Tennessee Coal Plant Toxic Spill
An Eastern Tennessee Coal Plant has maintained a total of 2.2 million pounds of toxic coal ash in a holding pond within their facilities. The Kingston Fossil Plant, owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, had a breakage in the holding pond and caused massive flooding of surrounding areas with the toxic chemicals, many of which could cause various health problems including cancer. Officials from the plant have said that the sludge released are not toxic, but have also released a joint statement with the EPA for all people and animals to avoid any contact with it. This seems like total crap and a spill like this is just inexcusable.
At the request of the New York Times, the Tennessee Valley Authority released the byproducts of their plant:
The plant’s byproducts included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium and 140,000 pounds of manganese.
Those are some scary metals and are all linked to causing serious health conditions if exposed to. Who knows that long-term impact of a massive spill like this to the residents in the local community as well as surrounding areas. What’s worse is that authorities from the plant have been slow to inform the local residents of the spill and the dangers it could cause.
This is just another example of wealthy individuals who own these types of plants who care more about making money than the safety of the public or the environment. A formal investigation is going to be done on the spill and how to prevent further incidents like this from happening. Is this really enough though? A plant that allows a holding facility of toxic sludge to break should no longer be in business. This is also just another wake up call to people that coal and other dirty sources of energy need to be eliminated in our country. The danger their byproducts pose are not worth the slightly smaller price tag they have.
U.S. Is Now the World’s Wind Power Leader
The U.S. has continued to have high growth rates in its wind industry for the third year in a row at an estimated $18 billion in revenues. With the record growth rates, America’s wind industry is now the largest in the world with a capacity of more than 21,000 Megawatts of energy, passing the prior leader Germany. This was all in the American Wind Energy Association, AWEA, annual report detailing the huge growth numbers and project growth for next year.
That 21,000 megawatts of capacity are expected to generate over 60 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2009, enough to serve over 5.5 million American homes.
Even though this is not a race to who can have the most renewable energy, I like the fact that America has boosted it’s research and development in these areas. Hopefully other countries strive for this recognition and continue to grow their renewable energy industries. One contributing factor to the high growth amid our current economic hardships are the renewable energy tax credits in the $700 billion bailout bill passed a few months ago. I was not fully in support of the bailout bill, but I am really glad these tax credits made their way in. They are already make a huge difference and hopefully continue to help grow our wind, solar and geothermal industries.
One-Third of China’s Famous Yellow River Polluted
After a recent scientific study by the Yellow River Conservancy Committee, 1/3 of this Chinese river has been show to be polluted with unsafe industrial waste. The study determined that the water quality has dramatically decreased over the last few year and is said to be unsafe for use.
33.8 percent of the river’s water sampled registered worse than level 5, meaning it’s unfit for drinking, aquaculture, industrial use and even agriculture, according to criteria used by the United Nations Environmental Program.
This is an extremely shocking as millions of people in China depend on this river and this pollution could really have dangerous long term affects if something is not done to reverse the pollution. What is even more surprising is that only 16% of the river that was studied was found to be safe for ordinary household usage. This is really sad and many are not surprised of these staggering numbers. Many industrial firms in the area are heavily polluting into the river and are not being held accountable for their actions. Local governments are not properly monitoring these companies and just enabling them to use the river as their personal dumping site.
The biggest problem in China is that the local governments are not taking enough action as they should be. China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has tried to do further to shut some of these factories down due to their unsafe practices, but have limited power. The local environmental agencies that have the power to do so are not taking the appropriate action. It sounds to me like corruption in the local governments could be the major reason that these ridiculous practices are allow to be continued. It’s good to see that the federal government’s environmental ministry is trying to do more, but they are ineffective with their limited power. Let’s just hope that more can be done either stop these businesses from continuing to pollute as they are or shut them down. This is such a beautiful river as seen from the picture and so many people depend on it for their daily lives.
Noises Disrupting Patterns of Whales and Dolphins
This is an interesting story about how global warming along with increased noise pollution by ships could be damaging to whales and dolphins. They both use sounds to be able to orient themselves and find mates. There are several factors contributing to this trend including:
- Global Warming: The warmer the water temperatures allow for sounds to travel further.
- Commercial Shipping: An increase in shipping generates additional sounds.
- Military Advancements: Sonar and seismic technologies have increased causing confusion in animals.
Not only are the increased number of ships on sea hurting the animals, but this indirect threat could really be a major factor in making already endangered species of whales and dolphins more scarce. The U.N. wildlife conference in Rome took place Wednesday to discuss these various dangers that are taking place and ways to mitigate the increased noise pollution in our seas. Many species are losing touch with each other along with whales are ending up on beaches because they are confused on where they are at. This is an interesting statistic about blue whales that they found:
A study by her group found that the blue whale, which used to communicate across entire oceans, has lost 90 percent of its range over the last 40 years.
Hopefully measures can be taken to protect these beautiful creatures of the oceans so that they are around for generations to come.
Interior Department Opens American Oil Shale Development
The Interior Department finalized regulations that would allow for the development of oil shale on federal lands earlier last month. These regulations are focused on a 200 million acre area knows as the Green River formation found in the western states Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. This area is known to have a vast amount of oil shale supplies. It is believed that the oil shale in this area could produce 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil, which could help eliminate our dependency on foreign oil. The drawback as you might have guessed is that it is considered to be one of the dirtiest sources of energy and is still in its infancy in terms of technology.
