Cause of Florida's blackout: One guy

Human error caused Tuesday's massive blackout across Florida, said Armando Olivera, president of Florida Power & Light, said today.

At 1:08 p.m. Tuesday, a single field engineer working at the Flagami substation in western Miami-Dade County disabled a pair of safeguards that would have confined the outage to a few thousand customers, if any.

Instead, 584,000 FPL customers lost power, as did more than 200,000 customers in the Tampa Bay area.
The employee has been suspended with pay pending the outcome a thorough investigation, Olivera said.

To read more about this story, click here.

--Asjylyn Loder

Using highway tolls to reduce greenhouse gases?

Could highway tolls be used to pay for battling global warming? That's the plan the Washington Legislature is contemplating, according to the Seattle Times.

In Washington, as in many states, cars and trucks account for almost half of the state's greenhouse-gas emissions. Two bills that have already passed the House and are expected to zoom through the Senate are aimed at reducing those emissions.

"House Bill 2815 requires the state to sharply reduce greenhouse gases between now and 2050," the Seattle Times reports. "It also calls for slashing the number of miles traveled by vehicles in the state by half in the same time period. The second bill, House Bill 1773, says tolls should be used to reduce greenhouse gases. It would allow tolls to become permanent and to vary in price based on the time of day."

The paper notes that a study done last year found that Washington could raise up to $36 billion over 20 years by charging variable tolls on major highways.

The tolls would work as both a disincentive and a fundraiser, according to the paper. The environmental groups that have been pushing the bills "want the region to use tolls to discourage travel by car, especially during peak travel times. The tolls also could raise billions of dollars to maintain highways and bulk up public transit as an alternative way to travel."

Still, the politicians are not so sure this plan is really going to work. "I don't know what will happen in the future," House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn told the paper. "I don't think people are ready to get out of their cars yet."

To read the full Seattle Times story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

House bill socks oil companies to benefit alternatives

As the price of a barrel of oil hit a new high Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved $18 billion in new taxes on the largest oil companies. The money would provide tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy sources -- including energy conservation.

The bill was being pushed hard by Democrats who cited record oil prices and rising gasoline costs in a time of economic troubles as the reason to approve the measure, the Associated Press reports. Oil prices peaked at $102 a barrel for the first time Wednesday.

The legislation, approved 236-182, would cost the five largest oil companies an average of $1.8 billion a year over that period, according an analysis by the House Ways and Means Committee. Those companies earned $123 billion last year.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., noted it was two years ago, when oil cost $55 a barrel, when President Bush said oil companies need no government subsidies to pursue more oil or gas.

"With the price of oil hovering around $100 do we really believe this incentive is justified?" asked Hoyer. "Do these companies need taxpayer subsidies to look for new product? They don't need any incentive."

The White House says singling out the oil companies for higher taxes "would reduce the nation's energy security rather than improve it" and "lead to higher energy costs to U.S. consumers and business."

To read the full Associated Press story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Alaskan village sues 24 corporations over global warming impact

The battle over global warming, like all other battles in American life, is headed for the courtroom.

The eroding village of Kivalina in the Northwest Arctic is suing Exxon Mobil and 23 other energy companies for damage related to global warming.

The companies are contributing to global warming that is threatening to destroy the village, according to the lawsuit, which demands a jury trial. The defendants include one coal company, nine oil companies and 14 power companies. Three of the oil companies -- Exxon, BP and Conoco Phillips -- operate on Alaska's North Slope.

"The lawsuit cites reports published by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the U.S. General Accountability Office that have linked erosion in coastal areas of Alaska to climate change and rising temperatures," the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Kivalina officials say the 24 companies should pay to move the village to safer ground. According to the Daily News, cost estimates to relocate Kivalina to the mainland have varied between $95 million and $400 million.

"We need to relocate now before we lose lives," said Janet Mitchell, city administrator for Kivalina, in a news release announcing the lawsuit.

To read the Anchorage Daily News story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

First biofuels powered airliner takes off

The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has completed a flight between London and Amsterdam.

The Virgin Atlantic 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said would provide 20% of the engine's power. The three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem. The biofuel was derived from a mixture of babassu nuts and coconuts.

