Stephen Colbert's "Kernel of Truth"

Courtesy of ecorazzi

Couldn't have done it better myself - in five minutes, Stephen Colbert breaks down the ethanol debate, CFL lightbulbs, Climate Change, and McCain's ill advised proposal for a tax holiday - or as I like to call it, an early Christmas present for the oil companies, and in 100% good humor. Enjoy!

Coal showdown in Kansas

Tomorrow is a big day in Kansas - the legislature is meeting to again discuss the two proposed Sunflower coal-fired power plants. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed the plan earlier this year after the plant creation was put into a bill despite the state's environmental secretary turning down the permit requests last fall.

Last week Sunflower offered a "compromise" plan - two slightly smaller coal-fired power plants. That's not much of a compromise, and Kansas Sierra Clubber Stephanie Cole called it a "token reduction" that gives "lip service" to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Tomorrow's legislature battle will also include a possible override of Sebelius' veto.

Some newspapers are speaking out against the compromise, the future of the plants continues to get more expensive, and many groups will be in Topeka tomorrow to make sure their voice is heard in the discussion. If you want to read up more on the history of this coal battle in Kansas, check out our Kansas Chapter's web site.

Introduction and Hello!

Hello everyone, I'm Nithin Coca, the new Grassroots Media Coordinator here at the Sierra Club, and as of this post, the newest contributor to Compass!

I'm really looking forward to helping move towards a greener future, and it is an exciting time to be at the Sierra Club. I'm a pretty active blogger and excited to join the team at Compass - my focus will be the "Green Blogosphere"; I will be posting links and images from around the web and pointing everyone towards the latest hot, online, green innovations.

I will start today with this: Our 2008 Earth Day Logo. Though Earth Day has passed (though, to us, everyday is Earth Day), our message stays the same - We Can Do It!

More on the clean cars rule release

Yesterday I mentioned the Dept. of Transportation's rule release on fuel economy required by the signed December energy bill - and now we've got some more commentary on that from our energy team's Caroline Keicher:

An Earth Day Present?

For all the people that have spent the last few months (or years) working for cleaner cars in this country, Earth Day this year felt a little bit like Christmas. Well, maybe the kind of Christmas where you end up with a lot of books and socks – which, admittedly, you needed more of – when what you really wanted was the promise of a new breed of vehicles that actually utilize all of the technology available today to achieve fuel economy levels that blow the Prius out of the water! Maybe that was just on our list...

Energy news round-up

First up, yesterday the Dept. of Transportation released its new fuel economy rules required by the December energy bill. We released a statement on it yesterday, and soon our own Ann Mesnikoff will have some more words for this blog once she's sifted through the pages and pages of documents that came with the rules announcement.

Secondly, from the NY Times: Europe is pushing for more coal. Not a good sign, but at least communities there are protesting it as well.

A Warm March

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that this past March was the warmest March on record over global landmasses, due to high temperatures over much of Asia. While the U.S. experienced historically average temperatures for the month, global temps were 3.2 degrees higher than the 20th century average.

Earlier in March, Greenpeace released a report warning that 125 million people could be driven from their homes in India and Bangladesh by 2100 as a result of sea level rise and, at the same time, water shortages due to global warming. The potential displacements in this at-risk region -- projected for continued business-as-usual energy production -- could result in one of the biggest economic and humanitarian crises in history.

On World Health Day, earlier this month, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) publicized the accute threat of global warming and climate change to human health and safety. UNICEF highlighted the threat to the health of women and children.

And yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to avoid issuing an endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, the first step in regulating air pollutants which may endanger public health or welfare. Encourage your congressional Reps to support states' rights to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and take action on global warming.

Video on New Mexico coal opposition

I was just emailed an excellent video about coal and wanted to share it. The video follows Sierra Club tribal partners Elouise Brown and Dallian Long as they raise questions over the proposed new Desert Rock coal-fired power plant in New Mexico that would be built on Navajo lands. It's an 11-minute piece, and it's very well done. Click here to watch it on YouTube.

Texas coal-fired power plant delayed

Good news for right now in Texas. Plans for a new coal-fired power plant in Limestone County, Texas, were put on hold by state administrative law judges (ALJs) conducting a permit proceeding over the proposed air pollution control permit for the plant.

The proposed coal plant - actually a third unit at an existing coal facility in Limestone County - would generate 800 megawatts of electric power by burning up to 4.3 million tons of coal per year.

Read more in this Fort Worth Star Telegram article and in this Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter press release.

Chunk of Antarctic ice shelf collapses, putting larger area at risk

Rapid melting on Wilkins Shelf is attributed to global warming.

From the Associated Press
March 26, 2008

WASHINGTON -- A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan has collapsed, scientists said Tuesday, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica that started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and had been there for perhaps 1,500 years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-antarctic26mar26,0,4061120.story

The Alliance for Burning Every Chunk of Coal

Maybe this is a bit late to the game, but after being in Pennsylvania this weekend and seeing the excessive amount of billboards touting "Americans for Balanced Energy Choices" (ABEC) and "clean" coal, I want to promote it again. Our friends over at NRDC did a great send up of ABEC's coal-pushing website. Calling themselves "The Alliance for Burning Every Chunk of Coal" (ABECC), NRDC uses the web site to tell the truth about the so-called "clean" coal that ABEC is pushing. Check out the parody at www.americascoalpower.org (For comparison, ABEC's website is americaspower.org).