Republican Anti-Science Committee

Good Grief! Do you still wonder why Republicans have no credibility with voters? The House Republican Steering Committee just named Wyoming representative Cynthia Lummis as the new chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Yes, THAT Cynthia Lummis. The one who said, “she believes the jury is still out on climate change.” “This subcommittee’s focus on the science of energy development and use is a perfect fit,” she said in a statement.” Where, exactly, in “Science, Space and Technology” does energy development and use fit in?

Lummis takes over the helm from former chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “In 2009, [Smith] criticized the media for not airing enough “dissenting opinions” about climate change.” Smith, in turn, replaced Texas Republican Ralph Hall.

“I don’t think we can control what God controls.” [Hall] also said he agrees with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) that climate scientists are involved in a conspiracy to receive research funding.

This is the very same “Science” committee who gave us Paul Broun (R-Georgia) who used the term “Lies from the pit of Hell” to describe his scientific knowledge about the science behind evolution. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” he said at an appearance at Liberty University. “Bill Nye [The Science Guy] slammed Broun, for his comments about evolution, saying that Broun “is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology.”  And, Nye went on to make the astonishing claim, in response to Broun, that the earth is simply not 9,000 years old.

And, let’s not forget committee member Todd “Legitimate rape” Akin. Oh, and, good ole boy Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.),

Rohrabacher has made a number of scientifically questionable statements, including the idea that an earlier period of global warming may have been caused by “dinosaur flatulence.” Last year, after coming under fire for seeming to suggest that if global warming is real it could be addressed by cutting down trees (when in fact forests reduce global warming by absorbing atmospheric carbon), he issued a statement saying, “I do not believe that CO2 is a cause of global warming.”

And so, the anti-”science” committee marches on under the same old, new leadership, embarrassing our country with a chairman and members who wouldn’t know science even if they weren’t sniffing dinosaur farts.

 

The Real Impact of Montana Coal

It’s mid-December here in Button Valley. We barely have a skiff of snow on the ground and temperatures are in the thirties. Did I mention it’s mid-December? While we are doing okay on precipitation, mainly due to a quite wet spring, we have received only about a third of our normal snowfall. There’s a reason for this, and a reason for why it seems to have become the new normal. That reason is related to changes to the Montana climate due to our unfortunate national addiction to fossil fuels.

This morning there was a news report about a U.M. study, funded by the Chamber of Commerce, on the economic impact of coal mining in the state. The study relates that “expanding the state’s coal mines would significantly impact Montana’s economy.”

Patrick Barkey, director of the UM Bureau of Business and Economic Research, said expanding Montana’s existing coal mines and developing new mines would boost jobs, household income and tax revenues across the state.

Now, I realize that these studies are funded by profit from coal mining in the state and the authors are somewhat anxious to produce a product that fits with what their backers want to hear, but it seems to me that they also claim to be economists and academicians and I am always a bit mystified when they fail to investigate the true cost of mining, transporting and burning carbon in their analyses.

It was only earlier this week when thousands of protesters, including many from Montana, traveled to western Washington to protest the building of five new coal terminals on our coast to ship western coal to Asia. These protests were ostensibly about the economic, health and social costs of transporting millions of tons of coal across the country, but of course protesters also were there to remind everyone that there are costs to sending our resources overseas that can’t be counted in jobs, income and tax revenue. There are currently 16 to 23 trains passing through the city of Billings every day. The new coal terminals would increase that number considerably, possibly by eight to ten more trains. The coal trains will add “snarled traffic, emergency response delays, toxic diesel and coal dust emissions, the risks of coal train derailment and toxic spills” all along their route to the coast.

Once the coal arrives at it’s final destination, most likely China, it will be burned in out-of-date, highly-polluting power plants in order to produce cheap products that will be shipped back to the U.S. To get those cheap doodads Montanans will suffer increased incidence of asthma in children and adults, and increase in emphysema and bronchitis, stunted lung development is children, an increase in poisonous mercury in the air we breath, more lung cancer, more heart attacks, more emergency room visits, more strokes as well as an increase in mental retardation and stunted development in our children.

