Archive for the 'Energy' Category

Tackling climate change in a coal state

Published
by
andymead
on January 28, 2010
in Energy, Events, Gas and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

By Andy Mead
amead@herald-leader.com
FRANKFORT — In Kentucky, where global warming skeptics are given a warm welcome before coal-friendly legislative committees, a major effort to rein in climate change began Thursday.

The Kentucky Climate Action Plan Council, whose members were appointed last month, held its first meeting Thursday, with an eye toward having a series of policy recommendations by the end of the year.

Its task, as defined by state government: “Identify opportunities for Kentucky to respond to the challenge of global climate change while becoming more energy efficient, more energy independent, and spurring economic growth.”

The purpose of the group is not to debate climate science, said Len Peters, secretary of the state Energy and Environment Cabinet and chairman of the climate council.

“The whole issue…has entered into the realm of politics at this point,” he said. “Whether you are a nay-sayer or you think the science is right…we want to get beyond that. The nation, the world, is saying we need to more forward in this regard.”

Although burning coal is considered one of the major human-generated causes of climate change, the state’s coal industry apparently has little to fear from the council.

Coal is used to generate half the nation’s electricity, and more than 90 percent of Kentucky’s electricity.

Peters said as the state looks forward to the next 10 or 15 years, an important consideration will be remaining competitive with other states on the cost of electricity.

The council will look at things such as clean coal technology, burning renewable fuel along with coal, and capturing and burying the carbon dioxide from coal, he said, “keeping those rates low and at the same time reducing carbon.”

Peters said the council’s work will mesh well with the work of a task force that recommended more use of renewable energy sources, and Gov. Steve Beshear’s November 2008 energy plan that set a goal of significantly reducing greenhouse gases while increasing jobs.

Reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions won’t be easy.

From 1990 to 2005, Kentucky’s emissions increased at double the national rate, according to a draft report prepared for the council. Kentucky emissions rose 33 percent over the period; nationwide emissions rose 16 percent.

The report was prepared by the Center for Climate Strategies, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group formed in 2004 to help governments with climate change issues.

Tom Peterson, CCS’s president and CEO, said that at least other states have prepared climate change plans like the one Kentucky is beginning.

The state is paying CCS $200,000 to work with the climate council. Another $97,500 is coming from the Blue Moon Foundation and the Turner Foundation.

On Thursday, the council heard a long list of things that other states are doing to curb greenhouse gases. They ranged from demand-side management, where a homeowner can see how much electricity he is using and turn off unnecessary appliances, to dealing with the methane emitted by cows.

Deciding which of those policies to recommend for Kentucky will be the responsibility of the 31-member council and technical committees that will include members of the council and others with scientific or other expertise.

The council includes Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry (who sent a representative in his place Thursday) and state and federal officials. It also includes people from the coal, aluminum, lumber and automobile industries, and only two or three people who could be identified as environmentalists.

That didn’t escape Tona Barkley, a member of the Frankfort Climate Action Network, who sat through the 5 1/2 hour meeting to speak during a public comment period at the end.

She said the council was a great idea, but added that she would like to see more environmentalists on it. Peters, the chairman, suggested that more people could be added to the technical committees.

The only other member of the public to speak was Connie Lemley, a farmer, who also talked about what the council was missing: People who could speak for inhabitants of island nations that could be submerged by rising sea levels, African farmers hit by droughts caused by a changing climate, polar bears, and birds that migrate hundreds or thousands of miles only to find out that the insects they always depended on are not around.

“I guess one of my real concerns about meetings like this is that the solutions that seem feasible are not really what we need to do,” she said.

To learn more about the Kentucky Climate Action Plan Council, go to www.kyclimatechange.us.

Reach Andy Mead at (859) 231-3319 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3319.

