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Texas Coalition for Affordable Power Release Report on Electric Deregulation

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on January 30, 2012 |

Texas Coalition for Affordable Power’s (TCAP) report on electric deregulation in Texas says the industry has failed to deliver, while industry and agency critics find fault with the reports price and reliability comparisons.

Texans have paid higher prices for power that is less reliable – as evidenced by two rolling blackouts – during a decade of electric deregulation, the report, Deregulated Electricity in Texas: A History of Retail Competition – The First 10 Years,  asserts.

Commissioned by the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, a non-profit including 163 municipalities and other political subdivisions, the report takes sharp aim at higher retail prices, increased consumer complaints and greater reliability problems.

Key findings of the report include:

  1. During 10 years of deregulation, typical electric customers paid $3,000 more than other Texans not subject to deregulation.
  2. Nationally, Texans paid average prices 6.4 percent below national averages before deregulation but 8.72 percent higher in the 10 years since deregulation.
  3. Customer complaints have risen because an increase in providers has also produced an increase in the complexity of contracts.
  4. Texaselectric reserve margins – which are key for electric reliability – have shifted from among the highest nationally before deregulation to among the lowest now.
  5. Under deregulation,Texashas seen two rolling blackouts in four years and nine reliability emergencies last year alone. Before deregulation,Texasendured only one rolling blackout in more than 30 years.
  6. Electric generators are seeking market changes “that abandon competitive principles” and rely upon “artificial price supports.” At the same time, generators are making no promises that they’ll add new electric supplies if they get their wish for market adjustments.
  7. The power grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has “suffered persistent management problems.”

The report acknowledges that electric prices have recently dropped but also notes that customers have endured $7 billion in “stranded costs” under deregulation that were shifted from electric generators to electric customers.

TCAP Board President Jay Dogey said recent drops in both prices and complaints are not “sufficient to offset the billions of dollars in excess costs to consumers. All this points to a market that is deregulated but still not fully competitive.”

John Fainter, president and chief executive officer of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, said TCAP’s report fails to consider several key factors that undermine its comparisons, but that still cannot counter the fact that Texas has some of the highest electric bills in the country.

Texas Public Utility Commission Chairman Donna Nelson responded to the report’s price comparisons by re-issuing a letter she sent to Senate Business and Commerce Committee Chairman John Carona (R-Dallas) more than a year ago.

A copy of Nelson’s letter is here.

TCAP’s report is here.

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Sierra Club sues TCEQ for failure to provide an opportunity for public comment on several permits

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on January 23, 2012 |

The Sierra Club claims the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality illegally gave four coal-fired power plants passes to pollute the air.

The Sierra Club says the state in December illegally approved permit amendments for Luminant Generation Co.-owned plants in Freestone, Rusk, Titus and Milam counties (Big Brown, Martin Lake, Monticello and Sandow).

It claims the amendments allow increased air pollution, “including thousands of additional pounds per hour of particulate manner, a pollutant linked by numerous scientific studies to heart attacks and premature death, without any public notice, the opportunity for public comment, or the opportunity for contested case hearings.”

Sierra Club attorney Ilan Levin told the Austin American-Statesman the lawsuit comes as coal-fired plants are applying for permit amendments for emissions produced during startup, shutdown and maintenance, which were not previously regulated by the state.

Levin said that not all plants seeking permitting changes are required to go through a public process, but these permits are for large enough increases that public notice is required.

“We were surprised to find out that, really, just by trolling the agency’s website, that right before the holidays, the TCEQ had issued these permits to Luminant without any public notice or any sort of opportunity at all to file some formal comments,”  Levin said.

In its complaint in Travis County Court, the Sierra Club says it asked the TCEQ air permits director on Feb. 22, 2011 to require public notice for Luminant and other electric utilities’ permit amendment applications, but received no response.

The environmental group says regulators failed to conduct a best available control technology analysis for the amendments, and failed to conduct a proper air quality impacts analysis for all four permit amendments.

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Senator Watson asks PUC Chair, Donna Nelson, to promote solar

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on January 19, 2012 |

As interim legislative hearings and ERCOT workshops grapple with the drought’s anticipated stresses for Texas electric generation and reliability, Sen.Kirk Watson (D-Austin), is calling on the Texas Public Utility Commission to give solar energy a push.

“You stated that your highest priority as chair of the PUC is to prevent rolling outages,”Watson wrote in a Jan. 13 letter to PUC Chair Donna Nelson, mentioning her testimony last week before the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.

“Drought-proof solar power that can be available at the times of peak demand is one way to avoid rolling outages,” his letter continued. It noted that Nelson mentioned the importance of wind energy and the state’s CREZ (Competitive Renewable Energy Zones) lines in reducing the state’s reliance on water.

Nelson has opposed rulemaking to promote solar energy generation as directed in a bill passed by the Texas Legislature in 2005 directing the PUC to establish a non-wind renewable energy target of 500 megawatts. Nelson, however, has said that Senate Bill 20 by Sen.Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) during that special session was not mandatory.

During a PUC meeting in December 2010, Nelson said she believed the PUC needed more direct guidance from the legislature during the spring 2011 session before moving forward.

“It’s called a target,” she said, “and everyone knows a target is not mandatory. It would be my preference if we waited – forever.” When a proposed rule on the matter surfaced again last summer, the commission tabled it.

