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It’s Just Business (but FirstEnergy Blames Its Decisions on Clean Air Rules)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:32:08 +0000

Twice in the last two weeks, FirstEnergy has announced it will shut down old coal-fired power plants – then tried to blame those business decisions on the clean air rules that protect us all from toxic pollution.

First, at the end of January, First Energy announced it would retire six coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The company blamed those closures on new EPA regulations that will protect us from mercury, acid gases and other toxic air pollution – but FirstEnergy is going to retire the plants by September 1 of this year.

The compliance deadline for the new EPA rules isn’t for at least three years (2015 – with possible extensions to 2017).

What’s more, FirstEnergy announced a decision to switch some of those six units from full-time to seasonal operation, and to temporarily mothball others, more than 16 months ago — before EPA even issued its proposal for the new rule.

Clearly, there’s more to the story than just EPA regulations.

Then, this week, First Energy announced it will close three more old coal plants in West Virginia. The company once again tried to pin the blame on EPA.

But the three plants in question were built between 1943 and 1960. They were built while Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower were in office. The oldest was built while we were still fighting World War II.

The plants are not closing just because of clean air regulations. They’re closing because they’re aging and inefficient, and because they are facing competition from natural gas.

Many factors contribute to the new utility investment cycle. They include:

Age – 59% of America’s coal fired power plants are over 40 years old, with many over 60 years old.

According to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell:

In 1970, the [Clean Air Act] required that new sources meet tight emissions standards. At that time, it was assumed that electrical utility units had an average lifetime of 30 years.

Competition from Natural Gas – with increasing natural gas supplies and lower prices, the market is shifting to more efficient combined cycle natural gas generators over old, inefficient coal plants.

One industry analyst told the Wall Street Journal:

Inexpensive natural gas is the biggest threat to coal. Nothing else even comes close.

Low utilization –the older units are often small, inefficient, and operated only part-time. From a business perspective, it is not cost effective to keep paying the fixed costs needed to maintain them for limited operation. Energy efficiency and demand response programs are far more efficient ways of meeting these energy needs.

In its press release announcing the closings of the three West Virginia plants, First Energy itself points out:

[T]hese plants served mostly as peaking facilities, generating, on average, less than 1 percent of the electricity produced by FirstEnergy over the past three years.

Health and the Environment – it is not surprising that these old, inefficient power plants are also disproportionately higher emitters of pollutants, and often have not had modern pollution control equipment installed.

We have information and graphics to illustrate this issue on our new fact sheet.

Business decisions in the utility sector are complex. Don’t let plant owners use our health protections as a scapegoat for their choice to retire old coal-fired power plants.

Latest news: February 10, 2012

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:48:35 +0000

Master plan could change under public scrutiny
By Nikki Buskey, Daily Comet (Lafourche Parish, La.). Feb. 9, 2012.
"State officials say a $50 billion draft plan for coastal protection and restoration that faced harsh criticism at a meeting in Terrebonne last month can be changed based on public comment…"

Coastal projects outlined

By Jeff Zeringue, The Daily Iberian (New Iberia, La.). Feb. 9, 2012.
"Louisiana residents have until Feb. 25 to comment on the Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, a state scientist said…"

BP's blemished safety record is off-limits in trial, judge rules
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune. Feb. 9, 2012.
"Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against BP over damages from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill won't be allowed to bring up the oil giant's spotty past safety record, including a major accident in Texas City, Texas, nor will they be allowed to use the contents of a series of reports on the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled Thursday…"

Crawfish catch down as season starts
By Tobie Blanchard, LSU AgCenter. Feb. 9, 2012
"Durel Romaine started harvesting crawfish in December, and so far the catch has been dismal. His ponds near Kaplan, La., have been affected by drought and saltwater intrusion…"

Youth summit offers teens decision-making data
By Mike Nixon, Tri-Parish Times (Houma, La.). Feb. 10, 2012.
"Organizers of Saturday’s Wetlands Youth Summit hope the 83 participants, 47 of whom were high school students from Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes, took away more than a tote bag…"

Linking everyday chemicals to disease: New science keeps on intensifying the writing on the wall

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:12:57 +0000

By Richard Denison

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

As a Washington policy geek, it’s sometimes hard not to let the ups and downs of political prospects for achieving real improvements in public health protections from toxic chemicals get me down. The tenacity with which some stakeholders insist on throwing wrenches into the works to block efforts to reach middle ground is indeed depressing.

But through it all, there is one constant that continually restores my optimism that we’ll eventually get where we need to get to: Science keeps moving forward and inexorably points toward the need for reform. I will use this post to briefly highlight four recent studies that demonstrate the changing landscape of our knowledge of how environmental factors, including toxic chemical exposures, are affecting our health. What’s noteworthy about these studies is that they all identified adverse health effects in human populations, and linked those effects to early-life exposures. They all also illustrate the complex interplay between chemical exposures and social or other environmental factors that directly challenges the overly simplistic and non-scientific approach to causation that our chemicals policies have taken for decades.

