Unfunded Pension Liabilities Threaten Municipalities

Prior research by the Kellogg School of Management has found $3 trillion in unfunded legacy liabilities from state-sponsored pension plans. However, new research finds additional liabilities from municipalities that magnify the growing public pension crisis. In a new report issued today by the Kellogg School, economists estimate an additional $574 billion in unfunded liabilities from pension plans at the city and county levels.

Joshua Rauh

The paper, “The Crisis in Local Government Pensions in the United States,” is co-authored by Joshua Rauh of the Kellogg School and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester. In this latest study, Rauh and Novy-Marx calculate the aggregate unfunded liabilities and forecast the number of years assets will last for 77 defined pension plans sponsored by 50 major U.S. cities and counties. The sample represented all non-state municipal entities with more than $1 billion in pension assets, covering 2.04 million local public employees and retirees. Rauh will present the paper at the Brookings Institution on Oct. 15 in Washington, D.C.

In many cities, these unfunded promises will be a long-standing and substantial burden for municipal revenues. For example, even if all other spending was shut down, the city of Chicago would need to allocate about eight years of dedicated tax revenues to cover pension promises it has already made.

Six major cities have current pension assets that can only pay for promised benefits through 2020: Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Jacksonville and St. Paul. An additional 18 cities and counties, including New York City, Detroit, Cook County in Illinois and Orange County in California would be solvent through 2020 but not past 2025. According to Rauh, it is clear that state and local governments in the U.S. are not far from the point where these pension promises will impact their ability to operate. (Joshua Rauh)

Maryland & States Grapple With Unfunded Pension Funds

EnergyWorks Biopower Plans Chicken Manure Power Plant

Annapolis-based EnergyWorks North America says its EnergyWorks Biopower subsidiary and Hillandale Farms Gettysburg have agreed to build the 2.5 megawatt plant. The companies say the plant, expected to begin operation in 2012, will turn manure from as many as 5 millino chickens into gas to produce electricity.

In addition, the Annapolis, Maryland-bsed company says it will keep the waste from being spread as fertilizer on farm land, where it can run off into waterways. Reducing farm runoff is one of the key strategies in a new, tougher federal strategy to restore the Chesapeake Bay, a strategy that has prompted concern from agriculture interests over its costs. (The Daily Record, 10/14/2010)

Environmentalists To Sue EPA Over Dispersant Use

William Reilly, Bob Graham (Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)

A coalition of environmental and community groups, the Louisiana Shrimp Association, the Gulf Restoration Network, citing a draft report released last week by the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission, petitioned the EPA to write new rules regulating the future use of dispersants in fighting oil spills. The petition was organized by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental justice group, which also filed a 60-day notice of a lawsuit to try to force EPA to publicly identify where dispersants may be used and how much is safe.

The Louisiana Shrimp Association noted that:

"Unprecedented use of toxic dispersants during the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster without prior scientific study and evaluation of the effects to the Gulf of Mexico marine ecosystems and human health was a horrific mistake that should never have been allowed to happen." 
In its draft report on the use of dispersants, the commission staff concluded that they could not say EPA acted "unreasonably" in its decision to use massive volumes of dispersants, "because federal agencies had failed to plan adequately" and they simply knew too little to make a better informed decision. The Center agrees with the commission's conclusion.  The commission is chaired by Bill Reilly and Bob Graham.

The EPA responded to the petition with a statement saying that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson "has made clear that one of the lessons of this spill is that we need to learn more about the use and long-term impact of dispersants" and that she is "committed to revising the 15-year old process by which these products end up on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule," and had committed $2 million to conduct additional research. (NOLA.com, 10/13/2010)

Maryland & States Grapple With Unfunded Pension Funds

States are facing an unfunded pension fund crisis.  Maryland is a case study that reflects a major crisis facing America. Having shortchanged its contributions to the pension plan that covers more than 100,000 former employees, the state faces unfunded pension liabilities of more than $18 billion and unfunded health-care obligations projected at $15 billion. That's $33 billion in bills coming due, a sum equal to an entire year of state spending. No one knows where the money will come from.

As stocks plummeted two years ago, so did the pension fund's balance sheet. With liabilities exceeding $50 billion, the fund now has little more than $31 billion in assets. Against the $15 billion owed for health care and other benefits, the state has less than 1 percent on hand.

Maryland is one of 19 states facing serious long-term problems. The state's pension fund was fully funded in 2002; now assets are just 65 percent of liabilities. It is one of just eight that has made no real progress in restoring the health of its retiree benefit plan

A state commission has started looking into the problem and is set to make recommendations this year. Some painful choices are going to have to be made.  (Wash Post, 10/13/2010)

EPA Raising Gasoline Ethanol Content From 10% to 15%

EPA Grants E15 Waiver for Newer Vehicles

A new label for E15 is being proposed to help ensure consumers use the correct fuel

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allow ethanol levels in gasoline blends to be raised from the current 10% level to 15% for vehicles made since 2007.  EPA is awaiting the outcome of additional research for cars made between 2001 and 2006 and is not ready to announce a decision for those models. The plan is strongly opposed by auto makers, livestock ranchers, oil refiners and some public-health advocates.

Without the increase, some speculate the U.S. will not be able to meet a congressional mandate requiring 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into the domestic fuel supply by 2022.

