Investigation Says Fracking Caused Ohio Earthquakes

An investigation by Ohio authorities has definitely linked hydraulic gas fracking with a series of earthquakes in the Youngstown region:

A preliminary report released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on Friday based the conclusion on "a number of coincidental circumstances." Factors included the opening of D&L Energy's well in December 2010, quakes being clustered around the well bore, a fault since identified in the bedrock, and evidence from monitoring.

The state will impose tough new brine disposal regulations as a result. Future injection into Precambrian rock will be banned and state-of-the-art pressure and volume monitoring will be required. Electronic tracking systems will be required to identify chemicals in the fluids entering the state.

The U.S. Geological Survey has FAQs on earthquakes caused by fracking.

What Does Poor Scientific Literacy Mean for Climate Action?

The latest National Science Foundation poll on scientific literacy (PDF) once again reveals America's knowledge of basic scientific issues hasn't improved much over the last three decades. While more people know lasers are light-based and antibiotics don't work on viruses, fewer people say the universe began with a Big Bang. And depressingly, a majority of Americans don't know it takes a year for the Earth to circle the sun or that humans evolved from earlier primates.

That's the grain of salt with which I take polling about whether Americans acknowledge climate science. I mean, if more Americans know the Earth is warming than know it takes one year for the Earth to go around the sun ... that's positive from a climate action perspective, right? Especially when the media won't even connect higher temperatures to the climate crisis. The numbers are still pretty poor for knowing that warming is man-made - but as the NSF poll shows, the more complex the concept, the worse the numbers.

Why Not Just Buy Real Maple Syrup?

Log Cabin Syrup's front label now blares "NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP." But on the back label, the first ingredient: Corn syrup.

Obviously there's a cost-difference - pure Vermont maple syrup costs about four times more than corn-based syrup, in part because Congress lavishes tax giveaways on (mostly corporate) U.S. corn production. I think there's another subtle factor in play: It tastes worse, so it must be better for you, right? Nope: Corn-based syrup has just as many calories as real maple syrup.

When you're shopping, there's an instinct to grab for the huge cheap jug. But for the average person, how much syrup do you really need? A bottle of Massachusetts maple syrup in my refrigerator has lasted me well over a year. And as for families, aren't you better off teaching your kids to use the good stuff judiciously rather than letting them drown their pancakes in the cheap (but still high calorie) stuff?

Survivorman: Kid's Show?

I had never thought of "Survivorman" as a great show for children, until I watched it with some.

I was visiting my friend Everyday Father and we were watching The Blues Brothers on VH1. He was dumbfounded that while every word in the movie even close to a curse was carefully censored, the commercials for shows like Mob Wives were PG-13 level raunchy. As the movie ended, I saw that "Mob Wives" was actually coming on next, so I quickly flipped to the first nature-based show I could find.

I thought the kids would find "Survivorman" dull - instead they were entranced both by the exotic locations and by a human being actually interacting with them. I worried they might be disturbed by scenes of Les Stroud hunting, but they understood he only killed what he needed for food and the scenes were handled tastefully (unlike Bear Grylls gratuitously drinking reindeer blood on his "Man vs. Wild").

More than anything, the kids appreciated Stroud's to-the-camera assessment of his situation. Anytime the kids asked, "What's he doing?" it was only a matter of seconds before Stroud was explaining it to them.
 

Cherry Blossoms Coming Earlier, But Media Won't Make Climate Connection

UPDATE 3/12/2012: Thanks to our ongoing warm temperatures, the Capital Weather Gang predicts the cherry blossoms could peak March 18, one day short of the earliest on record.

The cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC are expected to peak between March 24 and 31, the National Park Service announced today. That's 5 to 10 days earlier than normal and right in line with our global warming-fueled trend - a Smithsonian study found the blossoms come out about 4.5 days earlier than they used to, part of a shift that all plants are feeling. 

Of course, reporters can't say any of that! The peak's just early somehow, and the warm weather must be described as unusual or unseasonable and reporters must never mention that the changes are exactly in line with broader global warming trends.

Just look at coverage of our warm winter. DC's fresh off its 3rd-warmest winter on record and 2 of the top 4 have come within the last 10 years, exactly the type of changes climate scientists say we can expect in a warming world. But on local weather blogs, neither the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang nor WJLA's StormWatch 7 would even say the word climate.

People sometimes ask me if I'm frustrated that a minority of Americans still don't accept climate science. Just the opposite - I'm amazed the poll numbers are so strong! Even though the media won't connect the dots, Americans are doing it on their own, telling pollsters that changes in their own backyards are convincing them that our climate is warming.

Not So Great Moments in Pedestrian Safety

Came upon this as I was walking to work today - a crew digging up the sidewalk at 17th Street and Sycamore Street in Arlington with no warning for pedestrians heading north. Not that a sign would've helped - I'd have had to backtrack four blocks to get to a crosswalk.

As I approached, the guy in the reflective vest further down the street towards me waving his arms trying to get the guy in the backhoe to stop so I could walk in the bike lane as cars flew past at 35 miles an hour.

The Alternative to Metro Aggravation is Not Zero Aggravation

When Metro has delays and safety issues, people complain about that. When Metro conducts track work to correct those issues, people complain about that. Does the complaining reflect on Metro, or do people just have more outlets than ever to register minor complaints about everyday life?

The endless cycle of complaining and complaining the complaints weren't instantly & perfectly resolved misses a few points. Metro’s doing track work on weekends and at off-peak times both to avoid direct construction delays at rush hour and to avoid the dreaded "moving momentarily" delays in the future. And it's trying to do all of it with no dedicated revenue stream from DC, Maryland & Virginia.

While dealing with construction delays – or much more annoyingly, bus bridges past closed stations – is a pain, the alternative is not a magic carpet ride. Chances for delays and frustration abound. Traffic on 66 or 395. Construction on the Beltway. And good luck finding parking in Clarendon or Dupont without paying or driving around for 10 minutes hunting for a spot ... about the same time you’d have been delayed on Metro.

And have these people taken the subway in New York City? When weekend construction is going on, the train either doesn't come at all, or you get on and the conductor says, "Due to construction, this train is going express to Nova Scotia," and somehow everyone who lives in NYC knows all this even though there are no signs anywhere.

