December 4, 2013-by the International Panel on Climate Change
The IPCC has produced a video on its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). The first part on the Working Group I contribution to AR5 is now available. The other parts will be released with the successive approvals of the other two Working Group contributions and the Synthesis Report in the course of 2014.
November 14, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise power plant (near Central City, KY) spews huge levels of pollution every day it operates. This photo was taken on May 2, 2012. Studies show that pollution is harmful to health and indeed, causes cancer and premature death for some people exposed down wind. Today, TVA’s Board of Directors chose to shut down Units 1 and 2 of the polluting plant which should result in significant air quality improvements throughout the TriState. © BlairPhotoEVV
Tennessee Valley Authority’s Board of Directors today, gave an early Thanksgiving and Christmas gift to Tri-State citizens’ health by announcing they would shut down two of the three units at the plant and build a plant run on natural gas instead of coal to replace the closed units.
Together, the plants, which are to close when the construction of the gas plant(s) are completed generate 1,408 megawatts of electricity at capacity. Unit 3, which is larger, has a current rated capacity of 1,150 megawatts and will continue to run on coal.
Interestingly, all three plants recently installed scrubbers which became operational in 2012 and even with that large investment TVA decided to quit chasing bad money with good money since they could not meet the new USEPA standards for toxic emissions like mercury and hydrogen sulfide gas. Those emissions in 2009, the last available at publishing time were 10,010,317 pounds.
In it’s “fact sheet” coupled with the closure announcement, TVA said, “In the end, building a gas plant was the best long-term decision when all the benefits and risks were weighed and presented the best option for cleaner generation, while providing more flexibility to quickly meet peak loads during the day and come offline quickly at night when loads drop significantly.”
TVA says they will invest well over $1 billion in the new gas units. The units it will replace were placed into service in 1963 making them fifty years old.
Just this week, a study by the Environmental Integrity Project revealed that the aquifers beneath the plant are contaminated with Arsenic, Boron, Cobalt, Manganese, Molybdenum and Sulfate at levels significantly above health based guidelines.
Valley Watch has kept a close eye on the Paradise plant and offered comments and testimony regarding their operation for the entire thirty-two years Valley Watch has been in existence. Valley Watch’s purpose is “to protect the Public Health and Environment of the lower Ohio River Valley.”
November 13, 2013- Video by photographer Shane Black
October 23, 2013—After quitting a comfortable day job, photographer Shane Black spent two months on the road shooting time-lapses of some of America’s most beautiful spots. His “Adventure Is Calling” video is the mesmerizing result, made from about 10,000 of the photos he took.
November 9, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
You know that winter is closing in when ladybugs seem to appear all over. In this case. two ladybugs of suffering species share the same wilting foliage. © 2013 BlairPhotoEVV
November 9, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
A trip through Audubon State Park on a beautiful Autumn day. All photos © 2013 BlairPhotoEVV.
© 2013 BlairPhotoEVV
A funky self portrait. © 2013 BlairPhotoEVV
© 2013 BlairPhotoEVV
© 2013 BlairPhotoEVV
November 6, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
Dr. James Hansen (L) and John Blair shared a moment at a coal plant protest in Washington, DC in March 2009.
Having cut my environmental teeth in a seven year (successful) effort to fight the Marble Hill nuclear plant in Indiana, I wrote Dr. James Hansen the following letter today admonishing him to reconsider his position as stated in a recent letter with a three other scientists proposing the use of nukes to solve the climate crisis.
It seems almost phenominal to me that anyone with much sense and not looking for personal profit could support new nukes in light of the various disasters at Three Mile Island,Chernobyl and the on going problems at Fukishima.
It seems that way too many people are of a mind set that we need increasing amounts of centralized power in order to maintain a semblance of the lifestyle we have today. Personally, I am convinced that the whole prospect of personal “conservation” has barely been explored, let alone the huge impact that improving both production and end use efficiency can do to solve this crisis.