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The University of Kentucky anti-coal sign mystery (con’t)

Published
by
andymead
on January 26, 2010
in Coal mining, Energy, Mining and Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

Mysteriously posted on campus 1/25/10

Mysteriously posted on campus 1/25/10


Even when it’s cold and snowy out, there still are some people on the University of Kentucky campus thinking about how the school gets its energy. This sign allegedly went up sometime Tuesday. I received the following press release from “midnightactivist.”:

LEXINGTON, Ky: Tuesday, an anonymous group of students from the University of Kentucky hung a banner from a parking structure near Rose Street to protest the university’s use of coal power on campus. The banner, reading “COAL: A Tradition of Oppression. STUDENTS: Let’s Change Our Legacy”, included a reproduction of the familiar UK symbol, with a burning smokestack between the letters instead of the usual Memorial Hall steeple.

Deemed the “midnight strike force” by local news sources, the students are fueling a campaign to move the university beyond the “outdated” technology of coal power and in the direction of cleaner energies. One of the students, an economics and environmental studies senior, said, “You can’t argue facts. Coal is a finite resource and the shift to alternative energies has to begin immediately. Kentucky must realize its potential to be progressive and enterprising in the country’s transition toward environmental awareness.”

The students’ use of the word “oppression” alludes to the detrimental effects of coal not only on the environment, but on the miners and communities in coal-mining regions of the state. An estimated 12,000 coal miners have died from black lung in the past decade, and their families are equally affected. The real tragedy, though, lies in mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining, a practice that more and more coal companies are using to extract coal at a lower cost. MTR employs explosives to decapitate mountains, and the leftover waste is deposited in surrounding valleys. The chemicals and residue bury and contaminate freshwater streams, thus poisoning the water supply for surrounding communities and devastating local ecosystems.

While the university, directly, does not deal in MTR coal, Kentucky Utilities provides a significant portion of the campus’s power, and is a known distributor of energy derived from the controversial method.

“The University of Kentucky is the flagship university of the state, and as such, sets the example for the rest of Kentucky. Any change we can make toward cleaner energy and the diversification of jobs and economies will affect the entire Appalachian region drastically, and for the better. This change is one that can’t wait,” said an Appalachian Studies junior.

It seems momentum has not died from the announcement last semester that the new Wildcat Coal Lodge would be endorsed by the coal industry. Tuesday’s banner was one of a series that has hung on campus since October, indicating that the students have not forgotten President Todd’s decision, and that they still worry for the future of their school’s energy and integrity.

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After review of mountaintop mining, scientists urge ending it

Published
by
andymead
on January 8, 2010
in Coal mining, Energy, Kentucky's natural resources, Mining and Water
. 3 Comments

Here is Renee Schoof’s Lexington Herald-Leader article about the Science piece coming out today on mountaintop removal. Also check out the entertaining comments at the end of Renee’s article.

By RENEE SCHOOF - McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Scientific evidence that mountaintop-removal coal mining destroys streams and threatens human health is so strong the government should stop granting new permits for it, a group of 12 environmental scientists report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
The consequences of this mining in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwestern Virginia are “pervasive and irreversible,” the article finds. Companies are required by law to take steps to reduce the damages, but their efforts don’t compensate for lost streams nor do they prevent lasting water pollution, it says.
The article is a summary of recent scientific studies of the consequences of blasting the tops off mountains to obtain coal and dumping the excess rock into streams in valleys. The authors also studied new water-quality data from West Virginia streams and found that mining polluted them, reducing their biological health and diversity.

To continue: http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/1086591.html

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Environmental groups oppose air permit for coal-fired plant

Published
by
andymead
on January 4, 2010
in Coal mining, Energy, Environmental illnesses, Mining and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

For months, environmental groups have been questioning the need for a new coal-fired electricity generating plant in Clark County. On Monday, the state issued a draft permit for East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s Smith 1 plant, and the environmentalists jumped on it. Their press release is below.
Environmentalists got a little traction in this fight last month when the Kentucky Public Service Commission agreed to take a look at whether the plant is necessary.

For immediate release: Monday, January 4, 2010
Pollution permit for coal-fired plant threatens air, public health
Officials should consider clean energy as an affordable, reliable solution

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The state’s release of a draft air pollution permit for a proposed coal-burning power plant in Kentucky poses serious threats to air quality, drinking water supplies and public health, said a coalition of rural electric cooperative ratepayers and environmental and health groups.

