President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy to head the EPA, which was confirmed by the Senate.

Good policy and good action by government is dependent on having good people in charge.

Down in Washington we now have proof that even in the age of grid-lock and partisan warfare a competent, professional and effective leader can rise to a critical position in our government to lead and manage the crucial energy and climate transition underway.

That proof came last month when Massachusetts native (and resident) Gina McCarthy was sworn in as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after a record-setting delay.

Many members of the CLF staff have years of experience working with Gina during her long career in Massachusetts state government and then her successful run as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

There are a few hallmarks of Gina’s work and method of operation that are particularly notable and important.

First, she brings a deep respect and appreciation for the importance of public participation. Many of us at CLF have seen the “McCarthy Principle” that “In general, the more people who are involved in making a decision and the more information the decision-makers have the better the decision will be” in action.

Second, she is totally (and sometimes brutally) honest.  I can remember Gina cutting to the end of a negotiation by bluntly reviewing a list of items under discussion: “you will get 1, 3, 5 and 9 but I can’t deliver on 2 and 8, although I wish I could, and 4 and 6 are a bad idea.”  Her legendary charm and sense of humor are essential to making this style work.

Third, Gina is not afraid of complicated subject matter.  Her engagement of climate policy, transportation and the electricity systems display a willingness to delve into the details, trust experts and tackle tough and thorny issues.

Gina, in her time in state government in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and during her time in Washington, has not gotten everything right. I can tick off almost as many examples of CLF squaring off in agency proceedings or in court to oppose efforts she has championed as I can list examples when we stood with her and her agency.  But it has always been clear that she has been listening, thinking and doing all she could to move her agency in the right direction to protect the public health, the environment and to build thriving communities and she has done it as honestly and as openly as she could.  And isn’t that what matters?

A version of this article first appeared in the Sunday August 11 edition of the Rutland Herald /Times Argus.

A cleaner energy future looks bright. It means less pollution, lower costs and better service. Getting there takes some work.

It’s a pretty good bet that a cleaner energy future includes lots more “distributed generation” and fewer large, centralized power plants. Think about your PC or MacBook in place of a huge central computer, or your cellphone — and computer — in your pocket. Examples of distributed generation include solar panels on roofs of homes and parking garages and community wind power.

Linking these sources together so they can power our cars, run our refrigerators and keep us cool is a challenge — one that we must embrace. Failing to meet it leaves us with yesterday’s dirty coal plants or problematic new pipelines for tomorrow’s power needs.

The challenge is that our electrical grid operates without storing energy. The grid is a marvel of human ingenuity that delivers power from any electrical plant to anyone in the region who turns on a switch. It is a bit like a seesaw. The grid must keep in balance the power coming in with the power going out.

Our grid was built and designed to keep this balance by operating mostly with large regional power plants, some of which can be turned on and off fairly easily. When we add more, smaller power sources, keeping the balance becomes a different challenge.

The seesaw must balance with a handful of marbles instead of a few large buckets. But the marbles are more nimble, and the solar panel on your roof delivers power that doesn’t need to travel far. The challenge in the next decade is making our grid as nimble as our power resources to make the most of these new advantages.

If we fail to figure out how to balance our grid with the use of smaller, cleaner resources, we will have more situations where we keep burning fossil fuels instead of allowing wind power on hot summer days, a situation that occurred during our most recent hot spell.

A group of environmental organizations and businesses known as the E4 Group is working with the region’s grid operator to help us meet this challenge. To start, we must correctly account for the amount of new smaller sources that will be used.

A recent report prepared for the E4 Group, “Forecasting Distributed Generation in New England,”  by Synapse Energy Economics shows how billions are being spent in the region now to improve our electric transmission system. Yet these efforts are moving forward without a clear estimate of how much local, distributed generation will be used. It is like projecting the needs for telephone service without considering how many cell phones will be used.

As a result, our electricity system is likely being overbuilt — and we are paying far too much for it. We are building our electrical grid as if the likelihood that you or the school nearby will put up solar panels doesn’t exist. That just doesn’t make sense.

