Environment

Media Ignores EIA Drilling Report

Adam Doster — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:28:43 -0700

When Josh caught Reps. Peter Roskam and John Shimkus greatly exaggerating the amount of oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf ( a main plank of their VISION Energy Act), I chalked it up as a cynical political maneuver. But maybe I was wrong. Perhaps the Republicans overlooked the Energy Information Agency's assessment because the results never showed up on their TVs.

In an instructive study on the media's coverage of the offshore oil drilling debate, Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research explains why so many Americans think offshore oil drilling will lower the nation's fuel prices:

[The study] finds that these broadcasts almost completely ignored data, and conclusions, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA). The EIA finds that the benefits from such drilling would be too small to have a significant effect on the price of oil. There is no legitimate reason for this omission in the media. Just as economic reporting regularly uses data (unemployment, inflation, GDP, trade) from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, or Bureau of Labor Statistics, reporting on energy relies on data from the EIA.

PI @ DNC: Interview With Jack Darin

Josh Kalven — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:49:19 -0700

Yesterday, I interviewed Jack Darin, the director of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter, on Larimer and 16th in downtown Denver. We discussed how green-friendly the DNC has been this year and touched on some Illinois environmental issues as well. Watch it:

Appeals Court Gives States Pollution-Fighting Leverage

Adam Doster — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:50:31 -0700

The Bush Administration's intransigence on climate change received another rebuke yesterday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a rule that prevented states from implementing tougher pollution-monitoring requirements.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The decision marks the latest instance in which a federal court has rejected the approach to regulating harmful emissions taken by the administration of President George W. Bush. "It is a pretty serious rebuke of the Bush administration's efforts to tie the hands of states at the behest of industry," said John Walke, director of the clean-air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The court found the Environmental Protection Agency's rule under the Clean Air Act "is contrary to the statutory directive that each permit must include adequate monitoring requirements."

EPA spokesman Timothy Lyons said the agency "will determine an appropriate course of action" after it reviews the decision. Historically, the EPA has had little success in getting decisions from the appeals court reversed.

The news should encourage Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has been pressuring the EPA and the executive branch to fulfill its responsibility (as deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court) and intensify pollution regulation.

In Illinois, new statutes couldn't come soon enough. According to EPA Regional Administrator Lynn Buhl, 14 Illinois counties do not meet new air pollution standards, including every single county in the Chicagoland region.

Green Housing On The Rise

Adam Doster — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:46:18 -0700

It's tough to find good news about the housing market these days. Affordable options are out of reach for many working families. Illinois' foreclosure rate is rising. Even renters whose landlords went belly-up on their mortgages are being forced onto the streets.

But this AP story highlights one encouraging trend:

In fact, green housing is growing even while the overall housing market is suffering, said Nate Kredich, the council's vice president for residential market development.

This year, green building is expected to represent 6 percent of the residential construction industry, according to a survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics for the U.S. Green Building Council. That's up from just 2 percent in 2005.

The Washington Independent's Suemedha Sood teases out a few other interesting findings from the report. Among them, the green housing market is expected to rise from $2 billion to $20 billion by 2013 and green products are being used for 40 percent of remodeling work in American homes.

If you want more information on possible ways to green your home, check out the Museum of Science and Industry's Smart Home exhibit, which runs through December.

Politicized EPA Head Not Resigning

Adam Doster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:56:22 -0700

For over a month, Senate Democrats have been pressuring anti-environmentalist and Bush loyalist Stephen Johnson, the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to resign from his post. Among his many transgressions, Johnson has blocked higher ozone standards on behalf of the White House, given misleading testimony, and politicized the EPA, most notably with the forced resignation of Mary Gade, the one-time top environmental regulator in the Midwest. But if Bush appointees have one thing in common, it's stubborness. And Johnson isn't backing down yet:

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said he will not resign despite calls by four Democratic senators for him to step down claiming he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming. [...]

Johnson quickly sidestepped on Thursday a question on his reaction to the calls in a teleconference with reporters.

