Our New Exxon Valdez

We are an energy greedy nation. A few weeks ago we vomited out the fruits of this greed in Kingston, Tennessee, home of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill shocked Americans into regulating the oil shipping industry, and caused us to cast a wary eye on all offshore oil development. Double-hulled tankers are now the rule, not the exception, and the standards for oil production are tighter, if imperfect. Exxon also faced decades of criminal and civil litigation, leading to a multimillion-dollar payout to fishermen and others affected by the spill, two decades later (though the final payout was a fraction of that ordered by lower courts, thanks to a 2008 industry-friendly ruling by the Supreme Court).

So what will result from the Tennessee Valley Authority's massive coal ash spill, which has blanketed hundreds of acres near Kingston, Tenn., with a sludgy and likely toxic mess? (USA Today has the latest on the fear inspired by the spill, while the New York Times details test results showing high levels of toxic contaminants in streams near the spill.)

Will TVA and its Kingston, Tenn., power plant become synonymous with an environmental disaster on the scale that the Exxon Valdez is?

It should.

The accident highlights the serious, but often hidden, risks of coal. The coal industry has launched an advertising blitz in recent years, particularly during the presidential campaign, lauding the fossil fuel for keeping America's lights on, and for the promise of "clean coal."

"Clean coal" has nothing to do with coal itself. Rather, the term is typically used to refer to next-generation (that is, not this generation) technology that will capture the pollution — the emissions that cause acid rain, smog and, critically, global warming — that spews from smokestacks. It says nothing about the real-world damage from coal mining or, in this case, the management of coal waste. "Mismanagement" would be the better term in this case.

The air pollution from coal-fired power plants is the largest contributor to America's greenhouse gas emissions, its acid rain and much of the nation's smog. Smog, lest anyone forget, leads to asthma and other lung diseases, heart attacks and premature death.

The spill highlights the need for the American economy to evolve. We have to do more with less energy — an easy challenge, given the wastefulness in our energy consumption today. And we have to generate our electricity with clean sources, like the sun, wind and tides.

In the meantime, government has to get serious about regulating the power plants currently in operation so that — at a minimum — they safely contain their wastes.

Adios

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

Anne Bradstreet, poet

http://www.annebradstreet.com/anne_bradstreet_bio_001.htm

Obama Names Environmental and Energy Team

Today President-Elect Obama named his leaders for his environmental team.

A Nobel Prize winner -- no not that Nobel Prize winner -- will head the Obama Administration's Energy Department, while a former state-level environmental chief will lead the Environmental Protection Agency and Clinton's former EPA chief will step into a new role as an "energy czar."

Steven Chu, Energy Secretary

The Department of Energy is mostly about nuclear weapons and nuclear power, along with a bunch of energy industry analysts, but it also holds the biggest grouping in the world of renewable energy researchers. Chu -- unlike Al Gore, that other Nobel Prize winner -- doesn't believe that the world has all the technology it needs to solve the global warming crisis ... which means he's likely to push for increased research. That's a good thing. Also a good thing: He believes there's a global warming crisis.

Andy Revkin's DotEarth blog has more on Chu.

Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator

A former Clinton EPA official and more recently the head of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, Jackson has a mixed record. The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club had kind words about Jackson, according to the Associated Press, but a coalition of smaller groups expressed concerns about the agency's allegedly lax enforcement of environmental laws, like the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.

Carol Browner, Energy Czar

Browner is a well-respected environmental advocate, having led Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, advised Gore as a senator, led Clinton's EPA, chaired the National Audubon Society, and most recently acted as a private attorney and investment adviser on issues related to climate, energy and the environment. The only question is exactly what she'll do, since her title and responsibilities aren't clearly outlined.

Nancy Sutley, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality

Sutley, the Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for energy and environment, has been involved in that city's significant greening efforts, such as its goal of drawing 10% of its power from the sun, its requirement that public buildings meet LEED green building standards, its effort to improve carpooling and public transportation in the notoriously freeway-based region and its plan to plant 1 million trees.

Recap: Obama's Speech on Global Warming

In a speech delivered via video to a bipartisan climate summit in California in November, Obama pledged to take strong action to combat global warming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvG2XptIEJk&eurl=http://www.thedailygreen.com/print-this/environmental-news/latest/obama-energy-environment-47121102&feature=player_embedded

What The Obama Victory Means for the Environment

Barack Obama's presidential election victory sets the stage for a potential major change in U.S. energy and climate change policy, a major focus of the campaign, and could also usher in new efforts on a wide range of issues.

Perhaps one of the most significant efforts expected from an Obama EPA is the development of mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions. Jason Grumet, the campaign's environment and energy adviser, said recently that an Obama EPA would regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act within 18 months if Congress fails to act.

Obama supports a cap- and-trade program that relies on auctioning of emissions credits, rather than giving away emissions allowances to companies at no cost. Before the election there was also significant speculation on whether Obama would appoint an energy or climate czar to coordinate White House activities on climate change.

