It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Most everyone has heard of ethanol from corn, but what about ethanol from trees? That’s what Colorado-based ZeaChem, Inc. are planning to do with a new plant opening in Boardman, Oregon. The plant, which will produce 250,000 gallons of ethyl acetate (the precursor to cellulosic ethanol) annually, is funded with the help of government grants and will begin production in 2011.

Ethanol can be fermented from most fibrous plants, including trees and straw. The plant in Boardman intends to harvest the surrounding area’s poplar population instead of the traditional and more well-known method of using corn.

According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, the development and production of cellulosic ethanol (ethanol from trees) has seen a sharp rise in popularity. Most importantly, it allows for the production of ethanol without directly using what may otherwise be a food source (corn). The technology has seen support from both President’s Bush and Obama.

Continue reading ‘A Different Kind of Renewable Resource’

Image from Rising Tide North America protest at EDF's offices in Dec. 2008

LIEBERMAN SAYS ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN CONSTRUCTING HIS CLIMATE BILL’S LANGUAGE

SOS Activist Starting Vigil Outside Their DC Office

As Jim Hansen stated in an opening quote for the piece by Cory and I in Common Dreams : “Governments will not put young people and nature above special financial interests without great public pressure. Such pressure is not possible as long as big environmental organizations provide cover.“

Environmental Defense (EDF) is front and center as spending big money to provide that cover. Their site now reveals they played a lead role in crafting all the giveaways in the dangerous facade of a bill called Kerry-Lieberman. Gary Houser of Climate SOS is now seeking support for an ongoing vigil outside the EDF office in DC. The goal is to expose EDF’s false, deceptive, and immoral claim to represent the “environmental community” (when in fact they are serving the interests of fossil fuel corporations) and the real damage it is inflicting on efforts to create a truly meaningful bill.  Any potential supporters (including from the religious community) should be directed to Houser at:  mountainmist4@yahoo.com Continue reading ‘Climate Activist Begins Vigil Outside EDF Offices over Kerry-Lieberman’

The only internationally legally binding agreement on carbon emission reductions is being abandoned by its former champion – the European Union.

International negotiations are truly crazy places. In between the ten page daily agenda which ranges from “Item 3 – a shared vision for long-term cooperative action” to “Conference and film festival: toward a new justice tryptch” (you can actually check that – that was the first and last item on the UN climate talks daily programme for 3 June) there are all sorts of personalities and zany ideas at play. For example, outgoing Executive-Secretary of the talks, Yvo De Boer, sparked controversy this week with a leaked memo calling the Copenhagen talks a ‘muffin’ instead of a ‘cake’ for their complete failure to address the climate crisis.

In a discussion about the role of NGOs in the negotiations yesterday, Yvo, as he’s universally known, recounted that he’d always appreciated the ‘fossil of the day’ award, which NGOs give out to highlight the most backward action in international climate policy each day. He particularly appreciated receiving it once when he was just a delegate for the Netherlands and he had the temerity to suggest that ‘the United States would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.’

That the US would not ratify Kyoto, the only international agreement on legally binding carbon emission reduction targets, is not such a zany idea – the US has a terrible history of agreeing to international standards on anything from the rights of women to the ‘oh so now’ law of the sea. That the US is now undermining the Kyoto Protocol, even though it is not a member, is not crazy but is very disappointing. What’s truly crazy is that in civilised Bonn, in the heart of the European Union, the EU, formerly the champion of both international law and environmental integrity would vacate the field on both fronts.

The two fronts (environmental integrity and legal integrity) converge in the contest between what type of international instrument should be used to reduce carbon emissions – that is to say, how countries will work together, or not, to fight this global problem. One option is a system where countries collectively set a total target that is science based and fair, then negotiate their specific reductions and under a system that makes e sure everybody lives up to their promises. The second option, rather less effectively, allows countries to merely announce on the international stage what they have already decided to do domestically, even if the total effort is woefully inadequate. . Option 1 is represented by the Kyoto Protocol and Bali Action Plan system and option 2 is the ‘Copenhagen Accord’ system.  The latter isn’t global cooperation; it’s a take it or leave it game of chicken that leaves the planet in peril and millions in danger.

On the environmental integrity front the Copenhagen Accord system has just taken a serious beating. The prestigious, peer-reviewed and respected scientific journal, Nature, published an article on the 22 April 2010, which used the very scientific term ‘paltry’ to describe the emission reduction pledges in the Copenhagen Accord. The article concludes those paltry pledges would give a greater than 50% chance that warming will exceed 3 degrees by 2100. 3 degrees is devastating, catastrophic, climate change. It’s the climate change that most people, plants and animals won’t survive. A greater than 50% chance. Would you get on a plane, with your daughter, your brother, your friend, your pet dog and your favourite plant if there was a greater than 50% chance of crashing? Didn’t think so.

But the EU is thinking about it. In negotiations here in Bonn, the EU refused to say whether it would commit to a second round of Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets. This is despite the Group of 77, (deceptively a bloc of over 130 of the world’s poorest countries) telling the meeting that:

‘The continuity of the Kyoto Protocol is an essential element for the future of the climate regime…failure sends a negative signal [by rich countries] regarding their ambition and contribution to a strong climate regime’

The EU used to be characterised by its ‘ambition and contribution’ to a strong international climate regime, but here in Bonn they are showing a distinct lack of courage, and as the German’s say, when you lose your courage you lose everything (real German saying). Similarly, Australia, whose Prime Minister was elected just 3 years ago on the promise of ratifying Kyoto because it is such an important treaty, was even more direct than the EU in negotiations in indicating that Australia (for a group of developed countries) didn’t think science-based and legally enforceable targets were very important. That in effect, Australia would be complicit in killing Kyoto.

