Acidifying Oceans Spell Marine Biological Meltdown ‘By End of Century’

An eye opening report on ocean acidification.  The press release from the Geological Society is below

A unique ‘natural laboratory’ in the Mediterranean Sea is revealing the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on life in the oceans. The results show a bleak future for marine life as ocean acidity rises, and suggest that similar lowering of ocean pH levels may have been responsible for massive extinctions in the past.

25 August 2010

The scientists, from the University of Plymouth and the University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, studied a single celled organisms called Foraminifera around volcanic carbon dioxide vents off Naples in Italy. The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of the Geological Society, found that increasing CO2 levels caused foram diversity to fall from 24 species to only 4.

‘Previous studies have shown a reduction in diversity of 30%, but this is even bigger for forams’, said Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, one of the study’s co-authors. ‘A tipping point occurs at mean pH 7.8. This is the pH level predicted for the end of this century’.

Rising carbon dioxide levels acidify the ocean, which has a particularly devastating effect on organisms that have calcium carbonate shells, like Foraminifera.

‘Forams are well preserved in the fossil record, which is why we chose to study them’, says Dr Hall-Spencer. ‘We knew the results were likely to show a decline in foram diversity but we weren’t expecting such a seismic shift’.

Forams record past events in the geological record – in particular, the effect of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of massive carbon release and rapid warming, 55 million years ago, accompanied by extinctions in marine life. It is also thought to have seen a period of ocean acidification.

‘That was a period when massive changes in marine ecology happened’ says Dr Hall-Spencer. ‘Our natural laboratory provides a glimpse into the future of our oceans’.

‘These are the first CO2 vents to be used to study ocean acidification. They allow us to observe how ecosystems react to changes in ocean acidity. We can see for our own eyes what increasing CO2 levels do to marine communities’.

‘At a mean pH level of 7.8, calcified organisms begin to disappear, and non calcifying ones take over. We are headed towards that being the case in this century. The big concern for me is that unless we curb carbon emissions we risk mass extinctions, degrading coastal waters and encouraging outbreaks of toxic jellyfish and algae.’

Co-author Professor Malcolm Hart will be presenting the research to the 2010 FORAMS meeting in Bonn on Friday 6 September. This weekend, Deborah Wall-Palmer will present the work being done at Plymouth on the last 250,000 years of ocean acidification at the International Palaeoceanography Conference in San Diego, being held on 29 August – 3 September.

• Full bibliographic information ‘Modern seawater acidification: the response of foraminifers to high-CO2 conditions in the Mediterranean Sea’

B.B. Dias, M.B. Hart, C.W. Smart and J.M. Hall-Spencer
Journal of the Geological Society, London, Vol. 167, 2010, pp. 1 – 4.

Slinging it: A political necessity

My first column for this semester is out in the Diamondback, and it’s less environmental and more about the need for elected officials to take greater risks to solve problems, and the need for voters to tolerate those risks.  Enjoy!

By Matt Dernoga

I wrote a farewell column in May to my readers (mom, girlfriend, livid tea partiers). But now I’m enrolled in graduate school and writing for another semester. A friend told me that by writing a farewell column and then un-retiring, I was following in the footsteps of NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who has made an annoying ritual out of this. I actually admire Favre for his approach to football. He goes out there and slings it around like it’s his last game. He wins big by taking risks and, consequentially, loses big by the same measure.

I contrast that from what I see too often from decision-makers in politics, who toe the line between constituencies on two sides of an issue. Most legislation nowadays is inconsequential and more effective in scoring political points than in tackling big-picture problems. Instead, major issues such as a multibillion-dollar structural budget deficit in this state, a Chesapeake Bay on the ropes and the Purple Line are tackled in broad rhetoric. This is especially striking in this year’s election season, with primary day on Sept. 14. The fear of backlash prevents serious proposals from being put on the table so voters are more informed.

You see economic plans that talk about increasing efficiencies in government — a worthy goal that, after major cuts to local and state budgets, is like reaching around in a piggy bank for that solitary penny. Tax credits are a favorite. Credits for small businesses that stand on water. Credits for mini-wind turbines on your baby’s stroller. Credits for people who apply for tax credits. Tax credits of all forms abound. In all seriousness, I like a lot of the tax credits we have, but there comes a point where you need to stop nibbling at the edges and take a bite.

