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Congress pours more money down the “clean coal” drain

Just another of the many lovely turds that the House has inserted into the energy bill:

Years ago, the federal government spent $117 million on an experimental "clean coal" power plant in Alaska designed to generate electricity with a minimum of air pollution -- but the project never got up and running.

The plant, built in the late 1990s just outside Denali National Park and Preserve, never worked as it was supposed to, cost too much to operate and provided power only intermittently when it was tested, according to the utility company that was supposed to run it. Five years ago, the state closed it down.

Last week, the House came up with a solution: spend an additional $125 million in the form of government loans to convert the experimental "clean coal" facility into something that works.

Read the rest.

Altogether, there is about $1.8 billion in the House energy bill for research into "clean coal" technology. There's no doubt that coal is going to have to be a major part of America's energy future, but I'm deeply skeptical. We may simply be paying for more screwups like the one in Alaska.

If the Bush administration and the GOP Congress were serious about emissions from coal-fired power plants, it wouldn't have torched New Source Review and gutted the EPA's enforcement division.

NOW segment on global warming gets us all fired up again

So I watched Friday's NOW segment about climate change, and I'm fired up again after being somewhat discouraged for the last few years about the political atmosphere surrounding this issue. I'm also convinced that pressure to take action to reduce carbon emissions is ultimately going to have to come from the business community itself, as the reinsurance industry and other risk-averse sectors make their voices (and financial clout) heard. The utility company executive featured on NOW, James Rogers of Cinergy, had been looking at the facts and coming to the conclusion that the sooner action is taken, the better off his business will be. He cited Tony Blair's pledge to cut Britain's emissions of carbon dioxide by sixty percent over 50 years as a good example of setting a big policy goal and allowing businesses, which crave certainty, to adjust accordingly. One wonders, however, whether the British will move beyond offering a periodic "frank exchange of views" with the United States over climate change, and really push for action.

This and that

Speaking of this, also covered here, check out this. (Sorry, it's Friday and I feel lazy.)

Consumer Reports launches a green products site

You know what annoys me? Well, what really annoys me is the little "Road Test" blurb in the back of Newsweek, which every week fawns over big, ostentatious, grossly fuel inefficient vehicles like a thimble-headed cheerleader pawing at the quarterback's jock strap.

But you know what else annoys me? The fact that the product tests in Consumer Reports never report on energy efficiency, toxicity, reusability, or any other metric of sustainability. They treat consumers as self-contained money-maximizers with no concern for the communities around them.

Luckily, along comes GreenerChoices.org, a new CR-affiliated site that will focus on "products for a better planet." Right now it's pretty bare bones -- just general information, no reviews or tests of individual products -- but I hope over time it will grow and flourish. It will certainly serve as a welcome counterbalance to the many sites out there devoted to wide-eyed gawking at green products. Not that there's anything wrong with wide-eyed gawking -- I read many of those sites religiously -- but a mature market for sustainable consumer products is going to need some independent authority to vouchsafe quality and reliability.

I must say, it's better than nothing, but I really wish CR had integrated the effort into their main content. The idea that green concerns and green products are some sort of separate niche market is pernicious, and this only reinforces it. But hey, my glass is half full!

What else could we have done with that money?

Brad Plumer wonders what else could have been done with that $300 billion (yep, that's the current price tag for the Iraq war).

Isidro Baldenegro López leads a struggle against logging in the Sierra Madre

Isidro Baldenegro López. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. When Isidro Baldenegro López was growing up in the mountains of central Mexico, his father opposed widespread logging in the forests of the Sierra Madre. He spoke out about the effects of the destruction on the indigenous Tarahumara people, drawing the attention of local crime bosses, who ordered […]

The many consequences of human interference with ecosystems

We all know them: English ivy, European starlings, Himalayan blackberry, Scotch broom. No, they're not foreign exchange students or international meals. They're part of the legion of exotic invasive species that threaten the ecological integrity of the Northwest. Of course, the Northwest is hardly alone. The American south is overrun with kudzu, for instance.

The poster children of over-abundance are deer, as anyone in the Upper Midwest or the Northeast can tell you. Deer, of course, are native species, but because their predators have largely been eliminated, and because they thrive in semi-developed fragmented landscapes, they are legion. But deer are not alone: Canada geese, grackles, raccoons, opossums, and other species can wreak havoc on ecosystems that are already out of balance.

A good article today, picked up by the Seattle Times, examines the consequences of our alteration of ecosystems. Not only do some foreign invaders out-compete native species, but the populations of a few native species metastasize at the expense of more sensitive species. Here is the crux of the article:

...what's happening isn't natural. It's all man's fault. As the land is changed, often to accommodate development, ecosystems turn much more vanilla, scientists say.

The world does better when it has a buffet of diverse species -- some of those plants and animals can benefit people with food and medicine -- instead of one flavor fits all, said Oregon State University zoology professor Jane Lubchenco, president of the International Council for Science.

Grist on the radio

Oh, lest I forget, another stop on your Earth Day media tour should be Seattle's own public radio show Weekday, which today interviewed our own Amanda Griscom Little, writer Adrienne Maree Brown (who's also written for us), and Futurewise's Aaron Ostrom. They discuss Earth Day, environmentalism, Death Stuff, and more.

You can hear the whole thing here.

Weather prevents Bush from celebrating Earth Day

Am I the only one wondering whether the weather has a sense of humor?

President Bush canceled an Earth Day visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Friday because of bad weather.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the threat of hail and thunder storms was keeping the president from visiting the park, but Air Force One still was making a brief stop at an airport outside Knoxville, Tenn., so Bush could make remarks near the park on Earth Day.

Bush then planned to fly on to Texas, where he was spending the weekend at his ranch and then hosting Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Monday.

I have a vague hunch that Bush won't be telling the Saudi dictator about his approach to energy conservation.

A bunch of stuff to read on this increasingly anodyne holiday

I must admit to having mixed feelings about Earth Day. The original was a fantastic, historic event that focused and lent momentum to a growing wave of concern. It erased our reasons not to act.

I fear it has become the opposite these days, a nicely segregated and boxed nod to "Earth stuff" that fades from memory as soon as it's over. It's a time for Joe Citizen to check in -- "yep, everything's still going to hell, maybe I'll plant a tree" -- and then check back out. It separates the "Earth" from our cultural, social, and political lives, casts it as a distinct thing that we must tend like a potted plant.

But whatever, it's here, so let's celebrate it. Yay for Earth Day. Here's a roundup of some stuff you might enjoy:

Kelpie Wilson says the green dream is alive, and gives you 10 things to do. Yahoo ... sorry, Yahoo! also has ten things. Treehugger tells you how to cook an Earth-friendly dinner. Moving Ideas has a whole passel of ways to take action. About.com, trying to be unique, has a 12-item list of things you can do. You can make a difference from the comfort of your couch by joining the Earth Day Virtual March. And of course the Earth Day Network is chockablock with helpful info.

The Boston Globe is glum, but Joan Lowy is hopeful. Brian C. Howard reflects, the Detroit Free Press reflects, and Miguel Llanos reflects. Lotta reflecting.

And finally, in an appropriately ironic turn, President Bush's planned Earth Day visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was cancelled due to bad weather.