The Airline Energy Crisis

Hi there! My name is Bri, and I am one of the media interns here the Sierra Club for the 2008 summer, and I'll be posting each Monday for the next month or so. Happy reading!

Rising oil prices have put one industry in particular into a crisis – the airline industry. Already, three airlines have gone bankrupt this year, and many others are teetering on the edge. It’s obvious that for the industry to survive, they’re going to have to think outside the barrel.

It’s in this near-comatose state that we’re finally starting to see some progress. In April 2008, the Air Transport Association of America (ATA) released a statement affirming its commitment “to the development and deployment of safe, environmentally friendly, reliable and economically feasible alternatives to conventional petroleum-based jet fuel.” Between individuals pointing their fingers at airlines for their excessive contributions to global warming and the rising cost of petroleum-based fuel, it seems only natural that air travel providers are looking for ways to solve the air travel crisis.

Coal victories in GA, MN

Major news out of Georgia today: A judge halted the plans for a new coal-fired power plant in Early County, Ga. This decision for the Dynegy Longleaf plant  in practical terms means that Dynegy cannot begin construction of the plant unless it can obtain a valid permit from state Environmental Protection Division that complies with the Court’s ruling.

Some of the facts on this proposed plant:

• This plant would produce 9 million tons of global warming carbon dioxide pollution annually – equal to adding 1.3 million cars on Georgia’s roads every year. A typical plant produces 3.7 million tons annually according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
• This plant would unnecessarily emit 4,700 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) every year.
• This plant would violate EPA’s standards for safe air by exceeding ambient air quality standards for fine particulate matter where the plant is located.
• This plant would emit nitrogen oxide (NOx), causing smog, acid rain, and health problems (EPD is allowing Dynegy to save money by capturing only 67% of these emissions).
• This plant would be allowed to take more than 20 million gallons (net) per day from the Chattahoochee River – the permit allows intake of 27 million gallons, of which roughly 5 million are supposed to be returned.

If you want to read more on the decision, read the press release.

In other coal news, time time from Minnesota's Twin Cities, Xcel energy brought down the smokestack from an old coal plant. The coal plant smoke stack was toppled Saturday to make room for a new clean-burning natural gas plant to help back up the burgeoning wind investments that are booming across the state – thanks to many groups' more recent success in enacting a renewable electricity standard of 25 percent clean energy by 2020. Video here and the story is here.

Fuel economy deadline approaching

Gas prices, gas prices, gas prices - it never ends! It's a serious issue that calls for serious action and realistic goals. If you'd like to help make a difference right now, you can do so.

July 1 is rapidly approaching...but why is 5pm EDT on July 1 such an important time? Because that's the deadline to submit comments about better fuel economy standards to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The December 2007 energy bill mandated a 35 mile per gallon vehicle fuel economy standard, and NHTSA now gets to decide how quickly the automakers get us to that mandate. The thing is, when they unveiled in April the proposed standards for vehicles sold in model years 2011-2015, they didn't go far enough. NHTSA's plan: Cars and trucks sold in the U.S. will average 31.6 mpg by the year 2015.

And right now NHTSA is accepting comments on the fuel economy standards. Why should you comment? The biggest single step we can take to cut global warming pollution is to improve the fuel economy of our cars. The standards NHTSA is setting right now will soon determine how many miles per gallon American cars will get -- and how soon.

To help get a better picture of all this, you should really check out Greg Haegele's Treehugger post entitled: "Top Ten Reasons to Email NHTSA Before July 1."

Who doesn't love an easy-to-read list? Clicking here will take you to the NHTSA fuel economy comment page.

Home Depot now recycles CFLs

For all you frequent users of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) out there, good news! Home Depot now offers a recycling program for the bulbs you no longer need. This is good because CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury, which makes them a hazardous waste product that does not belong in a regular landfill. Oh, and just in case you do break a CFL, make sure you clean it up properly.

Do keep using your CFLs, as they produce the same amount of light as normal bulbs, but use about a quarter of the electricity and last ten times as long. They'll save you money and help fight global warming. Sounds pretty good to me.

NY Times energy news round-up

The New York Times has some great energy articles up today, so I thought I'd share the links.

First up, "Rethinking the country life as energy prices rise." Are suburbs on their way out? From the article:

More than three-fourths of prospective home buyers are now more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, the national brokerage firm.

