One of my pet complaints is finally being addressed, at least partly. Living here in the Barnett Shale region of Texas, where drilling for natural gas is making Swiss cheese of the ground beneath, say, my house, I’ve been sensitive to these reports that link fracturing chemicals to groundwater contamination.

To be fair, natural gas advocates point out that the crevices they’re tapping are typically not at the same level as groundwater; they’re much farther below the surface. Still, that means they’re drilling through potential groundwater territory. And it doesn’t explain away the numerous reports around the country of water contaminated with chemicals used in the fracturing process.

Call me suspicious, or call me a reader of Pro Publica which has been cracking open this story, but these matters worry me. (See the latest story from Pro Publica here. It’s about how gas drilling could be the culprit in contaminated Wyoming water wells being investigated by the EPA. The EPA jumped on this problem a few years after residents in the tiny town of Pavillion complained that “their water wells turned sour and reeked of fuel vapors shortly after drilling took place nearby,” according to Pro Publica. Hmmmm. I smell a problem.)

But I digress. What’s happening now is that Congress may soon ask for more disclosure from gas companies, requiring them to reveal the chemicals being used in the hydraulic fracturing process. If passed, the companies would have to itemize what’s in those fluids they’re injecting beneath the earth to split the rock (which releases gas stores).

The Natural Resources Defense Council supports this potential repeal of the “Halliburton Loophole,” as it’s known because this 2005 exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act allowed Halliburton to keep its fracturing formula secret.

The NRDC is asking supporters of disclosure to contact their lawmakers about these pending bills:
House of Representatives’ Bill 2766 and Senate Bill 1215.

For more info on areas where natural gas drilling has contaminated water and threatened property see the NRDC blog by Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the group.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Fleas happen. So do ticks. With the trees in full leaf and the woods thick with weeds, I know the hounds will soon be targets. Typically, I just shave them (the dogs not the parasites), wash them with something obnoxiously fragrant and hope for the best.

I gave up chemical dog collars awhile back. But knowing that the dogs are miserable with fleas (not to mention how miserable we’d be sharing their fleas) and that they can get Lyme disease if they pick up a tick, I’m aware that we need solutions. I have fed them garlic powder, a home remedy, but with mixed success.

So I’ve been looking into natural alternatives, and today I found some great ones. But first, a relevant story: This week the Natural Resources Defense Council sued pet product manufacturers and retailers (16 of them are named) for failing to warn consumers in California about the toxicity of some of the ingredients in flea collars. The suit was filed in California because that state regulates propoxur, and is considering regulating TCVP (tetrachlorvinphos), two of the compounds at issue.

While the EPA has said that flea collars pose no threat to humans, the lawsuit alleges that chemical residues on pet fur can far exceed safe levels. The suits cites NRDC research showing that after several days, most dogs and cats carried residues levels considered unsafe for toddlers having “average” contact with pets. The San Francisco Chronicle website SFGATE has more on this story.

Now for the practical part, as you consider how to keep the mutts parasite-free this summer season: The NRDC has put together a list that will help you sort out the options. The Green Paws report tells you which flea/tick treatments to avoid, which to use with caution and which are the safest to use. (It undersells the non-toxic products a bit, saying they’re safe to use when “chemical control is needed,” which implies that au naturel is safest for Fifi and Thunderbolt. I’d argue that no control carries risks too — unless you enjoy fleas in the carpet and sick pets.)

Still, we are grateful for this research. Read the list and you’ll understand why — many of these chemicals are believed or known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and irritants that aggravate asthma. It’s little wonder, they’re pesticides. You know, like the stuff you carefully wash off your fruit.

Anyhow, we’re going to try an essential oil. Green Paws lists oils of cedarwood, lemongrass, peppermint, rosemary and thyme as safer oils to use on pets. Some of the essential oils, like those from lavender and geranium, it does not recommend for pets. Good to know.

