A new dust-up is brewing over the coal-ash landfill on Hawkins Point in South Baltimore.

Nearby residents, who waged a vain fight to keep power plant waste out of the landfill, now are girding to oppose a proposal to expand it.

Constellation Energy recently began dumping ash there from its three local coal-burning plants, Brandon Shores, H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane. Meanwhile, the company has applied to the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to operate the disposal site and to expand it, bulldozing an acre of wetlands in the process.

The 65-acre site on Fort Armistead Road had been owned by Millenium Inorganic Chemicals, but Constellation bought it about the time MDE approved depositing coal ash there.  Now the energy company wants to expand the landfill on the tract from 28 acres to 32 acres and raise the height by up to 50 feet (from 220 feet above mean sea level to 270 feet, or 156 feet above ground level.)

Some environmentalists and Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold have already weighed in against the expansion.  Leopold, who's maintained a ban on ash disposal in Arundel since an earlier Constellation dump contaminated Gambrills residents' wells, wrote a letter urging the state to deny the permits for the expansion.  The ash contains toxic residues, some of them carcinogenic.

"We weren't crazy about this - we fought it," Mary M. Rosso, a longtime activist from Glen Burnie, said of the landfill.  Now the expansion proposal "just drives me crazy," she added.

She and other residents have dueled with Constellation before over ash disposal and have long complained about air and water pollution from other facilities in the nearby industrial areas of South Baltimore.  This time, she said, she and others are particularly upset about the prospect of losing an acre of noontidal wetlands.

Continue reading "Another tiff brews over Constellation ash landfill" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Marylanders would breathe easier if the federal government ordered a reduction in the sulfur content of gasoline, according to a new study.  And the Chesapeake Bay likely would be cleaner as well.

A report released today by a group of state air-quality regulators in New England plus New Jersey and New York finds that lowering the sulfur in gasoline would significantly reduce  ozone pollution, or smog, from Virginia north to Maine. 

Sulfur in gas contributes to emissions of nitrogen oxides, or NOX, in car and light truck exhaust. Those oxides are a major ingredient in the ozone pollution, or smog that fouls the summer air, and they also enable fine-particle pollution, which can affect breathing year-round. 

Some of that NOX also falls out of the air, and the nitrogen in it worsens the nutrient pollution of rivers, lakes and marine ecosystems like the bay. Airborne deposition of nitrogen from cars, trucks and power plants is estimated to be nearly 20 percent of all the nitrogen affecting the Chesapeake from all sources, including sewage and farm and urban runoff.

Continue reading "Study: Cleaner gas clears MD air, helps Bay" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland's attorney general may be pushing for tighter federal air pollution regulations (see previous post), but freshman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md, is pushing back.

Harris, chairman of the House Science committee's energy and environment subcommittee, and Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga, who heads the investigations and oversight subcommittee are challenging the scientific as well as the economic justification for new air-quality limits the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing. New rules are due by mid-December requiring tighter controls on mercury and toxic pollution emissions from power plants, which have drawn fire from the coal and utility industries, among others. The White House, at OMB's behest, postponed recently a move by EPA to tighten limits on ozone pollution, or smog, but others are still pending.

In a letter to the head of the Obama Administration's Office of Management and Budget, Harris and Broun - both physicians - accuse EPA's leadership of "press release science" in overstating the benefits and low-balling the costs of new air pollution regulations. They ask OMB head Cass Sunstein to take a critical look at the basis for EPA's air quality regulations and demand the underlying data behind studies linking soot pollution with premature deaths.

The pair contend EPA's leaders have been making "baseless and irresponsible statements" about how many lives could be saved by tightening limits on fine particle pollution, cross-state pollution and ozone pollution.

“In many cases, these required cost-benefit analyses appear designed to provide political cover for a more stringent regulatory agenda rather than objectively inform policy decisions,” Harris and Broun wrote.

Harris and Broun contend EPA is ignoring the negative health effects of regulations, which they say could increase joblessness because businesses would have to spend money on complying with them rather than hiring new workers. They also question why EPA calculates the same ecnomic benefit for every premature death prevented, noting that most of those who die from inhaling soot are elderly.

To read the letter, go here.

(Rep. Andy Harris speaking at town hall meeting in Elkton, April 2011 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

While government regulations often get branded as "job killers" these days, a group of states - including Maryland - have gone to court to get the government to crank down on fine-particle air pollution, which they contend is a real killer.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has joined the top lawyers of  nine other states in asking the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals to force the Environmental Protection Agency to follow the recommendations of health experts, its staff and independent science advisors to tighten the legal limit on fine particulates in the air.  To read it, go here.