Another example is the Purple Line — a proposed light-rail line that would connect Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and run through this campus — which practically everyone supports. But try asking a politician how they’re going to help us pay for it. In every scenario, the state will have to pony up some matching funds for any federal grant money we get. Are politicians going to cut tens of millions of dollars each year in transportation funding for other projects? Are politicians going to increase the gas tax to raise several hundred million dollars?

What’s unfortunate about this apprehension over solving problems is that we share the blame. Too many victory-starved political pundits, activists and insiders play along with bland candidate platforms they know won’t address the issues. Voters get cynical and detach from the political process or, even worse, play along with the game, hoping this time will be different.

In a competitive world where we’re just trying not to lose, we plod along, asphyxiated by the mediocrity of our politicians. But this is a democracy, and our elected officials are a reflection of the best and the worst of you and me. As individuals, we’re put into a comfort zone by our peers and society. We’re told how we’re supposed to act and think so we’ll be accepted. We drift toward voting for those who reflect that comfort zone.

If we want to break the walls down and find hard-fought-over successes in our lives and our society, we need to take more chances and have greater tolerance for leaders who ask us to trust them as they take their own chances. You could call it change. I call it going out there and slinging it.

Matt Dernoga is a graduate student in public policy. He can be reached at dernoga@umdbk.com

College Sustainability News, Part 2

There was so much progress over the summer that I needed two posts to capture all of the neat projects being undertaken on college campuses.

Berkshire CC Kicks Off Energy Monitoring and Management Program
Berkshire Community College (MA) is part of a $55 million pilot project to monitor and better manage energy use in state buildings. Funded by federal stimulus money, the Department of Energy Resources and energy management company EnerNOC, will install energy meters, computer systems and web-based monitoring programs in 33 state-owned sites, including colleges. Berkshire will monitor electricity and natural gas use with the installation of 20 meters this fall. The monitors will reveal spot energy spikes and excessive use, providing building managers with specific data to reduce energy use. The information can also be accessed by college staff and students.

U California Riverside Students Vote for Green Tax
Students at the University of California, Riverside have passed a green fee referendum. After campaigning in favor of the green tax, students will now pay $2.50 per quarter for four years. Part of the proceeds will go toward the installation of solar panels to boost renewable energy on campus. The university plans to install solar panels atop the student union structure in the next few years.

U Mississippi Uses Biodiesel for Lawnmowers
The University of Mississippi has started using 20 percent biodiesel fuel to operate all campus mowers. The biodiesel fuel is made by research technicians at the University of Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute, who say that the new practice should cut campus lawnmower pollution by as much as 50 percent. Seven industrial lawnmowers use biodiesel and the landscaping crew is also experimenting with biodiesel in small engine machinery.

Butte College Has Grid Positive Plans for May 2011
With the upcoming addition of 15,000 solar photovoltaic panels, Butte College (CA) is on track to becoming grid positive, producing more clean energy from sustainable on-site solar power than it uses. The college’s Board of Trustees recently approved the installation, which will add to its existing 10,000 solar panels for a system total of 4.5 solar megawatts. The $17 million project, funded in part by federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds, is slated for a May 2011 completion.

U Oregon Unveils New Chiller Plant
The University of Oregon has upgraded its cooling system with a new, $37 million chiller plant. Using groups of chillers and cooling towers that pump water through underground pipes to the campus’ more than 60 buildings, the plant is expected to cut energy consumption for cooling the university’s buildings in half.

U Maryland Increases Recycling With ‘Can the Can’ Initiative
Within the debut month of its Can the Can program, the recycling rate at the University of Maryland’s main administration building rose from 49 to 71 percent. The initiative, which began in June, encourages recycling by making it harder to throw things away. Facilities management replaced the garbage cans in every office with desktop bins the size of coffee cans with the words “This is all the garbage I make” printed on the side. The size of the trash cans make it inconvenient to throw out recyclable cans or bottles.

Harvard U Grad School of Education Hall Receives LEED Platinum
Harvard University’s (MA) Larsen Hall has received LEED for Commercial Interiors Platinum certification. The renovation of the Graduate School of Education’s 7,006-square-foot classroom building includes occupancy sensors to vary temperature within the space, a heat recovery unit to increase energy efficiency and low-flow plumbing fixtures. Ecological friendly materials were used during construction.

