Senate approves carbon cap-and-trade, sends to Crist

The Florida Senate voted Wednesday on energy legislation that will make Florida the first in the Southeast to pass carbon cap-and-trade legislation, joining more than 20 states that have imposed similar rules meant to combat the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.

The Florida Senate voted 39-1 to send the energy bill to the governor, including some controversial last-minute amendments added by the House on Tuesday. Only Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, voted against the legislation, which the House passed unanimously yesterday.

The bill, identical to H.B. 7135 which passed the House unanimously yesterday, generally writes into law many of the executive orders that Gov. Charlie Crist signed last summer when it comes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. It also creates a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which would come back for legislative approval.

The bill also includes lots of give-aways to utility companies, making it easier for them to speed eminent domain and run transmission lines through state land. It also eases regulatory oversight of power plant siting.

The Florida House ended up ultimately taking the lead in working with the governor's office on the energy package. House energy chief, Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, said Tuesday that when the governor vetoed the Legislature's energy bill last year, "at first I didn't really agree with  him. But I will tell you, in retrospect, having worked on this 18 months since that, I think he was right. His veto made us focus our efforts on things we omitted...I would thank him for that veto now," Mayfield said.

The Senate ended up agreeing to a last-minute House addition to the bill, pushed forth by lobbyists for   big auto-makers, which now requires the Legislature to sign off on DEP's efforts to lower car emissions standards to the same levels set in California. That amendment was lobbied for by Ron Book and Wade Hopping. DEP said yesterday that they were disappointed with that amendment.

"Overall the bill is a step in the right direction," said Melissa Meehan, lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. She pointed out that many of the measures are left up to state regulators. "There's a lot of work left to be done."

Read more about the bill here.

-Jennifer Liberto, Steve Bousquet, and Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writers

The Florida Senate voted Wednesday on energy legislation that will make Florida the first in the Southeast to pass carbon cap-and-trade legislation, joining more than 20 states that have imposed similar rules meant to combat the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.

The Florida Senate voted 39-1 to send the energy bill to the governor, including some controversial last-minute amendments added by the House on Tuesday. Only Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, voted against the legislation, which the House passed unanimously yesterday.

The bill, identical to H.B. 7135 which passed the House unanimously yesterday, generally writes into law many of the executive orders that Gov. Charlie Crist signed last summer when it comes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. It also creates a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which would come back for legislative approval.

The bill also includes lots of give-aways to utility companies, making it easier for them to speed eminent domain and run transmission lines through state land. It also eases regulatory oversight of power plant siting.

The Florida House ended up ultimately taking the lead in working with the governor's office on the energy package. House energy chief, Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, said Tuesday that when the governor vetoed the Legislature's energy bill last year, "at first I didn't really agree with  him. But I will tell you, in retrospect, having worked on this 18 months since that, I think he was right. His veto made us focus our efforts on things we omitted...I would thank him for that veto now," Mayfield said.

The Senate ended up agreeing to a last-minute House addition to the bill, pushed forth by lobbyists for   big auto-makers, which now requires the Legislature to sign off on DEP's efforts to lower car emissions standards to the same levels set in California. That amendment was lobbied for by Ron Book and Wade Hopping. DEP said yesterday that they were disappointed with that amendment.

"Overall the bill is a step in the right direction," said Melissa Meehan, lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. She pointed out that many of the measures are left up to state regulators. "There's a lot of work left to be done."

Read more about the bill here.

-Jennifer Liberto, Steve Bousquet, and Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writers

Florida electricity sales drop, casualty of housing bust

Weighed down by the sagging housing market, Tampa Electric expects its lowest customer growth in nearly a decade. The utility's poor performance may portend a similarly slow quarter for St. Petersburg's Progress Energy Florida, which announces its first quarter results next week.

The company announced declining first quarter earnings Tuesday. Sluggish customer growth combined with lower per capita energy use drove a 2.1 percent decline in electricity sales. Residential electricity sales dropped 4.5 percent.

The utility blames mild weather for the drop in per household energy use, but there's also signs that customers have responded to rising energy prices and increased awareness of conservation measures, like energy efficient light bulbs.

The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, expects to release revised energy demand forecasts this week that take into account slower economic growth and the conservation measures stemming from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

To read today's business story about Tampa Electric, click here.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

House passes bill on energy, climate change

The Florida House unanimously 108-0 passed an energy bill Tuesday afternoon that would add Florida to the growing ranks of states that have imposed carbon cap-and-trade rules.

Gov. Charlie Crist pushed for the rules last year as part of his efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, combat climate change and shift the state's energy balance toward renewable fuels.

Bill sponsor Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, sponsor of H.B. 7135, said the bill had been well debated and “moves us way down the field on legislation with respect to energy.”

The Senate is expected to take up the bill on Wednesday.

The bill advances Crist's cherished goals of establishing renewable energy targets, but some of the mandates will have to come back to the legislature for ratification before they can be carried out by state agencies. The bill also contained lots of give-aways for utility companies seeking to lay their power lines.

“I think there is mischief in it, but I think its merit outweighs its mischief,” said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber.

