December 9, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Deepwater Horizon rig catastrophe has been called a unique event by the oil industry, but the recent history of offshore drilling suggests otherwise according to an investigative story by the Wall Street Journal.
In the months before and after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the industry was hit with several serious spills and alarming near-misses.
A rig operated by PTT PCL caught fire off Australia in late 2009. - Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A blowout off the coast of Australia left oil flowing into the Timor Sea for weeks. An out-of-control well in the Gulf of Mexico dislodged a 4,000-pound piece of equipment on the deck of the Lorris Bouzigard drilling rig as workers scurried to safety. A gas leak in the North Sea aboard a production platform came within a rogue spark of a Deepwater Horizon-scale disaster off the coast of Norway.
Data from regulators around the world suggest that after years of improvement, the offshore-drilling industry’s safety record has declined over the past two years. In 2009, in the Gulf of Mexico, there were 28 major drilling-related spills, natural-gas releases or incidents in which workers lost control of a well – up 4% from 2008, 56% from 2007, and nearly two-thirds from 2006. If you include the number of hours worked on offshore rigs in the equation, the rate of these incidents rose every year from 2006 to 2009.
There are various possible explanations for the recent spate of problems. Investigations into the Deepwater Horizon and some other recent incidents have pointed to the industry’s difficulties finding and retaining enough experienced workers, its struggles to balance safety priorities with profit demands, and occasional lapses in the face of lax regulation. These challenges have become more pronounced as oil companies continue to push the limits of technology and experience in deeper water, harsher environments and more complex oil reservoirs, the investigators say.
The six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling imposed by the Obama administration ended in October, one month ahead of schedule. Still, the administration reversed plans to expand drilling into new areas.
Public Citizen continues to call for better regulation and stronger accountability for off-shore drilling operations.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Energy, Uncategorized | Tagged bp, Deepwater Horizon, gulf of mexico, offshore drilling, Texas |
December 9, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The Sunset Advisory Commission has put TCEQ on the agenda for December 15th, following the Department of Transportation and the Railroad Commission. What this means is that public testimony on TCEQ should begin sometime after lunch.
We hope some of you can make it to the December 15th hearing. Please don’t hesitate to contact us directly with your questions! Feel free to email us at texasfeedback (at) citizen.org.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged Sunset Advisory Commission, TCEQ, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency |
December 8, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Is your drinking water safe? -Wikipedia
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ordering a natural gas company in Fort Worth to take immediate action to protect people living near one of its drilling operations who have complained about flammable drinking water coming out of their home faucets.
Read some of our earlier blogs about the process that is suspected of causing these kinds of problems:
Read other recent posts about our regulatory agencies’ failure to adequately insure the safety of Texan’s drinking water:
Natural gas drilling (or fracking) near homes in Parker County west of Fort Worth has caused or contributed to the contamination of at least two residential drinking water wells, and the EPA has confirmed that extremely high levels of methane in local water supplies pose an “imminent and substantial risk of explosion or fire.” The agency also found other contaminants including benzene, which can cause cancer, in the drinking water.
The EPA has issued an imminent and substantial endangerment order under Section 1431 of the Safe Drinking Water Act and has ordered the company to step in immediately to stop the contamination, provide drinking water and provide methane gas monitors to the homeowners. EPA has given the company 24 hours to assure them that it will comply with the order and 48 hours to provide alternative water supplies to affected residents.
To see the EPA’s letter to the company, click here.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Toxics | Tagged Benezene, fort worth, fracking, methane, natural gas, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency |
December 8, 2010 by Citizen Carol
A Dust Bowl storm approaches Stratford, Texas in 1935. - wikipedia.org
Texas is not immune to the effects of increasing greenhouse gases, according to the state climatologist, John Nielsen-Gammon, of Texas A&M University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Nielsen-Gammon also says the international science on climate change is fundamentally sound despite challenges from state officials, and the drought in Central Texas is likely to continue. Below are excerpts from an interview with the Texas Tribune. Continue Reading »
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged climate change, Current sea level rise, greenhouse gas, intergovernmental panel on climate change, Texas |
December 7, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 miners and introduced the country to a caricature of a heartless CEO, Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship (who just last week announced his retirement). If ever there was a moment for forward progress on workplace health and safety, it was in the wake of the Massey tragedy. The Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety and Health Act would modestly increase the size of fines for endangering workers, make it a felony to cause the death of a worker by knowingly violating safety rules, protect whistleblowers who call attention to workplace hazards, and deter employers from delaying resolution of citations for violations of workplace health and safety rules. But the business lobby has prevented the bill from moving ahead.
Nevertheless, the House will be voting on the Byrd Mine Safety bill tomorrow afternoon. Call your Congressman if you are concerned about mine safety and tell them to vote for this bill.