The waiver applies to fuel that contains up to 15 percent ethanol – known as E15 – and only to model year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks. This represents the first of a number of actions that are needed from federal, state and industry towards commercialization of E15 gasoline blends. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson made the decision after a review of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) extensive testing and other available data on E15’s impact on engine durability and emissions.

A decision on the use of E15 in model year 2001 to 2006 vehicles will be made after EPA receives the results of additional DOE testing, which is expected to be completed in November. However, no waiver is being granted this year for E15 use in model year 2000 and older cars and light trucks – or in any motorcycles, heavy-duty vehicles, or non-road engines – because currently there is not testing data to support such a waiver. Since 1979, up to 10 percent ethanol or E10 has been used for all conventional cars and light trucks, and non-road vehicles.

Additionally, several steps are being taken to help consumers easily identify the correct fuel for their vehicles and equipment. First, EPA is proposing E15 pump labeling requirements, including a requirement that the fuel industry specify the ethanol content of gasoline sold to retailers. There would also be a quarterly survey of retail stations to help ensure their gas pumps are properly labeled.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandated an increase in the overall volume of renewable fuels into the marketplace reaching a 36 billion gallon total in 2022. Ethanol is considered a renewable fuel because it is produced from plant products or wastes and not from fossil fuels. Ethanol is blended with gasoline for use in most areas across the country.

The E15 petition was submitted to EPA by Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers in March 2009. In April 2009, EPA sought public comment on the petition and received about 78,000 comments.

The petition was submitted under a Clean Air Act provision that allows EPA to waive the act’s prohibition against the sale of a significantly altered fuel if the petitioner shows that the new fuel will not cause or contribute to the failure of the engine parts that ensure compliance with the act’s emissions limits. (EPA, WSJ, 10/13/2010)

More information

GM Volt Battery Pack Gets Gasoline Drive Assist

GM Volt

General Motors Company's battery-powered Chevrolet Volt car battery pack is assisted by the gas engine to help drive the wheels through a gear system, working in conjunction with the electric motor, in situations such as high-speed driving.

The Volt is a bit more like a conventional hybrid gas-electric car such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius, however, the current Prius cannot be plugged in to recharge. After the batteries are drawn down, the Volt has a gasoline engine that kicks in to power a generator, which creates electricity to keep the car's electric motor turning. The Volt, like other coming electric cars, has a big battery pack that allows it to travel 25 to 50 miles purely on battery power.

Some are trying to make a big out of the regular gasoline engine 'assist,' even though GM has noted that it did not share all the details until now because the information was competitive and they were awaiting patent approvals. GM never before said there was a mechanical link between the gasoline engine and the drive train. (WSJ, 10/13/2010)

PG&E To Upgrade Old Pipeline System

PG&E Corp announced plans to upgrade its California pipeline system to boost safety today.  A key element will be the installation of hundreds of automatic shutoff valves and replacing manual valves.  Eight people killed in San Bruno, California when one of PG&E's natural-gas pipelines exploded on September 9. It took utility employees one hour and 46 minutes to navigate rush-hour traffic to reach manually controlled valves and shut off the flow of gas following that rupture.

The cost of upgrading pipelines likely would be passed on to consumers and could mean higher rates for the San Francisco company's roughly four million natural-gas customers. Regulators have no current estimate of the program's cost.

The explosion is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. (WSJ, 10/13/2010)

Obama Administration Lifts Deepwater Drilling Ban

Napolitano, Salazar, Obama

The Obama administration lifted the moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico today. The ban was on drilling in water deeper than 500 feet and idled 33 rigs.  The ban was put in place shortly after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig contracted by BP PLC.

The massive spill changed the deepwater offshore drilling enterprise forever because it was the biggest environmental disaster in the history of the United States. Rig operators must demonstrate they can comply with a lengthy list of new safety regulations designed to prevent a repeat of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster. Several independent government panels are still investigating what caused the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. The accident killed 11 people.

Michael Bromwich, head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement will need time to make sure that drilling plans comply with the new rules. (WSJ, 10/13/2010)

Current Deepwater Operators (as of June 2010)

EPA Administrator Speaks at Town Hall in China

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Remarks at Sun Yat-sen University Town Hall

FULL SPEECH

Excerpts:

I have come to China to mark 30 years of environmental partnership between our two nations. The environmental issues of this generation – from local concerns about pollution in water and air, to global concerns about climate change – have made our ability to work together more crucial than ever. That is why my first official action on this trip was to join Minister Zhou to renew the official cooperation between the US and China.

One of the top priorities on our list is combating climate change by limiting pollutants. Yesterday, I helped opening a Regional Air Quality Meeting in Beijing, under which EPA will work with MEP to address climate forcing pollutants like methane and NOx. Climate change is a concern for both the US and China, and we must consider both environment and economic factors. President Obama and I have continued to emphasize that a strong economy and a clean environment must go hand-in-hand.

I just finished a boat tour of your Pearl River, in which I discussed the challenges and progress in addressing water pollution with the Director General of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Board. Clean water is an essential part of every community. China’s rivers stretch across the country, providing vital resources to hundreds of millions. The health of those waters is integral to the health of your people, to the health of your environment, and to the health of your economy.

