The big news today is that the long-awaited mercury standards for mercury emissions from coal plants are now on the books, published today in the Federal Register. That's great news, and it also starts the clock ticking for attacks on the rule.
Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma is first out of the gate, announcing that he will file an official challenge to the safeguard in Congress. So for the 800,000+ of you who sent in a comment in support of these new protections, please watch this space for future details on how you can help us defend these life-saving standards, and push back against this and future attempts by Congress to repeal the mercury protections.
At the same time, communities nationwide are taking action on coal and clean energy, and today I wanted to highlight some of their great recent events. These amazing local activists remind of this famous Margaret Mead quote:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
I'll start with my favorite piece of news so far, which comes from Vermont. Following up my column last week, here's some great work to make sure new clean energy jobs are union jobs.
From Sierra Club Vermont:
Green Mountain Power is currently building a wind farm in Lowell, Vermont. This wind farm will provide green electricity for up to 15,000 homes. However, up until this week, not one single union member has been employed on this major construction project. In short, livable wages were not guaranteed and many jobs were going to out-of-staters. As of this week, Vermont union Iron Workers from Local 7 will be working on this project. Through the joint efforts of organized labor, the Vermont Sierra Club, and our partners in 350.org, we have compelled Green Mountain Power to take one positive step in a very good direction.
Amazing work, Vermont!
Now, because we had our most romantic of holidays this week, I also want to highlight the especially creative Valentine's Day actions several groups took part in. First, in Marietta, Georgia, activists gathered yesterday to thank Cobb Electric Membership Cooperative (EMC), a major electricity cooperative, for "breaking up" with coal last month, and to encourage them to fall in love with clean energy.
The Georgia Sierra Club joined with coalition members at Cobb EMC headquarters to deliver 1,000 letters thanking the utility for its January decision to stop investments into two coal-fired power plants. The letters, including a giant Valentine's Day card, were written by EMC customers and clean energy advocates from around Georgia.
"Cobb EMC's decision to break-up with coal shows the new leaders are looking out for members," said Don Dressel, EMC member and volunteer with the Sierra Club. "Customers are happy that our EMC is moving in the right direction. Now, we can invest in smart energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that will lower our rates and move us forward. That will be a huge boon for EMC members."
Sierra Club Virginia also took on the Valentine's Day spirit Tuesday, when they visited Senator Jim Webb's Richmond office and encouraged him, via hand-made Valentine's cards, to defend the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to protect clean air. "We <3 Clean Air!" read the cards.
The chapter also joined Virginia Organizing for the "General Assembly-You Broke Our Hearts" event. Hundreds of activists gathered at the Virginia General Assembly building and said that the General Assembly had "broken our hearts" by focusing on weakening the Renewable Portfolio Standard and a host of other progressive issues that we were disappointed in.
And in Los Angeles, our activists kicked off a creative online campaign asking L.A. to break up with coal and fall in love with clean energy jobs. If you want to help, you can take action.
Finally this week, I want to highlight some amazing scientific work from the Pennsylvania Sierra Club. Activists are taking on the Homer City Generating Station in Homer City, because it is among the worst polluters in the country.
Through modeling, our folks discovered that:
The 1,884-megawatt power plant -- one of the biggest in the nation -- released more sulfur dioxide than any other plant in the U.S. last year and enough to violate federal air pollution standards and its state operating permit."The report's modeling of emissions shows that in ... three years, from 2008 through 2010, it was violating its state permit and causing ambient pollution concentrations to be above the health-based standards," said Zack Fabish, an attorney with the Sierra Club. He noted that the power plant wasn't cited for violating the standards because of the lack of state monitors downwind from the plant to measure the pollution.