The second article of interest is "Low Mexican gas prices draw Americans." It's the rise of the "gas tourist" south of the border. And then we've got the article about the White House refusing to open the email from the EPA about greenhouse gases being considered a pollutant.

Enjoy!

Exxon Valdez oil spill damages slashed again

The news is out and it's not good: The Supreme Court just slashed the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in '89 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.

From the Associated Press article, "Nearly 33,000 Alaskans are in line to share in the award, about $15,000 a person. They would have collected $75,000 each under the $2.5 billion judgment."

Exxon has appealed this since the beginning, and has paid $3.4 billion in "fines, penalties, cleanup costs, claims and other expenses" so far. According to the article, the residents have already received on average $15,000 person.

How much is enough from a multi-billion dollar company whose negligence permanently disrupted the economy of the small town, shutting down fishing operations and changing livelihoods forever? $30,000 total for each person?

Help stop a coal mine expansion in Arizona

We've just gotten some news in from one of our coalition partners, the Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC)  in Arizona. The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) has re-opened the public comment period on a Peabody Coal Company coal mine expansion plan in Black Mesa, Ariz.

Coalition partners say the comment period for the mine's environmental impact statement (EIS) is too short (only 45 days long, it closes on July 7th) to be able to garner enough comments from nearby affected Native American tribes. The draft EIS also switches the details of the mine expansion plans since the first comment period was open in 2006 and isn't even entirely clear on the new plans. All of that adds up to an issue BMWC supporters say is confusing for the public to fully understand.

This project is a complex mess, but a few specifics you could mention in your comments to OSM include:

• The draft EIS does not adequately address the impacts of continued pumping of water from the deep Navajo Aquifer below Black Mesa for Peabody's mines.

• The draft EIS mentions lung problems and only proposes mitigation for mine workers, not residents.

You can help! BMWC has a take action page where you can learn a lot more about the issue and send in comments to the OSM asking that the agency "grant an immediate suspension or, in the alternative, an indefinite extension of time in which to comment on the 'reopened' Black Mesa Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement."

According to BMWC, "In 30 years the Black Mesa mine has contributed an estimated 325 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere! If Peabody's Black Mesa Project is permitted, coal from the Black Mesa mine could potentially contribute an additional 290 million tons of CO2 to the global warming crisis!"

BMWC formed in 2001 to address the ground water use and depletion of Peabody Coal Company’s coal-slurry operations. Background here.

So, what are you waiting for? Speak out against coal and speak up for communities affected by the mining practices!

Unleash your powers

Nithin posted about our first Lightbulbs to Leadership campaign video that went up June 13th, and now it's time for the second one! This time the theme is unleashing your power to call for policymakers to take serious action on global warming.

If you want to take action - go to www.LightbulbsToLeadership.org and sign our letter telling the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to speed it up on the higher fuel economy standards!

More on oil drilling

Thanks to everyone who spoke up about the off-shore oil drilling ban in the last post - we know it's a heated issue, that's for sure. Please do keep commenting, although please keep it civil. Using all caps and throwing insults around isn't much of a debate.

Anyway, I saw a good discussion of the oil drilling issue over on Grist, so I encourage folks to check that out as well. There's also some good discussion on oil drilling in this Boston Globe blog post.

I particularly liked this Grist post comment about how smart policy inspires economic growth among renewable energy sources. If our only solution again and again is to drill, drill and drill some more - all while we don't strongly encourage conservation or the development of clean alternative fuels, we're taking a long walk off a short pier, folks.

An end to the offshore drilling ban?

Let's hope not, but that's exactly what President Bush will be shooting for today - an end to the federal ban on oil drilling off the coasts of the U.S.

Senator John McCain came out in support of the move yesterday. This is not good, folks. More drilling won't solve the problem of high gas prices and it is not worth the environmental risks.

And as our own lands program director said in a hearing about domestic oil drilling last week:

Sierra Club lands program director Athan Manuel told a House committee Wednesday that drilling has been unsuccessful in driving costs down. “The disappointing part about some of the energy policies being promoted (is) that it calls for more drilling when drilling really is the problem. And all we’ve got to show for pretty aggressive (domestic) drilling for the last 35 years is, again, $4 for a gallon of gas,” Manuel said, adding “since the first Arab oil shock in the 1970s, the U.S. has produced almost 90 billion barrels of oil since then, so we’ve tried drilling our way out of the problem and it just hasn’t worked.”