This division over direction in international climate policy is resting on a knife-edge. Just months ago the outgoing Labour Government in the UK announced it could support a second round of Kyoto. Mexico, the host of December’s UN Climate Conference, where the second round of Kyoto targets is supposed to be agreed made clear that despite imperfections, ‘the Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding agreement that we have.’ And Norway clearly indicated that it would sign on for a second round. If the EU were to take leadership again perhaps the world could get back on track to a sensible, science based climate policy instead of the crazy-talk coming from countries in Bonn right now.

For more detailed accounts of negotiations see The Third World Network’s daily reports.

You can follow Alex Rafalowicz at Bonn negotiations on twitter @climatedebtorg

I have an opinion column out today in the University of Maryland newspaper “The Diamondback” about what the ongoing offshore drilling disaster means to us, and a call for the passage of clean energy and climate legislation.  Enjoy!

Conservation: Putting away childish things

By Matt Dernoga

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

When I was a kid, I was under the impression that sheer willpower and a mandate from the universe would allow me to succeed at everything I attempted. Sure, I grew out of it once I became a teenager and the world gave me a reality check, but even in high school, I didn’t always put forth the necessary effort for schoolwork, athletics or other endeavors because of a gut feeling that circumstances would work out for me regardless of my actions. It sounds so silly looking back a few more reality checks later, but I guess that’s called growing up.

What has been scary to me is that our collective approach and attitude toward environmental and energy policy has been equally as childish. We have this illusion that technology will solve all of our abuses to this planet and its ecosystems that sustain us, regardless of their magnitude or scope. But today as we helplessly watch the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we can all acutely feel what I learned in my younger years. Continue reading ‘Opinion Column “Conservation: Putting away childish things”’

In the wake of the unraveling BP Oil Disaster, the time has come to set a deadline to phase out oil drilling and fossil fuel extraction.

Countless men and women have for generations dedicated their careers -sometimes risking their lives and their health- to power our hospitals, school buses, homes, and businesses. America owes a debt of gratitude to those in the fuel industry for greatly contributing to the early growth and success of our nation. They deserve our respect.  But their welfare remains in peril along with ours until we convert to a clean energy economy.

Aaron Dale Burkeen was a 37 year-old crewmember on the BP Deepwater Horizon oilrig. He died with 10 of his crewmates on April 20^th, 2010 when the rig exploded. At his memorial service on May 25^th, his family described Dale as a “caring and honorable son, brother, and father.” America can honor him and our many other energy veterans best by creating safe, dignified, and sustainable careers for their children.

Dale is one of many heartbreaking casualties of the BP Oil Disaster. After the deaths of these 11 workers, Americans learned about the scores of crab, oyster, and shrimp fishermen along the Gulf Coast being put out of business, perhaps forever, as a result of the spill. Dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans, and fish are washing ashore dead and soaked in oil. The National Guard and workers are racing against time to erect sandbag walls in hopes of saving miles of fragile wetlands and salt marshes from the oil. Watching aerial video of miles of red streaks across the sea, and giant plumes of oil swirling under the water, it is clear that this nightmare has only just begun.

It didn’t have to be this way..

Continue reading ‘America Can Do Better’

Hearing the stories of the devastation caused by Mountaintop Removal coal mining is what first got me involved in social justice. A few years later, I continue to be outraged by what my friends in Eastern Kentucky deal with daily, but I now also find myself enthralled by what is happening in my hometown, Louisville, with coal ash.

In February, I first learned of E.ON’s plans to add a 60-acre coal-combustion waste (CCW) landfill adjacent to their Cane Run Rd. power plant in South Louisville, five miles away from the neighborhood I grew up in and from where I now live. Coal ash is a new issue to me and to many folks, but one thing’s for sure, it’s not the kind of stuff you want in your neighborhood or next to your city’s water source. Coal ash contains concentrated amounts of heavy metals and other pollutants that have been found to cause cancer and other health problems in humans. A 2007 EPA report found that those living near coal ash dumps have a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer. There is already a coal ash impoundment at the Cane Run Rd. site that the EPA considers “high hazard,” meaning that a dam break is likely to cause significant damage, including loss of life.

Last Tuesday, concerned citizens were given the opportunity to speak out at a public hearing held by the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. More than 125 people filed into the cafeteria at Conway Middle School, and while some were members of environmental organizations,  most of the people there were residents who live next to the proposed coal ash landfill site who organized entirely on their own. Continue reading ‘In Kentucky, community members speak against coal ash landfill’

It began in January, when Portland General Electric (PGE) made a big announcement: the major Oregon utility, partial owner and sole operator of the Boardman Coal Plant, proposed a possible timeline for phasing out reliance on Boardman.  That was the good news: after months of work on the part of climate activists, PGE had finally acknowledged the risks of associated with their coal-fired coal plant.  The bad news?  The soonest transition date proposed by PGE fell woefully short of what’s needed to protect Oregon’s environment, our economy, and ratepayers being subjected to the risks of coal dependency.  Under PGE’s proposed “2020 Plan,” the Boardman Plant would remain open for a minimum of ten more years.

Media outlets in the Northwest were a-flurry with the news that PGE wanted to decommission its coal plant.  Laudatory news articles and editorials poured in, the vast majority framing the issue as one of the PGE responding to public concerns by doing the right thing for the environment.  Unfortunately, few stories in the mainstream media probed deeply into the validity of claims PGE made to justify their preferred timetable.  Most news sources accepted PGE’s arguments at face value, never asking the essential question of whether a private utility that answers to Wall Street investors should be trusted to essentially regulate itself.  Continue reading ‘In Oregon, Student Governments Call for a Future Beyond Coal’