The opportunity is to better tailor our electrical grid investments to take advantage of distributed generation and avoid costly investments for delivering power from far away.

A key finding of the report is that the plans for the grid significantly underestimate the amount of distributed generation that will be installed in the region by 2021. The report forecasts 2,855 megawatts of power from distributed sources by that date, compared to the 800 megawatts assumed by the current plan. This means we will have more than three times the distributed generation than previously estimated.

But the grid and the resources required to meet power needs are being planned as if the real contribution from distributed generation won’t even exist. By ignoring the cleanest, local generation we will be overbuilding and overpaying for bigger, more expensive power upgrades than we actually need.

The report is a clarion call that shows how distributed generation can be better integrated into our regional system and as a result lower pollution and costs for everyone.

Photo credit: AZRainman via Compfight.

Flipping through the latest issue of Commercial Fisheries News recently, I was somewhat surprised to find several stories about climate change interspersed with the ads for diesel engines and winches. These articles weren’t of the “Do you or don’t you believe” variety, or predictions of how high the seas would rise or how bad the storms/droughts/heat waves/cold waves would be. The tone of these stories was summed up pretty well by the cover: “Changing Ocean – what does it all mean?”It was a sobering read, to say the least. In short – rapidly increasing water temperatures, along with ocean acidification and shifting currents are playing havoc with our fishing grounds. Many of our most economically important fish and shellfish are not found where they used to be, and former strangers like sailfish and cobia are becoming familiar in our waters.

Many fishermen have realized, as have many of us non-fishermen, that conversations about climate “beliefs” are outdated, and the real story now is how we cope with the changes that are already happening, and are bound to keep coming.

Fishermen are joining experts in other areas such as coastal infrastructure, energy distribution, and national security in speaking out about the real, observable facts of the current impacts from climate change. Even as the ocean changes, the uses of our oceans and coasts are increasing. We are adding new uses like tidal and wind energy development and more undersea communications cables to our existing uses like fishing, shipping, and recreation. If we are going to both maintain the health of the ocean which provides the goods and services we depend upon and manage ocean uses so they are compatible, profitable and less prone to harm ocean health then we need to coordinate all new and old uses as best we can. Here in New England we have an active ocean planning process working to do just that.

In 2010 President Obama signed the Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Policy which calls for, among other things, regional ocean planning. This planning must involve better coordination of federal agencies and ocean users, be informed by the best available science and data, be conducted in a manner that considers the entire ocean ecosystem, not just discrete parts, and be open and transparent to all stakeholders.

New Englanders were well equipped for this new and important challenge, having created our own state plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the Northeast Regional Ocean Council to help guide our regional efforts. Most recently, we have convened a Regional Planning Body to begin the real nuts and bolts work of putting together our nation’s first true regional ocean plan.

There is no doubt that the ocean is changing, that these changes will require resiliency and problem-solving to cope with, and that we are asking more and more of our ocean resources than ever before.  The best way forward is with a good plan, and we will continue to actively support these efforts in New England, and we hope you will too.

The nearly completed globe at the Bank of America Pavilion.

When CLF decided to sponsor a globe for the Cool Globes public art exhibition launching today on Boston Common, we knew we wanted to involve lots of people in its creation. The idea of a crowdsourced design for our globe was our way of connecting CLF’s often behind-the-scenes work on climate change to the people who give that work voice.

As New England’s leading advocates for solutions to climate change, we often ask our members and friends to join us in appealing to decision makers in our region and in Washington – to support strong climate legislation, to fund energy efficiency programs and public transportation, to build cleaner cars and promote cleaner fuels to run them, to expedite renewable energy development and to reduce our reliance on dirty fossil fuels for electricity, to name a few.

New England’s Climate Pledge, as our globe is entitled, asks the people and friends of New England to do their part to reduce climate pollution. The pledge and its flourishes were artfully inscribed on the six foot tall, white fiberglass structure by Alexandra (Ali) Overing, a Bard College student with a passion for the environment, and a way with a paint pen (and, we are told, a twin talent for vocal performance). Ali’s bold design gave the words the appropriate gravitas, while including just enough visual interest and artistic touches to get passersby to stop, read and think.