Below are summaries of and links to the new studies.

Early-life exposure to PCE is associated with later-life risky behaviors.

It is well-established that acute and chronic exposures to solvents like perchloroethylene (PCE) can affect one’s cognitive abilities as well as mental disposition and behavior. So it should probably not come as a great surprise that epidemiologists are finding links between such exposures and problematic social behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse and smoking.

A major new retrospective cohort study (Aschengrau et al. 2011) published in Environmental Health compared a group of more than 800 people who had been exposed either prenatally or in early childhood to PCE in contaminated drinking water to an unexposed group of more than 500 people. These researchers at Boston University School of Public Health found a 50-60% increase in the extent of drug use as teenagers or adults in those individuals who were highly exposed to PCE early in life, and a 30-60% increase in risky drinking and smoking behaviors. The study employed extensive statistical analysis to identify and control for many other potentially confounding factors, including the subjects’ mothers’ behaviors and health status and a history of learning disabilities or mental illness. While the authors appropriately note that “These findings should be confirmed in follow-up investigations of other exposed populations,” this study ought to be a real wake-up call.

Phthalate exposure is associated with excess weight in New York City children.

We’ve blogged here before about the increasing evidence that certain chemicals may act as “obesogens,” in some cases interacting with dietary, lifestyle and other environmental factors to increase the proclivity toward obesity. Of particular concern are studies in laboratory animal that indicate prenatal and early-life exposures to such chemicals appear to increase life-long susceptibility.

A new study (Teitelbaum et al., 2011) just published in Environmental Research lends greater weight to these findings. The authors, who work at the Centers for Disease Control and at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, measured body mass index (BMI) and weight circumference of 387 Hispanic and Black New York City children who were between six and eight years old. They also measured the concentrations in the children’s urine of nine breakdown products (“metabolites”) of phthalates, including both high- and low-molecular-weight phthalates. Of these, the urinary concentration of one of the metabolites – that of monoethyl phthalate – as well as the sum of all of the low-molecular-weight phthalate metabolites showed a strong dose-response relationship with both measures of body size in overweight children among the cohort. While such associative studies do not prove causality, the results are wholly consistent with other laboratory animal and human epidemiological studies. All of this research increasingly points to the anti-androgenic effects of certain phthalates as the biological basis for physiological changes leading to increased body size (among other effects such as interference with normal reproductive development).

Exposure to perfluorinated chemicals may interfere with childhood vaccine effectiveness.

Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) are widely used as surfactants and as water, grease and stain repellants in everything from upholstery textiles and clothing to paper food packaging. As a class they are environmentally persistent and in some cases bioaccumulative, which has led to contamination of water and food. Two of the most infamous PFCs are perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, now being phased out), the basis for the Teflon brand of products; and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the former basis for the Scotchgard brand of products. Both chemicals have been routinely detected in people through biomonitoring.

A new study (Grandjean et al., 2012) just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed a group of about 600 babies born in the Faroe Islands (part of Denmark) through early childhood. This location was selected because a high fish diet was expected to lead to higher levels of PFC exposure. The children had received routine tetanus and diphtheria vaccines, and then at 5 and 7 years old were tested for associated antibody levels, which are correlated with the ability to fight off the disease if a child becomes infected. The study found that the level of PFCs in the children’s blood was inversely correlated with the level of antibodies produced and maintained in response to the two vaccines: the higher the levels of PFCs, the lower the antibody count. In addition, the expectation that these children would carry higher levels of PFCs in their bodies due to higher fish consumption was not borne out; their levels were the same as or even slightly lower than those of children living in the U.S.

Epigenetic changes are associated with socio-economic status and biomarkers for cardiovascular disease.

A growing body of research is identifying changes in epigenetic patterns in our DNA as a key mechanism that mediates the effects of exposure to a wide array of environmental factors, leading to changes in gene expression. We’ve blogged here before about evidence suggesting that such epigenetic perturbations may explain how early-life exposures to toxic chemicals can lead to adverse health outcomes later in life.

Now, a new study (McGuinness et al., 2012) from British researchers published in the International Journal of Epidemiology adds to evidence that socio-economic status can lead to alterations in epigenetic programming that are in turn tied to potential adverse health outcomes. In this study, a key type of epigenetic marking – methylation of DNA – was measured in about 240 people in Glasgow, Scotland. What was measured was not the methylation of specific genes but rather the total level of methylation of DNA (termed global DNA methylation). The authors note that “Changes in global DNA methylation may be some of the earliest cellular events in disease onset,” citing evidence linking decreases in DNA methylation to aging as well as various diseases, including cardiovascular and neuronal disorders and cancer. The Glasgow cohort used in the study was established originally to investigate “the associated variation in mortality, morbidity and the extreme socio-economic (SE) gradient of health inequality in this city which is not fully explained by conventional risk factors for disease.” What the authors found is startling: A 17% reduction in global DNA methylation in the most socio-economically deprived group within the cohort compared with the least deprived group, and a 24% decrease in manual workers compared to non-manual workers that could not be explained by differences in age, gender or other factors beyond income level. These reductions also correlated with an increase in certain biomarkers of cardiovascular disease, indicating higher risk.

