MVCAC March 2008

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2 participants
6 discussions

160 square miles
by duane330＠aol.com 30 Mar '08

30 Mar '08

Polar News and Notes: Antarctic Ice Sheet Break-Up Friday, March 28th, 2008 8:27 am Written by: Jessica Fries-Gaither, NSDL.org A 160 square-mile chunk of ice broke off from the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica on Tuesday. The ice, approximately seven times the size of Manhattan, had started to break up in late February. Scientists noticed the movement in satellite images and were able to capture footage and images of the event. Unlike sea ice, which floats freely on the ocean, an ice shelf is a portion of glacial ice that extends out from the edge of land over the ocean. If this floating portion breaks off and melts, it does not contribute to sea level rise. However, ice shelves often act as “doorstops,” preventing glacial ice further inland from moving. As these ice shelves break off, inland ice is able to move out to sea – which can raise sea level. Climate change in Antarctica is a complicated picture. Some places on the continent are cooling and adding ice through accumulated snowfall. Other places, such as the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (of which the Wilkins Ice Shelf is part) are warming and melting. Scientists hope that continued research into the environmental and climate conditions of Antarctica’s past will shed light into the changes observed today.

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WV Env. Council <yes>
by Duane330＠aol.com 22 Mar '08

22 Mar '08

West Virginia Environmental Council March21, 2008 _WVEC Alerts Archive_ (http://www.wvecouncil.org/take_action/index.html) ____________________________________ Dear Friends, Any way you look at it, this was a successful session for the WV Environmental Council and the legislative lobby team. With your help, we pushed state lawmakers to make a real commitment to protecting West Virginia’s cleanest waters; we defeated another proposal to weaken the state’s solid waste laws and bring a mega dump to McDowell County; we succeeded in restoring anti-degradation language to DEP air regulations; we brought public attention to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining; and we educated legislators about how a real Citizen’s Energy Plan could benefit the people of West Virginia. Even though the lobby team is exhausted, now is not the time to rest on our laurels. We are already planning the rest of the year’s activities for WVEC, as we continue to increase our outreach to West Virginians and expand our membership base. And even though the 2008 regular session just ended, the monthly Interim legislative sessions will begin as early as April. This is our opportunity to address upcoming agency rule-making as well as to work with lawmakers on new legislation for the 2009 Legislature. With primary elections just around the corner, the lobby team is busy preparing a legislative scorecard so you can see just how your representatives voted on important environmental issues this session. Even though we had a very good year, several good bills to address global warming, energy efficiency, mining regulation, and more, did not pass. The upcoming election cycle is the time to build these issues into a political constituency and to mobilize citizens to advocate for them. This is also the time to build statewide support for the WVEC Citizen’s Energy Plan and Renewable Energy Campaign. Both of these will be featured components next month at Sustainable Fair 2008 (“Green Makes $en$e”, April 18-20 on the campus of Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, WV – see _flyer_ (http://www.wvecouncil.org/calendar/SustainableFairFlyerAgenda.pdf) and _poster_ (http://www.wvecouncil.org/calendar/SustainableFair2008POSTER.pdf) ). All of our efforts represent fundamental change for West Virginia and require a year round commitment in order to be successful. Your continued financial support will help sustain WVEC’s activities for the rest of the year. So please consider sending us a contribution now. Thank you, Jim Kotcon, WVEC President ____________________________________ **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom0…)

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Indoor Air Quality
by Paula Hunt 22 Mar '08

22 Mar '08

Hi Everyone, If indoor air quality is a concern of yours, you may be interested to know (or you probably already know) that Monongalia County is considering a smoking ban that would extend to bars and restaurants. The text of the proposed regulation is here: http://www.monchd.org/download/ProposedMonongaliaCountyCleanIndoorAirRegula… An very informative site is Smoke Free Mon County: http://www.smokefreemonc.org/involved.html The Board of Health is taking comment from the public on this until March 16, 2008. **** "Comments must be submitted in writing. All comments must include name, address, telephone number and email must include a verifiable e-mail address. Email comments to info(a)monchd.org or mail them to: Monongalia County Board of Health; Re: Smoking Regulation; 453 Van Voorhis Road, Morgantown, WV 26505" They seem to like e mail ( info(a)monchd.org ). I received a prompt response when I sent my message. - paula hunt

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Limits on Ozone
by Duane330＠aol.com 17 Mar '08