U Arizona to Receive 1.6 MW Solar Power System
The University of Arizona will feature a 1.6-megawatt solar power system as Arizona electric utility Tuscan Electric Power installs 5,508 solar panels at the university’s solar development center. The center occupies 200 acres and serves as a test bed for new technologies and solar-energy projects. The energy will be used to supply participants in a solar program, which allows rate payers to buy solar power in 150-kilowatt blocks.

U Delaware to Install 2K Panel Solar Array
The University of Delaware has announced that it will receive a 2,000-panel solar array to be installed over three buildings throughout the main campus. The 850-kilowatt solar electric system will be funded in part by the university’s 2009 senior class gift, which was earmarked for solar initiatives on campus. The installation is a joint venture of Standard Solar, Inc. and renewable energy financier Perpetual Energy Systems LLC. The university expects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by almost 2 million pounds a year.

U Maryland Develops Bio-Filtration System
The University of Maryland has developed a bio-filtration system to reduce urban runoff pollution in the Anacostia watershed and the Chesapeake Bay. University researchers have re-engineered rain gardens to improve the removal of phosphorous, nitrogen and other prime urban pollutants from runoff. With a $600,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Prince George’s County Government, researchers will conduct a three-part demonstration project near parking lots on campus.

News on College Sustainability Efforts

Here are some examples of progress universities have made over the summer at reducing their environmental impact.  As a recent college graduate who is going back for a Masters, I like to provide an update every so often of noteworthy actions taken by the higher education system.

California State U Bakersfield to Install 1MW Solar Energy System
California State University, Bakersfield has begun the installation of a $9.5 million solar energy project funded by SunEdison. The 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic collection system is expected to provide 25 to 30 percent of total university energy and provide shade for 500 parking spaces. The solar power energy will be sold back to the university at a cost of five percent less than it currently pays. The project is slated for a late summer 2010 completion

U Louisville Plans to Phase Out Coal
The University of Louisville (KY) has announced plans to phase out coal burning on its Belknap Campus. The university is working with the Louisville Air Pollution Control District on a pollution reduction plan that will replace a coal furnace with a new natural gas boiler. The gas boiler will increase heating capacity by 64 percent. The university is scheduled to sign an agreement to phase out coal by the end of 2015.

U Utah Debuts Bio-Retention Garden
The University of Utah has announced the completion of a bio-retention garden. Dubbed the “Rain Garden,” the plot features drought-resistant, native plant species that pool rain water, storing it underground and re-channeling it to help alleviate the burden of the university’s current irrigation system. The garden was built with funding from the Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund, which is collected from a portion of student fees.

U New Mexico Education Building Awarded LEED Platinum
The University of New Mexico’s College of Education building has achieved LEED Platinum status. More than 75 percent of construction waste for the 26,000-square-foot addition was diverted from landfills and 20 percent of the construction materials were regionally manufactured. The building features individual thermal and lighting control and a 10-kilowatt photovoltaic system.

U Portland Building Achieves LEED Platinum
The University of Portland’s (OR) Donald P. Shiley Hall has been awarded LEED Platinum certification. Green features of the engineering building include water-efficient landscaping and plumbing fixtures, occupancy sensors and operable windows. Ninety-two percent of the existing building structure was used and 92 percent of the construction waste was recycled. The building also features the use of irrigation groundwater to cool the floor, saving an estimated 8.5 percent of the total cooling energy for the building.

U Illinois at Chicago Installs Green and White Roofs
The University of Illinois at Chicago has installed green and white roofs. Funded by federal stimulus grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, the green roofs’ vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide and the heat in the summer to provide extra insulation year-round. The university is also applying white acrylic coating on several campus roofs. The lighter paneling absorbs less heat and reduces the amount of energy needed to cool the building.

Central Michigan U Starts Campus Grow Project
Central Michigan University has launched the Campus Grow Project. With a focus on organic community gardening and composting, the project offers sustainable alternatives to the industrial food system through access to healthy local food and educational gardening opportunities. Students can grow and harvest food in two organic gardens on the university’s campus, where food scraps from the university’s residential restaurants are used to create nutrient-rich soil. Plots are also available to faculty and community members.

