Judge orders Washington state and regional air agencies to regulate climate change pollution from Big Oil

Posted by Elisabeth Keating on December 2, 2011 - 2:58pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : December 2, 2011

Challenge to reduce dangerous greenhouse gas emissions from WA oil refineries advances

Seattle, WA —A federal judge today ruled that the Washington Department of Ecology, Northwest Clean Air Agency, and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency have unlawfully failed to regulate climate change pollution from the five oil refineries operating in Washington State. Washington Environmental Council and Sierra Club initiated the lawsuit in March of this year. The lawsuit claimed that state agencies have the duty to regulate climate change pollution from oil refineries because this pollution fits within the definition of “air contaminants” in Washington’s State Implementation Plan, which was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and is enforceable under the federal Clean Air Act.

All five oil refineries in Washington are owned by big oil companies—BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, Tesoro and U.S. Oil. Collectively, these oil refineries are responsible for six to eight percent of total state-wide greenhouse gas emissions, primarily in the form of nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide. The oil refineries were represented in the lawsuit by the Western States Petroleum Association, which intervened in the litigation.

The conservation groups praised the decision by U.S. District Chief Judge Marsha J. Pechman, who ordered the state agencies to begin the regulatory process to begin controlling climate change pollution from the refineries. “We are heartened by this major step to address the serious air pollution and climate challenges our state faces now and in the near future. Oil refineries are the second-largest stationary source of dangerous climate change pollutants, and it is critical that they do everything they can to preserve the health and well-being of Washington communities.” said Becky Kelley of Washington Environmental Council. “We view this decision as a win for both the environment and the economy,” said Aaron Robins of the Sierra Club. “There are numerous options for reducing climate change pollution from oil refineries that can help protect our environment while making refining operations more efficient and creating new jobs.”

The lawsuit claimed that the state agencies had violated their obligation under Washington’s State Implementation Plan to determine and impose “reasonably available control technologies” on refineries to control climate change pollution. The Court agreed, holding that “Washington’s [State Implementation Plan] requires the Agencies to regulate GHGs.” “The Court affirmed that Washington has the authority and the obligation to address impacts from climate change pollution,” said Janette Brimmer, an attorney with Earthjustice. “Our state can no longer afford to have our regulators sit on their hands and wait for the federal government deal with the issue—it is time for our state regulators to follow the law and implement long-overdue measures to protect our climate ."

Earthjustice and the law firm of Ziontz, Chestnut, Varnell, Berley & Slonim represented the Sierra Club and Washington Environmental Council in the lawsuit. The decision from Judge Pechman is available at: http://wecprotects.org/issues-campaigns/climate-change/judges-order-in-oil-refineries-litigation/at_download/file

Contact:

Janette Brimmer, Earthjustice, (206) 343-7340 ext. 1029

Joshua Osborne-Klein, Ziontz, Chestnut, Varnell, Berley & Slonim, (206) 448-1230

Aaron Robins, Sierra Club Washington State Chapter, (425) 442-6726 Becky Kelley, Washington Environmental Council, (206) 631-2602

Judge Orders State and Regional Air Agencies to Regulate Climate Change Pollution From Big Oil

Technorati Tags: global warming,climate change,oil production,carbon reduction,pollution,carbon dioxide

Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers

Container ships are taking longer to cross the oceans than the Cutty Sark did as owners adopt 'super-slow steaming' to cut back on fuel consumption

By John Vidal, The Observer
Sunday 25 July 2010

A combination of the recession and growing awareness in the shipping industry about climate change emissions encouraged many ship owners to adopt "slow steaming" to save fuel two years ago. This lowered speeds from the standard 25 knots to 20 knots, but many major companies have now taken this a stage further by adopting "super-slow steaming" at speeds of 12 knots (about 14mph).

Travel times between the US and China, or between Australia and Europe, are now comparable to those of the great age of sail in the 19th century. American clippers reached 14 to 17 knots in the 1850s, with the fastest recording speeds of 22 knots or more.

Maersk, the world's largest shipping line, with more than 600 ships, has adapted its giant marine diesel engines to travel at super-slow speeds without suffering damage. This reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. It is believed that the company has saved more than £65m on fuel since it began its go-slow.