November 6, 2013
Dr. Hansen:
While I continue to respect your efforts to draw attention to the climate crisis in which we continue to find ourselves, I want you to know that I disagree completely with you on your recent letter concerning nuclear power being an answer to the crisis. Yes, I do have a problem visualizing producing steel, etc. with wind and/or solar power but that problem will never be solved by using nukes.
There are simply too many issues surrounding the proliferation of nukes to consider them a real alternative for electric production, now or in the future. Indeed, those issues could have serious global implications that are on par with climate change should some despot acquire the by-products of nuclear generation.
Below, is a piece I wrote in 2001 which outline most of my issues with nukes. Please read this and perhaps rethink your position. Thanks.—-
I submit these “top ten” reasons to oppose nuclear energy.
1. Every 1000 MW reactor creates enough Plutonium (Pu) to build forty nuclear bombs, each year. The half life of Pu is 24,000 years and it takes a minimum of ten half lives-240,000 years for it to decay to a level that is safe. Man has been on earth some 60,000 years. I cannot help but think that if we were bent on producing such large volumes of Pu that some despot, at some point, perhaps in the not so distant future, would use some of that Pu to initiate some sort of nuclear conflagration that would end up destroying the world. Continue reading
October 15, 2013-by Wendy Bredhold, Mom’s Clean Air Force
Moms Clean Air Force Hosts
UNACCEPTABLE LEVELS
Award-Winning Documentary About the Chemicals Around Us – And In Us
7 p.m. November 4, AMC Evansville 16
“Unacceptable Levels” is a no-nonsense documentary that will challenge everything you think you know about health, safety, and environmental protection.” – Beth Buczynski, ecosalon
Read this review http://ecosalon.com/unacceptable-levels-documentary/ and then reserve your ticket: http://www.tugg.com/events/5715! Tugg IS grassroots crowdsourcing: If enough people commit to buying tickets (http://www.tugg.com/events/5715), the movie “tips” and the screening is on. Please don’t wait to buy tickets at the door – reserve your tickets today!
Please invite your friends and neighbors who live in the area! Sharing some of the wonderful testimonials the film has received:
“Unacceptable Levels is a great documentary … about the myriad ways we are being exposed to toxins, poisons and allergens in our daily life. It is sweet, funny, clear, and illuminating.” – Paul Hawken“Although at points during “Unacceptable Levels” you might feel incredibly discouraged or even nauseous, Brown retains his open, honest demeanor–and it’s calming. He doesn’t freak out and tell us we’re all doomed. He has hope, and he ends the film with a call to action that we can all respond to: Do something. Care about something. Investigate for yourself. Make a small change. Share what you’ve learned with a friend. Sign a petition or send a letter to a brand that you want to see change.” – Beth Buczynski, ecosalon“From the products we use, to the food we eat, to the air we breathe, Unacceptable Levels documents how prevalent toxic chemicals have become part of our lives. Ed Brown uses the powerful connection of family to illustrate how broken our system has become, and why we must do something about it. Our children’s futures depend on it.” – Gigi Lee Chang, CEO, Healthy Child Healthy World“This excellent film brings home in a very real way the link between our environment and our health.”– Génon Jensen, Executive Director of HEAL (Health and Environment Alliance)
For more information, contact Wendy Bredhold, field organizer, Moms Clean Air Force Indiana, at wendybredhold@gmail.com or 812/604-1723.
October 11, 2013 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Editor’s note: I must admit to a certain amount of skepticism when I deal with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources due to their really lax regulation of the coal industry and years of fielding calls from residents of SW Indiana who were never able to get any satisfaction after filing complaints with DNR over a multitude of issues. That inaction caused me to nickname the agency the Department of No Response.
Herschel McDivitt, Director of Indiana DNR’s Oil and Gas Division claims hydraulic fracturing is already regulated sufficiently to protect the environment and human health. Photo: BlairPhotoEVV
Last night (10/10) I was able to attend a presentation on by the Director of Indiana DNR’s Oil and Gas Division. Prior to the meeting, I introduced myself to Herschel McDivitt whom I told, “I am conflicted regarding fracking since like most people I want to heat my home and office as inexpensively as possible, but I certainly don’t want to do that at the risk of destroying waters supplies or exacerbating climate change.”