Exactly.

Wind power increase in the U.S.

This morning I saw this article in the Financial Times - "U.S. seeks to breathe life into wind power." Pretty interesting, but then things got a little depressing when I saw the news from the Washington Post: "Senate blocks debate of clean energy tax credits." Sigh - how are we going to keep moving into this clean energy economy when we're not even giving it much of a chance? Meanwhile, oil companies keep getting subsidies out the wazoo while they make record profits. How does that make sense?

Lawmakers in the Dark

We just released this video last week as part of our new Lightbulbs to Leadership campaign, and the response has been amazing. First, watch it - it's unlike anything we've ever done before. If you like it, please rate it on YouTube and leave a comment!

Americans are ready to turn the page and tackle global warming. But lawmakers are conspiring to keep us all in the dark. We've saw this during this past Earth Day - more and more people are taking steps to fight global warming, and Americans everywhere are changing their light bulbs, But it's not enough - to really solve global warming, we need to change more than light bulbs: we need to change direction. We need action that is strong, urgent and bold enough to get the job done.

Join the campaign and call on our leaders to take bold action.

Turn your car into a plug-in hybrid

Forbes Autos has an interesting article on what you could do with $4,000 - $10,000 if you have that lying around just waiting to be spent. Why not turn your regular car or hybrid into a full plug-in electric vehicle?

It's possible with these after-market kits companies are creating - it's just pricey right now. But this is the sort of thing I like to see - innovative solutions to energy issues. Yes, the electricity has to come from somewhere to charge your vehicle, and we'd rather have it come from wind or solar power than from coal or nuclear power. But for now it's nice to see companies really working hard to help break us of our oil addiction. And, this could keep you from buying a new car, instead you just keep your old car for longer and convert it to something better. I'm all for less consumption! (It's probably cheaper than buying a new car, too).

Anyone out there had experience with these sorts of kits? I'd love to hear comments on it.

Or, if you'd like to read an interesting tale of someone converting their old Corvette into an electric car - check out this blog from one of our Sierra Club Minnesota North Star Chapter members.

Illegal coal mining in Kentucky

Ugh - one of our press folks alerted me to this terrible story, and I'm glad now that it's getting some play on the Web. A mining company in Kentucky went ahead destroyed an entire mountaintop in Pike County for coal.....all without a Clean Water Act permit. After they were done completely leveling the landscape, polluting the water around it (much of which served as a drinking water source for the community of Pikeville) - then they told the Army Corps of Engineers.

Read more about it in this post over at Daily Kos. It is truly stunning.

New Mexico coal news

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is weighing in on the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant. From an Associated Press article, "Richardson is urging the EPA to delay issuing an air permit for the Desert Rock plant until New Mexico can be consulted about its impact."

He said last week's consent decree decision by the EPA to rule on the plant's air quality permit by July 31 will cause problems.

From Richardson's statement (PDF here):

"This consent decree will only serve to tie EPA's hands while preventing a full and thorough analysis of the far reaching impacts this plant will have on the health of New Mexicans," said Governor Richardson. "Every indication is that this is an agreement being pushed by the Bush White House to the detriment of air quality in the Four Corners region. I urge EPA to delay issuance of the permit pending full consultation with New Mexico regarding the far-reaching environmental impacts -- including asthma-causing ozone, mercury and greenhouse gas emissions -- that will be caused by this plant."

If you want to know more about the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant (which is slated for construction on Navajo Nation land), check out our Rio Grande Chapter page.

Big Oil gets a break, renewables get a kick in the teeth

Ugh, yesterday in the Senate was a big punch to the gut of progress and the move to a clean energy economy. First up, Senate Republicans blocked the Consumer First Energy Act, which, among many other positives, would've stopped the giant subsidies given to Big Oil and fought back against oil speculators who are driving up the price.

Then to add insult to injury, they again blocked the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, which would've renewed the crucial tax incentives for clean energy such as wind and solar power, not to many the thousands of jobs it would've created.

In a time of record gas prices and a sinking economy full of job loss - one would think Congress would be scrambling to offer some relief and a boost. Not this time, unfortunately.

Grist has a good write-up of the bill's outcomes.

Monday energy news round-up

I've got two stories to highlight today. First up is the Chicago Tribune's article on how coal got a dirty name.

