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Posts Tagged ‘New York Times’

A series of new studies focus on the destructive health effects of pollution.

Posted in Air Quality, tagged , , , , , , on July 11, 2013 |

According to an article in the New York Times, in recent decades people living in the south of China are living five years longer on average than their northern counterparts. The reasons are because of the pollution from the widespread use of coal in the north, according to a study released Monday by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a prominent American science journal.

The study was conducted by an American, an Israeli and two Chinese scholars and was based on analyses of health and pollution data collected by official Chinese sources from 1981 to 2001. Click here to read the full story in the New York Times.

At the same time, NBC News reports that two studies release on Tuesday shows air pollution can cause lung cancer and seems to worsen heart failure.

Both studies show the more pollution, the more disease. One study looked at lung cancer cases across Europe; the other looked at hospitalization for heart failure in several countries, including the United States.

Dr. Ole Raaschou-Nielsen of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center said they couldn’t find a “safe” level of air pollution. The more pollution, the higher the risk, even at legally accepted limits.

The second study looked at 12 countries, including the United States. Nicholas Mills of the University of Edinburgh in Britain and colleagues combined data from 35 studies that assessed carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone pollution, as well as particulate matter (often simply called soot) and looked at rates of being hospitalized for heart failure,.

About half of people with heart failure die within five years, according to the American Heart Association. This study found that one of the things that can throw heart failure patients into the hospital, or kill them, is breathing polluted air. Click here to read the NBC News story.

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Tar Sands Cronyism

Posted in Air Quality, Tarsands, tagged , , , on October 4, 2011 |

In a New York Times op-ed by Bill McKibbens, he talks about the cronyism of the TransCanada tar sands play.  He makes reference to e-mails, made available by the environmental group Friends of the Earth, that show the State Department working with lobbyists to advance the interests of TransCanada, the company trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Canada through the heartland of the United States to the refineries of Texas capable of refining this highly polluting form of crude oil.

McKibbens goes on about other evidence that show, even as the State Department was supposedly carrying out a neutral evaluation of the pipeline’s environmental impact, key players were undermining the process. And when the State Department picked a consulting firm to help carry out the environmental impact statement on the Keystone pipeline, it chose a company called Cardno Entrix that listed among its chief clients …TransCanada.   It is no wonder that the final report that came out in late August, stated the pipeline would have “no significant impact” on the nearby land and water resources.

At local hearings along the pipeline route, Cardno Entrix again appeared front and center as the “facilitators” of those “public hearings.”   Click here to read our earlier blog about the Austin hearing.

Click here to read the entire New York Times Op-ed by Bill McKibben.

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Texas’ proposed rule to accept radioactive waste from many other states concerns Vermont

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Radiation, Radioactive Waste, TCEQ, Toxics, Transportation, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2010 |

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.

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.

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ReEnergize Texas Hits the Big Times over Green Fee Bill

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2009 |

Hey hey, looks like ReEnergize Texas was featured in a recent article on the New York Times’ Green, Inc blog.  Check it out:

College Students Clamor for “Green Fees”

By Kate Galbraith

College students often protest when administrators threaten to raise their fees.

But rising numbers of students seem willing to self-impose a “green” fee, to help the environment and purchase renewable energy. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education posts a list of universities that have such fees, which generally hover around $3 to $5 a semester but have increased to $40 a term in the case of Northland College in Wisconsin.

Portland State University is currently voting on whether to establish this kind of fee.

In some states like Florida and Texas, students at public universities have been foiled in their efforts to impose green fees. That is because any fee increase must be approved by the state legislature. The back-and-forth process can easily take four years, according to Trevor Lovell of ReEnergize Texas, a youth coalition pushing for measures to address climate change — by which time the student body will have (hopefully) turned over.

A bill backed by ReEnergize Texas is working its way through the Texas state legislature that would allow university students to impose green fees more easily.

A similar bill in Florida just failed.

“The economic woes of our country coupled with an increase to tuition for state universities, made the members hesitant to enact any more new fees this session,” said Zachary Keith, who coordinated the green-fee effort in Florida, in an e-mail message.

He vowed to try again in the next legislative session, and noted that referendums at big Florida universities have shown solid support.

Texas is trying to avoid Florida’s legislative fate. Amanda Grosgebauer, who has chaired the environmental issues committee at Texas A&M, wrote a letter to the legislature stating that in March, 76 percent of students at her university had favored increased environmental services. “That is more student support for one issue than in the history of the University,” Ms. Grosgebauer wrote, in a letter provided by ReEnergize Texas.

