NC Cool City list serv is ready to serve

The NC Cool City list serv has been compiled and will be sharing news about the economic stimulus contribution and other energy efficiency happenings around the state. You can join by emailing me or clicking here to register directly.

Once you have registered, please keep everyone updated about accomplishments in your town. Have a question--you can ask everyone on the list serv about energy efficiency and activism, sustainable communities, or anything else related to Cool Cities.

I look forward to communicating with you regularly!!

Cool Cities look to federal stimulus funding and to more media coverage.

It is a great time to be a Cool Community, and it is about to get even better. Stimulus funding will boost local energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives already in place. Greensboro is an excellent example of a Cool City poised for action.

Greensboro City Council approved an energy performance contract with Pepco Energy Services. The $6.1 million contract will pay for solar hot water systems at the Melvin Municipal Office Building and five fire stations, 9,000 new energy-efficient light fixtures, new air handlers for City Hall, and a chiller for The Depot and the Bardolph Building on Washington Street.

Similar actions will soon be funded by the stimulus package, saving our Cool Cities big green. Read more on news-record.com.

How Green Is It?

Reports indicate that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will create a lot of green work in NC.

Last week, WUNC.org discussed what exactly would change in the NC employment and business landscape (audio). The talk centered on two questions:

...have we reached a tipping point where demand for clean-energy technology has caught up with supply? And how can the demand for green jobs help put those in our most impoverished communities to work?

For more, a report by two participants of that talk, Gary Gereffi and Marcy Lowe of the Duke Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness, lays out how climate change and job creation are inherently linked (PDF). Their thesis: American ingenuity is perfectly suited to the growing demand for renewable and clean energy.

Climate Change and Jordan Lake

A lot is going on nationally - there's the whole dirty tar sands issue, and the word's out that the new leadership at the EPA expects to regulate carbon dioxide, as well as other greenhouse gases. Not only would such a move by the EPA change dramatically the way various industries - automakers, energy producers, and manufacturing firms, to name the obvious - go about their business, but the US government would have serious cachet at the Copenhagen talks scheduled for December.

With all that news, it can be easy to lose sight of what's going on here in NC, especially water issues, which don't tend to grab the headlines like our new president's first official trip abroad.

It might be news to you that we're sliding back into a statewide water emergency.

And it's probably news to you that the Jordan Lake Rules are under fire at the General Assembly. An important source of drinking water in the state, Jordan Lake rather needs a bit of a tune-up, and effectually, the introduced legislation would more or less undermine the principles of the Clean Water Act.

The Clean Water Act puts forth pollution levels that water sources must meet; Jordan Lake does not meet the standards for chlorophyl and alkalinity, as our friends over at NC Conservation Network have pointed out. To restore Jordan Lake to health is going to cost a lot of money, and that has caused quite a few grumbles from the private sector and various municipalities. But when you notice that the Bush-era EPA (!!) gave its seal of approval to the Jordan Lake Rules, the issue clarifies.

Jordan Lake is the main drinking water source for Cary, Apex, Morrisville, Northern Chatham and the Wake County portion of RTP. It simply cannot continue to be so polluted. In 1997, the General Assembly stipulated that the lake be cleaned by 2003 in the Clean Water Responsibility Act, so, yeah, we struck out on that one, but it's not like the pricetag has caught the state by surprise. It costs a little money to keep your environment livable and drinkable.

More info: NC Policy Watch's "Sabotaging the Jordan Lake Rules", CleanJordanLake.org, Clean Jordan Lake factsheet

More Sierra Coal Victories

President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will reconsider the midnight memo issued by former EPA Administrator Steven Johnson which sought to prohibit controls on global warming pollution from coal-fired power plants. The decision should halt virtually all new coal plant development until the EPA decides how to address global warming pollution from coal plants (Washington Post, NYTimes).

David Bookbinder, Chief Climate Counsel for the Sierra Club, had this to say:

This decision stops the Bush Administration's final, last-minute effort to saddle President Obama with its do-nothing policy on global warming.

Moreover, in response to a Sierra Club petition concerning a Utah coal plant, EPA head Lisa Jackson announced that the EPA would revisit the permit and solicit public comment.

It never ends...

I was going to ignore George Will's article in this weekend's Washington Post, but as the piece a) wrongly cites research, and b) has made its way into the News & Observer, alas, I cannot.

Naturally, the article provides almost zero source links but does have a soundbite:

According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center [UIACRC], global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979.

The piece has been thoroughly skewered elsewhere - Denialism, The Island of Doubt - so I just want to make sure two things are noted.

• The UIACRC almost immediately responded to the Post's article:

"We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined. [emphasis mine]"

The National Snow and Ice Data Center also should have been consulted, one would think, but of course thinking and unconditionally denying climate change don't really go together.

• Climate change is not about the entire earth feeling warmer all at once; regional evidence, i.e. "It's cold in [my town] today, colder than this time last year. Guess climate change isn't really happening.", does not disprove climate change theory, but more often than not bears out peer-reviewed research. The scientific consensus is that an average raise in global temperature will have unusual effects on local weather.

(De)Stabilized Beaches?

In 1979, erosion control structures first became regulated in NC; the initial regulations prohibited hardened structures for new developments, but those already in place could remain. But the ban changed in 1985. From that point on, all permanent erosion control devices were prohibited. Even the old ones had to go.

North Carolina’s policies against beach hardening have been (and are) frequently challenged, but state policies have gained broad public support and national recognition as responsible and far-sighted. Despite numerous attempts at eradicating the hardened structures ban, it survived well into the mid-1990’s and remained so popular that it passed into law in North Carolina General Statute 113A-115.1.

