states can sue utilities over emissions

A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit gave 8 states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin) the green light in their law suit against several large coal-burning facilities (American Electric Power, Southern Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Xcel Energy and Cinergy Corporation).

The states allege that the emissions of the defendants are creating a public nuisance due to emissions contributing to climate change.

What's the big picture? States can sue utility companies over emissions. Woot woot. With that thought, I gladly go to torts class. Read the full article.

This will be a great case to follow.

Mexico City gives plastic bags the boot

Finally, some good news. Last week, Mexico City outlawed stores from giving consumers plastic bags in which to carry their purchased goods. Now, these bags must be biodegradable.

Here's some more background info from CNN:

Mexico City becomes the second large metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw the bags. San Francisco in March 2007 enacted an ordinance that gave supermarkets six months and large chain pharmacies about a year to phase out the bags. Los Angeles is set to impose a ban if the state of California does not enact a statewide 25-cent fee per bag by July.

About 90 percent of the bags used in the United States are not recycled.

Bans and other restrictions on plastic bags are in place in several countries.

China has adopted a strict limit, reducing litter and eliminating the use of 40 billion bags, the World Watch Institute said, citing government estimates. Although compliance has been spotty, violation of the law carries a possible fine of 10,000 yuan ($1,463), World Watch said.

In Tanzania, selling the bags carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a fine of 1.5 million shilling ($1,137).

Mumbai, India, outlawed the bags in 2000 and cities in Australia, Italy, South Africa and Taiwan have imposed bans or surcharges. Ireland reported cutting use of the bags by 90 percent after imposing a fee on each one.

Kleenex caves after 5 years of pressure

Kimberly Clark, producer of Kleenex, has been clear cutting the Boreal Forest so that, piece by piece, we can all wipe and blow away what is left of our ancient trees. And since 80% of the original forests on earth have been destroyed, these trees are not just ancient--they are a precious and scarce source of biodiversity. Thanks to a five-year grassroots campaign launched by Greenpeace, KC has finally caved.

Kimberly-Clark has set a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the wood fibre used in its products – including the flagship brand Kleenex – from environmentally responsible sources. By 2011, Kimberly-Clark will ensure that 40 percent of its North American fiber is either recycled or certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – a 71 percent increase from 2007 levels, representing over 600,000 tonnes of fibre. Also by 2011, it will eliminate any fiber from the North American Boreal Forest that is not FSC-certified. full article

Either way...until 2011, please stick to paper products with sufficient recycled content.

It's also awesome to see what can be accomplished through the grassroots and student networks. The Kleercut campaign took place campus by campus across America, with students leading the way.

FrankenSKYn: engineering the climate

Climate engineering is creepy.

Advocated as a Plan B, climate engineering could be a last stitch effort to reverse the warming of the planet if meaningful reductions in emissions cannot be done fast enough.

So what is it?

The most commonly discussed form of climate engineering, so far, is to loft aerosol particles into the stratosphere to reproduce the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions.

or

But another technique was singled out in Friday’s report for the Copenhagen Consensus Center by J. Eric Bickel, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in decision analysis, and Lee Lane, the co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Geoengineering Research Project. They conclude that the most promising form of climate engineering now appears to be a fleet of wind-powered, unmanned vessels on the ocean that would disperse a “an extremely fine mist of sea water droplets” that would be lofted upwards, causing clouds over the ocean to brighten and reflect more sunlight.

Given the fact that weather is a chaotic system--meaning the slightest variance in input could yield a tremendous change in output--turning the sky into a sci-fi lab sounds like a terrible idea to me. And I'm not the only one.

While Dr. Pielke [a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado] agrees with the call for more research into stratospheric aerosols and cloud brightening, he says that there are too many uncertainties “to allow for any sort of meaningful cost-benefit analysis” because there could be unexpectedly large costs if something goes wrong...the economic damages could far exceed the benefits if something goes wrong.

Read the full article.

sending fake lettes to Congress--how low will coal go?

We all know coal is a source of dirty energy, that "clean coal" is still dirty energy...but perhaps the dirtiest of all is the politics of the coal industry.

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), an alliance of coal and utility companies, hired Alexandria, Va.-based Hawthorn Group for the new effort. Hawthorn worked for the coal group earlier this year, coordinating outreach on the House climate bill. During that project, Hawthorn subcontractor Bonner & Associates sent at least three members of Congress a total of 12 fraudulent letters purporting to be from groups opposed to the legislation.

It gets worse. Enter "America's Power Army," a group of 225,000 alleged volunteers who will be storming town halls and other community forums with a pro-coal agenda.

But much about the identity of the volunteers and how they operate is hidden from public view, said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, a watchdog group.

"These public policy debates are too important to have the outcomes hinge on these fake AstroTurf campaigns" that employ "guerilla tactics," Slocum said. "We're all just left guessing what entities are doing and how lawmakers are influenced by what may be a very corporate-run campaign."

