Switchboard, from NRDC :: U.S. Law and Policy

Air Regulators, Please Adopt Our Highways

2010-03-19T00:54:35Z

The Adopt-a-Highway program has had success in removing litter from our roadways. Even though our roadways may be prettier due to the lack of litter, a harm related to roads exists that in many ways is more frightening. The harm emanates from the noxious stew of pollutants from the cars and trucks that rumble down our highways each day.

A barrage of studies have highlighted the major impacts on the health and welfare of residents associated with living in close proximity to highways. For example, a recent study from researchers at the University of Southern California (“USC”) found that artery wall thickening among people living within 100 meters of a Los Angeles highway progressed twice as quickly as those who lived farther away. Another Southern California study from the USC research team documented the impairment of normal lung development from long term exposure to highway pollution among children between the ages of 10 and 18.

This severe public health issue impacts many throughout the country. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 35 million Americans live within 100 meters of major highways. In the Los Angeles region, there are approximately 1.5 million people residing near major roadways. Thus, significant populations are suffering from the lack of action to clean up the air in our highway corridors.

But, we are seeing more and more attention given to this issue, and now it is just a matter of our regulators catching up. A recent article in LA Weekly by Patrick Range McDonald highlighted this issue through the lens of the stylish lofts that are popping up around Los Angeles near our major highways. I suppose the real question these days is how much more information needs to be generated before our agencies take serious action to protect the millions of residents impacted by living close to highways.

Fed up with a lack of action, a coalition of health, environmental, and environmental justice groups asked top environmental officials in California to take this critical public health threat more seriously. The groups asked that our lead air pollution control agencies, including the California Air Resources Board, work together to more fully monitor the levels of pollution near highways. Currently, there has been an unwillingness to even place long-term air pollution monitors near highways in California. Apparently, some fear that we might uncover a public health issue that may be difficult to solve. This approach is akin to going to a doctor and having that doctor not run a test for fear that she may have to prescribe some medicine. We cannot continue to stick our heads in the sand and ignore the harm highway pollution is imposing on those living close to roads. The stakes are just too high.

On World Water Day: Water and Sanitation Receiving High Level Political Attention

2010-03-18T15:59:15Z

Monday, March 22nd 2010 is recognized by the United Nations as World Water Day, a time to raise awareness of the global water crisis and focus on the solutions. The challenge is tremendous, almost 900 million people lack safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation (or safe toilets). NRDC has fought for clean water for decades and I am happy to report that my colleagues are writing this week about water’s intersection with so many environmental and health issues.

The Obama Administration has recognized the importance of the issue and is reaching out with key events to demonstrate its commitment to global water. I just finished a call this morning with Under Secretary of State Maria Otero about water policy during which she laid out key priorities for U.S. water activities around the world.

Under Secretary Otero announced that on World Water Day, Secretary Clinton will reinforce the U.S. commitment to global water – focusing on increased access to safe water and sanitation and improving the efficiency and management of water resources. Otero said they are working toward long-term sustainable solutions to prevent water from becoming a growing source of conflict and tension. The Under Secretary’s recognition of the role of watershed management is important to highlight, and a key part of the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Report. Notably the Obama Administration plans to integrate their food security and global health initiatives into U.S. water policy, through a comprehensive approach to development and water.

Otero stated:

Water is essential to all that we do, we can’t do without it and its irreplaceable.

Lack of clean water and sanitation is the second leading cause of death of children under five around the world. We need to use water more effectively and conserve water. As people around the world are facing the impacts of climate change especially the increases of floods and droughts – we know that managing water wisely is more critical.

These comments are very welcome from the Administration, but we also need Congress to act. That is why NRDC is calling upon Congress to increase funding for water and sanitation programming and we are working with over 30 organizations to raise awareness about the water and sanitation crisis.

In Washington DC on Tuesday March 23, 2010 you can make a difference by taking action on Capitol Hill for those who lack water and sanitation.

