Spinning the truth on Leucadia’s Rockport SNG plant

Posted on February 18, 2013 by John Blair

February 18, 2013-by Kerwin Olson, Executive Director, Citizens Action Coalition

citact_logo_2010The Indiana Senate Committee on Utilities is prepared to take a vote this week on SB510, the legislation intended to protect captive Hoosier gas ratepayers from the shenanigans of a Park Avenue hedge fund.  So this seemed like an ideal time to discuss some talking points that the folks at Indiana Gasification and Leucadia keep using when promoting the illusory benefits of the proposed Rockport SNG facility, which remains to this day nothing more than a power point presentation.

The first is the idea that somehow this investment will diversify Indiana’s energy portfolio. George Orwell would be jealous were he alive to enjoy such crafty penmanship. Only in Indiana would we label the building of new coal-fired power plants as diversification. Not only did Duke Energy succeed in the diversification spin to gain support for their fiasco in Edwardsport, now apparently it’s Leucadia’s turn to paint the mining, transporting and burning of dirty Indiana coal as something new.  As we’ve learned throughout the Edwardsport debacle. the only thing new about these synthetic science projects are the exorbitant price tags.Indiana Flag scream

And what’s this about a 30 year no-look contract being a great deal because if ratepayers lose on 17% of their bill that’s somehow a win because 83% of the bill was low?  I’ve heard it suggested that overage could amount to upwards of $28/month, so tell that to the senior citizen or disabled veteran on a fixed income making tough and often inhumane choices every day about how to spend each precious dollar and ask them if they feel like they’ve won when they send that money to Leucadia instead of putting food on the table.  That $28/mo means an awful lot to the single mom working a second job so she can afford day care in order to work the first one.  Statements such as that show just how out of touch the bankers on Wall Street are with real life on Main Street, and is the same line of thinking that led our nation to the brink of financial ruin.

Let’s not lose sight of who we’re talking about here: ratepayers held captive by State-Franchised monopolies. Continue reading →

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WTHR exposes Indiana’s bad air problem

Posted on February 8, 2013 by John Blair

February 8, 2013-by Bob Segall, WTHR TV- Indianapolis

 

13 WTHR Indianapolis

Indiana has a earned a dirty reputation as one of the worst states in the nation for air pollution. But is that reputation justified? As the debate over Hoosier air quality rages across the state, 13 Investigates has learned several cities and towns in Indiana are about to fail an important part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s air safety rules. 13 Investigates where the state’s air pollution is coming from, what’s really coming out all those Indiana smokestacks, and whether the state is doing enough to protect our air.

Power Plants w-o data TriState Proposed small

Tri-State power plants emit a whopping 46,311,982 pounds of what EPA considers “toxic chemicals” from 15,113 MegaWatts of generating capacity. This is the largest concentration of coal fired power plants in North America, if not the world. Illustration: John Blair

Indiana has tons of air pollution – literally, tons of it.

Millions of tons of toxic chemicals and dangerous gasses are pumped into Indiana’s air daily, according to government data obtained by Eyewitness News.

Steel mills, processing plants, all of our cars and trucks … they’ve helped earn the Hoosier State a dirty reputation. In recent years, multiple rankings and studies have prompted somber headlines describing Indiana air quality as some of the worst in the nation.

But if you ask state officials, they say there’s nothing to worry about.

“The air quality is very good in Indiana,” insists Keith Baugues, assistant commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Air Quality.

So who’s right? Is the air in our neighborhoods safe? And why are we getting such different stories?

While there are no easy answers, the controversy seems to center on Indiana’s power plants – by far, the largest sources of pollution in Indiana.

Gasping for air

“Here in Indiana, we are under assault by thousands of megawatts of coal-fired electricity, and coal-fired power plants are the biggest polluters on the planet,” said John Blair, a public health advocate who founded the ValleyWatch watchdog organization in southwest Indiana.

