Thursday, July 15, 2010

Utilities Quietly Try to Gut Clean Air Act as Climate Peacocks Squawk

by RLMiller

From the diaries. --Joan

The big fight on the energy/climate bill is supposed to be whether the Senate can find 60 votes for, if not an economy-wide cap on carbon, then at least a utility-only (e.g., coal-fired electric power plants) cap on carbon.  Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), one of the flashier climate peacocks, says even that scaled back climate bill can't find 60 votes to pass the Senate this year.

The real fight is not on the floor of the Senate, but at the Caucus Room restaurant in Washington, where electric utilities attempt to eviscerate the Clean Air Act: not just relating to greenhouse gases, but also well-known health hazards such as mercury and sulfur dioxide.

Politico has the story, and it's not pretty: "The power companies want relief from the air pollution rules as a price of entry into negotiations if they are going to accept a mandatory carbon limit that won’t apply to other industries. The environmentalists are saying no."  

And it's not just relief from new EPA rules on greenhouse gases, but "a number of existing Clean Air Act programs dealing with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury, including a new EPA rule proposed last week that deals with interstate pollution."  Existing programs regarding criteria pollutants are supposed to be updated every so often, but weren't during the Bush years (surprise!), so utilities are facing a huge backlog of work.  

The utility companies whine that avoiding the backlog is a necessary tradeoff if they'll be the only sector subject to a cap on carbon.  They want relief on other pollutants.  Let's be absolutely clear on the nature of that relief -- it amounts to an extortion demand.  

The price of one baby step toward ensuring that carbon doesn't make half the planet uninhabitable is the right to dump highly toxic mercury into America's air, waterways, fish, and -- ultimately --people.  And if they don't get their way, they'll oppose even the most modest climate bill.

David Roberts at Grist doesn't mince words: Utilities are trying to pull off the scam of the decade.  If it goes through, "This deal really would do that: it would make the bill worse than nothing. It would be a step backward, on both climate and health grounds." Update -- Brad Plumer, at The New Republic, is equally harsh:Energy Bill Could Be a Disaster, if Utilities Get Their Way.

So far, environmentalists are standing firm in opposing the utilities' demand.  Even Environmental Defense Fund, considered a pragmatic compromiser and in attendance at the back door meetings, signed on to a letter calling the utilities' position "unacceptable."

Elected leaders have stayed out of this to date.  Politico notes that Senate staff aren't even in the room while these back door negotiations are taking place.  I've been pleasantly surprised by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's backbone in the last few weeks on climate-related issues.  I'd like to hear that he -- or President Obama, or one of the Climate Peacocks -- will just say no to the utilities' extortion demand, and move ahead with a bill based on scientific reality.



continued at Daily Kos....

June Smashes Temp Record, Today may be All Time High

by FishOutofWater

June smashed global high temperature records according to official figures released today by the U.S. government.

Moreover, unofficial satellite temperature calculations (by climate change skeptic Dr. Roy Spencer) of the lowest atmospheric layer around the earth's surface show the past 3 days may be the hottest days ever measured on earth. Try this link to make your own graph.

The orange line on top is 2010. The blue line that set the previous high is 2009. The other lines are 1998-2008.



continued at Daily Kos....

Upper Big Branch electrician ordered to disable safety monitor (UPDATED)

by Christian Dem in NC

NPR's Morning Edition dropped a bombshell earlier today.  Two months before the Upper Big Branch explosion,an electrician was ordered to disable a key safety device.

On Feb. 13, an electrician deliberately disabled a methane gas monitor on a continuous mining machine because the monitor repeatedly shut down the machine.

Three witnesses say the electrician was ordered by a mine supervisor to "bridge" the automatic shutoff mechanism in the monitor.

Listen to the full story here:

If I'm the supervisor who issued that order or the electrician who carried it out, I'd have a lawyer on speed dial.  Disabling a methane monitor is blatantly illegal, according to the MSHA.  

How significant is this?  Well, back in April, rescuers had to pull back at least TWICE because methane levels were still off the scale even though there was no active production.



continued at Daily Kos....

The Smart Grid: Smart Pricing

by Richard Lyon

Smart grid technology offers consumers the opportunity to become active participants in the management of their power costs. It seems fairly certain that the rates for energy will be on the rise. People are likely to have a greater interest in ways to control those increases. Looking at the possibilities for implementation of such schemes requires an understanding of the economics of the electrical power industry.



continued at Daily Kos....

