Lisa Jackson's Priorities as EPA Administrator

Today the US Senate confirmed Lisa Jackson as the new Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Immediately after her confirmation, Ms. Jackson issued a memorandum to EPA employees outlining her top five priorities:

1. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The President has pledged to make responding to the threat of climate change a high priority of his administration. He is confident that we can transition to a low-carbon economy while creating jobs and making the investment we need to emerge from the current recession and create a strong foundation for future growth. I share this vision. EPA will stand ready to help Congress craft strong, science-based climate legislation that fulfills the vision of the President. As Congress does its work, we will move ahead to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing EPA’s obligation to address climate change under the Clean Air Act.

2. Improving air quality. The nation continues to face serious air pollution challenges, with large areas of the country out of attainment with air-quality standards and many communities facing the threat of toxic air pollution. Science shows that people’s health is at stake. We will plug the gaps in our regulatory system as science and the law demand.

3. Managing chemical risks. More than 30 years after Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act, it is clear that we are not doing an adequate job of assessing and managing the risks of chemicals in consumer products, the workplace and the environment. It is now time to revise and strengthen EPA’s chemicals management and risk assessment programs.

4. Cleaning up hazardous-waste sites. EPA will strive to accelerate the pace of cleanup at the hundreds of contaminated sites across the country. Turning these blighted properties into productive parcels and reducing threats to human health and the environment means jobs and an investment in our land, our communities and our people.

5. Protecting America’s water. EPA will intensify our work to restore and protect the quality of the nation’s streams, rivers, lakes, bays, oceans and aquifers. The Agency will make robust use of our authority to restore threatened treasures such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, to address our neglected urban rivers, to strengthen drinking-water safety programs, and to reduce pollution from non-point and industrial dischargers.

EIA Predicts No Growth In US Oil Consumption for the First Time in 20 Years

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) yesterday released its Annual Energy Outlook 2009, presenting U.S. energy consumptions and production projections for the next few decades.
Among EIA’s predictions:

• No growth in U.S. oil consumption. This is the first time in over 20 years that the EIA did not project a growth.


• The natural gas industry will expand but will rely less on foreign imports less. EIA projects that the total net share of imported natural gas will drop from 16 percent in 2007 to less than 3 percent in 2030.


• Energy-related CO2 emissions and energy usage will continue to grow, but at a much slower rate, due in part to higher energy prices and new efficiency policies.


• Oil prices will continue to rise, costing $130 per barrel by 2030 ($189 per barrel, adjusted for inflation).


• The renewable fuel industry will grow, with U.S. consumption rapidly rising by 3.3 percent every year.


• Hybrid vehicle sales will jump from 2 percent in 2007 to 38 percent in 2030. By that time plug-in hybrids will also account for 2 percent of all new car sales.

The full report will be available for download later this month on the EIA website. EIA also issued its International Energy Outlook report containing predictions about wind power, world oil prices, etc.

President Obama

A Dust of Snow

I went for a walk in the woods last week after a light dusting of snow. It was beautiful and reminded me of a Robert Frost poem, "A Dust of Snow"

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued

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