by jboullion | Sep 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a blog post by Tom Content of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The Sierra Club on Thursday [September 9, 2010] filed suit in federal court claiming that two major coal-fired power plants operated by Wisconsin Power & Light Co. were upgraded over the years without installing modern pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act.
The suit charges the Madison utility made modifications to its Nelson Dewey power plant in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin and its Columbia power plant near Portage without adding pollution controls. WP&L is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., Madison.
The suit is the latest in a series of Sierra Club suits targeting pollution from coal-fired power plants across Wisconsin.
Another suit by the environmental group and Clean Wisconsin has targeted air pollution from the We Energies Valley power plant in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. Sierra Club has also filed suit over pollution by coal plants operated by Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay.
“The pattern here is that our aging fleet of coal plants can’t even meet current standards, so it sets us up for making a choice about whether we should be throwing good money after bad” to retrofit coal plants to meet emerging, stricter standards, said Jennifer Feyerherm of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.
WP&L has proposed adding pollution controls at the Columbia power plant, in an investment projected to cost $627 million. The state Public Service Commission has yet to rule on that proposal, and the Sierra Club is challenging that the controls proposed don’t go far enough to reduce air emissions from Columbia.
“We’re disappointed that the Sierra Club has opted for this approach,” utility spokesman Scott Reigstad said of Sierra Club’s suit. “We disagree with the claims the Sierra Club is making in its complaint. We intend to vigorously defend against the action.”
The court actions come as the state Public Service Commission is studying whether to shut down aging coal-fired power plants in Wisconsin because of the state’s power glut, and as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is commencing regulation of coal plants to curb emissions of carbon dioxide as well as a series of other pollutants.
by jboullion | Sep 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a report titled “The Facts about Wind Energy’s Emissions Savings” prepared by the American Wind Energy Association:
. . . four of the seven major independent grid operators in the
U.S. have studied the emissions impact of adding wind energy to their power grids, and all four have found that adding wind energy drastically reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants. While the emissions savings depend somewhat on the existing share of coal-fired versus gas-fired generation in the region, as one would expect, it is impossible to dispute the findings of these four independent grid operators that adding wind energy to their grids has significantly reduced emissions. . . .
DOE data show that wind and other renewables’ share of Texas’s electric mix increased from 1.3% in 2005 to 4.4% in 2008, an increase in share of 3.1 percentage points. During that period, electric sector carbon dioxide emissions declined by 3.3%, even though electricity use actually increased by 2% during that time. Because of wind energy, the state of Texas was able to turn what would have been a carbon emissions increase into a decrease of 8,690,000 metric tons per year, equal to the emissions savings of taking around 1.5 million cars off the road.
by jboullion | Sep 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a report titled “The Facts about Wind Energy’s Emissions Savings” prepared by the American Wind Energy Association:
. . . four of the seven major independent grid operators in the U.S. have studied the emissions impact of adding wind energy to their power grids, and all four have found that adding wind energy drastically reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants. While the emissions savings depend somewhat on the existing share of coal-fired versus gas-fired generation in the region, as one would expect, it is impossible to dispute the findings of these four independent grid operators that adding wind energy to their grids has significantly reduced emissions. . . .
DOE data show that wind and other renewables’ share of Texas’s electric mix increased from 1.3% in 2005 to 4.4% in 2008, an increase in share of 3.1 percentage points. During that period, electric sector carbon dioxide emissions declined by 3.3%, even though electricity use actually increased by 2% during that time. Because of wind energy, the state of Texas was able to turn what would have been a carbon emissions increase into a decrease of 8,690,000 metric tons per year, equal to the emissions savings of taking around 1.5 million cars off the road.
by jboullion | Sep 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a report titled “The Facts about Wind Energy’s Emissions Savings” prepared by the American Wind Energy Association:
. . . four of the seven major independent grid operators in the
U.S. have studied the emissions impact of adding wind energy to their power grids, and all four have found that adding wind energy drastically reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants. While the emissions savings depend somewhat on the existing share of coal-fired versus gas-fired generation in the region, as one would expect, it is impossible to dispute the findings of these four independent grid operators that adding wind energy to their grids has significantly reduced emissions. . . .
DOE data show that wind and other renewables’ share of Texas’s electric mix increased from 1.3% in 2005 to 4.4% in 2008, an increase in share of 3.1 percentage points. During that period, electric sector carbon dioxide emissions declined by 3.3%, even though electricity use actually increased by 2% during that time. Because of wind energy, the state of Texas was able to turn what would have been a carbon emissions increase into a decrease of 8,690,000 metric tons per year, equal to the emissions savings of taking around 1.5 million cars off the road.
by jboullion | Jun 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathan Vine in the Stevens Point Journal:
CUSTER — Bill McKibben said he considered himself fortunate to be at the 21st annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair.
Being in a Midwestern atmosphere that he characterized as “very clear, practical and ready to get things done,” McKibben said it was a great backdrop for the theme of his keynote address at the fair Saturday.
McKibben, an internationally known environmentalist and founder of the 350.org campaign, said those who seek to fight the planet’s climate problems face a difficult task.
“We’re losing, and losing pretty badly to do what we need to make this planet work,” McKibben said. “If we are going to win, it’s going to take an enormous amount of that practical spirit.”
In between being honored by a pair of standing ovations, and the announcement that the MREA had planted a tree in his honor next to others planted for founding members of the event and past speakers at the event, McKibben focused on the work that still needs to be done.
He pointed out that despite the obvious effects of too much carbon in the atmosphere — which now stands at 392 parts per million, and which he hopes to reduce to 350 — from the increase of global temperature to the pollutive effect on the oceans, political forces and the fossil fuel industry have successfully kept substantive change from being made.
“The only way we are going to have the kind of change we need is to radically increase the cost of fossil fuels,” McKibben said. “To do that, we need to be engaging in the political battle that we haven’t been able to.”
McKibben has tried to rally support to that battle through his work with 350.org. In 2009, he and his team coordinated some 5,200 events in 181 countries in one day to bring awareness to the problem of carbon. This year on Oct. 10, they are planning a global work party, where people can take on environmentally friendly projects.