Look, I understand when you're delayed, it sucks - but then you move on ... right? You don't get that impression reading the daily list of grievances. You get the impression people feel so wronged. Louis CK calls us The Shittiest Generation:

Arlington's Dumbest Attack Yet on Westover Beer Garden: Help People Drive More!

Arlington County has spent literally years asking Westover Market to jump through a series of hoops to maintain its Beer Garden, but the outcome to this point has been good for all sides - Westover Market has expanded its business and hired new staff, Westover residents have a new community gathering place that's jam-packed with customers when the weather's nice, and regulatory concerns have been addressed.

But that peace will apparently be short-lived, as ArlNow.com reports County regulators are making a bizarre new criticism that may or may not be legally justified. In a community that prides itself on walkability and the car-free diet, Arlington says the dozens of parking spaces behind & in front of Westover Market aren't enough:

Arlington County has developed a web page specifically relating to the beer garden at Westover Market. On the page, it states that establishments with outdoor patios must have ample parking for the number of people being served, but that parking requirement is reduced if the establishment is near a Metro stop. The County allows establishments to get around the parking rule by becoming “seasonal” and closing for three or more months each year.

Because the Westover beer garden isn’t deemed as having enough parking, it’s supposed to be seasonal. However, Hicks points out the rule is technically a “guideline” and not an actual “ordinance.” He believes the county has been enforcing a measure that was never officially put in the books.

The County’s web page for Westover Market links to another County page, titled “Guidelines for Outdoor Cafes.” On that document it states: “Unless otherwise required by the County Board, outdoor cafes shall be exempt from any parking requirement.” It goes on to say: “There is no explicit requirement in the Zoning Ordinance that requires them to be temporary or seasonal.”

As a progressive, I'm a strong believer in government's ability to protect the common good - public health, public safety, and public resources. Which makes me even more upset when government resources are used for ... what? Providing people an incentive to drive by demanding an arbitrary number of  free parking spaces? And I don't get what being seasonal has to do with it at all.

The whole episode brilliantly illustrates the stupidity of minimum parking requirements. If stores (or condo developments, etc.) feel they'd get more business by providing parking to customers, they can build a parking lot and give away parking or charge for it. If they don't think they need more parking, people can use the land instead for homes or businesses or parks or whatever else they want.

And instead of sending zoning regulators out to count parking spots and telling people to turn down their Jack Johnson cover songs, the government can spend more time educating kids and reducing air pollution and other things that actually make life better. You can show your support for Westover Market through this Change.org petition.

Should We Teach Students Climate Reality or Polluter Fantasy?

Here's a new video from the Climate Reality Project - if you agree that the Heartland Institute's science denial has no place in America's schools, sign Climate Reality's petition:

Trees in My Backyard Officially Giving Up on Winter

The National Park Service won't even issue its first cherry blossom forecast until March 1, but it's February 23 and the trees in Falls Church are already starting to bloom. Who's ready for an earlier allergy season fueled by global warming? Tree pollen is already considered high.

Bob McDonnell Used Your Tax Dollars to Lure Company Accused of Destroying Tiger Habitat

The World Wildlife Fund accuses a Virginia company of destroying the rainforest habitat of tigers, elephants and other wildlife in Indonesia to turn it into toilet paper:

By some estimates, the world is losing 50 million acres of tropical rainforest a year -- an area double the size of Virginia. On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, much of the destruction has been traced to a Chinese Company called Asia Pulp and Paper or APP. The family that owns APP also owns and supplies Mercury Paper -- a company that moved to Virginia after [Gov. McDonnell] offered a $250,000 incentive to relocate from California. APP was recently singled out by Greenpeace, when laboratory analysis showed its paper towels, cardboard and toilet paper were made from rainforest trees. [...]

The company points proudly to a sanctuary it established for critically endangered tigers, but World Wildlife’s Jan Vertefeuille says APP’s taking down that rainforest too: "We found out, through satellite imagery, that APP was clearing part of its own tiger sanctuary. They had told the government that they were going to protect this area, and they were actually clear cutting it."

Instead of urging the company to clean up its act to make its Virginia operation sustainable in the long term, McDonnell has parroted the company's attacks on anyone who would dare accuse Mercury of wrongdoing. No wonder McDonnell spends so much time trying to regulate women's bodies - otherwise people might realize the only way he can create jobs is by shoveling tax dollars to companies accused of harming wildlife.

So what are the products you should make sure to avoid, and which stores are supporting WWF's efforts?

Products made with APP fiber, such as toilet paper, paper towels and tissue, are increasingly landing in grocery stores, restaurants, schools and hotels across the country under the Paseo and Livi brand names.

Eight large retailers – BI-LO, Brookshire Grocery Company, Delhaize Group (owner of Food Lion chain), Harris Teeter, Kmart, Kroger, SUPERVALU, and Weis Markets – have decided to stop carrying tissue products made with APP fiber during the last several months.

This controversy drags on because manufacturers are convinced Americans are so pampered that we will only wipe our asses with the finest, most pristine old-growth forest paper our planet has left to offer.

Doing the right thing here is really easy: Make sure any paper towels, toilet paper or napkins you buy are made from at least some recycled content, the higher the better. If the store doesn't carry any, ask to speak to the manager and let her know you're a loyal customer and they risk letting you down if they don't improve their selection.

I'm also sending an email to Harris Teeter, my grocery store, saying thanks for dropping APP products. Check out the WWF website to see what stores are still carrying APP.

UPDATE 2/5/2013: APP has agreed to adopt a new Forest Conservation Policy.

Virginia General Assembly Takes Step Forward on Green Public Buildings

Even through the GOP's war on women's rights down in Richmond, a few rays of sunshine are emerging from the smoke:

Today the Virginia House of Delegates unanimously passed Senator Chap Petersen's “Cost Effective” Public Buildings Act (SB160) which requires state agencies to use environmentally-friendly protocols, such as LEED design and recycled materials, in constructing or renovating state buildings.

"This bill is about saving taxpayer money. It does that by using natural light, conserving electricity and water and reusing materials in new construction. Using these techniques, we will save money," [said Petersen.]

