- Climate Bill is Dead; EPA Now Best Hope for U.S. Climate Solution
Senate Democrats late last week abandoned any attempt to win approval for comprehensive climate and energy legislation this year, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid conceded that he didn't have the 60 votes needed to pass the bill over the inevitable Republican filibuster.
Instead, Senate leaders are putting their shoulders into passing a quickly assembled substitute bill that weaves together a collection of sure-to-pass programs and provisions into a patchwork piece of legislation that is guaranteed to agitate no one--except the people who actually want to do something about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting American energy dependence from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. And there's no telling whether the U.S. House of Representatives will accept this watered-down bill even if the Senate passes it.
The new bill, which Reid wants to pass before the August recess, does not put a price or a cap on carbon emissions, does not subsidize electric vehicles, provides no debt financing for clean energy, and includes no renewable energy standard (RES) to mandate that a certain percentage of the nation's electricity come from green energy sources (although a handful of moderate Democrats and at least one Republican senator who firmly oppose any kind of carbon cap or tax have said they might be open to including an RES in the new bill). On the other hand, the substitute bill doesn't open new areas to offshore oil drilling nor does it include billions of dollars in loan guarantees for nuclear energy.
Here's what the new bill does include:
- Tighter restrictions on offshore oil drilling, plus a provision raising the liability cap for oil companies under the Oil Pollution Act from the current $75 million to $10 billion.
- About $4.1 billion in incentives for natural gas vehicles (which is good news for billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who has invested heavily in a plan to make natural gas a mainstream fuel for vehicles).
- $5 billion for expanded land and water conservation.
- $5 billion in funding for the HomeStar program, which provides economic incentives to encourage homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.
There's plenty of blame to go around here. Obama and Senate leaders were too ready to compromise, too passive about pushing comprehensive legislation, and too ineffectual to challenge Republicans and bring rebellious Democrats into line. But the bulk of responsibility for leaving the American people with no legislative path toward a clean-energy future rests with Senate Republicans and a few centrist Democrats who refused to vote for any climate-and-energy bill with teeth.
It's not unusual for House or Senate leaders to hold back legislation if they know they don't have the votes, but there are times when the process is as important as the ultimate outcome. This was one of those times. Reid should have brought to the floor the best climate and energy bill the Democrats could create, forcing every U.S. senator to take a clear and unequivocal position on the issue. Politics may be the art of compromise, but the heart of politics is rigorous debate on critical issues.
With an effective legislative solution fading to little more than a green mist, at least for this year, the next best option for a U.S. climate strategy is for the EPA to exercise its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions--authority granted to the agency by the Clean Air Act and confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Senators Murkowski and Rockefeller are poised to introduce legislation that would block or limit EPA authority over greenhouse gas emissions, and President Obama has promised to veto all such attempts.
There is no question that smart climate and energy legislation would have been more comprehensive, economical and efficient--and an all-around better solution--than agency regulation. But when elected officials fail to serve the best interests of their constituents, regulators sometimes have to fill the gap.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Also Read:
- EPA Declares Greenhouse Gases a Threat to Public Health and Environment
- "Cash for Caulkers" HOMESTAR Program to Help U.S. Businesses and Homeowners
- Senate Rejects Limits on EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases
- Congress and the EPA Both Take Steps to Control Global Warming
Climate Bill is Dead; EPA Now Best Hope for U.S. Climate Solution originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 05:11:54.
- BP Plans to Replace CEO Tony "Wayward" Hayward with American
BP is expected to replace its CEO and walking public-relations nightmare, Tony Hayward, with American Robert Dudley, who grew up in Mississippi and has quickly gained a reputation for competency and credibility as head of BP's oil-spill cleanup operation in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hayward won't walk away empty-handed. Among top corporate executives, even failure has its rewards. Hayward (nicknamed "Wayward Hayward" by environmentalists and the media because of his frequent PR gaffes) is reported to be negotiating with BP's board of directors for a severance package that could be worth up to $18.5 million. Other news agencies are reporting that Hayward may be assigned to another BP venture in Russia.
