Southeastern Legal Foundation Challenges U.S. EPA on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Written by Tina Casey

Mix steel, oil, and chemical companies together with the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and you have a chunk of the financial backing behind the Southeastern Legal Foundation, which has just filed a petition challenging the U.S. EPA’ recent determination on greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

In challenging the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, the Southeastern Legal Foundation joins the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a number of companies including Massey Energy (which includes mountaintop removal in its coal mining operations). Though these actions are taken against a government agency, they are also yet another indication that an epic battle of titanic proportions is brewing in the private sector, pitching old school fossil fuel industries against climate-conscious companies including Nike, Starbucks, Apple, and Exelon (the nation’s largest utility) – each of which has protested the Chamber’s position on global warming.

The U.S. EPA and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The petitions were filed to block last December’s EPA determination that greenhouse gasses pose a threat to public health and welfare. EPA named carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexaflouride in its finding. The agency further determined that emissions from new vehicles and vehicle engines contribute to the problem. The action was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling from 2007, which directed the EPA administrator make a reasonable, science based decision regarding tailpipe emissions. Alternatively, the EPA could have determined that the science was too uncertain to justify the finding.

Science, Global Warming, and Greenhouse Gasses
Weather is what you observe when you stick your head out of the window, which we’re all pretty much capable of doing. If that is all we’re doing, then the climate change denier position makes perfect sense: one day it’s hot, another day it’s cold – eh, what global warming? However, the observation of long term global climate trends requires a somewhat more developed skill set, and the EPA went along with that one. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has never claimed that the science is perfect (and anyways perfection is a concept for religion and philosophy, not scienctific investigation), but it has made the case that the overwhelming body of evidence indicates a rapid warming trend that is directly linked to greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.

Battle of the Behemoths over Global Warming
The Chamber of Commerce and the Southeastern Legal Foundation might get a bit more than they bargained for out of their legal action against the EPA. Sustainability is becoming big business, and some of the biggest businesses in the world are committing their resources to it (Walmart much?). That includes a growing list of big time sports including the ski industry, professional golf, Major League Baseball, and the National Football League.

Does this Mean the Department of Defense Has It All Wrong?
As we’re fond of pointing out on this site, the U.S. military has been pushing sustainability measures for years, even under the previous administration which was hardly known for its support of climate science. Just last month the Department of Defense came right out and included climate change in the Quadrennial Defense Review, a periodic threat assessment. Among other considerations the document calls for all branches of the armed forces to prepare for the impact of rising sea levels, severe heat, and other variables that will affect military training and operations. DoD’s position is backed up by its own considerable, direct access to climate data. In contrast, the Southeastern Legal Foundation lists a number of partners in its global warming work, none of which appear to be independent science organizations. Perhaps that explains why SLF doesn’t see any cause for alarm, claiming that climate change is “natural, cyclical, and not as extreme as reported by the IPCC.” Nothing to see here, folks? Personally my money is on the Department of Defense.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

BrightSource Gets Department of Energy Loan Guarantee if Tortoise Issue Solved

Written by Susan Kraemer

BrightSource got a boost from the Department of Energy this week with a loan guarantee of $1.37 billion to help build three concentrated solar thermal power plants producing 400 MW of clean solar power in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.

However, it is predicated upon BrightSource meeting the environmental requirements before closing on the loan, and it is precisely those environmental requirements that have bogged it down. The desert tortoise has held up approval so far. The Bureau of Land Management is leading a federal review of the project with support from DOE.

Early this year, after working with environmental groups, Senator Feinstein of California stepped in with clarification on what is and is not an environmentally sensitive area, creating maps to make the approval process easier and more predictable, showing where solar plants are likely to encounter resistance – and where it is safe to plan one.

Then BrightSource filed a proposal on February 11 to shrink the footprint of the Ivanpah Solar Complex, reducing its environmental impact in response to public comments about the project.

The proposed changes would reduce the footprint of the third Ivanpah plant by 23% and trim the overall project by about 12%, while avoiding the area identified by environmental groups as posing the greatest concern. The new plans call for dropping the number of solar towers in the third Ivanpah plant from 5 to 1, which brings the overall total number of towers in the power plant to 3. It also cuts the number of heliostats by about 40,000. If approved, these changes would lower the site’s total gross capacity from 440 MW to 392 MW.

If this can be approved, Ivanpah Solar Complex would nearly double existing generation capacity of CSP facilities in the United States, and would become the world’s largest operational concentrated solar thermal power complex.

The technology uses thousands of flat mirrors, or “heliostats,” to concentrate the sun’s heat onto a receiver mounted at the top of a tower. Water pumped to the receiver is boiled into steam, which drives a turbine to produce electricity. Solar power towers allow the capture of a greater percentage of solar energy than other solar thermal technologies, and includes storage at night.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com