Exxon CEO doubts Obama’s alternative energy goal.
| Press Release: California Rules to Cut Diesel Truck Pollution Called Most Sweeping in U.S. ( “In passing these rules, California will continue to lead a nationwide movement to protect our most vulnerable citizens and reduce health care costs by placing highly cost-effective controls on diesel engines,” testified Dr. John Balbus, EDF’s chief health scientist and a member of the National Academy of Science Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, during the public meeting this morning before the Air Resources Board voted to approve the rule late today. “The scientific literature is overflowing with studies documenting harm from diesel emissions to the lungs, the immune system, the heart and cardiovascular system, even the developing brain.” Retrofitting these trucks with particulate matter filters can reduce diesel soot up to 85 percent, and upgrading to newer trucks to meet EPA’s latest engine standards can reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide up to about 90%. The state is offering truckers more than $1 billion in funding to offset the costs of complying with the new rules. “We should be positive about the overall outcome: we are on a path to reduce deadly diesel emissions,” said Diesel trucks are the largest emitter of toxic diesel particulate matter in the state due to a combination of lagging emission standards, the long life of the diesel engine, and the high number of miles each truck travels. The newest diesel trucks are much cleaner than their predecessors thanks to recent EPA regulations, but the natural turnover of trucks will not happen fast enough in order for the state to meet federal clean air requirements and to achieve near and long term health benefits. There are more than 900,000 diesel trucks in |
| Press Release: Fundamental Fairness: Joint Statement to the MTA Board
Our buses, subways and rails are the lifeblood of this region. Vital to our economy, our environment and our quality of life, this transit network moves more than nine million workers, customers, tourists and students each workday. The MTA is in crisis but clearly the budget being voted on today must not stand. If it does, the results threaten to propel our city and our region into an economic, social and environmental tailspin. Now is the time for leadership that recognizes the enormity of our problem and inspires us all to be part of the solution to this crisis.
We applaud the Governor’s Commission on MTA Financing for their recommendations, which continue a 30-year tradition of asking those who benefit, whether directly or indirectly from our transit system, to contribute to the maintenance of this vital network.
The Commission’s recommendations are marked by a fundamental fairness:
We, the organizations that stand here today, support these fundamentally fair recommendations presented by the Governor’s Commission on MTA Financing.
We acknowledge that it is a difficult choice for elected officials to approve and implement any changes that will spread the burden of helping to fund our transit system to some who benefit from our region’s transit network and are not accustomed to contributing. But, we ask our leaders to consider the stark unfairness of placing a disproportionate burden on only some of the millions who benefit from our transit system, as well as the nightmare scenario of a transit network whose services and maintenance are drastically reduced due to a lack of support.
Campaign for
Citizens Committee for
Environmental Defense Fund
General Contractors Association of
LDC of
Natural Resources Defense Council
Regional Plan Association
Straphangers Campaign
Time2Improve Municipal Efficiency
Transportation Alternatives
Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Urban Agenda
Women’s City Club of New York
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| Exxon CEO doubts Obama’s alternative energy goal. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said on Thursday it would be difficult to meet President-elect Barack Obama’s goal to significantly boost U.S. alternative energy production. |
| Why is Washington so wet? It’s just the weather. Forecasters in Western Washington are fond of saying: our weather is hard to predict. Then how do they explain two dramatic floods, 13 months apart on the same stretch of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland? A climate coincidence. |
Dow Corning Alternative Energy Survey Alternative Energy & Carbon Footprinting: International Survey Reveals Business Attitudes. Companies attitudes towards alternative energy and carbon footprinting are revealed in the results of an international research study. The survey was conducted by the independent market research company Harris Interactive on behalf of Dow Corning Corporation. Survey Results SummaryAlternative Energy1 in 4 companies are [.]Posted in: Industry, Politics |
Power from Trees Currently a team of MIT researchers are using platinum electrodes and ficus plants to discover the truth of feeble electric currents from trees. They have come up with an answer. They state that the pH difference between the soil and the living tree is the cause of creating electric currents. Now scientists are debating [.]Posted in: Environment, Future Energy, Inventions |
| Press Release: Green Groups to Schwarzenegger: You Don’t Need to Pave the Environment to Pump the Economy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Jessica Lass, NRDC, 310/434-2300
Jenesse Miller, CLCV, 510/844-0235
Lori Sinsley, EDF, 415/293-6097
SACRAMENTO (January 7, 2009) – Environmental groups today urged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to uphold critical environmental safeguards affecting a dozen major transportation projects that could harm California’s air, water and wilderness. In an alarming letter sent Tuesday, Governor Schwarzenegger asked President-elect Obama to “waive or greatly streamline National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements consistent with our statutory proposals to modify the California Environment Quality Act (CEQA) for transportation projects.” This dangerous precedent would allow the state to build the transportation projects without environmental review.