“In the past our efforts have hit against a wall of political preferences — environmental issues are seen as a leftist, radical or an unreasonable luxury,” Ms. Grosgebauer continued. “We are tired of hearing that excuse.”

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Friday Recommended Reading

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2009 |

ReadingTime for a Friday wrap-up, all the news that’s fit to link:

The Cost of Climate Inaction, Op-Ed in the Washington Post

An Affordable Salvation, New York Times Op-Ed about the benefits of cap and trade

Carbon Offsets in Waxman-Markey Bill, An Overview, Carbonfund.org Blog

Maryland Passes Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, SustainableBusiness.com News

Cap and trade won’t push heavy industries overseas — study, The New York Times

Net metering: The civil rights movement for solar energy, Photovoltaics World

Who gets tough against companies polluting Texas? Hint: It’s not the state, Houston Chronicle

Utah takes nuclear waste from states with own dump, Houston Chronicle (A glimpse of what could happen in Texas if the Andrews Waste Dump goes through)

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Texas Solar is Famous

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 21, 2009 |

Texas solar is all kinds of famous.  Whether it is in print papers, the New York Times green blog, classified ads, the nightly news, Mic SoL-o’s sweet rhymes, or Public Citizen staffers with too much time on their hands and a taste for the spotlight… solar is all over the place!

But wait, there’s more.  Along with Environmental Defense Fund and Environment Texas, we’ve just launched an ad campaign aimed at getting the Texas Legislature to support measures to make Texas a world solar leader. The commercials will run for a week in the Abilene, Dallas/Fort Worth, Tyler/Longview, and Wichita Falls viewing areas and call on the Legislature to support incentives to install solar panels on the equivalent of a half-million Texas rooftops by 2020.

Check it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynmERFZzHLg]

So far more than 80 bills have been filed by a bi-partisan group of legislators to promote solar power and other renewable energy technologies, including:

  • SB 545 (Fraser), which creates a statewide rebate program which would fund the installation of up to 500 megawatts of solar by 2015.  SB 5454 has passed the Senate Business and Commerce committee and is expected to be voted on by the full Senate next week.
  • SB 541 (Watson), which requires the development of 3000 megawatts of solar, geothermal and biomass energy by 2020.  SB 541 is pending in the Senate Business and Commerce committee.
  • HB 3405 (Swinford), which creates a statewide rebate program that would fund the installation of 3000 megawatts of solar by 2020.  HB 3405 is pending in the House Energy Resources committee.

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Recommended Reading

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2009 |

Here are some interesting articles I’ve read this week, which I think are well worth reading in full.

recommended-readingTexas is taking a greater interest in global warming by Randy Lee Loftis at the Dallas Morning News

The Fight Plan for Clean Air by Kate Galbraith and Felicity Barringer, New York Times (word on the street that EPA will declare heat-trapping gases dangerous pollutants, keep your fingers crossed)

Solar’s time to shine in Texas? by Bill Dawson at Texas Climate News

The Fresh Prince of Clean Air: Prince Charles says financial crisis is ‘nothing’ compared to climate change, at Grist

Last chance for a slow dance? All the world fiddles as we near global warming’s point of no return by Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current — digg it up

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We’ve hit the big Times

Posted in Energy, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2009 |

imagesGood mooooooorning Texas!  Just woke up, haven’t even gotten out of my pajamas or had my coffee (okay, I’m running a little late), but I couldn’t wait a moment longer to spread the good news.  We’ve hit the big Times.

Yes, that Times.  The New York Times.

Check out the following post from Kate Galbraith at the New York Times Green, Inc blog.  Look for cameos by our very own David Power, Rep. Mark Strama, and the Austin Solar Plant.

TEXAS AIMS FOR SOLAR DOMINANCE

The Lone Star State leads the country in wind-power. Now Texas aims to ramp up its solar production too.

This week the state senate is considering an avalanche of bills that would boost state incentives for solar power, and the entire legislative session has become known as the “solar session.”

Altogether, according to David Power, the deputy director of Public Citizen Texas, a consumer and environmental advocacy group, there are 69 renewable energy bills before the legislature, and over 50 of them promote solar power – far more than ever before.

“There are senators and representatives that are talking about solar that have never mentioned the word probably in their lives,” he said. “We’ve actually heard the term ‘global warming,’ and two years ago that was called ‘the G word’ – you didn’t talk about it.”

Mark Strama, a state representative who is a leading promoter of renewable energy, has introduced at least five green bills this year (including a measure that would allow local governments to create a property tax financing program for solar, along the lines of several California cities).

“It just seems like everybody recognizes our leadership in wind, and that government policy got us where we are today in wind,” he told me last month.

