Give John McCain credit for not speaking only to friendly audiences. On Tuesday, he touted his energy plan, which includes offshore drilling, to an audience in Santa Barbara, site in 1969 of a major oil spill.
“When people are hurting, and struggling to afford gasoline, food, and other necessities, common sense requires that we draw upon America’s own vast reserves of oil and natural gas,†McCain said. Despite a few protesters, he received a polite reception in Santa Barbara, and in fact, polls show that Americans have shifted on offshore drilling; a majority now support it. (McCain is still against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.)
McCain has also recently advocated building 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and awarding $300 million to the inventor of a next-generation car battery.
Obama says all of these policies are ineffective or gimmicks, but McCain is driving the energy debate with bold-sounding ideas.
Did humans have a hand in the recent flooding in Iowa and the Midwest? Yes, according to some land-use experts, who say practices such as plowing under prairies and buffer strips, channelizing creeks and streams, and installing drainage tiles in fields have enhanced runoff and made rivers more susceptible to flooding.
“We’ve done numerous things to the landscape that took away these water-absorbing functions,†said Kamyar Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa. “Agriculture must respect the limits of nature.â€
Not everyone agrees that the transformation of the landscape played that much of a role in the recent flooding. Mother Nature dumped a whole lot of rain on Iowa.
But it’s also clear that a lot of rain wasn’t absorbed or diverted and went straight into the rivers.
Both President Bush and John McCain called this week for more offshore oil drilling, which they previously opposed. “If congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act,” Bush said.
The United States does need to expand its energy production, but don’t be fooled into believing this would significantly lower gasoline prices. The federal Energy Information Administration estimates only about 16 billion barrels of oil exist in the area covered by the offshore moratorium - a drop in the bucket of the world oil supply. Even drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Bush supports but McCain opposes, would have little impact on prices. According to the EIA, any benefits from drilling in ANWR wouldn’t be seen for five to 10 years and would amount to savings of only about 7 cents a gallon by 2027 if oil prices remain high.
Also, Bush is a bit disingenuous in blaming Democrats for the ban on offshore drilling. Though many Democrats have and do oppose the drilling, it was his father who issued a presidential executive order in 1990 banning coastal oil exploration, and Bush could rescind that order today if he chose to.
One of the world’s leading global warming scientists, James Hansen of NASA, will give the keynote address in September at the 2008 Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference in Topeka, sponsored by the Kansas Corporation Commission.
Hansen’s visit is especially timely: The Holcomb coal-plant debate revealed a broad swath of climate change denial among some of Kansas’ top lawmakers. Hansen’s speech will be a good chance for Kansans to hear the latest science on climate change from a top expert and learn why it requires urgent action, including the development of wind and renewables.
Meanwhile, NASA’s own internal watchdog group last week charged that Bush appointees in the agency’s press office used “inappropriate political interference†from 2004 to 2006 to suppress negative findings on global warming and restrict media access to top climate change sources, including Hansen.
As expected, the U.S. Senate didn’t have enough votes to block a GOP filibuster of a climate change bill, the Washington Post reported. Not that it mattered much; President Bush had vowed to veto the bill. That means any climate change action will have to wait until the next administration. Both John McCain and Barack Obama supported the Senate bill, which would have created a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases as part of provisions to cut emissions linked to global warming nearly 70 percent by 2050.
The New York Times gave an overview of the hurdles facing the development of carbon capture technology for coal plants, which basically involves separating carbon dioxide and pumping it into the ground.
At present, this “clean coal†technology remains years away at best — and at worst, it will never be effective or affordable. The federal government recently pulled its support for the nation’s showcase project for carbon capture after developers reported technical difficulties and went way overbudget. And utilities in five states have canceled projects designed to further carbon capture.
We need research on clean coal, but the obstacles can’t be ignored.
The trucking industry says there’s an easy way for Americans to save on gas — slow down.
Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves, head of the American Trucking Associations, recently presented a proposal to slash fuel use by 86 billion gallons and carbon dioxide emissions by 900 million tons over the next decade — roughly the amount of CO2 emitted by the population of Chicago in one year. Among the recommendations:
Reduce the national speed limit to 65 mph for all vehicles. Install engine governors to limit new trucks to 68 mph. And reduce congestion by investing in highway improvements.