President Obama Announces $50 Billion Infrastructure Plan

President Obama hopes Congress will get to his $50-billion "roads, railways and runways" program by or before December. The White House also hopes the 'roads, railways and runways' plan will create middle-class jobs in manufacturing and construction. The president described the plan from the Rose Garden, which included a report estimating that more than half of the new jobs would come in construction, where unemployment figures are higher than 17%. To pass the measure, the president needs to win over Republicans, who generally have opposed his suggestions for government spending as a way out of the country's economic malaise.

President Obamais pictured with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the Rose Garden at the White House. (L.A. Times, 10/12/2010) (Mark Wilson / Getty Images / October 11, 2010)

EPA Administrator Signs MOU with China

Lisa P. Jackson signs Memorandum of Understanding with China on Environmental Protection

Lisa P. Jackson

During her first official visit to China, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian signed an agreement that formalizes the partnership between the United States and China on environmental protection.

Under the MOU, EPA will continue to collaborate with China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) on the prevention and management of air pollution, water pollution, pollution from persistent organic pollutants and other toxics, hazardous and solid waste, and the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental law.

The MOU, which was a renewal of an MOU that expired in 2008, also provides opportunities distinct from existing agreements on science and technology cooperation and establishes a joint committee that is co-chaired by EPA’s administrator and China’s environmental protection minister. The joint committee meets every two years, and the next meeting will be hosted by Administrator Jackson in Washington, D.C. on November 16-17, 2010. At the meeting, MEP and EPA officials will review progress made during the last two years and approve work plans for the next two years.

For 30 years, the United States and China have engaged in a wide range of cooperative activities aimed at increasing energy efficiency, reducing emissions of pollutants, toxics, and greenhouse gases, limiting threats to public health caused by pollution, and creating a foundation for long-term environmental sustainability. EPA and MEP have been at the forefront of environmental collaboration and are building on past successes to jointly address current and emerging environmental challenges. (EPA)

More information about Administrator Jackson’s mission in China

More information about EPA’s International Priorities

White House Issues Guidance on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CEQ

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released final guidelines on Oct 6 for how federal agencies must catalog climate-changing pollutants that result from federal operations. The guidance established reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions and is accompanied by a separate technical support document that describes calculation methodologies.

Federal agencies are required to create inventories of greenhouse gas emissions by Jan. 31, 2011, under Executive Order 13514. The inventory must include emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydroflourocarbons, perfluorocarbon gases and sulfur hexafluoride.

The guidance clarifies many questions officials have had, such as which agencies are responsible for reporting emissions at shared or leased facilities (the ones that pay the utility bills) and stipulates that agencies also must report emissions associated with government-owned/contractor operated facilities, known as GOCOs.


It also describes buildings that could be excluded from the inventory, such as privately owned structures located on federal land or military installations.

Agencies must report all direct GHG emissions from sources owned or controlled by the agency within what is known as Scope 1, which includes emissions resulting from power generation, vehicle fleets, manufacturing processes and fugitive emissions, such as leaks from landfills or wastewater treatment plants on federal property.

In addition, agencies must account for Scope 2 emissions -- those that occur elsewhere as a result of agency activities, such as emissions at power plants supplying electricity to a federal facility.

The guidance also includes a phased approach for reporting indirect emissions known as Scope 3, such as those occurring as a result of employee travel or commuting, for example. Because reliable data are more difficult to develop in Scope 3 emissions, the guidance notes a substantial portion of these emissions won't be captured in the initial inventories. (Government Executive, 10/6/2010)

Google, Good Energies, Marubeni Promoting Trans-Elect Project

The New York Times

Trans-Elect, Google, Good Energies, Marubeni, and Atlantic Wind Connection announced their plans today at the National Press Club to construct a major electricity transmission project to connect offshore wind to onshore interconnections. The project has been in the planning stage for more than two years and will be located off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Project Development team:

Bob Mitchell - Trans-Elect
Rick Needham, Dan Reicher - Google
John Breckenridge - Good Energies
Richard Straebel - Marubeni
Markian Melnyk - Atlantic Wind Connection

The system, known as the Atlantic Wind Connection, includes a 350-mile underwater line that could remove some critical obstacles to wind power development along the East coast. Before any wind farms are built, the cable would channel existing supplies of electricity from southern Virginia, where it is cheap, to northern New Jersey, where it is costly, bypassing one of the most congested parts of the North American electric grid while lowering energy costs for northern customers.

Good Energies, an investment firm specializing in renewable energy, along with Google, have each agreed to take 37.5 percent of the equity portion of the project. Trans-Elect is a Maryland-based transmission-line company that proposed the venture. Marubeni is a Japanese trading company that has taken a 15 percent stake in the venture. Trans-Elect said it hoped to begin construction in 2013. If they hold on to their stakes, that would come to an initial investment of about $200 million apiece in the first phase of construction alone. Trans-Elect estimated that construction would cost $5 billion, plus financing and permit fees. The $1.8 billion first phase, a 150-mile stretch from northern New Jersey to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware could go into service by early 2016. The rest would not be completed until 2021.

While several undersea electrical cables exist off the Atlantic Coast already, none has ever picked up power from generators along the way. The system’s backbone cable, with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, equal to the output of six large power plants, would run in shallow trenches on the seabed in federal waters 15 to 20 miles offshore, from northern New Jersey to Norfolk, Virginia. Within three miles of the shore, regulatory control is from the state. The plan is to harvest electricity from turbines in an area where the wind is strong but the tall towers would barely be visible.

