Cross Posted at Earth Friendly Shopping

I have been thinking about Al Gore’s renewable energy challenge recently. On July 17, he challenged this country to commit to producing 100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon free sources within 10 years. I have asked myself what the purpose of the speech was. Now, maybe it is exactly what he said, maybe he was laying out a vision for an achievable goal.

Interesting story developing today that says a lot about the sad state of regulation under the Bush administration.

This morning, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the EPA to stop the continued use of a pesticide called endosulfan, which has already been banned by the European Union and 20 other countries, according to Kathryn Gilje, director of the Pesticide Action Network.

The suit, which was brought by a coalition of farm worker, public health and environmental groups demands that the EPA ban endosulfan, which is a DDT-like organochlorine. The groups charge that endosulfan is persistent in the environment and poisons humans and wildlife both in agricultural areas and in regions far from where it was applied.

"This dangerous and antiquated pesticide should have been off the market years ago," said Karl Tupper, a staff scientist with Pesticide Action Network. "The fact that EPA is still allowing the use of a chemical this harmful shows just how broken our regulatory system is."

Acute poisoning from endosulfan can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, and in extreme cases, unconsciousness and even death.

Seattle P-I

This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!  The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing—not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

With everyone paying due attention to the oil spill (now 80 miles and growing) on the river, a key story from yesterday's Times-Picayune got lost in the noise.

For years, writers, geologists, climate scientists and pols have discussed the value of coastal wetlands in flood protection.  I recently reiterated that a smart presidential candidate could even reverse my state's reddening trend with a commitment to restoring Louisiana's coast.

But, throughout all the discussions, no one has ever specified just how much flood protection bang wetlands offer for the preservation/restoration buck.  Now someone has.

I’ve been doing some serious retroflecting now that we’re nearing the end of the George W. Bush era, and I’m thinking that maybe we who consider ourselves to be environmentalists should actually be grateful to the man for the way that he’s dealt with climate change.

Now stay with me on this.

Any kind of study on the functionality of individuals, society, and governments has to deal with the area of compassion. As we have learned over the past 70+ years of the New Deal, compassion is essential for governments, society, and individuals to function. Without it, people will have no stake even if Dennis Kucinich were running for office. Without it, people would be killing and being killed, and society would not function as people would be quarreling over little things. Without it, people cannot be happy in this life. Nietzsche himself said that people have to operate based on consequences, and the consequences in this case are clear enough.

Bush wants Congress to lift the ban on developing Oil Shale on federal lands on the Green River Plateau in Colorado and Utah.

That brought an immediate response from Colorado's Democratic Governor Bill Ritter:

GOV. RITTER CRITICIZES FEDS OVER OIL SHALE REGULATIONS

"Someday the technology may exist that will allow us to responsibly extract oil from Colorado shale. But that day is years away. That day will only come when crucial questions about impacts to water, air quality, wildlife and our local communities -- are fully understood and answered. That day is not today. This was a premature and unnecessary act by the federal government that is not supported by science or technology.

Extracting oil from shale rock is an extremely dirty, insanely carbon intensive process, that will dump huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere because the shale rock has to be heated to 700 degrees to get the oil out.

 The Stranded Wind Initiative was founded last December with an eye on, well, rescuing stranded wind.

  How does wind get stranded in the first place? Simple – if you have a wind energy resource in place that lacks both the population to use its power and the transmission lines to get it out of the area it is stranded.

  We started looking for local electricity intense manufacturing that made sense in Iowa’s wind patch and the first thing that came to mind was ammonia production driven by water hydrolysis rather than the current method, which uses natural gas and produces 4% of the total global CO2 emissions. It didn’t work out in Iowa for a variety of technical reasons that may eventually be resolved, but earlier this week something very nice happened here in New England ...

Thank you for considering my comments on the Draft Management Plan for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Monument.  

NOAA's recent report on the state of coral reefs in U.S. waters showed the critical importance of conservation within the monument's limits. Conservation must be the prime directive. Other objectives must be pursued only to the extent that they are compatible with conservation.

The Monument is critical habitat to highly endangered species.

Endangered Turtle Rescue

As we discussed launching a Netroots platform in the run-up to Netroots Nation, the consistent theme in people's comments was, "I can't make it to Austin, how do I get my ideas into the platform?!?!?"

The concept, initially proposed by Jerome Armstrong, was to open the site to the world after kicking it off with a pair of Netroots Nation workshops.

That means now anyone can help create the Netroots platform - including YOU!

Just go here:

www.netrootsplatform.org

Read on for the details...

WOW.
What a bad day for the drill, drill, drill crowd.

COLLAPSE #1 FOR THE REPUBLICAN DRILL, DRILL, DRILL PLAN

The party of John McCain and Exxon released the perfect status-quo, oil-company-designed Energy Plan today.