It also advises discussing these issues with your veterinarian (kind of like how you’re supposed to discuss Boniva, Celebrex and Viagra with your doctor). But I have to take issue with this advice. Our veterinarian — and I would guess the majority of vets — sells many of those toxic pet collars and treatments. He’s a great guy, but last time I asked him about flea control, he told me to use a neurotoxin.

I did notice on the Green Paws list that there are some “stripe on” products using a chemical called Pyriproxyfen, which is considered safer to use. So not every chemical with a difficult to pronounce name is a problem, necessarily.

Confused? Green Paws also offers a guide to take to the store.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Seeking to show that proposed new U.S. coal plants would exact a high environmental toll even beyond their carbon air pollution,  the Natural Resources Defense Council issued a list today of the states that would bear the greatest burden from coal waste.

Texas, with eight proposed plants, topped the NRDC’s “Filthy 15″ list. It was followed by South Dakota, Florida, Nevada and Montana, Illinois, South Carolina, Ohio, Wyoming, Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri , Wisconsin, Georgia and West Virginia.

Those states have 54 proposed coal plants awaiting permitting. Across the nation, there are 80 proposed plants that would dump an estimated 18 million tons of dangerous coal combustion waste annually into various dump sites, largely unmonitored by the federal government.

That waste would include some 18,000 tons of toxic chemicals and metals, such as lead, mercury and arsenic, that would threaten the environment and people because it could leach into groundwater and streams and lakes, according to the NRDC’s analysis.

Arsenic and heavy metals such as lead and mercury have been linked to increased incidence of cancer, hormone disruption and impaired cognitive abilities among children.

The threat from coal waste is especially acute because states typically have weak regulations, and the federal government has failed for the last three decades to finalize national regulations, NRDC experts said.

This waste “has never been regulated at the national level,” said Peter Lehner, executive director of the NRDC at a news conference. “Currently it’s just dumped into ponds and unregulated landfills and abandoned mines.”

Even outside the “Filthy 15″ no state has successfully controlled the problem, he said.

Lehner applauded the announcement earlier this week by the Obama Administration that the EPA would move forward with regulating coal ash. But he said the agency should act swiftly, adding: “We fully expect the coal industry is going to fight back very, very hard.”

One area of debate has involved the recovery of coal waste for believed beneficial uses, like filling abandoned mines. The practice provides a way to get rid of coal waste and the coal ash is supposed to neutralize acids in the mines and improve water quality in the area; but NRDC research suggests the practice can backfire with toxins leaking into the water supply.

In addition, the EPA has found that coal waste dumps have contaminated water (groundwater and at the surface) at 24 sites in 13 states, according to the NRDC report Dangerous Disposals: Keeping Coal Combustion Waste Out of Our Water Supply.

Aside from ongoing (and difficult to track) potential poisoning of soil and water, coal plants pose a danger from calamitous accidents such as the one in Harriman, Tenn., where a Tennessee Valley Authority waste pond spilled more than a billion gallons of coal sludge.

“Coal waste is one more nail that should be driven into the coffin of coal,” said Tom (Smitty) Smith, director of the Texas Office of the Public Citizen, who appeared at the conference.

“We need to stop permitting coal,” said Smith, ticked off the industry’s other polluting attributes, from shearing off mountaintops to causing acid rain and more carbon pollution than any other single source.
“The toxic toll of coal,” he said, “is too great for the country to bear”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Related links:

• NRDC: Contaminated Coal Waste
• Watch Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars at SnagFilms.com
• Texas Business for Clean Air

1. Texas (8 proposed plants; 4,093,087 tons of coal ash waste)
2. South Dakota (2; 952,630)
3. Florida (3; 911,118)
4. Nevada (3; 888,272)
5. Montana (3; 848,278)
6. Illinois (4; 797,450)
7. South Carolina (2; 731,110)
8. Ohio (3; 711,616)
9. Wyoming (5; 697,850)
10. Michigan (5; 686,897)
11. Kentucky (4; 593,662)
12. Missouri (4; 515,709)
13. Wisconsin (3; 512,632)
14. Georgia (2; 507,952)
15. West Virginia (3; 445,202 )

Related links:

• Watch Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars at SnagFilms.com

Photo: The Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve and Alpheus Media

Narrated by Robert Redford, Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars, followed the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air.

