Leave Carbon in the Ground or Humans Won't Be Around

By Richard Whiteford
Sierra Club Member & Environmental Communications Consultant

Congressional legislators who deny climate change typically focus on free market economics and fail to acknowledge the destructive impacts and associated costs that we experience now from climate driven extreme weather events.

They grouse about the Obama Administration’s request for a 2014 climate change budget of $11.6 billion and the expansion of government agencies to combat climate change. 

While realizing that the Republican party’s platform rests on smaller government and cutting government expenses to the bone, you can’t help wondering why their budget fetish ignores the fact that, according to  the U.S. Treasury Department, between 2011 and the first quarter of 2013 extreme weather events cost us more than $136 billion and that doesn’t count the endless numbers of flood, sand storm, drought, and wild fire damages that happened since then.

They claim that while the President stated a willingness to work with Congress toward enacting a bipartisan, market-based scheme to reduce GHG emissions, the Administration has also taken steps to move ahead with Executive Branch actions to address climate change concerns without Congressional support. 

They express outrage that President Barack Obama has advanced a series of unilateral regulations without appropriate legislative review – including a proper assessment of the cumulative influence, regional effects, and distributional impact of such actions on states and localities – would do more harm than good. 

The Republican Party, while vehemently denying the existence of global warming, ditched every proposed climate bill leaving the Obama no other choice.

At a time when our economy is struggling to recover, increasing the cost of energy and cutting more American jobs is not the right way to move forward.”

Here again, like so many people, these legislators fail to recognize the real issue because their only measure is money, revenues in particular.

The critical issue is: in the past 150 years humans increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by 117 parts-per-million by burning fossil fuels. For over 800,000 years before that CO2 levels hovered around 280 parts-per-miliion. 

Now because we pump 90 million tons of CO2 up there every 24 hours, CO2 has risen to an average of 397 parts-per-million and actually spiked into the 400 parts-per-million level twice in early 2013. It won’t be long until that will become the average as it continues upward.

Burning fossil fuels has already raised the global temperature from preindustrial levels by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and we are already experiencing sea level rise, extreme storms, droughts and wildfires around the planet. Even more alarming, 80 percent of the Arctic ice cap melted in the summer of 2012.

Scientist believe that we can’t allow the preindustrial global temperature to rise higher than 2 degrees Celsius or human survival will be very challenging. We are almost half way there now.

The oil, gas and coal industries and their paid henchmen like the Heartland Institute and bought politicians distract the public with red herring issues like claiming that switching to clean energy will hurt the economy, kill jobs, and cause energy shortages while overlooking the job creation that clean energy creates.

What is tragically overlooked by them and the media is that if humans want to survive on this planet we have to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible. Scientists say that we can’t put much more than another 565 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere without disastrous results. At this time, financial analysts calculate that there is already 2,795 gigatons of CO2 contained in readily available oil, gas and coal reserves. 

That’s five times more CO2 than we can afford to burn and expect to survive yet the plan remains drill baby drill; burn baby burn.

There is enough carbon just in the Canadian Tar Sands oil deposits to send the global temperature above the 2 degree limit. That is the reason environmentalists are protesting the Keystone XL Pipe Line. We just can’t afford to burn that carbon and expect to survive.

Again, the critical issue is carbon output. If we keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere jobs and the economy will be a moot point. What good will money be if we don’t live to spend it? 

Our first step should be to tax all carbon at its source of extraction and give that money directly to our tax-paying citizens to cover the increase in price that fossil fuels will go through until we are 100% clean energy and stop burning them. This points to another blind spot. Legislators want to cut subsidies to clean energy but they vote in lock-step to support the $90 billion in tax subsidies that the oil companies get from taxpayers each year in the name of “leveling the playing field.”

The bottom line is, leave carbon in the ground or humans won’t be around.

Originally published in the Patriot News Op-Ed on December 16, 2013. 

It's About Time!

By Thomas Y. Au, PA Chapter Conservation Chair

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Finally Rules that Oil and Gas Act is Unconstitutional. 

Municipal governments have a role to play in regulating oil and gas drilling, according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which declared the state’s pre-emption of that role to be unconstitutional.

In 1971, Pennsylvania voters adopted an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, which simply stated:

The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

This amendment, Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, became known as the Environmental Rights Amendment.  However, for decades, Pennsylvania's legislature and courts have all but ignored the text of this amendment, giving it lip service when enacting legislation, but scarcely balancing the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment with the demands of industrial development.  The Environmental Rights Amendment was almost never used to weigh impending industrial development.