Ball State U Planning Campus-wide Geothermal System
Ball State University (IN) is working on the first phase of an $80 million project that will heat and cool the entire campus using geothermal energy. The geothermal project entails a ground source heating system that uses the earth’s below-surface temperature of 55 degrees to act as a heat source during the cooler months, and a heat sink during the warmer months. Geothermal pumps will push the water through an underground pipe system. By utilizing geothermal ground source technology throughout its 660-acre campus, the university expects to save $2 million annually on utility bills and eliminate 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

U Minnesota Morris Plans To Install More Wind Turbines
The University of Minnesota, Morris has unveiled plans to install two 1.65-megawatt wind turbines near its existing turbine of the same size. The $7.4 million-project is expected to cut the university’s carbon footprint by more than 80 percent. The new turbines combined with the existing renewable energy facilities on campus are expected to generate 5 megawatts of power, enough to power the entire campus.

U Chicago Recycling Event Collects 22,680 Pounds of E-Waste
The University of Chicago (IL) has announced that 22,680 pounds of recyclable materials were collected during the university’s first electronic waste recycling event. Among the unwanted items dropped off by community members and university staff, faculty and students were TVs, radios, cell phones, DVD players, vacuum cleaners and almost 700 pounds of plastic foam. By properly recycling electronic waste, materials were diverted from the landfill and the contaminants often found in these products were prevented from leaching into the water supply.

Tidwell: It’s Not Pepco’s Fault the Weather is Changing

I want to cross-post parts of an excellent article by CCAN’s Mike Tidwell.  There have been many outages in the Washington DC region, and lawmakers have started saber-rattling at PEPCO, one of the local utilities for their inability to keep the lights on.  As Tidwell rightly points out, the outages are predominantly coming from extreme weather that is a sign of increased precipitation from a warming planet.

“A hotter planet also means more evaporation of ocean water. And a hotter atmosphere can hold more of that water as vapor in the air. It’s basic physics. And what goes up must come down. It’s not our imagination that rainstorm intensity is rising in our region. In a study released last March, scientists examined precipitation patterns from Maine to New Jersey over the past 60 years. The study revealed an amazing uptick in multi-inch rain events across the region, with strong evidence pointing to rising temperatures as a key culprit.

Trends are what are important here, and Pepco itself has identified an unsettling pattern this summer. Unusually high winds, it says, have repeatedly assaulted trees whose roots are themselves anchored in unusually loose and soft soil thanks to the “anomalously” high rainfall this summer. So branches and trunks are coming down at very high rates. Hmmmm.

But what about the snowfall last winter? The power went out twice due to extreme white stuff. Global warming? How? Well, first, we didn’t set records for cold temperatures last winter. Not even close. What we did do was shatter records for precipitation in the form of snow. Again, an overall warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and significant snowfall events are on the upswing in the United States even as temperatures rise significantly. It’s all the extra water in the air. Since 1970, global warming has added at least four percent more moisture to the atmosphere, according to studies.”

“It’s finally time to come out of the dark on severe weather. If Pepco is to blame for anything, it is this: the company invests woefully insufficient resources into solar and wind power. The same applies to all the region’s utilities. .

Better service means more than rapid repair crews. It means better energy flowing through the wires, rain or shine.”

Prospects dim for third Calvert Cliffs nuclear unit

As I said in my column on the economics of nuclear power, it’s just too expensive to build.  The Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland is in doubt, and that’s with the expectation there will be a multi-billion dollar loan guarantee for the project.

As I wrote last fall…

“A common perception of nuclear power is that it’s an affordable, carbon-free energy source that could meet a lot of America’s demand for electricity, if only those darn environmentalists would get out of the way. Unfortunately for nuclear power advocates and Maryland ratepayers, this statement crumbles upon contact with reality.”

Reality bites hard

“Constellation Energy and the French EDF Group say they’re committed to building an enormous nuclear-power plant next to the one Constellation already operates at Calvert Cliffs on the Chesapeake Bay. But the $9 billion project looks less and less certain with each month that goes by.

It’s not just the delayed Department of Energy review of the government-backed financing. (Without that financing, the unit is dead. Constellation complained last week about the procrastination.)

It’s not just the usual political catfight for government resources, although with Calvert Cliffs in his district, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer is a formidable ally.