Blair is also a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer who’s been documenting the environmental impact of Indiana power plants, and he says it’s not a pretty picture.

“The air pollution that comes from these coal-fired power plants causes stroke, cancer, heart attacks and asthma, and people are being impacted by it,” Blair said.

Arsenic, lead and mercury top a long list of toxic chemicals released from dozens of coal-fired power plants scattered across Indiana. The Environmental Protection Agency says they also pump out millions of pounds of dangerous gasses such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. Those gasses contribute to the formation of smog, acid rain and small toxic particles that can penetrate deeply into sensitive lung tissue. According to the EPA, inhalation of such particles can cause or worsen respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma, and may also aggravate existing heart disease.

“If you load your air with these pollutants, there’s certainly a correlative effect to these ailments,” Blair said. “The result is, this is not a healthy place to live.” Continue reading →

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Hail the emerging Spring!!!

Posted on February 6, 2013 by John Blair

 

February 6, 2013-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

Sometimes crocus have been earlier, sometimes later but they always herald the coming of Spring. Photo © 2013 John Blair

Sometimes crocus have been earlier, sometimes later but they always herald the coming of Spring. Photo © 2013 John Blair

Each year, around this time, I am reminded that Spring is just around the corner when the crocus in the front yard of the Valley Watch office begin to bloom. This year was no exception and I must say that the scene makes me rejoice that the dreary winter is about to pass and new life starts to appear.

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The surprising connection between Food and Fracking

Posted on February 4, 2013 by John Blair

February 4, 2013-by Tom Philpott in Mother Jones Magazine. Editor’s note: two giant ammonium nitrate fertilizer plants are being proposed in SW Indiana, one in Rockport and one in Mt. Vernon, both at a cost of more than $1 billion.

In a recent Nation piece, the wonderful Elizabeth Royte teased out the direct links between hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the food supply. In short, extracting natural gas from rock formations by bombarding them with chemical-spiked fluid leaves behind fouled water—and that fouled water can make it into the crops and animals we eat.Corn Ear

But there’s another, emerging food/fracking connection that few are aware of. US agriculture is highly reliant on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, and nitrogen fertilizer is synthesized in a process fueled by natural gas. As more and more of the US natural gas supply comes from fracking, more and more of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers use will come from fracked natural gas. If Big Ag becomes hooked on cheap fracked gas to meet its fertilizer needs, then the fossil fuel industry will have gained a powerful ally in its effort to steamroll regulation and fight back opposition to fracking projects.

The potential for the growth of fracked nitrogen (known as “N”) fertilizer is immense. During the 2000s, when conventional US natural gas sources were drying up and prices were spiking, the US fertilizer industry largely went offshore, moving operations to places like Trinidad and Tobago, where conventional natural gas was still relatively plentiful. (I told that story in a 2010 Grist piece.) This chart from a 2009 USDA doc illustrates how rapidly the US shifted away from domestically produced nitrogen in the 2000s.

It was the N of the era: In the 2000s, nitrogen production moved offshore as US natural gas prices rose. Source: USDA

Today, Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation off the coast of Venezuela and our leading source of imported N, is in the same position the US found itself in the early 2000s: Its supply of conventional, easy-to-harvest natural gas is wearing thin. In 2012, the International Monetary Fund estimated (PDF) that at current rates of extraction, the nation had sufficient natural gas reserves to last until just 2019.

Meanwhile, the fracking boom has made US natural gas suddenly abundant—and driven prices into the ground. A Btu of US natural gas now now costs 75 percent less than it did in 2008, the New York Times recently reported. Meanwhile, nitrogen fertilizer prices remain stubbornly high, propped up by strong demand driven by high crop prices. Those conditions—low input prices plus elevated prices for the final product—mean a potential profit bonanza for companies that use cheap US natural gas to make pricy N fertilizer for the booming US market. Continue reading →

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Obama gives homage to Climate Change in his Inaugural Address

Posted on January 21, 2013 by John Blair

January 21, 2013-Inaugural Address of Barack Obama.