Need we get into the environmental effects? We are already familiar with those here in Button Valley. We now get more of our precipitation as rain, less snow in the winter and lower summer and fall streamflows which means that we see earlier and faster runoff and trouble filling our reservoirs. Our spring freshet now comes, on average, two weeks earlier, our forests are dying due to both insect infestation that is no longer controlled by cold winters and more and larger wildfires. The country at large is seeing more and  larger storms. We see increases in hunger, malnutrition, starvation and famine around the world due to droughts, storms and flooding.

So, like I say, I’m a bit baffled when trained economists see only benefits to strip-mining our coal and fail to even mention the real costs to the people of Montana. Our Coal-Cowboy Governor has said that if we don’t strip and sell Montana coal, China will get it elsewhere.

China will find coal even if the United States won’t deliver it, said Herb Krohn from the United Transportation Union. “All we would do is force (China) to buy dirtier, more-polluting coal,”

These arguments, to me, seem akin to stating that the State of Montana should be selling meth, because if we don’t do it, addicts will just buy it elsewhere. Yes, there are short-term benefits to mining Montana coal, but when you include the longer-term and hidden cost of the toxic assault on our population just burning our rocks for profit doesn’t look nearly so smart. Think about it folks, while we may reap a small profit, our children will pay the ultimate price.

You Decide

The following news/opinion stories all showed up in my RSS reader this morning. Taken together I think they recognize a conundrum being played out in energy-producing states around the country. The first is an opinion piece by a policy analyst for a conservative think tank in Ohio, but similar opinions are showing up in newsprint and electronic media in most western and mid-western states.

Without coal, we lose
“When energy companies doing business in Ohio make profits, nearly everyone wins, and Ohio’s economy grows, which results in job creation and additional tax dollars for all levels of government.”

With Carbon Dioxide Emissions at Record High, Worries on How to Slow Warming
“Emissions continue to grow so rapidly that an international goal of limiting the ultimate warming of the planet to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, established three years ago, is on the verge of becoming unattainable, said researchers affiliated with the Global Carbon Project.”

Long-Term Research Reveals How Climate Change Is Playing out in Real Ecosystems
“Around the world, the effects of global climate change are increasingly evident and difficult to ignore.”

Off The Cliff And Into Deep Water? Cutting Clean Air And Clean Water Programs Could Incur Heavy Costs
“The health cost of power plant pollution is an estimated $100 billion each year, nationwide, when people get sick or die from breathing dirty air. When polluted water makes swimmers sick, the additional public health costs in just two southern California counties has been estimated at $21 to $51 million each year.”

Wyoming – A look into the effects of energy development on fish
“Most anglers are pretty even-keeled and realize the need for alternative energy development. I think most would agree, however, that if that development comes at the cost of our fisheries it’s not worth it. There are ways to mitigate the impact of energy development on our rivers; and studies like Carlin’s are helping to show how best to preserve fisheries while allowing energy development.”

This is but one day in an on-going argument that is playing out across the country. What does this mean for the Treasure State? Yes, Montana will continue to develop our natural resources. Our economy was built on the resource extraction, but we all need to remember that these resources are finite need to be developed for the benefit of all of the people in Montana and all of the people in our country. The need for alternative, less polluting, energy development must be given equal weight alongside the development of existing natural resources. Mining coal, or drilling for natural gas has consequences that can far outweigh their short-term effects on local economies. As we move forward, we need to keep in mind that we have no choice but to wean ourselves from technologies that kill our people and our environment. We will continue to mine our coal resources and remove our oil and gas from the earth for the near future, but as we do that we need to take into account all of the consequences, not just the monetary rewards or the short-term profit motive.