UPDATE
Today, December 8, 2010, Congressional lawmakers left workers in the dust when they failed to pass critical mine safety legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 214-193 not to pass the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act (H.R. 6495), which would have empowered the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to protect workers from unsafe workplaces, prosecute corporate bad actors and close dangerous mines.
This year saw several high-profile workplace tragedies, from the 11 workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon to the Tesoro refinery explosion in Washington state. The most deadly disaster occurred in April; 29 mine workers were killed when the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia exploded. These deaths were preventable and illustrate the dire need for the increased worker protections that this legislation would have provided.
The Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act would have addressed shortcomings in MSHA’s enforcement authority and allowed it to respond quickly to accidents, withdraw miners from unsafe mines, and prosecute and collect fines from operators of mines with bad safety records. Lawmakers failed to recognize that workers should not have to risk their lives needlessly to earn a living.
For those who contacted their Congressman, thank you for your efforts. Although the bill faces a much bleaker fate under the Republican-led House, Public Citizen calls on Congress to re-introduce the legislation in its next session – and to include protections for all workers.
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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.
Posted in Coal | Tagged Coal, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety and Health Act, Texas, Upper Big Branch Mine disaster |
December 7, 2010 by Citizen Carol
In an article today by BRENT KENDALL And TENNILLE TRACY of the Washington post, they write that the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether eight states and other plaintiffs can proceed with lawsuits that seek to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by utilities.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged supreme court, Texas, the Supreme Court |
December 7, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Truck traffic on IH-35 near Laredo. TX.
According to the state auditor, Texas environmental regulators must recover or account for more than $62 million of a grant program, Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP), that’s aimed at improving air quality in some of the nation’s most polluted areas.
TERP provides incentives to individuals, businesses and government agencies that replace old vehicles and industrial equipment with more environmentally friendly models. The program requires participants to take the replaced old-model vehicle out of commission, and destroy it .
Included among the problems outlined in the 52-page audit are:
- 593 grant recipients awarded more than $62 million between December 2006 and July 2010 did not meet all the program’s requirements.
- TERP has dead people’s social security numbers in its database
- TERP’s database contains inaccurate and incomplete information, including about 47 percent of vehicle identification numbers;
- At least 12 vehicles that should have been destroyed under the grant contracts were re-registered in Texas, though environmental regulators say six of those were mistakes.
The audit says Texas Commission on Environmental Quality must improve its applicant selection process, strengthen monitoring of recipients and hold them accountable to program guidelines.
Despite the problems, TERP has been extremely successful as a clean air program and TCEQ says it will make changes to its scoring method so that the program can continue to focus on the most polluted regions, including the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston areas.
Posted in Air Quality | Tagged air pollution, TERP, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality |
December 6, 2010 by Citizen Carol
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a December 1, 2011 deadline for 13 states to develop plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, as the agency prepares to implement its major new rule January 2.
A dozen of the states plan to submit emissions plans that do not account for GHG emissions, thereby triggering federal control of their GHG permitting process, but the process between EPA and those states is an expected amicable agreement. Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, and Wyoming will submit plans by December 22 and Kentucky; Clark County, Nevada; Connecticut, parts of California and Nebraska are expected to submit their plans after the beginning of the year.
This will enable 49 of the states to issue permits on or around January 2, either themselves or through the EPA. But Texas, the lone holdout, did not say when it would submit a GHG plan, continuing a standoff with the EPA and the administration on its environmental policies. The state has also filed a series of legal challenges in federal court.
Under the rules of the Clean Air Act, Texas has until December 1, 2011 to submit a revised “state implementation plan” that accounts for regulating GHG emissions. Although the EPA, in its Friday announcement, said it would not wait until then to take control of the state’s GHG permitting and is planning additional actions to ensure that GHG sources in Texas, as in every other state in the country, have available a permitting authority to process their permit applications as of January 2, 2011.
Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, TCEQ | Tagged clean air act, greenhouse gas, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency |
December 5, 2010 by Citizen Carol
If you haven’t already pre-registered to celebrate the holidays at the 3rd Annual Austin Green Holiday Party, do so soon. It is coming up soon and this year it is hosted by 10 great organizations.
Fiesta Gardens (2100 Jesse E. Segovia St., Austin, TX 78702)
Thursday, December 16th, 2010 from 5:30pm-9:30pm
Registration: Pre-Registration ONLY for this Event (No Cash Accepted at Door)
Network and learn about the hosting organizations and come together for a unified 2011. Celebrate the holidays with us and enjoy music, great food, beer, wine and other beverages, as well as holiday cheer…
Live Music by: Austin Eco-Musicians (Reed Sternberg, Bill Oliver, Frank Meyer and More!) with Tribal Nation, the Austin reggae band later in the evening.
