July 21, 2008-By Amory Lovins, Chairman, Rocky Mountain Institute. Energy efficiency can save trillions in national costs, but its side benefits are often even more valuable: 6% to 16% higher labor productivity in efficient offices, 20% to 26% faster learning in well-day-lit schools, 40% higher sales in well-day-lit shops, faster healing in efficient hospitals.
Using smarter technologies, more brains and less money to wring more work from less delivered energy--what energy experts call "end-use efficiency"--is the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest, fastest, most diverse, least visible, least understood and most neglected way to provide energy services.
How big is it? The 46% drop in U.S. energy intensity, a measure of energy consumption per dollar of real gross domestic product, during 1975-2005 represented, by 2005, the equivalent of a new energy "source." This source was slightly larger than annual total European energy use, 2.1 times the size of U.S. oil consumption, 3.4 times bigger than U.S. net oil imports, six times domestic oil output or net oil imports from OPEC countries and 13 times net imports from Persian Gulf countries.
But because these savings came not from giant plants but in zillions of tiny pieces imperceptible to the untrained eye, energy efficiency gets little respect. It's ironic, given that rising energy prices automatically make efficiency gains more valuable, and cheaper to attain. And we've barely scratched the surface. Fully exploiting wherever practical the best available efficiency techniques throughout the U.S. economy could save half our oil and gas use, and three-fourths of our electricity, at about an eighth of their current price. Innovative designs, technologies, policies and marketing methods are increasing that potential faster than we are using it up.
The three big efficiency stories--oil, gas and electricity--are all remarkable. As detailed in a Pentagon-co-sponsored 2004 study titled "Winning the Oil Endgame," half of U.S. oil can be saved for the equivalent of $12 a barrel, mainly by tripling the efficiency of cars, trucks and planes--without sacrificing consumer-pleasing design.
Fantasy? Not really. Already, Boeing is beating Airbus with the 787 Dreamliner--a plane that's 20% more efficient than rivals but costs about the same. Wal-Mart, nearly done boosting its trucks' efficiency by 25%, is set to make billions more by doubling their efficiency by 2015. And the hottest strategic trend in automaking--led by Ford Motor, Nissan and China--is making lighter, safer and more fuel-efficient cars.
Another example: natural gas. Half its use can be saved at an eighth of its price, two-thirds indirectly. At times of peak demand, electricity is made largely from natural gas in turbines so inefficient that saving 1% of U.S. electricity, including peak hours, saves 2% of total natural gas use and cuts its price 3% to 4%. This saving is more than paid for by the value of the saved generating capacity, so the net cost of saving the gas itself is less than zero...
Energy efficiency can save trillions in national costs, but its side benefits are often even more valuable: 6% to 16% higher labor productivity in efficient offices, 20% to 26% faster learning in well-day-lit schools, 40% higher sales in well-day-lit shops, faster healing in efficient hospitals. When you count these kinds of side benefits, you double the cost-effective energy savings in a typical steel mill.
Yet the efficiency cornucopia is the manual model: You have to turn the crank. Like any worthy management goal, saving energy requires leadership, learning, metrics, alignment, relentless patience and meticulous attention to detail. There are scores of real obstacles to be overcome. But in any business struggling for energy and capital, energy efficiency is often the highest-return, lowest-risk investment available, limited less by technology or economics than by culture and imagination. (MORE) Go To Original
“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”
Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal. He said the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision, although he said it would require fundamental changes in political thinking and personal expectations.
“This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” Mr. Gore said in his remarks at the conference. “It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life — to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”
Although Mr. Gore has made global warming and energy conservation his signature issues, winning a Nobel Prize for his efforts, his speech on Thursday argued that the reasons for renouncing fossil fuels go far beyond concern for the climate. (MORE)
Evansville recorded highest ozone levels in the state on Wednesday
July 17, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch,net editor. Both the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Evansville Environmental Protection Agency have claimed that the Evansville metro area no longer has an ozone problem and have offered statistical modeling to "prove" it.
Yesterday, though, the Evansville ozone monitor recorded the highest levels in the entire state, peaking at an very unsafe level of 97 parts per billion at 4 PM.
The eight hour reading peaked at 5 PM at a level of 84 ppb, well above the national health based standard of 75 ppb.