Graves called the proposals “practical, reasonable and doable,†and he called on Congress to help support the program.
Good luck on that. In 1995, Congress repealed a national speed limit, and 32 states, including Kansas, now have speed limits of 70 mph or higher on some highways.
No lawmaker has stepped forward to endorse the ATA proposal. How serious are we about conserving energy?
A new Energy Department report concludes that it’s feasible for the United States to get 20 percent of its electricity needs from wind power by 2030 — about the same share now provided by nuclear power — without the need for any major technological breakthroughs.
Wind power currently provides only about 1 percent of the nation’s electricity.
The report bolsters claims that wind power has arrived and is poised to move from a niche market to the mainstream.
Is Kansas poised to capture this opportunity?
The report does identify some major challenges, such as the need for more transmission lines in remote areas — that’s been a key obstacle in western Kansas. But the study says it’s doable and affordable.
It’s further confirmation that a thriving wind power industry for Kansas isn’t a pipe dream — it’s waiting to be built.
It’s not just China and India who are building scores of new coal-fired plants. Despite their green image, European countries are planning to build some 50 coal-fired plants in the next five years, according to the New York Times.
Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and Great Britain — lured by rising oil and natural gas prices and cheap coal — all have new “clean†coal-fired plants in the works, despite scientists’ growing alarm over climate change.
Like their U.S. counterparts, the plant owners tout “clean coal†technology, but the reality is that commercial technology for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide remains years away — and may never be feasible.
Without a moratorium on new coal plants, warns prominent climate scientist James Hansen of NASA, controlling climate change may be impossible.
The “compromise” plan for building two new coal-fired power plants near Holcomb really isn’t much of one, our editorial today argues. Legislative leaders proposed building two 600-megawatt plants instead of two 700-megawatt ones. But the smaller plants still would produce about 10 million tons in annual carbon dioxide emissions, while the vast majority of the power would still being going out of state. “I don’t see how that materially changes things,” KDHE Secretary Rod Bremby told The Eagle editorial board.
Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson will be one of the panelists at a public forum at 6 p.m. today at Wichita State University designed to “engage the community in an honest discussion of Kansas energy policy, green energy options and potential green energy solutions in Kansas.â€
The panel also includes Bill Wentz, WSU distinguished engineering professor emeritus; state Sen. Donald Betts, D-Wichita; and Kay Johnson, director of Wichita’s Department of Environmental Health.
The event will be held in Hubbard Hall, Room 209.
Our editorial today notes that while the focus on Earth Day tends to be on what individuals can do, it’s much easier for average citizens to get involved in ecofriendly practices if their community encourages green living and makes it affordable and convenient. Unfortunately, Wichita doesn’t have a good record on that, particularly on recycling.
President Bush announced a new approach on climate change Wednesday, but as our editorial today argues, it’s too little, too late.
Bush would set a national goal of halting the growth of greenhouse gases by 2025. And he proposed that carbon dioxide from the power-plant sector should peak in 10 to 15 years, and decline thereafter.
But merely slowing the overall growth of carbon emissions isn’t enough, scientists say - they must be substantially reduced if we’re to avoid a potentially catastrophic increase in global temperatures. And glaringly absent from Bush’s speech were any specific means or plans for reaching his goals.
Meanwhile, all three remaining presidential candidates agree that the United States must launch a major new initiative to combat climate change. All of them advocate some kind of aggressive, mandatory carbon cap-and-trade system, under which power plants and other carbon polluters would face limits on allowable emissions and be able to buy and trade “credits.”
