Everybody’s favorite green host, Simran Sethi, is making the rounds on the Huffington Post, offering her journalistic skills in an effort to shine the light on a very important Government decision regarding the future of Kansas’ environment. Simran Sethi has hosted Sundance Channel’s THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com] in the past. Her other major contribution to Sundance Channel’s environmental work is Simran’s web exclusiive video series called THE GOOD FIGHT [www.sundancechannel.com].

Simran has just posted a blog on The Huffington Post, focusing on Kansas’ landmark decision to deny permits to two coal-fired power plants on the grounds that their carbon emissions would contribute to global climate change. A bill that would veto this decision is being debated in the Kansas state legislature this week and next, and the outcome will have major repercussions for each state’s ability to regulate polluting industries like Big Coal.

Simran Sethi’s Blog Post [www.huffingtonpost.com]

The environmental consequences of this decision are huge, but it seems that not many people even know it’s being made. In an effort to generate discussion about this important issue, we’d love to see your comments and opinions.

After reading this, we hope you jump over to the post linked above and spread the info around to your friends. Thanks for joining us in THE GREEN BLOG. Happy Valentines Day!

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, February 3, 2009 (ENS) – Back in 1997, Kentucky Utilities modified the largest coal-fired electrical generating unit at its E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County, Kentucky without installing required pollution control equipment or complying with applicable emission limits.

These alleged violations of the Clean Air Act allowed the company to increase the amount of coal the unit burned and increase the amount and rate of emissions for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.

Today, the Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed a $1.4 million civil penalty on Kentucky Utilities, KU, for these alleged violations and in addition have required the company to spend $135 million on pollution controls.

E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County, Kentucky (Photo by David Hecker)

KU will install new pollution control equipment on generating unit that will reduce combined emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by more than 31,000 tons per year – 90 percent below the 2007 emission levels. These chemicals are components of acid rain and smog.

“Today’s settlement sets the most stringent limit for nitrogen oxide emissions ever imposed in a federal settlement with a coal-fired power plant,” said Catherine McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

“Pollutants from these facilities can cause severe respiratory problems, contribute to childhood asthma, and contribute to smog and haze,” said McCabe.

KU also must install controls to reduce particulate matter emissions by about 1,000 tons per year. Increased levels of fine particles in the air are linked to health hazards such as heart disease, impaired lung function and lung cancer.

The company has agreed to surrender the excess nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide allowances it will have after installing the pollution controls. Coal-fired power plants are allowed to emit sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides as allowances, which are granted under federal or state acid rain permits. Once surrendered, these allowances cannot be used again, so the surrender will remove these emissions permanetnly from the environment.

The settlement is part of the EPA’s enforcement initiative to control harmful emissions from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review requirements. The act prohibits the generation of power from new sources without use of the best available technology to reduce air pollution.

The total combined sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission reductions secured from this settlement will exceed more than 1.8 million tons each year once all the required pollution controls have been installed and implemented, said the federal officials

“This settlement will result in the substantial reduction of harmful emissions, and will benefit air quality in Kentucky and downwind areas,” said John Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

In addition, the company will spend about $3 million on projects to benefit the environment and compensate for the adverse effects of the air pollution for a total settlement of nearly $140 million.

KU will contribute $1.8 million of the $3 million to a pilot project on the effectiveness of storing compressed carbon dioxide gas, a by-product of coal combustion, in deep injection wells.

The company will spend $1 million to retrofit school buses with filters or other controls to reduce emissions of particulate matter; and also pay $200,000 to the National Park Service to help restore Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park.

Kentucky Utilities, based in Lexington, Kentucky, generates and distributes electricity to more than 500,000 customers in Kentucky and Virginia. It owns and operates five coal-fired electrical generating stations in Kentucky.

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STEVENSON, Alabama, January 9, 2009 (ENS) – The Tennessee Valley Authority has had a second waste spill in three weeks at one of its coal-fired power plants.

A 10,000 gallon leak of process water from the gypsum pond at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Stevenson, Alabama was discovered just before dawn this morning. TVA officials say the leak has stopped.

“The leak from the gypsum pond flowed into an adjacent settling pond,” the federal electric utility said in a statement this morning. “Some material overflowed into Widows Creek, although most of the leakage remained in the settling pond.”

Gypsum ponds hold limestone spray from TVA’s scrubbers that clean sulfur dioxide from coal-plant emissions. Gypsum contains calcium sulfate, which is used in drywall, a commercially sold construction material.

Widows Creek Fossil Plant, named for the creek that flows through the plant site, is located on Guntersville Reservoir on the Tennessee River in northeast Alabama.

TVA notified federal and state authorities and has deployed containment booms on Widows Creek to trap the contaminated water. The utility says it will perform temporary repairs to the pond.