SB160 will require new state buildings to achieve standards such as the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) 'Green' and 'Silver' ratings. LEED buildings use modern technology to recycle materials, conserve energy and water, and lower operational costs. According to Petersen, LEED design techniques increase construction costs by 1-3%, but deliver immediate savings through cheaper utility costs.

Congratulations to Sen. Petersen for sticking with this effort through five frustrating years of inaction in Richmond, and congratulations to Virginia taxpayers, who (assuming Gov. McDonnell signs it) will start saving money soon.

Scientists Who Cross The Line Are Outcasts, Deniers Who Do Get CNN Contracts

After scientist Peter Gleick said he'd duped the Heartland Institute into handing over internal documents, Washington Post editorial writer Stephen Stromberg wrote:

Peter Gleick violated a principle rule of the global-warming debate: Climate scientists must be better than their opponents.

Stromberg is exactly right. Climate scientists are largely ignored by the media and almost completely absent from TV news, with exactly zero climate scientists interviewed about the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed limits on climate pollution compared to dozens of climate deniers. But make a prank call that gets the Heartland Institute to hand over documents and you'll be completely ignored (or however more ignored you could be than you already are).

Meanwhile, climate deniers like Erick Erickson who call for conservationists to be beaten to "a bloody pulp," compare a Supreme Court justice to a child molester, and hint that maybe President Obama should kinda die get signed by CNN as a full-time talking heads.

And people like Stephen Stromberg don't even notice when the Heartland Institute equates climate scientist Michael Mann with a child molester because, well, that's just how science deniers are expected to act.

The media doesn't even bother to hide the double standard.

You Know I Love Most About Virginia? The Trees Are The Right Height.

Listen to how the audience laughs nervously at Mitt Romney's "Michigan's trees are the right height" non sequitur (though he doesn't know what public lands are for), then goes awkwardly silent as he rambles on about lakes and cars:

Want to Make a Primate Video? Use a Mirror.

Note to self: Bring iPod Touch to zoo:

 

Heartland Institute Greets Denialgate With (Wait For It) More Denial

Polluter front group the Heartland Institute is claiming it's the real victim of Denialgate. But as Jean Chemnick reports for E&E News (sub. req.), Heartland is providing little evidence to support its contentions:

The embattled Heartland Institute has roundly condemned journalists for writing about or posting a climate change strategy memo earlier this week that, while attributed to the organization, Heartland says is a "total fake."

But the memo was released late Tuesday night together with other budget and fundraising documents that the right-leaning think tank says appear to have been written by its president and mentions programs that are also detailed in the other documents.

The memo in question notes, for example, that one anonymous donor plans to pony up $100,000 to allow Heartland to develop a curriculum for schoolchildren that would "focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain." The project is to be spearheaded by consultant David Wojick. The same project is mentioned on page 18 of the budget of the fundraising plan, which Heartland says may be genuine.

An Associated Press investigation also finds no reason to doubt the Denialgate documents' authenticity.

Heartland's bleating about documents which it apparently willingly handed over to someone posing as a board member stand in stark contrast to its gleeful reaction to hackers stealing the emails of climate scientists, which remains the subject of an active criminal investigation. As Zachary Shahan at PlanetSave.com writes, "Three years of nonsense and praise for 'Climategate' combined with the continual misrepresentation of what it actually was, and now the Heartland Institute wants to call in the referees and have us all sit peacefully in a thoughtful moment on how wrong it is to steal information and misrepresent people?"

While It Complained of Being Silenced, Heartland Institute Worked to Silence Climate Scientists

The Green Miles has been tracking the Heartland Institute's shenanigans for years now, but even I couldn't imagine something like the scandal that's unfolding today. Leaked internal documents detail Heartland's plan to use a secret funder's money to replace climate science with polluter propaganda in America's school curriculum.

Having once come close to being forcibly ejected from a Heartland conference, I especially enjoyed an aspect of Heartland's public relations strategy as detailed by E&E News reporter Jean Chemnick (subscription required):

Later in the memo, its author warns that the business and financial magazine Forbes, which publishes a blog by Heartland Institute senior fellow James Taylor, has "begun to allow high-profile climate scientists (such as [Peter] Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own."

"This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out," the memo states.

Here's Heartland's 2009 Washington Post ad complaining “politicians…and the media routinely ignore and silence the scientists, economists and other experts who say global warming isn’t a crisis”:

So while Heartland was complaining publicly that they were being ignored & silenced, the documents show they were working behind the scenes to make sure climate scientists were ignored & silenced.

In the sage words of Anchorman ... why don't you stop talking for a while? Maybe sit the next couple of plays out.

UPDATE: Heartland claims the documents were not theirs AND that they were stolen. Wrap your brain around that one.

Virginia Legislators Get "Yellow Cake" Reminder of Uranium Mining's Threats

A brilliant bit of lobbying from KeepTheBan.org:

Here's Your Obsolete Phone Book, Whether You Want It Or Not

With the rise of the internet search, Virginia has repealed its law on mandatory phone book delivery. But as Sightline Daily details, many states still force the phone company to give you a phone book, creating millions of pounds of waste a year:

The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline: Bad for Virginia

The U.S. Senate may vote Tuesday on whether to green-light the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline even before a safe route has been determined. Why is that a terrible idea?

• TransCanada wants to build this pipeline so it can stop dumping tar sands oil at a discount in the Midwest. TransCanada's own analysis shows it would raise Midwest gas prices by 15 cents a gallon. 
• How does that impact states outside the Midwest like Virginia? American consumers could pay an extra $500 million for goods from the Midwest thanks to those higher gas prices.
• A Cornell University study found those higher gas prices are one reason Keystone would kill more jobs than it creates - again, especially in a state like Virginia that would see few (if any) jobs directly created by the distant pipeline.
• The pipeline would do nothing to lower U.S. gas prices because the oil will be sold on the international market. Think about it - if you wanted to sell the oil in America, why would you build a pipeline literally all the way down through America to the Gulf Coast?
• The pipeline would benefit from billions in taxpayer subsidies.
• TransCanada predicted its Keystone I pipeline would spill once a year. It's spilled once a month.
• Tar sands oil emits far more carbon pollution over its life cycle than regular oil, fueling the global warming that's threatening Virginia.