Photo courtesy of marcellusprotest.org

In commenting on the decision, the Patriot-News editorial (Dec. 22) made this wry observation: "But the hope here is that it marks a new day in Pennsylvania, delivering an enduring reminder to legislators and the governor: As you're being schmoozed by lobbyists and lavished with campaign contributions from powerful industries that want special treatment, there's a limit on how far you can go to please them, because the Pennsylvania Constitution has an Environmental Rights Amendment."

When the General Assembly enacted Act 13 in 2012, it was in response to the rapid and intensive development of Marcellus Shale gas drilling.  The law was intended to foster, rather than limit, shale gas development by, among other things, limiting the role of municipal governments in reviewing and regulating shale gas operations in their municipalities.  The law specifically stated that the state government intended to pre-empt all local ordinances regulating oil and gas development. (The Commonwealth, by this section, preempts and supersedes the regulation of oil and gas operations as provided in this chapter."  58 Pa.C.S. Section 3302)

When the Commonwealth Court heard the challenge from Robinson Township and other municipalities after the enactment of the Oil and Gas Act in 2012, the court found: "By requiring municipalities to violate their comprehensive plans for growth and development, 58 Pa.C.S. §3304 violates substantive due process because it does not protect the interests of neighboring property owners from harm, alters the character of neighborhoods and makes irrational classifications — irrational because it requires municipalities to allow all zones, drilling operations and impoundments, gas compressor stations, storage and use of explosives in all zoning districts, and applies industrial criteria to restrictions on height of structures, screening and fencing, lighting and noise."

This set the stage for an appeal by the state, the PUC, and the oil and gas industry to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  On Dec. 19, 2013, the court issued its decision.

Pennsylvania’s history, Chief Justice Castille wrote, includes massive deforestation, the loss of wildlife, and industrialization and coal mining. “It is not a historical accident that the Pennsylvania Constitution now places citizens’ environmental rights on par with their political rights,” the plurality said.   Constitutional provisions, he pointed out, are to be interpreted based on “the mischief to be remedied and the object to be attained.” 

Chief Justice Castille applied this analysis to Sections 3303, 3304, and 3215(b)(4): 

Section 3303, which pre-empted local regulation of oil and gas operations, violates Article I, Section 27 “because the General Assembly has no authority to remove a political subdivision’s implicitly necessary authority to carry into effect its constitutional duties.”  The Commonwealth is the trustee under the amendment, which means that local governments are among the trustees with constitutional responsibilities.  

Section 3304, which requires “all local ordinances” to “allow for the reasonable development of oil and gas resources” and imposes uniform rules for oil and gas regulation, violates Article I, Section 27 for two reasons.  “First, a new regulatory regime permitting industrial uses as a matter of right in every type of pre-existing zoning district [including residential] is incapable of conserving or maintaining the constitutionally-protected aspects of the public environment and of a certain quality of life.”   Second, under Act 13 “some properties and communities will carry much heavier environmental and habitability burdens than others.”  This result is inconsistent with the obligation that the trustee acts for the benefit of “all the people.” 

Endangered Species Protection is Threatened by the General Assembly

By Thomas Au, Sierra Club PA Conservation Chair

The gas drilling and mining industries have been pushing new legislation to undermine the independence of the PA Fish and Boat Commission and the PA Game Commission to administer Pennsylvania's endangered species laws. 

The so-called Endangered Species Coordination Act (House Bill 1576 and Senate Bill 1047) would place regulations for rare species by the Fish and Boat Commission and Game Commission under the purview of the state's Independent Regulatory Review Commission - a five member body dominated by the legislature.  While this process appears to be innocuous on the surface, it essentially subjects proposed actions by these independent agencies to second-guessing by political appointees.

The current process allows scientists from the PA Game Commission, PA Fish and Boat Commission and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, after public hearing and discussion, to determine when a species in Pennsylvania is rare, threatened or endangered and take steps to protect them. The current process also allows the Pa Fish and Boat Commission to designate wild trout streams. The bills would take this independent authority away from these agencies and their professional staff, and put the ultimate decisions in the hands of political appointees. 

The bills would actually prevent a species from being listed in Pennsylvania, unless it is first listed by the federal government.  This ignores the fact that many species may be threatened in Pennsylvania due to conditions in our state that do not exist in other states.  These include the great egret, the long-eared owl, and numerous species of mussels and fish. And according to testimony from the staff of the Commissions, it would make it more difficult to protect many rare Pennsylvania wildlife and fish species.