Two ways to get involved:

Sign up for advocacy day on the hill by clicking on the link and signing up-you can participate in meetings with Members of Congress and their staff throughout the day. This event begins at 9:00 a.m. with activities lasting throughout the day, including participation in the World’s Longest Toilet Queue.
If you’ve only got one hour: Meet us at Upper Senate Park for a rally on the hill. Students, educators and politicians will gather to form a line at Upper Senate Park to make the 'World’s Longest Toilet Queue'. Our ‘Queue’ is part of a global mobilization to demonstrate solidarity with those who have no clean water or safe sanitation and show Congress that they must increase resources to solve the global water and sanitation crisis.

The line forms at exactly 1:30 and will be completed by 1:45!

Let’s show the Administration and Congress that the time is now to confront the global water crisis and win!

Sometimes We All Agree – A Host of New Consensus Efficiency Standards on the Table in the Senate Today

2010-03-10T15:46:16Z

My fellow efficiency advocates and I have spent countless hours over the last year negotiating with manufacturers of every appliance and piece of equipment imaginable, trying to reach agreements on what the next energy standards will look like. These standards set the minimum level of efficiency that every product covered must meet to be sold and are generally set by the Department of Energy. Sometimes, advocates and industry can reach an agreement before DOE gets involved, using creative solutions that may outside the scope of a DOE rulemaking, and on products that DOE does not yet cover.

Negotiations on these products go back and forth and get into the most obscure technical details. Where do we set the bar? What products won’t make the cut? What is the time frame? How do we deal with this or that niche product? These questions are just the beginning.

In many cases, the sides are just too far apart – but sometimes we can actually make a deal. And against the backdrop of a revitalized DOE, we have crossed the finish line on a host of products that are included in S. 3059, the National Energy Efficiency Enhancement Act of 2010, which was the topic of a hearing in the Senate Energy committee today.

This bill sets new consensus efficiency standards for many products, many of which I have blogged on before,

Huge, huge savings. 70 million metric tons of CO2 per year and over 1.2 quads annually in 2030.

This isn’t the only great bill being considered today that we have worked hard on. S. 1696, The Green Gaming Act of 2009, directs DOE to conduct a study on video game console energy use and consider standards for these products.

Roughly 40% of homes in the US have at least one video game console. These consoles vary widely in energy use - the Nintendo Wii only uses around 20 watts when on, whereas the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 consume up to 7 times as much energy, depending on the model you purchased.

The energy intensive consoles consume as much or more power to operate as many hi-end computers, except video game consoles do not automatically go to sleep and enter a low power mode when left on. If you leave the XBOX 360 or PS3 on all the time, which a fair amount of users do, then you are looking at the annual energy use equal to roughly two new refrigerators!

Lastly, S.3054, includes new standards for hot food holding cabinets, hot tubs, and water dispensers. Hot food, hot tubs, and cold water, as Sen. Menendez said during the hearing, all obtained much more efficiently.

These bills are examples of what can be done in nearly every industry for energy efficiency. These manufacturers decided it was in their best interest to work with us to figure out how to make their products more efficient, with certainty on dates and levels, rather than starting a lobbying war against energy efficiency and all its benefits. Now that the ink is dry, we will all benefit.

Protecting Tennessee From Mountaintop Coal Mining

2010-03-10T13:30:44Z

As we study the universe, sending telescopes into other solar systems and far off galaxies, one thing has become abundantly clear: perhaps the rarest phenomenon in the universe is organic life.

To date, despite all our intergalactic travel and research, we have established that living organisms exist only in the biosphere surrounding just one planet, our Earth. The biosphere, the very narrow band that contains all the known life in the universe, is tiny, stretching from about three miles up, to the top of the Earth’s atmosphere, to about two miles down, to the depths of the oceans. Yup, that’s it: the biosphere, three miles up, two miles down. That is the only location we know of in the universe where life exists. If we were to find a life form, even one as tiny as bacteria or a virus, on another planet or moon, it would be front page news. Life is indeed a rare thing.