High levels of ozone in the air sometimes result in serious health conditions like heart attacks and asthma while making breathing more difficult for most people.
levels of fine particles were also high for periods in Evansville yesterday, although the average over twenty four hours remained beneath the health standard.
High levels of ozone are also expected today.
Valley Watch, whose purpose is, "to protect the public health and environment," will track levels of pollution that imnpacts health in the region. Near Real Time Ozone Data
Eastern Kentucky joins Western Kentucky in quest for liquid coal.
July 15, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Once the kentucky legislature passed a bill providing huge incentives for companies wanting to exploit Kentucky's legendary coal reserves, proposals to turn coal into liquids and gas have flourished. Concerns about health and the environment be damned.
In a situation eerily similar to the late 1970s, Kentucky has again embraced turning coal into anything it can to exploit the massive coal reserves that lie beneath the state's surface.
Yesterday, officials in Pike County joined their counterparts in McCracken County on the other end of the state in saying they would build a coal to liquids facility in the coming years, claiming such a move will be their economic salvation.
In the late 1970s, as oil prices rose to record levels, there were serious proposals that had received actual federal funding for similar facilities from the federal sponsored US Synthetic Fuels Corporation. All those facilities went belly up when it was discovered finally that foreign suppliers of oil would always keep their prices lower than the cost to build and operate comparable synfuel plants in the US.
Most middle eastern and Russian oil can be produced for a few dollars or less per barrel. The cost of production of a barrel of coal derived oil is as much as ten times as much.
That means that synfuel has to have price and loan guarantees in order to compete since OPEC will always be able to sell oil to customers at a lesser price than it can be produced from coal.
Those basic economic facts seem to escape the debate over the veracity of such facilities in coal country which is eager to mine and consume as much coal as possible before the world demands that coal use be quelled due to extreme climate change concerns.
Converting coal into liquid fuels actually increases the amount of CO2 the coal will emit since it releases the gas to the atmosphere both during processing and when it is consumed as a fuel in cars and trucks.
The massive cost to build a coal to liquid facility keeps rising and the projected cost of the proposed $ 4 Billion, 50,000 barrel per day plant announced yesterday for Pikeville, KY is likely to be considerably more than that if and when the plant is ever constructed.
Add to that, the cost of carbon controls which Congress may impose due to world demands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the cost and price of such a facility's output becomes really uncertain.
Cost uncertainty has forced proponents of CTL plants to look to the federal and state governments for loan and price guarantees since the the private sector lenders are squeamish toward such risky ventures.
Today, there is no program available to them similar to the $88 billion US Synthetic Fuels Corporation which passed out direct subsidies to synfuel plants in the early 1980s. Even with those massive subsidies, the industry failed when OPEC nations decided to lower oil prices sufficiently to keep synfuels out of the market.
With big bank failures already occurring in the US due to bad loans for housing across the country, large commercial banks are simply unwilling to invest in schemes that are wrought with great risk and uncertainty.
Of course, time will tell if "peak oil" and its various implications will cause the price of oil to rise to a level that will make synfuels competitive. But already, renewable energy sources are becoming competitive with coal and the beginnings of a paradigm shift away from fossil fuels has begun. Download Sierra Club Liquid Coal Fact Sheet
N.C. v. TVA: epic pollution court battle begins today
At issue are airborne pollutants from the agency's 11 coal-fired plants, most of which dot the Tennessee landscape. Several more are sprinkled just outside the state's borders.
North Carolina, which is largely downwind from the pollutants, says that the TVA plants are a public nuisance, causing deaths, triggering asthma attacks, and damaging waterways and lands.
Further, the state argues that smog from the plants is affecting tourism because it obscures scenic vistas in the Great Smoky Mountains, which North Carolina and Tennessee share.
TVA's reply has been that its coal-burning plants "compare favorably" with others, including those in North Carolina, where it says air quality is "good" but more sullied by the plants inside its own borders.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper maintains that TVA's contribution to pollution is significant and that the agency should be on the same timetable for improvements that North Carolina is requiring its own plants to meet.
"We've been asking TVA for a number of years to make improvements to their coal-fired plants to clean up pollution coming into North Carolina, but we have not gotten any agreement," Cooper said in an interview last week. "The lawsuit is a last resort."