In solar, he added, “We need to catch up.”

Some businesses, concerned about higher energy prices, urge caution.

“The state should avoid picking economic winners and losers in our economy through subsidizing solar – or any energy source – at the expense of the residential, commercial and industrial consumers who contribute significantly to the Texas economy,” said Luke Bellsynder, the executive director of the Texas Association of Manufacturers, in an e-mail message.

He also said, however, that his group supported incentives and tax abatements for solar, and broadening the state’s energy portfolio.

Earlier this month, the city of Austin, which is aggressively pursuing renewable power, unanimously gave a go-ahead to a private company to build the largest photovoltaic plant in the country, so that the local utility, Austin Energy, can buy the electricity produced.

However, the city met fierce opposition from struggling local technology firms and other groups, who complained about the prospect of higher electric bills.

 

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EPA to Reconsider Standards for Particulate Matter

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, Toxics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2009 |

A federal appeals court yesterday ordered the EPA to reconsider its standards for pollutants, particularly particulate matter (PM).  Fine particulates, such as soot, have been linked to premature death, asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease.  Furthermore, black carbon soot is a major greenhouse player,  as it absorbs and then radiates massive amounts of heat back to earth when it is in the air.

Reports the New York Times,

pm1Researchers have drawn direct and immediate links between ambient levels of fine particulates and hospital admissions and deaths. By some estimates, tens of thousands of Americans die each year from exposure to airborne particulates.

Among other sources, fine particulates come from diesel engines, power plants, certain industrial processes and even fireplaces. Perhaps one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair, they can make their way deep into the lungs and in some cases even into the bloodstream.

The EPA last approved PM standards in 2006, when scientists from within the agency itself argued that they were too weak.  Scientists argued that acceptable levels should be lowered to 12 to 14 micrograms per cubic meter of air instead of 15, but (surprise, surprise) then-chief administrator Steven Johnson said that not enough evidence linked PM to detrimental health effects.

The article continues,

The case decided on Tuesday also involved coarse particulates, like dust, and particulate contributions to haze… and it said the E.P.A. must act to reduce the role of particulates in haze.

The court’s ruling may mean that cities notorious for smog– such as Houston – will have to start doing even more to clean up the air.  If pollutant standards are fixed at lower levels that will actually protect public health, these cities may find themselves even closer to non-attainment.

Reports the Houston Chronicle,

For Houston, which is already struggling to meet the EPA’s standards for smog-forming ozone, the designation would mean another deadline, another costly pollution-fighting plan and another threat that federal highway dollars will be withheld if the air doesn’t get cleaner.

“This comes at a really good time because there is concern that the state and federal agencies will take their eye off the ball when it comes to fine particulates,” said Matthew Tejada, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. “It will force use to look at this important issue in a timely manner.”

Its pretty nice to have an EPA that is serious about Environmental Protection Again.

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A very alternative energy source

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 24, 2008 |

An op-ed in the New York Times yesterday by O. Glenn Smith, a former NASA employee, suggests what is certainly a “thinking outside the box” kind of solution to our nation’s energy woes: solar panels…in outer space.

Smith recommends building large solar panels that would orbit the earth and send energy back to us via wireless radio waves. Apparently, the technology already exists, and the pro column reads something like this:

  • not hampered by weather
  • works 24 hours a day (the sun never sets in space)
  • environmentally friendly
  • cost-competitive with other renewables
  • makes use of the United States’ hefty investment in space travel

While I’m always glad to hear about innovations that will help our globe move toward a sustainable energy schema, I’m a little skeptical about the way Smith holds up this technology as the way of the immediate future. He opens his piece with this:

As we face $4.50 a gallon gas, we also know that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment.

This quick dismissal of the alternative energy sources we know and love (except…how is coal alternative?) is questionable. For starters, I have a hard time believing that any energy system that must be installed and maintained outside our atmosphere will be less expensive than one based here on the earth’s surface.

Smith also ignores the benefits that energy sources like wind and ground-based solar provide that space-based solar does not. One of the great benefits of investing in wind and solar power is the creation of thousands of jobs, especially in rural areas. The fact that the handymen for these solar panels in space would have to also be astronauts prevents space-based solar from becoming a solution to the dearth of quality manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs in this country.

Some day, I hope we will see space-to-earth solar energy. But for now, let’s focus on all the untapped renewable energy potential here on terra firma before we pull a Buy N’ Large* and run to outer space in search of the answers.

But if the idea of space-based solar intrigues you, you can read more about it on this blog dedicated to the topic.

*obligitory (in my opinion anyway) Wall-E reference

-Natalie Messer

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