Our daunting task in the 21st century is the preservation of the functional integrity of the biosphere, on which all life depends. And yet, to date, humanity’s chief interest in the biosphere has been to maximize the plunder of its great store of natural resources. Humanity has instigated unprecedented rates of ecological damage at a global scale. And although humanity adds up to a small share of the Earth’s total living matter, we have been responsible for all the damaging changes to all forms of life within the biosphere.

Yesterday, that fact, the extraordinary rarity of life, the urgency to protect every remaining creature that lives within our biosphere, kept running through my chattering mind over and over while I attended two hearings in the Tennessee state legislature.

Both hearings, one in the Tennessee Senate and one in the House, addressed bills designed to limit mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in the state, and both hearings brought into sharp relief how hard it is to tackle this ecological and cultural calamity.

The legislation being considered by the Tennessee legislature is simple and modest in scope: Each bill would merely prohibit surface mining on mountain ridgelines in Tennessee above 2,000 feet high. Not all of the mountains in Tennessee at risk of being blown apart for mountaintop removal coal mining (or a linguistic variation of it known as “cross ridge mining”) are higher than 2,000 feet, so the legislation would not entirely end the threat of MTR in Tennessee. But the bills would provide meaningful ecological and public health value, limiting MTR to lower elevations, fewer steep slopes and heights less subject to landslides.

And the bills would protect the Cumberland Plateau from MTR. The Cumberland Plateau is one of the world’s great biological treasures and an NRDC BioGem.

Some of the most important and rare forms of life found in Tennessee’s biologically diverse forests enjoy the higher elevations of the Plateau. For example, the Cerulean Warbler likes those higher elevations on the Northern Plateau. (It munches on insects found on the underside of hardwood leaves, keeping trees healthy.) So does Swainson’s Warbler, the Louisiana Waterthrush, the Worm-Eating Warbler, the Wood Thrush, the Acadian Flycatcher and the Kentucky Warbler.

According the greatest authority on Cerulean Warblers, Melinda Welton, that bird is perhaps the single most threatened songbird in North America. Its population throughout the United States has dropped by 82 percent in the last forty years, 88 percent in Tennessee during that same period. Habitat degradation from deforestation and fragmentation are the principle causes of its decline. Still, the Northern Cumberland Plateau region in Tennessee continues to host the single largest concentration of Cerulean Warblers reported from anywhere within its range. (see http://www.welovebirds.org/)

Unfortunately for the Cerulean Warbler, the region it most depends on for survival is the region in Tennessee most coveted by coal mining companies for mountaintop removal coal mining. The Tennessee Valley Authority alone owns 55,000 acres in the Northern Cumberland Plateau area, on which it could mine coal. MTR coal mining is a prime cause of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Appalachia, precisely the type of threats that are wiping out the Cerulean Warbler and other forms of life in the southeast United States. But perhaps there is room for hope: Some of the Northern Cumberland Plateau area is above 2,000 feet in elevation, and there are two bills in the Tennessee legislature that would prohibit MTR coal mining at those elevations.

Perhaps my thoughts about the uniqueness of life kept wafting through my mind because of a meeting I had earlier yesterday with the Reverend Ryan Bennett. Rev. Bennett, an elder in the United Methodist Church and pastor of the Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Franklin, Tennessee, was also attending the hearings because he belongs to a coalition of religious groups that support the bills to limit MTR in order to do what they can to protect God’s creation.

The Southern Baptist Church, the Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church have all taken official positions against mountaintop removal coal mining, the most destructive form of coal mining on Earth. Rev. Bennett was at the hearings yesterday with numerous other members of the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship, (LEAF) a religious coalition committed to protecting “The Earth…and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) LEAF is the prime backer of the legislation to stop MTR in Tennessee. LEAF’s Legislative Director, a charming church lady named Dawn Coppock, is the person most responsible for the progress of the MTR-limiting legislation in Tennessee.

The work of LEAF resonates strongly in me because my religion teaches that Nature reveals God. According to the Talmud, creation is not merely an act in the past. The processes of Nature represent the unceasing and ongoing creative power of the Divine. “Every hour He makes provision for all who come into the world according to their need. In His Grace He satisfies all creatures.” Every hour. Provision for all creatures. (Everyman’s Talmud, at P. 3.)

