Recommended reading:  A good piece in Slate about the folks in the Evangelical Christian community who are serious about taking on the challenge of global warming.   Because if you think a loving god gave us a wonderful world that we have a duty to preserve and protect you oppose damaging it through flooding the atmosphere and seas with pollution that will cause global warming and acidify our oceans.

In the wake of Dominion’s announcement that it would not be cost effective to continue to operate and invest additional capital for pollution controls at Salem Harbor Station, the Patrick Administration has sent a message to ISO-NE calling for action.  In a letter to the President of ISO-NE, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles, highlighted the need to invest in clean energy instead of propping up old, environmentally obsolete coal plants such as Salem Harbor Station.  Secretary Bowles urged ISO-NE to “quickly implement” a solution to allow Salem Harbor Station to retire.

Clean energy policy has been one of the centerpieces of the Patrick Administration, and this letter signals not only the Administration’s commitment to building clean, new energy infrastructure, but also the important role they have in hastening the retirement of the coal-fired power plants that cause significant damage to public health and the environment.

ISO-NE is responsible for finding an alternative that will remove any need for Salem Harbor Station; however, after 7 years of transmission upgrades and planning, ISO-NE rejected Dominion’s request to remove Salem Harbor Station from the market over concerns that the plant could be needed on the hottest days of the year.  CLF has been pushing ISO-NE to expedite its planning process so that ratepayers will not be forced to bear the costs of keeping this 60 year old coal and oil plant on line despite its continued struggles to meet environmental regulations. 

The Secretary’s letter is particularly timely given that ISO-NE will host meetings on December 15 and December 16 to discuss the planning process for replacing Salem Harbor Station.

Yesterday’s decision by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to approve a 15-year contract for the sale of half of Cape Wind’s power to National Grid removed yet another major hurdle for the nation’s first offshore wind farm and confirmed what CLF and other project supporters have long known to be true: Cape Wind is a good deal for ratepayers.

In finding the contract “cost-effective” and “in the public interest,” the DPU overrode opponents’ most recent objections that the project supposedly is too expensive and will lead to huge profits for the developer.  In fact, the decision pointed out again – for those who chose to overlook the terms spelled out in black and white in the Cape Wind contract – that the developer will not reap windfall profits because the profits are capped and cost savings will flow back to the ratepayers.  And, the contract price is fixed and predictable over the entire 15-year term of the contract.

CLF is thrilled, if not entirely surprised, that the DPU found the project to be good for ratepayers.  As noted in the DPU’s decision, the estimated price impacts are very small and are significantly outweighed by the benefits. Customers will get some relief from the volatile fossil fuel price rollercoaster while Cape Wind takes a major bite out of global warming pollution and forces some of the most expensive and dirty fossil fuel-fired power plants to reduce their operation.  This is a major win for the environment and the emerging clean energy economy.

As an intervening party in the DPU proceeding, CLF took the lead working with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), NRDC and Clean Power Now to introduce extensive expert testimony, cross-examine one of the opponents’ principal witnesses (an avowed climate skeptic), and draft detailed legal briefs to make the case for approval of the Cape Wind contract.

John Rogers, senior energy analyst at UCS said, “With this decision, Massachusetts has taken a real step forward on behalf of the commonwealth and the country as a whole. We know that offshore wind represents a real opportunity for economic development and environmental progress.  This move means we’re ready to say yes to that opportunity.”

Over the past decade, Cape Wind has withstood exhaustive environmental and permitting reviews, demonstrating over and over that its benefits will far exceed its impacts.  Since the contract was so thoroughly vetted, we are confident that today’s decision paves the way for a much more streamlined review and approval of a contract for the second half of Cape Wind’s power, renewable energy credits and other output. With federal, state and local approvals, a lease and a long-term contract, Cape Wind is looking more and more like a sure thing.

Local Activists from Salem Alliance for the Environment (SAFE) and HealthLink are hosting a Forum this Sunday that will expose the true costs of burning coal at plants like Salem Harbor Station.  The heat is on Dominion Energy to shut down Salem Harbor Station to allow the City of Salem and Massachusetts to usher in a clean energy economy that will provide sustainable and equitable jobs without jeopardizing public health or the environment.  Anyone who is interested in moving us towards a Coal Free Massachusetts should attend this event to find out more about the toll coal fired power plants take on communities from mining through burning and finally the disposal of ash.

For more information on how you can get involved check out the SAFE and HealthLink websites  CLF’s take action webpage.

There has been a significant development in the long running saga of the Salem Harbor power plant, one of the major targets of CLF’s Coal Free New England campaign. On October 5, Dominion Energy, the plant’s owner, quietly filed what is known as a Permanent Delist Bid with ISO New England (ISO-NE), the operator of the New England electricity system and markets. The filing commits Dominion to permanently withdraw Salem Harbor Station from the forward capacity market, the key market where power plants, and other resources like energy efficiency, are paid to be present, available and ready to meet the electricity needs of the region.

What does this mean?