In his letter, Watson took issue with Nelson’s argument that the PUC lacks legislative authority.

“Moving forward on the 500 megawatt non-wind renewable energy rule is an act that lies fully within your authority and that requires no further action or direction from the legislature,” Watson wrote. “It would boost investment in solar power right away, at a time when any potential cost to consumers can be mitigated by federal investment tax incentives in place through 2016. Not only would this action be seen as a wise and prudent step for ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) grid reliability, but it would be a simple and bold display of the leadership that our state desperately needs.”

See Sen. Watson’s letter below.

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Obama’s Rejection of Keystone A Sensible Decision

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on January 18, 2012 |

In a statement this afternoon, Obama said that he received a recommendation from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier today recommending that the Keystone XL tar sands Presidential permit application be denied.

TransCanada’s first tar sands pipeline leaked 12 times in its first year of operation, although the company estimated it would leak just once in 14 years. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline route would cross Texas’s third-largest aquifer, as well as numerous rivers and lakes that provide water to some of the most populated areas of the Lone Star State, making TransCanada’s leaky history a pretty compelling reason for reviewing Keystone XL thoroughly. But when congressional Republicans forced a 60-day decision on the Keystone XL’s presidential permit, they took the option of a thorough review away from President Obama and the U.S. State Department.

Trevor Lovell with the Texas office of Public Citizen said, “Today’s rejection of the permit application was the only sensible decision the Obama administration could make.”

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What is Environmental Justice and Why did the EPA sing, “Free At Last”

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , on January 17, 2012 |

Reprinted with permission from Christopher Searles blog – http://chrissearles.blogspot.com/

In January of 2011 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Civil Rights Affirmative Employment and Diversity at an event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I am old to enough to have witnessed and experienced the remarkable progress that’s been made since the 1960s when Dr. King, in addition to his many other achievements, helped to plant the seeds for what would become our nation’s now-thriving environmental justice movement.”
Holder, “I want you to know that – at every level of the Justice Department, just like here at the EPA, (Environmental Justice) is a top priority — and, for me, it is also a personal calling.”
‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
According to the EPA, Environmental Justice will be achieved when “everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” The movement against Environmental Racism began in the 1980s and was formally established as the Environmental Justice movement in 1991 when the First National People of Color delegation drafted and adopted “Principles of Environmental Justice” in Washington, D.C.  Read Principles here.
In recent years the movement has expanded its definition beyond color lines. “We are just as much concerned with inequities in Appalachia, for example, where the whites are basically dumped on because of lack of economic and political clout,” says Dr. Robert Bullard, movement ‘grandfather.’ Likewise, the movement has grown beyond radical environmentalism to include Christian, Jewish and other communities of faith and the academic sector. In the religious domain, Environmental Justice is often referred to as “Social Justice.”
Attorney Gen. Holder, “Dr. King did not have the chance to witness the impact of the movement that he began. But he left with us the creed that continues to guide our work. His enduring words, which he penned from a Birmingham jail cell, still remind us that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Attorney General Eric Holder, “Environmental Justice is a Civil Rights issue.”
At the EPA’s 2011 event Holder cited a 2005 report showing that African Americans were nearly 80 percent more likely than white Americans to live near hazardous industrial pollution sites at that time. Holder said these issues persist, “In 2011, the burden of environmental degradation still falls disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color, and most often on their youngest residents: our children, my children.”
“This is unacceptable.  And it is unconscionable.  But through the aggressive enforcement of federal environmental laws in every community, I believe that we can – and I know that we must – change the status quo.”
After Holder’s speech the event’s program closed with the EPA’s general counsel and EPA’s associate director of the Water Protection performing “Free at Last” for the audience at the Ronald Reagan Building.

Read more via CNSnews.com.
Learn about the EPA’s Environmental Justice Achievement Awards.
Other sources: EcoHearth, The National Council of Churches, TaintedGreen, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Hope everyone had a thoughtful MLK Day yesterday.

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Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project

Posted in Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , on January 6, 2012 |

On a blustery and brilliantly sunny Texas winter day a couple hundred Central Texas citizens, that included officials and solar enthusiasts, gathered on what had been an empty 380 acre field only three years ago to usher in a new era of “drought-proof” energy for the City of Austin.

Former Austin Mayor Will Wynn, PUC Commissioner Rolando Pablos, Austin Councilmember Bill Spelman, Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis, Webberville Mayor Hector Gonzales, Austin Energy General Manager Larry Weis, Austin Councilmember Chris Riley, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Mark Mendenhall of SunEdison.

On Friday, January 6, 2012, Austin Energy held a grand opening ceremony for their new Webberville Solar Project, the largest facility in Texas and among the largest in the nation with 127,728 ground mounted solar panels that rotate with the sun and will generate 30 megawatts (MW) of electricity – enough to power 5,000 homes annually.

A number of years ago, the City of Austin purchased this land planning to install a new coal-fired power plant.  When those plans fell through, a landfill was proposed for the site that now boasts 280 acres of solar panels with a view of downtown Austin along its horizon.