She Won't Back Down: Ashley Judd Defies Critics, Continues to Blast Mountaintop Removal

by rperks

Today in The Hill, a quintessential inside-the-Beltway political newspaper, Ashley Judd scores a scathing commentary on one of the causes she cares most about: the campaign to abolish mountaintop removalcoal mining in Appalachia. 

"I am proud to stand with Eastern Kentuckians everywhere, building a positive future for our region," she writes.  "There’s so much potential today, right now, for Eastern Kentucky to proudly and bravely lead the way to a new energy economy in this country, with more jobs and overdue justice for the people of Appalachia.  It is time for a community abused and exploited by outsiders who have never had our best interests at heart to rise and lead the U.S. into a renewable energy future."



continued at Daily Kos....

A Scientist takes down Lord Monckton - Updated

by tomasyn

John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, took eight months to research and produce a thorough debunking of a talk given by notorious climate-change denier Lord Christopher Monckton. Monckton, whose credentials include degrees in classics and journalism (but none in any scientific field) is a prolific producer of nonsense on climate matters. Taking it all apart in a thorough and rigorous manner is quite a task, and I thank Dr. Abraham for this important work.



continued at Daily Kos....

Great environment news! Illegal logging down across the globe

by vc2

Logging in the rain forest, jungles and woods across the world has caused loss of habitat for wildlife, leading to extinction of species as well as contributing to the global warming challenges. Tribes and indigenous people have been left with no land to live on, ending their traditional ways of life.  Clearing millions of miles of woods has caused a catastrophe, but over the years people have started to wake up to the problem and even some 3rd world government are cracking down.  More and more areas are set aside as national parks and protected areas. (Brazil has been a leader in this area).  That however has meant a rise in the illegal logging industry and companies who make a profit off the backs of the poor villagers working for them.  

A report released this week shows fantastic news for all who have fought for the animals, the people, and the planet.

Illegal logging is down 25% across the board since 2002.



continued at Daily Kos....

Christopher Monckton trying to take down Prof. John Abraham's rebuttal of global warming talk

by apeescape

There is a climate of confusion on global warming, as the "Merchants of Doubt" use any non-scientific tool to delay any legislative action. When a scientist tries to right its ship by providing a thorough, scientific rebuttal, he/she risks time constraints, undue attention, accusations of libel, threats of litigation, demands for apology and retraction, etc.

This is exactly what is happening to Prof. John Abraham against Christopher Monckton.

To counteract the impending censorship, a website is up to Support John Abraham and St. Thomas University. Hopefully some Kossacks could leave a comment to show some support.



continued at Daily Kos....

Big Cities Want Big Changes in Energy

by Bruce Nilles

Today I'll focus on yet another community suffering from coal's pollution - but this community is a little bit larger, and it's on the front end of an emerging trend. The city is Chicago and it's starting what could be a national movement to clean up dirty energy in the inner city.

Some of our oldest and dirtiest coal plants are located in major cities across the U.S.; and they are often located in areas with other major pollution sources, exposing residents of these densely populated areas to higher levels of harmful pollution than their neighbors.



continued at Daily Kos....

Special Guest Mothership #51 - Human Health Issues and the BP Catastrophe

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #52 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #212 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - David PA

Rules of the Road

  • We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
  • Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
  • Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!



continued at Daily Kos....

Fishgrease: Booming Feynman's Ghost

by Fishgrease

Boomers! Yesterday! A date which will live in fuckery.

"It has been indeed fuckery most foul."

-- Kossack Onomastic in yesterday's Gulf Watchers ROV liveblog diary.

REC AND SUPPORT THE MOTHERSHIP!!!

Yesterday, Our Government bought in to BP's lies and maneuvering. Yesterday, Our Government approved the Integrity Test. That test is now underway. If anything bad happens, and there are many many bad things that can happen, Our Government will be visited by the Ghost of Richard Feynman.



continued at Daily Kos....

A very large and complicated problem

by olmanwillow

For a long time I've had suspicions that something big was happening, that the global system as it has been for the past century is failing. There are glimmers of the giant crisis that shine through smaller problems. However when these smaller problems are viewed in concert there is reason for serious concern.  



continued at Daily Kos....