WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2009 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today named U.S. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican, to fill the slot of Commerce Secretary in his cabinet.

If confirmed by the Senate, Gregg will join Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a total of three Republicans in the Obama Cabinet.

The President called his former Senate colleague a “master of reaching across the aisle” and complimented his “strict fiscal discipline.” But Obama mentioned no environmental credentials for his choice, although the Department of Commerce governs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.

From left, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Judd Gregg, President Barack Obama (Photo courtesy The White House)

NOAA has many environmental functions including the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the National Ocean Service; the National Weather Service; and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

“The Commerce Department has a broad and interesting portfolio,” Senator Gregg said today, “but its primary goal must be to create jobs by promoting industry, promoting economic activity, and promoting excellence in science. And I intend to pursue those avenues aggressively.”

A former congressman from 1980-1988, and a governor of New Hampshire from 1989-1993, Gregg has been serving in the Senate since 1993, and is currently ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

In the Senate, Gregg has a record of supporting commercial exploitation of resources, including offshore drilling, over environmental protection, although he has voted for some conservation measures.

The League of Conservation Voters’ Scorecard for the 2008 session of Congress scored Gregg at just nine percent for pro-environmental votes. His total LCV score since 1993 is 44 percent.

Republicans for Environmental Protection, a nonprofit group, issued Gregg an “environmental harm demerit” for sponsoring a Fiscal Year 2007 budget resolution that used the congressional budget process to force oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

On March 16, 2006 the Senate passed the resolution by a 51-49 vote. In the House, pro-conservation Republicans stood with Democrats to ensure that Arctic drilling was not included in the House budget resolution. The two bills were never reconciled in conference, so the Arctic refuge remains protected.

Backpackers in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Photo by Out in Alaska)

REP said drilling in the refuge “would perpetuate America’s dangerous oil dependence and damage the most scenic, wildlife-rich reserve in the circumpolar north.”

He has voted against environmental funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and did not vote to fund programs for conserving public lands and wildlife, oceans, coasts, water and farmland.

On the other hand, REP praised Gregg for helping secure passage of S. 4001, the New England Wilderness Act, which designated as wilderness nearly 35,000 acres of forests, mountains, and streams in New Hampshire and 42,000 acres in Vermont.

REP’s 2007 Congressional Scorecard rated Gregg as fourth best Republican in the Senate for environmental voting.

The University of New Hampshire renamed its Environmental Technology Building Gregg Hall, because Gregg used earmarks to secure $266 million of federal funds for research and development projects for the university.

The Judd Gregg Meteorology Institute, established in 2003, is the center of meteorological and atmospheric research at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire, which offers the only meteorology degree program in the state.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, an urgent issue Gregg will have to address at NOAA is upgrading infrastructure for responding to maritime accidents in the Arctic.

On Thursday, NOAA issued a joint report with the University of New Hampshire warning that more needs to be done to enhance emergency response capacity as Arctic sea ice declines due to climate warming and ship traffic in the region increases.

Scientists study ice patterns high in theArctic (Photo courtesy NOAA)

“The reduction of polar sea ice and the increasing worldwide demand for energy will likely result in a dramatic increase in the number of vessels that travel Arctic waters,” said Nancy Kinner, a UNH professor of civil and environmental engineering who serves as co-director of the Coastal Response Research Center, based at the university.

“As vessel traffic increases, disaster scenarios are going to become more of a reality,” she said.

The report details findings from a panel of experts and decision-makers from Arctic nation governments, industry and indigenous communities convened by the CRRC.

The panel examined five potential emergency response scenarios – a grounded cruise ship whose 2,000 passengers and crew must abandon the vessel; an ice-trapped and damaged ore carrier; an explosion on a fixed drilling rig north of Alaska; a collision between a tanker and fishing vessel that results in a large oil spill; and the grounding of a tug towing a supplies barge in an environmentally sensitive area near the Bering Strait.

“Now is the time to prepare for maritime accidents and potential spills in the Arctic,” said Amy Merten, NOAA co-director of the center. “This report clearly indicates that international cooperation and adequate resources are key to saving lives and protecting this special region.”

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At a rally in Ohio today, Barack Obama responded to the attacks recently launched by John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, whose aggressive messages has been picked up by the crowds at their rallies. Today Obama commented on his opponent’s tactic: “It’s easy to rile up a crowd,” he said. “Nothing’s easier than riling up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that’s not what we need right now in the United States.” By promoting unity and himself as the person who can facilitate that, Obama has managed to address the hatred that McCain’s camp has been fueling without relying on the same hate-based attacks. Obama also cited the McCain campaign’s statement that they want to “turn the page on the economy” and focus on attacking Obama. Watch the video here [www.msnbc.msn.com].

Later today McCain’s camp defended their supporters who have been saying things at rallies such as, Obama is a “traitor!” and a “terrorist” and “kill him!” McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers fired back by issuing a statement today, saying that Obama doesn’t understand “regular people.” [www.politico.com]

However others, including veteran Republican Congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois has said that Palin’s inflammatory rallies “don’t befit the office she’s running for and frankly, people don’t like it,” [www.wbbm780.com] he said.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, th country’s largest labor union, voiced his concern of the uncontained and increasingly aggressive McCain-Palin supporters.

“Sen. John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and the leadership of the Republican party have a fundamental moral responsibility to denounce the violent rhetoric that has pervaded recent McCain and Palin political rallies,” [www.boston.com] he said.