The authors note that “Such global hypomethylation could be reflective of environmental exposures and/or diet during life, or a direct consequence of developmental programming in utero, or a combination of both.” While noting that a larger study would be needed to distinguish among these options, they note that in utero epigenetic reprogramming has been associated in other studies with development of obesity, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. In any event, it should be very disturbing that low socioeconomic status has now been shown to lead to readily measurable epigenetic changes associated with adverse health outcomes, potentially not only in individuals directly exposed but also in their children.

So there you have it: Four studies that happened to come across my desk over just the last couple of weeks. While no single such study is ever definitive, the results support and add to the import of many other studies in both laboratory animals and people. Taken together, this growing body of research simply must move us to re-examine the impacts on our health arising from our shockingly laissez-faire approach to environmental exposures, especially those that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable among us.

Show your #LOVE for the gulf: RESTORE Act online week of action starts Monday

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:14:20 +0000

By Ryan Rastegar, Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign Coordinator

Starting Monday Feb. 13 and continuing throughout the week, the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign will be sending some Valentine’s Day love to the gulf! We’ll be tweeting and Facebooking specific members of Congress, urging them to send BP oil spill fines back to the gulf by passing the RESTORE Act.

It has been almost two years since the devastating BP gulf oil spill of 2010, and Congress has yet to act to ensure that the fines from this disaster go back to the areas that were damaged. In the coming months, BP is expected to pay up to $21 billion in penalties from the oil spill. But without any action from Congress, this money could go toward unrelated federal spending. That’s why we’re supporting the RESTORE Act.

The RESTORE Act would ensure that 80 percent of the oil spill penalties paid by BP would go back to the gulf to be used for restoring the region’s communities, economies and environment. It’s time that Congress takes a stand and passes this legislation NOW before it’s too late.

If Congress doesn’t act soon, this money may not be used for repairing the environmentally and economically devastated region. That’s why the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign is taking it to the web!

Join us next week as we pressure the Senate to pass the RESTORE Act this month. We’ll be targeting Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Check back here on Monday Feb. 13 for specific instructions on how you can join our nationwide online action to help restore the gulf!

P.S. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for important updates on our social media week of action as well as all Mississippi River Delta-related news.

Mixed Bag Out Of Pennsylvania On Hydraulic Fracturing Chemical Disclosure

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:29:32 +0000

By Matt Watson

Last night the Pennsylvania (PA) General Assembly passed legislation on fracturing fluid chemical disclosure that, on the whole, isn’t half bad – particularly considering where they started. Unfortunately, the bill contains a major flaw that prevents us from being able to hold it up as a model for other states to follow. Still, there’s quite a bit to be liked. More on that below.

I should also point out that the disclosure legislation was part of a much larger bill that addresses a broad range of issue related to shale gas development in PA. The overall bill has been the target of quite a bit of criticism from local environmental groups – particularly for eliminating much of the discretion of local jurisdictions to manage and plan for oil and gas activities within their borders. We didn’t work on those provisions, so I’ll leave it to those who did to offer up their assessments and, for now, just give a run-down on the disclosure piece.

As originally drafted, the disclosure provisions in this bill were, quite frankly, useless. All they would have done is codify current rules at the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Under those rules, companies only reveal the chemicals that have to get reported on material safety data sheets – which leaves out maybe half the chemicals used in fracturing fluids. And there was no requirement for posting disclosures on an easily accessible website for the public to see. That kind of regime comes nowhere close to what EDF calls “disclosure,” and it’s way behind the times in terms of where the national conversation is today. So, EDF teamed up with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to improve the draft.

The Good

The first thing to understand is that PA will require two kinds of reporting. Operators will disclose chemical information on the well completion reports they turn in to the DEP after drilling, fracturing and beginning production on a well. And then, certain operators will be required to also post their disclosures on Frac Focus, the disclosure website run by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

As for the well completion reporting requirements, they’re quite good. Operators will have to disclose all the chemicals they use, along with chemical concentrations. They’ll also disclose the trade-name additives they use and the purposes they serve. Taking it a step further than what other states have done, PA will also require operators to report their water sources and how much recycled wastewater they use in hydraulic fracturing treatments – an important step forward in disclosure requirements.