Virgin believes within 10 years airlines could routinely be flying on plant power.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

A Cuban take on corn-based ethanol

I was in Cuba the other day and came across this entertaining billboard on the outskirts of Havana challenging the US policy of corn-based ethanol. (It reads: 'This absurd First World consumes three quarters of the world's energy')
Fidel Castro has been outspoken in the "food versus fuel" debate, arguing that using corn for fuel hurts the poor by driving up food prices.
The jury is still out on how negative the effect will be, and much will depend on the development of next-generation cellulosic biofuel crops.

- David Adams
(photo by Lara Cerri, St Petersburg Times staff)

Oil hit $100

I got so distracted yesterday writing about Fidel Castro's political resignation that I wasn't watching the price of oil break through the historic $100 mark.
It kept on going this morning and briefly hit $101 before sliding back a little. Apparently there were the usual mix of factors driving this upwards trend - a Texas refinery fire, OPEC production worries, violence in Nigeria, and political tensions between the US and Venezuela.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

California community groups vow to fight cap-and-trade

Low-income community groups in five California cities launched a statewide campaign Tuesday to "fight at every turn" any global-warming regulation that allows industries to trade carbon emissions, saying it would amount to "gambling on public health," the Los Angeles Times is reporting today.

The groups are challenging the stance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a national advocate of a cap-and-trade program that would allow heavy polluters, often located in poor neighborhoods, to partly buy their way out of lowering their emissions, the paper reports.

"Cap and trade is a charade to continue business as usual," Angela Johnson Meszaros, director of the California Environmental Rights Alliance, told the Times.

Under cap-and-trade, "11 power plants to be built around Los Angeles could offset emissions by extracting methane from coal seams in Utah or planting trees in Manitoba," Jane Williams of the California Communities Against Toxics, which fights pollution in low-income areas, told the LA Times.

Instead of pursuing cap-and-trade, the groups favor carbon fees on polluting industries, a strategy endorsed by many economists as simpler and more transparent, although politically tough to enact, the Times reports.

To read the full LA Times story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Progress Carolinas asks feds to ok new nukes

This morning, Progress Energy Carolinas asked federal regulators to approve its plans to build two new nuclear reactors in North Carolina. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that the licensing application will likely take more than three years to win approval.

The Carolinas utility picked the Westinghouse AP1000, the same technology on the drawing board for its sister utility, Progress Energy Florida. The St. Petersburg-based utility plans to build a pair of reactors in Levy County. Both utilities have carefully avoided voicing any commitment to build, saying only that its trying to preserve the option.

The utilities remain conspicuously silent on one crucial piece of information: cost.

When Progress Energy announced its plans more than a year ago, it offered a single-reactor estimate of $2-billion to $3-billion. In recent months, the utility -- along with others in the industry -- has backed away from that early estimate, saying it wasn't an all-inclusive estimate.

But how much will it cost? The utilities aren't saying.

The industry has proffered a range of new guesses that double and even triple that early estimate. Perhaps the best guess comes from Florida Power & Light. Unlike its industry brethren, the Juno Beach utility has been unusually candid on the subject of cost. It has offered a two-reactor estimate on the Westinghouse AP1000 that ranges from $12-billion to $18-billion.

Progress Energy Florida plans to file its case for new nuclear with the Florida Public Service Commission some time in March. That utility has said it won't offer new estimates until then. It has estimated the cost of its 10-county, 200-mile transmission project to support the new plant at about $2-billion.

Read more about Progress Energy's new nuclear plans here:

Nuclear Power Costs Surge in Rush to Build --  Dec. 12, 2007

Nature Coast to Nuclear Coast -- Dec. 9, 2007

Utilities Press Land Access Law -- Feb. 7, 2007

Power Line Idea Takes Big Bite from Preserve -- Feb. 16, 2008

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Green energy vs. green spaces: FPL's fight in St. Lucie County

Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, wants to build a line of nine wind turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, along an Atlantic Ocean beach.

It's the first such wind farm ever proposed for the Sunshine State, but there's a catch: Three of the turbines would be built on publicly owned land bought for conservation purposes. The other six would be built on FPL property near its Hutchinson Island nuclear plant.

"It's really precedent setting for the entire state of Florida" if FPL gets permission to use conservation land, said St. Lucie County Commissioner Doug Coward. "We're kind of the testing ground."