–Jamie Wong

WASHINGTON, DC, January 31, 2008 (ENS) – Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman sent America’s clean coal program back to square one Wednesday when he tossed out the FutureGen low emissions coal gasification plant that the Bush administration has supported for the past five years.

FutureGen is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Energy Department and the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, Inc, a non-profit consortium of 12 American and international energy companies.

The site at Mattoon, Illinois, selected after a hard-fought battle with two sites in Texas and another in Illinois, was scrapped, and Bodman said the FutureGen Alliance will have to compete all over again with other commercial power companies and consortia.

The announcement raised howls of protest from the Illinois congressional delegation. Half the delegation declared in a letter to President George W. Bush Wednesday that they “have lost confidence in Secretary Bodman.”

“We feel that the Secretary misled us and the people of Illinois, creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he had no intention of funding or supporting,” they told the president.

“We are writing today to urge you to keep FutureGen on track, so that this project can begin construction and become a reality,” wrote the Illinois elected officials, including Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both Democrats, and Democratic Representatives Jerry Costello, Danny Davis, Rahm Emanuel, Phil Hare, and Jan Schakowsky, and Republicans Tim Johnson, Ray LaHood, and Peter Roskam.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
(Photo courtesy Office of the
Secretary)

Bodman said he now favors “a restructured approach to its FutureGen project that aims to demonstrate cutting-edge carbon capture and storage, CCS, technology at multiple commercial-scale Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, IGCC, clean coal power plants.”

“Under this strategy,” Bodman said, “the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, will join industry in its efforts to build IGCC plants by providing funding for the addition of CCS technology to multiple plants that will be operational by 2015.”

“This approach builds on technological research and development advancements in IGCC and CCS technology achieved over the past five years and is expected to at least double the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered compared to the concept announced in 2003,” Bodman said.

“The FutureGen concept announced in 2003 planned the creation of a near-zero emissions, 275 MW power plant that produced hydrogen and electricity from coal on a smaller-than-commercial-scale, serving as a laboratory for technology development,” said Bodman.

The FutureGen Alliance today said Bodman’s assertions were untrue. “The Mattoon site and FutureGen, as currently configured, can sequester approximately two million tons per year. The environmental impact statement considered as much as 2.5 million tons,” said the Alliance.

“FutureGen is commercial scale,” the Alliance said. “The facility will be built around a commercial-scale gasifier and commercial-scale frame 7 turbine.”

In annoucing the restructuring, Bodman raised the issue of government funding for FutureGen. “Under this plan, DOE’s investment would provide funding for no more than the CCS component of the power plant – not the entire plant construction, compared with the FutureGen concept announced in 2003 where the federal government would incur 74 percent of rising costs.”

Again, the FutureGen Alliance disagrees with Bodman.

“Project costs have increased, but DOE’s share has not doubled – not even close. When President Bush first announced FutureGen, the DOE share was $800M. DOE’s current estimated share is $1.1B with the increase due to inflation,” the Alliance said today.

“The Alliance has offered to provide DOE with partial-to-full repayment to ease the final cost to the taxpayer. The costs are manageable,” the Alliance said.

“Alliance member contributions, thus far, have been cash donations. The Alliance has told DOE that it still expects a majority of its contributions will come from cash donations. Proposed financing is small relative to traditional projects. The Alliance includes some of the world’s largest companies; DOE’s notion that they might default is nonsense. The Alliance has fulfilled all its responsibilities thus far,” the consortium said.

On Wednesday, FutureGen Alliance chief executive Michael Mudd said, “The Alliance remains committed to keeping FutureGen on track.”

In their letter to President Bush, the Illinois congressional delegation too challenged the energy secretary’s statement that funding concerns are behind the withdrawal of support for FutureGen.

“When the Secretary was assured that we were prepared to provide adequate funding and to resolve any other outstanding issues between the Administration and the FutureGen Alliance if he would take steps to move FutureGen forward, he unequivocally refused. Given that, it is hard to believe that cost concerns constitute his real objection to this project,” the letter states.

“Many have argued that this abrupt about face by Secretary Bodman was the direct result of the FutureGen Alliance choosing Mattoon, Illinois as the site, over Texas applicants,” the congressional delegation wrote. “While we’d like not to believe this theory, there is no other plausible explanation.”

The president has not yet commented on the FutureGen controversy.

The Energy Department today issued a Request for Information that seeks industry’s input by March 3, 2008, on the costs and feasibility associated with building clean coal facilities that achieve the intended goals of FutureGen.

Bodman said the president’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget requests $407 million for coal research, including development of more efficient gasification and turbine technologies, innovations for existing coal power plants, and large-scale CCS injection tests, and $241 million to demonstrate technologies for cost-effective carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power plants, including $156 million for the restructured FutureGen approach and $85 million for DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative.

“This $648 million request represents a $129 million increase from the president’s FY2008 request and is the largest amount requested for DOE’s coal program in more than 25 years,” said the energy secretary.

The FutureGen Alliance, a non-profit organization, represents some of the world’s largest coal companies and electric utilities including: American Electric Power, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, the China Huaneng Group, CONSOL Energy Inc., E.ON U.S., Foundation Coal, Luminant, PPL Corporation, Rio Tinto Energy America, Peabody Energy, Southern Company, and Xstrata Coal.

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