Ship engines are traditionally profligate and polluting. Designed to run at high speeds, they burn the cheapest "bunker" oil and are not subject to the same air quality rules as cars. In the boom before 2007, the Emma Maersk, one of the world's largest container ships, would burn around 300 tonnes of fuel a day, emitting as much as 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ a day – roughly as much as the 30 lowest emitting countries in the world.

Maersk spokesman Bo Cerup-Simonsen said: "The cost benefits are clear. When speed is reduced by 20%, fuel consumption is reduced by 40% per nautical mile. Slow steaming is here to stay. Its introduction has been the most important factor in reducing our CO₂ emissions in recent years, and we have not yet realised the full potential. Our goal is to reducing CO₂ emissions by 25%." …

Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers

Technorati Tags: pollution,carbon dioxide,energy efficiency,carbon reduction

5 arrested in Boulder anti-coal protest

By Annette Espinoza
The Denver Post

Posted: 04/27/2010 04:07:09 PM MDT
Updated: 04/27/2010 04:55:46 PM MDT

Five people were arrested today by Boulder Police officers and Boulder County sheriff's deputies during a protest at the Valmont Industries Inc. coal plant at 1800 63rd St.

The five joined about 20 protestors from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center who gathered around 12:55 p.m. to protest against use of coal at the plant by Xcel Energy. Officials said they did not know whether the five were associated with the Peace and Justice Center.

The environmental activists climbed atop a large coal pile in front of the plant, put up two mock wind turbines and a large banner that read: "RENEWABLES NOW."

The protestors stood atop the coal pile for nearly two hours before authorities arrived, organizers said in a press release.

"Boulder is ready to move forward with 100 percent renewable electricity. If Xcel is not willing to partner with the city to make this happen, then Boulder officials and citizens need to take our energy future into our own hands," said protestor Tom Weis. …

5 arrested in Boulder anti-coal protest

Technorati Tags: coal,pollution,global warming,climate change,activism

Microbial answer to plastic pollution in the oceans?

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according to Jesse Harrison presenting his research at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh.

The researchers from the University of Sheffield and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science have shown that the combination of marine microbes that can grow on plastic waste varies significantly from microbial groups that colonise surfaces in the wider environment. This raises the possibility that the plastic-associated marine microbes have different activities that could contribute to the breakdown of these plastics or the toxic chemicals associated with them.

Plastic waste is a long-term problem as its breakdown in the environment may require thousands of years. "Plastics form a daily part of our lives and are treated as disposable by consumers. As such plastics comprise the most abundant and rapidly growing component of man-made litter entering the oceans," explained Jesse Harrison.

Over time the size of plastic fragments in the oceans decreases as a result of exposure to natural forces. Tiny fragments of 5 mm or less are called "microplastics" and are particularly dangerous as they can absorb toxic chemicals which are transported to marine animals when ingested. …

Microbial Answer to Plastic Pollution?

Technorati Tags: pollution,plastic,biotechnology

I want Avatar Oscar speech to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against Chevron

By Rebecca Tarbotton

Once upon a time there was a movie.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world saw this movie. They were transported to the beautiful jungles of Pandora and introduced to the blue Na'vis and the evil RDA corporation.

Avatar (or unil-tìran-tokx in Na'vi) has been nominated for 9 Oscars. James Cameron, its infamous creator, has explicitly said he wants the highest grossing film in history to inspire mass environmental activism.

Fast forward to March 7. You're watching the Oscars and Avatar wins.

What if in his acceptance speech James Cameron mentioned the real-life Indigenous Ecuadorean heroes who are battling the real-life Chevron bad guys?

Retweet and help make it happen! I want Avatar director James Cameron to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against #Chevron at #Oscars:http://bit.ly/aOwuNI #realavatar

If James Cameron called out Chevron in his Oscars speech a world transfixed by this film phenomenon could take off the 3D glasses and step into a reality where they can make a difference.

The story of Chevron in Ecuador is no less dramatic, tragic, or inspiring than the fantasy world of Pandora. …

I want Avatar Oscar speech to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against Chevron

Technorati Tags: oil production,oil spill,rainforest,pollution,deforestation,Amazon

Russian police raid environmental group working to protect Lake Baikal

 

By Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
February 01, 2010

Russian police have raided the Baikal Environmental Wave organization reports the Moscow Times. Police seized several computers, citing the reason for the raid to uncover the use of unlicensed software.

A member of the group, however, linked the raid to its public stance against reopening the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mills on Lake Baikal, which closed due to pollution concerns two years ago.