Please take a moment to call Sen. Mark Warner at 202-224-2023 and Sen. Jim Webb at 202-224-4024 and ask them to say no to Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. If you can't call (or if you don't live in Virginia), email your members of Congress.

As an added bonus, doing the right thing by killing Keystone XL is also a political winner. Isn't it nice when good policy and good politics come together?

Learn more from Robert Redford:

UPDATE 7:33pm: Over 500,000 people have signed a petition asking the Senate to leave Keystone dead in just 7 hours

One More Reason to Buy Seventh Generation

The Koch Brothers make several kinds of bathroom tissue and paper towels, using the profits to fund their war on President Obama.

Isn't it worth it to spend a few extra cents on Seventh Generation products to know your money is not just staying out of the Kochtopus' tentacles, but proactively working to make the world a better place?

January 2012: America's 4th-Warmest on Record

The DC area is on pace for its 3rd-warmest winter on record, but we're not the only region that's had a relatively balmy winter. It was America's 4th-warmest January on record:

The national average temperature in January was 36.3 degrees F, which is 5.5 degrees F above the long-term average and the warmest since 2006, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center. The other warmer Januarys were in 1990 and 1953. The data is based on records dating back to 1895.

Nine states — Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming — had January temperatures ranking among their ten warmest. Florida and Washington were the only states in the lower 48 with temperatures near average, and no state was cooler than average. [...]

According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the average snow cover in January was 1 million square miles, which was 329,000 square miles below average. This marked the 3rd-smallest January snow cover extent in the 46-year period of record.

USA Today's article does not mention global warming in his write-up, despite the fact that 3 of America's 4 warmest Januarys have now come since 1990 and 2011 that the 9th-hottest year on record globally. Read more on the warm January at NOAA.gov.

I've compared man-made carbon pollution to a baseball player on steroids - turning a warm winter into a potential record breaker. The National Center for Atmospheric Research has a new video fleshing out the analogy:

 

Americans Want Walkability, Not Suburbia

The new book The Conundrum claims that despite gains in energy efficiency, real energy savings will be hard to achieve because people want giant houses in the suburbs necessitating long driving commutes.

Except a new survey shows Americans strongly value having sidewalks and being able to walk places. That backs up earlier research showing both a preference for right-sized homes over McMansions and that younger Americans hate driving.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: More Money on the Profit Pile for Multinational Oil Giants

Don't think we should be giving away billions in our tax dollars to oil companies already making massive profits by polluting our air & water? Tell your members of Congress it's time for a change.

Virginia Republicans Flunk Latest Congressional Conservation Scorecard

The latest Congressional scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters flunks every single Virginia Republican, including House members like Scott Rigell, Rob Wittman and Frank Wolf who'll be trying to sell themselves as moderate in November. Committed opponents of clean air & water, public health, and wildlife like Eric Cantor, Randy Forbes, Bob Goodlatte, Morgan Griffith and Robert Hurt all scored in the teens. Meanwhile, Virginia House Democrats Gerry Connolly, Jim Moran and Bobby Scott all scored 100%.

What drew the LCV's ire? Every single Republican voted for the House Republican budget resolution to gut the Clean Air Act & Clean Water Act, to protect billions in tax giveaways for oil corporations that banked $137 billion in profits in 2011, and to weaken offshore drilling safety rules even as they pushed to bring oil drilling to the Virginia coast. 

On the Senate side, both Sen. Mark Warner and Jim Webb scored 100%, though given that both support oil drilling off Virginia's shores and Webb has opposed clean air regulations, neither is perfect on conservation.

Here's the Virginia House scorecard:

Why an Outer Beltway is a Bad Idea, Visualized

Eric Fischer created this map of Washington, DC using Twitter data from August 2011:

Routing 30,000 randomly-chosen trips through the paths suggested by 10,000 randomly-chosen geotags. These are perhaps the most interesting routes between the endpoints of the trips, even if not necessarily the most likely.

Note that the routes go in & out of the city center, not around it. Makes you wonder who Gov. Bob McDonnell is really working for when he pushes terrible, incredibly expensive ideas like the Outer Beltway.

Check out more of Eric's work on Flickr.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Pushes Uranium Mining Battle to 2013

An update from KeepTheBan.org:

Thanks to you and your hard work, the uranium industry did not have the votes in the General Assembly to introduce a bill to lift the ban. On January 19th, Gov. McDonnell was forced to concede that a report from the National Academy of Sciences identified “important questions related to the health and safety of workers, the public, and the environment.” As a result, the ban will stay in place for 2012.

At the same time, however, Gov. McDonnell directed Virginia’s health, mining and environmental agencies to draft “conceptual regulations” for the General Assembly to consider in 2013. Governor McDonnell’s directive to create a draft statute and regulations, behind closed doors, is the first step toward lifting the ban.

The uranium industry has yet to show the citizens of Virginia that uranium mining can be done safely, and our legislators have not answered the fundamental public policy question: does Virginia want to take on the long-term economic and public health burden of mining uranium and storing millions of tons of toxic waste in our state?

Sign the petition to keep Virginia's 30-year-old uranium mining ban in place and "like" Keep The Ban on Facebook to get the latest news.

Dominion Says It's Moving Forward With Wind Farm Off Virginia

On the same day the Obama administration announced streamlined permitting process for offshore wind energy, possible turbines off the Virginia coast took a big step forward:

Dominion Virginia Power is interested in building up to 400 wind turbines in Atlantic waters in what could be a powerful message for a slowly emerging domestic source of clean energy.

"If everything aligns and it makes good sense and we have our regulators on board, yes, we would be moving forward on a wind farm," Mary Doswell, Dominion's senior vice president for alternative energy solutions, said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.

The article doesn't say how much electricity will be produced, but Cape Wind only has 130 wind turbines and will produce up to 420 megawatts, so we could be looking at several coal-fired power plants worth of electricity. That power will come with none of the millions of tons of deadly air pollution the equivalent coal plants would produce each year. Additionally, Cape Wind is expected to create up to 1,000 construction jobs and support 150 permanent jobs. While Doswell said offshore wind energy costs 28 cents per kilowatt hour, Cape Wind is set to be sold for less than 19 cents per kilowatt hour and I'm not sure why there's such a wide disparity in Dominion's estimate.