Obama 1 HeadBarack Obama mentioned Climate Change in his address today:

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”

Here is the entire address:

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For your viewing pleasure from Space

Posted on January 17, 2013 by John Blair

January 17,  2013- A NASA video of Earth from Space

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A sweltering planet’s agenda-A Washington Post Editorial

Posted on January 15, 2013 by John Blair

January 15, 2013-A Washington Post Editorial. Editor’s note: Valley Watch has long called for a carbon tax that would be refunded to people on an equal basis so that poor people who use little energy could actually benefit from it. We have called such a tax the “Freedom Tax” since it allows those who insist on wasting energy the ability to do so but they would have to pay for the privilege.

Carbon Tax

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last week that 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous United States. By far — a whole degree Fahrenheit.Scientists can’t yet know to what extent man-made emissions influenced the heat and calamitous drought. But the result is nevertheless ominous, “a huge exclamation point on the end of several decades of fairly consistent warming,” as NOAA’s Deke Arndt put it. The year offers a vision of what will happen more often on a planet that is heating — slowly and fitfully, not every year warmer than the last, but inexorably.

There is still uncertainty. Though they have a range of estimates, scientists still do not know exactly how sensitive the global climate system is to human carbon emissions and exactly how steep the long-term temperature line will be. Predicting the consequences of a given temperature rise is also difficult. That’s an argument not for doing nothing but for managing the risks, spending now to avoid the likelihood of much greater costs later, as any good business would do in the face of certain threats of uncertain magnitude.Melting globe

The smartest hedge would be a national carbon tax. It would marshal the market’s power to wring carbon out of the economy, putting decisions about the direction of energy and manufacturing in the hands of consumers and businesses that meet their demands, not Congress and interest groups that lobby lawmakers. When people must pay something for their pollution, they pollute less and invest in cleaner alternatives. A carbon tax would provide more certainty to industry and investors who currently can only guess at what climate policy will look like year to year.

But, given the dim debate on global warming in Congress, another consequence of a carbon tax might be more appealing to policymakers: revenue. Resources for the Future estimates that a tax set at $25 per ton of carbon dioxide would raise $125 billion annually — more than would be saved by eliminating the mortgage interest tax deduction. Even if much of that were rebated to ensure that low-income households weren’t unduly hurt — the right policy — a sizable chunk would be left to shrink the deficit or ease the major tax reform that Washington’s leaders have been promising.Implementing a national carbon tax would be only one step toward addressing climate change, a problem that must ultimately be dealt with globally. But it would be a big one.

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Ozone levels have sizeable impact on worker productivity

Posted on December 19, 2012 by John Blair

December 19, 2012- by e! Science News. Editors note: in 2012, data from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management indicated a total of six violations of the current 75 parts per billion Ozone standard. 

Cloud O3Researchers in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health assessed the impact of pollution on agricultural worker productivity using daily variations in ozone levels. Their results show that ozone, even at levels below current air-quality standards in most parts of the world, has significant negative impacts on worker productivity. Their findings suggest that environmental protection is important for promoting economic growth and investing in human capital in contrast to its common portrayal as a tax on producers. Results of the study are published in the American Economic Review.

Ozone pollution continues to be a pervasive global issue with much debate over optimal levels. While policy makers routinely note that regulating ozone smog leads to many health benefits like reduced hospitalizations and mortality rates, Matthew Neidell, PhD, associate professor at the Mailman School and principal investigator, set out to investigate whether lower air pollution might also affect job performance. Until this research, there had been no systematic evidence on the direct impact of pollution on worker productivity.

The researchers found that a 10 ppb (parts per billion) change in average ozone exposure results in a significant 5.5 percent change in agricultural worker productivity. “These estimates are particularly noteworthy as the U.S. EPA is currently moving in the direction of reducing federal ground-level ozone standards,” said Dr.Neidell, PhD. This past September President Obama said he would not support a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten the federal ozone standard because it would pose too heavy a burden on businesses, which stunned public health experts and environmentalists.