TVA’s Widows Creek Fossil Plant in northeastern Alabama (Photo courtesy TVA)

Alabama Department of Environmental Management spokesman Scott Hughes told ENS that the agency has a crew on the scene monitoring Widows Creek for effects of the spill on aquatic organisms in the creek.

“At noon there was no sign of impact to aquatic organisms,” he said.

The city of Scottsboro about 15 miles downstream from the Widows Creek Fossil Plant uses the Tennessee River as drinking water. Hughes explained that any contamination from the spill has not had time to reach this community.

ADEM personnel will provide oversight to ensure cleanup is done in a timely manner, said Hughes.

The eight coal-fired units at Widows Creek generate about 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply 650,000 homes. The plant consumes some 10,000 tons of coal a day.

This leak is the second at a TVA coal-fired power plant in the past three weeks. On December 22, a retaining wall broke at the TVA’s Kingston Fossil power plant in eastern Tennessee’s Roane County, about 100 miles to the northeast of Widows Creek. A billion gallons of coal ash sludge spilled into the Emory River and across 400 acres of the surrounding farm and residential neighborhood.

“Even as residents in Roane County Tennessee are still trying to grasp the full impact of the Kingston disaster, communities in northeastern Alabama are now threatened with a new toxic coal waste spill,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s National Coal Campaign.

“While initial accounts indicate that this latest spill is smaller than the Tennessee disaster, we hope that TVA and EPA have learned from the Tennessee disaster and move quickly to protect residents,” said Nilles.

John Wathen, an Alabama resident with Hurricane Creekkeeper, was in Tennessee taking stock of the Kingston disaster when he heard about today’s spill.

“If this don’t stick a finger in the whole clean coal myth, then I don’t know what will,” said Wathen.

Coal waste can contain harmful substances including lead, mercury and arsenic.

Once spilled, the toxins from the waste can leak into soil and water, putting people who come in contact with the contamination at risk for health problems.

“Shockingly, coal waste is largely unregulated in Alabama,” said Gil Rogers, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“Alabamans deserve straight answers from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management about how it’s handling this waste stream at TVA’s Widow Creek plant and if any corrective action procedures are in place to deal with it.

ADEM’s Hughes told ENS, “We inspect all these facilities on an annual basis. Our focus is to ensure the water discharged from these impoundments comply with their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. The lastest inspection at Widows Creek took place on May 21, 2008, and Hughes says inspectors found no violations.

“Clearly current regulations are not adequate,” said Nilles. “We need the Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating coal ash before more communities are put at risk.” Senator Boxer said, “The Tennessee Valley Authority has a lot to answer for – the first step is to prevent further spills and damage to communities around its plants. I have asked the TVA for a complete assessment of the safety of its waste disposal sites and their plans for upgrading those sites. This second pollution spill must be a wakeup message to the TVA and to the U.S. EPA that the current situation is unacceptable.” TVA has determined that a cap dislodged from an unused 30-inch standpipe in the gypsum pond which allowed water and gypsum to bypass the existing system and drain into the adjacent settling pond, filling it to capacity and causing it to overflow. TVA will fill the unused pipe with concrete. As part of the recovery, Widows Creek is performing maintenance activities to slope the internal wall of the gypsum pond by bringing in about 3,500 cubic yards of sand.

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NASHVILLE, Tennessee, January 2, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Phil Bredesen has told the Tennessee Valley Authority that after the coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil power plant state officials will not allow the federal agency to continue to inspect itself.

“We will be looking over their shoulders,” the governor said. “I have asked the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to immediately do inspections” at all seven of the TVA’s coal-fired power plants and fly ash waste systems.

The governor announced the higher level of state oversight after he visited the 400 acres where a retaining wall holding the fly ash from TVA’s Kingston plant broke on December 22, 2008.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen warns the Tennessee
Valley Authority that state inspectors will be
monitoring their power plants more closely.
(Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

The collapse dumped 5.4 million cubic yards – more than one billion gallons – of ashy sludge onto farms and residential properties in east Tennessee.

TDEC Deputy Commissioner Paul Sloan said, “The area’s physical and natural environment has been dramatically impacted by this spill. Citizens’ lives have been disrupted; water quality has been impaired and aquatic habitat has been destroyed.”

The Kingston Fossil plant in Harriman, about 50 miles west of Knoxville, is at the confluence of the Emory and Clinch Rivers in Roane County. It is owned and operated by the nation’s largest public utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Governor Bredesen toured the site of the spill by air Wednesday before receiving a briefing on the status of the clean-up operation from TVA and Roane County officials. Following a brief walking tour of the site, Bredesen met with members of two of the families affected by the spill.

The governor was joined by members of his Cabinet, including Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke and Deputy Commissioner Sloan, Health Commissioner Susan Cooper, and General James Bassham, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

“The initial response has been outstanding and we’re thankful no one was hurt, but now that the emergency response is completed we clearly have long-term issues to deal with,” said Bredesen. “My first concern is for the families that have been affected. My other chief concern is the lasting effects on the environment and ensuring the clean-up process is thorough and complete.”