Down the road, conservationists will need to get behind the plan to tell regulators they're happy to pay a little more on their power bills to keep our air & water clean and preserve Virginia's mountains for future generations to enjoy. For now, email Gov. Bob McDonnell to let him know you want wind turbines - not oil drilling rigs - off Virginia's beaches.

Global Warming-Fueled Mild Winters Bad News for Groundhogs

The same mild temperatures that are bringing up some spring flowers in the middle of winter may cause groundhogs to emerge from hibernation too soon, leaving them without their spring food sources and vulnerable to sudden cold snaps:

Punxsutawney Phil will be pulled from his caged slumber tomorrow to do his faux forecasting duty, but most groundhogs in the wild will sleep through to spring to finish their winter’s hibernation, a seasonal behavior that is key to their long-term survival.

However, with this year’s warm winter, which some experts pin on global warming, biologists say groundhogs and their hibernating brethren might rise closer and closer to Groundhog Day each year as Earth's climate changes.

The balmy weather could snap awake groundhogs and other hibernating animals too early this year, well before their breakfasts are ready and threatening their survival.

Global warming loads the dice for milder winters. How warm has this winter been? The DC area is having its 4th-warmest winter on record & of the 21 warmest January months in DC history, 4 have come since 1998. That fits right into the global trend - 2011 was the 9th-hottest year on record according to NASA. And since 1976, 2011 was the 35th consecutive year that the yearly global temperature was above average.

And it's important to remember how global warming has completely changed the record books - until the late 1990s, 2011 would've been the hottest year on record. Man-made carbon pollution has rewritten our temperature records as thoroughly as steroids rewrote baseball's home run records.

George Allen Named Inaugural Member of 2012 LCV Dirty Dozen

Virginia GOP U.S. Senate candidate George Allen has been named the first member of the 2012 League of Conservation Voters Dirty Dozen:

"We Have Built America in a Way That is Fundamentally Unhealthy"

Opponents of climate action pointed to estimates that it may have slowed economic growth by 1 to 3.5% by 2050 as reason to maintain our status quo on energy, transportation & community design. But as a new PBS series details, the cost of sprawling communities that are unhealthy for either people or the planet may already be at least that high:

“We have built America in a way that is, I believe, is fundamentally unhealthy,” Dr. Richard Jackson says. “It prevents us from walking. It inhibits us from socializing. It removes trees and the things that make our air quality better. We could not have designed an environment that is more difficult for people’s well being at this point.”

He adds: “Two percent of the United States’ gross domestic product goes to the treatment of diabetes. This is a crushing economic impact.”

And that's only a fraction of the cost, from higher taxes to pay for more & wider roads, billions of dollars sent overseas to buy foreign oil for gas & home heating, and countless hours wasted in traffic that could've been spent at work or with family.

Here in the DC area, WETA will air the series in its entirety on Saturday (2/4) starting at 1pm. Learn more and find listings in your community at DesigningHealthyCommunities.org:

Episode 1: Retrofitting Suburbia (preview all episodes here) from MPC on Vimeo.

Your Digestive System is No Match for Industrial "Food" Made to Survive Armageddon

Learn more about Stefani Bardin's work at PetrifiedUnrest.net:

Will DC's TV Forecasters Acknowledge Climate's Contribution to Warm January Weather?

The DC area's forecast for Friday calls for temperatures near 60 degrees with thunderstorms. In January.

But you won't catch our television weather presenters attributing the bizarre forecast to global warming loading the dice for extreme weather! No, sir! Expect to hear lots of things like, "Wow, tropical weather in January. Uh ... weird!"

If they mentioned our changing climate, they might get angry calls from viewers who find climate reality doesn't fit in with their political views. Here in the DC area, unless your name is Bob Ryan, you're likely to figure it's better to keep quiet about the facts than risk standing up for inconvenient truths. Or maybe, like Topper Shutt, you're a climate science denier yourself.

Learn more about why some TV weathermen aren't straight with their viewers about climate science at ForecastTheFacts.org.

Want to Win in November? Support Clean Energy.

A must-read piece today from Grist's David Roberts on why clean energy is a huge political winner:

With the Wall Street Journal editorial page beating its chest, Politico making sweet, sweet love to the Solyndra non-scandal, and the Chamber of Commerce dumping money into attack ads, Democrats have gotten unduly spooked. They’ve started believing John Boehner’s trash talk, that energy is a wedge to divide unions from greens.

It’s an empty threat. The fact is, overwhelming majorities of Americans — across party, age, and regional lines — support clean, modern energy. A poll conducted by ORC International in November found that 77 percent of Americans, including 65 percent of Republicans, believe that “the U.S. needs to be a clean energy technology leader and it should invest in the research and domestic manufacturing of wind, solar, and energy efficiency technologies.” Last February, a Gallup poll offered a list of actions Congress might take. The most popular option, with an incredible 83 percent support, was “an energy bill that provides incentives for using solar and other alternative energy resources.” [...]

Clean energy isolates the Republican base from the broad mass of American opinion and, in particular, from swing-state independents. It’s a wedge issue and an electoral winner for Democrats if they can quit playing defense and go on the attack. The appropriate response to threats from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a well-administered ass kicking.

Next time you hear a Democrat waffling on support for clean energy, kick them in the shins. I am not making this up: Some focus group testing this week showed clean energy is almost as popular with swing voters as killing Osama bin Laden (although who gives killing the mastermind of 9/11 a B minus?). Plus, we all know how much voters love candidates apologizing for what they believe in.

And if you want to support great work like David's and have a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket, go donate to Grist.

Petition Protests "The Lorax" Movie's Watered-Down Message

As I've pointed out in the past, the new movie based on inspired by with the same name as the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax looks like it will downplay the book's ecological lessons. Kate Sheppard reports at the Mother Jones Blue Marble blog that some elementary school students have started a Change.org petition protesting the movie's commercialized storyline. The Green Miles is especially proud since the students are from Brookline, MA, where I went to high school. Here's the link to the petition.