Coward strongly opposes the FPL proposal, arguing that land owned by the public and set aside for preservation should not be used for the profit of a private corporation, no matter how noble its motives.

"It doesn't make any sense to me to promote green energy at the expense of our green spaces," said Coward. "I don't know that you could pick a worse site."

Also lined up to oppose the project: most of the state's environmental groups. But a report from the state Department of Environmental Protection says it appears to be in the public interest.

To read the rest of the story from Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Michigan follows Sweden's ethanol lead.

With the exception of Brazil, Sweden is the world's leading example of a country that has decisively switched from gasoline to ethanol to solve its transportation energy needs.

But with only 4.2 million cars does Sweden represent a useful model?

Michigan officials are looking to Sweden for guidance over its biofuels policy, according to the Detroit News. Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm, made a trip to Sweden last year and is planning a summit of Michigan and Swedish energy leaders later this year in Michigan.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

New York proposes tough electronics recycling law

New York City Council last week approved a bill that would impose a $100 fine on anyone who throws an old computer, printer or other electronic gadget into the trash. Recycling the electronic waste will become mandatory.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

China looking to renewables to reduce pollution

After decades of runaway economic expansion, China is confronting the resulting massive pollution problem, according to an article in American Airlines onboard magazine, American Way.

Of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, 16 are in China, Chris Warren writes. "Put simply, China’s ascension as a global polluter — by some estimates, China has already passed the United States to become the largest emitter of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming  — is a direct result of the country’s dramatic economic rise over the past three decades, known as the Great Leap Forward."

Click here to read the China article.

- David Adams

Wheat forecast predicts increased harvests and rising stockpiles in 2008-2009

Wheat stockpiles are at an all-time low meaning that prices have risen. But the US Department of Agriculture 10-year forecast predicts increased wheat harvests in 2008-2009 should begin to bring some relief.

Click here for an analysis from The New York Times.

- David Adams

The obstacles to being green in suburbia

The New York Times ran an entertaining story at the weekend about the dilemma of trying to be green in suburbia. Sure there's lots of room to grow your own vegetables (reducing transport costs to get produce to your local grocer). But what about all those extra car miles!

Click here to read the story.

- David Adams

Let the sun shine...in Sarasota

Florida's biggest utility, Florida Power & Light, says Gov. Charlie Crist will personally flip the switch Monday on the state's largest solar array.

The solar facility, built atop a closed landfill outside Sarasota, consists of 1,200 solar panels and produces 250 kilowatts (kW) of electricity, which is enough power to light 40 homes. No, that doesn't sound like a lot -- yet it's still the second largest solar array in the Southeast.

FP&L says the solar plant will prevent more than 680,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the air each year and contributing to global warming. The utility said that's the equivalent to not driving nearly 761,000 miles a year or not making the 460-mile round-trip from Sarasota to Miami about 1,600 times or not making the 2,600-mile round-trip from Sarasota to New York about 290 times.

Last fall Crist joined former President Bill Clinton in announcing that FPL would also build Florida's first large-scale solar thermal power plant, which at 300-megawatts would be one of the largest such plants in the world. It would produce enough electricity to power more than 184,000 homes.

"Producing solar energy in the Sunshine State just makes sense," Crist said at the time.

To read our coverage of that 2007 announcement, click here.

--Craig Pittman

"Most successful" energy efficiency program to be scrapped by Bush administration

A Congressional committee has issued a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration over the elimination of funding for a low income family energy efficiency program. Apparently the Department of Energy sought to remove flattering wording on its website about the program to hide any embarrassment about its termination.

As recently as Feb 4, the DOE website called the Weatherization Assistance program - which enables low-income families to permanently reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient - “this country's longest running, and perhaps most successful energy efficiency program.”

The President’s budget proposal released that same day would eliminate the program.
Praise for the program has since been erased from DOE’s website (see below).

“Instead of insulating the poor against high energy costs, the Department of Energy is more concerned with insulating themselves against embarrassment,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “And while the weatherization program did a successful job at things like weather-stripping, it seems the Bush administration has failed miserably at web-stripping.”

Click here to find the link for the current DOE website page. Click here to view the cached page with previous wording.

Click here to read a press release from the website of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

- David Adams

Bad news for ethanol fans: Study says it makes global warming worse

A study just published in the journal Science spells very bad news for fans of ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels.