Food: Barr Mansion (Please help support our event sponsor and friend to the environmental community, the Barr Mansion. They are catering this event, even as their own facility is being rebuilt after the fire.)
- Blue Cheese and Winter Squash Sandwich
- Chicken and Pepperoni Sandwich
- Sundried Tomato White Bean Dip with Crostini
- Basil Hummus and Cracker Shards
- Local Organic Farm Salad Station with assorted dressings
Beverages: Beer, Wine, Sodas, Teas and water will be provided by the following sponsors:
The Co-Hosts: Texas Green Network •Public Citizen • SEED Coalition • Sierra Club • Design Build Live • Austin EcoNetwork • Solar Austin • NetImpact •
Texas League of Conservation Voters • Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility
Posted in Consumers, Energy, Global Warming, green jobs, recycling, Renewables, solar | Tagged Austin EcoNetwork, Austin green holiday party, austin texas, barr mansion, design build live, food, Holiday Celebration, live music, net impact, party, physicians for social responsibility, public citizen texas, SEED Coalition, Sierra Club, Soalr Austin, Texas, Texas Green Network, texas league of conservation voters |
December 4, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Dr. Carey King of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin
In a paper published this November in the journal Environmental Research Letters by energy expert Dr. Carey King of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, a center based at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, he concluded that an overlooked cause of the economic recession in the United States is a decade long decline in the quality of the nation’s energy supply, often measured as the amount of energy we get out for a given energy input.
King suggests the real estate bubble burst because individuals were paying a higher percentage of their income for energy — including electricity, gasoline and heating oil — leaving less money for their home mortgages. He goes on the state that economists don’t think of energy as being a limiting factor to economic growth that, in fact, they believe continual improvements in technology and efficiency have completely decoupled the two factors. His research, however, is part of a growing body of evidence that says energy still plays a big role.
The paper focuses on a new way to measure energy quality, the Energy Intensity Ratio (EIR), which measures how much profit is obtained by energy consumers relative to energy producers. The higher the EIR, the more economic value consumers (including businesses, governments and people) get from their energy. Further, King’s analysis suggests if EIR falls below a certain threshold, the economy stops growing.
To get the U.S. economy growing again, Americans will have to produce and use energy more efficiently as the U.S. did after the last energy crisis by raising fuel efficiency standards for cars, increasing use of natural gas for electric power generation and developing new technologies like the distributed energy sources of wind and solar.
“If we aren’t fundamentally changing the way we produce or consume energy now, don’t expect the economy to grow as much as the past two decades,” he says.
Dr. King is engaged areas of study that include the economics of carbon capture and sequestration, the design of beneficial combinations of renewable energy and storage systems, and the creation of tools to help the public and policymakers understand the tradeoffs among different electricity generation sources. To read Dr. King’s paper, click here.
Posted in Energy | Tagged Economy of the United States, Electricity generation, Energy quality, Recession, Texas, University of Texas at Austin |
December 3, 2010 by Citizen Carol
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant -by Wikipedia
In an article by the New York Times that focuses on Vermont‘s concerns about losing space to waste from generators in other states, Matthew Wald writes:
Waste disposal is so difficult, says the company, Waste Control Services, that power plants and other generating sources have reduced their volumes sharply. And Vermont and Texas together produce so little that, the company adds, it would have to charge huge amounts per cubic foot and per unit of radioactivity to get its investment back.
Yet, the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition’s research shows the Waste Control Specialists site is currently licensed for 2.3 million cubic feet of water and 3.89 million curies. Texas’ existing four reactors and Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor would require 6 million cubic feet of capacity.
Tom “Smitty” Smith, the director of the Texas office of Public Citizen tells the New York Times that he believes, “They’re trying to get it done before the new governor takes office.”
To read the New York Times article, click here.
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Radiation, Radioactive Waste, TCEQ, Toxics, Transportation | Tagged New York Times, nuclear reactor waste, public citizen texas, radioactive waste, smitty, Texas, texas low level radioactive waste dump, vermont, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant |
December 3, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has publically demanded that Texas immediately take steps to reissue Clean Water Act permits to some 80 facilities that have been operating without the necessary paperwork.
Not pleased with what they felt was a decision to, ” jump the gun prematurely with this notice,” the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality quickly put out a statement saying it had been cooperating with the EPA to resolve the problems, and already had two proposals on the table.
The EPA and Texas/TCEQ/Gov. Perry have been locked in battle for some time now that has moved from a dispute over environmental issues into an ugly all out war over state rights with Gov. Rick Perry using the dispute during the election cycle as an example of the federal government and the administration’s meddling in what he believes are state affairs.