Environmentalists backed Obama in the election due to his support on a range of other environmental issues. For example, the League of Conservation Voters said when it endorsed Obama that they welcomed several of Obama's policy positions, including his calls for a 52-mile-per-gallon automobile fuel efficiency standard, $150 billion federal investment in clean energy technology, a 25 percent renewable portfolio standard for utilities and his backing for a cap-and-trade program to cut global warming pollution by 80 percent.

Meanwhile, activists and others are awaiting Obama's pick to head EPA, with former and current state environment chiefs topping the list of contenders for what we expect to be a vastly rejuvenated EPA under President Obama. We hear that the list for possible EPA administrator is down to four choices: former New Jersey environment chief Brad Campbell; former Pennsylvania environment secretary Katie McGinty, current California air board chairwoman Mary Nichols; and Jonathan Lash, president of the non-profit environmental group World Resources Institute.

The bible says seven fat years are to be followed by seven lean years (Genesis 41). I remember that when President Clinton was elected, the next seven years were the busiest of my professional career. The past seven years under President Bush, in contrast, have been the slowest of my career.

Here's hoping.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Helen Keller

When I Liberate Myself, I'm Liberating Other People

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of serving as liturgist at church. Our reverend went out on a limb, which I always think is a good idea. Instead of providing a traditional service and sermon, in light of the upcoming election she focused the celebration on the American Dream.

We sang tunes and words from the vast repertoire of distinctly American music. And we heard readings from each of the centuries of American history. These readings describe and illustrate the various facets of the illusive American dream.

Some of the readings spoke heartily of the individual, while others spoke to the national collective; some were irrepressibly exuberant, others challenging and disturbing in light of current events.

I particularly liked how Reverend Vader said the following: "Some may wonder why we do this in worship today. We do it because we are citizens. We do it because we are Christians who believe that all are welcome and loved by God. We do this because we have a voice and because our voice needs to be heard."

I read several passages: one from the Iroquois Federation Constitution, I read the preamble to the Constitution. I even read the Gettysburg Address.

But the one that stuck most with me is from Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer is known as the lady who was "sick and tired of being sick and tired," and was born in 1917 in Mississippi. She was the granddaughter of slaves. Her family were sharecroppers. Hamer had 19 brothers and sisters. She was the youngest of the children.

In 1962, when Hamer was 44 years old, SNCC volunteers came to town and held a voter registration meeting. She was surprised to learn that African-Americans actually had a constitutional right to vote. When the SNCC members asked for volunteers to go to the courthouse to register to vote, Hamer was the first to raise her hand. This was a dangerous decision. She later reflected, "The only thing they could do to me was to kill me, and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."

When Hamer and others went to the courthouse, they were jailed and beaten by the police. Hamer's courageous act got her thrown off the plantation where she was a sharecropper. She also began to receive constant death threats and was even shot at. Still, Hamer would not be discouraged. She became a SNCC Field Secretary and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote.

Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke in front of the Credentials Committee in a televised proceeding that reached millions of viewers. She told the committee how African-Americans in many states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation. As a result of her speech, two delegates of the MFDP were given speaking rights at the convention and the other members were seated as honorable guests.

Here is the reading I was privileged to present.

The special plight and the role of black women is not something that just happened three years ago. We've had a special plight for 350 years. My grandmother had it. My grandmother was a slave. She died in 1960. She was 136 years old. It's been a special plight for the black woman. And right now, sometimes, you know I work for the liberation of all people, because when I liberate myself, I'm liberating other people.

Whether you have a Ph.D., D.D., or no D, we're in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men -- this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves -- but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings.

I would like to tell you in closing the story of an old man. This old man was very wise, and he could answer questions that was almost impossible for people to answer.

So some people went to him one day, two young people, and said 'We're going to trick this guy today. We're going to catch a bird and we're going to carry it to this old man. And we're gonna ask him, 'This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?'

'If he says 'Dead,' we're gonna turn it loose and let it fly. And if he says 'Alive' we're gonna crush it.'

So they walked up to this old man and they said, 'This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?'

He looked at the young people and he smiled. And he said, 'It's in your hands.'

Run Faster, Longer

I just read a study that was published this week in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. It shows that music can enhance endurance and help exercisers feel more positive even when they are working out at a very high intensity.

But not just any music.

The researchers used tracks by Queen, Madonna, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and they found when runners kept in strict time with the beat, music enhanced endurance by 15 percent. The point is to match the tempo of music with workout intensity. (We should tell the organizers of the Army Ten Miler this weekend that it's not a crime to run with your iPod!)

A reviewer of the study made a good point. He wrote that this research also has applications beyond the power of pop music. Any means you can find to stay motivated in your workout will deliver better results and more consistency in the long run.

FOR THE RECORD: I have never listened to Bohemian Rhapsody while running, and don't have it on my iPod. Now, as far as Fat Bottom Girls goes, that's a completely different story.

Cheers