By filing to permanently withdraw Salem Harbor Station from the forward capacity market, Dominion is signaling that it does not believe the market will be able to provide sufficient revenue to run the plant profitably and that it cannot maintain the plant going forward.

According to Paul Peterson, senior associate at Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., “The delist process was created specifically to allow power plants to withdraw from the forward capacity market, either temporarily or permanently, depending on their economics. A power plant that enters a permanent delist bid – an irrevocable decision that it will no longer try to earn revenue from that key market – is laying the groundwork to shut down.”

Although there are alternative scenarios that could allow Dominion to re-enter the market at a future date, the barriers to re-entry are extremely high and the process for doing so is complex.

Excessive ratepayer burden

Dominion’s move puts additional pressure on ISO-NE to implement a plan by June 2014 that does not rely on Salem Harbor Station to keep the lights on – ever. On October 14, CLF filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission citing ISO-NE’s failure to develop such a plan following the 2009 and 2010 auctions, keeping Salem Harbor Station available for “contingency” needs at enormous cost to area ratepayers. In our protest, CLF pointed to insufficient planning and loopholes in the ISO-NE process that have allowed Dominion to receive more than $30 million dollars in above market payments just to continue to exist, even while Dominion’s own filings indicated its intentions to leave the market. The company filed “static delist bids” for the past two years, a temporary exit measure that allows a company to receive above market payments if it is deemed necessary for reliability. Dominion’s ability to repeatedly game the system has forced ratepayers to bear the cost of maintaining an obsolete and polluting coal plant well beyond its useful life.

Buckling under pressure?

Salem Harbor Station is under increasing economic and environmental pressure. In June 2010, CLF filed a federal lawsuit against Dominion for repeatedly exceeding smokestack emissions limits at Salem Harbor in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The suit would hold Dominion responsible for paying millions of dollars in penalties retroactively. Meanwhile, new EPA regulations on the near horizon will mean tougher pollution controls and multi-million dollar investments needed to comply with them. The permanent delist bid is a clear indication that Dominion doesn’t believe it can continue to wring dollars out of ratepayers for its obsolete plant for much longer, and we are making sure they won’t. Stay tuned.

Dr. Jeff Masters, the co-founder of the Weather Underground website is the voice of climate sanity in the meteorologist world.    He has consistently noted, as he did in this post from last March,  how the models used by climate scientists make predictions about how winter storms are going to change in a warming world that are deeply consistent with what we are seeing unfold before us:

General Circulation Models (GCMs) like the ones used in the 2007 IPCC Assessment Report do a very good job simulating how winter storms behave in the current climate, and we can run simulations of the atmosphere with extra greenhouse gases to see how winter storms will behave in the future. The results are very interesting. Global warming is expected to warm the poles more than the equatorial regions. This reduces the difference in temperature between the pole and Equator. Since winter storms form in response to the atmosphere’s need to transport heat from the Equator to the poles, this reduced temperature difference reduces the need for winter storms, and thus the models predict fewer storms will form. However, since a warmer world increases the amount of evaporation from the surface and puts more moisture in the air, these future storms drop more precipitation. During the process of creating that precipitation, the water vapor in the storm must condense into liquid or frozen water, liberating “latent heat”–the extra heat that was originally added to the water vapor to evaporate it in the first place. This latent heat intensifies the winter storm, lowering the central pressure and making the winds increase. So, the modeling studies predict a future with fewer total winter storms, but a greater number of intense storms. These intense storms will have more lift, and will thus tend to drop more precipitation–including snow, when we get areas of strong lift in the -15°C preferred snowflake formation region.

Masters referenced these observations in a recent post about the unprecedented storm (which some are calling a “landicane“) that ripped across the Continental United States.  As Masters notes:

We’ve now had two remarkable extratropical storms this year in the U.S. that have smashed all-time low pressure records across a large portion of the country. Is this a sign that these type of storms may be getting stronger? Well, there is evidence that wintertime extratropical storms have grown in intensity in the Pacific, Arctic, and Great Lakes in recent decades.

And as always, Masters is tracking storms in the parts of the world more accustomed to this kind of activity.  However, he notes that it is “unprecedented” to have a hurricane of the magnitude of Tomas appear this late in the season.

The climate is changing.  The effects are real.  The need for action is urgent – and  the zombie armies of climate denial are approaching.

Hotter Temperatures More than Doubled Smog Days in New England

On October 1, the EPA announced that the number of bad air quality days increased from 11 last year to 28 in 2010.  These are also known as “high ozone days” and are triggered when ozone levels exceed the standards EPA has set to protect public health. Excessive ozone, more commonly known as smog, results from a combination of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and heat and sunlight. Even short-term exposure to smog has been shown to shorten lives and cause other severe health impacts, including shortness of breath, chest pain, asthma attacks, and increased hospitalization for vulnerable populations such as the very young, elderly, and those already suffering from lung or heart disease. In children, smog can also result in dramatic long-term impacts such as reduced lung development and function.

The hotter the day, the worse the smog—and that smog is intensified by the increased use of electricity from coal and other fossil fuel-fired power plants when we crank up our air conditioners.  Emissions from cars and trucks add to the dangerous mix, and as climate change progresses, the temperatures continue to rise.