I then told him that I thought greater regulation of fracking would involve an increase in the price of natural gas by $2-3 per million Btu. That when he revealed his true color as Indiana’s number one fracking regulator, “It’s heavily regulated already,” he said, seemingly ignorant of the fact that fracking was “exempted” from regulation in 2005 from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other federal laws designed to protect the environment and health.
But he knew of the exemption and later in his presentation he asserted that the federal government had no place in regulation of oil and gas hydraulic fracturing as it is officially called.
McDivitt scoffed at the democratic process used to develop relatively stringent regulation of fracking in neighboring state, Illinois because there is too much misinformation out in the public concerning the process.
He said fracking was not responsible for the earthquakes experienced in the aftermath of fracking in Ohio, instead blaming those quakes on “disposal wells” that were drilled to get rid of the large volume of fracking waste created in both Pennsylvania and Ohio.
He seemed to dismiss the fact that the disposal wells he blamed would not even be there if it were not for fracking wells creating the waste. He also said that the earthquakes were also partly due to the fact that the disposal wells were located near known geologic faults.
He went on to say that disposal wells were the method being used in Indiana and conceded on a question from me that those wells in Indiana were very near one of the most active faults in the US, the Wabash Fault which runs along the southern end of the Wabash River but he seemed to dismiss concerns that fracking disposal wells in Indiana would cause earthquake concern.
One claim he made was that recent Indiana legislation forced drillers to report the chemicals they were using as fracking fluids but acknowledged there was no audits or enforcement to assure the self-reporting the drillers made were true. He said that the real enforcement would come from drilling contractors or competitors but then agreed that after the chemicals were in the ground there was little they could do to get them removed.
He insisted that there is “no documented proof” that fracking has ever contaminated any ground water in Indiana or the nation.
In that regard, he chided activists like Gasland’s Josh Fox for being “misinformed” and “having an agenda.” In fact, he blamed much of the bad public relations experienced by the industry as being attributable to “anti-capitalist” and “NIMBY’s,” who were out to destroy the fossil fuel industry.
He compartmentalized the various opposition to fracking that has emerged offering the graph below as if to claim that there is so much misinformation that is creating each of the slices of his pie. Then he compared the hazards of fracking with “puppies (bites), caffeine, mosquitoes, bicycles, etc. are more hazardous to human health, and safety than hydraulic fracturing?.”
What concerns me most about this lackadaisical attitude is that this is the man who is setting the regulatory agenda for high pressure hydraulic fracturing in Indiana, the man who will make the ultimate decisions regarding the controversial practice.
Of course, I am not surprised, since like most regulators in this state, he was hired away from the industry he is now regulating in the early days of the Daniels Administration and Daniels wrote an op/ed piece in the Wall Street Journal in 2011 calling for the elimination of government regulation and for industry to “self regulate” in order to protect human and the environment.
What is particularly distressing about this is a snippet he offered in a private conversation after his presentation that companies currently operating in Illinois were investigating moves to Indiana due to Illinois’ more stringent regulation.
Sadly, as we know, all oil and gas drilling in Indiana pretty much takes place in southwest Indiana, because as McDivitt say, “That is where the oil and gas (and coal) are.”
September 25, 2013 – in Environmental and Energy Management News
Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and California are the greenest states, according to a NMI survey of more than 3,000 U.S. consumers in the 25 largest states.
The least green states are Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, and Indiana. The survey is part of NMI’s U.S. LOHAS consumer report.
NMI says leading green states are known for pioneering new environmental policies, driving the marketing for green products and enjoying outdoor activities.