Dr. Neidell also points out that in developing countries where environmental regulations are less strict and agriculture plays a more dominant role in the economy, the effects reported here may have a vast detrimental impact on a country’s prosperity.

Source: Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

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Indiana’s Environmental Chief Easterly advises coal utilities on delaying greenhouse rules.

Posted on December 13, 2012 by John Blair

December 13, 2012 – by PR Watch Staff at prwatch.org

You’re probably familiar with the old “fox in the hen house” story, but what about when a hen joins the fox den?Something's Fishy lgThis is the case with the recent American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in Washington, DC. Leaked documents obtained by Greenpeace reveal that ALEC’s anti-environmental jamboree was inundated with coal money and featured an Indiana regulator advising coal utilities on delaying US Environmental Protection Agency rules to control greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous air pollution.

Tom Easterly has never acted in the interests of Indiana citizens. Instead, he counsels polluters on how to get around the rules in Indiana and elsewhere.

Tom Easterly has never acted in the interests of Indiana citizens. Instead, he counsels polluters on how to get around the rules in Indiana and elsewhere.

Click to view contents of the ACCCE USB drive from ALEC’s 2012 States & Nation Policy summit.At ALEC’s coal-sponsored meeting, where state legislators and corporate representatives meet to create template state laws ranging from attacks on clean energy to privatization of public schools, Indiana’s Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Management Tom Easterly laid out a plan to stall the US EPA global warming action in a power point clearly addressed to coal industry representatives at ALEC’s meeting.

In a USB drive branded with the logo of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a folder labeled “Easterly” contains a presentation titled “Easterly ALEC presentation 11 28 12” explaining current EPA air pollution rules and how Tom Easterly has worked to obstruct them. The power points is branded with the Indiana Department of Environmental Protection seal. In the latter presentation, Easterly ended his briefing to ALEC’s dirty energy members with suggestions for delaying EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions at coal plants. Continue reading →

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Edwardsport “White Paper” reveals mismanagement, and corruption

Posted on December 11, 2012 by John Blair

Edwardsport Report

December 11, 2012 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels made sure his regulators would force Duke's Indiana customers to take the risk for the Edwardsport plant. Here he is shown making that case before the "Energy Summit of Southwest Indiana" held on August 30, 2007, the day before the IURC held a public hearing on the plant. Photo © 2007, John Blair

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels made sure his regulators would force Duke’s Indiana customers to take the risk for the Edwardsport plant. Here, he is shown making that case before the “Energy Summit of Southwest Indiana” held on August 30, 2007, the day before the IURC held a public hearing on the plant. Photo © 2007, John Blair

A Report published by Valley Watch, Sierra Club, Citizens Action Coalition and Save The Valley is an indictment against Duke Energy and its corruption in building the $3.5 billion Edwardsport Generating Station which has become a nightmare for Duke’s Indiana customers who have been forced to bear the bulk of the risks for the ill fated plant.

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 before 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

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 before 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

Download the report by clicking the link above.

 

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Seasonal confusion reigns. But we can’t mention that climate change is happening in the tri-state.

Posted on December 3, 2012 by John Blair

December 3, 2012 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

Earlier in the year, honey bees seemed to disappear from the area then came back in the late summer to feast on late blooming flowers. Now, at least one venturesome honey bee got out to enjoy the unusually high temperatures that were found in much of the Ohio Valley the last few days. Photo © 2012 John Blair

Yes it is December and yes most honey bees disappear in late October but this year with November hurricanes and continuing drought encompassing much of the United States, it is clear that things are changing. Today, temps reached 75° in Evansville on my thermometer. Things are supposed to become more normal in the coming days with highs in the 60s and upper 50s over the course of the week.

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That’s the way they became the Shady Bunch

Posted on November 29, 2012 by John Blair

November 29, 2012- “The Shady Bunch” Video and Music by Corey Jefferson.