As with every other state disclosure rule, PA will allow operators to claim trade secret protections to keep certain chemical identities confidential. These claims will be governed by PA’s “Right to Know” law, which means PA will be on the leading edge of how states are currently dealing with trade secrets in fracturing chemical disclosure rules. Companies will be required to actually submit their trade secret information to the DEP (instead of completely withholding it, as some states allow). Citizens will have broad standing to challenge trade secret claims at the PA Office of Open Records; and when there are challenges, the burden will be on the DEP and operators to prove why a trade secret claim is legitimate. We’re aware that some in industry repeatedly tried to gut the Right to Know provisions in the bill, and credit is due to Governor Corbett’s office for fending off those attacks.

As we’ve mentioned before, we support the recommendation of the DOE Secretary of Energy Advisory Board that “the barrier to shield chemicals based on trade secrets should be set very high.”

Finally, the PA bill gives added emphasis to the need for making information available in formats that are useful and user friendly. Mirroring the language that was pioneered in the Colorado rule, PA is now the second state to call for improving the search functions on Frac Focus.

The Bad (and Ugly)

Unfortunately, the bill took a major wrong turn on one key point. While operators of all oil and gas wells will be required to disclose chemical information on their well completion reports, only operators of “unconventional” wells will be required to post their disclosures on Frac Focus. The bill defines unconventional wells as those that are drilled and fractured below the Elk Sandstone formation in PA. We’re not sure yet how many wells this will leave out, but it’s a fair guess it will be a lot. So, we’re really only getting partial public disclosure here.

That’s a shame. Public concern about fracturing chemicals doesn’t have anything to do with geologic stratigraphy. Spills, bad casing and cementing jobs, loss of well control and failures in waste containment facilities can happen regardless of the depth of your target formation. The potential pathways for contamination are there for all wells (and arguably, they’re even higher for shallower wells). So, there’s no rational reason why all wells shouldn’t be required to post their disclosures on Frac Focus.

PA is the only state that’s made this bizarre differentiation between conventional and unconventional wells. We’ll be looking to fix that problem in the future. And in the meantime, we’ll be working overtime to make sure no other state repeats this mistake.

Voices of the Delta: Chris Macaluso

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:20:02 +0000

"I have spent my life fishing and hunting in the rich marshes, barrier islands and swamps along Louisiana’s coast." - Chris Macaluso

This is the first in our “Voices of the Delta” blog series, where we’ll be interviewing coastal Louisiana restoration advocates from across the country. From Louisiana to Florida to Minnesota, these spokesmen and women have come to Washington to tell Congress that the Mississippi River Delta is a vital natural resource and that we need to pass the RESTORE Act now and send oil spill fines back to the Gulf States that deserve them. Check back over the coming days to read more of their stories!

Name: Chris Macaluso

Occupation: Coastal Outreach Coordinator, Louisiana Wildlife Federation

What does coastal Louisiana mean to you?
I have spent my life fishing and hunting in the rich marshes, barrier islands and swamps along Louisiana’s coast. My earliest memories of fishing with my dad are filled with images of vast areas of marsh grasses, scattered coastal ponds and bayous teeming with fish and waterfowl. Endless meadows of golden marsh grass stretched through the wetlands in some of our favorite fishing destinations, like Buras, Grand Isle, Cocodrie and Dulac.

Yet in the 30 years since those first memories were made, most of that habitat has washed away, leaving behind vast areas of open water. Mississippi River levees built to protect communities from river flooding have separated the marshes from their essential sediment and freshwater source. These levees have also made those same communities fatally vulnerable to storm surges from the Gulf of Mexico. Jetties and dredging meant to keep the river open for navigation have directed the land-building sediment into the gulf’s deep waters, and manmade navigation channels have carved up swamps and marshes, allowing saltwater to penetrate as much as 40 miles inland.

Chris Macaluso, Louisiana Wildlife Federation

Why is it important that we move quickly to restore the Mississippi River Delta?
Simply put, my coast is dying. Louisiana’s coast is losing land at the fastest rate in the world, with more than 1,900 square miles washing away in the last 80 years. There is the possibility of almost that much more vanishing in the next 50 years unless projects are soon built to curb and hopefully reverse that loss.

Many of those projects have already been approved by Congress. A host of freshwater and sediment diversions as well as marsh and barrier island restoration projects meant to fix Louisiana have been listed in federal Water Resources Development Acts over the last 40 years. The state of Louisiana recently released a draft of a comprehensive coastal restoration and hurricane protection plan that optimistically demonstrates coastal land loss can turn into land gains if those projects are implemented.

Sadly though, most of the approved projects languish in wait for funding while tied up in lengthy federal bureaucracies.

Where does the RESTORE Act fit in this process?
The RESTORE Act is an absolutely essential piece of legislation for my home state of Louisiana. If we are to have any hope of making significant headway in reversing the devastating coastal land loss that has plagued the state for nearly a century, Congress must pass this bill.