TVA, local, state and federal agencies continue to work on recovery and cleanup and much work remains to be done.

Arsenic at more than 100 times the maximum contaminant level allowed by the federal government has been found in the Emory River near the spill site, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA released laboratory test results Friday showing that arsenic levels in one sample were 149 times the maximum allowable level.

Water samples near the spill site also showed levels of lead five times higher than normal and elevated total levels of antimony, beryllium, cadmium and chromium.

Samples taken upstream from the spill site near the Kingston water treatment plant were found to be within the federal limits, except for thallium, which was found at levels three times the maximum limit, according to the EPA test data.

Additional results from both Kingston and Rockwood collected on December 31 indicate that “all treated drinking water results are well within both primary and secondary drinking water standards. All untreated water collected also met the drinking water standards for metals prior to treatment,” according to the TVA.

“There have been no indications, to date, showing that drinking water has been affected by the fly ash material,” the TVA said in a statement today.

TVA operations continue and include clearing ash from the impacted roadway and railroad spur; construction of a weir system to control water flow into the plant’s river water intake and help reduce the potential risk of fly ash migration into the Emory and Clinch Rivers during rain events; removal of general debris from fly ash-impacted areas; and replacement of damaged water lines.

The EPA is sampling drinking water wells, municipal water intakes, soils, and water and sediment in the Clinch and Emory Rivers. Residents in this area whose would like their well tested may call 865-717-4006.

Both EPA and TVA are conducting monitoring for levels of fly ash in the air, with EPA monitoring on-site and TVA monitoring on and off-site.

A hotline for health effects information has been established by the Tennessee Department of Health, in consultation with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at 1-800-404-3006.

The Emory River remains closed from mile marker zero through mile marker 4. The Kingston Fossil Plant Boat Ramp and fishing area have been closed due to large equipment being moved into the area for cleanup. Coast Guard and TVA Police marine units are providing security in the area.

Work is complete on a 615 foot rock weir built on the Emory River, just north of the existing intake skimmer weir. The weir will allow water to continue flowing, but will contain the ash.

TVA is coordinating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to address the dredging process on the Emory River in the vicinity of the release.

A second weir has been designed and when complete will confine the ash and keep it from entering the river during the river dredging process. This 2,000 foot rock weir will extend from Swan Pond Circle south to the plant river bank.

“As attention is now focused on timely cleanup and safe disposal of recovered coal ash from the spill, the department is encouraged by TVA’s promise of full and complete clean up for these communities,” said Sloan.

“As part of this recovery strategy,” he said, “TDEC has developed and implemented a comprehensive sampling plan to address surface water, ground water, drinking water, soil and air monitoring to better inform communities and citizens while ensuring full, complete cleanup.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has dropped plans to adopt two Clean Air Act rules that would have allowed power plants and other polluters to increase smog and soot pollution.

The first rule concerned the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program. It would have allowed coal-fired power plants to increase their power output by installing new equipment without adopting pollution controls.

The second abandoned rule would have weakened special air quality protections that Congress adopted for national parks and wilderness areas. If the rule had been adopted, it would have been easier to build a coal-fired power plant, refinery or factory near a national park.

Both rules had faced opposition from public health and environmental groups, state and local air quality regulators, and prominent members of Congress.

EPA officials had been trying to finalize both proposals before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in January 20. The have both been in the works for years.

South Carolina’s coal burning Cross power
plant is operated by Santee Cooper. (Photo
courtesy Santee Cooper)

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, was pleased with the agency’s decision.

“Our children and families can breathe easier now that the EPA has abandoned two controversial plans to undermine clean air protections through midnight regulations,” she said. “EPA has many other damaging and dangerous rules under consideration that deserve the same fate.”

“EPA’s decision to reconsider issuing a severely deficient air pollution rule that would have exempted almost every power plant in this country from installing modern pollution control technology is the correct one,” said Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

The proposal would have allowed electric generating units to use the “hourly test” to comply with New Source Review rules. The practical effect of this proposal would have been devastating to public health and welfare, explained Becker.

“Utilities would have been able to expand their operations and increase air pollution significantly without installing modern pollution control technology, conducting air quality analyses to determine impacts on nearby jurisdictions and offsetting their emissions in certain circumstances,” he said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council first urged EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to abandon the New Source Review rule in August, following a July court decision that overturned EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule, which EPA had relied upon as its primary justification for pursuing the weaker NSR rule.

In its announcement Wednesday, the EPA pointed to the fate of its Clean Air Interstate Rule as the primary reason for dropping the New Source Review rule.