If North Carolina prevails, the court win would almost certainly lead to new regulations that would cut down on the amount of lung-irritating ozone and other particulates being released into the air by the plants, with Tennessee being a major health beneficiary as well, according to North Carolina's expert witness reports. (MORE) Go to Original
"Any public official who shows up (for I-69 groundbreaking) is an idiot." former Bloomington Mayor, John Fernandez
July 13, 2008-by Mike Leonard in the Bloomington Herald Times. 69 construction off to a rocky start. This week’s mystery I-69 groundbreaking promises protest along with celebration.
When former Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez heard last week that supporters of I-69 planned to stage an “invitation only” groundbreaking ceremony on private property this week, he was stunned.
It’s a public project to be financed with taxpayers’ money — but the groundbreaking is closed to the public?
“I think it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s just stupid,” said Fernandez, himself a supporter of the project to extend the interstate from Indianapolis to Evansville on to the Mexican border. “If you’re proud of the project, celebrate it and deal with the fact that some people are going to show up who are opposed to it. Basically, you are throwing down the gauntlet to the people who are opposed to the project and saying, find it and oppose it. Which they will.”
By Friday, it appeared that sentiments such as those expressed by Fernandez had reached the ears of the sponsoring organization, Hoosier Voices for I-69. Voices spokesman Steve Schaefer said that his group had changed its plans and will announce the time and location of the event on Monday. An area for protesters to assemble will be provided. But the event itself will remain private and open only to invited guests.
“We’re a private organization. No public money is being used. What we’re doing is holding a celebration to recognize all our volunteers and all of the citizens who have supported the project,” said Schaefer, who also serves as a lobbyist and vice president for public policy at the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana in Evansville...
“Governor (Mitch) Daniels will attend the event and make comments about breaking ground and getting the project under way,” the governor’s spokeswoman, Jane Jankowski, wrote in an e-mail exchange. “There’s nothing that the organization, and the governor, would like more than to have an event at the site of the highway construction to celebrate this moment, but the actions of a few make alternate plans necessary...”
State officials say it will take an estimated $1.73-$1.83 billion to complete the entire stretch of interstate from Evansville north through Bloomington to Indianapolis. Detractors say that rising fuel and construction costs have made those estimates obsolete over just the past six months...
Former Mayor Fernandez, despite his continued support for I-69, said the private celebration planned this week “is just bad government. It gives people every reason to question the process. I’d say that if there was a Democratic administration in place, too. Any public official who shows up for this thing is an idiot.”(MORE-subscription required)
100% of speakers ask Kentucky to reject Henderson mine permit
July 11, 2008, by Chuck Stinnett, The Henderson Gleaner. Not a single person spoke in favor of a new mine in Henderson County (KY). Instead, speaker after speaker told of strip mine horrors like blasting, dust and safety from coal trucks too large for the roads they will run on.
Residents of the Zion area -- some of whom said they have suffered at the hands of surface mines in the past and no longer trust coal companies -- urged state mine regulators Thursday night to reject an application for a new 537-acre mine near their homes.
"We have been totally lied to and deceived," insisted Eileen Timberlake, a resident of Hatchett Mill Road near the mine site.
Residents opposed to the mine spoke for about 90 minutes at a state Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement public permit conference at the Henderson Fine Arts Center...
Evansville environmentalist John Blair questioned "the honesty of coal companies," which he said "tell you what you want to hear when they come in" but are "loaded with empty promises."
"If they have a problem, they take bankruptcy," Blair said. That indeed is what happened with two companies -- Green Coal and CR Mining -- that left the abandoned strip pits along Chaney Road... (MORE)
July 9, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch,net editor. Carrying a sign that said McCain=Bush to a McCain town hall meeting ended up in trespass charges being filed against a sixty-one year old woman in Denver on Monday.
Reminiscent of the winter day in February 2002 when I was arrested for carrying a sign that said, "Cheney-19th Century Energy Man" across the street from a congressional fund raiser featuring the current VP, Carol Kreck was charged with trespass even though she was on public property at the Denver Center Center of Performing Arts.