Passage of the RESTORE Act can provide the money needed to move some projects to construction while helping Louisiana address the environmental damage caused by the devastating oil spill of 2010. More than that, it can give hope that the wetland loss threatening to completely wipe out one of the world’s great hunting and fishing destinations — and the communities and culture that go with it — can be reversed and that Louisiana’s coastal habitats can be sustained for generations to come.

Latest news: February 9, 2012

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:05:17 +0000

BP Said to Seek Settlement of Spill Claims
By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Allen Johnson Jr., Bloomberg News. February 9, 2012.
"BP Plc (BP/) is negotiating with U.S. officials to settle pollution claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill that may leave the company liable for as much as $17.6 billion in fines, a person familiar with the talks said…"

Pass Gulf restoration act before BP settlement
Editorial, Bradenton Herald. February 7, 2012.
News reports indicate that BP is agreeable to a $20 billion to $25 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department on all charges connected to the 2010 massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. That money rightfully belongs to the five Gulf states that suffered enormous economic losses and ecological damage…"

Gulf Coast lawmakers: Time may be running out for RESTORE Act
By George Altman, Press-Register. February 8, 2012.
"WASHINGTON — Members of Congress from the Gulf Coast, joined by local officials in Washington to push for an oil spill fine bill, worried Wednesday that time could be running short for legislation to send what could be billions of dollars in spill fines to the Gulf…"

Local Leaders Want BP Fines To Restore Ecosystem
WSDU (New Orleans, La.). February 8, 2012.
Local Leaders are asking lawmakers in Washington today to pass the restore act, which will dedicate BP Clean Water Act fines to restore the ecosystem and economy in gulf coast states."

Gulf coast leaders urge passage of Restore Act
By Steve Phillips, WLOX (Biloxi, Miss.). February 8, 2012.
"WASHINGTON (WLOX) – A coalition of Gulf Coast leaders is lobbying Congress to pass the Restore Act. That bill would require that 80 percent of all BP fine money be distributed to the five Gulf Coast states…"

La. waterway projects get funding boost
The Advertiser (Lafayette, La.). February 8, 2012.
"More than $22 million is heading to Louisiana for major waterways, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, said today…"

FirstEnergy blames its business decisions on clean air rules

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:03:53 +0000

Company hides behind rules that will protect Americans from toxic air pollution

FirstEnergy blames its business decisions on clean air rules

Publication Date:

Wed, 2012-02-08

Contact:

Mark MacLeod, 202-270-0798, mmacleod@edf.org

Sharyn Stein, 202-572-3396, sstein@edf.org

(Washington, DC – February 8, 2012) – Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) criticized FirstEnergy, today, for blaming its decision to close old coal-fired power plants on the Clean Air Act rules that will protect Americans from mercury, acid gases and other toxic air pollution.

FirstEnergy announced today that it will close three old plants in West Virginia. EDF sharply disputed its claim that EPA regulations make the closures necessary.

“These plants are closing because they’re old and inefficient, and because they are facing competition from natural gas -- not because of clean air regulations,” said Mark MacLeod of EDF. “The fact is these plants were built when Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower were in office.”

Many utilities are making a business decision to shut down aging and inefficient coal plants – and clean air rules are only the smallest part of the story.

EDF outlines the main reasons for these business decisions on a new fact sheet. They include:

Age – 59% of America’s coal fired power plants are over 40 years old, with many over 60 years old. In this case, the three plants FirstEnergy will close were built between 1943 (while we were still fighting World War II) and 1960. According to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, “In 1970, the [Clean Air Act] required that new sources meet tight emissions standards. At that time, it was assumed that electrical utility units had an average lifetime of 30 years.”

Competition from Natural Gas – with increasing natural gas supplies and lower prices, the market is shifting to more efficient combined cycle natural gas generators over old, inefficient coal plants.

Low utilization –the older units are often small, inefficient, and operated only part-time. From a business perspective, it is not cost effective to keep paying the fixed costs needed to maintain them for limited operation. Energy efficiency and demand response programs are far more efficient ways of meeting these energy needs. In its press release, First Energy itself points out that, “these plants served mostly as peaking facilities, generating, on average, less than 1 percent of the electricity produced by FirstEnergy over the past three years.”

Health and the Environment – it is not surprising that these old, inefficient power plants are also disproportionately higher emitters of pollutants, and often have not had modern pollution control equipment installed.

First Energy recently announce the retirement of six other coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland; it also blamed those closures on EPA regulations. Undercutting that assertion is the fact that the compliance deadline for new EPA rules is 2015, with possible extensions to 2017. FirstEnergy will retire its plants by September 1, 2012.

What’s more, FirstEnergy announced a decision to switch some of those six units from full-time to seasonal operation, and to temporarily mothball others, more than 16 months ago -- before EPA even issued its proposal for the new rule.

“Many factors contribute to the new utility investment cycle,” said MacLeod. “Don’t let plant owners use health protections as a scapegoat for retirements.”