In its official response to media queries, BP is saying that Hayward is still CEO, but the company is expected to confirm Hayward's departure on Tuesday, either in conjunction with the announcement of its second-quarter earnings. On Monday, rumors of Hayward's pending resignation resulted in a 4.6 percent increase in the price of BP shares, which have lost 40 percent of their value in the three months since the oil spill began. On Tuesday, BP is expected to report a $13 billion loss as the company starts to factor in the cost of the oil spill that, according to current estimates, could be as high as $30 billion.
The oil had hardly started flowing from the ruptured underwater well in late April before Hayward started saying and doing things that made him a lightning rod for public and political animosity over the disastrous oil spill and turning him into "the most hated man in America."
It was bad enough when Hayward said in media interviews that the oil spill was "relatively tiny" compared to the "very big ocean" and that environmental damage from the spill would be "very, very modest."
"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," Hayward said in a May 14 interview with The Guardian. "The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume." That quote came back to haunt Hayward repeatedly as official estimates for the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf were repeatedly challenged and revised upward and BP kept failing to stop the leak.
And in a May 18 interview with Sky News, Hayward said, ". . . everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact will be very, very modest." That statement now seems either laughably naïve or like a sinister and cynical attempt to downplay the growing disaster.
But Hayward's worst misstep came about two weeks later, on May 30, when he told a group of reporters in Louisiana that "there's no one who wants this over more than I do. I'd like my life back." Hayward made the comment as part of an apology to Gulf residents whose lives and livelihoods have been disrupted by the oil spill, but the comment immediately brought to mind for many people the 11 workers who permanently lost their lives when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire on April 20.
On June 19, about two months after the oil spill began and with oil still gushing into the Gulf, Hayward continued his series of PR gaffes by taking part in yacht race around the Isle of Wight--on "Bob," his $270,000 racing yacht--which prompted Emanuel Rahm, President Obama's chief of staff, to observe, "I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting." BP defended Hayward's decision, saying that it was his first day off with his family since the oil spill began, but many Gulf Coast residents were angered by Hayward's apparent lack of concern for their plight.
"Man, that ain't right," said Bobby Pitre, 33, a small-business owner in Louisiana in an interview with ABC News. "None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races. I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too."
If BP chooses Dudley to replace Hayward, it would be an historic move--the first time a non-British citizen, let alone an American, has led the giant energy company formerly known as British Petroleum. It could also be a smart move, because a third of BP's revenues come from its U.S. operations, and 40 percent of its shareholders are Americans.
Dudley, 54, is a chemical engineer by training. He joined Amoco in 1979 and joined BP in 1998 when it acquired Amoco. Most observers see Dudley as a genuine leader with a track record of solid performance untainted by BP's questionable safety record.
"He is basically a guy with a clean slate," said Fadel Gheit, a veteran oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Company, in an interview with The New York Times.
Whether Dudley can keep his slate clean if he accepts the top spot at BP, or reverse the fortunes of his beleaguered company, remains to be seen.
Photo of Tony Hayward by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Also Read:
- BP Stops Oil Leak, Starts Critical Test
- BP Aims to Stop Leaking Oil Well and Falling Stock Price by July 27
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
- The 10 Worst Oil Spills in History
- How Do Oil Spills Damage the Environment?
BP Plans to Replace CEO Tony "Wayward" Hayward with American originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 20:52:11.
- Mowing the Grass is Greener When You Don't Use a Gas-Powered Mower
Ah, summer! Time to pull the lawn mower out of the garage, fire it up, and enjoy that first sweet smell of newly mowed grass, right? Well, if you're using a gasoline-powered lawn mower, you may end up leaving behind more than grass clippings when you're finished.
According to the EPA, gasoline-powered lawn mowers may account for up to 5 percent of U.S. air pollution. And one Swedish study determined that mowing your lawn for an hour with a gas-powered mower pollutes the air as much as driving 100 miles in your car.