Public Citizen says kudos to the City of Austin and Austin Energy for their vision and efforts in completing this project.  Given that the State Climatologist is warning us that Texas can expect up to 5 more years of the current drought cycle, this project came just in time to help provide our community with drought–proof electricity during the peak use times – that will come in handy next summer.

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Texas 2011 Drought, $93 Billion in Tree Losses?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , on January 6, 2012 |

Reprinted with permission from Chris Searles‘ blogspot

“Nobody knows the true economic value of trees.” That’s the first thing that popped into my head last week when I read the Texas Forest Service recently estimated up to a half billion Texas trees measuring at least five inches in diameter were lost due to the unrelenting drought of 2011.
Map of Texas' Eco Regions

Map of Texas' Eco Regions

I already knew the state had lost close to four million acres of open lands to record wildfires, suffered over five billion dollars in agricultural and livestock damages, considered shutting down parts of its electric grid to prevent rolling blackouts due to water shortages, and that the list goes on. I also knew the long-term effects of Texas’s drought looked equally dismal and that all its damage didn’t just hurt Texans, but seriously? Hundreds of million of trees “killed?” That sounds expensive.

The economic value of trees. I did a little digging. It doesn’t take much time on Google to figure out the average value of an urban tree is about $1,000.00 per tree. The range of valuations, however, is huge. I have a friend who recently paid $7,500 to have three trees “installed” in his yard. The Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers says, “A mature tree can have an appraised value of between $1,000 and $10,000.” A US Court once valued a single, mature tree at over $160,000.00. But let’s go with the City of Arlington, TX’s 2009 study (pdf), which appraises their urban trees at about $932.50 per tree. Since the Arlington study omits many of the intrinsic services associated with both wild and urban trees in their valuation and since Arlington’s number is the lowest I could find, let’s assume this is a fair and conservative tree value and use it.  Multiple the number of trees lost times the Arlington valuation, and you get:
-$93,250,320,404.72. -$93.2 Billion (in 2009 dollars). That’s Arlington’s $932.50 per tree x 100 Million tree losses. But wait, that’s the low number. Texas Forest Service estimates “between 100 million and 500 million” trees died last year. Their high end count of nearly half a billion trees nets out a total impact of over -$466 Billion ($466,251,602,023.61 to be exact). Impressive, right? People seem to have a hard time thinking of the environment as having any economic value, perhaps that’s because the environment’s value dwarfs our little human-made economy. I’ve always suspected the “dollar” value of ecosystem services to be many orders of magnitude greater than the entire industrialized economy. How couldn’t it be? How could Texas suffer around $100 Billion in ecosystem losses during a recession year and not be severely impaired? And what is the industrial economy is catching up? Perhaps events like this massive tree die off are whittling down our natural systems and there are only a few orders magnitude of greatness left in our nature. Texas Forest Service estimates from 2% to 10% of the state’s 4.9 billion trees were just killed.* How many consecutive years can Texas sustain around $100 Billion in forest destruction? 49 years? 9 years? The drought is expected to continue for at least five years. If that comes to pass, its effects will likely have significantly changed much of Texas as early as 2017. Climate aficionados like me believe Austin will become more like Tucson over the next 90 years as desertification moves north. But what if that transition has already begun? What if Austin’s desertification will be securely in place sometime in the next 10 years? What’s Austin without trees? What happens to Austin’s water cycle and summertime temperatures? Plenty of climate scientists believe Texas is indeed on a super rapid change trajectory, way ahead of schedule.
How Texas compares to the rest of the country

67.3% of the state in "extreme" drought conditions

But nobody knows the economic value of trees. Or ecology. Or nature itself. And that’s the point. Our environment should probably contain exponentially more economic value than our industrial economy. Perhaps we should start counting. And start changing. If you believe, as I tend to, that we humans are playing Russian roulette with the planet’s future, changing the way society measures economic success is paramount, as is eliminating the emissions believed to be driving things like radical drought, as is preserving our trees and ecosystems.
Resources

  • Tree Services. Trees perform so many services.The Texas Trees Foundation lists the popularly accepted ones, such as: energy efficiency, human health benefits, pollution control, and property value enhancement. Trees Are Good, big fans of trees, list several more. The Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington has an even longer list including intangibles, such as psycho-social dimensions and positive effects on consumers in shopping malls. iTree is an industry-embraced software, being used around the world, to appraise trees according to a number of different criteria.
  • Lake Levels are another indication of total precipitation in the system. Texas lakes are generally speaking at all time lows. Check out the USGS and LCRA measurements. 
  • Fruit Trees. Texas has (had?) an abundant food production economy, particularly in the southern regions of the state, thanks to grapefruit, lime, etc. Learn more here.
  • Tree Calculator. Calculate the value of your own trees here.
  • Photo Gallery. View one local drought photo gallery here.

*Total value of 4.9 Billion Texas trees, at $932.50 per tree in 2009 dollars is 4,589,250,000,000 ($4.5 Trillion).

