Environment , Energy and Sustainability 2012

EEandS_12

The environment as it affects life in La Plata County
To reference the LWV-LPC 2007-2011 environmental activities, click to the Environment Archive pages to the left.

Upcoming Events.  Legislative Alerts.  La Plata Actions.  Env & Energy Legislation.  US/CO Env and Energy Positions.  LWVLPC Positions.  LWVUS Reference Materials.  Colorado and US News.  World EES News.  Correspondance from our members.  Past Events.  References.

Upcoming Events

Legislative Alerts

*2/2/12 LWVUS: EPA Must Act Without Delay to Limit GHG Emissions from Power Plants, Refineries (NEW)

Power plants and refineries account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EPA regulation of these two key sources of global warming pollution is long overdue. This two-page fact sheet reviews the status of the EPA's development of performance standards for power plants and refineries and provides talking points you can use to advocate for EPA regulations with your Members of Congress and/or incorporate into an op-ed piece for your local newspaper. Find more information about the EPA's efforts to regulate GHG emissions and toxic air pollutants in the Clean Air Defense section of the Toolkit for Climate Action. In addition, consider placing a link to the toolkit on your League's website to assist members of your League and your community in finding this helpful resource.

La Plata County Actions

*3/16/12 Durango Herald:4 LPEA hopefuls running as a bloc Candidates for electric co-op board touting renewable energy By Jim Haug
The sun was shining on a rooftop party with more than 50 people drinking red wine and eating guacamole Thursday, but Britt Bassett felt frustrated. He looked at the neighboring buildings along Main Avenue and could not find any solar panels.
"You look all over town here and you see the potential, but what do you see for actual, existing projects? Nothing," Bassett said. "Travel to Germany. They have 60 percent of the sunshine we have. You see (solar) stuff everywhere."
Bassett, who trains workers on the installation of photovoltaic panels, is one in a bloc of four candidates running for the board of directors of the La Plata Electric Association to push the local utility in a more renewable-friendly direction.
Bassett is running for District 3, the city of Durango's seat. The other "renewable-energy candidates" are Kirsten Skeehan for District 1, Archuleta County; Bruce Baizel for District 2, western La Plata County; and Heather Erb, for District 4, northern La Plata County.
"One person getting elected is not very effective," said Erb, in explaining why they're running as a group...

*3/15/12 Durango Herald:Climate plan's suggestions may re-emerge Commissioners open to individual proposals to curb greenhouse gas By Heather Scofield
La Plata County commissioners this week declined to adopt a plan that aimed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the county by 80 percent between now and 2050, but at least one commissioner indicated an interest in looking at the individual recommendations in the plan.
Commissioner Wally White moved to adopt the plan and have staff evaluate its contents after organizers requested action on the Climate & Energy Action Plan, which took more than two years, tens of thousands of dollars and an estimated 10,000 volunteer hours to produce.
Commissioners Bobby Lieb and Kellie Hotter voted against the measure, but Lieb said he would be "all ears" if individual recommendations were brought to them for consideration...

*3/13/12 Durango Herald:County declines climate proposalmLieb, Hotter fear approval of greenhouse-gas plan would fuel new regulation By Heather Scofield
On a divided vote, La Plata County commissioners declined Tuesday to formally adopt an expensive long-range plan that took 2½ years to write.
"I'm extremely disappointed," said Heather Erb, vice chairwoman of the steering committee that helped coordinate the La Plata County Climate & Energy Action Plan.
The plan outlines ways the county could cut its greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent in the next four decades.
Residents packed the commissioners chambers at the County Courthouse on Tuesday to weigh in on the plan, which was being presented to commissioners for formal acceptance and action.
The proposal, which cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce and involved numerous community members investing more than 10,000 volunteer hours over more than two years, laid out 42 possible actions commissioners' could consider to reduce the county's greenhouse-gas footprint.
Few speakers at the meeting addressed the actual recommendations made in the plan. Instead, many argued either that the document would lead to unwanted regulation and was part of an international takeover plot involving the United Nations or that the document could help the county build a more sustainable future and failure to act could indicate a lack of commitment to long-range planning...