It’s that the very economics of nuclear power look vastly different than they did two years ago. Or two weeks ago, for that matter. It’s far from sure that the Calvert Cliffs expansion, proposed by the Constellation-EDF joint venture known as UniStar Nuclear, will proceed even if it gets government money.”

Read the rest of the article

Polluted Politicians: Dirty energy money flowing to U.S. Senate incumbents

I want to re-post this blog story from TckTckTck about the scary influence of polluter money on our politicians, particularly the US Senate incumbents.

2010 has been a particularly good year for the oil industry. All of the big oil companies are on track for record profits again this year, even with the ecological,economic and public relationsdisasters stemming from theirvarious oil gushers.

The U.S. Senate failed to pass substantial climate legislation,and politicians remain eager to accept large amounts of money from fossil fuel industries to fund their political aspirations. It’s a great year to be a petroleum executive.

Fortunately, it’s also a great year to be a voter.

Washington is steeped in dirty energy money, with polluting industries contributing vast sums to political campaigns in order to keep American leadership beholden to the status quo fossil fuel addiction.

One of the many ways voters can show their support for clean energy is by electing candidates with cleaner, greener records and policies. How do you know which candidates are greener than others? One of the simplest ways is to look at their funding sources. Do they take money from dirty energy sources to fund their campaigns?

DirtyEnergyMoney.com (supported by TckTckTck partners 350.org, Greenpeace and 1Sky) andBobbingInPetroleum.org are two great new web resources for tracking the oil and coal industry money polluting Washington politics. Using data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, the group Oil Change International created these interactive tools to track the flow of oil and coal industry campaign contributions to members of Congress.

So, how do things shape up with the 111th congress?

In terms of overall campaign contributions, Republicans receive 54% of the fossil fuel funding, holding a slim lead over Democrats who receive the other 46%, according to Oil Change International.

By sorting the data according to the top recipients of polluter money on DirtyEnergyMoney.com, it is easy to see that fossil fuel interests are bipartisan when it comes to buying politicians in the 111th Congress, with Arkansas Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln collecting the largest sum of dirty energy money ($510,150), followed by Republicans Lisa Murkowski from Alaska ($390,622), David Vitter from Louisiana ($316,278), and Richard Burr from North Carolina ($245,774).

Rounding out the Top 5 is Democrat Arlen Specter of Virginia, who received $185,799 from polluters during the current session. Unfortunately for his supporters, Specter lost his 2010 primary race to another Democratic candidate, Joe Sestak.

Vote with your climate conscience

Using the resources available at DirtyEnergyMoney.com, here is a list of the Top 10 incumbent Senators from each party who accept contributions from polluting companies. All of these candidate are currently running for re-election in November 2010 and these figures represent the amount of campaign contributions received since January 2008.

Democratic incumbents

Rank	Name & Constituency	$ of Contributions
1	Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas	$510,150
2	Michael Bennet of Colorado	$96,320
3	Chuck Schumer of New York	$78,200
4	Harry Reid of Nevada	$63,500
5	Kristen Gillibrand of New York	$59,600
6	Barbara Boxer of California	$33,150
7	Ron Wyden of Oregon	$30,564
8	Daniel Inoyue of Hawaii	$23,400
9	Patty Murray of Washington	$14,650
10	Russ Feingold of Wisconsion	$9,650

Republican incumbents

Rank	Name & Constituency	$ of Contributions
1	Lisa Murkowski of Alaska	$390,622
2	David Vitter of Louisiana	$316,278
3	Richard Burr of North Carolina	$245,774
4	John Thune of South Dakota	$163,874
5	John McCain of Arizona	$150,410
6	Tom Coburn of Oklahoma	$128,650
7	Jim DeMint of South Carolina	$121,274
8	Chuck Grassley of Iowa	$113,950
9	Richard Shelby of Alabama	$99,100
10	Johnny Isakson of Georgia	$93,950

The more information voters have on the policies, platforms and funding sources of candidates running for office, the better equipped they are to cast an informed vote. Please share this information with your climate-minded friends and remind them of the importance of voting with their climate conscience in the next US election.

Weekly Mulch: Green Daydreams? A Clean Gulf, Energy Efficiency, and More

Below is a free cross-post from the Weekly Mulch, enjoy!

Weekly Mulch: Green Daydreams? A Clean Gulf, Energy Efficiency, and More

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

Yesterday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) took Obama administration officials to task for encouraging Americans to believe that the majority of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico had dispersed.