In today's Evansville Courier Press, there is s story about a man arrested for questioning a New Harmony, IN town councilman after a meeting of the council. Although the County Prosecutor dropped the charges, the arrest was clearly illegal and served the convenience of a public official who did not want to answer or even be asked a question.
Two weeks ago, a representative of the Citizen's Action Coalition, was told to sit or be escorted out of a public hearing in Rockport, IN becuase he had views that were contrary to those of the president of that town's council and mayor regarding a major polluter that is seeking to build a new plant.
America, land of the free is apparently a mere relic of a slogan, something that used to be but no longer exists.
Free speech is now antiquated and quaint. Speech is no only free if it is agreeable with those in charge.
In my case, I sued and won on both First and Fourth Amendment grounds and won. Lots of people, essentially ignorant of their rights as citizens, simply capitulate, allowing themselves to be bullied by cops and public officials who dislike being held accountable for their words and actions.
Seven and a half years under GW Bush and the principles on which this country was founded have slowing disappeared as we seem to have made an accelerated slide toward fascism in America.
The only thing that will stop this progressive loss of freedom is for each of us to commit to standing up for the rights of all, questioning abusive authority and recording in whatever way we can, those abuses so that our day in court will have real evidence instead of the lies and mistruths that often show up on the "probable cause" affidavits signed by police who seem to hold the Constitution and Bill of Rights in disdain.
Pickens wants wind to replace natural gas as a generation fuel
July 8, 2008-By John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Thrice oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens today revealed his plan to alter the nation's energy habits and mix. See Pickens explain his plan on video below.
T. Boone Pickens has lots of money, earned mainly through dealing in oil markets. Now, he plans to make lots more money building wind turbines to generate electricity that he says can be transmitted both east and west to replace the enormous and recent use of natural gas to generate electricity.
He claims that we can use lots more wind to generate the entire 22% of the mix that gas currently provides. Just this year, electrical generation using gas passed the use of gas for commercial and residential heating resulting in huge price increases for the cleaner burning fossil fuel.
The gas that is freed up by such a move would all go to the transportation sector to power cars and trucks.
Pickens did not address coal, implying that its part of the mix will remain the same. He does say that nukes are part of his plan but deploying nukes is too far into the future to achieve the social and economic problems the $700 billion a year the US sends offshore each year due to oil imports.
Under his plan, $300 million of that would be spent inside the US instead.
Transmission is likely the big obstacle to his plan along with other plans suggested by other energy gurus like Amory Lovins who has suggested that wind and other renewable energy be used to create hydrogen from water and create a hydrogen economy.
That alternative would have us operating fuel cell cars and using localized fuels cells to fill consumer electrical needs.
Transmission is a problem for all electricity schemes. While lines can be built, they are the bane of pretty sunsets, breaking horizons in every direction.
It is also a fact that farmers and other property owners historically have resisted giving up their land for the ugly towers and reduced land for farming.
Transmission over long distances also creates a real efficiency problem as well. AEP engineers told valleywatch.net that line loss mainly due to resistance for transmission averaged 7% for every hundred miles it had to travel.
Increased efficiency might improve that number some, but like other elusive energy promises of the past, that is somewhere out into the future.
Pickens is encouraging people to his website linked below to pledge their support.
Perhaps the commercial nature of the corner made it an attractive site for a neighborhood display since most of the businesses were closed for the holiday. But whatever the reason, my corner, where I do business was turned into something resembling a war zone before it was finished around 1:30 AM.
It seemed to start innocently enough but as the night wore on it became nothing more than a senseless exhibition of disrespect for everything,
As acrid smoke filled the air forcing curious neighbors to retreat inside their homes, hoping their homes would not catch fire or their gardens trampled as frightened youth and adults ran wherever they could to avoid the bursting shells.
At one point, a string of fire crackers at least thirty feet long was lit, setting off what must have been more than 1000 loud reports. For what seemed like ten minutes, small kids took turns jumping over the burning shells in a defiant gesture of false immortality.
But that was prelude for what was to come.
Before long the big shells came out. BOOM! The entire neighborhood lit up. There were no cheers of joy or patriotism just a continual shroud of smoke and deafening exhibition.