“I am heartened that both of these destructive and unlawful air pollution rules will not be forced upon the American people, said the NRDC’s John Walke. “With the barbarians at the gate having pulled up their tents and headed for the hills, we can look forward as a civilized society to tackling the critical problems of global warming, smog and soot pollution that continues to damage our health, and toxic mercury that contaminates our waters.”

“NRDC looks forward to working with the incoming administration to protect our air quality and the health of all Americans,” he said.

However, the EPA Wednesday finalized a rule that exempts “fugitive emissions” from being counted for some major industries in determining whether emissions sources making modifications to their facilities trigger New Source Review requirements.

Fugitive emissions are pollutants released to the air other than those from stacks or vents. They are often due to equipment leaks, evaporative processes, and windblown disturbances.

“Fugitive emissions would be included in determining whether a physical or operational change is a major modification only for industries designated through previous Clean Air Act rulemakings,” the EPA states.

“It is no coincidence,” said Becker, “that the agency has finalized another rule today on fugitive emissions that allows other major industrial facilities such as mining operations and ethanol production plants, to escape these important requirements.”

Affected industries include electric services, petroleum refining, industrial chemical products, and pulp and paper mills.

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WASHINGTON, DC, November 11, 2008 (ENS) – The Army has established a new Energy and Partnership Office to conserve energy and reduce the Army’s dependence on the civilian power grid.

One goal is to provide energy security to Army installations so that they can provide power to the most critical operations, even if the civilian power grid is completely down.

“If we were attacked, or there was a terrible act of nature – and our soldiers were called out into the community to either defend or protect – they need their installation operating,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy and Partnerships Paul Bollinger, who heads the new office. “You also have critical infrastructure there, hospitals, communications, you may have munitions, and you may need electricity to pump fuel.”

Bollinger is overseeing energy security assessments at all Army installations. “We’re at the starting line right now for most installations,” Bollinger said. “However, we have six installations with coal-fired power plants, so they may be energy secure already.”

The Army has several ongoing energy projects, including large-scale energy management programs at Fort Hood, Texas; the solar projects at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; and the Army’s largest solar array at Fort Carson, Colorado, which provides 2.3 percent of the energy used at the installation. The project is part of Fort Carson’s plan to use 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2027.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. and Major General
Mark Graham, commanding general, Division
West, First Army and Fort Carson, prepare to
cut the ribbon on the Fort Carson solar array.
January 14, 2008.

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren has announced new pilot energy projects – the development of a 500 megawatt solar thermal plant at Fort Irwin, California; a 30 megawatt geothermal plant at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada; and biomass-to-fuel demonstrations at six Army posts.

The Army is also purchasing 4,000 neighborhood electric vehicles that will be sent to 44 installations.

The secretary also said he wants the Army to look at wind energy and nuclear power to make garrisons more energy secure.

The Army is also working on replacing the noisy and inefficient diesel generators that power most military base camp operations with quieter, energy efficient systems. Traditional power production will be integrated with quiet, environmentally-sound hydrogen fuel cell technology

In October, the U.S. Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center awarded Proton Energy Systems a $2.62 million contract to develop a regenerative fuel cell system for what is being termed “Silent Camp” Operation.

Based on the most advanced hydrogen technology, this fuel efficient, hybrid power system has the potential to provide the military with tactical and fuel efficiency benefits.

Rob Friedland, president and chief executive of Proton Energy Systems said, “Our mission has always been to apply these hydrogen fuel cell systems in creative, progressive ways that fulfill practical and environmentally sustainable needs. This energy storage system may enable our military to operate at higher fuel efficiencies, ultimately saving lives and money.”

Proton Energy Systems’ regenerative fuel cell technology may enable the military to operate its generators at higher efficiency points, and provide critical energy storage to capture the excess capacity. On the tactical side, the system could reduce logistics and the potential loss of life associated with high risk fuel transport operations. It could also provide backup power for extended operations if generators fail.

On another research front, the Army is developing mechanisms that can degrade explosive contaminants using biological means such as microbes.

These low-cost, passive remediation techniques are being developed at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

An interdisciplinary team including a theoretical chemist, biogeochemist, microbial ecologist, microbial geneticist, plant physiologists, an environmental chemist, and environmental engineers collaborate to identify and characterize microbes that can degrade explosives. These processes are then incorporated into remediation systems that are biologically based.

This lab has developed and field-tested treatment wetlands at Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee that produced trinitrotoluene, TNT, for use in World War II. The plant has been closed and much of the land sold but TNT contaminants remain.

A microbial technique developed at the ERDC Environmental Lab has effectively remediated explosives in red water effluents at Volunteer. Red water is a hazardous waste generated during production of TNT.

This technique now has been used to engineer treatment wetlands at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Burlington, Iowa.

On the Navy side, when the guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey returned to homeport San Diego on November 3 after six months at sea, its engineers had a record of conserving between 600-900 gallons of fuel daily.