While despoiling the steps of the Capitol Republicans revealed their laughable Big Oil Giveaway today.
AND THE REPUBLICANS WERE MET WITH A LARGE COUNTER - PROTEST.

UPDATE: NEW HEADLINES

Embarassing turnout for Republicans at House GOP drilling event

Protesters Overrun GOP Event

I remember watching An Inconvenient Truth and being thoroughly unsurprised at much of the evidence - nonpartisan science has long since confirmed the fact that man's wanton burning of carbon-based fuels is contributing to the atmosphere in a way that gradually rises temperatures worldwide, leading to a host of complications.  I considered myself an environmentalist before then, and I still do - Al Gore didn't make me into one, but he sure as hell helped keep me that way.

Then Leonardo DiCaprio made an environmental documentary.  I knew then I had to do something different.

I had to start peeing in my sink.

More below the fold.

I wasn't going to read Elizabeth Kolbert's "New Yorker" piece on the Danish island of Samsø because I'd covered it already and because I heard her talk on the radio;  but a friend sent me a copy and I found that the second half of the article was all about the 2,000-Watt Society, a very interesting idea and a concept I'd been looking for.

2,000 Watts per person per year (or 17,520 kWh) is what we produce now.  It is a baseline for sustainability, at least, this is what the scientists of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology believe.  This 2,000 Watts includes all activities - working, eating, traveling, and investment in common infrastructure.  Currently, Switzerland is a 5,000 Watt society and most other Western European countries are 6,000 Watt societies.  The USA and Canada consume 12,000 Watts per person per year.

"At first glance, the objective of a 2,000-watt society appears unrealistic, but the necessary technology already exists,"  says Moritz Leuenberger, head of the Swiss Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications.

When you think of New York City our subway system is probably one of the first things that comes to mind. If you've been here for a visits in the past 10 years or so you probably noticed that the subway is in a lot better shape, trains are frequent and they run all night. (Not even London has trains that run all night) There is more to NYC's public transportation network than the subway, we also have busses, and a huge commuter rail system. So, one needs to ask why is such a great service that is so important to the city economically is constantly struggling with funding? The answer? No one wants to pay In the end, that's what it all comes down to. So, now we're facing another fare hike, and the usual news cycle that follows fare hikes where every politician in the city pretends that the MTA has a "bloated" budget and that they could somehow magically do everything they do now (AND MORE!) without any extra funding. (It's magic!)

Big Oil lobbyists will rush down the Capitol steps today like kids on Christmas morning and they won’t believe their eyes. Letting them drill for more oil in more places and only hot air on energy efficiency – House Republicans want to give them everything Big Oil has asked for.

Big Oil has been good this year to candidates of both parties, but particularly to Republicans. According to OpenSecrets.org, just three oil companies – BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil – have contributed $1,067,139 to Republican candidates in the 2008 election cycle alone. But go back to 1990 and those three Big Oil companies have given an astounding $19,909,655 to Republican candidates.

The news about the huge rally in Oakland yesterday, where the Teamsters joined together with more than 3,000 environmental, community and labor advocates to call for clean air and good jobs at the Port of Oakland - through the implementation of a comprehensive clean trucks program, reminded me of a guy at Netroots Nation who asked me why labor and the environmentalists are not working together. Clearly he was not fully aware of what labor is doing, or alternatively, thought labor should be doing more; I don't know.

Cross posted at UnionReview

Today's Congress Party victory on the No-Confidence motion in New Dehli got scant coverage in U.S. media, reported more in the business press for its likely trade benefits to the American nuclear industry than for its profound social implications and probable beneficial impact with respect to Global Warming. The Indian decision to greatly expand its use of Carbon-free sources to meet its rapidly growing energy demand is the single greatest victory to date on Climate Change.

Running neck and neck for that title, however, is the epiphany of veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens, now an evangelist for a greatly expanded U.S. Wind Power sector, who recently dug into his very deep pockets to risk $4 Billion of his own cash on the world's largest wind energy project. His plan to convert 20% of American electric generating capacity to Renewable Energy represents greater progress on Climate Change and Energy Independence than all of the policies of the last eight administrations - of both parties - put together.

These are cause for Hope... (more...)

Urgent: Last day for comments July 23 to request stronger protection for the world's largest marine protected area, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The draft Monument management plan fails to make conservation of the monument's unique marine ecosystem paramount. The draft plan allows tourism, construction, military activities and cruises ships. These activities are inconsistent with protection of endangered birds, endangered marine mammals and unique indigenous marine species. Moreover, the draft plan removes citizen oversight. The highly endangered species of the NW Hawaiian islands need your help.

Please sign this petition. and Submit your comments.

Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal NOAA