Denny believes in fairy tales

Dennis Rehberg believes that, “Clean coal is a perfect example of how Montana can lead the way into energy independence.” The only problem is that “clean coal” doesn’t exist and never will. Coal is the dirtiest form of energy on the planet. In a recent peer-reviewed study by Duke University, the researchers found that we have done a fairly good job of regulating coal-fired power plants to keep their pollutants out of the air. The problem is, those pollutants don’t just go away. They end up in the solid or slurry coal ash, produced and stored by the plants. Communities near coal mines and coal-burning power plants see much higher levels of pollution-caused health problems.

“Among the problems identified in children and infants in these communities are impaired growth and neurological development, high blood levels of heavy metals, higher prevalences of any birth defects and a greater chance of being of low birth weight, which is a risk factor for future obesity, diabetes and heart disease,”

The worst example in Montana, and in the interior west, is the coal-fired plant at Colstrip, Montana. In 2011, the EPA ranked the Colstrip plant as the worst mercury polluter in the nation. In 2009, Colstrip emitted 1,490 pounds of toxic mercury into the atmosphere out of total emissions of 1,726 pounds statewide. A 2004 study estimated that the Colstrip steam-generating plant is annually responsible for;

• 31 early deaths.
• 48 added heart attacks.
• 530 asthma attacks.
• 22 hospital admissions.
• 19 cases of chronic bronchitis.

Coal ash is stored in antiquated slurry ponds at the plant which have been leaking toxins into the ground water around Colstrip for decades. 57 Colstrip residents filed suit against PPL due to a plume of toxic chemicals that polluted their drinking-water sources and made folks mysteriously sick for years. The suit resulted in a $25 million settlement in 2008. In another part of the suit that was recently in the news, a 2010 settlement is being challenged in the Montana Supreme Court for pollution of groundwater on two local ranches. Extraction wells have been installed around the leaking ponds and the groundwater is captured and the contaminated water is evaporated off to form a thick paste. The paste is then put back in the same leaky ponds, but is considered less likely to seep out.

So, while Congressman Rehberg continues to believe that we will be able to “Advance our technology so we are able to produce more with less in a manner that doesn’t negatively impact our environment.” He’s just wrong. That toxic waste won’t magically go away,

…the contaminants don’t just disappear. They remain, trapped but largely untreated, in concentrated solid form as coal ash or in liquid form as scrubber wastewater and ash-transport slurries. And they’re accumulating in the lakes and rivers into which the plants directly discharge these wastes.

It’s not helpful when our elected congressman votes

• to bar EPA from enforcing greenhouse gas regulations.
• to not enforce limits on CO2 emissions.
• against tax credits for renewable sources of energy.
• against tax incentives for energy conservation.
• against raising CAFE standards and incentives for alternate fuels.
• to open more of our public lands to drilling for oil.

Coal is not clean and cannot be made clean. Coal will continue to kill people around the globe and change our environment until we make a serious commitment to changing the way we make our energy. We will continue to use coal for many decades, but we must do so responsibly and in recognition of the hazards that burning carbon inflicts on everybody. Rehberg talks a good game, but magical thinking and “clean coal” won’t get us out of this mess.

 

Dennis Rehberg: The Greatest Hoax

In a rare glimpse into the truth behind Dennis Rehberg’s senate campaign, Denny shared a microphone with notorious climate-change denier Senator James Inhofe in Billings on Monday. Inhofe is touring the country to promote his pro-coal agenda and his book calling climate change “The Greatest Hoax”. In Montana, Inhofe is acting as “the high pope of denial anointing candidates with the black mark of coal dust.”

Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee famously,

repeated his frequent claim that human influenced climate change is impossible because “God’s still up there.” Inhofe cited Genesis 8:22 to claim that it is “outrageous” and arrogant for people to believe human beings are “able to change what He is doing in the climate.”

While Inhofe travels the country proclaiming the evangelic mantra of “clean coal” and the denial of science, his home state of “Oklahoma – recently suffered its hottest summer on record, with July 2011 “becoming the hottest month for any state on record,” and heat-related damages to the state’s agricultural economy coming in at roughly $2 billion.”