The bills would also require the agencies to re-propose all the species currently under their protection by enacting regulations on each one of them.  This would require a huge amount of agency resources to be used to re-justify listed endangered species, without providing funding pay for the agency work.  This mandate that will divert scarce resources from other agency critical work. 

The cumulative effect of the changes proposed in the bill blunt the Commissions' programs for threatened and endangered species of fish and wildlife - allowing drilling, mining, and clear-cutting to evade agency review. 

In 2012, the Governor’s Energy Executive, Patrick Henderson, wrote in a report to the General Assembly that the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory environmental review tool should continue to be enhanced so as to assist in the up-front avoidance of conflicts with threatened and endangered species, flora, fauna, habitat and other sensitive natural resources and increase certainty in decision making and long-term planning of pipeline operators.  If this is the Governor's position, his office should be leading the opposition to these bills.

Please write your state senator and representative

stating your opposition to these bills. 

With ever-larger tracts of pristine public and private land being subjected to industrial development, including gas drilling, pipeline construction, and mining,  the likelihood of encroachment on  threatened and endangered species increases.  These industries should not attempt to shield themselves from potential conflict by curbing the ability of the fish and game commissions to list and protect these species. Pennsylvanians cherish their wild resources, and we should not be weakening their protection.

Ontario, Canada, Goes Coal Free

Today Ontario, Canada, is showcasing a path for a world working to prevent runaway climate change. Today, Ontario retired their last coal-fired power plant. Part of a bold plan launched by former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2003 to cut pollution in the province, this is great news for everyone who loves clean air and is working to provide a safe and liveable planet for future generations. 

What's more, the steps Ontario has taken over the past decade to retire its five coal-fired power plants is a great guide for the U.S. in making a speedy transition to a modern, clean, carbon-free energy system. 

What can we learn from Ontario?

1) Be honest about the costs of coal. In 2003 Ontario looked at the full cost of coal, both the costs of coal-generated electricity, and the health costs the province was paying related directly to the health costs of burning coal. An honest accounting concluded that coal is among the most expensive ways to generate electricity.

2) Be bold. Long before other states and cities were talking about phasing out coal, then Premier McGuinty announced he would lead the effort to replace all the coal plants in a decade. This took a lot of courage, but also a profound belief in our scientists and engineers to imagine and build a coal-free electricity sector.

3) Invest heavily in energy efficiency. The province demonstrated that the cheapest source of power is efficiency, or reduced demand. In fact, according to Scientific American, these savvy actions made Ontario one of the first places in the world where energy demand began to decline, rather than increase.

4) Provide clear and fair rules for clean energy developers. With a clear roadmap and and balanced incentives wind power quintupled over the past 6 years in Ontario. Today wind and energy efficiency will make up much of the replacement for the retiring coal plants. A carbon-free grid is now within reach, as clean energy continues to grow and will back out the remaining natural gas.

This move by Ontario is the latest in a string of great clean energy news across North America. Last week the Tennessee Valley Authority announced the retirement of 3,300 megawatts of coal power in the Southeastern U.S. Earlier in 2013, Los Angeles and Chicago both announced they were going coal-free, with L.A. even announcing a major solar power deal with the Moapa Band of Paiutes in Nevada. The U.S. has been ditching coal (as fast as its investors), because a mix of hard-hitting grassroots advocacy, new EPA protections, and rising coal prices, has brought about the retirement or announced retirement of 155 coal plants.

With the largest grassroot environment movement in the U.S. working together to de-carbonize the electric sector, activists are fighting for clean energy and climate solutions from coast to coast. In the past week activists in Florida and Arizona rallied for solar power; North Dakota approved a new wind farm; Sudbury, Massachusetts just flipped the switch on a solar array that will save the city $100,000 annually.

This is also the latest in a string of great clean energy news across the globe. Sparked by the President's climate action plan which called for an end to public financing of coal overseas, the United Kingdom and multilateral banks like the World Bank and the European Investment Bank have also stopped throwing taxpayer dollars at dirty coal projects. These governments and institutions will instead be investing in clean, renewable energy.

While coal has powered the U.S. economy for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, we now know it is the leading source of climate disruption, it pollutes our air and makes our kids sick, and it has no place in a modern, high-tech economy. We live in the most innovative country on earth -- the first country to put a man on the moon, the nation that brought the Internet to the world. Our neighbors to the north are showcasing leadership. Let's build on their leadership, our incredible progress here in the U.S., and get to 100 percent clean energy in less than two decades. I know we can.

-- Bruce Nilles, Senior Director of the Beyond Coal Campaign

Corbett administration downplays effects of climate change in Pa: As I See It

By John Rossi

Published 10.15.13 in the Patriot News. 