"If you want to talk about that you're more than happy to talk to ... our press officer. But no, I'm not," he said. Then the teleconference ended immediately.

Johnson's spokesman explained later the administrator meant he was not resigning. On the call to investigate Johnson's sworn testimony before Congress, the spokesman said, "Once the Department of Justice finishes their process, we'll find there's no issue.

While Gade is still searching for justice, the EPA is moving right along without her. In late July, they hired Lynn Buhl as chief administrator for the agency's Great Lakes region. Buhl was described by the administration as a career public servant. But Grist's Tom Philpott dissents, pointing to her extensive experience supporting polluting industries:

Buhl's ties to the Michigan area go back decades. Starting in 1988, Buhl worked for 10 years as "senior staff counsel for environmental legal affairs" for car giant DaimlerChrysler Corp. In that decade of cheap oil, Detroit launched a highly profitable SUV craze -- a trend from which the planet may never recover.

After that, she went to work for in the Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality for then Gov. John Engler (R), a notorious environmental scoundrel.

By 2003, Buhl was cozying up to Republican politicians in Maryland, where Gov. Robert Ehrlich nominated her to head the state's Department of the Environment. The choice was such a travesty that the Maryland Senate rejected the nomination -- a rebuke so stinging that it made national news, as the above-linked Daily Grist entry shows.

(H/T Think Progress)

As Crops Grow, So Does "Dead Zone"

Mose Buchele — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:18:14 -0700

On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that this year's "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico will be the second largest to date. A dead zone is an area of the ocean that cannot support marine life because rampant algae blooms suck all of the oxygen out of the water. This year, the affected area will cover 8,000 square miles.

While the Gulf of Mexico is a long way from the cornfields of Illinois, Midwestern agriculture is, in fact, contributing to this ecological disaster. As fertilizer from local farmland runs down the Mississippi and into the ocean, it encourages the growth of algae and, by extension, the dead zone. This is why a coalition of environmental groups in Illinois and eight other states petitioned the EPA yesterday to "set and enforce pollution standards in the Mississippi River basin and the Gulf of Mexico":

The groups said the EPA has dropped the ball in enforcing a rule it made in 1998, which required states to set standards for nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Mississippi River by 2003.

States have been slow to adopt such standards, prompting the groups to ask the EPA to intervene.

"Our feeling is there has been a dead zone at the EPA almost as big as in the Gulf of Mexico," said Jeff Grimes, assistant director of the water resources program at the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration Network. "They have the responsibility to act. The deadline came and went a long time ago and most of our states don't have standards ... and aren't enforcing any limits."

Grimes warned that without limits that are enforced, the Gulf of Mexico could face an ecological catastrophe.

"We're looking at a total ecological shift in the gulf as far as what lives there," Grimes said.

This year's situation is partly due to the Midwestern floods earlier in the summer, which carried massive amounts of top soil and fertilizer downstream.

Another factor is the ethanol industry, which depends on increased corn growth. Corn, in turn, requires more fertilizer than other crops. On top of stricter regulations, some environmentalists suggest that we look to other crops in our attempts to develop renewable fuel sources.

Image courtesy of Carleton College.

As BP Expands, EPA Orders Refinery Cleanup in Hartford

Mose Buchele — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:10:25 -0700

British Petroleum announced this week that it would go ahead with the $3.8 billion expansion of its oil refinery in Whiting, IN, despite legal challenges from environmental groups. The Natural Resources Defense Council has filed a lawsuit alleging that emissions from the expanded facility will violate the Clean Air Act.

Ironically, the same day news broke about BP's expansion plans, a federal judge sided with the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in forcing Apex Oil Company to clean up ground pollution caused by its refinery in Hartford, IL:

The contamination posed "imminent and substantial endangerment" to humans and the environment under a federal law known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Herndon ruled Monday out of the Southern District of Illinois. [...]

More than one million gallons of leaded gasoline and other petroleum products leaked into the ground, the lawsuit said. For years Hartford residents had to evacuate when vapors from contamination seeped into homes.