Equipped with three diesel fuel-marine Gas Turbine Generators, GTGs, capable of producing 3,000 kilowatts of electricity each, the Halsey originally followed standard procedure of keeping two GTGs on-line at all times in order to provide power to shipboard systems.

The USS Halsey has become more fuel
efficient. (Photo courtesy U.S. Navy)

By assessing periods of reduced power requirements during their deployment, Halsey’s engineers initially tested a pilot program running only one GTG at night.

Gas Turbine Systems Technician Ganeshwar Rao, the leading fuels petty officer aboard Halsey, said analysis of the ship’s power consumption during the late evening hours showed that two on-line generators were producing nearly three times the average electrical demand.

“This is due to several factors including cooler nighttime temperatures that reduce air conditioner load, less starting and stopping of equipment due to maintenance, and lights turned off in crew berthing areas and unoccupied spaces,” said Rao. “As a result, even one generator’s output capacity exceeds the average nighttime electrical load by 30 percent or more.”

Lt. Rich Robbins, Halsey’s chief engineer, said the engineering team also took a total-ship approach to weigh potential operational impacts of single generator operations before going forward with the program.

“We didn’t want to compromise our ability to fight the ship or defend against an emergent threat,” said Robbins. “We evaluated the costs versus the benefits of single generator operations. We determined we could achieve significant cost savings without introducing unacceptable risk.”

Cmdr. Robert Beauchamp, who assumed command of Halsey during the deployment and after the pilot program began, said he is impressed with the fuel-saving measures. “The results have been remarkable, saving over 21,000 barrels of fuel this quarter alone,” he said.

“Everyone in America is feeling the effects of higher energy costs,” said Beauchamp. “We have been entrusted with these magnificent ships, it is our responsibility to act as true stewards of the public’s trust and efficiently manage the resources.”

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NEW YORK, New York, September 27, 2008 (ENS) – “I believe we’ve reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction [applause] of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” Al Gore declared at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting this week at the Sheraton New York.

Coal-fired power plants emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that is joining other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, blanketing the planet and raising the global temperature. Carbon capture and sequestration are methods of keeping the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere, but the technology is in its infancy, and the only U.S. demonstration project, FutureGen, was halted by the federal government earlier this year.

The former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who woke the world up to the dangers of global warming with his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” stepped up his warnings about the dire state of the global climate because he believes humans are losing the fight against global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore at the Clinton
Global Initiative (Photo by David Lam)

He drew a parallel between the economic crisis that the Bush administration and Congress are now trying to resolve, and the climate crisis – but he says the climate crisis will be much more disastrous if it is not prevented – and time is growing short.

“Now, in the midst of this frenetic effort to find a bailout, many are saying we should have prevented this. We should have realized that the short-term greed was overcoming a clear vision of what the risk was,” said Gore.

“Well, now is the time to prevent a much worse catastrophe because the world has several trillion dollars in sub-prime carbon assets, based on the assumption that it is perfectly alright to put 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours. Since we met here last year, the world has lost ground to the climate crisis. This is a rout,” he warned. “We are losing badly.”

“The strength of the storms, the depth of the drought, the movement of tropical diseases into areas that never experienced them before, this is the result of a dysfunctional, insane global system pattern that we have to change,” Gore said.

For the first time in all of human history, we as a species, have to make a decision,” he said, asking rhetorically, “What should we do?”

“We should stop burning coal [applause] without sequestering the CO2,” said Gore, blaming the coal and oil companies for the climate crisis.

“The coal and oil companies have spent, in the United States alone, a half a billion dollars in the first eight months of this year promoting a lie that there is such a thing as clean coal,” he said.

Coal-fired Tanners Creek power plant
in Indiana (Photo by AEP)

“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes [laughter]. It does not exist. It could theoretically exist. The only demonstration plant was cancelled. How many such plants are there? Zero. How many blueprints? Zero.”

“What we should do is make a one-off investment to switch our energy infrastructure from one that depends on fuel that is dirty, dangerous, destroying the habitability of this planet and rising in price to a new global energy infrastructure that is based on fuel that is free forever: the sun [applause] and the wind and geothermal.”

“There is a myth that the technology is not available. It is available,” Gore said.

Gore said within 10 years the United States should have a good start on what he calls the Electronet, a unified, national “smart” power transmission grid “with long-distance, low-loss transmission capacity to take the energy from the places where the sun falls and the wind blows to the places where the people live.”

“And we need it globally,” he said, “in Europe, in Africa, Northern Africa particularly.”

Gore’s solution for the climate and energy crisis may help resolve the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan as well.

“Let’s start with Darfur,” he proposed. “Darfur has more sunlight falling on it reliably than almost any other place. There’s a belt across that part of Africa into the Middle East. We ought to build solar, electric plants there and connect them with a super grid that goes across the straits of Gibraltar and up through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean and replaces coal and oil.”