Saying that Kansas’ Big First congressional district holds “the single greatest potential for wind energy in the country,” Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson helped break ground Friday for Horizon Wind Energy’s 67-turbine Meridian Way Wind Farm south of Concordia. Parkinson noted it had been “a week of smiles in Kansas,” what with the University of Kansas Jayhawks’ NCAA championship and the Kansas City Royals’ two wins over the New York Yankees. “But I don’t think I’ve ever seen smiles like I’ve seen today on the faces of the landowners that are going to have turbines on their property,” he said.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, recently told an Arkansas City audience that the Holcomb coal-plant denial was “a political decision, not an energy decision,†and said he’s still not convinced that human-caused carbon dioxide is responsible for global warming, the Arkansas City Traveler reported. If so, he’s ignoring a host of inconvenient facts, starting with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
As Robert Watson, former chairman of the panel, said back in 2001, “The overwhelming majority of scientific experts, whilst recognizing that scientific uncertainties exist, nonetheless believe that human-induced climate change is already occurring and that future change is inevitable.â€
That 2001 consensus has only become more certain. Tiahrt’s refusal to acknowledge the science or the need for action is uninformed and irresponsible. His constituents should call him on it.
Attorneys general from 17 states (not including Kansas) filed a lawsuit today against the Environmental Protection Agency for not responding to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The states want the EPA to act on regulating CO2 within 60 days. The lawsuit follows the EPA’s announcement last week that it was going to hold off on regulating CO2 and instead receive public comments — which many people interpreted as punting the issue to the next administration.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, told an El Dorado audience recently that a physical fence has yet to be built on the southern border because of “technical problems†but also because of lawsuits, primarily brought by organizations concerned about endangered species’ migration patterns. He also said: “One of the things we look at is what damage is caused by illegal immigrants coming through the national park system. They have a huge environmental impact. We find abandoned cars, a lot of trash. We spend millions of dollars every year just cleaning up after illegals coming through here, and we can’t build a fence because of the lawsuits. It’s a really frustrating experience.â€
Inventors, start your engines: There’s a $10 million award for the first person to build a commercially viable car that gets at least 100 mpg.
The prize is being offered by the X Prize Foundation, which offered a similar contest a few years ago for the first private group to send a human into space. The Automotive X Prize already has attracted 60 teams from 10 countries — although none of the major car companies has entered.
Among the entrants is Wichita’s own Johnathan Goodwin, who plans to enter a 1959 Lincoln Continental owned by rocker Neil Young that he’s retrofitting with an electric biodiesel hybrid engine. I wrote a profile of him awhile back.
It will be fascinating to see the finalists when they’re tested late next year. Here’s hoping Goodwin’s “Linc Volt†takes the prize.
The next round of Kansas’ coal war began today, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed the bill meant to let Sunflower Electric Power Corp. add two coal-fired power plants to its operation near Holcomb. The bill also would undermine the authority of Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby, who had angered many lawmakers by denying Sunflower’s air permit based on its anticipated carbon emissions. “Instead of building two new coal plants, which would produce 11 million new tons of carbon dioxide each year, I support pursuing other, more promising energy and economic development alternatives,†Sebelius said in her veto statement. The Senate is expected to override her veto, but it remains in doubt whether the necessary two-thirds majority can be reached in the House.
As Congress moves toward mandatory controls on greenhouse-gas emissions and Wall Street frowns on new coal plants, do Kansas lawmakers really want to stake their reputations on forcing through these plants, which would pollute Kansas and mostly power other states?
A Wall Street Journal article summarizes Kansas’ energy war, as the state awaits Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ expected veto of the bill to overrule Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby and allow two coal-fired plants near Holcomb. “For an unelected person to decide on his own to make this kind of decision without any input from the legislative branch is a huge mistake,†Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, is quoted as saying. “When you hear about China putting a new coal plant on line every week and so many other sources of pollution around, to try to single out one (project) as the magic bullet to offset the emissions of tens of thousands of other emissions producers doesn’t make a lot of sense.†The article also quotes Bremby, the man it puts at “center stage in the national debate over energy and the environment,†as saying, “I can’t do anything about what’s going on in China, but I know this decision means we won’t be contributing to that impact of climate change.â€
Big surprise — President Bush intervened to lower the Environmental Protection Agency’s new smog standards, according to agency documents. EPA scientists had wanted stricter standards for ozone levels to help protect the “public welfare,†but Bush and the White House Office of Management and Budget objected, the Washington Post reported. But even though the new pollution standards aren’t as high as the EPA wanted, they could still present a significant challenge for Wichita, which for years has hovered on the brink of violating federal rules.