On March 3, Los Angelenos will vote on a solar energy measure that has created controversy in some quarters, and whose progress other U.S. cities may want to watch.

Measure B, also known as the Green Energy and Good Jobs for Los Angeles Act, calls for a major increase in the amount of solar power used by the City of Los Angeles (400 megawatts to be created by 2014; enough to power about 240,000 homes). It would create a new training academy for workers; offer tax incentives to L.A. manufacturers who move into solar power technology and installation; and place solar installation, ownership and maintenance in the hands of the municipally owned Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Ultimately, Measure B would put up hundreds of acres of solar voltaics, on rooftops and land.

Involving two basic camps – those who oppose Measure B but not necessarily solar energy; and those who consider Measure B a strong starting point – the dust-up has swirled with anti-B accusations of back-room deal making, local-politics playing, lack of proper public vetting, union steamrolling – and worse.

One opponent, Jack Humphreville, who recently spoke with us about the flare-up, described City Hall’s handling of the measure as “Chicago-style politics” with “a Boss Tweed” (that would be supporter Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) at the helm, saying voters and businesses were cut from the process when the proposal bypassed conventional steps through City Council and went straight to ballot. He also complains that the measure unnecessarily changes the City Charter.

The “pro” camp has kept its dirt-flinging to a minimum, saying opponents cling to an outdated model of how L.A.’s utilities should, and actually do, function. They believe their adversaries have taken a pro-business/anti-City Hall stance at the expense of the public good.

So as L.A. residents cast their ballots next week, the rest of the country might learn something about emerging municipal and state debates on how to embrace cleaner energy and new, green jobs. Perhaps all the acrimony wrought by L.A.’s Measure B can serve as, if nothing else, an example of what not to do as other cities move toward greener power sources, which will invariably upset the long-held status quo.

Almost all parties in the Measure B battle agree that now is the time; that renewable energy must be embraced more by American cities.

But as always, it seems the devil is in the details.

A non-political observer whose organization supports the measure, David Pettit, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and director of the NRDC’s Southern California for Air Quality Program, believes the process of getting Measure B on the ballot could have been better handled.

“It seems to me it could’ve been less messy. And to me, the messiness has taken away from the message on the merits of Measure B. But we (NRDC) are an environmental organization – and what really concerns me is what’s going to be good for us as a city. I’m not a political consultant or analyst. I’m here to try to make the air quality better in Los Angeles.”

L.A., by virtue of its geography and population, has some of the worst air pollution suffered by any city in the world. With so many people, cars and industry packed into an air-trapping valley, L.A. has long been known as a smog capital. Last year (among other years), the American Lung Association ranked Los Angeles as top worst polluted city in the U.S. for year-round air particle pollution. (Pittsburgh won first place for worst “short term” pollution.)

Opponents to Measure B aren’t arguing with the need to address the twin problems of bad air and outdated, polluting fossil-fuel energy sources.

“The debate is not about solar energy, okay? We all buy into the solar energy, and this includes people that don’t necessarily agree with the global warming stuff,” and people who just want energy independence, says Humphreville, who represents the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council in opposition to the plan.

In a alert released this afternoon, entitled “Congress Gets It Right — Recovery Deal to Spur Clean Energy Economy”, the Natural Resources Defense Council praised the compromise stimulus package hammered out by Congress for the ways it steers the American economy in a greener direction.

