environment Politics: biomass burning house bill 4458 pat jehlen paul donato
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Month 4, Day 9: MA State Business
The people at StopSpewingCarbon asked me to write/call to my State Legislators in support of MA House Bill 4458. I didn’t know much about it, so I did a little research (just a little; it’s getting late).
It sounds like a good idea to me:
The Massachusetts Medical Society, The American Lung Association of New England, The Massachusetts Sierra Club, and the Stop Spewing Carbon Campaign…offered very powerful testimony this Wednesday in Boston supporting House Bill 4458.
The next 2-3 weeks are critical to getting something done in the Legislature. The American Lung Association of New England and the Massachusetts Sierra Club have committed to making House Bill 4458 a high priority for their organizations in the upcoming weeks. We do need your backup to be effective. Each Representative and Senator must receive many calls on House Bill 4458 if we want them to do the right thing.
Oddly, a teabagger group in Western Massachusetts posted this on their website, with the bizarre comment:
Why must this bill reduce CO2 why can’t it just end the subsidies?
Because CO2, as we all know, is life. (warning: link goes to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing climate denialist thinktank).
Dear Representative Donato and Senator Jehlen,
I write to ask you to support House Bill 4458, “An Act to Limit Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Renewable and Alternative Energy Sources.” Massachusetts will do well to prevent burning wood, construction waste and other debris in power plants.
Despite the “green” label given by supporters of biomass burning, this form of power generation is anything but:
Burning biomass releases even more particulate matter into the atmosphere than a coal plant, with concomitant impacts on the health of our population.
Burning wood and biomass causes increased CO2 emissions. While trees will be planted to replace those burned, it will take several decades for a growing tree to absorb anything close to the amount of CO2 emitted; the carbon balance may be maintained in the long run, but right now it is imperative that we drastically reduce atmospheric CO2 in the short-term if we are to insure a habitable planet for us all.
Because biomass plants are water-cooled, many Massachusetts rivers will face massive water withdrawals year-round, as well as heat discharges. The pressure on wood sources will adversely affect headwater and tributary streams to many of our state’s most beautiful rivers.
The new biomass plants proposed for central and western Massachusetts are projected to consume more wood than we have in the State’s forests, and they’ll eventually be forced to burn construction debris, animal waste, and municipal trash.
It is important that our state be engaged in the struggle to develop robust alternative sources of energy. But this form of biomass burning is a bad idea.
Please support House Bill 4458.
Thank you,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: denialists Ed Markey George Will idiots
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Month 4, Day 4: I’d Loooove to See George Will Under Oath!
I thought I’d ask Ed Markey to hold some more hearings on all the industry-funded denialists we keep seeing on the boob tube and in print. I’d love to see George Will get quizzed, wouldn’t you?
And this piece at DK is the other part of the puzzle. Who’s giving the denialists all their funding? Koch Industries, that’s who.
Dear Representative Markey — Thank you for all you have done so far on the crucial issue of global climate change. The Waxman-Markey legislation is an excellent start on a realistic approach to this greatest of all threats.
Unfortunately, the Republican opposition and their enablers in the print and broadcast media are continually disseminating misinformation that serves to confuse the public and to render the debate unintelligible to the average person. This is tragic; since the effects of climate change don’t differentiate between Republicans and Democrats, the denialists are simply making their own futures more uncertain and terrifying.
Now that the so-called “Climategate” or “Climatehack” scandal has been conclusively debunked by the British House of Lords, can we ask you and Rep. Waxman to hold further public hearings on the industry connections of prominent climate change deniers? These people are mendacious in the extreme, and they’re doing it in large part because they’re paid well, often by Koch Industries, as Greenpeace’s recent report makes stunningly clear. Theirs is a malign combination of cupidity and stupidity that has done incalculable damage already (George Will comes immediately to my mind. How about you?)
It is up to the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate to expose these frauds and corporate shills for what they are. Without clearing the air of their misleading statements and deliberate obfuscations, genuinely robust climate legislation will be terribly weakened. And there is no time to waste.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: EPA hardrock mining waste dumping
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Month 4, Day 3: SRSLY? WTF?