Lawmakers, as well, Slocum said, need to know whether concerns they are hearing in their districts and states are organic "or whether it's being orchestrated by hired guns working for the coal industry." full article

And since Obama tries to hide his secret meetings with the coal industry, I have to get a little Thomas Friedman:

"Attention all young Americans: Your climate future is being decided right now in the cloakrooms of the Capitol, where the coal lobby holds huge sway....Play hardball or don't play at all."

Want to do more? Get involved here.

California agriculture: dealing with drought

Now that the changing climate (regardless of why it's changing) means more frequent and serious droughts, California agriculture needs to cope.

The Pacific Institute recommends that California use water in smarter ways. Specifically, the use of drip irrigation or micro-irrigation (as opposed to the most commonly used flood irrigation) is the most efficient method to water crops and achieve "maximum crop yield from a unit of water."

How do we switch? Suggestions include:

devoting less land to rice, cotton, alfalfa and other field crops, which now get 80 percent of their water from flooding. They recommend giving more to vegetables, vineyards and orchards, crops for which micro-irrigation is more common.

Check out the full article from DOT EARTH

sandwich packers unite

My newest step in waste reduction is declaring myself Zip Lock free. I understand that can be a hard goal, so I thought I would focus this blog post on the lunch factor.

That's right. All you lunch-packing sandwich-eaters, I'm talking to you. If you pack 100 sandwiches a year, that is 100 non-biodegradable plastic baggies somewhere around the earth (not to mention, those baggies are not free...).

My solution? Let's go eco- and recession-friendly on lunch. You can make a one-time purchase of a reusable sandwich container for just a couple of bucks. Just check out your local grocery store. I'm sure Target has it as well.

Check out the one I just bought from Hello Kitty for $4.99

the 350 Teach-In and INTERNATIONAL Day of Action

I've been involved in the environmental movement for 2 years, and I have to say that our actions just keep getting better and better and cooler and cooler.

The latest from 350 is a national teach-in held throughout thousands of campuses across the country. And you, yes you, can sign up to present in your campus community! After the speakers give it a go, there will be an hour for discussion.

Click here to sign up at your local teach-in

But it gets better. The teach-ins will be taking place on the 350 International Day of Action. It all goes down October 24th, before world leaders get together in Copenhagen to discuss the climate.

To get ideas and register an action, click here. I'm sure a list of registered actions will pop up in weeks to come.

So exciting!

more on No Impact Man

I found Colin Beaven aka No Impact Man's blog! Here is a great piece I wanted to share:

My wife Michelle and I decided, before jumping in at the deep end of this year-long project, to try no impact living as an experiment for a week. No garbage. No greenhouse gasses. No toxins. No water pollution. No air pollution. No electricity. No produce shipped from distant lands. No impact. Or so we naively hoped.

We started one Thursday night at 10:00 PM in the middle of the August, 2006 heat wave. Our sweat-soaked tempers frayed immediately. We argued about who would take our 18-month-old daughter, Isabella, to the babysitter since both our schedules now had to accommodate a lot of walking. We had tense discussions about who would be in charge of picking up Isabella’s milk from the only New York dairy farmer who uses reusable glass bottles. We both pretended not to notice the mounting pile of dirty dishes resulting from the dishwasher being out of bounds.

But then Michelle surprised herself by loving her walk to and from the office. It gave her back something she missed since becoming a mom: time alone. With no TV, we found ourselves playing with Isabella more, reading more, talking more and—hurray!—having more, well, you know. Having perennially struggled with finding time for the gym to wrestle off our middle-aged midriffs, a couple of pounds immediately dropped off us both. Who needs a gym when you’re riding bikes and refusing lifts in elevators and walking everywhere?

In that one week, we discovered that, without transportation to rush us around and junk-food media to steal our time, there is a different, calmer life to be had right here in Manhattan. No TV to oppress you with news of Britney’s failure as a mother. No concerns that charging another pair of Diesel jeans might be declined by Amex. No worrying that the bad cooking oil from the Chinese takeout is clogging your coronary artery. We developed a consciousness of our actions that that felt suspiciously akin to the living in the moment that the Dalai Lama keeps coming to New York to tell us about.

We got the glimpse of a life with an entirely different rhythm. We began to think that, by depriving us of our Madison Avenue addictions, the no impact experiment might actually make us happier. It was only a seven-day experiment, but it convinced us that living no impact can be done, it can be done pleasantly, and that we could conceivably end up happier rather than sadder--which is why, God help us, we're in it for a year. Read more

cannot wait to see this

tell your senators to pass a strong climate bill

Click here and send a fax. So simple.

world powers have climate constipation

The world's most powerful industrial nations and emerging powers met and discussed the climate and reductions in emissions--but no consensus came out. Included in what didn't happen was a proposal dropping emissions 50% by 2050.