So, the concept of a giant, 3-D climate petition came naturally to us, but how to find people to sign it? Enter the Bank of America Pavilion, site of a star-studded outdoor concert series that attracts tens of thousands of people every summer from all over New England and beyond. The Pavilion management gave CLF’s globe pride of place on the concourse where it attracted concertgoers like moths to a flame.

Enthusiastic concert-goers pick their spots to sign.

From the fresh-faced young fans of the Jonas Brothers to the spirited teen followers of bands like Imagine Dragons, to the older crowds rocking out to the Black Crowes and Beck, hundreds and hundreds of people stopped by to sign the globe and take our climate pledge. CLF staff and summer interns were delighted to meet so many enthusiastic New Englanders who agreed that they would play a role – the most important role – in reducing climate pollution. Their names, proudly inscribed in neon colors alongside their hometowns, represent the power of individuals and a region united to make a difference.

You can come see CLF’s Cool Globe on the Boston Common beginning today through October 15. And you, too, can take New England’s Climate Pledge, wherever you live.

You’ve heard of the writing on the wall, but what is all that writing on the sidewalk and the street? You’ve seen it—yellow, orange, blue, red and white.

Some of it is pretty easy to decipher like “DS” for “Dig Safe” or “STM” for “steam” but some of the drawings look more like ancient hieroglyphics.

It’s incredible what’s running right beneath our feet, like an entire natural gas infrastructure, but we rarely take time to think about it.

In Massachusetts, we have over 21,000 miles of natural gas distribution pipeline running under our streets. That’s almost enough pipeline to circle all the way around the Earth. For perspective, you could drive from Boston to San Francisco and back three times and still not put 21,000 miles on your odometer.

I’ve been thinking about what’s under the street a lot over the past two years. In July 2011, I was introduced to a professor at Boston University, Nathan Phillips, who had embarked on a journey of mapping natural gas leaks in the City of Boston. Using a high tech sensor, Nathan was detecting leaks and translating them into incredible visual representations that called attention to the aging natural gas pipelines criss-crossing our city.

Maps created by Nathan Phillips of Boston University

After I saw Nathan’s maps, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the ground. Whether I was walking or biking, I started to notice all kinds of infrastructure, not just natural gas, everywhere.

There were “Gardner Boxes” in front of the houses on my street—these are one type of emergency shut-off valves for gas service lines.

Emergency Shut-Off

Then there were the large, bold, golden “G”s on the street, sometimes accompanied by CI (which stands for cast iron) or PL (for plastic) or BS (for bare steel), or CS (for coated steel) 18-in or 12-in or 3-in (telling me the diameter of the pipeline), and NGrid or NStar (the name of the company that owns the pipeline).

Suddenly, I could tell a lot about my street just from looking down. But what I couldn’t tell from the markings alone was just how important natural gas infrastructure is for a safe, thriving and sustainable neighborhood. That took some digging of a different variety.

Leaking Pipes Contribute to Climate Change

What I found was surprising and unsettling. Massachusetts has some of the oldest natural gas pipelines in the country. Almost 4,000 miles of the pipeline in Massachusetts is cast iron and another 3,000 is what’s known as “unprotected steel” (meaning unprotected from corrosion). These two types of pipe are referred to as “leak-prone pipe” in the industry because they are highly susceptible to breaks, fractures, and corrosion. Cast iron pipe was first installed in the 1830s, and some of the pipe in Massachusetts that is still in service dates to the Civil War. The gas utilities have started to focus on replacing this “leak-prone” pipe, especially since the tragedies in San Bruno, California and Allentown, Pennsylvania brought home how dangerous old pipelines can be.

But replacing old and leaking pipelines isn’t solely about public safety. It’s also a matter of conserving a valuable natural resource and tackling climate change. Natural gas is up to 95% methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide on a 100 year time frame. When natural gas is combusted, in your furnace or in a power plant, it emits much less carbon dioxide than oil or coal, but when it’s leaked directly into the air from a pipeline, it adds up to a significant source of greenhouse gas pollution.

