Host Sean Daily talks with environmental politics blogger Tim Hurst, editor of RedGreenandBlue.org and publisher of ecopolitology.org, about his writing and the role of new and social media in environmental politics and activism.
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While solar energy is often touted as a way to avoid fossil fuels, California Senator Dianne Feinstein believes some public lands solar projects in the Mojave Desert need to be reexamined for their potential environmental impact.
Feinstein wrote to the Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to request that 12 proposed solar plans for the desert lands be scrapped, citing potential habitat destruction. The complaint applies to a small fraction of the 165 pending wind and solar energy leases on 600,000 acres of former railroad land.
Given that overall US consumer spending in the fourth quarter of 2008 fell by its largest margin in almost 30 years, one has to wonder how the market for ‘green products’ will be impacted by this recession. Leading up to the economic downturn the momentum of the green economy was chugging along splendidly. The consumer demand for environmentally-friendly products was at an all-time high, even if the products were priced at a premium over standard options.
A recent survey by the consumer research firm Mintel explored the green buying preferences of Americans during this recession. The results should serve as a wake-up call to producers and retailers of green products. Read the rest of this entry »
After years of railing against special interests, I find myself presented with a quandary. Special interests are lining up behind the Smart Grid technology I love and, in doing so, risk saddling this cool program with the baggage intrinsic to special interests.
Even as lawmakers spent yesterday grilling everyone from members of the DOE to representatives from Google about Smart Grids, the groundwork for a Smart Grid might already have been assumed. And, no, I’m not talking power lines and sub stations, I’m talking political donations.
It’s a fact: our current system for transporting, producing and storing energy is ancient and inefficient. Plus, as has been well recorded here on Red Green and Blue, Smart Grid technology theoretically does amazing things for how we use power as a nation and maybe even how we think about consumption. By using less energy during peak hours, and even allowing personal rigs to feed back into the electricity grid with ease, the technology refocuses the country on conservation.
The switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide.
Pelosi and Reid’s letter comes just three days before more than 2,500 people from across the country will converge at the power plant for the biggest civil disobedience on climate issues in U.S. history.
Noting that the Capitol Power Plant continues to be the number one source of air pollution and carbon emissions in the District of Columbia, the Congressional leaders thanked the Capitol Architect for the work they had done on increasing efficiency at CPP but that, “more must be done to dramatically reduce plant emissions and the CPP’s impact.” Read the rest of this entry »
After Tom Daschle withdrew himself from consideration today as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services because he failed to pay $130,000 in taxes, including the tax liability for a car and driver, this old Daschle campaign is strikingly painfully ironic.
Hat tip: The Daily Show
A new study shows that pollution from automobiles and coal-fired power plants is contributing to the melting of mountain snowpacks up to a month early, exacerbating water shortages and polluting streams in the arid West.
We’ve all seen it. That white fluffy blanket of snow that looked so nice after it fell a couple weeks back is no longer white and fluffy. It has been capped with a layer of dark sooty particulate matter, turning it from white to gray to black. Having grown up in the Boston area, this was the reality of virtually every snowstorm I can recall from my youth. But that dark, sooty particulate matter that builds up on the stale snow is not only an aesthetically unpleasing feature of urban landscapes in the winter, it happens in the North American snowscapes of the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas and the Cascades - with far more serious consequences.
A peer-reviewed study conducted by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is the first to explore changes to snowmelt caused by soot pollution at a regional level. The study, authored by Qian, Gustafson, Leung and Ghan, is scheduled to be published next month in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Read the rest of this entry »
Few Presidents have mentioned the environment in their inaugural speeches, but Mr Obama is one of them. There were some excellent pointers in his businesslike presentation today. Some that particularly caught my ear:
“Roll back the specter of a warming planet”
“…restoring Science to its rightful place”.
I also noted the part about “harnessing the sun, the wind and the soil”. The BBC’s Washington correspondent, Richard Lister noted that he was “setting out his transformative agenda: creating a new energy infrastructure. The image of ‘harnessing’ the soil is a notable one…”
In an earlier post, I raised the fact that only two U.S. Presidents have ever even mentioned the environment in their inaugural addresses. And after today, that record will technically stay intact.
Though President Obama did not utter the word “environment” per se, he spoke both directly and indirectly about the major energy and environmental issues of today; more so than any of his predecessors. Below are the excerpts in which Mr. Obama referred to the environment:
“…each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”
“For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”
“With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.”
“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
Full text of inaugural address
Image: CC licensed by flickr user victoriapeckham
There will be many firsts during the course of Tuesday’s Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, but mentioning the environment in the inaugural address will not be one of them: though pretty darn close.
[Update: While President Obama did not use the actual word "environment", he spoke both directly and indirectly about the environment more so than any of his predecessors. See those references.]
Past presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman and Calvin Coolidge have referred to the development and wise use of our “natural resources.” The language in these earlier environmental references was infused with the themes of conservation and preservation as opposed to pollution and ecological balance.
Conspicuously absent throughout the history of inaugural addresses have been allusions to the major energy and environmental issues of the time. In fact, only two presidents in this country’s history have even mentioned the word “environment” in this context; and they each used both of their opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »
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