*3/1/12 Durango Herald:WPX Energy postpones major gas drilling plan Navajo Reservoir play not as promising as others By Emery Cowan
Technological advances that are fueling a natural-gas drilling boom across the country are contributing to a bust in the San Juan Basin, a place where many of the advances were pioneered. Last week, WPX Energy, the newly independent exploration-and-production arm of Williams, announced it would postpone plans for a major horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing operation that was to begin this summer on the Middle Mesa, just north of Navajo Reservoir near the town of Allison.
Instead, the company will focus on more lucrative oil and gas plays in northeast Colorado, North Dakota and Pennsylvania, said Kelly Swan, spokesman with WPX. Until the announcement, WPX was one of the only operators in the area going forward with gas drilling. Most companies are waiting for natural-gas prices to climb, said Dave Mankiewicz, minerals manager for the Bureau of Land Management's Farmington field office, which oversees the area of WPX's proposed project...

*2/1/12 LWVLPC: Meeting with the Southwest Solar Industries Assn
Southwest Solar Industry Association Introduces itself to LPEA Members. Members of the new trade association for the solar industry in the Four Corners, Southwest Solar Industry Association (SSIA) spoke to about 30 LPEA members at LPEA's Quarterly Renewable Energy Generation meeting February 1, 2012. The group, which now consists of four local companies, was organized to educate the community and to promote the local solar industry and distributed renewable energy locally.
Current member companies are Living Solar, Shaw Solar, Solar Today and Tomorrow, and SolarWorks but they hope that solar and related businesses in the Four Corners area from Pagosa Springs to Cortez and Farmington to Silverton and on to Telluride will join them as either members or associates. They also hope to lure architects, planners and others from related disciplines to join as associates...

Environment and Energy Legislation

US/CO Environment and Energy Positions

*1/29/12 Durango Herald:"`F' is for `frack'"<+http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120129/NEWS04/701299978/`F'-is-for-`frack'> Energy industry is not backing term for hydraulic fracturing By JONATHAN FAHEY AP Energy Writer

New York:A different kind of F-word is stirring a linguistic and political debate as controversial as what it defines. The word is "fracking" + as in hydraulic fracturing, a technique long used by the oil and gas industry to free oil and gas from rock.
It's not in the dictionary, the industry hates it, and President Barack Obama didn't use it in his State of the Union speech + even as he praised federal subsidies for it. The word sounds nasty, and environmental advocates have been able to use it to generate opposition + and revulsion + to what they say is a nasty process that threatens water supplies.
"It obviously calls to mind other less socially polite terms, and folks have been able to take advantage of that," said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drilling issues...

*1/24/12 CO Dept of Public Health and Environment: State identifies Winnable Battles to improve public health and the environment

DENVER + The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment today identified 10 Winnable Battles that are key public health and environmental issues where progress can be made in the next three-five years.
Chris Urbina, executive director and chief medical officer for the department, said, "We selected these 10 Winnable Battles because they provide Colorado's greatest opportunities for ensuring the health of our citizens and visitors and the improvement and protection of our environment. All partners and stakeholders are needed and welcomed in helping address these Winnable Battles. With collective efforts, we can make a difference."...

LWVLPC Positions

*3/13/12 Durango Herald:Fracking forum drills into water use By Heather Scofield
It's a technique that has been used for decades. But as natural-gas and oil development efforts surge around the nation and controversy grows about the way the resources are pulled from the ground + through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking + some say calm heads and community education are needed now.
"I think education is of the utmost importance," said Kellie Hotter, a La Plata County commissioner. "We need to be dealing with facts and separating the emotion." Hotter was among more than 30 locals who attended an informational workshop about the topic Monday, put on by the League of Women Voters of La Plata County as theirs and other voters' leagues around the state prepare to produce a report about fracking in the coming months. Attendees, which included a range of local residents, politicians, natural-gas and oil industry representatives and environmental organizations, and even included two middle school students preparing a project on the subject, got a basic primer on development work around the state, regulations and resource needs related to fracking...