But instead of working to bring about solutions like that, Gore denounced the “utter insanity” of the course that the U.S. Congress is taking.

Former President Bill Clinton addresses the 2008
Clinton Global Initiative (Photo by David Lam)

“Today,” he said, “the U.S. Congress is dealing with energy as well. They are, without debate and without a single hearing, preparing to lift the moratorium on the development of oil shale, which would vastly multiply the amount of CO2 from every gallon of gasoline. This is utter insanity and it demonstrates that the wealth and power and influence of the entrenched carbon lobby to twist policy and to put out illusory impressions about this that is overwhelming free debate.”

An extension of the ban on oil shale production on federal lands in the West failed to pass the Senate on Friday. Unless Congress extends the moratorium, it expires at the end of September with the end of the current fiscal year.

The oil shale of the Green River geological formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contains 800 billion to 1.8 trillion barrels of the equivalent of oil – roughly three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

But the adverse land and ecological impacts of oil shale production are well known from production in Alberta, Canada.

Production of oil from shale will result in airborne pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions so worrisome that the U.S. Council of Mayors earlier this year passed a resolution against the purchase of petroleum products produced from shale.

Because the entire Green River formation lies in the Colorado River drainage basin, water quality is an important issue, and 2005 study by the RAND corporation warns that “not enough is known about how to prevent water contamination from surface and in-situ operations.”

The power demand associated with shale, whether from coal or natural gas-fired power plants, also represents an enormous demand for water. One estimate from a Los Alamos National Lab scientists warns that each barrel of oil from shale could require one to three barrels of water to produce.

As for clean coal, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, an industry association, points out that coal provides half of America’s electricity generation.

“Over the last 30 years,” the coalition says, “America’s coal-based electricity providers have invested over $50 billion in technologies to reduce emissions – while at the same time providing affordable, reliable electricity to meet growing energy needs.”

“As a result of that commitment, today’s coal-based generating fleet is 70 percent cleaner on the basis of regulated emissions per unit of energy produced,” the coalition says, calling it “a great start.”

But the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is not a regulated emission, and the Bush administration has resisted all attempts by the states, business and environmental groups to regulate CO2.

In Gore’s view, he explained to the high-powered audience at the Clinton Global Initiative, renewable and carbon-free sources of energy, conservation and efficiency are the only way the world can extricate itself from the climate crisis.

“The single most important thing we could do is to put a price on the CO2 in our economy today,” said Gore. “As you know, I’ve long argued to reduce the payroll tax on working people and make it up with a tax on CO2. Tax what we burn, not what we earn.”

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TOPEKA, Kansas, May 1, 2008 (ENS) – Kansas will not have two new coal-fired power plants at Holcomb in the western part of the state. Late Thursday night, the Kansas House narrowly sustained the third veto of a bill to allow the plants by Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat.

The vote in the House was 80-45, four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor’s veto.

Closely watched as an indicator of the mood of the Midwest on coal power, the battle between the governor and the Republican controlled Statehouse over Sunflower Electric’s bid to expand its Holcomb Generating Station has absorbed much of this legislative session.

The fight began last October when Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby denied an air quality permit needed to proceed with construction because the two proposed 700 megawatt units would emit too much of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Sunflower Electric’s existing coal-fired power
plant at Holcomb, Kansas (Photo
courtesy Sunflower Electric)

It was the first denial of a coal power plant permit in the country based on climate change concerns.

Supporters of the new power plants in the Legislature passed a bill to allow the plants and strip the state agency of its power to block them. Governor Sebelius vetoed that bill and two more similar attempts.

Thursday night’s vote may put an end to the issue for this legislative session, which has already run over its April 30 limit, but it is possible that the House could attempt a second override of a similar coal bill rejected by Sebelius.

While Governor Sebelius called the vote, “good news for Kansas,” House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, a Republican, called it “a sad day for Kansas.”

“We are at a critical period for energy policy in this state and this country. We must bridge the gap between our growing energy needs, and the time when carbon capturing technology is a commercial reality,” the governor said. “We must move forward strategically – steering our state clear of the environmental, health and economic risks of massive new carbon emissions.”

Critics of the project also were concerned that 85 percent of the electricity produced by the two new coal-fired units would be sent to Colorado and Texas.

Sunflower Electric, based in Hays, Kansas, is developing the expansion project with Golden Spread Electric Cooperative of Texas and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association of Colorado.

Sunflower Electric President and CEO Earl Watkins vowed to continue efforts to expand Holcomb Station. “The majority of legislators recognize our project will be among the cleanest and most efficient coal plants in the nation and will provide affordable and reliable power to thousands of Kansas families,” he said Thursday night.

In lawsuits filed in the Kansas Court of Appeals and transferred to the Kansas Supreme Court, Sunflower and its member cooperatives argue that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the secretary had no authority under the law to deny the Holcomb Station expansion an air permit.