“People want to believe that everything is OK and I think this report and the way it is being discussed is giving many people a false sense of confidence regarding the state of the Gulf,” Markey said.

Belief, after all, is powerful force. As coal baron Don Blankenship says, “You have to have your own beliefs, your own core beliefs, your own strengths and do what you think is right. You can’t do what others believe is right, you have to do what you believe is right.”

But what if your beliefs, even those backed up by science, are wrong? If you believed government officials who reported the oil in the Gulf of Mexico had dispersed—wrong. If you believed McDonald’s or Sara Lee really was helping save the planet—wrong. (Does anyone actually believe that one?) And if you believed you were conserving tons of energy by flicking off the light switches when you left the room—wrong again!

Gullible Greens

Wait, what? Yes, it turns out that environmentally friendly folk don’t know how little energy they save by line-drying clothes, recycling bottles, or turning off the lights, Mother Jones‘ Kevin Drum writes. Don’t worry! Those activities still conserve energy. Just not as much as you might have thought.

Drum’s evidence comes from a study that asked people to estimate the amount of energy they were saving by engaging in a given activity. Green-minded people tended to miss the mark on how much energy certain activities conserved. Perhaps they want to believe their conservation activities have a more dramatic impact, the studies’ authors suggested.

There’s a kicker, though. “The most accurate perceptions about energy use, it seems, are held by numerate, conservative homeowners who don’t bother trying to save energy,” Drum writes. Ouch. Apparently, knowing how much energy they’ll save, conservatives decide it’s not worth it to even try.

“A green-tinged fog”

But perhaps energy conservationists aren’t to blame for their own confusion. After all, as Anna Lappé writes at Yes! Magazine, corporations increasingly are using green messaging to sell their products:

McDonald’s recently launched an “Endangered Species” Happy Meal, “to engage kids in a fun and informative way about protecting the environment,” explains project partner Conservation International…. Earlier this year, Sara Lee unleashed with much fanfare a new line of “Earth Grains” bread that promotes “innovative farming practices that promote sustainable land use” as part of what the company calls its “Plot to Save the Earth.”

Lappé calls the confusion created by these campaigns “a green-tinged fog” that consumers can get lost in. And in the same way that green advertising is increasing, tips for green living are proliferating, which could explain the confusion about which ones are actually useful.

Government spin

But for the government, there’s no excuse for spreading misinformation. For instance, earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report showing that most of the oil in the Gulf had either been collected or dispersed. Scientists questioned the report from the very first day of its release, and this week evidence is mounting that the report misrepresented the situation in the Gulf.

At the Washington Independent, Andrew Restuccia writes that a group of scientists in Georgia have released a report countermanding the claims of the government’s study, and that other scientists have found a 21-mile smear of oil still in the Gulf.

Riki Ott reports at Chelsea Green on a more vivid argument against the Obama administration’s claims that the oil in the Gulf is no longer a problem:

Off Long Beach, Mississippi, on August 8, fisherman James “Catfish” Miller tied an oil absorbent pad onto a pole and lowered it 8-12 feet down into deceptively clear ocean water. When he pulled it up, the pad was soaked in oil, much to the startled amazement of his guests, including Dr. Timothy Davis with the Department of Health and Human Services National Disaster Medical System. Repeated samples produced the same result.

How’d it happen?

So what is the government’s excuse? Right now, NOAA is standing by its analysis, Restuccia reports. Bill Lehr, a senior scientist with the agency, said yesterday that NOAA will release more documentation supporting its claims in two months.

“I assure you it will bore everybody except those of us that do oil spill science,” he said, according to Restuccia.

But as Ott explains, part of the government’s issue is the standard they’re using to evaluate the fate of the oil to begin with:

The problem is the ‘rigorous safety standards’ are outdated. The protocol relies on visual oil. What of the underwater plumes? The chart produced by NOAA last week shows, in effect, that over 50 percent of the oil (not to mention dispersant) is still in the water column as dispersed or dissolved oil. Scientists have found that the oil-dispersant mixture is getting into the foodweb.

In other words, just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. And in this case, what NOAA believes is less important than the scientific facts on the ground. To deal with the oil spilled in the Gulf, NOAA and its partners might have to admit that they were wrong.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

If Portugal can do it, can’t America?