 

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Yet another air pollution situation that went unnoticed by local authorities

Posted on November 28, 2012 by John Blair

November 28, 2012-by John Blair, valleywatch.net  editor

For those who were breathing overnight, I hope you were able to survive. I had noticed that the air quality was poor this morning but did not immediately address the issue since my complaints in the last week have gone essentially unnoticed by the media, officials or the health community.

I just talked to friend who told me he had gone through a whole roll of toilet tissue because of coughing up “green shit.”

While we were talking, I looked up the air quality data from the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management near real time data website. It showed we had a serious event that actually started last night and went through 10 AM today. Of course there were no “alerts” issued by either IDEM or the local EPA which should come as no surprise since they do not seem to care about the health of Evansville citizens.

The 24 hour standard for fine particles, PM 2.5 on the chart is 35µg/m3. As you can see from the data below, the Evansville monitor, located on Buena Vista Road near First Ave. showed levels well in excess of that level for many hours overnight, reaching a peak of 50.10µg/m3 during the 6 AM hour.

I would suggest that everyone call the Evansville Mayor’s office and tell him you are fed up with our so called Environmental Protection Agency that is so dismissive of air quality problems we experience around here. At a minimum, they should let people know when the air is approaching the health based standard that is listed as “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” (Sensitive Groups are kids, the elderly, and anyone with any sort of respiratory problem like asthma.) The Civic Center switchboard number is 812 435 5000.

At the top is a screen shot of the data as shown at:

http://leads.idem.in.gov/cgi-bin/idem/daily_summary.pl

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Citizen action wins one in Indiana. Jasper officials prevented sufficient public involvement

Posted on November 20, 2012 by John Blair

November 20, 2012-by Dave Stafford in the Indiana Lawyer

A judge who ruled against opponents of the conversion of a former coal-fired energy plant in Jasper abused her discretion on a series of matters, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Monday in reversing a bench trial that found for the city.

Rock Emmert (R) from Ferdinand, IN, sounds off to Jasper Municipal Utility Generla Manager, Bud Hauersperger, during a hearing held October 11, 2010 where more than forty Jasper area citizens spoke against the proposal to turn the mothballed Jasper Municipal 15 megawatt coal plant into a 75 megawatt biomass and natural gas plant. People across Jasper objected to the facility but in the end the out going mayor signed a contract with a company who’s corporate address was in the middle of a fairway on a golf course in Georgia according to Google Earth. File Photos: John Blair.

The appellate panel stopped short of saying that there were clear violations of the Indiana Open Door Law by the city or its “volunteer” board dominated by city official that met frequently with representatives of a company that won the city’s endorsement of a proposal to convert a dormant coal-fired plant to a biomass-burning plant.

A citizens group called Healthy Dubois County formed to oppose the project because of concern that burning miscanthus grass to produce electricity could carry public health risks. It sued in an attempt to block the signing of any agreements on the plant conversion, claiming among other things that officials had violated the Open Door Law with meetings that led to approval of the proposal. Continue reading →

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Tri-State air pollution event continues. Looks surrealistic!

Posted on November 19, 2012 by John Blair

November 19, 2012-by John Blair valleywatch.net editor

Surreal waves of sulfate air pollution engulf the area just north of the Sebree, KY power complex. Sulfate particles present as a bluish cast as sulfur dioxide (SO2) from coal burning mixes with oxygen molecules (O2) to form sulfate particles (SO4). In this case, the emissions from the power plant looked very odd from the air above. Photo © 2012 John Blair.

Air Quality in the Evansville region continued to be poor today with fine particles increasing to 39.23µg/m3 during the 9 AM hour. Of course, there was no alert issued since that just does not happen even as levels exceed the US health based 24 hour standard 35µg/m3.

Flying to do an aerial photo for a client in Owensboro in that same hour revealed how particulates can take on a surreal look as they engulf the region from the numerous coal fired power plants that permeate the region.

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