The good news, the groups said, is that there still is an opportunity to invest in cleaner solutions to the proposed 278-megawatt Smith plant before the Kentucky Division of Air Quality makes the permit final and allows East Kentucky Power Cooperative to proceed with the $766 million project.

“Medical research shows clearly that air pollution from coal-fired electrical generation plants like Smith causes human diseases and death,” said Philip Curd, MD, a Jackson County physician and member of the Jackson Energy Co-op. “We could prevent a lot of disease and death by building less coal-fired plants and putting more resources into renewable energy and energy conservation.”

Instead of allowing EKPC to saddle its customers with nearly $1 billion in debt to build a plant that’s not even needed, Curd and others in the coalition said state officials have a duty to protect the health of Kentuckians and their air and water by denying the final permit in light of cleaner electricity options.

“I need my co-op to provide electricity to my family and my community, but I want them to do it in a way that won’t make children’s health worse,” said Janet Futrell, teacher and Bluegrass Energy member. “We’ve already got poor air quality from power plant pollution, and the coal burned at the Smith plant will only make matters worse.”

Coal plant emissions include fine particulate matter – or soot – which is linked to respiratory problems like asthma and pulmonary disease, as well as heart problems, and is unsafe at any level. Coal plants also are a major source of mercury, a highly toxic metal that can result in developmental disorders and chronic disease and is especially harmful to children. The Smith plant’s mercury emissions would settle out and accumulate in rivers, lakes and streams in Kentucky and into the food chain through fish.

Other pollutants that will come out of the Smith plant’s smokestacks include sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which lead to asthma-causing smog formation; and carbon dioxide, which the EPA announced last month is a danger to human health because of its climate change impacts.

Coal prices have risen steadily in the past several years, and EKPC members have been subjected to frequent rate increases. In November the Licking Valley Co-op got permission from the Public Service Commission to raise its per kilowatt hour rate to nearly 10 cents. Carbon control legislation, necessary for curbing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, would raise the costs of dirty energy even higher.

“There are also huge public health costs associated with burning coal,” said Vicki Holmberg, a Lexington physician. Holmberg pointed to an October 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences estimating that pollution from coal-burning power plants costs the nation roughly $62 billion every year in health care costs. “Kentucky should be moving toward energy solutions that will avoid the health and economic problems that are resulting in the cancellation of permits for new coal plants all over the country.” Nationwide, in 2009, 26 proposals for coal plants were abandoned or rejected, mainly because the plants were too expensive.

By contrast, expert analyses conducted in Kentucky over the last several years have documented the financial, economic and environmental benefits of energy solutions such as weatherization, solar hot water, hydro and wind power. These reports consistently found that such programs help utility members save energy and money.

“Weatherization projects don’t require air permits, and renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydro don’t release air pollution that can kill people like coal soot does,” said Miranda Brown of Winchester, who is concerned with the impacts of the Smith plant on her community. “Efficiency and renewable energy programs are just as affordable and reliable as coal. They can help ratepayers save money, and they create more jobs than a single coal-burning plant. I urge Kentucky regulators to look closely at the facts and choose clean energy solutions instead of the Smith plant.”

The Kentucky DAQ has scheduled a public hearing for the permit on February 4th at 6:30 PM at the Clark County Cooperative Extension Office, to which all members of the public can attend to give oral comments. Written comments can be submitted to the Kentucky DAQ within 30 days by email at James.Morse@ky.gov with a copy to the US EPA at Worley.Gregg@epamail.epa.gov.

###

Background information on the Smith power plant and the energy efficiency/renewable energy options can be found at http://www.kftc.org/stop-smith, http://www.kyenvironmentalfoundation.org, and http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/ky/.

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A lighter carbon footprint in Frankfort

Published
by
andymead
on December 14, 2009
in Energy and Saving money
. 0 Comments

Frankfort: Thirty-two households that pledged to reduce their carbon footprint this fall already have taken steps to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 318,000 pounds a year, according to the group Lighten Up, Frankfort!

With other reductions in the works, an additional 210,000 pounds could be kept out of the environment, said Tona Barkley, the group’s coordinator. Participants did things such as installing low-flow shower heads, increasing recycling, switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs or planting trees.