And the work of LEAF resonates in me as well because it is rational as well as spiritual, based on scientific fact as well as ethics.

Science is not just another opinion, and science tells us that there is no way to undertake MTR coal mining without causing irreparable harm and even death to many life forms, homo sapiens included.

So, along with church ladies and Reverends, also in attendance at the MTR hearings in Tennessee yesterday were scientists. Dr. Dennis Lemly, one of the world’s great authorities on selenium, testified powerfully about the effects that MTR has in causing selenium pollution: “Selenium from mountaintop removal mining poisons fish. Selenium threatens wildlife as well as fish. It bioaccumulates and threatens the entire food chain. The impacts are pervasive and irreversible.”

Selenium is a naturally occurring element in coal. It leaches from coal, from mining spoils and from valley fills. It leaches through waste rock. According to Dr. Lemly, “There is no way you can do MTR without selenium contamination. Selenium pollution will increase if MTR increases. Tennessee is facing a very serious situation with regard to water pollution and dead fish due to selenium poisoning.”

Last year, Tennessee enacted a law that would keep mines 100 feet from water bodies. According to Dr. Lemly, that was a “token effort” not likely to offer meaningful protection. “Fish are being poisoned from MTR sites as far as 13 miles away from the mine site. MTR sites in Tennessee are ticking time bombs and four have been allowed to explode.”

I remember my first visit to the Zeb Mountain MTR site in northern Tennessee. It was many years ago, when the mine had just begun. First I flew over it, and then visited it by car. Within ten minutes of my arrival at the gate to the mine, where I thought I was alone with my local guide, a local sheriff arrived who made it clear that he didn’t appreciate my effort to view the site. The waters running off the mine were acidic, nothing seemed alive in them. The rocks in the streams were orange and red, with ferrous and other elements leaching out due to the acidic quality of the water. According to Dr. Lemly, “A time bomb has exploded on Zeb Mountain. Selenium pollution has started and it will not stop. Things are in bad shape on Zeb Mountain. There are extremely high levels of selenium pollution that will lead to reproductive failure in fish populations, the situation is grim. Groundwater is also at risk and will affect human health.”

Photo of Zeb Mountain, United Mountain Defense

Other pollutants besides selenium that are released because of MTR coal mining include mercury, lead, arsenic, nickel, copper, and zinc.

The good news for Tennessee is that information from mining in other states provides a useful toxicological data base that can be used to protect against repeating the same mistakes in Tennessee. Says Dr. Lemly, “The information about mining in other areas is there. Look at West Virginia, at Kentucky. Don’t ignore that. The poisoning from MTR is inevitable and inescapable. Water quality will be gone and it will not come back. Out west selenium is still discharging from closed mines that were started 100 years ago. It doesn’t stop. I don’t know how we can ignore the science.”

According to Dr. Lemly, the selenium levels at Zeb Mountain are 40 times higher than the tolerable toxicity threshold in fish. “And I don’t mean fish no one cares about, I’m talking about the major fish species, largemouth bass, blue gills, the kind you and I like to fish for.” Selenium pollution of water resources near Zeb Mountain are 20 times higher than the level at which we expect to see reproductive failure, and 8 times higher than the toxicity level at which we would expect to see the collapse of the entire fish population. According to Dr. Lemly: “I think there is a high probability that the homes around Zeb Mountain have water quality problems.”

Another professor, Dr. Orie Louks, testified at the hearings about the effects of MTR on forest productivity. According to Dr. Louks, “Forest productivity collapses post-MTR. It is very difficult to reestablish trees post MTR. Trying to do so, to restore the land, would put coal operators out of business.” Scientists estimate that post MTR forests will not recover for 10,000 years.

Sometimes, enacting environmental regulations can challenge an industry. But in this case putting MTR coal operators out of business would be a good thing for the economy. According to Dr. Louks: “MTR takes away forest-based jobs and takes away underground mining jobs.” In Tennessee, there are less than 400 jobs in the surface mining industry. By contrast, tourism produces $14 billion worth of economic activity in the state and tens of thousands of jobs.