Find out how you can make mowing your lawn a little greener this year.
Photo by Getty Images
Mowing the Grass is Greener When You Don't Use a Gas-Powered Mower originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 03:21:38.
- How to Keep Cool Without Air Conditioning
When summer heat makes being inside uncomfortable, many people crank up the air conditioning. But what if you don't have air conditioning, or you'd rather find more energy-efficient methods for staying cool indoors? Check out these tips for air conditioning alternatives, and keep cool when the temperature is high.
Photo: Getty Images
How to Keep Cool Without Air Conditioning originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 02:29:25.
- BP Stops Oil Leak, Starts Critical Test
For the first time in 87 days, the most disastrous oil spill in U.S. history may not be getting any worse--at least for now.
BP today succeeded in stopping the catastrophic flow of oil that started on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and rupturing the wellhead of the MC252 well more than a mile below the surface.
Before BP can claim victory in its 3-month struggle to stop the leaking oil, however, it has to complete a critical "integrity test" to make sure the tight-fitting 75-ton cap that workers put in place today can withstand the pressure with all valves closed. And at best, the cap is a temporary solution. For a permanent repair, BP will have to finish drilling the two relief wells and execute the "bottom kill" strategy, using drilling "mud" and cement to seal the well.
The last of three valves, called a choke valve, was closed at 2:25 p.m. CDT this afternoon, which started the clock running on a 48-hour observation period to see whether the cap can continue to hold back the oil.
And that's not the only danger.
With the well capped, pressure in the reservoir of oil beneath the well could push into bedrock and break through the sea floor, creating new leaks. Another risk is that other leaks might develop deep in the well bore, sending oil flowing into the Gulf once again.
How much oil are we talking about? Nobody really knows.
This is one of the deepest oil wells ever drilled and it taps into an oil field of unknown size. There are a lot of variables here.
Testifying before a House subcommittee, BP CEO Tony Hayward estimated that there might be about 2 billion gallons (around 48 million barrels) of recoverable oil in the field. That's a bit shy of the figure BP quoted when it discovered the field, when industry experts estimated its size as 42 billion gallons (1 billion barrels) of recoverable oil.
That term "recoverable oil" is important, because what the industry considers recoverable oil typically constitutes only about 20 percent of the total amount of petroleum in an oil field. If BP's original figure is correct and the ratio holds true for the oil field where BP was drilling, then the site may hold as much as 210 billion gallons (5 billion barrels) of oil. If high pressure causes irreparable leaks in the sea floor, oil could continue to pollute the Gulf for decades. That's the worst-case scenario.
But for now most people--from Gulf Coast residents to professional environmentalists--are cheering what President Barack Obama cautiously called "a positive sign." But even the most optimistic observers know that even if the leak is stopped for good, the oil spill and its effects are far from over. Cleanup and full recovery will take years, quite possibly decades. Some parts of the marine ecosystem and some wildlife populations may never be the same.
"The oil industry argues that this was an isolated event. We agree--research confirms that oil catastrophes are strictly isolated to oil industry operations," said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune in a statement. "We have not yet found oil spills at wind farms, nor have we found evidence of gushers erupting in solar plants or marshlands devastated by business owners retrofitting their buildings. The best way to prevent another oil disaster is to shift away from oil and onto clean energy.
"If this capping of the oil gusher holds, it is a moment for celebration," Brune said. "We must not, however, ever forget the three months during which BP egregiously mishandled its disaster. It is even more important that we remind ourselves that this problem is much bigger than BP. The entire oil industry has been skirting safety regulations and lobbying against clean energy for years. Over and over again we've paid the price."
"It's time to connect the dots," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. "The Gulf oil tragedy, the April 5 coal disaster in West Virginia that killed 29 workers, the extraction of tar sands oil in Canada that's causing cancer to fuel U.S. cars, and an escalating climate crisis are all symptoms of the same problem. Fossil fuels are inherently deadly, and it is time for our country to put in place a comprehensive plan to end our use of them."