Stopping global warming may be an even greater challenge than we realize. The scientific and political consensus has been that nations must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050 to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures.
Now a group of scientists has released sobering findings that put the bar even higher: Nations must bring their carbon output to near zero by mid-century to avoid a 3.6 degree Fahrenheit rise — the threshold beyond which, scientists say, there would be serious, unstoppable consequences for our planet and human life.
One of the authors, Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State University, said, “Our actions right now will have consequences for many, many generations. Not just for a hundred years, but thousands of years.â€
When will our leaders act with a sense of urgency equal to this daunting challenge?
Former Texas regulator Kathleen Hartnett White’s commentary in today’s Opinion pages in support of the Holcomb coal-plant expansion deserves some response.
She would have approved the plant, she argues, because it “complied with all applicable legal requirements.†But Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby’s decision was based on his legal authority, upheld by a Kansas attorney general opinion, to intervene to protect Kansans’ health.
She also makes misleading, unsupported assertions on science, claiming that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change portrays global warming as an “uncertain, remote, gradual risk with impacts predicted in 100 years or more.â€
To the contrary, the panel’s study is unequivocal on the high risks of warming, the environmental damage already under way, and the urgency of controlling carbon and greenhouse gases now.
A further note: White left her position last year under a storm of criticism. The Dallas Morning News said in a scathing editorial: “She has been an apologist for polluters, consistently siding with business interests instead of protecting public health. Ms. White worked to set a low bar as she lobbied for lax ozone standards and pushed through an inadequate anti-pollution plan. She also voted to approve TXU’s pollution-intensive Oak Grove coal units, ignoring evidence that emissions from the lignite plant could thwart North Texas’ efforts to meet air quality standards.â€
Extreme winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year — including snow in Baghdad and returning sea ice in the Arctic — have prompted a predictable “told-you-so†response from climate skeptics: “See? The Earth is actually cooling.â€
Not so fast, say many scientists. Climate isn’t short-term weather — it’s the long view. “The current downturn is not very unusual,†said Carl Mears, a climate scientist who tracks satellite temperature data. He points out that, despite similar cold spots in 1988, 1991-92 and 1998, the long-term trend continued to be higher global temperatures.
“Climate skeptics typically take a few small pieces of the puzzle to debunk global warming, and ignore the whole picture that the larger science community sees by looking at all the pieces,†said another climate scientist, Ignatius G. Rigor of the University of Washington.
In short, don’t be misled by the global-cooling hype.
Judging from the TV commercial touting Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s proposed expansion of “Holcomb station,†coal-fired power plants make sunflowers grow and families grow closer. They also involve wind turbines. “The visuals overwhelmingly show images of a clean, healthy, sunflower-filled Kansas, hoping viewers will actually associate the Holcomb coal-fired power plant with beauty and health rather than what many may normally associate burning coal with, which is dirty air,†observed Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty.
Sunflower president Earl Watkins said: “We think the public’s entitled to know both sides of the debate.â€
Wal-Mart gets plenty of criticism about employee benefits and driving small retailers out of business. But it deserves credit for taking action on problems that Congress can’t seem to address.
“As the federal government debates how to wean the country from its addiction to oil, Wal-Mart just announced it would require suppliers to make major appliances that use 25 percent less energy within the next three years,†the New York Times recently reported. “While Congress wrings its hands over higher health care costs, Wal-Mart vowed to save companies $100 million this year by processing their prescription drug claims. (It already sells generic versions of prescription drugs for just $4, well below the national average.)†And since it started pushing compact fluorescent lightbulbs two years ago, Wal-Mart has sold 145 million of them, claiming to have saved enough electricity to forestall the need for three coal-fired power plants.
“We live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems,†said Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. But Wal-Mart “does not wait for someone else to solve problems.â€
Maybe Wal-Mart should tackle peace in the Middle East.
Give John McCain credit for not speaking only to friendly audiences. On Tuesday, he touted his energy plan, which includes offshore drilling, to an audience in Santa Barbara, site in 1969 of a major oil spill.