The denialist pair repeated the Rehberg mantra that the Corette power plant near Billings was forced to close due to oppressive EPA regulations. However, earlier this month, David Hoffman, PPL spokesman, said that

“the Corette plant has been off line “a substantial period of time” this year because of the oversupply of power in the Northwest markets, including power from wind energy, and a flat or lower demand for electricity.” “The price for electricity is also low because natural gas is so cheap, Hoffman said.”

With profits of more than $1.5 billion in 2011 for Corette plant owner PPL, upgrading the plant would not have been a problem.

With both our Presidential candidates totally ignoring the reality of global warming during the campaign, the door is opened for climate denialists like Rehberg and Inhofe to promote their fantastical views of how our environment works. The reality for coal-fired power plants has been the closure of more than 200 plants across the country due to the glut of natural gas and attendant low prices.

…drillers punched so many holes and extracted so much gas through hydraulic fracturing that they have driven the price of natural gas to near-record lows. And because of the intricate financial deals and leasing arrangements that many of them struck during the boom, they were unable to pull their foot off the accelerator fast enough to avoid a crash in the price of natural gas, which is down more than 60 percent since the summer of 2008.

Following his Montana back-slapping stop for Rehberg, Inhofe will be campaigning in Missouri next week for “legitimate rape” candidate and true coal believer, Todd Akin. Nuff said…

Montana suggests pipelines should be safe

Following the spill of more than 1,500 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River from the rupture of the Exxon-Mobile Silvertip pipeline, Governor Schweitzer created the Montana Oil Pipeline Safety Review Council. Of the more than 1,500 barrels spilled, Exxon-Mobile reported that they cleaned up about 10 barrels or significantly less than 1% at a cost of $135 million. They also paid a fine to Montana of $1.6 million, which included $300,000 in cash and a promise of $1.3 million to be spent on “future environmental projects”.  The charge to the Council from the Governor was to,

advise the Governor on the status of all existing oil pipelines running underneath Montana’s rivers and stream beds. The Council will review all documentation necessary to analyze and critique the safety of each pipeline and the standards required at the time of the installation of each pipeline. The Council will assess the risk of ruptures and leaks in all sections of pipeline that cross rivers and streams.

In it’s report to the Governor, the Council relied on work done by the Federal Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA). Unfortunately, as the Council noted in it’s report,

The problem is that PHMSA is a relatively small, certainly understaffed federal agency. PHMSA devoted a lot of resources to Montana following the break of the Silvertip Pipeline in the Yellowstone River in July 2011. It inspected about 100 river crossings of 100 feet or more and some of the nearby smaller crossings. It discovered several “at risk” areas, and is overseeing the companies’ efforts to correct the problem crossings. Still, PHMSA could only inspect the major river crossings in Montana, and smaller creek crossings that are narrow or have intermittent flows, were not addressed.

Click for bigger

As noted on this graphic, the agencies identified 7,842 stream crossings of pipelines 8-inches to 42-inches in diameter in the state. In all, the Council identified more than 9,000 pipeline stream crossings in Montana. They cited 88 crossings of 21 navigable waters in the state such as the Yellowstone River. In all, PHMSA inspected only “about 100 river crossings” of 100 feet in width or greater.

In their report to the Governor, the Council pretty much followed the recommendations of the Montana Petroleum Association.

RECOMMENDATION: Support adequate funding for PHMSA and the PSC for their work to oversee pipeline safety.

RECOMMENDATION: Support all reasonable efforts to require pipeline companies to have state of the art leak detection systems in place.

RECOMMENDATION: Support all reasonable efforts to require emergency plans that allow the fastest possible valve shut off for stopping the flow of pipeline contents in case of a rupture.

RECOMMENDATION: Support local government and PSC efforts to obtain and operate notification systems for citizens to be informed as soon as possible when ruptures occur.