Unfortunately, current methods for estimating just how much natural gas is leaking from pipelines aren’t very accurate. What we do know is that leaking pipelines in Massachusetts are releasing between 697,000 tons of CO2e and 3.6 million tons of CO2e every year. That’s a huge range, and one that we’re working to narrow with the help of Professor Phillips and his students. These leaks can also take a heavy bite out of gas customers’ pocketbooks, as a recent report prepared for Senator Ed Markey showed.

What You Can Do

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting more information here about the efforts to replace leak-prone pipeline in Massachusetts and what you can do to make sure that your street is both safe and climate friendly. Until then, here are a few tips to remember:

1) Dig Safe—You never know what types of pipelines, wires, or cables may be running under your lawn or sidewalk. Dig Safe will contact the utilities so that they can mark the lines for you. Even for small projects like planting a tree, always check in with Dig Safe before you dig. It’s free, and it’s required by law to keep you and your neighbors safe. You can check the website or simply call 811 before you dig.

2) Report Leaks—If you think you smell gas, put out all open flames and do not use lighters or light matches. Do not touch electric switches, thermostats or appliances. Move to a safe environment and call your gas company or 911 to have them come check it out. Here is the contact information for Massachusetts’ three largest gas companies: Columbia Gas, National Grid, and NStar Gas.

3) Conserve—It sounds simple, but using less is one of the most important steps you can take to reduce the climate impacts from natural gas. Contact MassSave for a free home energy audit.

4) Contact your Legislator—Legislation is pending in Massachusetts right now that would help fix these leaks. We’re supporting H.2933 and portions of S.1580. I’ll be writing more about this in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, you can take a look at the testimony we filed with partners like Clean Water Action.

You just can’t find a more solid, conservative, reliable and grounded group than the American Geophysical Union.  Since 1919 the AGU has been the hub of the physical sciences in the United States providing a gathering place and information exchange for earth, air and space scientists and then communicating carefully reviewed scientific information to the public and decision-makers in government, business and throughout society.

When a group like the AGU speaks through an official statement you know that every word of the statement has been scrutinized and carefully chosen to communicate important ideas and complex climate science as accurately as possible. The process of creating these statements involves hours, days, weeks and years of meetings, reviews, re-reviews and painstaking scrutiny.

This means when that when the AGU issues (as it did in 2003) and then updates (as it did again last week) its official position statement on a subject like global warming, attention should be paid. The latest version of that statement can be downloaded in PDF form from the AGU website and is “pasted” below in its entirety.

The calm and carefully chosen words of the AGU should reinforce a critical realization that immediate and dramatic action is needed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions immediately. By becoming much more efficient in our use of energy and dramatically reducing the amount of fossil fuels that we burn, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Meeting these goals will require developing dense and sustainable cities where most trips can be made on foot and convenient and affordable public transit plays a strong and supporting role as well as technological shifts to highly efficient buildings powered by renewable energy like wind and solar power.  The AGU also reminds us that even if we slash our greenhouse gas emissions very sharply and immediately we must deal with the implications of the emissions of the past and the warming that is already baked into the system, warming that is bringing us rising sea levels and extreme and disrupted weather.

The call to action that the scientists of the AGU is sounding is being heard here in New England – laws like the renewable energy and energy efficiency standards are on the books in part because of this fundamental challenge.  This legislative response to climate science is even more obvious in the case of laws specifically requiring emissions reductions – like the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act.  But passing laws is only one in a series of needed steps forward.

Translating the law into regulations (as the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection just refused to do when pressed by a remarkable group of kids) and then action, actually delivering on the promise of reduced pollution emissions, will not be easy.  But we really don’t have a choice . . .

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Human-induced climate change requires urgent action.

Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years.

Rapid societal responses can significantly lessen negative outcomes.