"While the U.S. and others race to expand the use and production of biofuels, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests these gasoline alternatives will actually boost carbon-dioxide levels and thereby aggravate the problem of global warming," The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

""A study published in the latest issue of Science finds that corn-based ethanol, instead of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by a hoped-for 20%, will nearly double the output of CO2 and other gases that trap the sun's heat," the Journal story reports. "A separate paper in Science concludes that the clearing of native habitats around the world to grow more biofuel crops will lead to more carbon emissions, not less."

How bad is it? "In one of the Science papers, researchers concluded that corn-based ethanol would double greenhouse gases over 30 years instead of leading to an anticipated 20% reduction," the Journal reports.

"Even if we're dramatically wrong, it's hard to get to a result that says you get a benefit over 50 years,"  Timothy Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University and a co-author of the paper, told the Journal.

The Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers, called the researchers' view of land-use changes "simplistic" and said the study "fails to put the issue in context."

"Assigning the blame for rainforest deforestation and grassland conversion to agriculture solely on the renewable fuels industry ignores key factors that play a greater role," said Bob Dinneen, the association's president.

To read the full Wall Street Journal story, click here. Unfortunately Science has not yet posted the study on its website.

--Craig Pittman

Cleaning green - Clorox launches eco-friendly brand: 'Green Works.'

Bleach maker, Clorox, is coming out with a new line of eco-friendly cleaning supplies, called Green Works.

The company says its products use plant based ingredients to break down grease and other typical household dirt and stains. The company's formula is a closely-guarded secret.

NPR's afternoon show. All Things Considered, tried out some of the products and found they compared well with traditional cleaners. Click here to listen.

However, Clorox's deal with the Sierra Club to endorse this new product (for payment of an undisclosed sum to the environmental group) has sparked a huge controversy among Florida members of the group, according to today's Palm Beach Post.

"Club Executive Director Carl Pope said he hoped the arrangement would influence consumers, offering 'a giant kick-start to the market for green, affordable household cleaning products.' But in Florida, Sierra's statewide chapter denounced Clorox as a "major polluter" and unanimously urged the club to cancel the deal.

"'Sierra Club cannot take money from those who damage our air, water and people,' December McSherry, a Sierra Club activist near Gainesville, wrote in a recent posting on the organization's message board. Another called the partnership a 'deal with the devil.' "

To read the full Post story, click here.

 

- David Adams and Craig Pittman

Brazil runs on ethanol

My colleagues at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel came out with a nicely presented feature on Brazil's ethanol program at the weekend, complete with a narrated video report.

Click here to read/view it.

- David Adams

Corals threatened by global warming get habitat designation

Until polar bears join them, the only species pushed onto the endangered list by global warming are a pair of corals that grow off the Florida coast.

Once the most abundant and important reef-building corals in Florida and the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn corals have declined by upwards of 90 percent in many areas, primarily as a result of disease and “bleaching,” an often-fatal stress response to abnormally high water temperatures in which corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them color.

In May 2006, in response to a lawsuit, the National Marine Fisheries Service put staghorn and elkhorn corals on the list as "threatened." Today, in response to another lawsuit, the service has proposed designating almost 5,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat for the two coral species.

"Once an area is designated as critical habitat, the Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to ensure that any activities they authorize do not destroy or adversely modify that habitat. Federal authorizations resulting in substantial greenhouse gas emissions would be subject to this prohibition," notes a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the two lawsuits.

"While today’s critical habitat proposal properly identifies most important coral areas off Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for increased legal protection," the center's press release states, "the rule bizarrely and illegally states that elevated water temperatures will not be analyzed as a factor impacting critical habitat."

To read the Federal Register notice about the critical habitat designation, click here. To read the Center for Biological Diversity's press release, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Florida joins California suit against EPA

As expected, Florida has joined California's lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over the right to regulate vehicle emissions as a way to combat global warming.

Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order last July that called for automakers not to sell cars in Florida that produced too much greenhouse gas, following standards that California had first imposed. The Clean Air Act allows California to impose stricter standards than the EPA's own, as long as it first gets a waiver from the EPA.