The Montana Petroleum Association believes that the PHMSA is “well positioned to regulate the pipeline industry”, just as they did before and after the Yellowstone spill regardless of being “a relatively small, certainly understaffed federal agency”.  As for public notification in the case of a spill, which was one of the major complaints during the Yellowstone spill, “MPA would support such notification only when necessary to protect the public’s safety and through the existing emergency alert system”.

Exposed pipeline reported by college student in Lewis & Clark County

Recommendations include a lot of “support”, such as, “Support all reasonable efforts”, but not a lot of action. As to how this aligns with the charge of the Council to “prevent future failures that could damage Montana’s pristine rivers and streams”, I’m not sure when we  looked at only about 1% of existing river crossings, and found “several at risk areas” and now work began this week on the new Keystone XL pipeline which will add several more critical river crossings in Montana and carry a much more hazardous cargo of toxic tar sands oil. It appears to me that Montana will continue to rely on insubstantial spill response rather than on spill prevention.

Driven by the natural world

You’ve heard it before and you’re going to hear it ad nauseam throughout the election season. At the Republican governors candidate forum in Whitefish earlier this week, all the candidates ripped regulators and environmental groups for holding back economic growth by suppressing resource extraction. They all want more coal and gas development to jump start Montana’s economy. Rick Hill said he would be “dealing with the legal and regulatory barriers that are holding us back” when he is governor.

In the world of reality, of course, the answers are much different. A new report by Headwaters Economics of Bozeman outlines where and how growth has occurred in Montana in the past decade. And, it’s not in extractive industries. People come to Montana for the outdoor recreation and amenities, not to get a job in a coal mine.

In the real world, Montanan’s personal income grew by 29% between 2000 and 2010. Where did that growth happen? 95% of the growth was in service -related industries with the fastest growth seen in health care, real estate, government and professional services. Montana added 4,477 net new businesses between 2000 and 2009. Those new businesses were associated with outdoor recreation, not mining and drilling.

People create economic opportunities and people are drawn to beautiful natural settings and highly livable communities; making Montana’s quality environment one of the state’s key economic assets. Protecting and enhancing Montana’s environmental amenities is essential for sustained economic growth.”  Dr. Larry Swanson, The O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West

People aren’t coming to Montana for a quick Bakken buck and those that do won’t stay when the oil is gone. In ten years the oil will be sucked dry and we will be left with empty motels, leveled mountains and weed-strewn RV parks. Our mountains, valleys and endless prairie will be here to provide for us forever if we are good stewards. The Headwaters study pointed out that non-metropolitan counties with more than 30% of their lands under federal protection, increased jobs by 344% over the last decade. Those with no protected lands grew by a mere 80%.

Changing our environmental regulations to despoil more of Montana will not only ruin more of our lands, it will ruin what is best about the Montana economy. The Montana economy has outperformed the rest of the U.S. in almost every way. In the last decade, per capita income in Montana grew by 18% while the rest of the country limped along at 4%. That growth is due to the outdoor amenities we have protected, not to what we sucked and mined out of Montana. Our public lands and the infrastructure that protects those lands is much more vital to our growth than all the oil in North Dakota or coal in Wyoming and it is something we must preserve for both our personal and economic welfare and growth.

Pipeline? What Pipeline?

UPDATE 02/27: I don’t want to be the one to say I told ya so…

WASHINGTON — The White House is throwing its support behind a decision by TransCanada to build a portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, even though the project will result in more oil going overseas and potentially higher gas prices.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Remember that little pipeline that the President refused to permit last month? Guess who is building that very same pipeline on U.S. soil? It seems that somebody forgot to tell TransCanada that they need our permission.

But though the project exists in a state of suspended animation, TransCanada — the company that wants to connect the tar sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico — is preparing to build anyhow.