Also Read:
- BP Removes Cap, Lets Oil Flow, in New Effort to Stop the Leak
- Government Imposes New Deepwater Offshore Drilling Moratorium
- BP Aims to Stop Leaking Oil Well and Falling Stock Price by July 27
BP Stops Oil Leak, Starts Critical Test originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 19:12:53.
- Government Imposes New Deepwater Offshore Drilling Moratorium
The Obama administration on Monday issued a new moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drilling until November 30 [2010] to ensure oil companies implement stricter safety measures following the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"More than 80 days into the BP oil spill, a pause on deepwater drilling is essential and appropriate to protect communities, coasts, and wildlife from the risks that deepwater drilling currently pose," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a statement. "I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely."
The announcement came just days after an appeals court upheld a federal judge's ruling that voided an earlier six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling that the government issued in May.
The new moratorium was cheered by environmentalists and panned by the oil industry and many Gulf Coast elected officials, who are worried about losing more jobs and deepening the economic crisis.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, said the moratorium could lead to the loss of 120,000 jobs in her state and a "second economic disaster that has the potential to become greater than the first."
A leading champion for the oil industry, Landrieu said offshore drilling is safe and argued that 42,000 other wells have been drilled in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico without serious incident.
"Obviously more effective regulations and greater transparency are a must, but this Deepwater Horizon incident is an exception and it should be treated as such," Landrieu told the presidential commission that is investigating the BP oil spill. "I urge this commission to take immediate and swift action to immediately lift the moratorium."
The commission declined.
"Before we can recommend lifting the moratorium, one would have to have a conviction that the kinds of concerns it intended to address have been met," said Bill Reilly, the Republican co-chair of the commission established by President Obama. "It doesn't seem to me that we're in that position."
Essentially, the oil industry and its political friends are asking the U.S. government and the American people to trust them to operate safely and do the right thing. But given BP's lousy safety record and laughable oil spill response plan for the Gulf region, and the almost identical response plans filed by the other major oil companies that operate in the Gulf, that's a tough sale to make.
Imposing a moratorium that provides the time needed for the presidential commission to complete its investigation, and for oil companies to review and tighten their safety processes, is a reasonable and measured response to a very unreasonable and unmeasured environmental and economic disaster.
Also Read:
- Obama Suspends New Offshore Drilling, Cancels Lease Sales in U.S. Waters
- Offshore Drilling Moratorium Fails to Stop New Permits and Environmental Waivers
- What Will Happen When the Offshore Drilling Ban Expires?
Government Imposes New Deepwater Offshore Drilling Moratorium originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 22:59:42.
- BP Aims to Stop Leaking Oil Well and Falling Stock Price by July 27
BP officials last week announced that the company is aiming to stop the leaking offshore oil well in the Gulf of Mexico by July 27, weeks earlier than its previous target date of mid-to-late August.
The choice of the new target date is not arbitrary. July 27 is when BP executives are scheduled to report second-quarter earnings and to tell investors about the company's current status and future prospects.
Since April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire, killing 11 workers and rupturing the underwater well, BP's stock price has dropped by half. For nearly three months, the damaged well has been spewing oil into the Gulf, fouling coastal beaches and marshes, and driving down the price of BP shares--leaving the company undervalued and potentially vulnerable to hostile takeovers.
As emergency crews work around the clock to stem the flow of oil, BP CEO Tony Hayward is scrambling to slow the falling stock price and to raise enough cash to fend off takeover bids and to help pay damage claims and cleanup costs for the worst catastrophe to hit the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina.
Stopping the leaking oil well by or before July 27 is part of that strategy, a way to demonstrate to investors that perhaps the worst is over for BP and the company can start rebuilding.
To date, however, BP hasn't had much luck stopping the oil leaking from the damaged well. And according to Bob Dudley, head of BP's restoration unit on the Gulf Coast, the company's current strategies and various back-up plans may not be enough to enable them to meet the July 27 deadline.