###

Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org), a leading national nonprofit organization, creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. See twitter.com/EnvDefenseFund; facebook.com/EnvDefenseFund

Do You Know How to Read Your Electricity Bill?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:44:48 +0000

By: Koji Kitazume, 2011 EDF Climate Corps fellow at REI, MBA/MEM Candidate at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas School of the Environment

Distribution centers get me excited – the massive space with inventory shelves high up to the ceiling, forklifts honking horns and crisscrossing the floor, conveyors and sorters in sync –the whole scene is fascinating to watch. So I was thrilled when my supervisor at REI offered me the opportunity to work on energy management for its LEED Silver-certified, 525,000-square-foot distribution center in Bedford, Pennsylvania.

My primary task as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at the outdoor retail co-op this summer was to develop an energy management roadmap for its eastern region distribution center, ranging from identifying energy saving opportunities for the immediate term to exploring potential business continuity solutions in the long run. With this scope, I got to work on various parts of the facility with providers of cutting-edge energy-related technologies such as advanced lighting controls, material handling systems, demand response applications, solid oxide fuel cells, etc.

While gaining insights into such distribution center operations and energy technologies was certainly a rewarding experience, the biggest learning for me came from where I least expected: the electric utility. The Bedford distribution center is served by the local electric co-op which belongs to the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) Interconnection zone, the largest competitive wholesale electricity market in the world. This landscape has an impact on the electric co-op’s rate schedule – highly sophisticated with multiple types and tiers of energy and demand charges.

When you have such a complex rate schedule, it’s not easy to figure out what’s driving your electricity bill. What’s more, working with averaged per-kWh rates (even for near-term future projections) could be risky, since that could completely change depending on your electricity usage and demand patterns. This becomes particularly critical when you’re doing your energy project investment analysis and basing your project revenue on future energy cost savings.

So it turned out that in addition to identifying energy saving opportunities and investigating potential solutions, a large part of my work involved analyzing the distribution center’s historical electricity usage and demand patterns, projecting future usage, and modeling how this would translate into electricity costs, given the electric co-op’s rate schedule. I know models can often be incorrect, but this one presented a more accurate picture of how costs behave rather than using averaged per-kWh rates. Hopefully, this will help REI make better-informed decisions on its future energy saving efforts and investments.

With my summer experience, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with electricity bills and now know exactly how the rate schedule for my own home works. Do you know how to read your electricity bill?

EDF Climate Corps places specially-trained MBA and MPA students in companies, cities and universities to develop practical, actionable energy efficiency plans. Sign up to receive emails about EDF Climate Corps, including regular blog posts by our fellows. You can also visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter to get regular updates about this project.

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Latest news: February 8, 2012

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:48:13 +0000

Act now on RESTORE
Editorial. News Herald (Panama City, Fla.). February 7, 2012.
"Legal hearings on Justice Department charges against BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster are scheduled to begin Feb. 27 in New Orleans. However, there are multiple reports that the company and the government are close to negotiating a settlement that would avoid court and result in BP agreeing to pay between $5 billion and $25 billion in damages…"

Two Years After Spill, BP Profits and Plans
By Clifford Krauss and Julia Werdigier, New York Times. February 7, 2012.
"HOUSTON — Less than two years ago, the British oil company BP was worried about its very survival as a seemingly unstoppable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatened to destroy its finances and reputation…"

BP Profits Highlight Need for Congress to Pass RESTORE Act
By Jaclyn McDougal, National Wildlife Federation. February 7, 2012.
"Reports today indicate that BP made a major profit for 2011. BP announced that it made a profit of $25.7 billion during the 2011 calendar year. BP’s fourth-quarter profits alone reached $7.69 billion, up 38 percent from 2010. The company made $3 million every hour during 2011…"

Louisiana officials establish formula for anticipating sea-level rise
By Mark Schleifstein, Times-Picayune. February 7, 2012.
"State coastal restoration and levee projects should be designed to anticipate an average 3.3 feet increase in sea level over the next 100 years, according to a new Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority report. But the project designs must also consider whether changing circumstances, including a reduction in the speed in which coastal land is sinking or a possible catastrophic increase in atmospheric temperatures, could produce sea levels rises of only 1.6 feet or as high as 4.9 feet by 2112…"

Low-lying Louisiana prepares for sea level to rise
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press. February 7, 2012.
"NEW ORLEANS (WTW) — A scientific report issued by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration predicts that the Louisiana coast could see about 3 feet of sea level rise along the already low and vulnerable Louisiana coast by 2100 — a prediction that leaves this Cajun coast drowning and under siege from storm surge for decades to come…"

Sierra Club urges strong action on any oil spill settlement
By Rebecca Mowbray, Times-Picayune. February 7, 2012.
"On Monday, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging his administration to make sure that settlement over the oil spill take "strong action" to deter future bad behavior and ensure that adequate money is available to restore the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem…"

State Developing New Physical River Model
By Morgan Crutcher, Coastal Currents.
"In early February, state of Louisiana officials met with the public to talk about itsplans for a new small-scale physical model (SSPM) of the lower Mississippi River…"

HRH the Prince of Wales launches his Marine Programme with a Message of Hope

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:41:52 +0000

In a speech marking the launch of his International Sustainability Unit (ISU) Marine Programme, HRH the Prince of Wales struck an optimistic note. His message was clear and simple "if managed properly our seas could still provide us with profitable harvest for years to come. However, if we are not careful we may end up breaking the bank."