17 Mar '08

Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest EPA Scrambles To Justify Action By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, March 14, 2008; Page A01 The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA. EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents. "It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA's expert scientific judgment," said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The president's order prompted a scramble by administration officials to rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm caused by ozone. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement warned administration officials late Tuesday night that the rules contradicted the EPA's past submissions to the Supreme Court, according to sources familiar with the conversation. As a consequence, administration lawyers hustled to craft new legal justifications for the weakened standard. The dispute involved one of two distinct parts of the EPA's ozone restrictions: the "public welfare" standard, which is designed to protect against long-term harm from high ozone levels. The other part is known as the "public health" standard, which sets a legal limit on how high ozone levels can be at any one time. The two standards were set at the same level Wednesday, but until Bush asked for a change, the EPA had planned to set the "public welfare" standard at a lower level. The documents, which were released by the EPA late Wednesday night, provided insight into how White House officials helped shape the new air-quality rules that, by law, are supposed to be decided by the EPA administrator. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) questioned in a March 6 memo to the EPA why the second standard was needed. EPA officials answered in a letter that high ozone concentrations can cause "adverse effects on agricultural crops, trees in managed and unmanaged forests, and vegetation species growing in natural settings." The preamble to the new regulations alluded to this tug of war, stating there was a "robust discussion within the Administration of these same strengths and weaknesses" in setting the secondary standard. The preamble went on to say that the decision to make the two ozone limits identical "reflects the view of the Administration as to the most appropriate secondary standard." The effort to rewrite the language -- on the day the agency faced a statutory deadline -- forced EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson to postpone at the last moment a scheduled news conference to announce the new rules. It finally took place at 6 p.m., five hours later than planned. Under the Clean Air Act, the federal government must reexamine every five years whether its ozone standards are adequate, and the rules that the EPA issued Wednesday will help determine the nation's air quality for at least a decade. Ozone, which is formed when pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and other chemical compounds released by industry and motor vehicles are exposed to sunlight, is linked to an array of heart and respiratory illnesses. The EPA set the allowable amount of ozone in the air at 75 parts per billion, a level stricter than the current limit but higher than what the scientific advisers had recommended. Carol M. Browner, who served as EPA administrator under President Bill Clinton, also encountered objections from the OMB when she established new ozone standards in 1997. In that instance, the president backed the EPA over White House budget officials. "We did not allow OMB to push us into a decision we were quite certain was outside the boundaries of the law," Browner said in an interview. The Clean Air Act, she added, creates "a moral and ethical commitment that we're going to let the science tell us what to do." Asked for a comment yesterday, EPA spokesman Timothy Lyons said the agency had complied with the Clean Air Act. "The secondary standard we set is fully supported by both the law and the record, and it is the most protective eight-hour standard ever for ozone." When asked about Clement's role, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "The White House sought legal advice from the Justice Department and made its decision based on that advice." The EPA's documents suggest that senior officials and scientific advisers resisted the White House's position. Last year, the agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee wrote -- using italics for emphasis -- that it unanimously supported the EPA staff's conclusion that "protection of managed agricultural crops and natural terrestrial ecosystems requires a secondary [ozone standard] that is substantially different from the primary ozone standard. . . ." When the OMB's Susan E. Dudley urged the EPA to consider the effects of cutting ozone further on "economic values and on personal comfort and well-being," the EPA's Marcus Peacock responded in a March 7 memo: "EPA is not aware of any information that ozone has beneficial effects on economic values or on personal comfort and well being." Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in the Clean Air Act, said Dudley's letter to the EPA represents "a misunderstanding of the statute, a misunderstanding of Supreme Court precedent and a misunderstanding of the science as the expert agency understands it." **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)

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Fwd: Stop the Towers Update
by Duane330＠aol.com 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