Four connection points — in southern Virginia, Delaware, southern New Jersey and northern New Jersey — would simplify the job of bringing the energy onshore, involving fewer permit hurdles. In contrast to transmission lines on land, where a builder may have to deal with hundreds of property owners, this project would have to deal with a maximum of just four, and fewer than that in its first phase.

The PJM Interconnection, the regional electricity group that would have to approve the project and assess its member utilities for the cost, has no integrated procedure for calculating the value of all three tasks the line would accomplish — hooking up new power generation, reducing congestion on the grid and improving reliability. (NYT, 10/12/2010)

My Disappointment in Green Jobs and Nuclear Power

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

By Norris McDonald

Having promoted conservation and weatherization since 1980, I was delighted to support the Green Jobs Act of 2007.  Being the first environmentalist to publicly support nuclear power in the United States in 2000, I was delighted that legislation assisting the technology we supported in 2005 became law (Energy Policy Act).  I attended the signing in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a special guest of the White House.  Unfortunately, although billions have been poured into creating green jobs, such jobs are not readily identifiable and did not help in an American economic recovery.  Similarly, although the nuclear industry has almost every conceivable subsidy and support from the U.S. government, the nuclear renaissance I so enthusiastically promoted is not going to happen [notwithstanding its global warming mitigation benefits].

Now proponents of each area will disagree with me and that is fine.  But they know the reality of the situation just as I do.  So what are we to do?  If nuclear power plants are too expensive to build and wind and solar cannot meet our continuous bulk electricity needs, how can we meet new capacity?  Conservation and efficiency are fine too, but American economic health is based on growth.  And growth requires more energy, regardless of the amount of conservation and efficiency retrofits. 

It appears that natural gas will slip into the gap created by carbon dioxide concerns from coal, the expense of new nuclear plants and the inability of alternatives and efficiency to meet new growth demands.  We have been down this road before and the price fluctuations for natural gas should be a real concern, particularly when it will be used to produce base load electrical power.

I will continue to push a combination of green jobs and nuclear power.  Heck, nuclear jobs are green jobs too.  But I am not optimistic that they will have the huge impact that I  hoped and worked for during the past few decades.

Constellation Cancels Nuke Loan Guarantee and Reactor

Constellation Energy has cancelled its proposal to build a new reactor at its Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant.  The utility pulled out even though the Obama administration had decided to award the project a $7.5 billion loan guarantee.  Evidently, the administration's loan guarantee terms were "unworkable" for  Constellation.  The core problem was a "credit subsidy cost" or up-front fee of 11.6% of the amount guaranteed, which works out to approximately $880 million.  It completely destroys the economics of the project.

Constellation's nuclear partner, Electricite de France (EdF) is left out in the cold by this unilateral decision.

The Center supports the construction of a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs.

Constellation and French power company Electricite de France are partners in Unistar, a joint venture that had intended to make the new Calvert Cliffs reactor the first of a fleet of identical units around the country. They filed the loan guarantee application in July 2007. Unfortunately, the escalating cost of building nuclear reactors have made nuclear power projects "unworkable."  EDF appears to have been surprised by Constellation "unilateral decision to withdraw from the project.  EDF remains committed to pursuing new nuclear [power plants] in the U.S.

The administration has approved only one conditional loan guarantee for a nuclear power project and that went to a Georgia plant to be built by Southern Company, which under state law can begin to recover costs while the plants are under construction. There are serious environmental justice issues at the proposed Vogle plant proposal in Georgia.  Unlike Georgia, Maryland regulations say that power plant construction costs can be passed through to customers only once the plant is operating.

Constellation and EDF, a major shareholder in Constellation, also have a major conflict over whether Constellation can force EDF to buy several older fossil fuel power plants for $2 billion.

Shares in Electricite de France SA slid as much as 1.5 percent to $43.43 on the Paris stock exchange on Monday after the French state-owned utility’s U.S. partner, Constellation Energy Group, pulled out of a project to build the first of a new generation of nuclear power plants in Maryland.  (Wash Post, 10/9/2010, The Daily Record, 10/11/2010))

CEIL Sponsors GOVgreen Conference and Expo

The Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership (CEIL) will present the GOVgreen Conference & Expo on November 9-10, 2010 in Washington, DC. The conference will bring together government employees, contractors and suppliers to learn how to achieve sustainability goals as mandated by President Barack Obama's Executive Order 13514. GOVgreen is free for all federal government and military personnel to attend and offers a variety of programs from notable and respected speakers that will address the critical topics of energy, transportation, conservation and facilities.

Speakers include:

* Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance and environmental advocate for over 20 years.

* Dr. Dorothy Robyn, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Installations & Environment, Department of Defense

* Robert Peck, Commissioner, Public Buildings, U.S. General Services Administration

The full speaker list and program can be viewed at GOVgreen.org and register. There's also a panel on using social media, called "Moving Beyond Government to Engage Citizens in GreenGov Conversations and Results", featuring Jeffrey Levy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cammie Croft of the Department of Energy, Todd Solomon of the Department of Transportation and Bev Godwin of the GSA. A special crowdsourcing site has been set up for submitting questions to the panel.

EPA Administrator Jackson to Travel to China

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, left, will travel to China from October 9 through October 14. This is the administrator’s first official visit to China, where she will highlight and build on a wide range of joint efforts aimed at addressing current and emerging environmental challenges, from sustainability to greenhouse gas pollution.