Sixty-one households joined the effort, but only 32 had reported when the numbers were totaled at a celebration Saturday night. The effort is expected to expand in the coming year, Barkley said.

For more information, go to www.frankfortclimateaction.net.

– Andy Mead

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Lexington business group finds increased closeness with coal industry

Published
by
andymead
on November 30, 2009
in Coal mining and Energy
. 0 Comments

By Andy Mead
and Dori Hjalmarson

Commerce Lexington has changed its official policy statement to be much more pro-coal after a two-day trip to Eastern Kentucky.

“Basically the chamber was better informed of the impact coal was having on Kentucky’s economy,” said Chad Harpole, the business group’s vice president for public policy.

In its 2009 policy, the group acknowledged that coal has meant low energy rates in Kentucky, but noted that federal action was likely to place further restrictions on emissions. That policy called on policy makers to help utilities “and mitigate price volatility for our families and businesses.” The coal industry wasn’t mentioned.

The statement for 2010 calls pending energy legislation “the most immediate threat to Kentucky’s business climate,” and says for the first time that the group supports efforts to “protect the viability of Kentucky’s coal industry.”

The coal industry and some people in the coalfields have been increasingly vocal in fighting back against regulation and what they see as bias by the news media and a lack of appreciation from the rest of the state. There have even been calls for boycotting Lexington businesses.

Harpole said that Commerce Lexington’s policy change was a direct result of an October trip to the coalfields.

Commerce Lexington organized a trip that took 65 Central Kentucky business leaders to Irvine, Whitesburg, Pikeville and other spots in the eastern coal fields.

Along the way, they were told about the good salaries coal miners make, and about coal industry-related work that goes on in offices in Central Kentucky, presentations that Harpole said “showed how the two economies are linked together.”

Among the business group’s concerns, he said, is that voluntary steps taken by utilities, the Kentucky automobile industry and others wouldn’t be taken into account in the cap and trade energy bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last summer.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, voted for that bill. But that doesn’t put Commerce Lexington at odds with Chandler, Harpole said.

“We work with the congressman every day,” he said. “The things we are for, including coal to gas liquifacation and increased funding for research at the University of Kentucky, the congressman is very supportive of.”

Lane Boldman, a Lexington resident who is on the Sierra Club’s National Board of Directors, called the Commerce Lexington policy change “disappointing.”

“It just seems to be an inordinate interest in the coal industry specifically,” she said.

While the Commerce Lexington policy says that low rates from coal-produced electricity have helped Kentucky attract energy-intensive industries such as steel, aluminum and automobiles, Boldman pointed out that Kentucky still ranks 44th among the states in per capita income.

“As an argument for economic development it’s very curious, because the numbers clearly don’t support that,” she said.

While others are seeking to diversify the state, she said, Commerce Lexington appears to be taking a step backward.

When a reporter read the new policy to an Eastern Kentucky radio announcer who called for a Lexington boycott, WTUK-Harlan’s Randy Walters, said, “We welcome that kind of voice from them. The thing is what we want is their legislators, their senators, Congressmen, we want those people saying this.

“We want the people of Lexington ultimately to do that. We want to see this on their media. We want the whole state to get in line with coal like West Virginia did.”

Dave Moss, vice president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said his organization supports the additions to the energy policy, which he said was spawned by the October trip.

“They wanted to go one step further and solidify their support,” Moss said.

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Bluegrass PRIDE gets nearly $1 million

Published
by
andymead
on November 13, 2009
in Energy, Water and invasive species
. 1 Comment

IRVINE — Nearly $1 million in federal funds for environmental programs were announced Friday by U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles.
The money goes to Bluegrass PRIDE (Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment), which will use it for a grants program, environmental education in schools and communities, and in developing a plan to shape Central Kentucky’s environmental future.
The funding was announced at the Green Earth Bio-Fuel of Kentucky site in Estill County.
Clark, Estill, Garrard, Lincoln, Madison, Montgomery, Powell and Nicholas counties are eligible for the programs.
Some of the money will be used to survey air and water quality, waste management resources, green space, storm water issues, and environmental awareness in the Appalachian Regional Commission counties that PRIDE serves
About one-third of the money will be used for community and education grants, and funding for educator workshops. These grants will likely create and save Kentucky jobs, officials said. PRIDE will also develop and manage a water education program in schools and communities.