One particular weapon of choice looked like a huge brown circular bomb. A three inch orb with a fifteen-second fuse that could be slung after ignition. When it burst usually on the street, it would shower fiery sparks on homes on both sides of the street, probably scaring residents, who by this time did not know where to look since shells were being tossed indiscriminately in every direction.
At one point, several would be bombers tried to blow the lids off of sewer pipes placing several of the mortars inside the storm water grate. A couple fell to the bottom prior to exploding. Who knows what kind of damage was done to the sewers?
Later, one kid hid behind my car where over several minutes he acted out what appeared to be a commando style attack on his friends down the street. His mantra was strictly sneak attack. He waited until they were not looking and tossed one of the big bombs their way, finally eliciting an angry response from one of the young men who apparently understood the treat he was facing.
I retreated to my brick and concrete block office, fingers crossed that I would make it through the evening without the need for emergency services.
Then, it came, the big burst of light and noise.
A few minutes later I heard a fire truck pull up on the street outside. Curious, I went outside where I first saw the assembled crowd cowering is disbelief at what they had seen and done. It looked like something I'd seen on the news from Baghdad or the West Bank.
My neighbor's pickup truck had been blown up, windows shattered and inside gutted with fire.
Putting it out was easy for the firemen. A little water on the charred remains and presto the big explosion was over. Luckily, there was no one in the old model pickup which required lots of TLC just to get it going in the morning. (MORE BELOW)
Photo shows debris from last night's spent arsenal left on the streets this morning.
The neighbors are new to the block, having lived there less than three weeks. I do not even know their names. But they seem to be decent people who have not been a hassle to anyone since they moved in. Now, they had no transportation. That simply went up in smoke.
When the police and fire inspector arrived, they told them all they knew but that revealed little for the gendarmes to act on. How do you pick out a single perpetrator in the dark of night out of a crowd of more than one hundred?
I asked both the firemen and the police about the illegality of what had taken place. Of course the willful destruction of property was a criminal act but it seems nothing else was out of line. The fire inspector said that in Indiana it is acceptable to discharge “any device that can be sold in the state as long as you are eighteen or being supervised by someone over eighteen.” Apparently if it is labeled a firework, anything can be sold here even if it is blindingly bright or deafeningly loud.
What was most troubling was what he said next. “The state loves it, every one of the fireworks merchants pay a fee to the state to sell their shells. It is a huge revenue stream.” With literally thousands of tents and shops set up all over the state to sell these devices, he seemed quite resigned that the legislature had too much stake in the revenue stream to be concerned with public safety.
The explosive nature of such display is not the only risk to people though. There is also the smoke. Last night we had a fairly strong breeze blowing from the north which meant that all the smoke from both the large display downtown and all the neighborhood burns was fast removed from the community. More importantly, it tended to blow away from the fine particle monitor located at the Mill Road Fire Station.
Even so, the monitor registered well above the level considered safe for human health at 10 PM at 43.1 µg/m3. Last year when the winds were more calm and blowing from the south, the same monitor registered a whopping 99 µg/m3, a level that is downright dangerous.
It is certain that air pollution issues never made it into the debate about fireworks at the state legislature. And, if it had, it is more certain that the legislature would have mocked anyone concerned with the issue of health.
That is how Indiana got to be one of the most polluted states in the nation. Our state government embraces pollution for economic gain at every turn. Why would fireworks be any different?
What they fail to recognize is that whether it is the destruction of property or the destruction of our health, the economic impact on innocent people can be devastating. Health insurance rates are high around here because we are sicker than other regions already. Add to that the inevitable increase in casualty insurance due to the numerous fires resulting from indiscriminate use of explosive devices everywhere in the community. Insurance actuaries will have a field day.
Then there is another cost that cannot be ignored. The mess left behind from one of these legal displays is enormous. Rocket tubes, broken glass, millions of tiny shreds of paper and bottle rocket sticks left on the street reduces pride in neighborhoods, which is already in short supply. If it reaches the sewers, all that mess will cost ratepayers a huge sum to filter and dispose, adding even more burden to already strapped local residents.
While I love celebrations of freedom as much as anyone and find the brilliance and color of fireworks compelling to watch, I do not understand why public safety must be thrown out. July 4 is a day to declare our independence but not our independence from common sense.
Indiana fireworks laws are insane. Whatever happened to sparklers?