In addition to the EPA lawsuit, oil companies in Hartford are being confronted by a multitude of private lawsuits, as well as one from the village itself.

The fact that polluters are being held accountable here in Illinois is a good sign. But the situation in Hartford should have never occurred. Will we one day be saying the same thing about Whiting?

McCain To Abandon Cap-And-Trade?

Adam Doster — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:28:22 -0700

In my feature on the Chicago Climate Exchange, I mentioned John McCain's tepid support for cap-and-trade -- a stance that differentiated his campaign from the Bush administration's disgraceful environmental record, even if the GOP nominee was confused about the its mechanics:

John McCain proved his environmental policy chops need tuning when he told reporters in June that he believed in a nationwide cap-and-trade system as long as it did not impose a mandatory cap. Despite the blunder, the Arizona Republican has been on record since 2003 in support of mandatory cap-and-trade and such a proposal -- requiring emissions to drop 60 percent below 1990 levels by mid-century -- sits at the center of his energy plan.

But if elected, will McCain follow through on his promise to protect the environment? Via Matt Yglesias comes this video from McCain economic adviser Steve Forbes. It's far from reassuring:

We know it's not uncommon for the 2008 version of McCain to backtrack on previous positions. But what's the cause of the McCain campaign's waffling in this case? Could a few campaign contributions from oil and gas interests -- over $1 million in the past year -- be playing a role?

Illinois, Missouri At Odds Over Ozone Regualtions

Mose Buchele — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:49:56 -0700

In the last year, the state of Illinois has aggressively pushed for stricter standards against air pollution at the national level. That push has now put us at odds with one of our neighbors across the Mississippi. Today the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports how Missouri's Department of National Resources (DNR) is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to weaken ozone regulations. Meanwhile, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is suing to have those regulations strengthened.

Here's the background: in March, the EPA lowered the standard of acceptable ozone pollution to 0.075 parts-per-million from 0.084 parts-per-million. The problem with the new limit is that the EPA's own scientists found it still allowed for a dangerous level of pollution. In response, Madigan -- along with the AGs of New York, California, Oregon, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania -- signed a petition demanding that the regulations fall in line with the scientists' recommendations:

"It is simply unacceptable for EPA to ignore its own science advisory committee and set the new ozone standard at a level that will make breathing more difficult for children, seniors, people who work outdoors and those who already suffer from chronic lung disease," [Madigan] said.

Fearing that the new rules may hurt local industries, the Missouri DNR took the opposite position, joining the state of Mississippi in suing the EPA to bring the ozone limit back to pre-March standards.

Only time will tell whether either lawsuit will succeed, but with over a dozen other states backing her petition, Madigan certainly has the numbers on her side. Another good sign for the Illinois-backed suit? Missouri's own Attorney General Jay Nixon does not support his state's legal challenge. The DNR asked him to back the suit but he refused, saying that "the new [EPA] standard is an effort to protect public health" and pointing out that the agency had failed to provide any factual basis for its suit.

Researchers Predict Illinois Will Lose Billions To Global Warming

Mose Buchele — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:24:43 -0700

As some observers noted during the severe Midwestern flooding last month, global warming carries a high price tag for certain regions of the country. A groups of studies out this week from the University of Maryland backs up this assertion, predicting that climate change will in the long term cost the state of Illinois billions of dollars. Most of the cost will come in the form of damage to the state's water systems. Experts predict that increased warming will simultaneously cause flooding in much of the state and slowly lower water levels in the Great Lakes. This seemingly paradoxical trend spells trouble for numerous local industries:

These climatic changes will likely undermine an important shipping route for the economically critical manufacturing sector. Infrastructure damages will likely amplify from more frequent flooding, which will likely impact the public highway system, as well. The agricultural sector is projected to face increased costs from greater soil erosion and runoff, as well as the growing need for expensive irrigation. Water supplies throughout the state may be exposed to more contaminants requiring greater water treatment costs. Human health impacts are also expected.

Illinois was one of eight states in which researchers examind the potential economic effects of global warming. You can find all the reports here and download the full study here (PDF).

Image courtesy of NOAA.