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"The price of a solar panel is falling faster than was expected. According to a report from Ernst & Young prices of solar panels are falling so fast that by 2013 they will be half of what they cost in 2009. . . . However, new analysis suggests that falling PV panel prices and rising fossil fuel prices could together make large-scale solar installations cost-competitive without government support within the decade."
http://www.tomorrowisgreener.com/price-of-solar-panels-to-drop-to-1-by-2013/
These are the facts concerning subsidies per watt:
Solar: $775.64/meÂgawatt hour
Wind: $56.29/megÂawatt hour
GeothermalÂ: $12.85/megÂawatt hour
Nuclear: $3.14/megaÂwatt hour
Hydro: $0.82/megaÂwatt hour
Coal: $0.64/megaÂwatt hour
NG/Petro: $0.64/megaÂwatt hour
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/08/03/eia-releases-new-subsidy-report-subsidies-for-renewables-increase-186-percent/
Solar receives more than 200 times the subsidies that nuclear receives!
Get it straight. Nuclear and big coal are in cahoots. They are not opposed. Why not? Because both nuclear and big coal are massive centralized boondoggles, ripe for limitless corruption.
Don't you ever contrast nuclear and coal again. Both are exactly the same. Ask Inhofe.
EPA estimates 17,000 a year will be saved by the implementation of its new rules in 2016.
Ending coal is great for the planet and for people.
All energy sources carry risks. Our priority must be to produce as much CO2 free energy as possible with the lowest risk.
"In wildness is the salvation of the Earth and the preservation of all life life, long known among wolves and mountains [mountain used as a metaphor for Earth and ecosystem[...but seldom perceived by man."
Let's go over the facts. Were any ecosystems devoured for the windmill factories in Vermont? How many roads were constructed to gain access? How many metals were mined from Mother Earth for these planet butchering, frantic swords that kill many of the species of biodiversity, like bats, birds in the eco-nomy of protecting mankind from disease pandemics like influenza and the plague.
How much habitat/homes, cover, shelter, food and nurseries for the strands in the web of all life were butchered for these planet devouring monsters? I hope they didn't kill the big green or ecosystems and their biodiversity, the rivets of spaceship Earth.
"Natural ecosystems are the life support systems of spaceship Earth. Each ecosystem depends on the integrated workings of many different, living species". ICPB
Unless we go back to loincloths and flint knives, we will continue to occupy habitat and mine for raw materials. The question is whether we will do that in the service of technology that also poisons the biosphere (coal and oil) or technology that might give the human species a viable future (wind, solar, et al).
People don't get it. Mankind is losing his planet too. When we kill ecosystems, we are killing man's habitat, and every reason he breathes and is alive. A recent popular movie ends in silence, no dialogue. The movie deals with the global threat of a human disease pandemic that kills many millions of humans.
Without words, at the end of the movie we see a bulldozer killing an ecosystem. We witness a tree being logged and felled, and the tree was the habitat/home of bats. Next, we see a bat with a piece of fruit in its mouth, now flying into a pig pin, instead of his natural habitat, his ecosystem. The bat drops the fruit, and a small pig eats it. Then an American woman in Hong Kong eats the pig, and she transports this pathogen back to USA and a pandemic ensues, killing multi-millions of homo sapiens.
Do we kill man's planet, his habitat for all the energies pursuits?
The state of Colorado has achieved 30% renewable power 8 years ahead of schedule. Five US states now get 20% of electricity from wind. Just since 2004 Germany has achieved 21% renewable energy. Spain gets 40 % of it's electricity from wind. The only technology that requires an emergency evacuation plan « Energy Vox
if you cared at all about the planet, the economy, jobs, property values, communities or democracy, you would be pushing PACE and German Style feed in tariffs for LOCAL clean energy under 100kW in size. all the rest of this is just greenwashing for cash, and it is not a good look.
Energy demand will increase 50% by 2035. Most of that will occur in developing countries that can't afford solar of any kind. Indeed, if they consider anything other than coal, it will be nuclear power. Only a rapid expansion in nuclear power, as China plans, can actually begin the process of slowing down the continued rise of global CO2.
Untenable.
They closed their nucs and are now buyng power from France.
You may not like it.
But it is not a lie.
I am not a fan of coal either but the only two scalable near term alternatives for large scale reductions in CO2 are conservation and switching from coal to gas power generation. Every thing else is chicken feed for many years to come. And no, I don't work for industry. I won't go so far as to call you delusional but you need to bury your ideology, get some energy education and get real.