As I sat in the Tennessee Legislature’s hearing room, I thought of the diverse interests aligned that day against MTR: evangelical and other religious groups, scientists, and those interested in protecting the much more lucrative—and clean--tourism industry from the ravages of MTR coal mining. Religious groups, scientists, business interests, all aligned against MTR.

And yet, as I met after the hearings with a senior Tennessee government official, I was told there was probably no way that the bills under consideration to limit MTR coal mining in Tennessee would pass. “The coal companies own them. They finance their campaigns.” was what I was told, in reference to the Tennessee state legislators unmoved by the compelling ethics, the peer-reviewed science and the community economics aligned against MTR coal mining.

One might reasonably think that a pro-business coalition of religious groups and scientists might prevail in limiting MTR in Tennessee to “only” those mountains lower than 2,000 feet. And yet, I’m told the odds are slim for passage. We’ll see. The story isn’t over, not yet. After all, only God should move mountains, and sometimes, He does.

California Restores Its Energy Efficiency Leadership

2010-03-08T19:54:08Z

A new paper released by NRDC today describes how California restored its energy efficiency leadership by enacting smart policies over the last decade. These energy efficiency programs provide enormous economic and environmental benefits to the state.

We released the paper at the U.C. Davis Energy Efficiency Center’s Symposium honoring Dr. Arthur Rosenfeld, recently retired member of the California Energy Commission. NRDC’s paper is dedicated to Dr. Rosenfeld, “whose visionary leadership in the field of energy efficiency has inspired new generations to follow in his footsteps.” If energy efficiency could carry a flag, it would look like the aptly named “Rosenfeld Curve:”

Per Capita Electricity Consumption

In the 1970s, California embarked on an uncharted path to pursue energy efficiency, and it has yielded impressive results. The idea that consumers can get the same level of service – light, heat, and other modern day necessities – while using less energy, once a new and untested concept, is now a proven tool to deliver huge benefits for consumers. A short list of benefits from energy efficiency includes: it saves customers money on their utility bills, creates net growth in jobs, helps drive the wheels of innovation, and it cleans the air and helps curb global warming to boot.

Energy efficiency programs help customers lower their energy bills by providing information and rebates on more efficient products. (Find out what programs you can take advantage of by calling your local utility or Flex Your Power.)

In the early 1990s, California became a leader on energy efficiency, only to let its programs fall by the wayside as the state rushed into its now infamous deregulation experiment. In the aftermath of California’s electricity crisis, the state began reassembling the policies necessary to support energy efficiency. Smart policies enacted over the last decade have restored the state’s leadership, and the energy efficiency programs’ achievements are remarkable:

California’s programs increased net benefits (that is, the benefits after deducting all the costs) to consumers nearly five-fold over the last decade, totaling nearly $5 billion.
California increased its energy savings almost six-fold in the last decade, reaching more than 3,400 GWh of annual savings in 2008. (Translation: in 2008, the state saved the same amount of energy it takes to power all the households in San Francisco and San Mateo counties combined.)
The efficiency costs less than half of what the baseload power that it replaces costs, coming in at 3 c/kWh instead of 8 c/kWh.
California's economic productivity for every kWh of electricity consumed has improved over 50% in real dollars since 1980. (In contrast, the rest of the US has improved only 15%.)
In 2008, the pollution savings from efficiency programs (which have accumulated since the state first began programs in earnest in the mid-1970s) totaled nearly 1,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen-oxides and provided global warming pollution savings equivalent to the emissions from approximately 3 million cars.

California has shown once again that it’s faster, cheaper, and cleaner to save energy than to produce it. And the state is far from exhausting the potential savings from efficiency. California regulators recently approved utility efficiency programs for the next three years that are expected to further increase savings and create 15,000 jobs.