From: website(a)stopthetowers.org Sent: 3/11/2008 3:49:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Stop the Towers Update March 9, 2008 Dear Friends and Neighbors, Here is latest update on the Stop the Towers efforts and related issues. You can always find the latest at the website and on the ECCO Hotline at 724-267-3040. Please stay involved and work to keep all your friends and neighbors informed. Buses Are Filling Up The PUC Evidentiary Hearings in Pittsburgh are just two weeks away and the buses are filling up! Beginning at 10:00 am on March 24th at the State Office Building, the Public Utility Commission will begin hearings on the proposed AP TrAIL. To assist the residents in Washington and Greene Counties, Stop the Towers is organizing buses to take you up and back for the hearings. For less than the cost of gas and parking, not to mention you won’t have to worry about fighting the traffic, you can ride a bus with other Stop the Towers supporters and be dropped off in front of the State Office Building. Please contact Rebecca Foley (_rfoley1(a)windstream.net_ (mailto:rfoley1@windstream.net) ) as soon as possible to reserve your seat. Departure and return times will be available from Rebecca. TrAIL Co Sends Insulting Letter to ALJ’s We believe it is important to have YOU attend the Evidentiary Hearings. Apparently, TrAIL Co does not! Earlier this week, TrAIL Co sent a letter to the Administrative Law Judges asking them to issue an order about proper decorum in the courtroom. They caution the ALJ’s by asking for “observers in the hearing room is (be) closely monitored for everyone's safety, and to permit sufficient room for all the parties, counsel, witnesses and staff before making space available for observers.” TrAIL Co is worried that we won’t properly behave and would disrupt the proceedings. They point to the Public Input Hearings and said that the supporters of TrAIL were “concerned about their personal safety in returning to their vehicles”. First of all, isn’t that ironic that the same company that has been sending land agents onto our properties, harassing and intimidating people in their own homes, is now worried about that same kind of behavior. Secondly, never has Stop the Towers encouraged nor supported such behavior and we certainly are not now! We simply believe that it is important to continue to put faces to the rural Americans whose lives will be destroyed or at the very least severely disrupted should this unnecessary, greed-driven proposal be approved!! So what are you going to do? Contact Rebecca and reserve your seat now!!! DOE does it Again! Once again, the Department of Energy has ignored everyone, except the utility companies that will profit greatly, by denying all requests for Re-Hearings on the NIETC designations. Even with a number of environmental groups filing lawsuit against the designations, the DOE continues to support a flawed energy policy that will encourage long-distant transmission lines coming from the highly polluting, coal-fired generation plants rather than cleaner, safer alternatives. Better alternatives which include demand-side management programs, conservation, upgrading existing infrastructure and the most reasonable solution, building the generation plants near the demand. Utility companies benefit greatly from section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as they will be granted profits of up to 14% or more, passing ALL costs on to the rate payers and all the while taking property and destroying the lives of rural Americans. This is exactly what is happening here in southwestern Pennsylvania with the proposed AP TrAIL! Fortunately, most environmental groups and at least some of our Congressman see the flaws in this policy. We must be thankful for people like Senator Casey and the others that recently requested Senate hearings on section 1221. (You can see the letter on the Stop the Towers website)Please continue to encourage Senator Casey and others to push for the complete repeal of Section 1221 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Specifically here in Pennsylvania, please contact Senator Specter (contact info below) and encourage him to support a complete repeal of the above Act. Senator Specter did sign Senator Casey’s letter asking for the hearings and he is listening. But we must contact him and tell him our concerns because you can be sure the utility industry lobbyists are talking with him every chance they get. If he is not hearing from us, how is he to know what we are going experiencing? Please email the Senator now. We need him on our side! Senator Arlen Specter - United States Senator Pittsburgh Office: Washington Office: Regl. Entrprs. Twr. 711 Hart Building 425 6th Ave- Suite 1450 Washington, D.C. 20510 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone: (202) 224-4254 Phone: (412) 644-3400 Fax: (412) 644-4871 Website: specter.senate.gov Pittsburgh Office Staff Members _Marybeth_McGowan(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:Marybeth_McGowan@specter.senate.gov) _stan_caldwell(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:stan_caldwell@specter.senate.gov) _adam_pope(a)specter.senate.gov_ (mailto:adam_pope@specter.senate.gov) Stop the Towers! For more information, go to _http://www.stopthetowers.org/_ (http://www.stopthetowers.org/) . If you feel you have received this email in error or no longer wish to receive messages from Stop the Towers, a grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the AP TrAIL, please reply to this email with REMOVE in the subject line. **************It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms, and advice on AOL Money & Finance. (http://money.aol.com/tax?NCID=aolprf00030000000001)

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Efficiency & conservation
by duane330＠aol.com 11 Mar '08

11 Mar '08

NEW THINKER OF THE MONTH Innovative individuals are doing some creative problem solving by re-thinking things we take for granted. Noah Horowitz, an NRDC engineer, took a look at the energy hogging vending machine. There is now one soda machine for every 100 Americans! Some 3 million machines are humming away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, using 10 times more energy than the average refrigerator (the biggest energy user in your home). Noah started looking at ?solutions like more efficient compressors, fans and lighting. He also rethought some of the simplest things like not having outdoor machines running all night in the middle ?of winter. The result is new machines that use half the energy of old ones. And when Coke and Pepsi finish phasing in the new designs, the savings will be 5 billion ?kilowatt hours per year! We become more powerful in our numbers, so I challenge all of you to ?get 5 new people to join the Virtual March at StopGlobalWarming.org. By spreading the word, we are creating thousands of new global warming activists. It takes an army, and we are building one! Thank you for taking the first step by joining this movement. Keep Marching, Laurie David Founder StopGlobalWarming.org

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MVCAC March 2008