The New York Times reports:

The failure to establish specific targets on climate change underscored the difficulty in bridging longstanding divisions between the most developed countries like the United States and developing nations like China and India. In the end, people close to the talks said, the emerging powers refused to agree to the specific emissions limits because they wanted industrial countries to commit to midterm goals in 2020, and to follow through on promises of financial and technological help. full article

Luckily, American officials report that G-8 nations within the discussion have agreed to 2050 reductions, even thought developing countries would not jump on board.

Thomas Friedman on ACES

In his article The cap-and-trade bill is a mess; here's why Congress must approve it, Thomas Friedman expresses his utter dislike for ACES (and calls American youth to action) but insists that it must pass in the Senate. Why?

Because, for all its flaws, this bill is the first comprehensive attempt by America to mitigate climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions.

The next step is to strengthen the bill--but at least not weaken it--in the Senate. And to do so, Friedman says we need the support of three parties: Republicans, Obama, and the people. On Republicans, Friedman asks,

Does the GOP want to be the party of sex scandals and polluters or does it want to be a partner in helping America dominate the next great global industry: ET -- energy technology?

The funny part is that the GOP has an eco-friendly past. T.F. recalls Teddy and the national park system, the Nixon Administration which created the Clean Air Act and the EPA, and the Rio Treaty of 1993 signed by George Bush to protect bio-diversity.

Friedman speculates on Obama (who holds secret meetings with coal companies and blatantly attempts to hide them cough cough):

I also hope we will hear more from Barack Obama. Something feels very calculating in how he has approached this bill, as if he doesn't quite want to get his hands dirty, as if he is ready to twist arms in private, but not so much that if the bill goes down he will get tarnished.

That is no way to fight this war. Mr. Obama is going to have to mobilize the whole country to pressure the Senate -- by educating Americans, with speech after speech, about the opportunities and necessities of a serious climate/energy bill. If he is not ready to risk failure by going all out, failure will be the most likely result.

And my favorite part, We the People:

Attention all young Americans: Your climate future is being decided right now in the cloakrooms of the Capitol, where the coal lobby holds huge sway. You want to make a difference? Then get out of Facebook and into somebody's face. Get a million people on the Washington Mall calling for a price on carbon. That will get the Senate's attention. Play hardball or don't play at all.

Read the full article. It's a good one.

Obama's dirty little (energy) secrets

While the recent House passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act is a historic "first" in the battle against climate change--with Waxman, Markey, and Gore all reiterating the "first of many" mantra to climate activists--skepticism is just as appropriate, if not more, as celebration.

Eyebrows first went up when the bill called for the repeal of key provisions in the Clean Air Act, leaving no carbon regulation of coal-fired plants. One can only imagine that the effect will be similar to mischievous children who are not supervised or disciplined.

Then, earlier this morning as I was reading a blog post on the Obama Administration's lack of full disclosure and re-defining of the Freedom of Information Act, I also learned that Obama rejected the FOIA request for Secret Service logs revealing the identities of big coal executives visiting the White House. Despite the fact that as a Senator, Obama criticized Bush for his secret meetings with oil execs, Obama has pulled the same stunt to discuss "clean energy."

I get the fact that there are only 32 Democratic Senators and 157 Democratic Representatives that are from less-than-average coal-reliant states and that compromise for the sake of political viability is a shady game that must be played--but denying public and legal requests for information and holding secret meetings is a step too far, especially for a president who built his platform on transparency.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approves sketchy energy bill

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved of a sketchy energy bill that would open up oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and does not include any mandatory reductions in heat-trapping gases (although another Senate committee is focusing on this aspect).

The bill also calls for utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from wind and solar by 2021--a weaker target than the current House bill.

The New York Times reports:

The energy bill includes money for clean energy technologies and training for workers in new energy-related industries. It calls for expansion of the nation’s stockpiles of petroleum reserves to deal with sudden shortages or steep price increases. It provides federal incentives for projects to capture and store carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, and encourages a solution to the problem of storing nuclear waste. full article

Both Republicans and Democrats are hoping to strengthen the bill, for their respective positions, on the floor.

Not promising.

carbon markets and conservation

Interesting article regarding the insignificant weight of bio-diversity as a reason to protect tropical rain forests. Not to worry, though. Carbon markets to the rescue.

In Kalimantan, Indonesia, paying for each carbon ton saved proved more valuable than a plantation.

This raises the question: can we pay poorer nations to conserve their lands?

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

San Fran mandates composting

The San Fransisco Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to mandate composting. Residents will now receive three bins: a black bin for trash, a blue bin for recycling, and a green bin for composting. Repeated and extreme violators may be fined.

The main goal in this initiative is to target apartment buildings; only 25% of multi-tenant buildings offer recycling.