“Human activities are changing Earth’s climate. At the global level, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases have increased sharply since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel burning dominates this increase. Human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed global average surface warming of roughly 0.8°C (1.5°F) over the past 140 years. Because natural processes cannot quickly remove some of these gases (notably carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere, our past, present, and future emissions will influence the climate system for millennia.

Extensive, independent observations confirm the reality of global warming. These observations show large-scale increases in air and sea temperatures, sea level, and atmospheric water vapor; they document decreases in the extent of mountain glaciers, snow cover, permafrost, and Arctic sea ice. These changes are broadly consistent with long-understood physics and predictions of how the climate system is expected to respond to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases. The changes are inconsistent with explanations of climate change that rely on known natural influences.

Climate models predict that global temperatures will continue to rise, with the amount of warming primarily determined by the level of emissions. Higher emissions of greenhouse gases will lead to larger warming, and greater risks to society and ecosystems. Some additional warming is unavoidable due to past emissions.

Climate change is not expected to be uniform over space or time. Deforestation, urbanization, and particulate pollution can have complex geographical, seasonal, and longer-term effects on temperature, precipitation, and cloud properties. In addition, human-induced climate change may alter atmospheric circulation, dislocating historical patterns of natural variability and storminess.

In the current climate, weather experienced at a given location or region varies from year to year; in a changing climate, both the nature of that variability and the basic patterns of weather experienced can change, sometimes in counterintuitive ways — some areas may experience cooling, for instance. This raises no challenge to the reality of human-induced climate change.

Impacts harmful to society, including increased extremes of heat, precipitation, and coastal high water are currently being experienced, and are projected to increase. Other projected outcomes involve threats to public health, water availability, agricultural productivity (particularly in low-latitude developing countries), and coastal infrastructure, though some benefits may be seen at some times and places. Biodiversity loss is expected to accelerate due to both climate change and acidification of the oceans, which is a direct result of increasing carbon dioxide levels.

While important scientific uncertainties remain as to which particular impacts will be experienced where, no uncertainties are known that could make the impacts of climate change inconsequential. Furthermore, surprise outcomes, such as the unexpectedly rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice, may entail even more dramatic changes than anticipated.

Actions that could diminish the threats posed by climate change to society and ecosystems include substantial emissions cuts to reduce the magnitude of climate change, as well as preparing for changes that are now unavoidable. The community of scientists has responsibilities to improve overall understanding of climate change and its impacts. Improvements will come from pursuing the research needed to understand climate change, working with stakeholders to identify relevant information, and conveying understanding clearly and accurately, both to decision makers and to the general public.”

Adopted by the American Geophysical Union December 2003; Revised and Reaffirmed December 2007, February 2012, August 2013.

Seagulls swarm overhead as garbage trucks dump their loads at the Central Landfill in 2011. Photo courtesy of Mary Murphy/The Providence Journal.

Two weeks ago, we took the first step toward filing suit against the companies that are supposed to be – but aren’t – collecting harmful landfill gas from the Central Landfill in Johnston, Rhode Island.

Because these companies are not collecting this gas, the Landfill is releasing pollutants into Rhode Island’s air.  I’ll write more on each of the main pollutants later, but for right now suffice it to say that hydrogen sulfide makes the air smell like rotten eggs and also poses health risks, while methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

By failing to collect landfill gas, the companies are not just dirtying the air; they are also violating the Clean Air Act.  And because they’re breaking the law, we can take them to court and try to get the Landfill’s air pollution under control.

While we take polluters to court, you can help clear the air in Johnston too.  Here are a few ways how:

1. Tell us your story.

   If you live near the Landfill and have smelled the Landfill, gotten sick, or had trouble selling your house, send me an email (mgreene@clf.org) or call me (401-351-1102).  Your stories will help us to paint a clear picture for the court as to exactly what’s going on in Johnston.

2. Don’t throw away food scraps.

   I know this one can be hard – I live on a small lot myself and don’t have much room for composting.  But for all of us who live in Rhode Island, every bit of food we throw away eventually breaks down in the Landfill and produces landfill gas.  This food could instead be composted and used to grow food at Rhode Island farms, or in your own gardens.  And if you can’t compost food scraps yourself, you might be able to find someone else to take them off your hands.  Check out ecoRI Earth.