During the trip, Administrator Jackson will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with her counterpart from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, open the Regional Air Quality Meeting in Beijing; visit the world’s largest electronic waste site; and host a town hall meeting with students at Sun Yat-sen University.

For 30 years, the United States and China have engaged in a wide range of cooperative activities aimed at increasing energy efficiency; reducing emissions of pollutants, toxics, and greenhouse gases; limiting threats to public health caused by pollution; and creating a foundation for long-term environmental sustainability. EPA and MEP have been at the forefront of environmental collaboration and are looking to build on past successes to jointly address environmental challenges.

HIGHLIGHTS OF ADMINISTRATOR JACKSON’S CHINA VISIT (all times local)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10

5:30 p.m. Joins MEP Minister Zhou Shengxian for renewal ceremony for EPA Memorandum of Understanding with MEP, Beijing, China

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11

9:30 a.m. Delivers opening remarks at Regional Air Quality Meeting, Beijing, China

4:30 p.m. Tours electronic waste site, Guiyu, China

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12

11:00 a.m. Holds town hall with university students on “30 Years of U.S.-China Cooperation on the Environment,” Guangzhou, China

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13

9:15 a.m. Delivers opening remarks at corporate environmental stewardship seminar, Shanghai, China

11:00 a.m. Attends event to highlight success of EPA-Shanghai EPB AirNow, International pilot project,
Shanghai, China

Center Trip To China 2007

Executive Order on Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force

President Obama Signs Executive Order Officially Forming Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force
EPA's Jackson to oversee national transition from emergency response to coastal recovery in the gulf

With an executive order in place setting up the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force to continue the recovery after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, EPA Administrator and Task Force Chair Lisa P. Jackson, left, today started a series of meetings in the region to focus on the next steps.

Jackson was a key part of the Obama Administration’s immediate response efforts following the oil spill, and her deep expertise in environment-related issues will be central in spurring actions that help to restore the region’s ecosystem while providing important support for the economy.


President Obama today signed the executive order formally creating the task force. Its mission is to coordinate efforts to implement restoration programs and projects in the gulf coast region. The task force also will coordinate with the Department of Health and Human Services on public health issues and with other federal agencies on ways to enhance the economic benefits that ecosystem restoration will bring to the region.

It will have five state representatives, appointed by the president upon recommendation of the governors of each gulf state, along with one senior official each from many federal departments and agencies, including the departments of Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Transportation. The task force may also include representatives from affected tribes.

The executive order follows the release last week of the long-term restoration proposal, written by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus -- an aggressive plan that included a call for dedicated funds to support the gulf coast’s environmental and economic recovery. Included in the Mabus report was a recommendation for Congress to authorize a Gulf Coast Recovery Council to manage the overall restoration efforts in the gulf coast. The president created the task force to enhance the coordination and implementation of important restoration efforts, even before Congress acts.

View the Executive Order

President Obama To Install Solar Panels On White House

The U.S. Energy Department of Energy and the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair announced  plans today to install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House Residence. These two solar installations will be part of a Department of Energy demonstration project showing that American solar technologies are available, reliable, and ready for installation in homes throughout the country. The announcement was made during CEQ's 2010 GreenGov Symposium, which is bringing together leaders from federal, state, and local governments, nonprofit and academic communities, and the private sector to identify opportunities around greening the federal government.

The PV system will convert sunlight directly to electricity. The solar hot water heater will have a solar collector facing the sun that will heat water for use in the White House residence. The Department of Energy will now begin a competitive procurement process to select the company responsible for the installations.

Financial incentives are available to residents to offset the initial costs of installing solar energy systems, including a 30% federal tax credit and additional state, local, and utility incentive programs to encourage the deployment of renewable energy. Visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency Web Site for additional information about state, local, and utility rebates for solar generation throughout the country.

The deployment of solar energy and other renewable energy sources will help expand U.S. clean energy manufacturing and create new jobs for American workers. As a result of investments under the Recovery Act, the solar energy industry is growing and solar resources can now be seen in communities nationwide. In the coming years, continued investments in innovation and cutting-edge solar technologies will help make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional electricity sources all across the country.

This announcement is made on the one-year anniversary of President Obama's Executive Order 13514 on Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, which called on the federal government to lead by example towards a clean energy economy and reduce, measure, and report direct and indirect greenhouse gas pollution. In support of this goal, the Department of Energy also released "Procuring Solar Energy: A Guide for Federal Facility Decision Makers" to support the use of solar energy throughout the federal government. The full guide. (DOE)

Jackson Meets With Stakeholders In New Orleans

EPA Administrator Travels to New Orleans to Meet with Environmental Groups, Local Leaders

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, left, will travel to New Orleans today to meet with environmental organizations and local leaders on the government’s gulf coast restoration efforts. As the recently-appointed chair of President Obama’s Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, Administrator Jackson will discuss environmental issues in the gulf and long-term recovery efforts.

The task force was commissioned to help create and maintain gulf coast ecosystems while providing economic support and addressing possible long-term health issues of residents. The initiative will work to provide long-term financial assistance to improve the region’s environment, economy and health.

WHO: EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
WHAT: Meetings with environmental organizations and local leaders
WHERE: 11:00 a.m. CST  OPEN PRESS

Meeting with Environmental Organizations
Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church
5130 Chartres Street
New Orleans

1:00 p.m. CST  CLOSED PRESS

Meeting with Parish Presidents

United Nations Climate Change Conference Cancun - COP 16

The sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) will be held in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10, 2010.