Obama's 2012 State of the Union Disappoints on Conservation

Overall, it felt like a clumsy attempt to co-opt Occupy Wall Street's message with little policy substance to back it up. Only a fleeting mention of global warming despite a record year for extreme weather disasters in 2011. And as ThinkProgress Green's Brad Johnson points out, President Obama blamed Congress for climate inaction while himself proposing more oil and gas drilling.

But hey, at least he had Mitch Daniels to follow him, who combined George W. Bush's disastrous policy prescriptions with Dick Cheney's reptilian demeanor.

What did you think?

A Visual Demonstration of Why LED Lights Save You Money

Incandescent light bulbs are terribly inefficient at turning electricity into light, wasting most of the energy they use as heat. Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) waste very little energy as heat, meaning they'll rapidly pay back their higher cost & much more by saving you money on your electricity bill.

I got a demonstration of their efficiency after this weekend's snow & ice thanks to a string of LED Christmas lights still up on my fence. While incandescent Christmas lights quickly melt a cone into the snow & ice around them, I plugged in the LEDs and hours later, they were still frozen firmly in place:

Paula Deen, Keystone XL & America's Gluttonous Side

This week, we learned famed culinary fat food-pusher Paula Deen has diabetes, but only revealed it 3 years late to protect her cooking empire and is now hawking diabetes drugs winking that - for a price - maybe you don't have to do all those hard diet & exercise changes.

And then former oil company consultant Newt Gingrich blasted President Obama for rejecting Congress' efforts to force him to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline before TransCanada has even determined a safe route, even though it would kill jobs and raise gas prices.

Last night I was in Harris Teeter and spotted this combo package of DiGiorno Pepperoni Pizza/Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies and wondered ... isn't gluttony #2 on the list of deadly sins? And doesn't America claim to be three-quarters Christian? Talk about cafeteria Christianity.

But come on - there's no money to be made in hard choices. How could Paula Deen keep making money by the pudgy fistful by telling people to stop shoving cheese, salted meat, chocolate & dough into their gaping maws & go for a walk? How could Newt Gingrich keep the oil money flowing by telling people the only real way to save on gas is to drive less or pay more for an efficient vehicle?

Much easier to tell people to have a second helping of pizza & cookies and take their magic snake oil pill, and tell people it's not our conspicuous consumption but the gays that are the cause of our moral decay.

The Green Miles' Hometown Saving Big with Clean Energy

My birthplace of Fall River, MA is combining clean energy and new efficient lighting to collect some huge savings:

THUMBS UP to Fall River city and school officials who celebrated the completion of the first phase of a multi-phase energy initiative that will pay off in the form of big energy and environmental savings. At Silvia Elementary School, a 76-killowatt solar panel was installed by Ameresco Inc., which has built, owns, and maintains four such systems at school buildings and the sewage treatment plant. In all, the first phase is expected to save the city more than $2.7 million during the life of the contract.

The project is being funded with $862,000 in stimulus funds and contributions from local utility companies. The city receives fixed utility rates as part of the contract. Over time, Fall River’s “solar” system is expected to consist of 2,624 solar modules, producing 750,000 kilowatt-hours annually.

It's a vastly less polluting and much more attractive way to power the city's future than the giant new cooling towers that just went up at a coal-fired power plant across the Taunton River in Somerset. Read more about the project at SolarDaily.com.

Columnist Says Chicago Cubs Have New Curse: Using Transit

Theo Epstein recently took over as president of the Chicago Cubs and said, to no one in particular, "Hey! We spent $125 million last year and lost 91 games and finished 25 games out of first place! I bet we could've spent a lot less than that and still done just as badly!" So he's trimming the major league payroll until the team has a reasonable shot at the playoffs & making reasonable cuts to other expenses.

But anytime new management takes over a team, it is mandatory for a local sports columnist to anonymously quote loyalists from the previous regime bashing this new guy who thinks he's some hot shot while remaining oblivious to the fact that these are the very same employees whose wisdom guided the team to its 91 loss season.

Today's case in point comes from the Chicago Sun-Times' Gordon Wittenmyer:

For instance, a big-market team that just committed $3.5 million a year to a newly created position of president of baseball operations, that created several other high-level front-office jobs and that’s assured of trimming tens of millions of dollars from its big-league payroll this season is pulling a Marge Schott on its scouting staff this week to save relative pennies.

Borrowing a page from the notoriously cheap former Cincinnati Reds owner, the Cubs assigned their scouts two-to-a-room hotel accommodations this week and advised using the L instead of cabs, including to and from airports with their luggage, sources said.

OH THE HUMANITY. Being asked to ride the L train, which goes directly to O'Hare & Midway for 1/10th the cost of a taxi or van ... and with their rolly bags? I'm surprised these people who get paid to fly around the country & watch baseball don't just up & quit.

Or maybe they should keep their traps shut & develop a little flinty Chicago toughness.

Via Buster Olney

TheGreenMilesMobile Handles Beltway Better Than $48,720 DoucheMobile

I was driving home on the Beltway recently in my still-spry 1999 Saturn SL2 with 128,000 miles on it, pleasantly surprised TheGreenMilesMobile remains fun to drive after all these fuel-efficient years, when I noticed a low-riding pickup truck lumber past me with brake lights flashing constantly. It was a Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson edition and the heavy highway-hugger and its overmatched driver couldn't even successfully execute a lurching lane change without repeatedly tapping the brakes.

First, let me make clear I'm not bashing Harleys or the Ford F-150 series here. Harleys get fantastic gas mileage. Ford's base F-150 XL model is an excellent made-in-America truck that gets 17 miles per gallon city and 23 mpg highway, not far from some of the best-mileage pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid's 20 city/23 highway.

But the two brands have combined into a gas-guzzling, hideously expensive Frankenstein monster. The Harley-Davidson edition starts at a ridiculous $48,720 and gets a putrid 13 miles per gallon city and 18 mpg highway. So not only does the Harley model get 25 percent worse gas mileage than the base XL model, but you could buy two F-150 XLs for the price of one F-150 Harley - with $4,000 leftover for gas money.

And that's before we talk about what it looks like. I'll leave that to Car & Driver:

If the décor is in fact your style, though, your taste might be a little, shall we say, questionable. Example: There is glitter on the center console. To paraphrase everybody’s favorite park-bench prophet, that’s all we have to say about that.