Notable quote: "Developers are increasingly concerned about being penalized for carbon emissions," said Steve Piper, who tracks power forecasts for Platts, an industry trade journal. "It's giving many people pause."

And then we've got an article about the impacts of $4/gallon gas, "Rural U.S. takes worst hit as gas tops $4 average."

Notable quote:

The disparity between rural America and the rest of the country is a matter of simple home economics. Nationwide, Americans are now spending about 4 percent of their take-home income on gasoline. By contrast, in some counties in the Mississippi Delta, that figure has surpassed 13 percent. As a result, gasoline expenses are rivaling what families spend on food and housing.

Go check 'em out!

A car that gets 230mpg

CNN had an interesting segment today on a very futuristic-looking car that gets 230mpg! Looks like a spaceship! Check it out here.

And, per our Clean Car Campaign's Caroline Keicher, the car's design reminds us of this t-shirt.

Green job potential

Earlier this week we helped unveil the latest green jobs report, entitled "Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments." It's a great report that details how green jobs aren't just new jobs that will be created by investing in clean energy - they're jobs that already exist and will  expand with such an investment. This also means they're not some pie-in-the-sky future opportunities - they're already here!

For example, from the report:

The vast majority of green jobs are in the same areas of employment that people already work in today in every region and state of the country. For example, constructing wind farms creates jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, among many others. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through retrofitting relies on roofers, insulators, building inspectors and many others. Expanding mass transit systems employs civil engineers, electricians and dispatchers. Train operators who currently deliver furniture may one day deliver wind turbine component parts, meaning that their work will be contributing to a green economy that solves global warming and builds healthier communities. So green jobs don’t just mean new jobs—they can also mean greater job security for people who already work in these fields.

Want to read more? Check out the Green Jobs for America web site, where you can download the whole report.

Global Warming Skeptics... They're Baaaack

Just when you thought it was safe to assume that everyone was on board the reality train -- heck, even long-time naysayer George W. Bush has seen the light -- Wired is reporting that that U.S. Army didn't get the memo on global warming.

Apparently the chief scientist at the Army Research Office's science directorate, one Dr. Bruce West, believes that the crazy mass of incandescent gas we call the Sun is acting up, and that its "turbulent dynamics"  could be responsible for "as much as 69 percent of the increase in Earth’s average temperature" according to a piece he published in the March 2008 issue of Physics Today. West is to be the featured speaker at a blogger's roundtable event hosted by the Army on Thursday, the title of which is "Global Warming: Fact of Fiction." This does little to dispel the conventional wisdom regarding "military intelligence."

Shortly after the story was posted on Wired's blog yesterday, an update appeared with a response from an Army spokesperson stating "The Army does not have a position on global warming."

Any other institutions out there want to disagree with the IPCC, NASA et al. on climate change? Or is this game of global warming Whac-A-Mole finally over?

Gas alternatives

Kaptain Klimate's comment and news link in the previous blog post about gas prices made me want to do a round-up. I keep seeing all kinds of stories about people finding different ways to commute to work and avoid high gas prices, so why not share some here.

First, of course people are biking more frequently. No gas and it has a good side benefit of being quite healthy for you. I linked to this story recently of man who gave up his truck for a bike, promising to not buy any gas for 31 days.

Then in yesterday's Baltimore Sun I read about a man who decided a Segway was a good way to get to and from work each day.

Well today we had Kaptain Klimate's link to a story about Kentucky high schoolers riding horses to school because it was too expensive to fill up their cars' gas tanks.

And a few weeks ago I saw this story about a farmer who'd switched from tractors to mules in order to save money on his land.

Anyone else got any good stories on alternatives to using gas-powered vehicles?

The impact of high gas prices

Two interesting stories from today's NY Times - both covering different angles of the impact of high gas prices.

First up is GM's announcement that they will be closing four truck manufacturing plants because consumers are buying smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles. From the article:

"These (gas) prices are changing consumer behavior and changing it rapidly," Mr. Wagoner said at a briefing before G.M.'s annual meeting in Wilmington, Del. "We don't believe it's a spike or a temporary shift. We believe it is, by and large, permanent."

Too bad GM didn't get that memo sooner. (And if you'll excuse the pun, this only adds more fuel to the fire over telling NHTSA to move faster on better fuel economy standards.)

And the second article covers gas prices on one popular form of entertainment: racing. While major racing circuits have sponsors to help defray fuel costs, the smaller racing circuits are feeling the pinch.