New York’s Green Police Cleaning Up the Streets

A team of officers working for the Department of Environmental Conservation, now called the “Green Police“, are tasked with enforcing environmental crimes in New York. They have complete authority to issue citations to violators.

The mission of the Green Police is “To protect and enhance the environment and natural resources of the State of New York while also protecting the health and safety of its people through the enforcement of Environmental Conservation and related laws and public education.”

The office states that they write approximately 300 violations each month, a number that is steadily increasing with proper enforcement.
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Tell Congress: No BPA in Food & Beverage Containers

Today, I received the letter below from Clean Water Action.  Please consider sending a message to your Representatives and Senators in favor of the new BPA ban – you can easily do so by clicking here.  To summarize, BPA can be found in re-useable water bottles, the lining of your soup or soda cans, baby bottles, sippy cups, and other polycarbonate plastic products. It has been shown to leach from containers directly into food and beverages, especially when heated. Exposure to BPA  has been linked to to heart disease, breast and testicular cancers, reproductive problems, and other diseases reaching epidemic proportions in the United States.

Federal legislation has been introduced in Congress that would ban the toxic chemical BPA from food and beverage containers.

BPA, first developed as a synthetic sex hormone, can be found in re-useable water bottles, the lining of your soup or soda cans, baby bottles, sippy cups, and other polycarbonate plastic products. It has been shown to leach from containers directly into food and beverages, especially when heated. Why is this a problem?

More than 200 studies have found that low dose exposures to BPA are linked to heart disease, breast and testicular cancers, reproductive problems, and other diseases reaching epidemic proportions in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted research that revealed detectable levels of BPA in the bodies of 93% of Americans.

And how is the industry responding? An internal memo leaked to The Washington Post last week describes their strategy of attempting to block progress through a range of PR ploys including an ad campaign starring a pregnant mom actress discussing BPA benefits.

This despite mounting research showing that extremely low levels of BPA can harm health, particularly during early infancy. And despite the availability of safer alternatives, such as stainless steel, glass, and other containers that don’t leach hazardous chemicals.

Urge your Representative and your Senators to support the Poisonous Additives Act (HR 1523/S 593) co-sponsored by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California).

Cap and Trade Bill Presents Dilemma for Environmental Movement

There is an old saying that there are two things you never want to watch being made. The first is hot dogs. The second is legislation.

Considering that the legislative twists and turns taken by the first cap and trade bill dealing with carbon dioxide with a legitimate chance of passage, twists that have caused Greenpeace and the American Petroleum Institute to be on the same side of an environmental issue and not in a good way, that saying appears more than ever to be a truism.

On Thursday May 21st the House Energy and Commerce Committee, by a 33-25 vote passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the Markey-Waxman bill, and sent it on to the full House. By the time it had left committee the bill was 946 pages long and already contained over 100 amendments, an indication that a Republican strategy predicted by Grist reporter, Kate Sheppard on May 18th (Republicans plan to offer hundreds of amendments to slow climate bill), had been at least partially successful.

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After Stab in the Back, Geothermal Poised for a Comeback

Whenever alternative energy is mentioned, solar and wind energy come most immediately to mind. Yet as promising as the futures for these energies may be, most Americans may not be aware that geothermal energy has been extensively utilized in the past and present. Moreover, its future appears to be virtually unlimited and initial capital outlay for its development might well be the most cost-effective of all alternative energy sources.

In a story that received very little media coverage at the time and even less coverage when the Bush Administration pulled funding for geothermal research shortly after, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released a study concluding that a proposed form of geothermal extraction they referred to as “heat mining” could “provide a substantial portion of the electricity that the United States will need in the future.” Furthermore, the MIT study concluded that “heat mining” could do so “probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact.”

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Obama Highlights Alternative Energy in Economic Recovery Plan

In his weekly internet video address, President-elect Barack Obama offered an outline of his economic recovery plan Saturday, with jobs as his top priority.  The goal is to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011, in part by “building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years head.”

You can watch the video of Obama’s address here:

Waxman Defeats Dingell for Energy Committee Chairmanship

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) made history yesterday by challenging and defeating the sitting chairman of the House energy and commerce committee, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) by a 137 to 122 vote of the full Democratic caucus.

This committee is immensely important, with jurisdiction over a wide variety of domestic matters. Waxman and his allies want much tougher laws to reduce global warming, something Barack Obama also promised.  Dingell, in contrast, was much more concerned with protecting the automobile industry than with protecting the environment.

Waxman is a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is also from California.  His counterpart in the Senate is yet another Californian, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA).  With most of the power concerning the environment in hands of Waxman, Boxer, Pelosi, and Obama, it is likely that global warming will be addressed very quickly in the new administration, with the views of the Californians playing a dominant role.

Clean Coal is an Expensive Myth

If last week’s VP debate was any indication, Senator Biden and Governor Palin didn’t get the memo on “clean coal”.  It reads something like this:  ”Coal cannot be effectively cleaned, we should invest our limited government funds (see: Bailout) in energy solutions that are environmentally safe today.”

Clean coal technology is also VERY expensive, and will have rising variable costs over time (transportation of fuel, miners’ wages, maintenance of complex cleaning systems, etc).  Compare to solar and wind energy sources, which have fewer incremental costs once built.  How much does the transportation of sun and wind cost?  ZERO!
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