Last week the Corbett administration quietly released one of its more remarkable documents: the Pennsylvania Climate Impacts Assessment Update. 

The report, which was required by law and 18 months late, points out, to the apparent discomfort of  Gov. Tom Corbett and his staff, that temperatures in the state are indeed rising and this rise is caused by our and our fellow citizens’ activities, such as burning coal, oil, and natural gas, which release greenhouse gases. 

It concludes that “while significant economic impacts could occur within certain climate sensitive sectors, Pennsylvania’s overall economy would be little affected by projected climate change.”

In light of events such as Superstorm Sandy–the massive 2012 hurricane off the Atlantic Coast which killed 159 people, flooded New York City, and caused $66 billion in damages–one wonders how the group which produced Pennsylvania Climate Impacts could make such a claim?

For one, the report’s authors completely ignore Pennsylvania’s saltwater-impacted east coast. As the climate has warmed and glaciers have melted, sea levels are rising. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change points out in its recently released report that between 1971 and 2010 the sea level has risen 2.54 inches. 

For the years 1993-2010, however, the rate of rise per year has nearly doubled, increasing from 0.067 inches for 1971-2010 to 0.126 in the last 17 years.

Climatologist Qin Dahe observes: “As the ocean warms, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years.” Depending on the rate of temperature increase and glacier melting, we could see the sea level rise as much as a foot in the next 50 years.

As the world heats up, Pennsylvania can expect to receive its share of drought as well as floods.

A warmer ocean, the international report points out, also stores more energy. This means that storms generated over the Atlantic will have more power and thus be more severe. With higher sea levels and more power, storms that sweep in from the Delaware Bay will be devastating to the cities, towns, and developed properties on the lower Delaware River. Chester and Philadelphia will be subject to more frequent floods which will inundate much more property. 

The cost in direct damage and lost economic activity of such climate change-generated weather disasters will run in the billions of dollars.

A warmer atmosphere for coastal regions typically means a wetter climate because warmer air holds more moisture.

It also means more severe storms and flooding. Over the past 225 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) list of historical floods on the Susquehanna River, Harrisburg has suffered from 49 floods. Thirteen of those floods, 26 percent, occurred in the past 25 years. 

Eight of those floods, 16 percent occurred in the last decade. 2011 was a record-setting year with three floods hitting Harrisburg, the first time ever in its history the city has experienced that number of floods in one year. 

The worst was the September 2011 flood caused by Tropical Storm Lee. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission reports that it forced the evacuation of over 100,000 people and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.

Unfortunately, extreme weather caused by global warming does not just include hurricanes, tropical storms, and subsequent deluges. 

One of the other major effects is drought. NOAA reports that one of the most damaging severe weather events of the last decade was the 2012 drought. It effected half the country and caused $30 billion in damages due to widespread crop failures. It was also responsible for 123 heat-related fatalities.

As the world heats up, Pennsylvania can expect to receive its share of drought as well as floods.

It is clear from the facts above that global warming and the extreme weather it produces, is going to impose significant costs on Pennsylvania and Pennsylvanians. More property will be destroyed, more peoples’ lives will be disrupted, and more people will die than would have if the world’s temperature was not increasing.

The great challenge of our time is: do we ignore the basic realities and impacts of global warming as the Governor and the authors of Pennsylvania Climate Impacts appear to want to do, or do we take action–personal and political–to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions and change the course of global warming?

John Rossi is the co-chair of the Climate Disruption Committee of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club.

“And the People Shall Lead: Centralizing Frontline Community Leadership in the Movement Towards a Sustainable Planet”

A movement support paper about barriers and opportunities for improving collaboration between big environmental organizations and grassroots/frontline communities.

The paper is based on notes from “Engaging Non-Traditional Groups in Coal Plant Retirement” a session the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, the American Lung Association, the Sierra Club and the NAACP co-facilitated at the  February 2011 Coal Plant Retirement conference.  It also includes illustrative scenarios from the experiences of people/organizations in the movement. The observations and recommendations are applicable beyond the environmental and climate justice arena,
as the dynamics described can be found in other movements worldwide.

We hope this paper will provide thought-provoking illumination of the challenges faced as groups have tried to collaborate, as well as pathways to building a more cohesive movement, led by frontline communities, with principles of democratic organizing modeled by the Jemez Principles.

 FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Jacqui Patterson

Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program

NAACP

4805 Mt. Hope Drive

Baltimore, MD 21215

443-465-9809

http://www.naacp.org/programs/entry/climate-justice

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