"All of our programs are licensed. They confiscated the computers without checking the license documents, saying they didn't have experts to look at them," Galina Kulebyakina, a member of Baikal Environmental Wave, told The Moscow Times.  …

Russian police raid environmental group working to protect Lake Baikal

Technorati Tags: activism,pollution

For eighth day, climate activists block bulldozers at West Virginia’s Coal River Mountain

From Climate Progress:

This is a TP repost by Brad Johnson.

Yesterday in Washington, DC, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) exhorted citizens to “get angry about the fact that they’re being killed and our planet is being injured by what’s happening on a daily basis by the way we provide our power and our fuel.” In West Virginia, climate activists are not just getting angry, they’re taking action — blocking the demolition of Coal River Mountain by coal company Massey Energy. The activists, members of the aptly named organization Climate Ground Zero, have been living in trees for over a week to prevent bulldozers from reaching the summit:

High up in the trees near the summit of Coal River Mountain, two activists dangle in the air near a mountaintop removal mine site. Eric Blevins and Amber Nitchman are still preventing the expansion of mining on the summit of Coal River Mountain, a mountain that has the best wind energy (and therefore economic) potential in the area.

Employees of coal baron Don Blankenship, the “scariest polluter in the United States,” have been blasting the tree-sit activists with air horns and flood lights. Following hundreds of phone calls from supporters of the non-violent civil disobedience action, Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV) met today with Climate Ground Zero representatives and “asked the activists to scale down their campaign.” …

For eighth day, climate activists block bulldozers at WV’s Coal River Mountain.

Technorati Tags: global warming,climate change,coal,pollution,activism,carbon dioxide,habitat loss,deforestation

Bottled water sales dry up; industry asks ‘why?’

Consumer backlash begins to bite, but recession also likely to blame

By Jennifer Alsever
msnbc.com contributor
updated 9:08 a.m. PT, Fri., Dec . 18, 2009

Heather Lewis was wracked with guilt when she realized she was addicted to the bottle.

Bottled water, that is.

At her worst, she said she went through five plastic bottles of water a day nearly every day for two years.

“It was appalling,” said Lewis, an architect from Louisville, Colo. “I felt like Aquafina’s trained monkey.”

But one day in January, as she gazed at the piles of plastic in her recycling bin, she decided to quit. “It was a cumulative sense of responsibility that made me do it,” Lewis said

Lewis is part of a bigger backlash against bottled water happening across the nation, and after decades of growth, the $11 billion industry is stuttering.

After steady expansion that saw U.S. per capita consumption grow from less than two gallons a year to a peak of 29 in 2007, bottled water sales slipped 3.2 percent in 2008 and are projected to dip another 2 percent this year, according to estimates by the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a New York research and consulting firm.

The primary cause of the decline is hotly contested. …

Bottled water sales dry up; industry asks ‘why?’

Technorati Tags: pollution,plastic,recycling

Feds impose new limits on pesticides to protect salmon

WASHINGTON, DC, September 11, 2009 (ENS) - For the first time in 20 years, two federal government agencies that are required by law to consult together on how pesticides affect endangered species have completed a consultation on salmon exposure to pesticides.

As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to place additional limitations on the use of three organophosphate pesticides — chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion — to protect endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

The limitations will apply to surface waters encompassing each of 28 salmon and steelhead species in the four states.

Changes to product labels will include the addition of pesticide buffer zones; application limitations based on wind speed, soil moisture and weather conditions; and fish mortality incident reporting requirements.

New, enforceable labels could be available as early as the 2010 spring growing season.

"These limitations, developed as a result of the Endangered Species Act formal consultation process, will protect Pacific salmon and steelhead while providing for appropriate pesticide use," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

"These new limits are especially significant because they mark the first time that EPA and National Marine Fisheries Service have completed the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act in more than 20 years. This is a major step forward for both EPA and NMFS in meeting the requirements of the law. This process has been broken for too long." …

Feds Impose New Limits on Pesticides to Protect Salmon

Technorati Tags: pollution,fish decline,endangered

Plastics patch found across 1,700 miles of Pacific

 

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ocean scientists recently back from a voyage to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" said on Thursday they had found plastic debris strewn across a 1,700-mile (2,700-km) long stretch of open sea.

The research team from the three-week Seaplex expedition said more work remains to be done to determine the full extent of the trash vortex, how it affects marine life and how it might safely be removed from the ocean.