Not just expensive and planet-killing, but ugly too ... but hey, I'm sure people will think you're just as cool as actual Harley riders.

Ben Stein Upset Company Realized He's Kinda Nutty

Republicans are all about free enterprise, business knowing better than government, and reforming the legal system to prevent frivolous lawsuits & tie the hands of judges ... unless it's former Nixon White House staffer Ben Stein suing Kyocera for realizing they didn't want to have a climate science denier as their spokesman. "God, and not man, control[s] the weather," says Stein. It is not clear why Stein thinks God is stepping in to stop man's carbon pollution from affecting our climate but not stopping, say, man's nitrogen pollution from creating dead zones in our waterways.

Stein is also an evolution denier, defended Larry Craig, and has compared President Obama to Hitler.

Clearly the government must step in and make sure this rich idiot gets the money he was never actually promised and didn't actually earn!

Supermarket Eggs < Farmers Market Eggs < Backyard Eggs

After getting sick of the bland produce at the grocery store, I've been making more of an effort to walk to the Falls Church Farmers Market on Saturday mornings to get tomatoes that actually taste like - wait for it - tomatoes.

I've also been getting eggs from Valentine's Country Bakery & Meats. They taste a little better than supermarket eggs, but what really jumps out at you is the color - a brighter yellowish-orange compared to pale yellow factory farm eggs - and I'm far from the only one who's noticed. Research shows eggs from chickens with a free range & varied diet may be healthier than chickens locked up & fed a diet of cheap processed feed.

Some Arlington residents are taking it one step further, with the Arlington Egg Project pushing the County Board to allow backyard chickens. Tonight the Arlington Committee of 100 is making the issue the topic of its monthly dinner.

I've visited a home in DC with chickens in the backyard & barely noticed the were there - they pecked around one corner of the yard until the sun went down, then climbed into their small wooden roost on their own. No smell (and this was a hot summer day), no mess that I saw, and very little noise, just a few clucks when someone ventured too close. On the fridge I found this note about what leftovers NOT to feed the chickens.

Why Do We Subsidize Roads But Expect Profits From Amtrak?

Federal, state & local governments spent nearly $193 billion on highways in 2008, recouping only about $30 billion of that in toll revenue. That means highways lost $160 billion, money we spent with no expectation of ever getting it back.

Yet when Congress spends a little over $1 billion on Amtrak, why do Republicans expect it to turn a profit?

If Amtrak is expected to turn a profit, shouldn't highways be expected to do so as well? Why should Amtrak be asked to compete on an uneven playing field? It's like asking Starbucks to turn a profit if Dunkin Donuts is handing out free coffee next door.

Arlington Board Candidates Only Paying Lip Service to Smart Growth?

Check out my latest post to Greater Greater Washington.

Parking Spot Yoga!

Learn more at CarFreeDiet.com.

Dominion Virginia Power Proves the Sierra Club Right

Dominion Virginia Power CEO Paul Koonce has an op-ed in today's Washington Post responding to a recent evisceration of Dominion by Virginia Sierra Club Vice Chair Ivy Main. She'd made three key charges:

1. Dominion is using pre-existing hydro power or biomass projects of dubious environmental value for renewable energy credits
2. Dominion is not building large-scale solar and wind projects in Virginia to deliver that energy to Virginia customers
3. Dominion is insanely planning to slap a massive fee on customers who install their own solar power

Koonce's response?

Our renewable generation includes one of the largest biomass plants in the East, taking advantage of one of Virginia’s richest renewable resources. Four more biomass projects are in various stages of construction or development. We operate several hydroelectric facilities and have announced plans for solar arrays on commercial and public buildings. Other Dominion companies operate large wind farms in Indiana and West Virginia.

That's Koonce's big rebuttal? That Dominion DOES rely heavily on existing hydro & questionable biomass, ISN'T currently building solar or wind in Virginia ... oh, and the massive fees on renewable energy? The CEO of Dominion, which earned $1 billion in profit in the first 9 months of 2011 alone, calls them "simple matter of fairness."

He might as well have written, "The 1% don't have to explain themselves to people like you."

Migrating Whales Return to Virginia, Bring Coconuts for Ken Cuccinelli to Bang Together

The first migrating humpback whales of the winter have been spotted off Virginia Beach:

The Virginia Aquarium is reporting whale sightings off the coast of Virginia Beach. The aquarium's winter wildlife boat season started December 27th and the first whale watchers were treated to a number of sightings in the first week.

New Year’s Eve morning, two humpback whales and a seal were spotted hanging out near Rudee Inlet. Thursday the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team confirmed that there are four humpback whales near the Cape Henry Lighthouse.

Keep in mind this is the area people like Gov. Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli think should be open to oil drilling. More on the whales from About.com:

Each winter, from late December until mid-March, majestic humpback whales follow a migration route, originating from the Bay of Fundy, which brings these magnificent oceanic mammals to the coastal waters near the shores of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Known for their complex and lengthy whale songs, graceful athleticism, unusual bubblenet feeding techniques and immense size, humpback whales are among the most fascinating and thrilling whales to observe.

Watching whales & dolphins is a truly unique experience in the world of wildlife. Usually spotting birds & animals involves slowly & quietly creeping up on a creature that would bolt if it spotted you. But approach them carefully & safely, and they'll swim right up to the boat and look back at you - whales & dolphins are just as interested to see us as we are to see them.

Get more details on the Winter Wildlife Boat Trips at VirginiaAquarium.com.

Photo via Flickr's Melissa Copper

George Will Fails to Disclose Financial Ties to Polluter Front Groups

Why is George Will so aggressively anti-climate science? A new report makes his financial incentives more clear.

Media Matters reports that not only has Will been drawing a salary from his role on the board of the extremist-conservative Bradley Foundation, he's been writing about the front groups they fund without disclosing it in his Washington Post columns:

Media Matters reviewed Will's columns from mid-2008 to the present and found at least a dozen instances in which he has promoted conservative groups that have received money from the Bradley Foundation without disclosing his connection to the foundation. Those groups include the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society, and National Affairs quarterly.