“Congress really got it right with this economic recovery package that will deliver jobs and green infrastructure to America. The bill makes smart investments that will jumpstart the economy, help sustain future growth, and meet the challenges of the 21st century,”effused Wesley Warren, director of programs for the NRDC. “We need to put America on a path to a clean-energy economy, and Congress has taken a big step forward in heeding this call.

The compromise bill passed the House this afternoon, and was expected to be voted on in the Senate this evening.

The NRDC news alert noted that subsidies for liquid coal and nuclear energy had been removed from the bill and itemized the long list of remaining energy provisions, noting the jobs they are expected to create.

The list:

• $6 billion for clean and safe water, creating more than 200,000 jobs

• $4.5 billion for greening federal buildings

• State energy grants, issued through the Treasury Department, that will fund renewable energy projects that are eligible for the available tax credits

• Funding for the state energy program, which includes important utility reforms and building code conditions

• $2.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy Research and Development

• $5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program, creating approximately 90,000 jobs

• A multi-year extension of the renewable production tax credit

• A more effective tax credit for home efficiency upgrades

• $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewables [renewable energy like solar, wind facilities], [electricity] transmission and leading edge biofuels

• $2 billion for advanced batteries [for use in hybrids]

• $9.3 billion for intercity rail, including high-speed rail [see our story].

• $27.5 billion for highways (this large pot of money is not exclusively for highways, and states and cities must use this flexibility to invest in fuel-efficient public transportation)

• $8.4 billion for transit

• $1.5 billion in competitive grants for transportation investments (which could be used for public transportation)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Now that you’ve worn off the magnetic strip on the credit card buying presents for everyone, gotten the letter that your health insurance premiums are doubling and your job is being “redefined,” it’s time to think about those year-end donations. Sigh.

While environmental groups will likely have an easier time on Capitol Hill next year talking policy with a new Administration that sees global warming as a real threat, they paradoxically could be facing headwinds with donors.

Consider first that some of their large contributors may have been dragged down in the Bernard Madoff securities/Ponzi scheme, which savaged many charitable foundations. While the extent of that damage is being assessed, it’s safe to assume that even nonprofits that escaped that five-alarm fire, have been singed by the economic meltdown.

This holiday season, their biggest time to collect donations, finds them pressing for money from corporations and individuals who may be more flushed with worry than flush with cash.

Will a public that’s financially fragile have anything left over to help feed Pandas? Preserve forests? Save tigers? Support Darfur refugees? Buy back rainforests? Rescue polar bears? Stop mountain top mining?

Let’s hope so. The work list is long. The causes are legit. And climate change demands urgent attention.

Should you be making donations this season, here are links to some of the top environmental organizations. They all have worthy projects.

Defenders of Wildlife
I fell in love with this group when I heard about how they organize volunteers to ride Western ranges as part of an effort to help ranchers and the gray wolves live side by side in, if not harmony, détente. It’s just one of many innovative projects they support.

EarthJustice
Lawyers are the front lines when it comes to assuring everyone follows the rules under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and other protections that only work if they’re enforced. Earthjustice provides free legal counsel to environmental groups large and small, because, as their motto goes, “the earth needs a good lawyer.”

Environmental Defense Fund
An alliance-building group that lobbies for protections for nature and we human inhabitants, from coordinating a drive to clean up school bus emissions to advocating for wind and solar energy projects. (If you can’t donate, consider buying EDF President Fred Krupp’s book, Earth: The Sequel, an informative primer full of real life anecdotes that examines our green energy options.)

Environmental Working Group
Scientists working with EWG have screened our water, food, furniture and cosmetics for toxins, creating valuable tools like the Dirty Dozen list of fruits and veggies most doused with pesticides, and Skin Deep, a database where you can check your body lotion for harmful additives. Their reporting helps us show us how to clean up our home and natural environment.

Greenpeace
A strong advocacy that works on behalf of endangered wildlife, marine life and forests around the globe. Known for their visual stunts, boycotts and blockades, Greenpeace takes action and makes news, helping raise the profile of many enviro causes.