The conference will include the thirty-third sessions of both the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), and the fifteenth session of the AWG-KP and thirteenth session of the AWG-LCA.

China Hosting U.N. Climate Change Conference in Tianjin

The latest United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference is taking place from Monday, October 4 to Saturday, October 9, 2010 at the Tiajin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin, China. The conference is a preparatory meeting for the United Nations summit in Cancun, Mexico to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty on global warming that expires in 2012.  The 2009 climate-change summit in Copenhagen ended acrimoniously with a last-minute nonbinding accord brokered by the U.S. and China.

When the Kyoto treaty was signed in 1997, China and other developing countries were exempted from limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. The U.S., which opposed that exemption, never ratified the treaty. Last year, China passed the U.S. as the world's biggest energy user and biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. It is also on track to surpass Japan this year as the world's second-largest economy after the U.S.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will travel to China from October 9 through October 14.

China, in collaboration with the Singapore government, is developing a district based on environmental urban planning called EcoCity. GreenGen, is also a power plant being built by a state-owned utility that will be the first commercial-scale plant to use a technology that turns coal into gas, making it easier to capture carbon. The homegrown Chinese technology is being licensed overseas.

In September, the United Steelworkers filed a complaint with U.S. trade officials claiming that China is unfairly subsidizing its clean-energy sector. Last week, 181 members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to President Barack Obama, urging his administration to address China's use of "unfair trade practices" to "globally dominate the green technology sector."

China committed last year to cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by at least 40% from 2005 levels by 2020, and Chinese officials plan to enshrine that pledge into their 12th five-year economic plan, the country's economic blueprint set to start in 2011. However, China's failures are also drawing attention. Some analysts say that by 2030 China will have emitted more carbon in total than the U.S. ever had in history. (WSJ, 10/4/2010)

Center Trip To China 2007

U.N. Climate Change Schedule

4-9 Oct. 2010: Next round of UN climate talks in Tianjin, China.

9 Nov.-10 Dec. 2010: UN climate conference in Cancún, Mexico (COP16). Objective is to advance negotiations on basis of Copenhagen Accord. No binding agreement is expected.

28 Nov.-9 Dec. 2011: UN climate conference in Johannesburg, South Africa (COP17). Possible date for approving new international climate treaty.

United Airlines and Continental Airlines Merge

The legal closing of the merger of United Airlines with Continental Airlines has been completed, creating the world's leading airline.  Both United® Mileage Plus® and Continental OnePass® miles and programs remain unchanged.

When flying United, you should continue to use united.com or contact a United customer service representative for any assistance you might need. For flight check-in, use united.com, United kiosks or United ticket counters at the airport.

When flying Continental, you should continue to use continental.com or contact a Continental customer service representative for any assistance you might need. For flight check-in, use continental.com, Continental kiosks or Continental ticket counters at the airport.

Integrating two airlines is complex and should take between 12 and 18 months.  More information, including FAQs, is available at united.com. (Source: Email letter from Jeff Smisek, President & CEO, United Airlines.

Food Safety Bill Could Be Dangerous For U.S. Economy

S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very Dangerous For The U.S. Economy

The following are 12 reasons why S. 510 could be absolutely disastrous for small food producers and for the U.S. economy....

#1 All food production facilities in the United States will be required to register with the U.S. government. No food will be allowed to be grown, distributed or sold outside this bureaucratic framework unless the FDA allows it.

#2 Any food that is distributed or sold outside of U.S. government control will be considered illegal smuggling.

#3 The FDA will hire an army of new inspectors to enforce all of the new provisions in the bill.

#4 The FDA will be mandated to conduct much more frequent inspections of food processing facilities.

#5 The fees and paperwork requirements will be ruinously expensive for small food producers and organic farms.

#6 S. 510 would place all U.S. food and all U.S. farms under the Department of Homeland Security in the event of a major "contamination" or an "emergency". What exactly would constitute a "contamination" or an "emergency" is anyone's guess.

#7 S. 510 mandates that the FDA facilitate harmonization of American food laws with Codex Alimentarius.

#8 S. 510 imposes an annual registration fee on any facility that holds, processes, or manufactures food. It also includes draconian fines for paperwork infractions of up to $500,000 for a single offense. Just one penalty like that would drive a small food producer out of business.

#9 S. 510 would give the FDA tremendous discretion to regulate how crops are grown and how food is produced in the United States. Basically, small farmers and organic farmers will now be forced to farm exactly how the federal government tells them to. It is feared that the U.S. government would soon declare that many organic farming methods are "unsafe" and would outlaw them. In addition, there is the very real possibility that at some point the U.S. government could decide that the only "safe" seed for a particular crop is genetically modified seed and would require all farmers to use it.

#10 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to impose a quarantine on a specific geographic area. Basically the FDA would have the power to stop the movement of all food in an area where a "contamination" has been identified. This would be very close to being able to declare martial law.

#11 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to conduct warrantless searches of the business records of small food producers and organic farmers, even if there has been no evidence at all that a law has been broken.

#12 Opponents of S. 510 believe that it would eliminate the right to clean and store seed. Therefore, control of the U.S. seed supply would be further centralized in the hands of Monsanto and other multinational corporations.