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Wishing you a happy holiday season

Posted in Global Warming, tagged on December 23, 2011 |

Holiday Greetings

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Texas Groups Hail First-Ever Protections from Mercury Pollution

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on December 21, 2011 |

Texas environmental and public health groups welcome today’s new EPA safeguards to reduce mercury and other toxic air pollutants from the smokestacks of the nation’s aging fleet of coal and oil-fired power plants.  The new public health protection has been developed over nearly twenty years and is required by law under the Clean Air Act, the landmark public health legislation passed during the Nixon Administration.  The rules will be a significant benefit to public health and water quality in Texas since six of the top 10 worst mercury emitting power plants in the nation are in Texas.  Twenty-three Texas lakes near coal plants are so contaminated with mercury that eating fish from those lakes could cause brain damage to unborn children. Information about the new health protection can be found at http://epa.gov/mats/.

 

“As a family doctor, I am regularly obligated to council young women to limit fish consumption.  Mercury exposure during pregnancy can cause severe mental retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and seizures in children.  Kids who eat contaminated seafood have demonstrated deficits in attention, fine motor function, language, visual-spatial abilities, and memory. Prevention is key — I can’t fix a child’s brain that has been damaged by mercury.  The costs both to those families that are affected by mercury toxicity and to our society as a whole are staggering.  At last there is good news.  I applaud the EPA standards which could go a long way to clean up our air and reduce unnecessary exposures to mercury and other dangerous toxins,” said Dr. Lisa Doggett, a practicing Physician and co-president of Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility.

 

In July, more than 800,000 comments from across the country were delivered to EPA in support of the new mercury and air toxics rule, with more than 600,000 of these from Sierra Club members and supporters. Despite being the single largest industrial emitters of heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and selenium, power plants have been exempt from Clean Air Act standards that apply to all other industry sectors.

 

“The only thing more shocking than the large amounts of toxic chemicals released into the air each year by coal and oil fired power plants is the fact that these emissions have been allowed for so many years,” said Ilan Levin, Environmental Integrity Project Associate Director.

 

According to a report based on utility data by the Environmental Integrity Project (available at http://www.environmentalintegrity.org), Texas is by far the nation’s top power plant mercury polluter.  Texas coal-fired power plants emitted 16.9 percent of the total U.S. mercury air emissions for 2010, and Texas is home to 11 of the top 50 mercury polluters in the nation. Dallas-based Luminant (formerly TXU) operates the nation’s dirtiest power plant for mercury emissions; the Big Brown coal plant, located about halfway between Houston and Dallas, pumped 1,610.1 pounds of mercury into the air in 2010.  Three of Luminant’s other large coal-fired power plants are also ranked among the top 50 dirtiest power plants in the nation: Martin Lake (number three), Monticello (number seven), and Sandow 4 (a single coal-fired boiler ranked number 28).

 

Other Texas coal-fired power plants owned by American Electric Power, NRG, and the Lower Colorado River Authority and City of Austin are among the nation’s top 50 worst mercury air polluters.  EPA’s new rule is intended to reduce the levels of toxic metals and acid gases that these electric power plants emit into the atmosphere.

 

The list of the most polluting plants and states can be found here: http://www.environmentamerica.org/home/reports/report-archives/clean-air/clean-air/americas-biggest-polluters-how-cleaning-up-the-dirtiest-power-plants-will-protect-public-health

 

“Today’s new health protection will reduce mercury pollution in our air and water substantially over the next decade,” said Jen Powis, Senior Regional Representative with the Sierra Club.  “Reducing mercury pollution will have a significant impact for Texans’ health, and all Texas power generators should look forward to the opportunity to promote the health of women, babies, and young children in our state.”

 

In addition to lowering mercury emissions, the rule will reduce other fine particle heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, and lead, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year.  EPA has estimated that the power plant air toxics rule will avoid between 6,800 and 17,000 premature deaths each year, and will result in annual savings of $48 to $140 billion.

 

“The hidden costs of toxic pollution from power plants far exceed the pennies that cleanup will cost each consumer. For every dollar spent on pollution controls we will get $5 to $13 in health benefits. Coal-fired power plants are also the single largest source of toxic mercury air pollution in Texas and the rest of the United States.  Besides mercury, coal-fired power plants emit a suite of other toxic air pollutants, which can cause serious health effects, especially for children and developing fetuses. Studies by the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio have found correlations between high levels of mercury emissions and kids with autism in schools in Texas,” said Karen Hadden, Director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition.

 

Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen said, “For decades, the electric power industry has delayed cleanup and lobbied against public health rules designed to reduce pollution. They have decided that it was cheaper to invest in politicians than pollution controls and we see the result here in Texas. The technology and pollution control equipment necessary to reduce emissions of mercury and other dangerous air toxics are widely available and are working at some power plants across the country. There is no reason for Americans — and Texans in particular — to continue to live with risks to their health and to the environment.”

 

Stacy Guidry, Director of Texas Campaign for the Environment, Austin office, said, “The City of Austin has a ‘green’ reputation, but our very own Fayette Power Plant is right up there among the dirtiest – number 49 out of more than 450 coal fired power plants nationwide, in terms of sheer pounds of mercury emitted into the air.  In 2010, the Fayette power plant, owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority and Austin Energy, reported spewing 360 pounds of mercury out of the smokestacks.  Airborne mercury falls to the ground and contaminates water and soil.  That’s not my definition of ‘green’ and the City of Austin can do better.”

EPA Rule Information

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Help! Tar sands pipeline – it all comes down to Barack Obama and YOU!

