The Private Stewardship Program provides grants and other assistance on a competitive basis to individuals and groups engaged in local, private, and voluntary conservation efforts that benefit federally listed, proposed, or candidate species, or other at-risk species. Deadline: February 15th, 2007
News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org
54% increase in acres protected since 2000
Growing efforts to save privately owned farms, ranches and forests from industrial and residential development now preserve about as much open space each year as is lost to sprawl, according to a report out today. The National Land Trust Census, conducted every five years by an umbrella organization for land conservation groups, says private land under protective trusts and easements now total 37 million acres, a 54% increase from the last count in 2000. Conservation of private land from 2000 to 2005 averaged 2.6 million acres a year — about half the size of New Jersey , according to the Land Trust Alliance, which represents 1,200 of the USA ‘s 1,667 local, state and national land trusts. This means additional land protected each year exceeds the 2.2 million acres that the Agriculture Department has estimated is converted annually to “developed land.”
News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org
A new supplement to a Department of Energy (DOE) draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for a proposed Pennsylvania coal-to-liquid-fuel plant acknowledges that technology to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) is years away, highlighting a major flaw in the rush to develop such facilities, according to environmentalists who are concerned that the plants will generate millions of additional tons of CO2.
The supplement also includes a first-time calculation of the large amount of CO2 emissions that would result from the process of converting coal into gas using Fischer Tropsch technology, because the original DEIS only calculated the direct CO2 emissions from the plant and incorrectly assumed that the operator would sequester or sell the gas-streamed CO2, according to the document. That change significantly boosts the plant’s CO2 estimates, from 832,000 tons per year in direct emissions to 2,282,000 total tons per year, adding 1,450,000 tons per year from the CO2 stream.
“That is a big step for DOE,” an environmentalist says, noting that industry groups pressing for new coal development across the country “say sequestration will solve everything, and now there is an admission that we are a ways out on sequestration.”
However, an industry source warns that the findings do not mean that other proposed coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuel plants will not be able to sequester CO2 and that this study — conducted to meet National Environmental Policy Act requirements because the project will receive $100 million in federal funding — should not impact the development of other proposed plants.
The supplement comes as Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has teamed up with Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) to introduce the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2007, S. 154, as well as announcing the formation of a CTL caucus. The moves prompted unusual environmentalist criticism of Obama as he explores a presidential run.
The DEIS supplement for the Gilberton Coal-to-Clean Fuels & Power Project, released in the Jan. 16 Federal Register, says, “The industrial participant has informed DOE that sale of the CO2 byproduct would not occur in the foreseeable future. In addition, DOE has considered the potential to reduce project CO2 emissions using geologic sequestration. This is not a reasonable option because sequestration technology is not sufficiently mature to be implemented at production scale.”
It continues, “Large-scale commercial deployment of the most promising carbon sequestration technologies is expected to be technically practicable within the next 15 years. During the 50-year duration of a commercial operation, a combination of economic incentives and new legal requirements might result in the industrial participant investigating the option to sequester CO2 recovered from the proposed facilities.”
The supplement also includes first-time information about the potential cumulative impact the Pennsylvania demonstration plant could have on CO2 emissions, noting that this project’s success “may encourage the development of similar facilities. . . . Because coal has a higher carbon-to-hydrogen ratio than crude oil, production of liquid hydrocarbon fuel from coal generates more excess carbon (released as CO2) than production of the same quantity of liquid fuel from petroleum. . . . However, recovery and sequestration of CO2 at a CTL production facility could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from CTL fuel production to levels below conventional petroleum-derived fuel production.”
DOE, which is taking comment on the supplement through Feb. 27, agreed to readdress CO2 in the DEIS after the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) repeatedly pressed the agency to do so.
In comments on the DEIS last year, NRDC argued that DOE needed to address the project’s cumulative impacts and took issue with the department’s conclusion that the CO2 emissions were not substantial when compared to global CO2 emissions.