Nature Canada
This group is working to save our Northern wildlife such as the caribou (Santa’s reindeer), as well as one of earth’s largest land carbon sinks, the Boreal Forest. It may be in Canada, but it is of global importance.

The Nature Conservancy
The conservancy works to protect land, rivers and marshes around the world, relying on a staff of 700 scientists to steer work in the right direction. They’ve also begun a campaign to Plant A Billion Trees in the Atlantic rainforest in South America.

Natural Resources Defense Council
They’re also covering the planet, working to mitigate climate change and preserve habitats. A new fund drive invites people to donate $10 to plant a tree to help Revive the Rainforest in Costa Rica.

National Wildlife Federation
The producer of Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard magazines focuses on AMerican wildlife and nurturing a love of wildlife and the outdoors in children. One way to donate is through their “adoption” programs.

Sierra Club
The oldest and largest American environmental group has a membership of more than 1 million and works to save natural spaces. Want to see the national parks protected? Look to Sierra Club. But they also have their hands in the urban environment, working with the Cool Cities project to tamp down carbon emissions and make cities greener and cleaner. Read about founder John Muir, who started Sierra in 1892 to “make the mountains glad.”

World Wildlife Fund
Where to begin? WWF has wildlife saving projects in place from the Congo to the Arctic to the Galapagos Islands. They also have a wealth of information on their website, and adopt-an-animal donor programs. (Big givers can adopt whole acreages of imperiled habitat through the Partners in Conservation program.

Union of Concerned Scientists
At the forefront of energy and climate science, this venerable group helps link the latest scientific thinking on energy, climate change and invasive species into policies that makes sense and preserve our world.

Worldwatch Institute
Someone’s got to study, analyze and explain the problems facing the globe so we can find the right solutions. That’s Worldwatch, helping dissect the issues that stand between us and a just, sustainable and less-toxic environment.

Copyright © 2008 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Rick Hunter, a St. Louis homebuilder, says he’s always been interested in green construction, but in the past decade has become a true believer that green is the future of building. For him and his three-year-old company, Sage Homebuilders, a green collar job is the whole package.

“We’re small and growing quickly,” says Hunter, a co-founder of the 12-employee company. “It’s fun to see how many people want to be part of this movement. People are getting excited about green collar jobs. They’re meaningful. They make people happier in their jobs and make people feel better about what they’re doing. And you can earn a living.”

In St. Louis, Hunter says, green collar jobs are “absolutely the trend, particularly in green construction.” Sage Homebuilders uses green products in new construction and renovation projects, focusing on upgraded energy systems (like the solar panels pictured on this “Near Zero” energy-saving home).

As the country struggles with an economic downturn and job uncertainty, talk of green collar jobs is becoming a larger part of the national dialogue. Late last month, a national rally Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy prompted events in 48 states. The rally, sponsored by Green for All, 1Sky and Al Gore’s WE campaign, focused on the dual cause of social justice and a green economy with events ranging from block parties to solution fairs.

A book on the subject, The Green Collar Economy, by Van Jones hit the book stores Oct. 7 and is already on the New York Times’ best seller list. The Oakland, California-based social activist and Yale Law School graduate is president and co-founder (along with Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx) of the jobs-oriented Green For All.

Both Green for All and Jones’ book promote an inclusive green economy that will not only be good for the environment but will help people out of poverty.

Sponsor 1Sky is a new national campaign which promotes federal action in combating global warming. Its scientific-based agenda urges that solutions be put into effect right away to avoid further climate change disasters and to develop a clean energy economy.

The WE campaign, started by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, brings together advertising, online organizing and partnerships to inform the American people of the urgency to address the climate crisis.

So, what exactly is a green-collar job? According to Green For All, it’s a job that will preserve and enhance the planet. These jobs can be found in growing industries that will help reduce our dependency on oil, stop greenhouse gas emissions, remove toxins and shelter natural systems.