*To view the presentation given Mar 12 by Karen Spray, Environmental Specialist in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), click part 1 part 2 and part 3

*To view the presentation given Mar 12 by Bruce Baizel, Environmental Attorney with Earthworks, an oil and gas accountability project, click fracking presentation

*Monday, 3/12/12 9:30AM - 12:30PM: Hydraulic Fracking in La Plata County and Colorado 101, Pine River Valley Bank Community Room - upstairs, 1701 Main Ave., Durango, CO. Click Mar 12 Fracking to view a flier for the event.

LWVUS Reference Materials

Colorado and US News

*4/1/12 Durango Herald:The spark that ignited a fire Southern Utes aforceinenergy,past, present and future By Heather Scofield
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe is credited with leading the way for Native American tribes around the nation to develop and manage potential energy resources. "I think many tribes keep an eye on the Southern Utes," said Tracey LeBeau, director for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs. "They have set a great example for Indian Country on tribal energy development."
It started decades ago when the tribe took the lead in developing and distributing its formidable natural-gas reserves. It then funneled those returns into a diversity of investments + everything from real estate to alternative energy...

*4/1/12 Durango Herald:Tribes power up Clean energy potential on reservations could be a game-changer for tribes and nation By Heather Scofield
The United States pays a huge price for its dependence on foreign oil, both in dollars drained from consumers' pocketbooks and in loss of control of its destiny.
So, for the financial well-being of the nation and in the interest of national security, President Barack Obama has made development of alternative domestic energy sources a cornerstone of his energy policy. That commitment is backed with millions of federal dollars, some of which has gone to many of the hundreds of Native American tribes sitting on resources needed to bring alternative sources of electricity flowing to homes and businesses. "Overall, there's a huge resource on Indian lands all over the country," said William Brown, of New Mexico-based Sage West consultants & The Climate Reality project.
Brown said if just one-third of the solar capability on the Navajo nation's vast reservation lands were developed, it would produce enough energy "to power the entire nation through the rest of this century." Wind resources of tribal lands on the Great Plains from Texas to Canada could power 50 million homes. "That's a vast amount of energy," Brown said.
If the resources on the nation's tribal lands, otherwise referred to as "Indian Country," are heavily developed, it could mean lower rates for electricity, new directions for the nation's energy industry and a new economic reality for some Native American tribes and their neighboring communities...

*3/18/12 Durango Herald:Hickenlooper steps in to debate about drilling control Governor wants to prevent all 64 counties from writing own rules By Joe Hanel
DENVER + Gov. John Hickenlooper has waded into an oil slick at the state Capitol, seeking to resolve a fight over how much control local governments have over gas and oil drilling.
Hickenlooper this week announced a task force to study the issue and report back to him by April 18, three weeks before the Legislature adjourns for the year.
People on all sides of the debate are skeptical of his move, especially in counties such as La Plata, which has a long history of local regulation over gas and oil.
So far, lawmakers have been at a stalemate on the issue. A Republican bill would have ended all local control. It died in the Democratic-controlled Senate. A Democratic bill would have asserted local authority. It died in the Republican-controlled House...

*2/27/12 Durango Herald editorial:Cities selling water for fracking Industry cannot be allowed to outbid all other uses
The Denver Post website headline was routine, and the story was just a few paragraphs and a link to a longer piece in the Loveland Reporter-Herald. The topic, though, was one of the most important in the state: "Sales of Loveland water increasing for Front Range hydraulic fracturing use."
The story was accompanied by a picture of a water-service employee turning off a fire hydrant after filling several trucks headed for drilling sites. Municipalities often allow water haulers to use hydrants because opening them helps to flush water lines. The hydrants are metered, and haulers pay premium prices of about twice the rate as residential customers, helping to keep water departments' enterprise funds in the black.
"As gas producers expand their operations into the western fringe of the Wattenberg field in Larimer and Boulder counties," the Reporter-Herald said, "their demands for water reach into municipalities up and down the Front Range, Loveland among them."