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Ashley Judd, Walter Tunis, Coal Country and you

Published
by
andymead
on November 11, 2009
in Coal mining, Energy, Events, Mining and Water
. 0 Comments

If you missed the documentary Coal Country at the Kentucky Theatre in Lexington, you can catch it on TV at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Green Planet network (Channel 221 on Insight cable in Lexington).

Also check out Walter Tunis’ review of the Coal Country Music CD in Friday’s Herald-Leader Weekender section.

Across the country this week, people will be gathering for a shortened version of the Coal Country film, followed by a discussion and a message from Ashley Judd, who has called for an end to mountaintop removal mining from the steps of Kentucky’s Capitol. There also will be a message from a former West Virginia miner who is featured in the documentary.

The Sierra Club says that more than 850 watching parties are planned.

Coming soon from Sierra Club Books: the companion volume Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal. The book features notes from the film’s personalities as well as writing from Wendell Berry, Silas House, Denise Giardina, Ashley Judd, Loretta Lynn, and Kathy Mattea.

For more information visit www.sierraclub.org/coalcountry

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Eat, learn about Kentucky’s energy future

Published
by
andymead
on November 9, 2009
in Coal mining, Drilling, Energy, Events, Gas, Kentucky's natural resources and Mining
. 0 Comments

The League of Women Voters of Lexington will host its second Dinner and Democracy on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at Faith Lutheran Church, 1000 Tates Creek Road, Lexington, Kentucky.

Dinner will be served at 6:00 p.m. with a program to follow. The cost is $10 ($5 cost/$5 donation).

The program, Planning for Kentucky’s Energy Future, will feature Cheryl Bruner, Director of Customer Energy Efficiency of E-ON US; Geoffrey Young, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club, and Cheryl Taylor, Environmental Quality Commissioner in Lexington.

The public is invited and encouraged to attend. Reservations are needed and can be made by calling 859-494-3203.

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What’s blue, and now red, and smells like french fries?

Published
by
andymead
on November 3, 2009
in Energy, Gas, Saving money and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

At the University of Kentucky, cooking oil from the dining rooms is sold to a refiner for conversion to bio-diesel fuel. Some is repurchased for campus vehicles.
Now, the University of Louisville is doing its own refining.
Here’s the press release:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Used cooking oil from campus restaurants at the University of Louisville is helping to fuel a campus shuttle bus in a research-based recycling pilot program.

Eric Berson, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and students at Speed School of Engineering are converting spent oil from Sodexo Inc., UofL’s campus food-service provider, into biodiesel fuel that can be blended to power a UofL-owned bus shuttling Belknap Campus students.

Initial tests have been successful in the effort to turn a waste material into a useful product and to demonstrate campus sustainability, Berson said. The project also is an example of research at UofL’s Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship.

The first shuttle runs have been on a blend of about 5 percent biodiesel, although the mixture may be adjusted up to 10 percent to 20 percent later.

Oil drained from food fryers is filtered and loaded into a laboratory processing tank for three days of chemical cleaning, processing and settling between steps. The process involves stringent testing under ASTM (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials) standards, and the effort to cleanse the final product of impurities involves a dry-wash system that eliminates waste water used in some other processes. Recently purchased equipment allows the group to run the experiments on a bigger scale – about 50 gallons at a time.

Preliminary work to run test batches on a small scale began last year with chemical engineering undergraduate Kelly Nicholson of Louisville, now a master’s student. Sean Miller of Eastview, a junior chemical engineering student, now oversees the process as part of his engineering co-op – one of three alternating semesters that Speed requires to complete a master’s degree. Amlan Chakraborty of India, a chemical engineering doctoral student, also works on the project.

Future research on the project will include converting waste glycerin to methane for electricity generation and exploring solid-based, reusable catalysts, Berson said.

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