Another piece of environmental insanity caught my eye yesterday. Read on and weep:
Dear President Obama ,
I’ve already written to you this week about your decision to include offshore drilling as part of your proposed energy legislation. That was demoralizing enough, but yesterday I learned that your administration has decided to defend in court a Bush-era regulation that allows unlimited dumping of hard rock mining waste on public land.
Earthworks et al. v. Department of the Interior et al. is currently before the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This suit challenges two decisions by the Bush administration that allow private mining firms to dump waste on public land without compensating the government for any environmental damage.
Worse, the filing indicates that the White House has had an opportunity to either reverse the rule or study its effectiveness, but instead has chosen to defend it in court.
This is incomprehensible. Your admininstration has no business continuing rules from the previous administration that represent a huge liability to the taxpayer, and a massive gift to the hardrock mining industry.
The EPA has identified hardrock mining as “posing the highest financial risk for taxpayer cleanups,” noting that:
* “[T]he hardrock mining industry has experienced a pattern of failed operations, which often require significant environmental responses that cannot be financed by industry.”
* The hardrock mining industry “releases enormous quantities of toxic chemicals”—according to the 2007 Toxic Release Inventory, 28 percent of the total releases by U.S. reporting industries.
* EPA’s expenditure data shows that between 1988 and 2007, approximately $2.7 billion was spent on cleanup of hardrock mining facilities, with $2.4 billion going to National Priority List sites. The largest portion of these expenses has been incurred since 1998.
There is no excuse for your administration attempting to defend these rules, which prolong the inexcusable practice of waste dumping on public lands. Please heed the words of the EPA and reverse this decision, settling the lawsuit and revising the rule.
This would be both environmentally and fiscally responsible. The present course is anything but.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama Medford Transcript offshore drilling
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Month 4, Day 2: Recycling is Important!
I took my letter to the POTUS from yesterday, did a bunch of tweaking, added a little dig about leaf-blowers and wars, and sent it off to my local paper, the Medford Transcript.
I’d love to believe that President Obama’s decision to encourage offshore oil drilling is only a part of a more sweeping political strategy which will confuse the Republican opposition, leaving them no choice but to support policy initiatives which will ultimately focus much more on alternative and renewable energy sources. Our national addiction to cheap fossil energy means that in order to power our SUVs, flatscreens, leafblowers and wars, we’re taking carbon out of the earth and putting it into the atmosphere, causing potentially catastrophic warming effects, of which the recent flood-level rains are just one example. The last thing we need is to further expand oil and coal use!
The surprise announcement of this component of an Obama energy policy reminds me of the build-up to the passage of health-care legislation, in which Democrats abandoned progressive positions before negotiations began, stripping out many of the reforms we needed most desperately. The problem with basing climate legislation on strategic exigencies is that we need a policy that’s based on climatic reality, not political gamesmanship. The window of opportunity for our species is rapidly closing; there is very little “later” available.
While I appreciate the complexity of President Obama’s dilemma, I am dismayed by the latest turn of events. The President needs to focus our national attention on the requirements of sustainable energy, conservation, and the urgency of reducing our individual and national carbon footprints. There is no time to lose, and none to waste.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama offshore drilling
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Month 4, Day 1: April Fools!
Yesterday’s news that our President wants to allow offshore drilling motivated me to generate a mid-week blast.
Dear President Obama – I certainly hope that your decision to encourage offshore drilling is part of a larger political strategy that will culminate in a vastly expanded program of investment in alternative and renewable energy.
I’m willing to accept that an energy program can include increased extraction of oil resources, but those resources won’t last for long. If humanity is to have a chance of surviving the coming climate crisis, we must find ways to meet our energy needs that do not involve taking carbon out of the earth and putting it into the atmosphere. We are already killing our planet. Burning oil and coal is accelerating the process.