“Overall we are very pleased with the bill,” said Melissa Meehan, a lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “There are some very good provisions for carbon cap-and-trade and energy efficiency.”

That said, Meehan was dismayed by an amendment introduced by Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, that prohibits the Department of Environmental Protection from borrowing the California clean car standard without approval of the Florida legislature.

Meehan said the California rules have become a nationwide model, and Florida should consider using those rules rather than inventing its own. “Thirteen other states have adopted those rules,” Meehan said. “This is a significant road block on the road to progress.”

2008 Climate Summit announced

So maybe he’s not counting on a v.p. run. Gov. Charlie Crist announced the second Serve to Preserve climate summit for June 25-26 in Miami. Last year’s climate summit ushered in Crist’s grand carbon cap-and-trade scheme, which is still wending its way through the Florida legislature. This year’s summit will focus on developing Florida’s renewable and alternative energy industries.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

One gallon of gas = 19.564 lbs. CO2? Yes

Sunday's story about Tropicana Field's illuminating foray into carbon credits led to several emails asking if me about the "fuzzy math" behind the conversion of one gallon of gasoline into 19.564 lbs. of carbon dioxide. This is correct.

My high school chemistry teacher often pointed out that I should pay more attention. I didn't, and barely scraped by with a C. If you want a better explanation than I can offer you, read this Slate article here.

My apologies to both my high school chemistry and algebra teachers. I was wrong. Chemistry and algebra did turn out to be useful, even for a creative writing major.

A few readers have also pointed out another seeming inconsistency: how come 1 megawatt hour of electricity at the Trop leads to 1,328 pounds of CO2, while one megawatt of wind energy offsets 1,500 pounds of CO2? This, too, is correct. Read about that, and check the Rays' carbon math, here.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Florida switching to E10 ethanol blended gasoline

The Florida legislature is debating a 10 percent ethanol mandate in all gasoline sold in the state. Most gas stations are in fact already selling the E10 blend, including ExxonMobil, BP, Hess, and Shell. Chevron will follow suit in July.

Gas stations aren't making a big advertising pitch for their E10 blended product, by the way. It's not being promoted on the neon price signs at stations. If you want to know if your pump is ethanol blended gasoline look for a sticker on the pump which should say something like "this may contain up to 10 per cent ethanol." That's what my local Shell station has done.

(I just went and checked and my Shell station pump now says this: "All gasoline products contain up to 10% ethanol by volume." - click on photo to enlarge)

Click here for an article in The Miami Herald.

- David Adams

Dude, Where's my wind?

Does this...                                                Equal this....

 

[Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images]                                        [Photo Courtesy of FPL Energy]

The Tampa Bay Rays decided to offset 7 games worth of emissions from the voracious Trop, which devours some 62,000 kilowatt hours of electricity on a game day -- enough to power the average Progress Energy household for more than four years. Plus, the Rays decided to offset the emissions from all the fans traveling to and from opening day, and the annual commutes of its 140 staffers.

So how much wind energy does that amount to? The Tampa Bay Rays bared their carbon footprint to the St. Petersburg Times -- and in the process found out they hadn't bought enough offsets to cover their carbon dioxide emissions.

Jeb likens climate concerns to religious zeal (and not in a good way)

In a sharp contrast to his successor, former Florida governor Jeb Bush gave a speech in Texas in which he said he was skeptical that humans are causing global warming and compared people who want to limit climate change to religious zealots, the Associated Press reports.

"I don't think our policies should be based on emotion; they should be based on sound science," he said in a speech to businesspeople in Dallas. (If Bush had gone to Houston instead of Dallas, the folks at NASA could have showed him some of their sound science on global warming, such as this. Or this. Or this.)

Rather than reducing oil consumption for the sake of combating climate change, Bush said the United States should focus on "energy security" -- reducing dependence on oil imported from hostile or politically unstable countries by encouraging alternative fuels.

Although the AP story doesn't mention it, Bush is a major advocate of ethanol, having signed on as co-chairman of the Interamerican Ethanol Commission in December 2006. His co-chairs: the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Moreno, and former Brazilian Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues.

While in office, Bush helped to launch the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, chaired by St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, a fellow Republican. The commissioners all agreed that the state's top priority should be tackling global warming and recommended that the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks and power plants. As a result, in his first months in office Bush's successor, Gov. Charlie Crist, leaped on the climate change issue and made it his own.

To read the full AP story, click here. To read about Bush's ethanol connection, click here. To read about the origin of Gov. Crist's climate crusade, click here.

--Craig Pittman

We love nukes, we love them not....

What's true of brussels sprouts and musicals holds true of Progress Energy's $17-billion nuclear plan for Levy County: You either love it or you hate it.

Progress Energy plans to build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors in Levy County, a few miles north of its Crystal River power station.

For more about yesterday's Public Service Commission meeting in Crystal River, click here.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

Read more about Progress Energy's nuclear plans here.

This is an aerial picture of the Crystal River power station, which includes a nuclear plant. The large cooling towers pictured at the top are actually not a part of the nuclear plant, but cool the coal plants on the site. The Levy County plant will be built several miles north along U.S. 19.

View Larger Map

Farm Bill in Congress - a "train wreck waiting to happen"?