"In a perfect world with no interruptions, it is possible to be ready to stop the well between July 20 and July 27," Dudley said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Dudley acknowledged that the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season is far from a perfect world, especially for the crews trying to repair a damaged oil well a mile below the surface. He said the prospect of BP stopping the flow of oil by July 27 is "unlikely."
Also Read:
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
- Hurricanes Plus Oil Spill Could Increase Environmental Damage in Gulf
- Did Government Officials Actually Read BP's Oil Spill Response Plan?
BP Aims to Stop Leaking Oil Well and Falling Stock Price by July 27 originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 13:18:15.
- BP Removes Cap, Lets Oil Flow, in New Effort to Stop the Leak
BP took a big gamble on Saturday [June 10, 2010], using underwater robots to remove a leaking cap from the ruptured oil well more than a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and allowing the oil to gush unimpeded while workers try to install a new cap with a tighter seal.
BP officials are betting that the new cap, called "Top Hat 10," will enable the beleaguered energy giant to capture all of the leaking oil until the company can finish drilling two relief wells that are expected to provide a permanent fix sometime in August. The relief wells will set the stage for a "bottom kill" solution, in which heavy drilling mud and cement are pumped into the damaged well from below the broken wellhead, shutting down the flow of oil.
But until the new cap is installed (an estimated four to seven days from when the old cap was removed on Saturday), oil will flow freely from the damaged well, adding another 6 million to 17.5 million gallons of oil to the already heavily polluted Gulf Coast. According to official estimates, as much as 174 million gallons of oil has already spilled into the Gulf since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire, killing 11 workers and launching the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Official government estimates now place the volume of oil leaking from the ruptured well at 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons daily. The old cap was able to capture about 1 million gallons a day, which was then siphoned into ships waiting on the surface and transported to on-shore refineries. The new cap, plus larger containment vessels, will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons, potentially all of the leaking oil, according to BP officials.
At least, that's what will happen if the plan works.
Top Hat 10 weighs about 150,000 pounds and is designed to fully seal the leak. It has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and connections that will allow surface vessels to collect the oil when the valves are open. But the cap will have to withstand enormous pressure from the oil surging from the well beneath it, and BP won't deem the operation successful until the cap has been fully tested to make sure it can take the pressure.
Frankly, given BP's poor safety record, laughable response plan, and recent history of failed attempts to stop the flow of oil and contain the spill, cautious optimism is about the best that even the most positive observers can manage.
If the strategy works, oil from the damaged well will soon stop flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. If it fails, the oil spill could become much worse very quickly, as more oil flows even faster and penetrates more deeply into the fragile marine environment.
Also Read:
- How Do Oil Spills Damage the Environment?
- Gulf Oil Spill Environmental Damage Could Get Much Worse
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
- The 10 Worst Oil Spills in History
BP Removes Cap, Lets Oil Flow, in New Effort to Stop the Leak originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 00:51:53.
- Gulf Oil Spill Environmental Damage Could Get Much Worse
Photos of pelicans covered in oil from the ruptured undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico, and stories about sea turtles saved from fiery deaths by a lawsuit that forced BP and the U.S. Coast Guard to change their containment practices, may be overshadowing and diverting public attention away from a larger tragedy in the making.
More than two months after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and caught fire, killing 11 workers and starting the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history, floating oil slicks, soiled beaches and underwater plumes continue to threaten a diverse ecosystem along the Gulf Coast and to cause environmental damages we can't yet begin to assess.
Read more...Gulf Oil Spill Environmental Damage Could Get Much Worse originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 03:16:48.
- U.S. Government in Risky Egg Hunt to Save Sea Turtles
In another potential win for sea turtles affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has hatched a high-risk plan to move up to 70,000 sea turtle eggs from traditional turtle nesting grounds on the Gulf Coast beaches of Florida and Alabama--now heavily polluted by crude oil and chemical dispersants--to Florida's Atlantic coast.
Read more...U.S. Government in Risky Egg Hunt to Save Sea Turtles originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 12:16:14.