(The Economic Collapse Blog) [Provided by Karen Blagburn-Editorial, Writing, and Design Services 202.413.8049]

EPA Calls for $491 Million For Chesapeake Bay Cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for $491 million in funding and projects ranging from cutting farm and suburban runoff to rebuilding oyster reefs. EPA announced the plan in response to an executive order last year by President Barack Obama, putting the federal government at the helm of a previously state-led effort. Federal officials urged Congress to approve the funding proposed Thursday.

The plan includes $72 million in financial and technical assistance to help farmers with voluntary conservation practices in key areas; $20 million to the states and the District of Columbia for runoff control; $30 million for land protection; projects to restore fish migration along 67 miles of streams; and bay bottom mapping to help identify the best areas for oyster restoration. Of the $491 million, $153 million in USDA programs has already been authorized. Of the rest, Siglin estimated the increase over current programs to total tens of millions of dollars.

EPA officials announced that plans filed by Washington and Maryland constituted a strong start, but said five other bay watershed states — Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and New York — must strengthen theirs or face tighter federal regulation.  State officials, meanwhile, have expressed concerns about the restoration strategy. The six states are all or partly in the bay’s watershed and pollution from many of their rivers and streams ultimately reaches the bay, promoting oxygen-robbing algae blooms and harmful sediment. Decades of pollution and habitat loss have taken their toll on commercially important oyster and crab populations, other marine life and bay grasses.

In addition to the annual action plan, the presidential order requires federal agencies to publish an annual progress report assessing the implementation of the action plan and recommending steps to improve the restoration process.  The federal strategy, among other steps, calls for tightening of permits for wastewater treatment plants, storm water systems and other pollution sources. The new permit for Washington’s Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant, for example, calls for cutting nitrogen emissions nearly in half, and to help meet that goal the plant plans to break ground in a few months on a $950 million enhanced nitrogen removal facility. (The Daily Record, Associated Press, 9/30/2010)

EPA Helps Launch Global Methane Initiative in Mexico City

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mexico’s Ministry of Environment along with thirty-six other countries, the European Commission, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank launched a new Global Methane Initiative that urges stronger international action to address near-term climate change. The initiative expands on existing global efforts to reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, while providing significant clean energy, human health, environmental and economic benefits. EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, Gina McCarthy, represented the agency at the meetings that took place September 30 and October 1 in Mexico City.

The United States is pledging $50 million over the next five years to the Global Methane Initiative and is seeking similar pledges from other developed countries, to support implementing methane emissions reduction projects and technologies. EPA estimates that an enhanced global effort to reduce methane emissions could achieve reductions of more than 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent – about the same as the annual emissions from more than 280 million cars.

The initiative will build on the existing structure and success of the Methane to Markets Partnership, an international partnership launched in 2004, while enhancing and expanding its efforts and encouraging new financial commitments from developed country partners. All the representatives at the meeting affirmed that the work of the initiative will continue to ensure international cooperation in a manner that is supportive of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The Center endorsed the Methane-To-Markets Partnership during the Bush administration.

The Methane to Markets Partnership is one of the most effective international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, growing from 14 to 38 country partners, representing approximately 70 percent of global methane emissions today. More than 1,000 public and private sector organizations are members of the project network and have helped the program to leverage nearly $480 million in investment from private companies and financial institutions.

More information about the Global Methane Initiative

More information about EPA’s International Priorities

EPA & DOT 2017-2025 Car/Truck Fuel Economy Standards

EPA and DOT Announce Next Steps toward Tighter Tailpipe and Fuel Economy Standards for Passenger Cars and Trucks

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced they will begin the process of developing tougher greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for passenger cars and trucks built in model years 2017 through 2025. This will build on the success of the first phase of the national program covering cars from model years 2012-2016.

In a May 21, 2010 memorandum, President Obama directed EPA and DOT issue a Notice of Intent (NOI) that would lay out a coordinated plan, to propose regulations to extend the national program and to coordinate with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in developing a technical assessment to inform the NOI and subsequent rulemaking process.

Consistent with the presidential memorandum, the NOI includes an initial assessment for a potential national program for the 2025 model year and outlines next steps for additional work the agencies will undertake. Next steps include issuing a supplemental NOI that would include an updated analysis of possible future standards by November 30, 2010. As part of that process, the agencies will conduct additional study and meet with stakeholders to better determine what level of standards might be appropriate. The agencies aim to propose actual standards within a year.

The national program is intended to save consumers money by cutting down on fuel costs, improve our nation’s energy security by reducing dependence on petroleum, and protect the environment by reducing greenhouse gas pollution that leads to climate change. Climate change is the single greatest long-term global environmental challenge. Cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks are responsible for 57 percent of U.S. transportation petroleum use and almost 60 percent of all transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.

The results of the interim technical assessment are summarized in the NOI and presented in a separate document, which NHTSA, EPA and CARB are also jointly releasing today. To achieve further annual greenhouse gas reductions, the automotive industry could choose from a variety of advanced technologies.

The assessment also considers the costs and effectiveness of applicable technologies, compliance flexibilities available to manufacturers, potential impacts on auto industry jobs, and the infrastructure needed to support advanced technology vehicles. This assessment was developed through extensive dialogue with automobile manufacturers and suppliers, non-governmental organizations, state and local governments, and labor unions.