Congress is debating a new Farm Bill. But it doesn't appear as if any of the old farm subsidies are going to be eliminated despite rising incomes for farmers thanks to the biofuels boom, according to The New York Times.
Current farm policy, coupled with commodity speculation is a "train wreck waiting to happen," says Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union.

Click here to read the article.

- David Adams

Ban on clotheslines a no-no in Florida

On Monday, the St. Petersburg Times ran a story on green purchases you could make in honor of Earth Day. One of these items was a retractable clothesline. The story noted that Florida law prohibits homeowners' associations from banning clotheslines. Several homeowners have since called and emailed asking what Florida law the Times referred to.

Here is the citation in Florida law:

Florida Statute. Title XI, 163.04
 
"(1)  Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or other provision of general or special law, the adoption of an ordinance by a governing body, as those terms are defined in this chapter, which prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources is expressly prohibited.
(2)  No deed restrictions, covenants, or similar binding agreements running with the land shall prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources from being installed on buildings erected on the lots or parcels covered by the deed restrictions, covenants, or binding agreements. A property owner may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices based on renewable resources by any entity granted the power or right in any deed restriction, covenant, or similar binding agreement to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property with respect to residential dwellings not exceeding three stories in height. For purposes of this subsection, such entity may determine the specific location where solar collectors may be installed on the roof within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south provided that such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors. "

If you've encountered a homeowners association that bans clotheslines, please email me at aloder@sptimes.com, and share your story.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

Scientists: Smog kills -- no matter what the White House says

Short-term exposure to current levels of ozone in many areas is likely to contribute to premature deaths, according to a new report from the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academies of Science.

"The findings contradict arguments made by some White House officials that the connection between smog and premature death has not been shown sufficiently, and that the number of saved lives should not be calculated in determining clean air benefits," the Associated Press is reporting.

Instead, the 13-member panel said, "studies have yielded strong evidence that short-term exposure to ozone can exacerbate lung conditions, causing illness and hospitalization and can potentially lead to death."

The Tampa Bay region suffers from high levels of ozone, particularly in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

As the AP explains so well, "ground-level ozone is formed from nitrogen oxide and organic compounds created by burning fossil fuels and is demonstrated often by the yellow haze or smog that lingers in the air. Ozone exposure is a leading cause of respiratory illnesses and especially affects the elderly, those with respiratory problems and children."

The AP tried to get a response from the White House, but nobody was returning phone calls.

To read the National Academies news release about the study, click here. To read the full report, click here. To read the AP story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Hillsborough County in Top 20 for CO2

Hillsborough County ranks among the nation’s top 20 carbon dioxide polluters, according to a new study from Purdue University in Indiana. Hillsborough placed 18th in the nation, emitting just more than 6-million tons of carbon dioxide every year.

Some good news: that’s just a third of the carbon dioxide emitted by top ranked Harris County, Texas, home of Houston. Los Angeles placed second, and Chicago’s Cook County placed third. Hillsborough was the only Florida county to make the top 20. Other counties included Boston’s Middlesex County, Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, and Detroit’s Wayne County. The aptly named Carbon County, Pa. also made the list.

Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric science at Purdue University and leader of the study, said, “It shows that CO2 emissions are really spread out across the country.”

The study used 2002 data on other pollutants to extrapolate carbon dioxide emissions, believed to be the primary culprit behind climate change. Hillsborough County owed its place in the list to big power stations like Tampa Electric's Big Bend and Bayside power stations, Gurney said. Transportation ranked second.

“Don’t think of it as ‘Being bad,’” Gurney said quickly. “Think of it more like a baseline, so when we improve we can measure all the reductions.”

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

Clean Skies TV launches new energy/environment TV network today

Former CBS, CNN reporters are launching CleanSkies.tv, a new web-based energy news channel that will go live Tuesday to mark Earth Day.

The CleanSkies.tv Network describes itself as "a pioneering online news network that will be your #1 source for energy and environmental news, information, discussion, and commentary." It will carry live newscasts Monday to Friday, as well as conference speeches, and roundtable discussions with policy makers, key industry insiders and environmental activists.
Based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, the CleanSkies.tv Network and CleanSkies.tv News are sponsored by the American Clean Skies Foundation. CleanSkies.tv News will have editorial oversight board to ensure editorial independence.

The channel is staffed by a number of seasoned reporters from leading print and broadcasting managing editor and news anchor of the new station is Susan McGinnis, former anchor of the CBS Morning News and correspondent for CBS' The Early Show.

Click here to vis CleanSkies.tv

- David Adams
(with thanks to Frank Maisano)

Hybrid car sales rising fast.

Sales of hybrid cars are soaring, presumably in response to $4 a gallon gasoline and growing concern over global warming.  U.S. registrations of new hybrid vehicles rose 38 percent in 2007 to a record 350,289, according to new data.

Hybrids still only make up just 2.2 percent of the U.S. market for the year. But that's not bad considering that overall auto sales declined 3 percent.

