and pass the bill to put the Senate on record in favor of a strong policy to cap and reduce America’s global warming pollution. But I don’t think this is a strong policy yet. It’s a start.

 

I’m not the only one that thinks so. I ran into this article on http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/tags/americans_climate_security_act that says Friends of Earth took out ads to oppose this bill. FOE “thinks it does not go far enough and would be a windfall to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries.”

 

I saw another URL that Greenpeace opposes it also. So I looked the thing over @ http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:s2191is.txt.pdf.

 

I found a lot of things right off the bat that were ludicrous like the sections below:

 

On page 7:  (5) the ingenuity of the people of the United States will allow the United States to become a leader in curbing global warming. Sure, but only if Big Oil and those in its pockets let us do so.

 

Then page 8 says that the idea is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially enough between 2007 and 2050 to avert the catastrophic impact of global climate change and to accomplish that purpose while preserving (23) robust growth in the United States economy, and (24) avoiding the imposition of hardship on United States citizens.

 

Right, just like many state energy packages lately that throw the entire burden on consumers in the form of higher rates. Boohoo, multimillion-dollar companies can’t afford to change quickly. What, they couldn’t see this coming for the last 8 years? Heck, there were climate change talks in 1994. I did a blog on companies that just forged ahead with their polluting practices, regardless of a growing global movement for the environment, that in the end would cry they couldn’t afford a fast turnaround. Why should we pay for their lack of foresight? Oh we have to think of the economy. We can’t let big business falter. Well why don’t we do away with the old fat cats and get new environmental industry going? The economy isn’t choosy about what affects its growth.

 

And finally my favorite part that really disappointed me about this bill is on page 13. It’s the same do-you-think-we’re-stupid list of what constitutes greenhouse gas:

 

(15) GREENHOUSE GAS.—The term ‘‘greenhouse gas’’ means any of—
       (A) carbon dioxide;
       (B) methane;
       (C) nitrous oxide;
       (D) sulfur hexafluoride;
       (E) a hydrofluorocarbon; or
       (F) a perfluorocarbon

 

This is the same long tired list that allows the removal of one or two gases while not reducing any of another. As long as the total greenhouse gas emissions of an industry falls within the limits of what that industry is allowed per year, and this sounds really high also, than it’s legal. This is what is wrong with the cap and trade solution, too many gases on the list to choose from. What if all industry decides to go the easy, cheap route and eliminates the same two gases only? For example: A coal burning facility decides to install what is called a scrubber on its plant. Lets say the scrubber collects most of the sulfur emissions and nitrous oxide depending on how it’s configured, and that alone lowers the overall emissions of the plant that’s allowed by law. CO2 just keeps on spouting forth. This is not to say that the sulfur or nitrous oxide is any less dangerous to overall global warming. Actually, it’s worse, but CO2 is the most concentrated in the atmosphere right now, and it’s not being dealt with because that industry concentrates on sulfur or nitrous oxide or hydrofluorocarbon instead.

 

All in all, it looks to me like the U.S. Court of Appeals did the environment a whole lot more justice than this bill when it vacated the EPA’s Clean Air Mercury Rule and told them cap and trade of mercury is nothing more than moving that pollution around. Amen.   

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in CO2 Emissions, Conservation, EPA, Environmental Defense, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Greenpeace, Industry, Legislators, Mercury, Politics, Pollution, Protesting Pollution | 1 Comment »

It’s Blog Action Day; Thanks to Environmentalists Everywhere

Monday, October 15th, 2007

Today is blog action day. And I don’t want to talk about the environment per say, post the latest news, or try to convince anyone man’s part in global warming is real. Today I would simply like to thank the thousands of volunteers of many, many organizations that give their time, energy, and passion to helping the environment and every creature in it, including humans that won’t get off the couch to save their own lives. To these volunteers and spokespeople we owe you our lives, many of us  just don’t realize it yet.

Volunteers for the environment are tireless in their efforts. I’ve been to meetings where the person holding that meeting drove an hour at night, leaving family at home, to offer a presentation of information about what is happening and what can be done, only to have 8 people show up.  They have to pack it all up and drive an hour to go home to a household already asleep. Yet they are never daunted in their determination to inform possibly one new person. That’s dedication, discipline, and selflessness.

