Building North Carolina Solutions

The Building Solutions workshop was a huge success!!

We had nearly 70 people travel from across the state to Winston-Salem this weekend to discuss energy efficiency. The topic may be dry, but it is so vital to our state and to humanity. So, THANK YOU for joining us! Notes from the workshop will be posted soon. Pictures available now!

Clean Cars Coming to NC?

President Obama’s move Monday to allow states to set vehicle emission standards may be a breath of fresh air–quite literally– for North Carolina, where an estimated 40 percent of smog-forming emissions and 34 percent of global warming emissions in our air comes from cars and trucks.

In a sweeping set of directives, President Barack Obama acted aggressively to address global warming and modernize the ailing domestic auto industry by ordering quick action on increased fuel-efficiency standards and swift review of the long-standing request of California and 14 other states for permission to put in place stricter tailpipe standards to reduce global warming emissions.

As of now– once federal permission is granted– 15 states are poised to enjoy cleaner air by virtue of having enacted legislation adopting tailpipe standards that are more stringent than current federal regulations. There’s no longer any reason for North Carolina not to be among that group.

In 2002, North Carolina proudly passed the Clean Smokestacks bill, which addressed air pollution from coal-fired power plants. At the 2002 Governors’ Summit on Air Quality in Charlotte, then Governor Mike Easley said it was time now to clean up the cars. “We have to remember we all came here riding in our own little smokestacks,” he said.

Legislation has previously been introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly that would have our state join the growing number of others states seeking cleaner emission standards, but legislators took a wait and see approach to how EPA would respond to the request of other states for a federal waiver.

Legislators may find of interest a recent NC Division of Air Quality report showing that adopting the California clean car standard would reduce global warming pollution 40% over and beyond the benefits of increased federal fuel economy standards. That’s good news for a state found to be among the most vulnerable in the nation to the adverse impacts of global warming.
The national winds are blowing in favor of cleaning up global warming pollution from cars and trucks. The question now is– will North Carolina join other future-minded states and adopt clean cars legislation?

Snowbama

Tennessee Valley Authority: Not Just About Sludge

Yesterday, a US Circuit Court Judge ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the nation's largest public utility, has to clean up four coal-fired power plants that spew emissions into western NC (the AP, the Charlotte Observer, the Asheville Citizen-Times).

Attorney General Roy Cooper brought suit to force TVA to reduce emissions in 11 power plants - in 3 neighboring states - to levels that would meet North Carolina's Clean Smokestacks Act by 2013. The judge ruled that TVA must install pollution controls on the 4 plants closest to NC. As for the seven remaining plants were denied, the judge found that NC did not adequately prove emissions from those plants hurt NC's air quality.

This is TVA's third environmental problem to get national press in the past few weeks.

1. Air Pollution (January 13th)
2. Coal Ash Disaster (December 22nd)
3. Waste Spill at Widow Creek (January 9th)

Coal: A "Fossil" Fuel for a Reason

A real life tragic wake up call to the ‘clean coal’ myth came on December 22, 2008, when a dam for coal ash waste failed at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee. Now, in North Carolina, Duke Energy is requesting a "minor" source designation for hazardous air pollutants like mercury and sulfur dioxide.

Blog readers have requested more updates on Sierra Club programs, so I hereby present an introduction into the Club's coal work.

The Sierra Club's "Move Beyond Coal" Campaign aims to eliminate one-third of the nation's global warming emissions, by:

1. Challenging new coal plants across the country.
2. Increasing efforts to retire the dirtiest old power plants.
3. Addressing the entire coal cycle, including mountaintop removal mining and its devastating impact on communities.
4. Educating investors and conducting shareholder advocacy to drive investment away from coal and into clean energy alternatives.
5. Stepping up efforts to support clean energy solutions.
6. Strengthening relationships with the public and a variety of coalitions to address coal as it relates to the environment, public health and the economy.

For more:

• Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining: Destroying Appalachia One Mountain At A Time
• Government-funded Global Warming
• Liquid Coal
• Our in-depth report on the Dirty Truth about coal (slimmed down, four-page fact sheet)
• Coal is not the answer, our anti-coal actvist site.

"Building Solutions" workshop

Hello! Only 11 more days to register for the Cool Cities "Building Solutions" workshop. There is limited seating, so you MUST pre-register to attend.