The price margin for hybrids appears to be coming down, and the range of models are steadily improving. Car makers still insist on putting hybrid engines in the most inefficient SUVs where energy savings are relatively minor. Most of these SUV hybrids still only get 22-26 miles per gallon, compared to over 40 for the Toyota Prius. That's mostly because a hybrid engine cannot generate enough power for the big SUV engines. The electric engine gives out after about 25 mph and has to switch to gas. (The Prius and the Honda Civic remain the only small hybrid car on the market, as far as I am aware. They can generate enough power up to about 40mph. Reviewers say the Prius is a far better drive.)

Click here to read a story from CNN.

- David Adams

The global food price crisis. How much are biofuels to blame in Haiti?

There a lot of talk these days about the global food crisis. I spent several days this week researching all the different contributing factors, including biofuels, climate change, fertilizer prices, the emerging economies of China and India etc.

Despite all the finger pointing at ethanol and biodiesel, no-one really knows how much they are to blame. There are several other factors that must be taken into consideration. In Haiti's recent food riots, for example, the real culprits are trade policies that have decimated Haitian agriculture and a catastrophic drought half a world away in Australia that has pushed up the price of rice on global markets.

Click here to read the story.

(I had to make a lot of cuts for space reasons, so here is some of the edited material that was edited out)

Biofuels defenders say the world's energy system is in transition and that farming technology and productivity will eventually catch up with the increased demands for crops, both for food and fuel.
"This takes a while to work it's way through the system and for farmers to produce correspondingly," said Reid Detchon, director of the Energy Future Coalition. "The system does respond to higher production when prices go up."
This will be achieved with a combination of new technology as well as modern production methods to increase yields and reduce dependency on expensive fossil fuel fertilizers. "There is so much slack in the system that can be made up with improved production and yield that there's no doubt in my mind this can be addressed," said Detchon.

Others predict that the days of self-correcting cycles of supply and demand may be over, due to new factors such as climate change, demand from emerging markets and higher energy prices.
"The increases in grain prices are not caused by short-term supply disruptions, as is the normal case, and it will likely take several years for supplies to increase to rebuild stocks and allow prices to fall," according to Don Mitchell, lead economist in the World Bank's Development Prospects Group.
Some argue the case for biofuels may have suffered irreparable damage from the food price shock.
"If you do it irresponsibly it deserves to get bashed," said Mario Fernandez, a south Florida ethanol advocate who helped advise former Governor Jeb Bush's pro-ethanol policy. He blamed the U.S. government and major grain producers and ethanol blenders for relying too heavily on corn as a raw material for ethanol, rather than looking overseas at sugar-producing countries such as Brazil.
"You have to accept that it doesn't have to be 'made in the USA,''' he said.
Fernandez tried to explain the risks of using food crops to senior State Department officials two years ago as the Bush administration was preparing to unveil its new biofuels strategy. "I said you have to be very responsible about how you do this," he said. "They didn't get it."

The ethanol industry points to one study which found that only four percent of the rise in food prices could be attributed to corn, while another study found that a $1 rise in the price of a barrel of oil had twice the impact of a $1 rise in the price of a bushel of corn.
Instead, the ethanol industry says U.S. oil consumption is set to drop this year for the first time in years, partly thanks to ethanol. The 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol blended last year displaced 228 million barrels of oil, worth more than $26 billion at today's prices.

While the demand for ethanol has diverted corn to the production of fuel, there has been little lost overall production of corn for food. Last year U.S. farmers harvested a record crop. Even so, making ethanol a substitute for gasoline, sold mostly as E10 (10 percent ethanol blended gasoline), this has caused the price of corn to rise.
"By using ethanol as a substitute, that bids up the price of corn," said Bruce Babcock with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, at Iowa State University. "It creates a whole new demand."
Because U.S. exports account for 70-75 per cent of world trade in corn, this has had a knock on effect on world prices. "The U.S. (corn) price is the world price," said Babcock.
Even so, ethanol only accounts for 25 per cent of the U.S. corn crop. Of that, biofuels production only uses the starch in corn, leaving the protein, fibre and other nutrients to be turned into dehydrated animal feed, known as distillers dried grains, or DDG.

- David Adams

The global food price crisis. Who is to blame?

A caller to the The Diane Rehm Show this morning warned that if "we don't do something about this gasoline price and the food prices, it's going to be Iraq everywhere."

One of the panelists, Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Affairs magazine described a "perfect storm" scenario of various factors coinciding to force up prices, including biofuels, climate change, affluence in China and India, and market speculation. Read more about this in The St Petersburg Times this weekend.

Click here to listen to Diane Rehm's Friday show with guests: Moises Naim, editor in chief, Foreign Policy"magazine, Matt Frei, chief anchor, BBC World News America, and Scott Wilson, foreign editor, The Washington Post.

- David Adams

 

 

 

The "veggie car conman." A lesson in biofuels conversion

Here's a whacky story from the Los Angeles Times about a company that offers diesel car conversions to biodiesel.
The company is called Lovecraft and its founder Brian Friedman is doing battle with the new owner Tacee Webb.

Click here to read the story.

- David Adams

Bush bashed at climate change meeting he set up

You know you're really in trouble when the Germans (now 0-for-2 in world wars) label you a loo-hoo-hoo-hooser.