If the coal plant expansion does finally get the green light, environmental groups have said they will file lawsuits to block the development.

Governor Sebelius had offered to allow the construction of a single, smaller coal-fired power plant, but that proposal was not accepted by the power cooperatives.

“I continue to strongly oppose stripping the KDHE Secretary of his power to protect the health and environment of Kansans,” the governor said on Wednesday.

“I also remain opposed to putting the regulatory permitting process into the hands of a part-time Legislature whose membership changes every two years,” she said. “It sets a dangerous precedent and clearly puts us out of step with the rest of the country. The Kansas Legislature is proposing to put itself in the middle of the regulatory permitting process in a manner not found in any other state in the union.”

The governor said Thursday night that she is still “ready and willing to work with all of the energy producers in Kansas to find that common ground on which true progress can be built.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2008 (ENS) – The overall cost of capping greenhouse gases for the average American family will amount to less than one percent of household budgets over the next two decades, finds a new analysis released Monday by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.

The anticipated cost to the U.S. economy of reducing emissions is small, even difficult to measure against projected economic growth, but the most expensive policy by far is to do nothing at all.

“We can afford an ambitious climate policy for just pennies on the dollar. It’s a small investment that will pay off in cleaner air, new jobs, and a safer world,” said Nathaniel Keohane, PhD, director of economic policy and analysis at Environmental Defense Fund, EDF, and a former associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management.

Coal-fired power plants, like the Gavin plant in Ohio, emit greenhouse gases. Gavin is the largest power plant in Ohio and has two of the seven largest coal-fired generating units ever built. (Photo courtesy AEP)

“Not acting now just means paying a heavier price later as we try to manage the consequences of unchecked climate change,” he said.

President George W. Bush has kept the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, which requires an average cut of 5.2 percent of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2012, because of concerns that it would be bad for the U.S. economy.

The president was particularly concerned about the U.S. ability to compete in the global marketplace against emerging economies such as China and India with no such restrictions.

But increasing scientific evidence of rapid climate change has persuaded many, including about half the U.S. states and some of the largest U.S. corporations, that a national cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases is desirable sooner rather than later.

Formed in January 2007, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, USCAP, includes corporations such as Dow, Dupont, Siemens, Alcoa, Ford, General Motors, Duke Energy, and PepsiCo, and six large environmental groups, including Environmental Defense.

In its “Call for Action” last month USCAP says it recognizes that “a robust, market-based cap-and-trade approach is the best way to contain the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the long term. At the same time, it recognizes additional cost containment measures may be needed to guard against excessively high and volatile allowance prices.”

The Environmental Defense study, “What Will it Cost to Protect Ourselves From Global Warming?,” is the first comprehensive analysis of the leading economic modeling of cap and trade legislation to combat climate change.

The forecasting models surveyed were performed by five of the most highly respected economic modeling groups in government and academia at the Energy Information Agency, Research Triangle Institute, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.

The analysis shows that a cap-and-trade policy to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming is consistent with long-term economic growth.

The total number of jobs impacted by climate policy in the manufacturing sector over 20 years is substantially below the number of jobs created and destroyed in the sector every three months, the study shows.

And household electricity and natural gas bills rise by only a few dollars a month over the next few decades, well within the rise and fall homeowners already experience.

“Our gross domestic product is projected to reach $26 trillion in January 2030. If we capped greenhouse gases, according to these studies, the economy would hit that same mark by April,” Keohane said of the models analyzed in his report.

None of these models takes into account the high costs of inaction. Each looks only at one side of the ledger – the costs of reducing emissions, rather than the benefits of avoiding the consequences of unchecked climate change.

“It’s important to keep in mind that these forecasting models compare climate policy to a business-as-usual case that doesn’t take the costs of climate change into account,” said Keohane. “If we fail to take action on global warming, the future will be anything but business as usual.”

According to a recent study by the University of Maryland, runaway global warming will impact every economic sector and every region of the country, straining public budgets and impacting jobs and competitiveness.

The EDF study focuses on cap-and-trade programs that would cut U.S. emissions by 60% or more below current levels by the year 2050 – including the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) currently before the Senate.

A key feature of the report is its broad scope. “The cardinal rule about economic models is: Never trust any single number,” Keohane said. “No one model alone is a useful guide to the future, because they all make different assumptions about the factors that drive the economy.”

“The models don’t agree on much about what the future will look like, but they do agree that the impact of climate policy will be small,” he said.

An appendix to the report offers a detailed “Consumer’s Guide to Economic Models,” discussing the strengths and limitations of the economic models surveyed, as well as the key assumptions behind them.

The new Environmental Defense Fund analysis is available online at http://www.edf.org/climatecosts.

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TOPEKA, Kansas, April 17, 2008 (ENS) – Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, today again vetoed legislation that would have overturned a decision of her administration to deny an permit application to build two new coal-fired power plants in western Kansas.