What is Oil Shale?
Oil shale is a rock material that releases a petroleum like liquid called kerogen when it is heated. It is formed from heat and pressure begin applied to millions of years of fossil marine life. This rock is known as the rock that will burn because it contains enough oil to burn without any processing.
In order to extract oil from shale is a much more difficult process. Currently the technology is not developed enough causing it to be an expensive. In order to extract a usable product, it must first be heated to an extremely high temperature. Oil then must be separated from the resulting liquid in a process called retorting. A more experimental process that saves part of the processing of this rock is to heat it while still in ground and then pump the liquid out.
Is it a viable option?
Shale being used for oil is nothing new. Mining and its modern production began in the early 1800’s mostly in European countries. Since then, very few countries including Brazil, China and Estonia, have really utilized this resource to extract oil from. As the price of oil has risen, mining shale has really come into the forefront for the US. Currently, there does not exist a technology to extract the oil from shale at a reasonable price. Also, the process emits 4 times as much greenhouse gases as the production of conventional oil.
Environmental reviews are required before federal leasing of these lands can begin, but the companies that will mine these lands will only have to pay a 5% royalty to the government for the first five years of production.
This source of energy just does not seem like the best option available for our country. To allow mining that would destroy beautiful lands in the West seems like such a waste when there isn’t an efficient way to produce oil from shale. I just don’t get the lawmakers in our government. It seems like the obvious options are right in their face with renewable energy, but they once again choose a horrible source of energy instead. The frustrating thing is that there seems to be no research into this resource to determine how much damage it could have to the environment. Would it be worth mining this dirty rock just so oil companies can continue their reign over the energy industry? Lets hope the new administration blocks ridiculous regulations like these that only seem to fatten the wallets of the rich oil tycoons in our country.
Los Angeles Mayor Proposes Solar Energy Plan
Los Angeles’ Major Antonio Villaraigosa announced a plan earlier this week that will make L.A. one of the leading renewable energy cities in the country. His proposal involves getting 10% of the entire city’s energy needs to solar power by the year 2020. The goal of this plan is to get the Department of Water and Power (DWP) to be less dependent on fossil fuels. Also, Los Angeles has a huge abundance of sun that is currently not being utilized. This is an extremely ambitious plan considering they will need to have 1,280 megawatts of solar energy by the target year.
Where will they go?
That’s the biggest question a lot of people have is where are they going to put all of the solar panels and where are they going to put them. 500 megawatts of the total electricity would come from a solar energy generator built in the Mojave Desert that would be funded privately. There would also be programs set up to help low-income families add solar panels on their houses. The last part of the energy would go to adding solar panels to the Department of Water and Power buildings. Voters would be allowed to decide on whether this part of the plan actually comes into fruition.
The Cost
This plan seems picture perfect forgetting one thing, how much will it cost? All the details are not yet worked out, but it looks inevitable that the residence’s electricity cost will go up. There is also a question as to whether they will be getting all the tax credits that currently predict to receive. If some of the tax credits are not realized, the price could go up even further. The cost may not be as bad as it seems. The federal government is going to begin enacting a carbon tax , thus raising the cost of using coal as a source of energy. Currently, the DWP is largely dependent on coal and is their cheapest energy source and that cost would go up regardless.
This plan is definitely a good step in the right direction. There seems to be more politics behind the bill at the moment. Hopefully the city is able to a large portion of its energy needs on solar and other renewable energy sources in the future. Maybe other cities will see the financial/environmental benefits and propose similar legislation.
Should you Pay More For an Organic Thanksgiving?
It’s tough to decide when choosing foods at your grocery store or market whether you should buy organic or not. You hear about all the great benefits of having less pesticides, better quality and sometimes tastes better, but is it worth the cost?
An article from the Smart Money addressed this issue by comparing the total cost as well as the possible health benefits for buying an completely organic verses not. The final verdict on the price difference was that the organic thanksgiving dinner costs a total of $295.36 as compared to $169.01 for a traditional dinner. The extra cost for the dinner could be deceptive as they may have bought organic ingredients, but at a grocery store instead of a local farm. In a previous article I wrote that you could find a local turkey that could be organic as well as free-range for probably a lot cheaper than what they paid. In the end, the organic dinner will cost you more, regardless of how little you can get the turkey for.
Is this extra price worth it? The article says that you should get organic products that usually contain the most pesticides as compared to those that don’t.
Choose organic foods for those products that typically have high pesticide residues, like apples, bell peppers, celery and strawberries. But for commercially-farmed products that have low pesticide levels, like avocados, onions and pineapples, you can save money by buying nonorganic varieties … One recent United States Department of Agriculture survey found pesticides in about 30 percent of conventional milk samples and low levels in only one organic sample.
The biggest question to ask: is it worth it to you? That’s a tough question that is really up to personal preference. Some people want to ensure that all the meats they eat don’t contain hormones and are free-range and the produce they eat contains little or no pesticides. The cost for these is going to be higher because raising animals and growing produce organically and naturally costs more and thus has a premium. Nutritionally, they usually isn’t any difference, but the quality of the products as well as the taste could be dramatically different. Just try to use common cents when it comes to buying organic, especially on this thanksgiving and you can come away with a quality and healthy dinner.
Are you going to buy all organic ingredients for this year’s Thanksgiving or not?