On Dec. 21, 2005, California requested a waiver to enact standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. On Dec. 19, 2007, EPA denied California’s waiver request. On Jan. 2, 2008, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his state had filed a lawsuit appealing the waiver denial.

Now that Florida has joined the suit against the EPA, more than 17 states have intervened in support of California’s lawsuit, including: New York, Maryland, Minnesota, Iowa, Massachusetts, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. 

How much greenhouse gas comes from tailpipes? In Florida, the transportation sector represents about 46 percent of the state’s total carbon dioxide emissions according to DEP’s data. Passenger vehicles alone generate 64 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector or 81 million metric tons.

Based on the DEP's current projections, Florida’s total carbon dioxide equivalent will top 420 million metric tons by 2020 – approximately double the amount from 1990.

To read the full press release from the DEP, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Biodiesel licenses being introduced in Mexico

Mexico's energy ministry said Monday it will issue licenses to companies for the first time to produce biofuels as part of an effort to cut auto emissions and help poor farmers earn more income, Reuters reported.

Companies will be able to produce both ethanol and biodiesel, but the government said in December it would encourage biodiesel because it would be difficult for Mexican companies to compete against Brazil and the United States in ethanol production.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

The cost of switching to cleaner gas power

To avoid the emissions of dirty coal plants, utilities are increasingly switching to natural gas as a source for power generation. But this could result in driving up costs to consumers, (as Florida residents have discovered) reports The New York Times.

Click here to read the story.

- David Adams

Getting MAD about global warming

Although they're calling it an "expose," we're pretty sure they've got their tongue planted firmly in their cheeks.

We're talking about the editors of the ever-satirical MAD magazine, where the motto of mascot Alfred E. Newman has always been, "What, me worry?" MAD has now recruited 10 Pulitzer-winning cartoonists to illustrate a two-page spread in its latest issue titled, "Why George W. Bush Is In Favor of Global Warming," reports the International Herald-Tribune.

The cartoonists "try to offer reasons why environmental apocalypse might be a good thing for President George W. Bush," the paper reports.

A few of the reasons: Iraq could literally be melted off the earth. Rising oceans could submerge lefty strongholds like New York, Boston and San Francisco. And of course, "his worries about how future generations will remember his presidency won't matter if there are no future generations."

To read the full IH-T story, click here. To go to the MAD website, click here (although it doesn't appear that the global warming feature is posted there at this point.)

--Craig Pittman

Ocean energy - is it the way of the future for Florida?

The concept of ocean energy is beginning to catch on in Florida as a possible alternative source of clean electricity in the future. It's still a long way off, but I write today in the St Petersburg Times about research at Florida Alantic University's Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology.

Governor Charlie Crist really likes the idea and is proposing $10 million is funding for ocean energy research in his 2009 budget.  "This is a resource that is boundless. I want to do everything I can to help," he said in an interview.

I visited Sea Tech, the oceanic engineering center at Florida Atlantic University to meet Dr Rick Driscoll, director of the ocean energy program (see photo)

Click here to read the article.

- David Adams

Warming is drying up the West

Global warming is reducing the snow packs in the mountains of the West, meaning the region's water shortages are only going to get worse, according to a study published in the journal Science and reported on today by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and other media.

Over the past 50 years, the Rocky Mountains have warmed by 2 degrees Fahrenheit, the study found. The snowpack in the Sierras has dwindled by 20 percent and the temperatures there have heated up by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

"As temperatures have increased, more winter precipitation has fallen as rain instead of snow, and the snow is melting sooner," the Los Angeles Times reported. "The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the spring, raising the risk of flooding, and slower in the summer, raising the risk of drought."

"Our results are not good news for those living in the western United States," the researchers wrote, adding that the changes may make "modifications to the water infrastructure of the western U.S. a virtual necessity."

"The handwriting is on the wall," said lead author Tim Barnett, a marine geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "Mother Nature is going to stop being our water banker."

To read the LA Times story, click here. To read the Washington Post story, click here. To read about it in Science Daily, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Here comes the sun. Solar industry growing in California

California's solar industry is growing fast, creating thousands of new jobs and attracting major investment, according to a report in The New York Times.
The paper cites the example of SolarCity, a rooftop solar panel installer, which has grown to 215 employees since it launched in 2006, and $29 million in annual sales.

Click here to read the story.

- David Adams