The measure, SB 148, supported mainly by Republicans, passed without a veto-proof majority of state legislators.

Last October Secretary of Kansas Department of Health and Environment Rob Bremby denied a permit to regional wholesale power supplier Sunflower Electric Power Corporation to build two new 700 megawatt power plants at its Holcomb Station because of the greenhouse gases they would have produced.

The bill Sebelius vetoed today would have permitted the power plants and stripped the state agency of the power to deny such permits in the future if they held utilities to standards stricter than those in the federal Clean Air Act.

The existing Sunflower power plant at Holcomb,
Kansas. The company wants to expand it
with two new units. (Photo courtesy National
Energy Technology Lab)

“Legislators who promote the expansion of coal-fired plants in Kansas made a strategic decision with SB 148,” said Sebelius. “Rather than working toward a compromise solution or having any conversation about energy policy, this bill was drafted behind closed doors. It contains the same onerous elements of the previous bill that I vetoed; and again, these are elements I cannot accept and will not support.”

“This maneuver has done nothing to address the issues at hand – developing comprehensive energy policy, providing base-load energy power for Western Kansas, implementing carbon mitigation strategies and capitalizing on our incredible assets for additional wind power,” the governor said.

Opponents of the Sunflower project say wind and conservation are better alternatives to new coal plants, which will send 85 percent of their electricity outside the state anyway.

Supporters say Western Kansas needs the power, and that rejecting the plants will create an unstable business climate and scare future investments away.

But the political climate is changing and supporters of coal power are facing challenging times at both federal and state levels.

President George W. Bush, a long-time climate change skeptic, announced a policy shift Wednesday that would halt the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2025. While not soon enough for many scientists and environmentalists, the announcement signals a recognition that climate change is a real threat that the government must address.

Sebelius said today that the president’s announcement underlines the necessity of her decision not to allow more coal-fired power plants to be construction in Kansas.

“President Bush has announced a new goal for stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and recognized that the power sector must make significant efforts to achieve that goal,” she said.

“Since the most likely way to achieve this goal is through a cap and trade system, which would, in effect, tax carbon, it would be unfair to Kansans for our utilities to build coal-fired plants for other states until we can evaluate the costs of those plants for Kansas tax payers and rate payers.”

“We must remember the decisions we make today have a huge impact on Kansans for generations to come. The challenges before us can and should be met through a common sense solution,” she said. “I am still hopeful we can have meaningful discussions about a true compromise; rather than being sent the same bill in disguise yet again.”

With this action, Sebelius has signed 91 bills this legislative session and vetoed two.

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WASHINGTON, DC, April 15, 2008 (ENS) – Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 1.1 percent lower during 2006 than the previous year, according to the latest annual report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, released today.

Emitted by the burning of the fossil fuels coal, oil and gas for power, manufacturing and transportation, greenhouse gases reduce the loss of heat into space raising global temperatures.

The agency says emissions of the main climate warming gas carbon dioxide decreased in 2006 because Americans burned less fossil fuels and used less electricity than they did in 2005.

Compared to 2005, the winter of 2006 was warmer, which decreased consumption of heating fuels, and the summer was cooler, which reduced demand for electricity, the EPA said.

Fuel consumption for transportation went down because of rising fuel prices, the agency said.

And finally, the increased use of natural gas and renewables in the electric power sector also contributed to the lowering of carbon dioxide emissions.

Coal-fired power plants like this one in the
coal-rich state of West Virginia, are
the biggest contributors to U.S.
greenhouse gas emissions. (Photo
courtesy Allegheny Energy)

The report, “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006,” is the latest in an annual set of reports that the United States submits to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.

“Each year since 1993, EPA’s experts have built a comprehensive inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions,” said Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office Air and Radiation.

“Our understanding of emission sources is paramount to combating climate change,” he said.

Total emissions of the six main greenhouse gases in 2006 were equivalent to 7,054.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

The report indicates that overall emissions have grown by 14.7 percent from 1990 to 2006, while the U.S. economy has grown by 59 percent over the same period.

Burning coal produces by far the most greenhouse gas emissions, with mobile combustion such as cars and trucks responsible for the next highest amount of emissions. Burning gas in stationary power units produces is the next highest source of emissions, with burning oil in stationary power units not far behind.

The fifth highest source of emissions is direct nitrous oxide, N2O, emissions from agricultural soil management, according to the report.

EPA prepares the annual report in collaboration with experts from multiple federal agencies and after gathering comments from a broad range of stakeholders across the country.

The inventory tracks annual greenhouse gas emissions at the national level and presents historical emissions from 1990 to 2006.

The inventory also calculates carbon dioxide emissions that are removed from the atmosphere by “sinks,” such as forests, vegetation and soils, which take up carbon dioxide from the air.

To view the 2006 greenhouse gas inventory report, click here [www.epa.gov].

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