"Leading players in talks to forge a pact for tackling climate change took the lash on Thursday to President George W. Bush's new blueprint for global warming, with one country mocking it as 'Neanderthal,' " the Agence France-Presse is reporting today.

The meeting where Bush was being bashed is one he sought to set up. Launched by Bush last September, the Major Economies Meeting  "aims at being a forum where a small group of countries can talk plainly and informally, thus helping to speed up the overall UN negotiation process," AFP noted. In addition to the European Union, the MEM includes Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and, of course, the United States.

Bush used the occasion of the first MEM meeting to deliver a speech Wednesday acknowledging the need to confront global warming -- but not in any way that might hurt the economy. He called for a halt in the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, but offered only a general outline, and few specifics on how to achieve the objectives. He also dismissed cap-and-trade plans -- which is what the EU is using now.

At the meeting today, "South Africa blasted the Bush proposal as a disastrous retreat by the planet's number one polluter and a slap to poor countries," while the EU expressed "disappointment," according to AFP. But the harshest words came from Germany.

In a statement entitled "Bush's Neanderthal speech," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "His speech showed not leadership but losership. We are glad that there are also other voices in the United States."

To read the full AFP story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Bush: Save the planet...but don't hurt economy

"Revising his stand on global warming, President Bush on Wednesday called for a halt in the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and urged other major polluting nations to develop national goals to address climate change," the Associated Press is reporting.

However, in his speech, "Bush expressed concern that Congress might pass climate legislation that would hurt economic growth," the AP says.

"While setting a broad goal, the president offered only a general outline - and few specifics - about how to achieve the objectives," the AP reports.

As expected, Bush's proposal was quickly denounced by congressional Democrats and environmentalists as too little and too late.

The three remaining major candidates for president -- Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain -- all favor instituting a cap-and-trade system on electric utilities and other polluters to curb carbon emissions. According to the Washington Times, Bush was going to propose something like that too -- but "it was dropped from the package yesterday, after the White House was flooded with complaints from industry officials and lobbyists," the story reports.

"It got pulled out. It happened somewhere between this morning and five o'clock," according to the Washington Times' unnamed administration source.

To read the AP story click here. To read the Washington Times story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

What is causing rising food prices? Diane Rehm show

You have probably been reading/hearing all about the global concern for rising food prices and violent protests in Haiti and Egypt. It's a complicated issue, and not all the fault of biofuels as some would have you believe. Other factors include, drought in Australia, restrictions on rice exports from major producing countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, the weak dollar, market speculation, the rising price of oil etc etc

It's also important to remember that rising food prices hit poorer countries in the Third World much harder where people typically spend 60-80% of their income on food, while we in the developed world spend as little as 15-20% on food.

If you want to learn more listen to the Diane Rehm show today on NPR. Click here for a link.

- David Adams

Energy bill slated for Florida Senate vote

UPDATE: The vote has been postponed until next week

Gov. Charlie Crist's grand energy schemes, founded on high ideals in VIP-packed ballrooms, have come to this: a kitchen sink of a bill, stretching more than 150 pages, so crammed with jargon that you have to be paid to read it.

Luckily, we read Senate Bill 1544 for you. Read about the bill here.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

President to talk about greenhouse gases -- but will he do more than just talk?

After spending eight years resisting taking any action on the issue of global warming, President Bush will give a speech in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday about greenhouse gases and climate change.

"White House press secretary Dana Perino says that Bush will not outline a specific proposal, but instead will spell out a strategy for long-term goals for curbing emissions," the Associated Press is reporting.

According to Reuters, he will also "articulate a realistic intermediate goal for reducing greenhouse gasses and press for incentives for technology aimed at cutting emissions."

"In his remarks, he also will talk about legislative proposals on Capitol Hill that the administration has expressed opposition to, as well as regulatory issues," says the AP.

"We believe there's a right way and a wrong way to address this problem," Perino said, adding that there is no legislative proposal on Capitol Hill that the administration supports.

To read the AP story, click here. To read the Reuters story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Maybe they can use the torch to light the way through the Beijing smog...

China has surpassed the United States as the worlds biggest polluter, according to a new study from the University of California. Yes, that includes greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, despite spending more than $18-billion trying to clean up its air pollution before the Olympics begin, Beijing remains swathed in smog -- so the Chinese government is taking drastic steps to alleviate the problem, at least temporarily.

The University of California report, to be published next month in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management, "warns that unless China radically changes its energy policies, its increases in greenhouse gases will be several times larger than the cuts in emissions being made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol," the BBC is reporting.

How bad is it? So bad that China will halt all construction in Beijing from July 20 to September 20, when both the Olympic and Paralympic Games will have finished, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting.

"Another 19 heavy polluting industries, including steel and petrochemical plants, will have to slash emissions by a further 30 per cent or risk total closure," the Herald reports. "All quarrying, cement production, outdoor spray painting and other outdoor use of toxic solvents will be banned. Petrol stations, oil and gas tankers and oil depots that have not finished installing equipment to reduce petrol fumes will also be shut."

To read the BBC report, click here. To read the Sydney Morning Herald story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

New study predicts much faster sea level rise from melting polar ice.

Sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half meters by the end of this century, according to a new study by a UK/Finnish team of scientists.

The estimate, presented at a major science conference in Vienna, is considerably greater than the United Nations climate panel forecast last year (28-43cm by 2100). The new study takes into account the accelerated pace of melting polar ice caps.

Click here for more news.

- David Adams

Coming soon: Tampa gets nation's first ethanol pipeline

Florida will soon be home to the nation's first ethanol pipeline. The 104-mile Central Florida Pipeline has carried gasoline from the Port of Tampa to the Orlando International Airport since 1965. Workers have been upgrading the 16-inch pipeline in preparation for its first batch of ethanol, slated to begin flowing in the third quarter of this year.

"It's a test for us, and everybody else, to see if we can make it work," said Joe Hollier, spokesman for Kinder Morgan. "It will be a big advantage if we are able to move ethanol by pipeline, obviously."

To see the rest of this story, click here.

--Asjylyn Loder

New York's yellow cabs go hybrid

I was in New York over the weekend and impressed to see how many hybrid taxis there are now. I was picked up at La Guardia airport by Aki Uddin from Bangladesh, proudly driving a Ford Escape hybrid. He told me that the yellow cab company he works for, Woodside, has a couple of hundred hybrids. Other companies are also using them and they have become a common sight on Manhattan streets over the last six months.
Uddin said he averages about 28 miles per gallon in his hybrid, about double what the standard yellow cab (Crown Victorias) can achieve.

Since New York’s taxi fleet has approximately 13,000 cabs, the switch to hybrids is hoped will help reduce New York City’s air pollution.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he wants all New York cabs to be hybrid by 2012. He recently announced that the Taxi and Limousine Commission will also require black cars that service corporate clients to increase fuel efficiency standards to a level currently achievable only by using hybrid technology.

Click here for more The New York Times report on hybrid yellow cabs.
- David Adams

NY governor kills new LNG plant, says he wants to conserve energy instead

New York's new governor, David Paterson, killed plans to build the nation’s first floating liquefied natural gas plant, which had been proposed for Long Island Sound, the New York Times reports today.

“Shame on us if we can’t develop a responsible energy policy without sacrificing one of our greatest natural and economic resources," said Paterson, who replaced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned when caught spending money on prostitutes. Spitzer had been leaning toward approving the plant, according to Newsday.

Instead of a new eight-story high facility that might ruin the sound, Paterson outlined a $1-billion, 10-year program to increase efficiency and to reduce energy consumption on Long Island.

“By reducing the amount of energy demand, and aggressively pursuing new responsible supply, we can get our state on a path toward lower energy costs, economic revitalization and a cleaner, healthier environment,” Paterson said.

The natural gas plant had been proposed by an energy consortium made up of Shell Oil and TransCanada Pipelines. "The group conducted a public relations campaign in hopes of convincing officials and residents that by increasing the supply of natural gas to the region, the project would reduce the utility bills of local residents by up to $300 a year after the terminal was put into full operation in 2011," the Times reported.

Incidentally, a Norwegian company called Hoegh LNG AS has proposed a floating liquefied natural gas terminal just 28 miles from Tampa Bay. As the St. Petersburg Times noted in a story about that project last year: "Concerns about powerful LNG explosions have pushed LNG suppliers to look at offshore delivery terminals. Federal law has allowed offshore LNG delivery since 2002. Since then, 16 LNG providers have applied for licenses, seven have been approved, but only one, off of Louisiana, is supplying LNG." Another one, off Boston, is expected to crank up this month.

To read the St. Petersburg Times story on the Florida LNG terminal, click here. To read the New York Times story on Paterson's decision, click here. To read the Newsday story about how under Gov. Spitzer things might have gone differently, click here.

--Craig Pittman and Asjylyn Loder

Nuke news is guards' snooze

Sleeping guards at a South Florida nuclear plant earned a hefty fine for the Florida's largest utility. Florida Power & Light faces a $130,000 fine for catnapping security at its Turkey Point nuclear plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday.

The NRC ''concluded that on multiple occasions during 2004-2006, security officers at Turkey Point were willfully inattentive to duty, or served as lookouts such that other security officers could be inattentive to duty,'' the commission said in a letter to FPL dated Tuesday.

While the guards were employees of Wackenhut, NRC officials said in their letter, ``FPL failed to thoroughly evaluate and address the root and contributing causes of security force inattentiveness and the complicity and facilitation by other security personnel of behavior while on duty."

In other nuke plant news, Georgia Power has reached an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Co. and The Shaw Group to design and build two 1,100-megawatt nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in east Georgia, which is co-owned with other utilities and already is home to two reactors. "Combined with the existing reactors, the units would make Plant Vogtle, along the Savannah River southeast of Augusta, one of the nation's largest generators of nuclear power," the Associated Press reports.

To read more about the NRC fine, click here and here. To read about the Georgia nuke plants, click here.

--Asjylyn Loder and Craig Pittman

The New York Times says US corn ethanol policy "exacerbating" world food crisis

In an editorial today The New York Times is critical of US and European biofuels subsidies at a time of rising world food prices. The editorial says US corn ethanol is in large part to blame for the crisis, though other "uncontrollable" factors have coincided, principally rising middle class demand for meat in China and India.

Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation, the editorial notes. Corn doubled in price over the last two years. Wheat reached its highest price in 28 years. World cereal stocks this year will be the lowest since 1982.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years, the article notes.

Click here to read the editorial.

- David Adams

Update on falling oil production in Mexico

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says his nation must move quickly to address declines in oil output by reforming Pemex, the state-owned oil company, and allowing foreign and private companies to refine, produce and transport crude.

"We must act now, because time and oil is running out," he said in a televised address on Tuesday.

Reforms of Mexico's oil sector is hugely imported to US consumers as Mexico is the second largest supplier of oil to the United States (about 1.5-million barrels a day).

Calderon is trying to rally public support for an energy reform bill. Under the legislation, the government want to increase investment in exploration projects, and give the state-owned company greater flexibility to hire foreign contractors.

He is also seeking to reassure Mexicans that he has no intention of privatizing the company, which is a huge political hot potato in Mexico, where oil unions are very strong. "I want to make clear that oil is and will continue to be exclusively Mexican property. Pemex is not being privatized. Oil is a symbol of the nation's sovereignty," Calderon said.

Analysts say the outlook remains bleak for Mexico's oil sector, with major implications for Mexico's economy and US oil supplies.
"The oil situation is now absolutely crucial to the future of Mexico, because much of its revenue has gone not to set bases for continuity but to finance current expenditure," says Armen Kouyoumdjian, an analyst and author of Latin American Country Risk Notes.

At the end of 2007, hydrocarbon reserves fell another 800 million barrels to 14.72 billion, a drop of 5.1 %, Kouyoumdjian notes. "There is less than 10 years worth of proven reserves left," he says.
"In the first 2 months of 2008, output fell another 6.4 %, and exports by 14.6 %, whereas gasoline imporst jumped 31.4 %. With trade and current account already in deficit as oil is still exported, the external imbalance without oil will be severe indeed."

Click here to read more

- David Adams

The Dyadic story

Dyadic, a Jupiter-based company that was once a bright light in Florida's emerging ethanol industry, has fallen on hard times. Dyadic is now only "limping along," according to an article in Ethanol Producer magazine. "In the past year, it was delisted from the American Stock Exchange, ousted its founder Mark Emalfarb, was sued by angry shareholders, and released a scathing audit report detailing corruption, bribery and a dummy company skimming profits from its Hong Kong factory," the article reports.

Click here for the story from Ethanol Producer magazine.

- David Adams

CDC says warming to hurt your health...but doesn't want to criticize EPA for failing to regulate greenhouse gas

A top government health official said Wednesday that climate change is expected to have a significant impact on health in the next few decades, the Associated Press is reporting today.

"CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern," said Howard Frumkin, a senior official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was giving a detailed summary on the likely health impacts of global warming at a congressional hearing.

Certain segments of the population, particularly the elderly and children will be most vulnerable to increased health problems, Frumkin said.

However, the CDC official refrained from giving an opinion on whether carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, should be regulated as a danger to public health -- something another federal agency, the EPA, has been extremely reluctant to do.

"The CDC doesn't have a position on ... EPA's regulatory decisions," said Frumkin, determined to avoid getting embroiled in the contentious issue.

"The Supreme Court a year ago declared CO2 a pollutant under the federal air quality law and told the EPA it must determine whether CO2's link to climate change endangers public health or welfare," the AP report noted. "If it does, it must be regulated, said the court. But the EPA has been slow to respond to the court directive, saying it must review such a regulation's broad impact on emissions from everything from cars and power plants to schools."

To read the full AP story, click here.

--Craig Pittman

South Florida water crisis eases - for now

Contrary to most dire predictions, south Florida's water situation has been steadily improving during what is supposed to be the dry season!

Thanks to unusually high rainfall in recent months, the level of Lake Okeechobee, our main water resource,  has been rising. It's still well below its average for this time of year, but far higher than it was feared. In fact, the water level is now a couple of inches higher than it was this time last year.
Rainfall in the last month was 600% higher than usual in some areas, according to statistics monitored at the lake.
Still, the long-term forecasts remain critical if rainfall patterns continue to fall short of rising demand.

Click here for a real time rainfall gauge for south Florida.
Click here for Lake Okeechobee's real time water level.

Click here for more information from the Miami Herald.

- David Adams

EU carbon plan a windfall for power companies?

Europe's power companies could make billions from the EU's carbon-trading plan, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.

The WWF report says the EU's trading scheme, "which allocates firms a fixed number of free carbon permits, does not work," reports the BBC. "It says the high level of free handouts benefits German generators most of all, despite their reliance on coal."

"Handing free pollution permits to power companies is like handing them a cash bonus," WWF's Emissions Trading Scheme Co-ordinator, Sanjeev Kumar, told the BBC.

The BBC quoted a spokesman for German company E.ON as acknowledging that the trading plan was "less than perfect, but it's a start."

For the BBC report, click here. For a press release from the World Wildlife Fund, click here. To read the study from WWF, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Save the planet? Save the pub!