Midwest floods show signs of global warming
July 1, 2008-by Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters. "These are not random events. We're getting a systematic pattern of floods larger and/or more frequent than currently estimated by those calculations," said Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University.
Floods like those that inundated the U.S. Midwest are supposed to occur once every 500 years but this is the second since 1993, suggesting flawed forecasts that do not take global warming into account, conservation experts said on Tuesday.
"Although no single weather event can be attributed to global warming, it's critical to understand that a warming climate is supplying the very conditions that fuel these kinds of weather events," said Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation.
Warmer air can carry more water, Staudt said in a telephone briefing, and this means more heavy precipitation in the central United States. Big Midwestern storms that used to be seen every 20 years or so will likely occur every four to six years by century's end, she said. (MORE) Go to Original
Arrogance, ignorance, resistance are all part of I-69 issue
"I've cried all I can cry," the grandmother of 55 grand and great-grandchildren said on June 21 in her moldy, now-gutted home of six years. "I've lost everything."
Just across State Road 37, which Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and his Democratic opponent Jill Long Thompson envision as an extension of the Interstate 69 NAFTA Highway, Bill Bergman likewise chuckled. He became a minor media star after painting "Mitch, Make Me an Offer?" on the side of his home and signed it "I-69 Backer."
"If I don't hear from him soon, it's going to be 'Ditch Mitch' on the roof," said Bergman, who sees I-69 as "part of progress." Go to Original
Rockport meeting frenzied. Opposition large but ignored!
As mayor Nedra Groves started the public session, she indicated that she would alternate between those who favored and those who opposed the plant, calling first on the local representative of the Carpenter's Union who praised the plant for all the money he might make from its construction.
But then a surprising development occurred as speaker after speaker rose to speak against the plant in their allotted three minutes. Speakers included townspeople who would be forced to breathe the plant's voluminous pollution from gasifying three million tons of coal each year. But also speaking out against the proposal was a doctor and a cancer survivor as well as numerous others who complained about the faulty economics, environmental and health destruction the plant would bring.
Steve Obermeier, one Rockport resident has been particularly vocal in his opposition wrote a long article in the Rockport Leader prior to the meeting and gave area citizens an alternative point of view which they seized upon to express their opposition.
At one point, things became contentious when Kerwin Olson the Energy Program Director for the Citizens Action Coalition asked for additional time since he had driven "more than four and a half hours" to get to the meeting.
Groves demanded that Olson take a seat and ferociously pounded her gavel while City Council President, Ferman Yearby directed the local police to forcibly remove Olsen from the meeting room since he objected to being told to sit down. Video evidence of Olson's statement showed that Groves cut Olson off well before his three minutes were used.
As it turned out, Olson was not removed and the slew of opponents continued their march to the podium to express their views against the proposal.
In the end, only three people, another carpenter and an eighty-six year old man spoke in favor of the plant while nearly twenty-five people spoke against.
However, even with the opposition dominating the debate, Yearby took charge and read a resolution which put the officials of Rockport clearly on the side of the plant. The skids had been greased and the people's voices would not matter to Yearby and two other men on the Council who voted 3:1 with one abstention to offer support for the plant. The resolution was not made available to the public and a clearly agitated Yearby was not going to be deterred by overwhelming public opinion in his quest to secure the polluting plant for his community.
Connie Hargis was the only council person to vote against although the abstention was a surprise to most and offered hope to locals who are determined to stop the plant.
People in the audience objected strongly to the resolution as Groves violently pounded her gavel in a feeble attempt to quiet the restless crowd threatening some of the audience with removal once again.
After the meeting, opponents discussed ways to get better organized and decided to have a meeting for that purpose in the coming weeks.
My own personal view of the meeting was one of surprise at the level of opposition since there had been no real effort to organize around it and to discover that plant proponents were in the dark over many of the issues and pitfalls their project will face, including their naive understanding of the economics of their proposal.
Home Depot to take back Compact Fluorescent Lamps
June 24, 2008-The Daily Green. Containing mercury, Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs have been difficult to dispose of since they need special handling. Home Depot yesterday announced they will take back unbroken bulbs for proper disposal at their stores nationwide.