Cleanup will be difficult because the "vast majority of things we saw were small, about the size of your thumbnail or smaller," Miriam Goldstein, the expedition's chief scientist, told reporters at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

"We found a lot of particles that were about the size of the animals that are living out there, so that would certainly present a challenge to removing those particles," she said.

The 172-foot (52-meter) research vessel New Horizon returned to shore last Friday from a trip to the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, a giant eddy-like expanse of sea about midway between Japan and the West Coast of the United States.

Debris winds up concentrated there by circular, clockwise ocean currents that form an oblong-shaped "convergence zone."

"Our human footprint is now apparent in even one of the most remote places on the planet," said Doug Woodring, director of Project Kaisei, which co-sponsored the Seaplex study. …

Plastics patch found across 1,700 miles of Pacific

Technorati Tags: pollution,ocean

Spokane Co. high-phosphate detergent ban working

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A year after Spokane County became the only place in the country to ban phosphate-laden dishwashing detergents, new data shows the effort appears to be working.

Water coming into Spokane's sewage plant during the first 12 months of the ban had nearly 11 percent less phosphorus than the annual average the previous three years, the Spokesman-Review reported.

Mike Coster, the plant's operations superintendent, says the new law won't have much of an effect on water flowing from the plant into the river since treatment removes much of the phosphorous.

But it will have a bigger impact on homes on septic or drain field systems, where water and phosphorous filter back into groundwater, he said.

"Any phosphorus reduction you can see there is going to have benefit to the river," Coster said. "It's not the total answer, but it's one step."

Spokane County, along with Whatcom County, prohibits the sale of dishwasher detergents with more than 0.5 percent phosphorous. That ban will extend to the rest of the state next July. …

Spokane Co. high-phosphate detergent ban working

Technorati Tags: pollution,algae

Wild salmon return to the River Seine for the first time in almost a century

Wild salmon are returning to the River Seine for the first time in almost a century, French scientists say.

Historically, Salmo salar - or Atlantic salmon - used to migrate up the Seine river for part of the year to spawn.

But increased pollution of the water and the building of dams after World War I saw their number dwindle.

By 1995, the salmon were gone, and only four species of fish braved the Seine's dirty waters, which washed up hundreds of tonnes of dead fish a year.

But a major clean-up project in the past 15 years - including the building of a water purification plant - has turned the tide for the river's marine life.

Now the Atlantic salmon - listed as an endangered species throughout Europe - is back, as attested by anglers who have netted sizeable specimens from the river in recent months. …

Cleaner Seine hosts salmon again

Technorati Tags: endangered,environmental restoration,pollution

Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

 

A process that cleans wastewater and generates electricity can also remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater, according to an international team of researchers from China and the U.S.

Clean water for drinking, washing and industrial uses is a scarce resource in some parts of the world. Its availability in the future will be even more problematic. Many locations already desalinate water using either a reverse osmosis process -- one that pushes water under high pressure through membranes that allow water to pass but not salt -- or an electrodialysis process that uses electricity to draw salt ions out of water through a membrane. Both methods require large amounts of energy.

"Water desalination can be accomplished without electrical energy input or high water pressure by using a source of organic matter as the fuel to desalinate water," the researchers report in a recent online issue of Environmental Science and Technology. …

Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

Technorati Tags: pollution,alternative energy

Scientists to unlock Great Barrier Reef genome

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian scientists on Thursday announced a ground-breaking genome-mapping project that could help the Great Barrier Reef fight off the twin threats of climate change and toxic farm chemicals.

Geneticists said they would unlock the secrets of the colourful acropora millepora coral, one of the main components of the northeastern tourist attraction, the growth of which has slowed markedly in recent years.

"This gene-mapping project has both practical and scientific significance," said professor David Miller of Australia's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"It will help us to understand how corals build reefs -- and why they fail to do so when they are under stress." … the reef has come under growing threat from climate change and chemical run-off with Australia announcing a crackdown in January on farmers who let pesticides and fertilisers leak into the sea. …

Scientists to unlock Great Barrier Reef genome

Technorati Tags: coral,climate change,pollution,Australia,genetic engineering

San Francisco transforming toxic site into UN Global Warming Center

The Hunter’s Point Shipyard in San Francisco is a former naval shipyard filled with radiation and industrial toxins. It’s so dangerous that the U.S. Environmental Agency has designated it as one of the most polluted sites in the nation. But instead of letting the site fester, San Francisco has just announced plans to rid the shipyard of its toxins and build the U.N. Global Compact Center, a world class climate change think tank and green tech incubator. Due for competition in 2012, the new development will comprise over two million square feed of LEED-certified space. …

San Francisco Transforming Toxic Site into UN Global Warming Center

Technorati Tags: climate change,green construction,green architecture,pollution

River project offers new hope for oysters, researchers say

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009

Scientists say they've created something in a Virginia river that hasn't been seen since the late 1800s: a vast, thriving reef of American oysters, the shellfish that helped create the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem and then nearly vanished from it.