Over the past decade, California re-established itself as a leader in energy efficiency, but with Congress poised to enact a nationwide limit on global warming pollution and consumers feeling the pinch of high utility bills, states around the country are now vying to take the lead on energy efficiency. For example, Massachusetts recently set its sights on surpassing California . California, the clean energy race is a competition in which everyone wins. We have pioneered energy efficiency before; we are the architects of innovative policy; and we already know how to harness the jobs and dollars that flow from energy efficiency. There is nothing holding us back now.

There's a new sheriff in town: DOE means business on energy efficiency standards

2010-03-02T23:35:44Z

Last year, DOE formed a new unit in its general counsel’s office to prioritize enforcement of appliance energy efficiency standards. This is a big step forward for DOE and signals that the days of foot dragging on efficiency are long gone. This is the first time the agency has pursued a meaningful enforcement strategy for energy efficiency. President Obama and Secretary Chu clearly see the benefits of energy efficiency and have moved quickly to pursue it.

Already the new unit at the general counsel’s office has made significant progress. Here are the major accomplishments so far this year:

On February 4th, DOE Instituted enforcement action against AeroSys, Inc. for failure to certify air conditioners and heat pumps. The notice proposes payments of $1,226,480 in fines. The manufacturer has 30 days to settle the claims or the Department will file actions to demand payment.
On February 2nd, DOE warned nine manufacturers that submitted incomplete certification reports. The warning letters identified data deficiencies and demanded it be submitted.
ON January 28th, DOE began enforcement proceedings against four showerhead manufacturers - Zoe Industries, Altmans Products LLC, EZ-FLO International, and Watermark Designs, Ltd.- for failure to certify 116 products. The notices propose joint penalties of over $3 million. The manufactuers had thirty days to settle the claims.
On January 26th, DOE withdrew the Energy Star label from 34 compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulb models. The bulbs were manufactured by 25 manufacturers. Off-the-shelf testing showed that the bulbs do not last as long as is required to use the Energy Star label.
On January 19th the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld DOE's enforcement of Energy Star requirements against LG when certain refrigerators failed to meet Energy Star requirements.
On January 7th, DOE entered a consent decree with Haier America to resolve a dispute over compliance with efficiency standards resulting from a defect in some Energy Star labeled freezers.

Obama and Chu’s DOE is clearly finding plenty of low hanging fruit for efficiency enforcement. These actions bring meaning to the energy efficiency standards—ensuring that the standards save billions of dollars, millions of tons of greenhouse gases, and protect consumers’ wallets and public health. My guess is that the violations DOE has found so far are only the tip of the iceberg and that more and improved testing will uncover many more. If you have information on efficiency violations, bring them to DOE. They have an open door policy. Of course, feel free to share them with NRDC, too.

Blind Justices

2010-03-01T18:02:12Z

When I was applying to law schools, I remember writing that I wanted to become a lawyer, rather than a scientist, because that’s where the action was – lawyers would actually make environmental policy. This was ridiculously small-minded of me, and over the course of my career I have come to learn that the worlds of science and policy are inextricably linked. Unfortunately, not everyone learned this lesson -- today’s New York Times has a compelling story of what happens when a bunch of lawyers (in this case, five members of the United States Supreme Court) ignore science.

As I have written here, here, here, here, here, and here, the Clean Water Act – our country’s chief safeguard against water pollution – has been broken by a pair of Supreme Court decisions that suggest the law as it is currently written cannot protect certain kinds of water bodies. The decisions upset the longstanding rule that protected water bodies broadly, including wetlands and other “non-navigable” water bodies that are not connected to other surface waters, as well as a host of small streams (such as ones that do not flow year-round).

That principle was based on basic science -- so basic, in fact, that when I told my then 7- or 8-year-old son what I was working on, he was dumbstruck by the idea that it would be okay to pollute smaller headwaters, given their obvious relationship to the rest of the watershed. Scientists tell us that wetlands, even so-called “isolated” ones, curtail flooding, filter polluted runoff, provide critical habitat for a host of critters, and recharge underground drinking water sources. The smaller streams in the upper reaches of watersheds perform similar functions, and their destruction or pollution has predictable results for downstream waters.