I just read an insightful article sent to me describing how Portugal has managed to transition to 45% of it’s grid being powered by clean energy, when just five years ago it only got 17%.

Some of the key ingredients I saw were

1.  Politicians with the guts to stick to their goals despite the backlash from utilities and some activist groups.

“Indeed, complaints about rising electricity rates are a mainstay of pensioners’ gossip here. Mr. Sócrates, who after a landslide victory in 2005 pushed through the major elements of the energy makeover over the objections of the country’s fossil fuel industry, survived last year’s election only as the leader of a weak coalition.

“You cannot imagine the pressure we suffered that first year,” said Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s minister of economy and innovation from 2005 until last year, who largely masterminded the transition, adding, “Politicians must take tough decisions.”

2.  A feed-in tariff to paint a brighter financial picture for residents who want to invest in localized clean energy.

“Portugal’s distribution system is also now a two-way street. Instead of just delivering electricity, it draws electricity from even the smallest generators, like rooftop solar panels. The government aggressively encourages such contributions by setting a premium price for those who buy rooftop-generated solar electricity. “To make this kind of system work, you have to make a lot of different kinds of deals at the same time,” said Carlos Zorrinho, the secretary of state for energy and innovation.”

3.  Creative clean energy and policy solutions to maximize production for minimum cost.

“To force Portugal’s energy transition, Mr. Sócrates’s government restructured and privatized former state energy utilities to create a grid better suited to renewable power sources. To lure private companies into Portugal’s new market, the government gave them contracts locking in a stable price for 15 years — a subsidy that varied by technology and was initially high but decreased with each new contract round.”

“While the government estimates that the total investment in revamping Portugal’s energy structure will be about 16.3 billion euros, or $22 billion, that cost is borne by the private companies that operate the grid and the renewable plants and is reflected in consumers’ electricity rates. The companies’ payback comes from the 15 years of guaranteed wholesale electricity rates promised by the government. Once the new infrastructure is completed, Mr. Pinho said, the system will cost about 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) a year less to run than it formerly did, primarily by avoiding natural gas imports.”

“Portugal’s national energy transmission company, Redes Energéticas Nacionais or R.E.N., uses sophisticated modeling to predict weather, especially wind patterns, and computer programs to calculate energy from the various renewable-energy plants. Since the country’s energy transition, the network has doubled the number of dispatchers who route energy to where it is needed.

“You need a lot of new skills. It’s a real-time operation, and there are far more decisions to be made — every hour, every second,” said Victor Baptista, director general of R.E.N. “The objective is to keep the system alive and avoid blackouts.”

Like some American states, Portugal has for decades generated electricity from hydropower plants on its raging rivers. But new programs combine wind and water: Wind-driven turbines pump water uphill at night, the most blustery period; then the water flows downhill by day, generating electricity, when consumer demand is highest.”

Why can’t we do that here?

See #1

Smoggy Senators Protest EPA Plan To Save Thousands Of Children’s Lives

I recommend reading this post from last week in the Wonk Room.   A number of Senators, including a couple of Democrats, are criticizing the EPA of its move to strengthen the smog limits so that they are guidance with what the scientific community says is necessary to prevent unnecessary deaths from ozone.  It’s amazing how low these politicians will stoop to coddle the fossil fuel industry.  Below are a few excerpts from the piece…

“Under the guidance of administrator Lisa Jackson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working to clean up one of George W. Bush’s most blatant acts of ignoring science and disregarding the law, when he personally overruled the unanimous recommendations of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee for an ozone limit no higher than 70 ppb, setting instead an arbitrary and capricious standard of 75 ppb. Jackson intends to instead follow the law by setting a 60-70 ppb standard. However, a group of Democratic and Republican senators led by retiring Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) are trying to preserve Bush’s toxic legacy on behalf of the coal and oil industries in their states, complaining to Jackson that her plan “will have asignificant negative impact on our states’ workers and families”

“the conclusion EPA staff and scientists drew in 2008, based on the scientific evidence that “ozone has a direct impact on rates of heart and respiratory disease and resulting premature deaths,” was that a standard no higher than 70 ppb was needed. The agency calculated that a standard of 65 ppb “would avoid 3,000 to 9,200 deaths annually,” two to three times more than a 75 ppb standard. The difference is that George W. Bush is no longer the decider”