Home Depot will create the largest network of compact fluorescent light bulb recycling centers at its 1,973 U.S. stores, the New York Times reports today.
Although CFLs have many environmental benefits, they do contain a small amount of mercury, and so need to be disposed of properly.
CFLs contain up to 5 milligrams of mercury, which is quite a small amount; compare that to older home thermostats and mercury fever thermometers, which contain from 500 to 3,000 milligrams. But given that nearly 300 million CFLs were sold in the U.S. in 2007, according to the Wall Street Journal, it can still be a concern.
Besides Home Depot, other options for recycling and safe disposal include Ikea and True Value stores, community hazardous waste collection sites (Find one near you.) and Sylvania's RECYCLEPAK program.
Home Depot's program will make it easier for more people to recycle, since there's a Home Depot within 10 miles of 75% of the American population, according to a Home Depot official quoted in the Times.
Disposing of used CFLs might seem like a bit of a pain, especially if you have to pay, but note that the recycling cost amounts to just about 1% of the total amount of money you'll spend on a bulb in its lifetime, since energy use is the lion's share. Also note that if you do have a broken bulb, don't handle it with bare hands. Pick up the fragments with a paper towel, seal in a plastic bag, and take to a recycling center. Ventilate the room thoroughly to push out any mercury vapor. Go to Original
July 21, 2008-By Amory Lovins, Chairman, Rocky Mountain Institute. Energy efficiency can save trillions in national costs, but its side benefits are often even more valuable: 6% to 16% higher labor productivity in efficient offices, 20% to 26% faster learning in well-day-lit schools, 40% higher sales in well-day-lit shops, faster healing in efficient hospitals. 
July 17, 2008-by David Stout in the New York Times. "...the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision..." Photo © 2008 John Blair
July 17, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch,net editor. Both the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Evansville Environmental Protection Agency have claimed that the Evansville metro area no longer has an ozone problem and have offered statistical modeling to "prove" it.
July 15, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Once the kentucky legislature passed a bill providing huge incentives for companies wanting to exploit Kentucky's legendary coal reserves, proposals to turn coal into liquids and gas have flourished. Concerns about health and the environment be damned.
July 14, 2008-by Anne Paine, WBIR.com. The Tennessee Valley Authority, establised by the federal government in the 1930s to electrify rural areas of the south is one of the nation's largest polluters. Photo © 2008 John Blair shows TVA's Paradise Power Plant located in Muhlenberg County.
July 13, 2008-by Mike Leonard in the Bloomington Herald Times. 69 construction off to a rocky start. This week’s mystery I-69 groundbreaking promises protest along with celebration.
July 8, 2008-By John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Thrice oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens today revealed his plan to alter the nation's energy habits and mix. See Pickens explain his plan on video below.
July 5, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. Indiana is the laughing stock of the rest of the nation when it comes to public health issues. The state's absurd fireworks law which allows anything labeled as a firework to be exploded by anyone over 18 years old simply proves it once again. Photo © 2008 John Blair shows a truck firebombed by fireworks last night.
Photo shows debris from last night's spent arsenal left on the streets this morning.
July 1, 2008-by Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters. "These are not random events. We're getting a systematic pattern of floods larger and/or more frequent than currently estimated by those calculations," said Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University.
June 29, 2008-by Steven Higgs, The Bloomington Alternative. Daniels, the highway lobby and Indiana media continue using five-year-old INDOT propaganda that estimated I-69 construction costs at $1.8 billion. From his career as a drug company executive to his role in bankrupting working-class investors at the Indianapolis Power and Light Co. (IPALCO) to his stint as George W. Bush's budget director to his three-and-a-half years as governor -- his interest in I-69 is reactionary. Photo ©2007 John Blair
June 28, 2008-by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor. A hedgefund wants to build a coal to gas plant in Rockport, Indiana in order to make lots of money from generous federal and state subsidies and support while ratepayers of Indiana gas utilities assume the risk. A hearing was held by the Rockport City Council on June 25. Photo of Council President Yearby reading his resolution © 2008 John Blair.
June 24, 2008-The Daily Green. Containing mercury, Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs have been difficult to dispose of since they need special handling. Home Depot yesterday announced they will take back unbroken bulbs for proper disposal at their stores nationwide.