The Supreme Court’s contrary approach was wrong on the law – the decisions overturned previously settled understandings that were faithful to the Act and to how Congress intended it to operate, and that prior interpretation had served the nation well for most of three decades. But the decisions were even worse on the facts; when the Court ignored elementary school science in favor of a legalistic reading, it forced pollution control officials to go through a time- and resource-intensive process to prove that a given water body has a significant enough relationship to a “navigable” one before protecting it. The practical result has been that thousands of water bodies have been cast aside as unprotected, as NRDC and a number of other conservation groups described in a pair of reports, available here and here.

Thankfully, as the Times describes today, there is a ready solution. The Supreme Court said that its decisions were based on the language of the Clean Water Act -- language that Congress can change. A bill called the Clean Water Restoration Act is pending in Congress right now; it would restore protections to the kinds of water bodies that the law previously protected and that today are in limbo. A compromise version of the bill has already passed a key Senate committee thanks to the leadership of Chairman Boxer and Senators Baucus and Klobuchar. The House of Representatives needs to act next, and the Chairman of the relevant House committee, Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota, has vowed to move companion legislation to fix the problem. You can help, by telling Chairman Oberstar that you support moving now to finally fix the law, and by getting in touch with your own representative to urge him or her to support a fix. Please do.

We need to make ourselves heard on this because there are powerful political forces working against it. Several industries that historically have been regulated by the Clean Water Act have lined up to oppose the bill, and have orchestrated a scheme to try to convince Congress to ignore the scientific need to correct the legal problem. As the Times reports:

“The game plan is to emphasize the scary possibilities,” said one member of the Waters Advocacy Coalition, which has fought the legislation and is supported by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Home Builders and other groups representing industries affected by the Clean Water Act.

“If you can get Glenn Beck to say that government storm troopers are going to invade your property, farmers in the Midwest will light up their congressmen’s switchboards,” said the coalition member, who asked not to be identified because he thought his descriptions would anger other coalition participants. Mr. Beck, a conservative commentator on Fox News, spoke at length against the Clean Water Restoration Act in December.

Let’s hope that our leaders in Congress can see through the scare tactics to the scary scientific fact that failing to protect our critical water bodies will hurt public health and the environment.

Questions about the Recovery Act’s State Building Code Requirements? NASEO Has Answers

2010-02-24T22:20:50Z

Last year’s Recovery Act left some confusion about states’ commitments to improve building energy codes. As discussed in previous blogs, when Governors accepted Recovery Act funds they agreed to update and enforce their state building energy codes, but controversy in the state of Alaska left many confused. To address these concerns the National Association of State Energy Offices (NASEO) along with other code stakeholders have worked to clarify and provide guidance on the exact requirements of stimulus funding through workshops and explanatory statements. This Friday they will be having a free webinar to provide further guidance on complying with the Recovery Act’s code requirements as well as other valuable information for anyone involved in state codes. See below for full webinar description and information.

Webinar on Building Energy Code Training,
Compliance and Enforcement

February 26, 2010 - 1:00pm – 3:30pm (eastern time)

Please join us on Friday, February 26, 2010, from 1:00 – 3:30 pm EST, for a NASEO Webinar for state and local energy and code officials on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) and the specific provisions, under Section 410, related to Energy Code Training, Compliance and Enforcement. In addition to providing guidance on compliance with Section 410 of ARRA relating to building energy codes, the no-cost Webinar will deliver practical information that will help states and municipalities improve their knowledge of building energy use, code development and implementation, technical assistance and training, code enforcement and compliance verification.

This special, 2 ½ hour Webinar session condenses the key aspects of the previous February 4, 2010, Energy Code Workshop in Washington, D.C., into a manageable time for those that were not able to attend the workshop in person. If you are at all involved, or expect to be involved, with building energy codes in your state, you should not miss this valuable opportunity.

State and Territory energy offices, local jurisdictions, and code officials are encouraged to partner with their respective state building regulatory agencies, along with staff in the Governor’s office involved with building energy issues, and participate in this important ARRA related Energy Code Webinar. The coordinated involvement of these segments of government is critical to achieve the energy, environmental and economic opportunities associated with building energy codes.