Study results can help marketers and product developers identify regions for test marketing, targeting and new product introductions, says NMI. Marketersalso may find that different states respond to different messaging and communication strategies. As an example, consumers in greener states are likely to respond to a global message on environmental responsibility and green living, while those in less green states will need more immediate and personal benefits, according to NMI.
Here’s the ranking of the 25 largest states from the most to the least greenest. The analysis is based on seven criteria: the proportion of consumers in each state who have purchased carbon offsets, organic foods, renewable power, and hybrid vehicles and those who compost, reuse grocery bags, and donate money to environmental groups. Continue reading
September 20, 2013-EPA video. Janet McCabe, Acting Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. Editor’s note: Janet McCabe used to be the head of IDEM’s air program during a time when Evansville and environs sought to improve air quality, particularly ozone in the late 1990s and early in this century. She resigned from IDEM when Mitch Daniels assumed the governor’s office in early 2005 at which time she became the exec. director of Improving Kids Environment. McCabe later became a member of Valley Watch prior to moving on to EPA in the early years of the Obama Administration.
September 9, 2013-Press Release from Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller
David Lott Hardy, center, then Chair of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, declares, “We will get this thing built” at the Energy Summit of Southwest Indiana held August 30, 2007, the day after the public hearing his commission conducted on Edwardsport. Hardy was later indicted on charges stemming from “ethics violations” as a result of his handling of Edwardsport dockets. Photo © 2007 John Blair
Representing the prosecution in appellate court, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office is seeking to reinstate criminal charges against a former state utility regulator by appealing a trial court’s order that dismissed the charges.
On Friday in the Indiana Court of Appeals, Zoeller’s office filed notice to appeal the August 12 ruling of the Marion County Superior Court that dismissed official misconduct charges against David Lott Hardy. The trial court found that the Legislature’s 2012 change to the official misconduct statute invalidated charges the prosecutor had brought against Hardy before that time.
The Attorney General’s Office represents the State in criminal appeals. Zoeller said that after reviewing the case and conferring with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, he decided to appeal the trial court’s ruling. Zoeller’s office asks the Court of Appeals to reverse the trial court’s order dismissing the charges and reinstate them, so that Hardy will again face trial.
“This is an issue of law regarding our Legislature’s intent. If the Legislature intended to make a 2012 change in the law retroactive as the trial court ruled, it would have written that into the statute, and it did not. We respect the trial court but contend its ruling is incorrect, the 2012 change is not retroactive and the defendant can and should face charges under the law in effect in 2010. We ask the Court of Appeals to reinstate the charges so that the trial can proceed and a verdict can be rendered,” Zoeller said.
The former chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, Hardy had been indicted by a Marion County grand jury in 2011 on four counts of Class D felony official misconduct. Hardy was accused of lobbying Duke Energy to assist administrative law judge Scott Storms in gaining employment with that utility company. Hardy also was accused of failing to disclose in a timely manner ex parte communications – one side only without the other side being notified – that he had with Duke Energy regarding its Edwardsport power plant in 2010. On August 12 the trial court judge granted a defense motion to dismiss the charges before the case could be deliberated. Continue reading
Tennessee Valley Authority’s Paradise power plant in Muhlenberg COuty, KY spews huge levels of pollution every day it operates. Studies show that pollution is harmful to health and indeed, causes premature death for some people exposed down wind. Now, congress wants all the data that was used in those studies to determine their veracity. © BlairPhotoEVV
September 9, 2013-byChristopher Rowland in the Boston Globe
House Republicans scouring for evidence of overreaching environmental regulations are taking aim at a two-decade-old, taxpayer-funded scientific study by Harvard researchers that linked air pollution to disease and death.
Even though the landmark study has held up under intense scientific scrutiny since its publication in 1993, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology took the rare step of issuing subpoenas last month demanding access to the study’s raw data about thousands of individual subjects.
The committee also subpoenaed raw data from a 1995 study of American Cancer Society health data on 1.2 million individuals that confirmed the findings of the earlier review, that air pollution is associated with higher rates of emergency room visits for asthma and other respiratory ailments, hospitalizations, and mortality.