Of course, there are objections, with some locals complaining that the role of government is not to be sorting through private trashcans.

While I am all for the government backing off, the over-proliferation of trash, hyper-consumption, limited lands available for dumping, and the consequences of pollution and carbon emissions both merit and demand government intervention.

Check out the full article

climate conference call with Reps Waxman and Markey

Earlier today, I joined climate advocates across the nation on a conference call with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) to discuss the American Clean Energy and Security Act, otherwise known as the Waxman-Markey Bill or ACES. The call was co-sponsored by 1Sky and the Energy Action Coalition.

While Rep. Waxman rattled off some of the key provisions of the bill in his opening statement, Rep. Markey followed up with a grim report of Republican opposition--including references to green jobs as "sub-prime" jobs and "paper machete" jobs. Even more ominious, he explained the alternative plan generated by our friends across the aisle: more and more coal. Rep. Markey likened the climate-change skepticism and heavy coal initiative as "going from one pack of Camels a day to two packs of Camels a day."

However if Rep. Markey thought the only skepticism was coming from the GOP, he was mistaken. Climate advocates are wary of ACES, calling the renewable energy standards (RES) inefficient, offsets inadequate, the role of nuclear and coal questionable, and the helplessness of the EPA as unacceptable. The conversation was an hour long, but here are points that I found most critical:

• In response to credits awarded to nuclear and the acceptance of coal as an energy source, Rep. Waxman reiterated that nuclear energy is not considered renewable. However, he did stress that the main goal of this intiative is to reduce carbon emission. If industries can reduce emissions while adapting coal use to new targets, that is acceptable. The objective is to keep pressing down on total carbon emissions. While both members understand that coal is a heavy contributor to emissions, so long as reductions are met, we are ahead of the game. In short, coal can be a part of our energy future so long as reductions are met, and the coal is produced on our own turf as a measure of domestic security.

• In response to concerns that standards are not tight enough, the members explained that this bill simply provides a floor, but not a ceiling. The only exception is that, in terms of cap-and-trade, states must refrain from running their own cap-and-trade systems from 2012-2017 so that the national program can be put in place. During this time, however, states may tighten emissions standards. Under ACES, states will also receive money for research in efficiency and renewables.
  

• In response to concern that ACES does not meet the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) targets, the members explained that the projected reductions of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 will actually be upwards of 23% in consideration of allowances aimed at preventing tropical deforestation. Rep. Markey also added that this is a first step--one that has happened far too late, thanks to the last administration--and that new bills considering current scientific findings will be introduced in years to come. These issues will be monitored as we go forward.
  

• As for uproar that 85% of allowances will be given away for free to polluters under the cap-and-trade system, staffers asserted that this is an incorrect statement. The configuration of 85% of total permits awarded for free to polluters is inaccurate, because this number also includes allowances that will be given to individual states, consumers, and in helping businesses transition. Additionally, 100% auction would pass enormous costs onto consumers in electricity bills. The current initiative is aimed to ease the transition, which will currently cost Americans less than a postage stamp a day (unlike Republican claims that this will cost families thousands of dollars).

• Vague answers include whether or not offsets, which can be purchased by companies as a means of meeting reductions, will undermine the bill through over-relying on offsets, incentives to create useless projects to produce offsets, or sub-par offsets. Staffers assured that the bill has 50 pages of detailed text to create quality offsets and agreements between countries to ensure that international offsets are as high in quality as domestic offsets.
  

• Lastly, answers provided to explain the inability of the EPA to regulate coal plants were entirely unclear to me. Staffers explained that consensus and creating a coalition on this bill is key, and that performance standards for coal are going forward. When the recording of the conference is released, I will re-examine this issue. I heard no answer the first time around.
  

I will say that I am content with giving away some free allowances for the time being, with the understanding that these allowances will have a variety of recipients (and therefore retract my harsh criticisms against Obama on this issue), not just high-polluting industries. I get that coal is going nowhere fast, that we need to wait for a renewable market to kick in and emerging technologies to drive this process forward--but I am not satisfied by stripping the EPA of its authority. I am not sure of the details, so this is something that will be revisited on The Colonic soon.

Stay tuned!

Declare your independence from dirty energy

This Independence Day, take action against dirty energy from June 27th-July4th. We need to call on President Obama and Congress to create strong and effective energy policy and to hold polluters accountable.

Get ideas and organize an event here.

Or locate events in your area.

For all of you Colonic readers, I will be organizing something in the LA area, but need to work out a few particulars before I register my event. If you're interested, please email me.

Friday, June 19th: A National Day of Action for a Strong Climate Bill -- Sign Up Today!

The 1Sky campaign is organizing a National Day of Action to advocate for a stronger climate bill. The House of Representatives could very well pass a piece of climate legislation by the end of this month, and we need to make it as strong as possible.

Sign up here