Currently, our state's beaches are having a tough time. As Duke Professor Emeritus Orrin Pilkey explains in the Fayetteville Observer:

North Carolina’s beaches face a lot of problems, including overdevelopment, rising sea level, rapid erosion rates, and a paucity of beach-compatible sand for beach replenishment...There is unanimous agreement among N.C. coastal geologists that mining of inlets, and groin or jetty emplacement, will likely create more problems than they solve. But our message is viewed by developers and politicians as negative, one that stands in the way of progress.

In a letter sent to NC legislators in the 2008 short session that opposed Senate Billl 599, which in theory allowed a "pilot program" of terminal groins off Figure 8 Island; practically, scientists urged regulators to look at the science; experiments have shown that that "control" technologies often damage adjacent beaches. SB 599 would have punched a sizable hole in North Carolina's science-based coastal management laws; oft-quoted and true, a common caution against beach "protection" and "renourishment" is that North Carolina doesn't want a coastline like New Jersey's. NC Sierra Club opposed SB 599 and recommends lawmakers reject any bill that threatens North Carolina’s proven, working coastal policies that prohibit beach hardening.

Drought Part Deux

In 07-08, North Carolina endured its worst drought ever, and the response is still being measured (at least at WaterWiki, if not the General Assembly). 56 counties fit the profile of extreme, severe, or exceptional drought.

Looking forward, North Carolina should make changes to its 600+ water systems to ensure healthy rivers, lakes, and watersheds to support fish and other aquatic wildlife as well as recreation.

In a state where leaks can account for as much as 30% of all water loss in certain communities, opponents of water efficiency measures erroneously characterized (or misunderestimated) the issue as one of property rights, but as former governor Mike Easley put it at a press conference I attended, "you might own your driveway but you don't own I-40."

Apparently, citizens are right back at pre-drought water level usage, and this is precisely the reason why efficiency mandates need to be institutionalized. When asked to, people conserve, but reality has made it clear that we need more stringent water policies. It looks like the 07-08 drought might become the 07-09 drought.

Climate Change: The Pricetag

Today, in the Big Money, Eric Pooley discussed how journalists cover the economics of climate change. His main point: while the media tends to report a widespread scientific consensus on climate change - i.e. it's happening, it's man-made, and that we'd better reduce our emissions - they tend to downplay any economic consensus on the monetary costs of climate change.

Pooley calls on journalists to stop treating junk forecasts and industry PR campaigns like they are credible and scientific.

What I like about the piece is its candidness - Pooley doesn't pull any punches. He calls on journalists to tell the climate story like eminent economists see it. How do those economists see the costs of climate change? A science-based domestic climate policy will not be nearly as challenging as the recent economic meltdown; said cost, however, will rise the longer we wait to take action. [economists listed in Pooley's article]

Action on climate change will not be easy, but it is doable. See what Sierra Club member have decided as our climate priorities.

World Fair Trade Day

World Fair Trade Day 2009 takes place on Saturday, May 9 and the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade program is excited to help make it an even bigger success than last year. If you are a supporter of fair trade, then take this opportunity to host an event or join up with one in your community and show your support for good jobs, a cleaner environment and better livelihoods for communities around the world.

To learn more about how you can participate in World Fair Trade Day email Responsible.Trade@sierracub.org or visit http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=aumw8sGOpYcCYPibenq9mA..

Waking Up Cool

Capital Group member, Marvin Woll, has been working tirelessly with the Wake County Board of Commissioners and their sub-committees with the overall goal of Wake County becoming the state’s next Cool County.

A few months ago, several Capital Group members met and brainstormed how Wake County could benefit from the Cool County program. And now, the Commissioners are starting to agree. This week I joined Marvin, Tommy Esqueda, Environmental Services Director, and Matthew Roylance, Environmental Services Manager in a discussion about specific energy reduction techniques that they want to implement in 2009.

Email Marvin to learn how you could help this movement!

Obama and Offshore Drilling

Today, the Obama Administration abandoned the Bush Administration's offshore drilling plan, a decision that is good for North Carolina.

Last month, Speaker Pro Tem Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney convened a legislative study commission that will take a hard look at the pros and cons of offshore drilling off our coast. The Obama administration's decision will allow North Carolina more time to examine the effects of proposed projects in neighboring states.

Secretary Salazar, from the afore-linked MSNBC article:

"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside" the plan "and create our own timeline."

Alleging that the Bush administration "had torpedoed" offshore renewable energy in favor of oil and natural gas, Salazar said he was extending the public comment period by 6 months.

Last year, as the chorus of "Drill, Baby, Drill" drowned out sane discussion on US energy policy, Congress allowed the moratorium on offshore drilling to expire. Not only did the drilling harangue ignore the large droves of scientic research urging a curb in carbon emissions (Hansen et al, 2008; supporting material), it coincided with a political season (known for rational debate, sound decision-making, and evidence-based pragmatism [note: sarcasm]). What we need is a more nuanced and informed energy policy; this decision is a step in the right direction.

Reinvesting in America

The economic stimulus package is hot, hot, hot. You cannot turn on the TV or the radio without hearing someone discussing it…and they are probably complaining or at least acting a bit scared.

But, since you are reading this blog, you are probably aware of its potential great impact in our environment, carbon emissions, energy efficiency and green jobs. And now you have an opportunity to vote on projects that may be funded by the stimulus package.

Hold your public officials accountable for the taxpayer money they spend and tell them which types of projects you hope to see funded.

Read what Sierra Club has to say about the stimulus package.

Blogging about Blogging!!

Videos from the Cool City Building Solutions workshop hit the wires last week, including a Fabulous Blog in Asheville. View more of these videos online or scan through the presentation power points on our resources webpage.