Both studies — peer-reviewed and published in prestigious medical journals — have long been on the target list of some in the GOP because they have been repeatedly cited by the Environmental Protection Agency when it justifies the need for new regulations on power plant emissions and other air pollutants. The agency has estimated that tighter Clean Air Act rules adopted since 1990 saved 160,000 lives in 2010 and will save 230,000 lives in 2020.
The authors of both studies have resisted demands to open up their data to public scrutiny. In the case of the Harvard study, for instance, they cite the need to keep the identities and health status of some 8,000 study subjects in six communities, including Watertown, Mass., confidential. They contend that, even if names and addresses are removed, it would be possible for someone to determine the identities of many subjects based on their age, hometown, and date of death. The controversy poses a test for government officials and scientific researchers, who increasingly are being asked to balance the health care privacy rights of individuals against demands for data from outside researchers, the public, and, politically motivated critics. Continue reading
August 29, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor
Nature can be cruel. In my garden this year, I have numerous spiders called “orb weavers” or garden spiders. I was watching them today to capture a possible new angle when suddenly a rather large grasshopper jumped into a relatively small orb weaver’s web. In just a matter of seconds, the orb weaver had snared its prey sufficiently to completely disable it. Now, the grasshopper’s fate is “sealed” in a web of natural desire and hunger.
August 29, 2013-by John Krull, in the StatehouseFile. Ed. Note: The Indiana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on this case on September 5 and Valley Watch, Inc. is one of the parties to this case, along with Vectren, other gas utilities, and citizens groups Sierra Club, Citizen s Action Coalition and Spencer County Citizens for Quality of Life.
John Krull
If Indiana Supreme Court Justice Mark Massa ever gets a chance to address a law school class or graduation ceremony, let’s hope he speaks about something he understands – like the importance of loyalty and friendship.
He should stay away, though, from subjects he just doesn’t get – such as conflicts of interest.
Or the dignity of the state’s highest court.
A few days ago, Massa delivered a lesson on the limits of his comprehension. On the morning of Aug. 14, four environmental groups filed a request with the Indiana Supreme Court that Massa recuse himself from a case coming before the court, the controversial coal-to-synthetic gas plant proposed for Rockport.
The environmental groups cited two reasons that Massa would have a conflict of interest – his personal friendship with Mark Lubbers, the Indiana project director for the group trying to build the plant, and the work Massa did as general counsel for former Gov. Mitch Daniels. Daniels was an energetic supporter of the plant.
Massa gave the request about as much consideration as he would choosing the toppings on a pizza Continue reading
August 28, 2013, by Bil Musgrave, member of the United Mine Workers of America Local 1189. Editor’s note: This was originally intended as a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal for publication on Labor Day, next week. They turned him down. 
What a difference a year makes. Working families are now facing wealth inequality so extreme that it is worse than any time since the late 1920’s. We are back to conditions that happened before the great depression, because we deregulated everything that was put in place after the first great depression to ensure it never happened again. The economic recovery is leaving behind many working families.
Bil Musgrave has fought for mine worker safety and health for more than three decades as a former employee of the Squaw Creek Mine, jointly owned by Peabody and Alcoa in Warrick County, IN. Photo© BlairPhotoEVV
U.S. companies have become so obsessed with generating near-term profits that they’re paying their employees less, cutting capital investments, and under-investing in future growth. We now have the lowest wages in history as a percent of the economy.
It shows that Corporations will stoop to any level to increase profits, like deliberate bankruptcy. I am not talking down on your luck ordinary bankruptcy. I am talking premeditated bankruptcy, the Peabody Coal type.
You see to rid itself of its long term promises of lifetime healthcare for the very workers who made Peabody Coal profitable all those years, Peabody devised a plan.
They would create a new company ironically called Patriot Coal Company; Peabody would take all the retired miners from the very profitable Peabody Energy and move them to Patriot Coal. Never mind that NONE of these miners ever worked for Patriot. Continue reading