Each underground fracking process requires about 500,000 gallons, or approximately 1.5 acre feet...

*2/27/12 NYTimes:How to Extract Gas Responsibly By JOE NOCERA
Fracking isn't going away.
To put it another way, the technique of hydraulic fracturing, used to extract natural gas from once-impossible-to-get-at reservoirs like the Marcellus Shale that lies beneath New York and Pennsylvania, has more than proved its value. At this point, shale gas, as it's called, makes up more than 30 percent of the country's natural gas supply, up from 2 percent in 2001 -- a figure that is sure to keep rising. Fracking's enemies can stamp their feet all they want, but that gas is too important to leave it in the ground.
Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, understands this as well as anyone. Last summer, he was a member of a small federal advisory panel that was charged by Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, with assessing the problems associated with fracking. The group came up with a long list of environmental issues. But it also concluded that "the U.S. shale gas resource has enormous potential to provide economic and environmental benefits for the country."
One thing I've always liked about the Environmental Defense Fund is its hardheaded approach. Founded by scientists, it believes in data, not hysteria. It promotes market incentives to change behavior and isn't afraid to work with industry. Utterly nonpartisan, it is oriented toward practical policy solutions.
And that has been its approach to fracking. When I spoke to him recently, Krupp didn't back away from the idea that domestic natural gas could be the "bridge fuel" that helps bring us toward a renewable energy future. Unlike others in the environmental movement, he and his colleagues at the Environmental Defense Fund don't want to shut down fracking; rather, their goal is to work with the states where most of the shale gas lies and help devise smart regulations that would make fracking environmentally safer.

*2/25/12 NYTimes editorial:A Good Question By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN An e-mail came in the other day with a subject line that I couldn't ignore. It was from the oil economist Phil Verleger, and it read: "Should the United States join OPEC?" That I had to open.
Verleger's basic message was that the knee-jerk debate we're again having over who is responsible for higher oil prices fundamentally misses huge changes that have taken place in America's energy output, making us again a major oil and gas producer -- and potential exporter -- with an interest in reasonably high but stable oil prices.
From one direction, he says, we're seeing the impact of the ethanol mandate put in place by President George W. Bush, which established fixed quantities of biofuels to be used in gasoline. When this is combined with improved vehicle fuel economy -- in July, the auto industry agreed to achieve fleet averages of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025 -- it will inevitably drive down demand for gasoline and create more surplus crude to export. Add to that, says Verleger, "the increase in oil production from offshore fields and unconventional sources in America," and that exportable U.S. surplus could grow even bigger...

*2/26/12 Durango Herald:Wastewater a key issue in N.Y.'s fracking debate MARY ESCH Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. + One of the most contentious issues in the debate over shale gas drilling in New York's share of the Marcellus Shale region + how to handle millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater + remains unsettled. As the state ponders final regulations, environmental advocates say the issue is a glaring gap in preparations.
"What's disconcerting is that while the state raises a number of possibilities, there isn't any real clear sense as to what the path forward is going to be," said Mark Brownstein, deputy director of the Environmental Defense Fund's national energy program. "On an issue as important as this, all of us who commented from the environmental community are looking for greater clarity."
There are three options for waste disposal in the state Department of Environmental Conservation's 1,500-page environmental review and proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of deep horizontal wells for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale:

• Truck the millions of gallons of wastewater produced per well to a treatment facility and either discharge the treated water into a river or reuse it for another drilling project.
• Ship it out of state for deep-well injection disposal.
• Recycle it on-site for drilling multiple wells...