Until now, the greater Boston area had experienced an average of 14 days of 90 degrees or more per year. In 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists had estimated that climate change would result in no more than 15-18 days of 90+ degree weather from 2010-2039.

But in 2010, Boston endured 23 days of 90+ degree weather, far outstripping both the annual average and predictions of what that number would be in the future.  Although EPA has proposed stronger emissions limitations for power plants and cars and trucks, the rapid rise in 90+ degree days is a side effect of climate change that has already been set in motion, and it will continue and worsen unless we take action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Coal-fired power plants rank as one of the primary culprits when it comes to emitting climate change pollutants and nitrogen oxides.  Across the nation, coal-fired power plants are the second largest source of nitrogen oxide emissions, and here in New England alone, eight coal-fired power plants churn out 10,515 tons of nitrogen oxide a year and millions of tons of carbon dioxide.  By contributing to climate change and increasing smog-forming pollutants, coal-fired power plants pose a major threat to New England’s air quality.  Creating a healthier future for New England means creating a Coal Free New England.  CLF is committed to shutting down each one of these polluting plants by 2020.  Work with CLF to create a thriving, healthy New England.

Yes! On Monday October, 25, 2010 you’re invited to the Providence premiere of Carbon Nation, a documentary about climate solutions. Filmmaker Peter Byck has taken a complex and polarizing topic and made it apolitical, accessible, and entertaining. You’ll meet (to name a few):

• A rancher bringing new life to a Texas town through wind farming.
• Government employees working to make the military more energy efficient.
• Farmers using innovative, low-carbon growing methods.

The screening, presented by the Conservation Law Foundation and ClimateCounts.org, will be followed by a discussion with director Peter Byck and a panel of environmental pundits and climate policy experts. A reception with light refreshments will follow the discussion.

The details:

Screening of Carbon Nation, a film about climate solutions
Monday, October 25
6 p.m.
RISD Metcalf Auditorium at the Chace Center
20 N. Main Street
Providence, RI

Tickets are $20 online for general admission and $5 online for students.* There will be a $5 premium for purchasing tickets at the door, so buy your tickets online today!

You won’t want to miss this! Tell a friend (or two) and come enjoy an evening that celebrates solutions, inspiration, and action.

I’m one of those people who believes that climate change is the biggest challenge facing the planet, but I was baffled about how to react when I saw the Polar Bear ad for the Nissan Leaf®.  At first I thought it must be an ad by one of the national environmental groups, and I was shocked that they could afford the spot on the opening night of Thursday Night Football®.  When I realized it was an ad for an electric car, I couldn’t decide whether to be thrilled or concerned.  On one hand, I am thankful to see a multi-national corporation embracing the problem of climate change and investing in solutions.  Nissan’s commitment is virtually heroic when compared to the oil and coal industries’ multi-million dollar campaigns to confuse the world about the reality of climate change.  In addition, emissions from cars and trucks are one of the most rapidly growing sources of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States and worldwide, and electric cars are a promising solution. So why couldn’t I just enjoy the moment and applaud a victory in the climate change battle?

Two reasons.

First, fueling cars on electricity isn’t as effective if that electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. This is a real-world example of jumping “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”  If we reduce gasoline use but ramp up coal burning and all the things that come with it—mountaintop removal mining, strip mining, coal ash, mercury pollution and so on—then we reduce positive impacts of electric cars, and  contribute to plenty of other environmental damage.[1] Solving the problem of climate change demands action on all fronts, not just a transformation of the cars we drive, but of the electricity that fuels them and the rest of our society. If electric cars are really going to be part of the solution, then we must work to get renewable energy flowing through the transmission lines that power them. At the same time, we must also work to reduce our overall energy demand through energy efficiency and other new technologies.

Second, I love polar bears. Sometimes I almost cry during the Coke® ads, but I worry that when people see us pointing to polar bears and penguins as the victims of climate change, they will fail to see it as a problem that impacts people.  I understand that pictures of the wreckage from Hurricane Katrina,  victims of flooding in the Midwest or Pakistan or countless other “natural disasters” intensified by climate change are painful to see and painful to contemplate, but they are just as much the symbol of climate change as polar bears.

I know I can’t expect Nissan to focus its ad campaign on maximizing awareness and action on climate change, and that creating a market for and successfully putting electric cars on the road is already a big step forward; however, I hope ads like Nissan’s, will move people to think about all of the everyday choices we make that affect the climate and not just what kind of cars we drive Here are just a few of the ways that you can fight climate change:

1. Maximize energy efficiency at home. Check out some of the incentives and rebates available.
2. Ask your electric provider if they have a renewable energy option. National Grid offers a GreenUp option, and NStar offers NStar Green and a number of other providers.
3. Bike or use public transit whenever you can.  MassBike provides great information and training on commuting.
4. Become a CLF member to learn about climate change issues in Massachusetts.

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[1] Notably, this is less of an issue in areas like New England where natural gas power plants make up the bulk of the electric grid.