They continue to move ahead just as if there never was a decision. Their action shows the utter disregard of business for the majority opinion of the American people. We have a foreign corporation building an illegal pipeline on American soil, and even threatening U.S. property owners with legal action under U.S. eminent domain laws if we don’t comply with the company’s demands.

TransCanada has sought to dissolve a restraining order granted a week ago, saying it is legally entitled to pursue eminent domain proceedings along the proposed pipeline route under existing state and federal laws—though it says it has no plans to begin any construction.

No plans? Then just why is the Canadian oil giant bullying landowners and threatening U.S. citizens with confiscation of their private property? Of course what this really shows is the complete and utter disregard that corporations have for people. When Obama rejected the permit, it was big news everywhere. Since then, nobody cares. We are back to worrying about what Brangilina wore to the Oscars. Meanwhile, TransCanada has unleashed a hoard of lobbyists into the halls of Washington to convince lawmakers that the entire American economy will crash if we don’t build the XL pipeline and mine every last drop of horrible tar sands oil.

The really, really depressing point to all this is that their lobbying will work. We will allow the pipeline to be built. We will acquiesce to the destruction of millions of acres of boreal forest, polluting of millions of cubic feet of water, Exxon, TransCanada and Keystone profits will skyrocket, Wall Street will love it and  you and I and Zamboanga will breath the result for the next 100 years. Business has a longer attention span than you and I. They can, and are, very focused on what they need to do to increase profits and they are more than willing to spend the necessary money. They think long term, we only pay attention from day to day and they know it.

Sagebrush Doomsday

Our friends in Wyoming are taking a lot of well-deserved heat over HB85 introduced by State Representative David Miller, R-Riverton, in the Wyoming Legislature. The so-called “Doomsday Bill” bill passed the House on first reading by a voice vote.

AN ACT relating to governmental studies; providing for a task force to study governmental continuity in case of a disruption in federal government operations; providing for a report; providing appropriations; and providing for an effective date.

Now, I lived in Wyoming for eight years so I know they are crazy. Some would even say as crazy as Montana, but this bill is a bit over the top even for Wyoming. It sets up a task force to study what Wyoming should do in the event of the apocalypse. The legislation would appropriate $32,000 dollars to fund the task force to decide how Wyoming should react to the “Potential effects of a situation in which the federal government has no effective power or authority over the people of the United States;”Part of the feasibility study would involve,

Conditions under which the state of Wyoming should implement a draft, raise a standing army, marine corps, navy and air force and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

I know, I know, that sounded pretty crazy to me to, even for Wyoming, so I went directly to the bill on the Wyoming Legislature website. Yep, it’s in there, “acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier“. No mention of plans to increase the size of Boysen Reservoir. Thankfully, the crack team of mathematicians over at Under The Mountain Bunker has crunched the complicated numbers to find that Wyoming would have,

182,000 men between the ages of 18-65 for the draft and ‘standing army.’ And that would be to defend, WHAT, exactly? All the valuable sagebrush and asphalt and dirt? The endlessly blowing wind? The antelope? WITH AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER?

It’s certainly comforting to know that our neighbors to the south are doing all the heavy lifting in order to provide, at least those of us in southern Montana, a place of refuge from the almost certain, coming zombie apocalypse. Maybe they will even give us a ride on the aircraft carrier. It’s also nice to know that the Montana Legislature isn’t the only last, best place for crackpot conventions. I can’t wait to read the committee task force report.

Thanks to Michael Shay down at Hummingbirdminds for keeping us apprised of the fun stuff going on in this Wyoming legislative session.

Become The Jackass

“Ninety per cent of these jackasses that are complaining about the Keystone pipeline in Washington, D.C., one year ago wouldn’t have even known where the Keystone was. While we were doing the heavy lifting here in Montana and in South Dakota and in Kansas and Oklahoma … in Washington, D.C. … all these great defenders had never heard of Keystone before,”

Brian Schweitzer, Montana Governor – 02/23/2012

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The Truth:

Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.-At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing.-Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes. -The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. -The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.-Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.