Now this is how you package an issue to get the public's attention: An Australian scientist is warning that a changing climate is bad for beer-drinkers.

Jim Salinger of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said climate change was likely to cause a decline in the production of malting barley in parts of New Zealand and Australia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," Dr Salinger told an Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention in Auckland, the Herald reported.

This is not mere speculation, by the way. "Liz Read, the corporate affairs director of the New Zealand and Australian brewer Lion Nathan, said climate change was already forcing up the price of malted barley, sugar, aluminium and sugar," the Herald reported.

The story's headline: "Global warming bad news for a cold one." To read it, click here.

--Craig Pittman

Protecting the rainforest Brazilian style: using condoms to save the trees

Here's the latest innovative Brazilian idea to protect the rainforest: producing condoms using rubber from trees in the Amazon.

Brazil says a new state-run factory in Xapuri in the north-western state of Acre, will produce 100 million latex condoms a year from Amazon rubber trees. They will be sold under the name Natex, using rubber from a reserve named after Chico Mendes, the famous conservationist and rubber tapper who was shot dead in 1988 by local ranchers.

While rubber does involve man's intrusion into the rainforest, it is a product that can be obtained without destroying trees, and could provide useful local income and incentives to protect the rainforest from illegal loggers.

Click here for a story from Reuters.

- David Adams

Floridians like the climate...and other polling news

Here’s a surprise: Republicans worry more about the cost of fighting climate change, and Democrats worry more about the environment.

This from an Environmental Defense Fund poll released Friday. The poll was conducted by Whit Ayers, a Republican pollster.

According to the poll, 49 percent of Republicans worried that Congress would do too much to combat climate change at the expense of the economy. Only 17 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of independents shared that concern.

On the flip side, 45 percent of Republicans worried that Congress would do too little at the expense of the environment, a sentiment shared by 63 percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats.

Both sides found a lot to agree on: 77 percent of all respondents strong or somewhat agreed that cutting carbon dioxide emissions would decrease dependence on foreign oil, and 85 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that global climate change is one of the most important issues facing the country.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

Support for Wind Strong in St. Lucie, FPL says

Florida Power & Light claims that more than 80 percent of St. Lucie County residents support its plan to build six wind turbines on company-owned property on Hutchinson Island.

“We’re gratified that so many residents of St. Lucie County support developing clean wind energy on Hutchinson Island,” said Eric Silagy, FPL vice president and chief development officer, in a press release Wednesday. “This research demonstrates that a majority of people feel strongly about climate change and the benefits of using clean wind energy to help address it.”

The Juno Beach utility's sister company, FPL Energy, is among the largest producers of wind energy in the world. The company has 55 wind farms in 16 states, but none in Florida, according to its Web site.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

View Larger Map

Colombia to build a small ethanol plant in Cuba

Colombia has announced it will build a small ethanol plant in Cuba, signaling:

a./ a warming of relations between Cuba and the conservative government of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia;
and
b./ a new sign of Cuba's willingness to explore biofuels production, despite Fidel Castro publicly expressed concern about the impact of biofuels on food prices.

(It is worth noting that Uribe has been full of praise lately for Cuba's efforts to help mediate with left wing guerrilla groups in Colombia, unlike Colombia's testy relations with Venezuela and Ecuador over their links to the FARC guerrilas.)

Click here for an article by the Spanish news service Efe. (translated version)

- David Adams

Insurance companies dealing with global warming

Some insurance companies are starting to make global warming a factor in their policies, in some cases encouraging positive action to deal with climate change. Listen to this report from The World at PRI (Public Radio International). New policies offer drought insurance to compensate farmers in Africa for crop failure.

Insurance report (5:00)

- David Adams

Progress Announces New Power Plant

Progress Energy announced plans this morning to build a large natural gas plant on the banks of the Suwannee River.

The plant will more than quadruple the electric capacity of the utility’s Suwannee River power station in Suwannee County. The existing power station, near Ellaville, has six small generators capable with a combined capacity of about 282-megawatts.

The utility offered no cost estimates, or details on the environmental impact of the plant.

Florida Power & Light is paying about $1.3-billion to build two similarly sized plants in Palm Beach County, said Pat Davis, spokeswoman for Florida Power & Light. Tampa Electric estimated the cost of a similar but smaller 555-megawatt plant at $555-million, said spokesman Rick Morera.

The power plant will draw cooling water from the Suwannee River, said Progress Energy spokesman Buddy Eller. He did not have details on that this morning. More details will be available later this year, when Progress Energy asks state regulators for permission to build the plant, Eller said.

Progress Energy included plans for the 1,200-megawatt plant in its 10-year site plan, due to the Florida Public Service Commission today.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writer

View Larger Map

Tidal energy harnessed in Northern Ireland: introducing the SeaGen

We recently wrote about research in Florida about underwater turbines capturing energy from ocean current and tides.

I just learned about a British company, Marine Current Turbines (MCT) which is currently installing an undersea turbine in the Irish Sea which is hoped will produce enough energy to power 1,000 homes.

MCT installed the world’s first offshore tidal turbine near Lynmouth off the coast of