If such safeguards are removed at federal and state levels, billions of dollars of new, polluting projects could receive federal funding priority over approved clean projects that are designed to protect public health and natural resources. The governor has frozen roughly $16 billion in existing, state-approved, environmentally reviewed projects that could be started this month and would provide badly needed jobs.
Following are reactions from several of
Warner Chabot, CEO of the
“We urge Governor Schwarzenegger to uphold his long-standing principles that the economy and the environment are compatible. We can achieve a swift, effective economic stimulus without sacrificing our bedrock environmental laws and our health. We call on the Governor and the leadership of both parties in the state Senate and Assembly to provide the solutions that our state and nation require to solve this economic crisis.”
Ann Notthoff,
“All Californians care about the fiscal health of our state, but relaxing environmental law is not the way to do it.
Kathryn Phillips, the Sacramento-based director of the California Transportation and Air Initiative for Environmental Defense Fund (EDF):
“Dirty projects that circumvent environmental protections are more costly in both the short and long run than clean ones.
Tina Andolina, legislative director for the Planning and Conservation League (PCL):
“At a time when our nation has embraced the concept of investing in a clean and green future, in energy independence and a better quality of life, Governor Schwarzenegger is insisting on steering our state in the opposition direction. He is holding the entire state budget hostage and demanding that we throw out our basic public health and environmental safeguards to advance a few of his favorite pet projects. Then to suggest that the entire federal stimulus package sidestep environment review of any kind shows us clearly that he has turned his back on the promise of clean air and water.”
Dan Jacobson, executive director, Environment California:
“
Paul Mason, deputy director, Sierra Club
“This move flies in the face of Governor Schwarzenegger’s global warming agenda. He is wrong. We don’t have to weaken environmental and public health protection to stabilize
Background:
For instance, last month the California Air Resources Board adopted two air pollution rules that will save nearly 10,000 lives, more than $40 billion in healthcare costs, prevent thousands of air pollution-related illnesses, and contribute to
Related links:
Ann Notthoff blogs on
California League of Conservation blog: http://www.ecovote.org/blog/
Environmental Defense Fund blogs: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=576
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The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in
Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.
The political muscle of the environmental movement in
The Planning and Conservation League (PCL) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying organization, working in the State Legislature and at the administrative level in state government to enact and implement policies to protect and restore the
Environment
Sierra Club
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| Environmental Consequences: Asbestos and Human Health When microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled, they lodge themselves in the lining of lungs. This lays the groundwork for the deadly asbestos cancer, mesothelioma. Perhaps it should come as no coincidence then that rates of pleural cancer (mesothelioma) in oil refinery workers are among the highest of any occupation. |
| Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars Arrive Hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars are now in the hands of consumers, with more on the way. These custom-made cars from Chevrolet, Honda and BMW are paving the way for production models of the future. |
| President Bush’s Last Act of Greenness Over the course of his two terms in office, President George W. Bush has taken a lot of mostly justified flak from environmentalists. But there’s one area where Bush can legitimately claim a deep-green legacy: the oft overlooked field of ocean conservation. |