Perhaps this component of your energy program is part of a strategy which will confuse the Republican opposition, leaving them no choice but to support policy initiatives which will ultimately focus much more on alternative and renewable energy sources. I certainly hope so. I am afraid, however, that it is a repeat of some of the worst things that happened during the build-up to the passage of your health-care legislation — giving away a progressive negotiating position before negotiations have begun, whittling away at what’s left until hardly anything remains, then passing legislation that’s been gutted of almost everything we need with enormous ballyhoo.
Sound cynical? I’m afraid I am. While passing health legislation was an enormous triumph, the fact is that many of the reforms we needed most desperately were stripped out well in advance. When this happened to health-care legislation, we (your progressive supporters) were able to adjust, saying, “we’ll fix it later.”
But Mr. President, the problem with climate legislation is that there is not much “later” for us to work within. The window of opportunity for our species is rapidly closing.
Please focus more of your attention on the requirements of sustainable energy, conservation, and the urgency of reducing our individual and national carbon footprints. There is no time to lose, and none to waste.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: idiots James Inhofe Time Magazine
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Month 3, Day 30: Time Quotes Inhofe. WTF?
Here’s an article at Time Magazine about yet another relatively trivial error in the IPCC report. Naturally, in an effort for “balance,” the author includes statements from James Inhofe.
The faux controversy over relatively minor errors and inept analogies in the IPCC report serves only to confuse members of the public who aren’t paying attention. The overwhelming consensus of scientists is that global warming is real and that it’s largely caused by human beings. When print and broadcast media routinely issue daily corrections over far more egregious misstatements of fact, the notion that a 3,000 page scientific report has mistakes in it should be unsurprising. Scientists are human, and they make mistakes; science itself, however, is a method of addressing error and misconception. Our media routinely treat scientific statements as somehow equivalent to statements of opinion, as witness Abend’s readiness to include statements by James Inhofe in her article. The Oklahoma Senator knows nothing of science, basing his arguments on things he wishes were true (AGW is a fraud, the Rapture is imminent, etc.) rather than on verifiable facts. For those of us who can comprehend the warnings of the scientific community, Inhofe is absurd at best and malevolent at worst. He has no business in a serious discussion of the most important existential threat humanity has ever faced.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Big Coal Big Oil John Kerry
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Month 3, Day 28: Keeping the Pressure On
This goes off to John Kerry. Now I’m just anxious that the Senate will actually DO some climate legislation…and that it won’t be just another industry giveaway.
Dear Senator Kerry,
Now that health care legislation has been passed (and congratulations and thanks for your advocacy on this landmark achievement!) it’s time for the next chapters of the Democratic agenda. I understand that next on the legislative menu will be financial reform, which I think is an excellent choice. The misbehavior of the big banks and investment firms is all too obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention. The only worry we have is that the bill will contain too many loopholes and giveaways to the fiduciary miscreants who got us into this mess in the first place.
Interestingly enough, that’s the same worry I have with the climate legislation you are developing with Senators Graham and Lieberman. Will the worst polluters in the world be given concessions that allow them to continue their environmentally destructive behavior in the years to come? Make no mistake, to allow this (in the name of “maintaining a positive relationship with the business community” or some similar phrasing) will be to doom any efforts to address climate change responsibly. We need to get atmospheric CO2 down to 350 ppm or less; we need to take immediate action to deal with the two unresolved dilemmas of the climate crisis — oceanic acidification and polar methane.
This is as grave a crisis as humanity has ever faced. Regardless of what we do, it’s a given that the lives of our grandchildren will be unimaginably different. If we take the right action now, their lives may be different in a positive way: sustainable, frugal, globally responsible. If we fail, their lives may be something we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies. The short-sighted and irresponsible behavior of big oil and big coal (and of the US Chamber of Commerce, among others) should ensure that these parties no longer deserve a seat at the negotiating table. Their contributions to climate change legislation are guaranteed to weaken its effect and impede its implementation.
It is time to put planet over profit. No more concessions to the Carbon Lobby!
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama
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Month 3, Day 27: Another Saturday POTUS
The first post-healthcare letter to the President. Congratulations where congratulations are due, and all that.
Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on the passage of health care legislation. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have done yeoman service to America in bringing the bill forward and creating the circumstances for a “yes” vote. I have every hope that you will continue to advance your agenda over the next few months. Let’s keep the momentum going.
I understand that the next big legislative package will be on financial reform; this is sorely needed, and if the legislation is not unnecessarily diluted with too many giveaways to the financial criminals who broke the system in the first place, it will have an immediate and powerful effect on the country’s confidence in its economic system. And after financial reform, what?
This letter is to urge you to make the upcoming climate bill the next item on your agenda. We need meaningful legislation to be passed before the next round of climate talks. It is absolutely crucial that this bill be free of egregious concessions to major polluters. Big oil and big coal have no interest in making this bill better; their interest is in their own short-term bottom lines. In fact, strong climate legislation is analogous to strong financial reform. In both cases, the government needs to ensure that the people’s resources are not wasted and destroyed for the sake of a corporate profit margin — and that we as a society learn to live responsibly and within our means.
If a climate bill is passed soon, the fickle components of the electorate will have had ample time to forget it before November — while the environmentally aware Democratic base will be energized.
I know I will. Pass strong legislation on climate change and I’ll donate and volunteer double what I did in 2008. This is the most important thing we’ll ever do.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Harry Reid U.S. Senate
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Month 3, Day 26: I’m Just Semi-Wild About Harry
As promised, a reprise of my note to Nancy Pelosi. Harry Reid has finally roused himself from his stupor of timidity and now appears to be showing a modest amount of spine. Perhaps we should all encourage him.
Dear Senator Reid,
Congratulations on the final passage of the health care bill. It has been a pleasure to see you standing up to the egregious misbehavior of the Senate Republican Caucus. Don’t back down; they deserve a far harsher scolding than you have thus far given them!
But this letter is not about that. I’m writing to urge you to bring similar passion and strength to the passage of meaningful climate legislation in the coming years. The bill that Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham are working on is only a start, and it looks like it’s going to get watered down with extensive giveaways to the world’s biggest polluters. We are going to need much stronger and more robust approaches to the climate crisis in the next few years, or the consequences to our nation and our planet will be unimaginable.
This is a harder sell, I know. Persuading members of an elected body to support legislation that addresses problems which are only beginning to happen is contrary to the usual practice of American politics, which is to wait until things are at crisis point until doing anything. Unfortunately, that won’t work with the Earth’s climate, which doesn’t care about the exigencies of American politics. By the time things are at a crisis point, it will be too late.
For a century we’ve heard from timid politicians and pundits that “it’s not the right time to fix health care.” They’ve been proved wrong by a newly resolute and determined Democratic Party.
We’ve also been hearing that it’s not the right time to address climate change, for there are so many other priorities that occupy our political attention. But it will never be “the right time” to address climate change, because the lag between climate action and climate response is greater than the electoral cycle of a U.S. Senator.
While it may not be “the right time” to tackle the climate crisis — it’s the only time we’ve got. This problem can’t be kicked down the road for a future Congress to handle.
Thank you for all that you have done for our nation.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Boston Globe idiots Senate Republicans
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Month 3, Day 25: Uh, Oh! Somebody’s Having A Meltdown
The Boston Globe had an editorial on Tuesday pointing out the difficulties that lie ahead for any Democratic policy initiative. As editorials go, it was nothing special…but it provided me with a hook for today’s letter, a rehash of yesterday’s shot off the Herald’s bow.
As the Senate moves to voting on the reconciliation fix for health care legislation, the GOP has fixed on a political strategy of total non-cooperation. What does this mean for future policy-making? Well, Lindsey Graham has been working on climate legislation with Senators Kerry and Lieberman, but it seems likely he’s going to take his ball and go home, because his pique at a Democratic success outweighs any sense of obligation to the long-term health of the planet.
That our governance is immobilized by the GOP’s grade-school tantrums is deplorable. That climate legislation may be held hostage by their passive-aggressive tactics is inexcusable.
Warren Senders