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on December 16, 2011 |

Big Oil’s representatives in the House and Senate are pushing legislation that would rush approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Up until now President Obama has stood strong, threatening to reject any bill that includes the pipeline.

But in the last hour, some terrible news has begun to leak from DC. President Obama seems to be on the verge of caving on Keystone. There’s no way to sugarcoat it — if the President allows Keystone to move forward, he will be failing the single biggest environmental test of his presidency.

The next few hours will be absolutely crucial — the President needs to hear from you that cutting a back-room deal with Big Oil on Keystone XL is unacceptable. If he steps up and threatens to veto this bill, he can stop this pipeline in its tracks.

Can you make a call right away? Here’s the White House number: 202-456-1111

Feel free to say what you want on the call, but remember to drive this one message home: to keep his promises, President Obama needs to veto legislation that would rush approval of Keystone XL. This pipeline is a threat to our climate and jobs and needs to be stopped.

After you’ve called the White House, take 30 seconds to let us know how it went by clicking here.

(Don’t worry if you get a busy signal — it’s actually a good sign: it means we’ve flooded the White House switchboard and that the movement is sending an overwhelming message to the President. Just keep on trying until you get through.)

President Obama came into office promising to “end the tyranny of oil.” This is his chance to prove he was serious. If he’s not, he needs to know right now that there will be real consequences.

Big Oil cut a back-room deal with the dirtiest Members of Congress to attach this legislation to a must-pass tax cut bill. These kinds of deals exemplify the tyranny Big Oil exercises over our government, and underscores why the President needs to threaten a veto.

We have just a few hours to convince him to stand strong and veto any legislation to rush the Keystone pipeline. Can you make a call right now and tell him that we expect nothing less? Here’s the number again: 202-456-1111

Your calls right now are absolutely crucial, and you should also be getting ready to get back into the streets in the days and weeks to come. We’re dusting off our plans to go to Obama 2012 offices and raise some ruckus. Call the White House, but also get in touch with your friends to start plotting your next steps locally.

This fight isn’t over yet — not by a long shot — and you can make a difference.

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NRC halts STP expansion over foreign ownership issues

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on December 15, 2011 |

STP US vs Foreign OwnershipThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suspended its review of the foreign ownership portion of the application to expand the South Texas Project nuclear plant over concerns that the owners haven’t done enough to ensure domestic control of the plant.

Toshiba Corp., based in Japan, could obtain an 85 percent ownership stake in the two nuclear plants proposed for the site outside of Bay City, the NRC found, meaning the company could have “the power to exercise ownership, control or domination over NINA,” or Nuclear Innovation North America.

NINA is a partnership between Toshiba and NRG Energy, which currently shares ownership of STP’s existing nuclear plants with CPS Energy and Austin Energy.

According to the Express-News, NRC staff, in its Dec. 13 letter to NINA, determined that the plan as submitted doesn’t meet the requirements of a federal law prohibiting foreign ownerships of a nuclear plant because, since NRG will not be investing additional capital in the project, “there is reason to believe that most of the financing going forward will be from Toshiba,” a foreign corporation.

This decision could push back a final decision on the license application:

The commission confirmed that the rest of the licensing application will continue to move ahead, but a license, which has been expected by sometime in 2012, will not be granted until the foreign ownership question is resolved.

Back in April of this year, federal officials said French owned UniStar Nuclear Energy was not eligible to build a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs because it is not a U.S.-owned company.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said although a review of the application for the $9.6 billion reactor in Southern Maryland will still take place, a license would not be issued until the ownership requirements were met.  That application now lies languishing for want of U.S. based investors.

Here’s a link: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/energy/article/NRC-halts-nuclear-expansion-s-review-over-foreign-2402923.php

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Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and Sandy Creek Reach Legal Agreement To Slash Air Pollution

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , on December 14, 2011 |

Earlier this week, Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and Sandy Creek Energy Associates filed a consent decree with a federal court settling legal challenges to the Sandy Creek Energy Station near Riesel, TX. Although the U.S. Court of Appeals had previously ruled in favor of Sierra Club’s and Public Citizen’s lawsuit against this proposed plant for Clean Air Act violations, construction of the Sandy Creek Energy Station is mostly complete. The proposed consent decree requires Sandy Creek to slash its emissions of toxic mercury and particle pollution from this plant and make significant clean energy investments in the local community.

Jen Powis, Campaign Representative with Sierra Club, said, “With this settlement, Sierra Club and Public Citizen were able to secure more than $400,000 for solar generation around the Riesel community, creating clean energy jobs and boosting the state’s solar capacity. This settlement also achieves a significant reduction in pollution, which benefits Texans and our neighbors.”

Specifically, the settlement requires Sandy Creek to lower its pollution levels and reduce the impact this plant will have on Texas’ already severe air quality problems.

“The federal courts found that we were right on the law,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, Director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, “but the plant is now almost complete, so emission reductions and solar on school rooftops are a good compromise that will both reduce pollution and help bolster reserve capacity for next summer.  This would not have occurred if the citizens in the area had not gotten together to oppose the plant as it was originally proposed.”

The clean energy investments required by this settlement include a proposed solar panel installation at the nearby school. Kent Reynolds, the Superintendent of the Hallsburg Independent School District said, “Hallsburg ISD is very fortunate to be the beneficiary of a settlement allowing Hallsburg School to install solar panels on our facility for electricity production that will directly benefit the district. The savings on electricity realized by this project will allow the school to spend that money on the over-all instructional program for the students.”