  *1/12/12 Durango Herald:The top global-warming source? New data show power plants in the United States are the culprits By DINA CAPPIELLO Associated Press WASHINGTON + The most detailed data yet about emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming. Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global-warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions. According to an Associated Press analysis of the data, 20 mostly coal-fired power plants in 15 states account for the top-releasing facilities. Gina McCarthy, the top air official at the EPA, said the database marked "a major milestone" in the agency's work to address climate change. She said it would help industry, states and the federal government identify ways to reduce greenhouse gases. The Obama administration plans to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases under existing law. A proposed regulation to address pollution from new power plants could be released as early as this month...

World EES News

Correspondance from our members

Past Events

*Monday, 3/12/12 9:30AM - 12:30PM: Hydraulic Fracking in La Plata County and Colorado 101, Pine River Valley Bank Community Room - upstairs, 1701 Main Ave., Durango, CO.

• Click Fracking meeting summary to view a summary of the 3/12/12 meeting.

• To view the presentation given Mar 12 by Karen Spray, Environmental Specialist in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), click part 1 part 2 and part 3

• To view the presentation given Mar 12 by Bruce Baizel, Environmental Attorney with Earthworks, an oil and gas accountability project, click fracking presentation

• Click Mar 12 Fracking to view a flier for the event.

*3/13/12 Durango Herald:Fracking forum drills into water use By Heather Scofield
It's a technique that has been used for decades. But as natural-gas and oil development efforts surge around the nation and controversy grows about the way the resources are pulled from the ground + through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking + some say calm heads and community education are needed now.
"I think education is of the utmost importance," said Kellie Hotter, a La Plata County commissioner. "We need to be dealing with facts and separating the emotion." Hotter was among more than 30 locals who attended an informational workshop about the topic Monday, put on by the League of Women Voters of La Plata County as theirs and other voters' leagues around the state prepare to produce a report about fracking in the coming months. Attendees, which included a range of local residents, politicians, natural-gas and oil industry representatives and environmental organizations, and even included two middle school students preparing a project on the subject, got a basic primer on development work around the state, regulations and resource needs related to fracking...

References

*3/11/12 LWV of Larimer County: video "CrossCurrents - Water For Fracking: At What Cost? The Larimer County League of Women Voters held a discussion on Fracking in Colorado that focused on water-related issues. The program was produced with Fort Collins City Cable 14.

*2/2/12 LWVUS: Toolkit for Climate Action

*1/20/12 Wired Magazine: Why the Clean Tech Boom Went Bust By Juliet Eilperin
John Doerr was crying. The billionaire venture capitalist had come to the end of his now-famous March 8, 2007, TED talk on climate change and renewable energy, and his emotions were getting the better of him. Doerr had begun by describing how his teenage daughter told him that it was up to his generation to fix global warming, since they had caused it. After detailing how the public and private sectors had so far failed at this, Doerr, who made his fortune investing early in companies that became some of Silicon Valley's biggest names--Netscape, Amazon.com, and Google, among others--exhorted the audience and his peers (largely one and the same) to band together and transform the nation's energy supply. "I really, really hope we multiply all of our energy, all of our talent, and all of our influence to solve this problem," he said, falling silent as he fought back tears. "Because if we do, I can look forward to the conversation I'm going to have with my daughter in 20 years."...
Just as Solyndra was starting to take off and needed more money for expansion, the venture capital climate began to cool. The 2008 financial collapse erased a quarter of the gains VC firms had made between 2003 and 2007, and the sudden paucity of capital--combined with the difficulty of taking smaller companies public--hit renewable startups particularly hard. Venture investments in clean tech fell from $4.1 billion in 2008 to $2.5 billion in 2009...
There was an additional factor at work: impatience. Venture capitalists tend to work on three- to five-year horizons. As they were quickly finding out, energy companies don't operate on those timelines. Consider a recent analysis by Matthew Nordan, a venture capitalist who specializes in energy and environmental technology. Of all the energy startups that received their first VC funds between 1995 and 2007, only 1.8 percent achieved what he calls "unambiguous success," meaning an initial public offering on a major exchange. The average time from founding to IPO was 8.3 years. "If you're signing up to build a clean-tech winner," Nordan wrote in a blog post, "reserve a decade of your life."...

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