3. Donate.

   Perhaps this one goes without saying, but CLF is a nonprofit organization that relies on gifts and grants to do the work we do.  So please consider giving – every bit helps.

With your help, we can get fix the gas collection system at the Central Landfill and get landfill gas out of Rhode Island’s air.

CLF’s Vermont office is getting connected to the District Heat Project’s renewable biomass energy.

Local, renewable wood will heat CLF’s Montpelier office this winter.  Construction is now underway for the Montpelier, Vermont District Heat project. This will steer many of Vermont’s capital city’s buildings away from using fossil fuels for heat. With this project, CLF and Vermont are well on their way to kicking the fossil fuel habit through renewable heat.

The project will replace Montpelier’s outdated central heating plant with efficient, modern wood-fired biomass boilers. Heat will travel underground through insulated pipes to connect the State House, City Hall, and other State buildings as well as privately owned downtown buildings – including CLF’s office.

The new boilers will process 12,200 tons of sustainably harvested green wood chips per year, replacing an estimated 300,000 gallons of oil and reducing Montpelier’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 3,100 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents. This is equivalent to taking 646 cars off the road annually.

The system will be fully complete by February and will provide heat to many of Montpelier’s biggest buildings. The project advances CLF’s and Montpelier’s renewable energy economy, creating green jobs, stabilizing fuel costs and increasing Vermont’s energy security – all while keeping us warm in our cold Vermont winters.

CLF Intern Ari Rockland-Miller amidst the construction outside the Vermont office

Massachusetts Senator Markey is again leading the way at the national level to bring attention to an issue that has long been ignored–methane leaks from natural gas pipelines. A report prepared for Senator Markey was released today that should focus national attention on the need to address aging and leaking natural gas pipelines. The report highlights the safety concerns and quantifies the costs of leaking natural gas pipelines, concluding that over the past decade, Massachusetts ratepayers have paid over $1.5 billion for natural gas that never made it to their homes. Senator Markey’s report also found that these leaks contribute to climate change by releasing methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas into the air.

“No Surprise”

This important information is no surprise to us at CLF and builds upon what we have been saying all along. Last November, CLF released the report,”Into Thin Air,” (available to download for free) that found leaks in Massachusetts are so significant that the gains by efficiency programs put in place by regulators are disappearing into thin air. The report also documents how these leaks, known as “fugitive emissions,” are being borne not by the utilities, or by the regulators, but by consumers. Utilities pass the cost of lost gas onto ratepayers to the tune of $38.8 million a year. Here’s an infographic from that report:

Furthermore, another report by Nathan Phillips of Boston University has been utilized by CLF to show the prevalence of this issue. Nathan’s report  combined Google Earth and research into a compelling visualization of just how prevalent these leaks are here in Boston (below.)

CLF President John Kassel recently noted on the issue, “…the 3,356 separate natural gas leaks under the streets of Boston reminds us that, as we walk or drive down the street, we are often driving through an invisible cloud of natural gas leaking from aging pipes. If you are like me, to accept the avoidable risk of a predictably volatile gas is deeply unsettling.”

What’s Next?

CLF is advocating for five specific policies to accelerate the replacement of aging pipe and ensure that existing pipeline are properly examined and repaired:

1)    Establish Leak Classification and Repair Timelines that provide a uniform system for classifying leaks according to level of hazard and require repair within a specified time;

2)    Limit or End Cost Recovery for Lost and Unaccounted for Gas so that companies have an incentive to identify the causes of lost gas and prevent them;

3)    Expand existing replacement programs and adding performance benchmarks;

4)    Change Service Quality Standards to include requirements for reducing leaks on the system;

5)    Enhance monitoring and reporting requirements to give the public and regulators more information.

Legislation is currently pending in Massachusetts, and over the coming months we’ll continue to work with state legislators to address this issue. We’re very pleased to have Senator Markey in the fight. If you’re interested in joining us or learning more about our natural gas work, please contact me at scleveland@clf.org.