This newest dispute is over water discharge permits. The EPA says many of the facilities in question have had their paperwork delayed due to concerns raised by the EPA regarding the toxicity of the discharges and that their move to ask Texas to resolve the issue stems from their concern that, in some cases, the expired permits are allowing facilities to discharge toxic waste.
The EPA’s regional director, Al Armendariz, shot back, “We are taking a stand for clean water. The streams, lakes and bayous of our great state deserve to be protected from chemicals, bacteria and toxic metals. Our children and future generations should be able to swim and fish anywhere in the state without worries about pollution.”
Let’s see how many lawsuits Texas will file over this one.
Posted in TCEQ | Tagged Rick Perry, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency, water permits, Water Quality |
December 2, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas ran its “one day-ahead market” under the new nodal configuration yesterday and say that, as of last night, the old zonal market has been laid to rest forever.
Nodal is a market redesign and technology upgrade designed to enable location-specific pricing at more than 4,000 nodes instead of the four large and cumbersome congestion management zones used in the market design lo these many years here in Texas.
The project has been in the pipeline since 2003 and several target dates for taking it live had come and gone over the years. The surcharge passed on to customers has also spiraled, going from about 5 cents per megawatt hour in the beginning to nearly 17 cents.
The increases were needed to keep up with the ever-rising cost estimates that started at around $60 million but ended up at nearly $660 million.
The Public Utility Commission estimates that over time, electric retail customers will see significant savings under the new configuration, but getting it in place has been difficult, time-consuming and expensive.
Posted in Energy, Renewables | Tagged electric reliability council of texas, Public utilities commission, Texas |
The Las Brisas coal (pet coke) plant proposed for Corpus Christi has had its air permit recommended for denial by the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for the second time. The SOAH judges presiding over the case have stated in their “proposal for decision” that:
At this time, we are unable to recommend that the requested permits be issued, because we find that Las Brisas Energy Center, LLC… has not made the necessary compliance demonstration to ensure that emissions from the proposed facility would not contribute to air pollution through a violation of a NAAQS or the PSD increment, particularly in regard to particulate matter (PM).
Though not legally binding, a recommendation of denial by SOAH for a second time will, hopefully, have some impact on the TCEQ, who has the final authority for granting the permit. However, the TCEQ has a history of simply ignoring SOAH, the public, and even their own staff in order to grant inadequate and inappropriate permits to large, industrial sources of pollution such as Las Brisas.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Coal, Global Warming | Tagged Coal, las brisas, state office of administrative hearings, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency |
December 1, 2010 by Citizen Carol
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a 100-page proposal, the “PSD and Title V Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases” for public review and feedback in mid-November, providing two weeks for responses by a Dec. 1 deadline. Finalized terms will be put in place by Jan. 2, 2011, in accordance with an implementing “Tailoring Rule” to guide state-level permitting authorities and extend the EPA’s influence over the greenhouse gas emissions of industrial sectors. Click here to see a copy of the rule and EPA factsheets on the issue.
Operating through permitting authority asserted under the Clean Air Act, the agency will now require CO2 emissions to be considered in the design of every major project in which fossil fuel is combusted or CO2 emissions are released. Included are electrical power generation, refineries, iron and steel mills, pulp and paper mills and cement production.
Effective July 1, 2011, any new source of greenhouse gas emissions that exceeds 100,000 tons of CO2 per year or plant modification adding 75,000 tons annually, will be subject to permit approval based upon currently undefined case-by-case “best available control technology” assessments.
Some background information
In an April 2, 2007, Supreme Court case (Massachusetts v. EPA), the court ruled in a split 5-4 decision that greenhouse gasses fit within the definition of “air pollutants” and subsequently the EPA issued a finding of public health or welfare endangerment.
On Dec. 7, 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed two distinct findings. One was an “Endangerment Finding,” which found that current and projected atmospheric concentrations of six greenhouse gases (including CO2) “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” A second “Cause or Contribute Finding” found that “combined emissions of these well-mixed [greenhouse gases] from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to greenhouse gas pollution which threatens public health and welfare.”
On April 1 the EPA finalized a light-duty vehicle rule controlling greenhouse gas emissions, confirming that Jan. 2, 2011, is the earliest date that a 2012 model year vehicle meeting established limits can be sold in the U.S. Then on Oct. 25 the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a proposed rule to establish the first-ever greenhouse emission and economy standards for heavy-duty trucks that will phase in during model years 2014 to 2018 arguing that improved fuel efficiency growing out of this ruling will save the trucking industry money.
Posted in Global Warming | Tagged clean air act, greenhouse gas, tailoring rule, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency |
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