“NRDC finds this argument problematic for several reasons. First, under such a test no individual source of CO2 would ever have its emissions regulated given the improbability of a single source ever constituting a significant percentage of total global emissions. Second, DOE’s argument does not reflect the current science about the implications that the increasing CO2 concentrations have on climate change,” NRDC wrote in comments to DOE last February.
The group in June wrote to DOE questioning its assumptions about the CO2 emissions from the project, asking DOE to re-estimate the emissions and include those generated by the gas stream. DOE agreed to the change, which NRDC noted in an August letter meant that “actual CO2 emissions . . . are nearly three times higher than the CO2 emissions originally reported in the draft EIS.” In the same letter, NRDC asked DOE to issue the information as part of a supplemental DEIS and take public comment on the document, which DOE just did.
NRDC sources could not be reached for comment.
A DOE source says the department issued the supplement to “clarify” the total CO2 emissions after learning that the gas-stream CO2 would be emitted. And the source says it is impossible to say whether this EIS will impact other CTL facilities. “It is not possible to predict decisions that will be made with regard to future coal-to-liquid fuel facilities,” the source says.
A Pennsylvania environmentalist following the issue says while it is unclear what, if anything, DOE might do about the additional CO2 emissions, “It is important that they said they missed a large stream of CO2 and are willing to discuss issues dealing with sequestration. . . . One thing is clear, and that is they are now looking at the issue in a completely different context than before, taking into account a heck of a lot more CO2.”
Additionally, an environmentalist in Montana — where Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) has announced plans to develop and deploy CTL technology — says the supplemental DEIS “gives us a foot in the door and is a useful document for us in Montana” when questioning industry claims about CTL and sequestration.
But the industry source disagrees and notes that many CTL plants in the works will include large-scale sequestration from the outset because industry realizes that it is necessary in order to move forward. “Some CO2 will get out but we will sequester as much as we can with technology.” The source references a proposal in Mississippi where an oil company has committed to using the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. However, the source says industry will have to “wait and see” whether DOE’s findings impact other CTL proposals, and points to the Obama-Bunning legislation, which expands tax incentives for CTL, as a necessary step to getting plants built.
In a Jan. 4 statement on the bill’s introduction, Obama did not address CO2 or sequestration but noted that Americans would rather fill their cars with domestic, coal-based fuel than with foreign oil. “We already have the technology to do this in a way that’s both clean and efficient. What we’ve been lacking is the political will,” he said. — Dawn Reeves
Thanks to coalimpoundment.org youre in luck!
Better find the sludge pond before it finds you!
[Washington, DC] In a decision broadly affecting field trials of genetically engineered crops a federal district judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. Citing potential threats to the environment, Judge Harold Kennedy found in favor of the Center for Food Safety that USDA’s past approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant, genetically engineered bentgrass were illegal.
News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org
[Washington, DC] In a decision broadly affecting field trials of genetically engineered crops a federal district judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. Citing potential threats to the environment, Judge Harold Kennedy found in favor of the Center for Food Safety that USDA’s past approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant, genetically engineered bentgrass were illegal.
News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org
COOL CITIES PRESS CONFERENCE
Public came to cheer for Blacksburg!
Wednesday, January 24th – 11AM
YMCA Thrift Store – 1000 North Main Street
ALTERNATIVE FUEL RALLY
Wednesday, Jan 24th – 10:30 AM
Started @ Old Annie Kays, rode to YMCA
Washington and Main Street
The Public was invited to a press conference to celebrate Blacksburg’s participation in the “Cool Cities” Initiative. Appreciation was shown for the Town’s leadership to help stop Global Warming.
The Mayor of Blacksburg, Ron Rordam, was presented a plaque by David Bernard, Chair of the of the New River Valley Sierra Club chapter. The Mayor was present on Blacksburg’s initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Local citizens were also present on what citizens can do to reduce their own impact and work with the town.
There were information tables featuring local action-oriented groups, businesses, and government groups.
There was an alternative fuel rally featuring hybrid cars, biodiesel vehicles, and bicycles down Main Street starting at 10:30 AM at the Old Annie Kay’s (Washington and Main).