“This is a great settlement for our community and our schools,” said Robert Cervenka, co-chair of the local organization, Texans Protecting Our Water Environment and Resources (TPOWER).  “As a result of our efforts, this new settlement will reduce emissions of mercury by 50 percent and particle emissions by another 25 percent.  This in addition to significant reductions we had already achieved as a result of citizens standing up for their rights, with the added bonus of a solar system being built on one of our local schools.  This just shows the power of people in a community working together to maintain the quality of life we moved here for and I’d like to thank everyone for all the help.”

Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and other public health and environmental groups continue to fight Texas’ other proposed coal plants in court and with grassroots pressure. Renewable energy, especially wind power, continues to demonstrate its reliability and affordability across the state.

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2011 – A year of billion dollar weather disasters

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , on December 8, 2011 |

As 2011 winds to a close, the Weather Channel reports that it has been a volatile year of weather across the United States and the tally of weather-related disasters exceeding a billion dollars set a record for the most billion-dollar weather disasters in a single year earlier this year and now the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has tacked on another two events to list.

To date, there have been a twelve billion-dollar disasters with a combined cost exceeding $50 billion and a winter storm is heading toward the highly populated East Coast threatening more flooding before the end of the calendar year. The previous record for a single year, since records began in 1980, was nine in 2008.

The additions were to split wildfires and drought into two separate categories plus another severe thunderstorm/tornado event in June. Evaluations are still underway for several other extreme events this year, including Tropical Storm Lee and “Snowtober”. However, the available data to NCDC at this time keeps them below $1 billion.

Below is Weather.com’s look back at these twelve disasters starting with Hurricane Irene and ending with the Groundhog Day Blizzard.

Hurricane Irene

Irene’s path history
  • Irene made its initial landfall over coastal North Carolina and moved northward along the Mid-Atlantic Coast before making a final landfall over New York City as a tropical storm.
  • Highlights:     Caused torrential rainfall and catastrophic flooding in portions of the Northeast. Wind damage in coastal N.C., Va., and Md. was moderate with considerable damage from falling trees and power lines. More than 7 million lost power from Hurricane Irene. Coastal erosion was severe in portions of the North Carolina Outer Banks.
  • Caused more than $7.3 billion in damage and 45 fatalities in the U.S.

Upper Midwest Flooding

River flooding in Minot, N.D. Image: AP
  • Current economic losses are estimated to exceed $2 billion dollars.
  • Highlights: Estimated 11,000 evacuated from Minot, N.D. where estimated 4,000 homes flooded from the Souris River. Numerous levees breached on Missouri River, flooding thousands of acres of farmland.
  • The flooding was caused by melting of an above-average northern Rockies snowpack, and heavy spring and early summer rainfall.
  • Top 10 wettest Jan – July in N. Dakota, S. Dakota, and Montana. Records date back to 1895.
  • A major concern with the flood was rising waters that infiltrated a nuclear power plant on the river whose flood controls nearly failed.
Mississippi River Flooding
River flooding in Memphis (Image credit: NASA)
  • Current economic losses are estimated between $3 billion to $4 billion dollars.
  • Preliminary breakdown:$500 million to agriculture in Arkansas, $320 million in damage to Memphis, Tenn., $800 million to agriculture in Mississippi, $317 million to agriculture and property in Missouri’s Birds Point-New Madrid Spillway, $80 million for the first 30 days of flood-fighting efforts in Louisiana.
  • The flooding was caused by heavy rains in April from northern Arkansas and southern Missouri to the Ohio Valley. This water all flowed downstream into the Mississippi River, resulting in record flooding.
  • April was the wettest month on record in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee all finished with a top five wettest April.
Major impacts spring into summer in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, southern Kansas, and western Arkansas and Louisiana.
  • Much of the range and pasture conditions were rated very poor in Texas and Oklahoma throughout the 2011 crop growing season.
  • Total direct losses to agriculture and cattle are approaching $10 billion.
  • The Texas state climatalogist is predicting the state is in a multi-year drought pattern and that the state can expect the drought and high heat conditions to continue into the 2012 summer.  Some communities are already out of water and are not expected to recover for quite some time.  In the meantime, this summer had record breaking heat shattering records right and left (Austin 90 days of 100+ degree days, blasting past the previous record of 69 days set in 1925, and other Texas cities set similar records)
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona Wildfires (Spring-Fall 2011) 
Las Conchas wildfire in New Mexico (AP photo)
  • Drought conditions and extreme heat fueled a series of wildfires across these states.
  • Bastrop Fire in Texas – Most destructive fire in Texas history. Over 3 million acres were burned across Texas this year.
  • Wallow Fire in Arizona – Consumed over 500,000 acres, making it the largest fire in Arizona history (See Photos).
  • Las Conchas fire in New Mexico – Largest fire in New Mexico history, consuming over 150,000 acres
  • Total losses from wildfire activity across all three states exceeds $1 billion.