While we sit in our comfortable living rooms there are countless organizations of people like Greenpeace on board ships in the freezing cold to stop whale hunts, or fisherman using nets that trap dolphins, others like Earthjustice, Environmental Defense, and NRDC holding oil drills at bay in some pristine part of our country, or The Sierra Club lobbying in state’s senates against industry pollution, or Waterkeeper Alliance that has joined Sierra Club’s fight against CAFO’s. Their volunteers took 3000 plus photos of CAFO’s and produced DVD’s to expose that industry’s pollution.  There are the many, many meteorologists that have ventured to the N. Pole, Greenland, and Iceland in small boats to get photographs and gain first hand knowledge of crashing ice falls from glaciers not 50 ft. in front of them in order to inform the masses about what they’ve seen, and the brave and undeterred efforts of the scientists who testified before congress that they are fed up with being censored by the Bush administration relative to reports of global warming. They’re brave, bold, and forthright while much of the population flounders in a sea of apathy.

Take for instance what is called “junk mail.” It’s tossed without a thought. But in those envelopes are the voices of those that I’ve just described that are trying to get the truth out, trying to stop the insanity of pollution, trying to stop further fossil fuel endeavors, or simply trying to save the lives of animals that have no one to speak for them. It’s valuable information that took research, time, effort and skill to produce with the hope one more person will open and read the contents in lieu of being tossed without conscience or concern. Ditto for the many TV networks like The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, and Sundance that dedicate themselves to saving the environment by showcasing the marvelous inventors, scientists, and engineers from around the globe that have solutions for our ailing earth already.

To all the wonderful, passionate, faithful people that see the Almighty in their surroundings and fight to save and nurture what we were given as a blessing, I want to say thank you heart and soul. The road you travel is new and like any other time in history, your fellow humans are not quick to follow a new revolution. Go with peace and passion in every step because most assuredly you have one Traveler that will remain by your side always. Nature is Earth’s Metaphor for God and you “get it.” Bless you. Keep the faith, keep up the fight.  
 

Posted in Al Gore, Alternative Energy Sources, Arctic Council, Bush Administration, CAFO's, CO2 Emissions, Discovery Channel, Earthjustice, Eco Tech, Environmental Defense, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Greenpeace, NASA, NRDC, Nature, Polar Ice Melt, Protesting Pollution, Science, Sundance, The Denial Machine, The Science Channel, The Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Wildlife | 4 Comments »

Are Companies Really in Earnest for Global Climate Change?

Monday, August 6th, 2007

We have so many environmental groups and they are doing a great job. They have been successful in enlisting many, many corporations to urge Congress to get moving on global warming. Environmental Defense started USCAP (U.S. Climate Action Partnership). They have a lot of companies that have joined and more are being added to the list all the time. USCAP is united as a force to help get Congress moving on global warming and is successful so far.

I was looking over the list and there is a little bit of irony on that list. BP who is doing that 3.8 billion dollar expansion at their refinery in Indiana, which will pollute Lake Michigan more, is on the list. Now does this seem funny to you? If I expand my oil refinery, I’m planning on refining a lot more crude, but at the same time want to help with global warming. Staying status quo until new alternatives hit the market is one thing, but expansion? It just doesn’t appear that BP is maintaining their oil business as much as increasing it. Does it?

I saw their commercials that they are investing millions on alternative energies.  But now they are polluting Lake “Michigan” That’s hitting a little too close to home. And won’t an expansion of the refinery produce more oil, to consume and create more CO2? I realize a bigger refinery means less dependence on foreign oil, and that our refineries are not up to par, but BP is a foreign oil company and polluting our lake. It’s our lake. It’s named Michigan.

As for the list, isn’t it contrary that they are on the USCAP list? Do environmental organizations screen the companies that go on the list to see if they are double-talking,or do they hope by helping they will soon practice what they preach? The American car companies are on the list also, but paid $40 million last year to lobby Congress about the Energy Bill and mpg standards they wanted to lower. The way I see it, is you are either in earnest about alternative sources of energy and start showing us something, or we just have to believe what we see with our own eyes, that companies that pollute, and have not really curbed their actions to pollute, are not being honest about wanting change. We’re getting ready to drill in the Artic Refuge for Pete’s sake. Are we stupid?

Posted in BP, CO2 Emissions, Environmental Defense, Global Warming Policy, Great Lakes, Great Lakes Pollution, Great Lakes Water, Industry, Legislators, Michigan Clean Water, Michigan/Great Lakes, Oil Industry, Pollution, Refineries, U.S. Automakers, U.S. Dept. of Energy | 1 Comment »