What Is The Cool Cities Initiative? Check out the Cool Cities website http://www.coolcities.us/ To learn more about the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, check out this site – http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/climate/.
To stay involved, email Aaron Barr windpower@vt.edu or David Roper roperld@vt.edu
This time in England
At 9.24am everything was OK; at 9.25am it wasn’t. A slurry dam had burst and it just came through the village.
“I should think it was at least 18in to 2ft of mud which really badly affected some properties, including our own, with mud on the carpets.”
Heather Waugh, landlady of the Moon Inn, said: “I just looked out of the window and it was like a load of sludge coming down and then suddenly a full-blown river just flooding down the middle of the village.
“It got to about two-and-a-half feet high, just kept coming and coming. It’s gone into people’s houses and flooded them. There’s mud everywhere and it’s horrible.
Hmmm…solidarity.
No one from Glebe Mines Ltd was available for comment
Learn more about sludge, and sludge ponds, as well as the many dangers posed by each at sludgesafety.org
At the close of 2006, the warmest year in China since 1951, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the China Meteorological Administration, and the Chinese Academy of Science released the country’s first-ever National Assessment Report on Climate Change.
The assessment, begun four years ago and written in collaboration with nine other government departments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State Environmental Protection Administration, concludes that rising greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities are causing severe global climate change and that China must play an active role in tackling the negative impacts of this change on the global environment.
The report predicts that the average temperature in China will rise 1.3 to 2.1 degrees Celsius by 2020 and 2.3 to 3.3 degrees Celsius by 2050. Meanwhile, the country’s annual average rainfall is projected to increase 2-3 percent by 2020 and 5-7 percent by 2050. This increase in precipitation is not expected to protect northern China against deepening water shortages, however, because warming temperatures will likely lead to greater evaporation, the study says.
The assessment also forecasts that extreme weather events and natural disasters will occur more frequently as a result of climate change, reports Science and Technology Daily. Qin Dahe, the director of China Meteorological Administration, noted that in 2006, severe natural disasters caused 2,704 deaths as well as economic losses of 212 billion yuan (US$27 billion) in China. Noteworthy events included the destructive 100-year typhoon in Zhejiang Province in August as well as the worst droughts to hit Chongqing municipality and Sichuan Province in 50 years.
While climate change poses threats to China’s diverse ecosystems and to its water, forest, coastal, and other natural resources, the most direct and greatest threat is to the food security of this country of more than 1.3 billion people. The report predicts that both crop distribution and production will be affected by the changes in temperature and precipitation, with the output of major crops such as wheat, rice, and corn falling by up to 37 percent in the second half of the century if no effective measures are taken in the next 20 to 50 years to address climate change impacts, according to Xinhua News.
As the world’s second largest emitter of carbon dioxide after the United States-and likely the world’s largest emitter of the gas by 2010-China finds itself with a growing obligation to cut its mounting emissions of greenhouse gases, driven by the country’s roaring economic growth. The Chinese government considers a positive response to climate change as a new driving force for promoting green technology innovation and energy conservation.
Policies and measures to address global climate change discussed in the report — including enhanced monitoring of environmental change and countermeasures, the adoption of energy-saving technologies, and the embrace of renewable energy, clean coal, and carbon dioxide capture and storage — are of great significance at all levels of government, serving as an important reference for both development plans and overall decision-making.
by Ling Li, Worldwatch Institute
Courtesy of Renewable Energy Access
This group of guitar makers has come together in an effort to preserve the threatened Alaskan forests that provide the timber for a crucial part of their instruments. At the current rates of cutting, they say, the Sitka spruce, in particular the older trees which are vital to the sound and performance of their guitars, could be gone in a decade. “It’s time for us to self-govern and take responsibility to get in there and say these practices have to change,” said Bob Taylor, the president of Taylor Guitars… Taylor, along with Fender, Martin and Gibson, are calling on the suppliers of Sitka spruce, an extraordinarily strong, vibrant timber that is used for the sound boards of acoustic guitars, to apply for certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org