More information on the NOI, the technical assessment

Submitting Comments

President Obama & The Jann Wenner Rolling Stone Interview

"Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview"

The following is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, available on newsstands on October 1, 2010.

By Jann S. Wenner
Sept 28, 2010

Excerpts

There's no doubt that the infrastructure and the financing of the Tea Party come from some very traditional, very powerful, special-interest lobbies. I don't think this is a secret. Dick Armey and FreedomWorks, which was one of the first organizational mechanisms to bring Tea Party folks together, are financed by very conservative industries and forces that are opposed to enforcement of environmental laws, that are opposed to an energy policy that would be different than the fossil-fuel-based approach we've been taking, that don't believe in regulations that protect workers from safety violations in the workplace, that want to make sure that we are not regulating the financial industries in ways that we have.

When Ken Salazar came in, he said to me, "One of my top priorities is cleaning up MMS." It was no secret. You had seen the kind of behavior in that office that was just over-the-top, and Ken did reform the agency to eliminate those core ethical lapses — the drugs, the other malfeasance that was reported there. What Ken would admit, and I would admit, and what we both have to take responsibility for, is that we did not fully change the institutional conflicts that were inherent in that office. If you ask why did we not get that done, the very simple answer is that this is a big government with a lot of people, and changing bureaucracies and agencies is a time-consuming process. We just didn't get to it fast enough.

Having said that, the person who was put in charge of MMS was fired. We brought in Michael Bromwich, who by every account is somebody who is serious about cleaning up that agency. We are committed to making sure that that place works the way it is supposed to. But when I have somebody like Ken Salazar, who has been an outstanding public servant, who takes this stuff seriously, who bleeds when he sees what was happening in the Gulf, and had started on a path of reform but just didn't get there as fast on every aspect of it as needed to be, I had to just let him know, "You're accountable, you're responsible, I expect you to change it." I have confidence that he can change it, and I think he's in the process of doing so.

What I would agree with is that climate change has the potential to have devastating effects on people around the globe, and we've got to do something about it. In order to do something about it, we're going to have to mobilize domestically, and we're going to have to mobilize internationally.

During the past two years, we've not made as much progress as I wanted to make when I was sworn into office. It is very hard to make progress on these issues in the midst of a huge economic crisis, because the natural inclination around the world is to say, "You know what? That may be a huge problem, but right now what's a really big problem is 10 percent unemployment," or "What's a really big problem is that our businesses can't get loans." That diverted attention from what I consider to be an urgent priority. The House of Representatives made an attempt to deal with the issue in a serious way. It wasn't perfect, but it was serious. We could not get 60 votes for a comparable approach in the Senate.

One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our overreliance on fossil fuels. We may end up having to do it in chunks, as opposed to some sort of comprehensive omnibus legislation. But we're going to stay on this because it is good for our economy, it's good for our national security, and, ultimately, it's good for our environment.

Understand, though, that even in the absence of legislation, we took steps over the past two years that have made a significant difference. I will give you one example, and this is an example where sometimes I think the progressive community just pockets whatever we do, takes it for granted, and then asks, "Well, why didn't you get this done?"

We instituted the first increase in fuel-efficiency standards in this country in 30 years. It used to be that California would have some very rigorous rule, and then other states would have much weaker ones. Now we've got one rule. Not only that, it used to be that trucks weren't covered, and there were all kinds of loopholes — that's how SUVs were out there getting eight miles a gallon. Now everybody's regulated — not only cars, but trucks. We did this with the agreement of the auto industry, which had never agreed to it before, we did it with the auto workers, who had never agreed to it before. We are taking the equivalent of millions of cars off the road, when it comes to the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced.

Is it enough? Absolutely not. The progress that we're making on renewable energy, the progress that we're making on retrofitting buildings and making sure that we are reducing electricity use — all those things, cumulatively, if we stay on it over the next several years, will allow us to meet the target that I set, which would be around a 17 percent reduction in our greenhouse gases.

But we're going to have to do a lot more than that. When I talk to [Energy Secretary] Steven Chu, who, by the way, was an unsung hero in the Gulf oil spill — this guy went down and helped design the way to plug that hole with BP engineers — nobody's a bigger champion for the cause of reducing climate change than he is. When I ask him how we are going to solve this problem internationally, what he'll tell you is that we can get about a third of this done through efficiencies and existing technologies, we can get an additional chunk through some sort of pricing in carbon, but ultimately we're going to need some technological breakthroughs. So the investments we're making in research and development around clean energy are also going to be important if we're going to be able to get all the way there. Am I satisfied with what we've gotten done? Absolutely not.

Rolling Stone, October 2010

Larry Bohlen Starts New Marketing Ecologically Green Gold

Green Leaf Gold, a new company founded by Larry Bohlen, right, is dedicated to bringing Fair Trade certified, ecologically mined gold to the growing ethical jewelry market. Investors, employees, customers and the environment will all benefit from clean and ethical practices that focus on the triple bottom line – people, profit and the planet.

Green Leaf Gold offers two ways to invest – equity and promissory notes. Equity provides a chance to participate fully in the upside potential of the company. Equity is anticipated to appreciate at a rate faster than the rise in the price of gold. Promissory notes provide a novel lower risk investment opportunity.  Notes will earn the higher amount of a fixed interest rate, or a rate equal to the annual increase in the price of gold.