SourceWatch has a full rundown of the Bradley Foundation's activities, funding everything from climate science denial to attacks on minorities as genetically unworthy of any public assistance. Just really the worst of the worst stuff. And as the Media Matters report details, Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt is completely indifferent to Will's lack of disclosure.

Hey, America! The 1% Has A Brown Job For YOU!

Are you ready for a risky life of hard labor digging up dirty fuels the 1% can sell to make billions in profit? Get excited for the brown jobs revolution!

No, really. An editorial in today's Wall Street Journal calls for More Brown Jobs. Even though American oil use is declining and what's being produced isn't lowering gas or home heating oil prices here - it's just being sold overseas.

So get excited! From drilling for oil shale to fracking for methane gas to digging for uranium to building pipelines that bring Canadian tar sands to Chinese oil tankers, corporate polluters are eager to exploit the crushing economic crisis their Wall Street friends created to make unemployed workers think they have to sell out their children's health to put food on the table now!

What's that? Worried your community will be turned into an industrial wasteland? That you'll be able to light your tap water on fire? That soon you too will be saying things like, "Just about anybody I talk to that's a neighbor — and some of them are getting wealthy — are sick of it"?

Come on - corporate America wouldn't lie to you! Right?

Metro Reduced Fare Mini-Flashmob

I got to East Falls Church Metro station this morning and was taken aback by a dozen people standing around randomly just outside the fare gates. For a second I thought I was caught in that terrible move The Happening. I approached a guy fiddling with his BlackBerry and asked what was up.

"It's 9:29," he said without looking up from his tiny keyboard. "Off-peak fares kick in at 9:30." Seconds later, the glowing red clock in the station entrance changed to 9:30 and the group poured through the fare gates.

It certainly is a good idea if the next train is still a comfortable distance from the station - I saved $1.05 on my trip to Metro Center - but I've been taking Metro for 10 years and had never witnessed this as a mass phenomenon. Is it a common thing? If you're boarding just before 9:30am or 7pm, do you ever hang out for a few minutes to get the reduced fare?

Dominion's Energy Tyranny: Where's the Outrage from the Tea Party & Ken Cuccinelli?

Virginia's 2007 energy re-regulation bill was a terrible idea from the start. It was essentially written by Dominion Virginia Power and rubber-stamped into law by the Virginia General Assembly & Gov. Tim Kaine, who showed no interest in challenging one of Virginia's top sources of money in politics.

Five years later, as Virginia Sierra Club Vice Chair Ivy Main writes in the Washington Post, Virginia taxpayers are seeing huge costs and little benefit:

Yes, the Dominion family owns some wind farms, one just across the state line in West Virginia. But we aren’t getting a single electron of that energy, because Dominion sells it to other states that have much tougher standards for what counts as renewable energy. For us in Virginia, Dominion buys cheap certificates that no one else wants.

That’s a great deal for Dominion. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, $1.7 million could buy enough of these certificates to satisfy Dominion’s 2010 RPS targets, qualifying the company to collect an extra $76 million over two years from its ratepayers.

Worse yet, Dominion is aggressively using its monopoly power to target any small businesses who try to sell clean energy to customers in Virginia:

The State Corporation Commission recently granted Dominion’s request to impose a “standby” charge of up to $60 per month on customers who install solar projects in the 10- to 20-kilowatt range (about twice the size of an average home’s usage). It’s enough to make these projects uneconomic and destroy the market for them. At a time when Dominion claims we need to build more power to meet demand, it is doing its best to keep small businesses from doing precisely that.

Even worse is its treatment of a Staunton-based solar company called Secure Futures, which has stepped up to the plate to put solar installations on university campuses, using a third-party power purchase agreement to ease financing. This summer, Dominion hit Secure Futures with “cease and desist” letters, claiming it can’t legally sell solar power to Washington and Lee University within Dominion’s exclusive service territory under Virginia law. Dominion, you understand, will not sell solar power to Washington and Lee, but it seems determined to make sure no one else does, either.

Where are Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli & his Tea Party friends as Dominion treads on the rights of small businesses and Virginia energy customers? Shouldn't they be screaming about activist judges and goverment stifling liberty? Or does Tea Party outrage not cover regulations that enrich its polluting benefactors?

Want to tell Dominion to create jobs and clean our air by investing in wind power? Sign the Virginia Sierra Club's petition to Dominion CEO Tom Farrell.

Fracking, Suspected in Virginia's Quake, Linked to Ohio Tremors

After Virginia's August 23rd earthquake, there was speculation about whether it was linked to nearby gas fracking. In the wake of a series of quakes in Ohio capped by a 4.0 rumbler on Saturday, officials aren't being so cautious - they're ordering nearby fracking wells to shut down:

The quake was the 11th over the last eight months in Mahoning County, all within two miles of the injection wells, he said. Saturday’s quake was the largest yet. A quake on Dec. 24 measured 2.4.

There is “little doubt” that the quake is linked to injection wells that the state and the owner agreed on Friday to shut down, [state geologist Michael C.] Hansen said. [...]

The wells are among 177 in Ohio. Drilling wastes from Ohio and Pennsylvania are being pumped in increasing volumes into the wells for permanent disposal.

Geologists have long suspected that injecting liquids into underground rock formations can trigger earthquakes along fault lines. The liquids allow rocks to flow more easily past each other. Earthquakes have been linked to injection wells in Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

Learn more about fracking from the Environmental Working Group, and how it cause earthquakes from the Christian Science Monitor's Pete Spotts.

Sustainability Meets Functionality

AT&T gave me a chance to try out one of those new Motorola P793 Battery Chargers that's made from recycled water-cooler bottles and carbon offset through CarbonFund.org. Cool that it's a combo of both a direct charger and a portable external charger, so I could charge plugged into the wall at my office or plugged into the battery backup in a meeting (rare that I'm the Cool New Gadget Guy, so it was fun to show it off). The battery backup was much lighter than I expected & pocket-sized, so I could keep a backup charge in my back pocket if need be & charge anywhere (i.e. on Metro). And one of my biggest BlackBerry pet peeves is that the USB cord takes forever to charge, so it was great that the battery charger juiced the phone as fast as plugging it into an outlet. I'd definitely recommend it if you need a new charger and/or find your phone's battery needing a charge more than once a day.