June 18-22 Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes and Severe Weather 

Tornado near Benedict, Neb. on June 20, 2011 (iWitness Weather user mistyand chad)
  • Outbreak of 81 tornadoes over central states (OK, TX, KS, NE, MO, IA, IL)
  • Additional wind/hail damage over TN, GA, NC and SC.
  • More than $1.3 billion in total losses.
May 22-27 Tornadoes and Severe Storm Damage  
Destruction in Joplin, Mo. (AP photo)
  • Severe storms and an estimated 180 tornadoes hit a large swath of the country from the Midwest to the South and Northeast. Insured losses are more than $6.5 billion. Total losses are greater than $9.1 billion.
  • EF5 tornado demolishes Joplin, Mo. on May 22, resulting in 158 fatalities. An EF2 tornado killed one in Minneapolis on the same day.
  • An EF5 tornado carved a 75-mile path across Oklahoma on May 24, including near El Reno, Piedmont and Guthrie. A total of 18 people lost their lives as a result of tornadoes that day in Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas.
  
April 25-28 Tornado Outbreak  
Tuscaloosa, Ala., tornado
  • Massive outbreak of severe thunderstorms and estimated 343 tornadoes from the South into portions of the Midwest and Northeast. Total losses are now estimated to be at $10.2 billion.
  • 321 fatalities combined in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. Of those, 240 occurred in Alabama.
  • A deadly EF4 tornado hit the Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Birmingham, Ala., metro areas.
  • EF5 tornadoes struck Smithville, Miss., Philadelphia, Miss., Hackleburg–Phil Campbell, Ala., Dekalb County, Ala.
April 14-16 Tornado Outbreak
Damage in Tushka, Okla. (AP photo)
  • Three-day siege of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes from the central and southern Plains to Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia and the Carolinas. Total damage estimate over $2.1 billion.
  • Preliminary number of tornadoes: 177
  • Both the Jackson, Miss., and Raleigh, N.C., metro areas were hit by tornadoes.
  • 38 fatalities combined in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.
April 8-11 Tornadoes and Severe Storm Damage
A truck was tossed into this basement in Pocahontas County, Iowa (Image credit: yfrog.com ktivnews)
  • Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit portions of the Midwest, South and Plains. Total damage estimate of more than $2.2 billion.
  • Severe damage and several injuries were caused by a tornado in Pulaski, Va., on April 8.
  • An EF3 tornado leveled Mapleton, Iowa, on April 9 .
  • At least 14 confirmed tornadoes in Wisconsin on April 10, a record for any April day in the state. An EF3 tornado heavily damaged Merrill, Wis.
April 4-5 Severe Thunderstorm Outbreak
Tree crushes a car in Memphis, Tenn. (Image credit: twitgoo.com OOHH_My)
  • A massive wind damage event with tornadoes swept from the Ohio Valley to the South and mid-Atlantic. Total damage estimate is greater than $2.8 billion.
  • More than 1,350 damaging wind reports. Estimated 46 tornadoes.
Jan. 29-Feb. 3 ‘Groundhog Day Blizzard’
Cars abandoned in Chicago (Source: twitpic.com/EddiesTPWong)
  • Affected many central and eastern states, causing at least $1.8 billion in total losses.
  • Chicago recorded its biggest 24-hour snow total with 20 inches. Tulsa, Okla., was buried under 14 inches.

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Fishing: A great pasttime, but you may not want to eat that fish without checking the state’s mercury advisories

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on December 6, 2011 |

One of the great things about living in Texas is our winters are mild enough that many outdoor activities are year round activities, including fishing.  BUT . . ., before you eat that fish, be sure to check out the mercury advisories for the state’s waterways on the Texas Department of Health website to make sure that fish is safe to eat – especially for children and pregnant women.

The main source of mercury in Texas waterways comes from coal fired power plants.  Check out www.stopthecoalplant.org for more information.

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Pipelines of Poison Sidestep Stalled State Department Signoff

Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged , , , , on November 21, 2011 |

Foreign Pipeline Owners Find a Way to Get Around Federal Permit Process

TransCanada is attempting to outsmart the State Department and bypass federal blocks by using two existing pipelines of poison after the State Department and President Obama delayed approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline permit amidst concerns about bias, conflicts of interest, and environmental issues,  If implemented the pipeline of poison will pose serious threats to Texas water resources that supply 12 million in East Texas and the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston metropolises, and our climate.  The groups are urging Texans to contact their local and state officials and ask them to stop the pipelines of poison.

“TransCanada is attempting to mislead the public and circumvent the regulatory mandates of Presidential approval, environmental review and public participation,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen.  “They are now proposing to connect their Gulf Coast Segment (from Cushing, OK to Port Arthur and Houston, TX) into the end of their existing Keystone 1 pipeline.  Make that foreign tar sands corporations – 1: the United States – 0.”

“We also believe that Enbridge also plans to do the same by connecting their proposed Wrangler pipeline that runs from Cushing, OK to Houston TX to their existing Spearhead pipeline system that runs from Canada to Cushing, OK. It would be a serious mistake to allow these pipelines to carry toxic tar sands across Texas land,” continued Smith.

Threats to Texas Water Sources

These two pipelines of poison – TransCanada’s Gulf Coast Segment and Enbridge’s Wrangler – would pose serious threats to Texas water resources, including aquifers, drinking and agricultural water resources for up to 12 million Texans in Dallas, Houston and East Texas.