To participate in this Webinar, please use the following conference call number for audio and the webinar address to view the presentations (No pre-registration is required, just call in and double click on the webinar address link below at the designated start time):

Conference Call Information:

The call in number is: 1.800.250.2600
Participant PIN: 5753 9633

Webinar Address:

https://webconf.anywhereconference.com?P=AnIkYSoxKEEXSxNEVE4vcihhITFOQUNLU0QDTnJ
yeGF2MX5BRktRRDFOEXICYQoxTkFHS1ZEBE5ycnJhcjF9QUFL
Participant PIN: 5753 9633

WEBCAST AGENDA

Introduction, Welcome, Overview of the Webcast and the big picture on ARRA
State and Local Roles
Update on IECC and ASHRAE Codes and Standards Initiatives
Overview of Status of Code Adoption and Available Supporting Resources
Implementation and Enforcement Challenges and Successes
Compliance Evaluation

Speakers:

David Terry, Executive Director, NASEO
David Karmol, Vice President, International Code Council
Susan Gander, Director, Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources, NGA
Ryan Colker, Manager, Government Affairs, ASHRAE
Jean Boulin, Building Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy
David Conover, Senior Technical Advisor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Aleisha Khan, Executive Director, Building Codes Assistance Project
Strategy discussion with representatives of DOE, NASEO, ICC state and local energy and code officials and Governor’s energy staff

If you have any questions regarding this Webinar, please contact Brian Henderson (bhenderson@naseo.org).

MAP-ping the Next Federal Transportation Bill

2010-02-23T19:53:12Z

Last week’s town hall meeting at Los Angeles' Metro headquarters on the federal transportation reauthorization bill gave transportation policy stakeholders the ability to share their concerns and innovative ideas with United States Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Senator Barbara Boxer, the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. With common talking points of “we get it” and “it’s not an issue of why but when” regarding the need to reform transportation policy and funding, the town hall was broken into a plenary session, a discussion with Secretary LaHood and Senator Boxer, and break away panels.

In the plenary session discussing the issues for reauthorization of the transportation bill, CARB Chair Mary Nichols proved to be the highlight of the day. She championed the role that transportation policy plays in the fight against climate change. Her speech touched on land use policy, technology, and incentives, creating the only real sense that transportation policy was tied to bigger picture issues and underscoring the needed urgency for real reform.

Thankfully, the discussion with Secretary LaHood and Senator Boxer proved to be equally insightful. Despite some terse exchanges with audience members, both Secretary LaHood and Senator Boxer seemed open to the innovative ideas for transportation reform posed by the audience. Especially heartening was Senator Boxer’s commitment to operational funding for transit systems in response to the concerns of Esperanza Martinez of the Bus Riders Union. I also appreciated Senator Boxer’s proposed MAP 21 legislation to replace SAFETEA-LU, the current federal transportation bill which allocates funding for transportation projects. Senator Boxer’s proposed legislation, “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” or MAP 21 for short, aims to create a comprehensive policy on federal transportation. Although she could not share many details, most advocates agreed that the proposed direction of the new legislation was a positive step.

The two last panel discussions on goods movement and livable communities were extremely disappointing. The representative advocating for expansion of the freight system stressed their present and future relevance while touting their inability to move forward with new technologies. The smart growth discussion that followed paid lip service to multi modal options but no one mentioned bus services even once! The idea of creating a “first-class European-style transit system” seems to be limited to rail and inexplicably disregards that continent’s system of buses and trolleys.

Overall, I was very encouraged by the commitments made by Secretary LaHood and Senator Boxer for real, effective transportation policy reform. More than lip service is needed to get the job done, but Senator Boxer’s proposed MAP 21 legislation seems to be a good start.

I'm no expert, but...

2010-02-22T22:18:48Z

...even so, I was asked to post the initial response to this week's question on the National Journal Transportation Experts' Blog. The question asks how the innovative TIGER program could inform federal transportation policy reform.

(I drew from my two previous TIGER posts, here and here.)