Think: People working in the recycling industries; green energy technicians; builders, masons and roofers with LEED know-how; solar panel installers; steel workers who make wind turbines; electricity company employees who counsel homeowners; hybrid car manufacturers; organic farmers; green landscapers; waste water workers; printers using green techniques; environmental science teachers and sustainability advisers in towns everywhere.

Green collar jobs will require some new skills or rethinking of old skills. Many green collar jobs are middle-skill positions that require more than a high school diploma but maybe less than a college degree. Not only are these jobs well-paying and career-tracked, but they are also domestic. And, says Van Jones, a green job should be within reach for the lower-skilled and low-income worker by giving them access to good training and support programs.

A green-collar job could include, for instance, cleaning up “brownfields,” abandoned or under-used industrial and commercial facilities, or even decaying open urban fields, that are available for re-use.

By John DeFore

California leads the nation in efforts to curb its addiction to oil, according to a report issued this week by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The group’s second annual report is mainly intended to measure each state’s relative vulnerability to rising oil prices, suggesting that while “the federal government has a responsibility to take strong and necessary actions to reduce our oil dependence,” the varied experience of individual state governments “presents our nation’s leaders with an opportunity to gauge the most effective measures and adopt them.”

The report tallies state efforts in four general categories (clean/efficient vehicle use, research and development, clean fuels, and smart growth/transit), most of which are broken into sub-categories of legislative action. California is the only state to take all of the suggested actions in three of the four categories (perhaps unsurprisingly, it comes up short in the smart growth/transit arena), placing it just ahead of competitors New York and Connecticut. (Alaska, perhaps counting on all that oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is doing the least to curb dependency.)

California stood out as the only state to have adopted a low-carbon fuel standard, designed to reduce the intensity of auto-fuel pollution, which was implemented by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year; the defense council notes that states such as Massachusetts are considering those measures but have yet to enact them.

The council measures a state’s vulnerability as the percentage of an average driver’s income going to gasoline, and even that basic data may be an eye-opener: In Mississippi, the most vulnerable state, drivers spent nearly 8 percent of their income filling their tanks (an average of nearly $2,300 per driver) — and that figure is based on 2007 spending, before the price increases seen this year. Connecticut drivers spent the least, at 3.17 percent, while Californians fell in the middle at 5.38 percent.

© Photo by Vasyl Dudenko | Dreamstime.com

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The United Steelworkers have been busy constructing a new green future for themselves, building wind turbines, for instance, at existing mills that might otherwise be suffering in the economic downturn. Now the labor group wants to, shall we say, buttress that future, by promoting green energy and jobs all around.

Working with the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the USW today announced an American green jobs initiative that will promote renewable energy and independence from fossil fuels, an endeavor that could create more than 820,000 new green jobs nationwide, according to the press release.

“What is really exciting about this campaign is the opportunity to create jobs, help fix our broken economy and contribute to solving the biggest environmental challenge of our generation at the same time,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.

The Green Jobs for America education campaign hopes to show that investing in clean energy is the best way to fight global warming, bring energy costs under control, create new well-paying jobs and stoke the economy.

The effort will be coordinated by USW, Sierra Club, NRDC and Blue Green Alliance (a partnership of the USW and Sierra Club) organizers in 12 states, many of which are known for either having steel plants or producing the iron ore for steel; but they also have a bright future in new energy technology. According to a Blue Green Alliance study, these states stand to gain more than 250,000 jobs in manufacturing wind turbine and solar power equipment.

Those states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, Oregon, and Nebraska.

Blue Green Alliance Executive Director David Foster said that green jobs are not only those that produce a green product designed for a specific environmental purpose but also repurposed existing jobs, such as when steelworkers turn their expertise toward making wind turbines.

“The green revolution isn’t just creating new and different jobs,” Foster said. “It’s revitalizing and creating new investment in a lot of the jobs we already have.”

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media