Tar Sands Pipeline Affected Texas WaterwaysTransCanada’s pipeline would cross the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, the Trinity Aquifer and the Gulf Coast Aquifer.  It would traverse 16 large rivers several of which are listed as sensitive and protected, and cross over more than 130 designated floodplain areas in Texas.  These rivers and drainages feed 21 lakes and municipal reservoirs, including Pat Mayse Lake, Lake Tyler and Lake Cypress Springs.

“TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline has already leaked 14 times in its first year,” said Chris Wilson, a chemical engineering consultant for opponents of the pipeline.  “How can we trust them to build it better and not endanger the waterways in Texas?”

In 2011, one of Enbridge’s pipelines leaked over 1 million gallons of tar sands into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.  Clean-up efforts have cost over $700 million, it’s still not cleaned-up and people and animals are sick and communities are poisoned.

“Sadly, this is what happens when there are no federal pipeline safety regulations and effective cleanup procedure for toxic tar sands spills,” continued Ms. Wilson.  “Tar sands are not like crude oil which floats on water, they are heavier and they sink, making cleanup much more difficult if not impossible.  Congress should protect the public and put an immediate halt on all tar sands pipelines until studies are completed, safety regulations are enacted and effective spill remediation procedures are put in place.”

Other Threats to Texas

“Despite the fact that TransCanada and Enbridge imply that they might not have to undergo environmental review our analysis has identified several major environmental hazards and key red flags to the project that are cause for concern and require addressing,” said Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition.  “These include:

  • Toxic spills that would threaten drinking and agricultural water resources for up to 12 million Texans in Dallas, Houston and East Texas;
  • Exposure to benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAH’S) and heavy metals;
  • Increases in toxic refinery emissions, greenhouse gases, climate change and associated Environmental Justice issues in the end of market refinery communities in Texas;
  • Increases in refinery wastewater toxicity, toxic solid waste volume and spent catalyst toxicity ;
  • Lack of federal safety pipeline standards and spill remediation standards for tar sands pipelines;
  • Drought and wildfire in Texas;
  • Lack of Emergency Response Plans for volunteer fire departments to address pipeline fires; and
  • Eminent domain abuses, threats and bullying of TX landowners.”

Threats to the Health of Texans

The crude oil that would flow through the pipeline is known as diluted bitumen, or dilbit.  Federal safety officials don’t know precisely which chemicals TransCanada mixes with bitumen to create dilbit, including the levels of benzene used in the diluents. And even industry groups can’t say exactly how corrosive dilbit is.

“The U.S. EPA raised serious health risks over benzene in the diluents in a June 2011 letter to the U.S. State Department based on ambient air data at the Kalamazoo river spill”, stated Dr. Neil Carman, Clean Air Program Director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter.  “In a tar sands pipeline spill Benzene easily volatilizes into the air at ambient temperatures allowing inhalation exposure to occur, its toxicity results in immediate health effects in the low parts per billion range.  Benzene also poses a water contamination risk at low concentrations.”

“These characteristics make benzene the most dangerous chemical to human health in a tar sands pipeline spill because it is a known human carcinogenic agent,” Carman emphasized.  “Short-term benzene exposures may cause a variety of health effects, including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, narcosis, reduction in blood pressure, and central nervous system depression as reported in Michigan from the Kalamazoo tar sands spill in July 2010 where high levels (15,000 parts per billion) were measured in the air.”

Finally, Carman noted that, “Tar sands bitumen contains 11X more sulfur and nickel, 5X more lead, and higher levels of other toxic substances (arsenic, chromium, vanadium, boron, and zinc) compared to conventional crude oil.”  Carman concluded, “The higher toxicity of tar sands bitumen will result in increased toxic emissions in refinery communities already overburdened with too much air pollution where environmental justice issues have been ignored by the state and the oil firms.”

Threats to Air Quality and Climate Change

NASA’s James Hansen, a leading climate scientist who rang the first alarm bells nearly 30 years ago, has called the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline “game over” for the climate.

According to a recent US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assessment, tar sands emissions are approximately twice those of conventional oil, making tar sands well-to-tank emissions approximately 82% higher than conventional oil.

“Tar sands oil is far dirtier than conventional crude oil,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office.  “This will significantly increase emissions from Houston and Beaumont refineries, which will further put the region beyond the ability to meet federal air quality standards.”

“The DFW area won’t fare much better as pumps are situated at 20- to 100-mile-intervals along the length of the pipeline to “push” the tar sands crude,” continued Smith. “Pipeline pumps may be powered by burning diesel or natural gas, or by using electricity (which may come from burning natural gas or coal at power plants that feed the area).  This will add to the emissions blowing into the DFW area.”

What Can Be Done If Foreign Corporations Circumvent U.S. Regulatory Process

Texans should contact their elected officials regarding their concerns about TransCanada’s Gulf Coast and Enbridge’s Wrangler proposed tar sands pipelines and they should ask their elected officials to join together to protect Texans from the dangers of toxic tar sands pipeline spills and impacts to end-of-market refinery communities.  The Texas Legislature needs to study tar sands, hold interim hearing about tar sands and work together with their constituents to assure that Texans water, air, land and health are not harmed by toxic tar sands.

Cites:

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