<a href="http://blogs.edf.org/edfish/2012/02/08/hrh-the-prince-of-wales-launches-his-marine-programme-with-a-message-of-hope-%E2%80%9Cgood-practice-can-translate-into-bigger-catches-of-fish-higher-earnings-and-more-secure-jobs%E2%80%9D/"" />Read the full post »

Predictive models form scientific backbone of Louisiana Coastal Master Plan

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:37 +0000

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation

Louisiana’s Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan is a bold, ecosystem-scale restoration strategy that outlines a 50-year plan to combat the land loss epidemic in the Mississippi River Delta. The plan puts forth solutions to addressing the destructive impacts of sea-level rise, subsidence, increased storm intensity, marsh collapse and other factors on Louisiana’s disappearing coastline. The plan is a science-based approach that, at its core, uses a suite of linked models to predict the future of Louisiana’s coastal landscape and the potential damage to communities over the next 50 years, both with and without implementation of the plan’s restoration and risk reduction projects.

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is hosting a series of seminars at universities throughout the state to give residents an overview of the plan’s predictive modeling efforts. These seminars go hand-in-hand with the master plan public meetings held in January. At each seminar, one or two of the individual models is explained by a leading researcher in his/her related fields. A full list of seminars is available online.

This pioneering modeling effort began 18 months ago, when a group of scientists and engineers were gathered to carry out and serve as a technical advisory team for the effort. The challenge was to use existing models, or create new models if none existed, to better replicate complex coastal processes and allow for the analysis of various future environmental condition scenarios as well as over 400 different restoration and protection projects.

Seven calibrated and interconnected models — each developed and refined by a team of scientists — were used to characterize different aspects and functions of the coastal Louisiana landscape:

Eco-Hydrology: Predicts changes in the flow of water, salinity, water level, sediment, nutrients and other aspects of water quality within the estuaries.

Wetland Morphology: Predicts losses and changes to wetlands by analyzing factors that affect wetland elevation (e.g., subsidence, sea-level rise) and factors that affect the configuration of the landscape (e.g., storms/hurricanes, saltwater intrusion, sediment transport).

Barrier Shoreline Morphology: Predicts changes in the barrier island shorelines and inlets due to processes such as relative sea-level rise, subsidence, erosion, storms and loss of interior wetlands.

Vegetation: Predicts changes in the types and location of vegetation based on changes in wetland area and the movement and characteristics of water in the estuaries.

Ecosystem Services: A group of models that predicts changes in habitat for commercially and recreationally important species as well as other key services. The individual species models included those for brown shrimp, white shrimp, American alligator, green-winged teal, eastern oyster, rosette spoonbill and others.

Storm/Surge Waves: Predicts the storm surge and waves that result from various hurricane-level wind speeds and directions. This model is important for understanding the effect that structural protection such as levees and floodgates could have on reducing the effects of storms and waves on coastal communities, infrastructure and ecosystems.

Risk Assessment: Predicts the damage to assets in the coastal area caused by waves and storm surge by estimating the flooding that would result from levees being overtopped and flooding in areas without structural protection.

The purpose of the 2012 Coastal Master Plan is to identify restoration and protection projects that will create a more resilient and sustainable Louisiana coastline. The suite of predictive models developed for the plan was used to predict the future of Louisiana landscape without any action, as well as the future of the coast with individual restoration and protection projects under different environmental scenarios. The glimpse into our possible future if no large-scale restoration projects are implemented is bleak, with a potential loss of 800 to 1800 square miles of land. To avoid this future, large-scale coastal restoration projects, like diversions, are required to maximize natural land-building processes and build a more sustainable future in the face of uncertain environmental conditions.

California’s On-Bill Repayment Program Takes Two Steps Forward

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:56:25 +0000

By Brad Copithorne

This commentary was originally posted on the EDF California Dream 2.0 Blog.

Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission released for comment EDF’s proposal to create the first statewide on-bill repayment (OBR) program that pays for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades for residential and commercial properties using third-party financing. The proposal is taking two important steps forward this week.

The first step: Senator Kevin de Leon (D-LA) and Senator Lou Correa (D-Orange County) today introduced enabling legislation for the program. Based on preliminary conversations, we are optimistic that this proposal will receive support from members of both political parties. This bill is designed to deal with questions regarding the agency’s authority to develop an OBR program. It also provides a mechanism for property owners to disclose OBR projects to prospective renters or buyers. This disclosure will enable a building occupant to see how the money saved by the efficiency project will be used to pay back the OBR investment tied to their property.