The reef sits on the bottom of the Great Wicomico River, a bay tributary about 80 miles southeast of Washington. The scientists say they found a better way to plant oysters, creating an 87-acre colony of bivalves that teems with other marine life.

That's a long way from bringing oysters back in all of the Chesapeake. Virginia and Maryland officials said this week that they doubted this success could be replicated widely.

But the oyster researchers said their work, published online Thursday in the journal Science, provides new hope for one of the bay's most beleaguered species. The oyster, depleted by overfishing, pollution and disease, has fallen to less than 1 percent of its historical population.

When an underwater camera hovered over the new reef, "we knew we were looking at something that no one had ever seen before" -- or at least, no one living -- said David Schulte, a researcher with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who worked on the project.

They saw small fish, blue crabs and oysters blowing out underwater "smoke rings," showing that they were filtering out algae and dirt. "That just had been something that hadn't been in the bay for more than a century," Schulte said. …

River Project Offers New Hope For Oysters, Researchers Say

Technorati Tags: environmental restoration,overfishing,pollution

EPA wants to clean up large ocean-going ships

 

 Canada Could Also Adopt an Harmonized Regulation

In a similar vein to what California is doing with ocean-going ships, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new set of rules under the Clean Air Act that would require all U.S. flagged ocean-going vessels to meet stricter diesel engine and fuel standards, leading to cleaner air along the coasts of the US (and Canada, who's also working on a similar regulation). …

EPA Wants to Clean Up Large Ocean-Going Ships

Technorati Tags: ocean,pollution

Algorithm can get most pollution control for the money

There may be thousands of things large and small that can be done to better control pollution on even the smallest waterways, and a new tool may help sort out how to choose the best ones.

Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, combined a best management practices tool with a complex genetic algorithm that can search out the best solutions for non-point source pollution control in a watershed. By analyzing data from an area, in just a few hours the tool can compute the most cost-effective pollution-control strategies for water resources affected by agriculture, a process that currently takes weeks or months.

A paper on the work appeared this past week in the journal Water Resources Research.

"When you have got limited resources to control non-point pollution in an area, you have to decide where to best use your resources," Chaubey said. "At the same time, you want to be sure you don't disrupt the agricultural production in an area."

Chaubey has spent the last several years developing a best management practices tool that takes into consideration all feasible solutions for decreasing non-point source pollution, or pollution that gets into water through runoff. The tool determines the best solution - such as changes in tillage practices, grass coverage and structural changes on the land - based on the amount of pollution that can be eliminated, the economic impact to agricultural land and other factors. The calculations used include soil, water, topography and other data usually collected by governmental agencies. …

Algorithm Can Get Most Pollution Control For The Money

Technorati Tags: pollution

Plastiki boat made of plastic bottles prepares to set sail

 

It’s been several months since we brought you news of the Plastiki, a boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles, so we figured it was time for an update. When we left the Plastiki expedition last, David de Rothschild, the founder of Adventure Ecology, was making preparations to steer his plastic sailboat towards the floating landfill in the Pacific Ocean. Some time has passed, but we’re excited to report that Plastiki is nearly ready to set sail upon the open sea! …

Plastiki Boat Made of Plastic Bottles Prepares to Set Sail

Technorati Tags: ocean,pollution

Dell bans export of e-waste to developing countries

 

Dell -- which scored pretty poorly in the latest Greenpeace report -- has just officially adopted a ban of the export of e-waste as part of its policy. The company, which also has a recycling program, says it's been holding its partners to high standards for several years, but has revised its policy to conform to the Basel Convention, an international treaty that governs e-waste handling. E-waste is growing, toxic problem in developing countries like China and Ghana. …

Dell bans export of e-waste to developing countries

Technorati Tags: pollution