Where: Wake Forest Law School

When: January 24th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

How: Register online

Several speakers have confirmed to share with our members their expert advice and real-world experiences concerning the energy efficient new construction of municipal buildings, including: Piedmont Triad Chapter USGBC Chair, Greg Savage, will discuss specific details energy efficient design and how they have been used across the state in libraries and court houses and elsewhere; Durham City and County Sustainability Manager, Tobin Freid, will discuss the successes and challenges they have faced when using LEED certification; and, Alicia Ravetto, Architect PA, will take you through a step-by-step process of upgrading or construction a municipal building with LEED Gold. Ravetto has conducted several training seminars for cities choosing to build more energy efficient structures, including Raleigh.

Coal ash for Christmas?

(Photo of the Buffalo Creek Flood of 1972.)

No doubt you've heard about the 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash and sludge dumped on Eastern Tennessee on Dec 22 (Bloomberg, Associated Press, NYTimes). Merry Christmas, Tennesseeans, the arsenic levels of your local water sources are anywhere from 35-300 times the allowable rate. From the Huffington Post article just linked:

"I've never seen levels this high," said Dr. Shea Tuberty, Assistant Professor of Biology at the Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Lab at Appalachian State University. "These levels would knock out fish reproduction ... the ecosystems around Kingston and Harriman are going to be in trouble ... maybe for generations."

The disaster in Tennessee, which TVA is apparently newspeaking as an "ash slide", is just another example of why coal-fired power plants are a persistent threat to public and ecosystem health; too risky as energy sources; and an unwanted source of toxic emissions, like mercury.

In North Carolina, Duke Energy operates 10 coal ash basins, 4 of which are labeled "high hazard" by the state (labels are based on environmental damage should the containment dikes fail, as explained in this excellent report by the Charlotte Observer). We know the degredation to our countryside, our air, and our health, and yet we are building another coal-unit at an estimated ratepayer/taxpayer expense upwards of $2,000,000,000.

There are many, many reasons to move away from coal (how about mountain-top removal coal mining? or climate change?) But, an important question, one of common sense, is this: why handcuff ourselves to an outdated energy source, one that is a terrible, foreseeable waste of state funds, especially when all that money could go towards renewable sources?

The Sierra Club has been opposed to Cliffside expansion since day one. Want to tell the incoming Perdue Administration how you feel about all this? At one of the following public hearings, voice your disapproval and state that Cliffside will not be a "minor" source of toxic emissions:

• 6 p.m. Jan. 22 at Statesville Senior High School, 474 N. Center St. in Statesville.
  


• An initial hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 15 in Forest City, near the plant, at Chase High School, 1603 Chase High School Road.

GPM, not MPG

Professors at Duke University sent a kind thank you note to the Sierra Club for stories earlier this year in the Compass and Green Life on why gallons per mile is better than miles per gallon. Here's the note:

Thank you for raising awareness about the problems with MPG. I wanted to let you know that we've created a web-based tool to help people convert MPG to "GPM". These calculators let people see the actual gas consumption (and savings) of different cars. One calculator can be used for a choice of MPG, distance, and gas price. Two other calculators allow consumers to examine new 2009 cars and evaluate them based on GPM (using MPG data from the EPA).

These calculations are critical to helping people see their true gas consumption (and carbon emissions) and not be tricked by MPG. I hope they'd be of interest to readers or could be posted with guides to car buying. I'm eager to see either the EPA or Consumer Reports adopt GPM, and am trying to provide the necessary tools in the meantime.

A few other links that might be of interest:

I'm maintaining a webpage here that explains the problems with MPG and argues for GPM.

And "gallons per mile" was featured in the New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas.

Thanks again for your interest earlier in the year.

Best,

Rick,
Duke University

Happy New Year - now let's get to work

Alas, the holidays fade away, the egg nog wears off, and we again have public hearings on the Cliffside coal plant. As you know, last month a US Circuit Court Judge ruled that Duke Energy violated the Clean Air Act by not complying with MACT standards for its new coal-unit, currently under construction.

But that was last month, and the wheels turn and life goes on and construction continues; remember, the ruling did not halt construction on the plant. So what's the reality on the ground? You couldn't do any better than Bruce Henderson's analysis at the Charlotte Observer. The quick rundown: Duke is contending that the new coal-unit will be a "minor source" of toxins like mercury. There will be two public hearings on this "minor source" issue - one in Forest City, one in Statesville.

• 6 p.m. Jan. 22 at Statesville Senior High School, 474 N. Center St. in Statesville.


• An initial hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 15 in Forest City, near the plant, at Chase High School, 1603 Chase High School Road.

For more information, read this article in the Asheville Citizen-Times, which includes instructions on how to mail in your written comments if you are unable to attend.