The second step: the CPUC is hosting workshops in San Francisco on February 8-10 to discuss the OBR proposal and other aspects of energy efficiency finance. More than 200 stakeholders and other members of the public are expected to participate in the workshops, including several contractors, lenders, Energy Services Agreement (ESA) companies and building owners that see an attractive economic opportunity in the program.

EDF looks forward to working with all interested parties, to construct a successful program that can begin financing projects early next year.

California’s On-Bill Repayment Program Takes Two Steps Forward

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:24:21 +0000

By Brad Copithorne

EDF looks forward to working with all interested parties, to construct a successful program that can begin financing projects early next year.

REDD+ finance, indigenous rights protections move forward in 2012 with boost from Durban negotiations

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:39:21 +0000

By Gus Silva-Chavez

This is a joint post by Gus Silva-Chávez, EDF's Climate & Forests specialist and REDD+ project manager, and Chris Meyer, who coordinates EDF’s REDD+ activities with Indigenous Peoples.

The most recent UN climate negotiations wrapped up in December with a better-than-anticipated outcome, but the preparations for the next set — this year in Qatar — are already underway.

Policies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) and to protect the rights of indigenous peoples who live in the forests made important progress in the recent UN climate negotiations in Durban.

We've spent some time reflecting on the outcome of the 2011 talks in Durban, South Africa, especially on progress on policies to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, known in the UN world as REDD+. REDD+ was a huge winner in the 2010 negotiations, when the UN put its seal of approval on the policy, and this year made some additional progress, most importantly in finance and in ensuring rights for indigenous peoples.

We were recently invited to write about the REDD+ negotiations in Durban for the Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF), a coalition of -collaboration of 14 states and provinces in the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria that was formed in 2008 at the first Governor’s Global Climate Summit.

Below is our analysis of where REDD+ negotiations ended in Durban, and what we're likely to see as countries gear up for the Qatar negotiations. You can find additional analysis of Durban negotiations by EDF's International Climate Program Director Jennifer Haverkamp in her blog post In Durban, world's major economies show will to address climate change.

The Durban REDD+ Outcome

Cross-posted from the Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force Newsletter (January 2012)

In an annual ritual, government negotiators, NGOs and journalists attended the December 2011 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Durban, South Africa. Negotiators in Durban approved technical guidelines for ensuring that reference levels — benchmarks for measuring progress in reducing emissions from deforestation — have environmental integrity. EDF had been eagerly anticipating this technical decision going into Durban, these new guidelines will provide a framework and necessary guidelines on how to establish reference levels that are based on science and that can serve as a measuring stick for environmental performance and financial compensation.

REDD+ policies got a major boost in Durban when countries agreed that all sources of funding, including carbon markets, are eligible to pay for REDD+ activities. After years of exploring how to pay for all three stages of REDD+ (capacity building, early implementation and national-level pay-for-performance), the UN has put its seal of approval on the use of markets. Estimates indicate that while public financing is needed, especially for the capacity building stage, only large-scale, sustainable funding from carbon markets will generate sufficient funding. EDF applauds this decision.

The decision on REDD+ finance, in the “Long-term Cooperative Action” (LCA) negotiations, included a clear endorsement of all sources of finance, a call for a REDD+ finance workshop and a technical paper in 2012.

Looking forward to next year’s climate negotiations in Qatar, countries will start deciding on the details of reference levels, and some will begin to calculate their reference levels using the guidance decided in Durban. As more specific REDD+ financing methods are developed, countries will hold a REDD+ finance workshop and produce a technical paper that will attempt to answer some of the questions around financing REDD+.

Indigenous peoples & REDD+

Negotiators in Durban approved critical provisions for ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected and will be safeguarded in the implementation of REDD+ programs. Parties also outlined the protections for Indigenous Peoples prominently in the LCA’s financing sections. Still, negotiators only developed a framework for systems of reporting on the implementation of REDD+ safeguards and decided to continue working on the content of these REDD+ systems next year.

Durban resulted in a positive step forward in providing preliminary guidance for the reporting on the implementation of safeguards as countries launch REDD readiness initiatives already being financed through the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, UN-REDD program, and other bilateral initiatives. More importantly, we’re seeing indigenous peoples in many countries developing their own consultation and information gathering processes that will feed information into these systems.

The Durban conference as a whole produced surprisingly good results, given our modest expectations. However, it is important to note that there are a lot of concrete actions taking place outside of the UNFCCC forum, including efforts to open a path for REDD+ credits from Brazil, Mexico and beyond to flow into California’s emerging carbon market. Top-down efforts at the international level can only succeed if bottom-up actions like these are being successfully implemented.

For additional information on EDF’s international work, please visit edf.org/international.