Fine particulates, more commonly called soot, are emitted by diesel engines, coal-fired power plants and other fuel-burning equipment. PM2.5, as fine particles are known, are so tiny they're 1/30th the width of a human hair. They've been linked in study after study with increased rates of breathing impairments, cardiovascular disease and premature death. 

Continue reading "MD joins legal push for tougher soot limits" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Obama administration has upped the ante on federal fuel economy standards, calling for cars and light trucks to get up to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson joined Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to announce the administration's proposal to set stronger fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas pollution standards for cars and light trucks made between 2017 and 2025.

Administration officials contend the higher mileage standards will reduce oil consumption by 4 billion barrels and cut 2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold in those years.  But they said it also should save Americans $6,600 in fuel costs over the lifetime of a 2025 model year vehicle, or a net savigns of $4,400 after factoring in projected higher costs for more fuel-efficient vehicles.  For more, go here.

The announcement, which builds on the administration's earlier push to get the nation's vehicle fleet to 35.5 mpg by 2016, drew cheers from environmentalists and raspberries from auto dealers.

Sarah Bucci of Environment Maryland, for instance, predicted that in Maryland alone, the fuel-economy standards would save each family $365 on average, and nationally would create nearly 500,000 new jobs.

The National Auto Dealers Association, meanwhile, warned that the rule could add more than $3,200 to the cost of a new vehicle, which could depress sales and slow fleet turnover, thereby delaying the environmental gains forecast. The group also argued that the regulation would most discourage sales of the industry's most popular, if least fuel-efficient vehicles, such as SUVs and other trucks and vans.

Cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks account for nearly 60 percent of transportation-related petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions, according to EPA.

(Traffic in Baltimore, 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Three environmental groups and a group of residents have gone to court in an attempt to block Frederick County from rezoning nearly 200 properties to allow for greater development.

Friends of Frederick County, Audubon Society of Central Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and 29 county residents filed a lawsuit in Frederick County Circuit Court on Tuesday charging the county's rezoning move is illegal, would harm the environment and raise taxes to pay for the schools, roads and other infrastructure the additional development will need.

The county commissioners elected last year had vowed during the campaign to revisit comprehensive plan and zoning changes made in 2010 by the previous board of county commissioners.  Their predecessors had rezoned about 700 properties, according to Gazette.Net, shifting them from commercial or residential to agricultural or resource conservation zoning in order to scale back development and protect environmentally sensitive lands.  The newly elected board, contending those property owners had been deprived of their rights, invited applications this year for new zoning.

The groups contend the county is acting unawfully in selectively rezoning 193 properties whose owers have applied for a change - some of them unaffected by last year's down-zoning. If all the changes requested are granted, the environmental groups contend it would allow for 17,000 new homes.  Even before this move, planners now project the county of 243,000 people to grow by 20,000 households and roughly 80,000 people over the next two decades.

"No consideration is being given to adverse effects of such increased development on the environment or on public facilities," Janice Wiles, executive director of Friends of Frederick County, said in a statement.  She predicted taxes would have to be raised to cover the costs of building or expanding schools, roads and other facilities.

Jon Mueller, the bay foundation's vice president for litigation, called the rezoning an "illegal short cut to allow potentially substantial new sprawl development."  He warned that it would lead to increased runoff pollution of local waters.

County officials vowed to go ahead, according to the Frederick News-Post, while stressing they had yet to decide anything.  The county planning commission is set to begin hearing the zoning requests tonight.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland and other Northeastern states have helped rather than hurt their economies with “cap-and-trade” regulation of their power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions, a new study finds.

In the past three years, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative produced a combined economic gain for the 10 participating states of more than $1.6 billion, or about $33 for every person living in the region, according to a report by the economic consulting firm Analysis Group. The ripple effects of making power plants buy permits to release carbon dioxide also created a total of 16,000 jobs, the consultants estimate.

“The program’s working,” said Paul J. Hibbard, a lead author of the study, which tracked the impacts of the carbon auctions through the economy. The research was funded by four foundations.

Consumers across the region are expected to save nearly $1.3 billion on their energy bills over the next decade, the study projects, through government-subsidized investments in home weatherization, energy-efficient appliances and other measures that should reduce demand for power below what it otherwise would be.

Continue reading "Regional climate action pays off, study finds" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Air Pollution, Climate change, News
        

It appears the recent criminal fraud case brought against a Baltimore biodiesel business owner for allegedly peddling phony renewable fuel credits is not an isolated one.

Federal investigators raided another biodiesel firm in Lubbock, Texas, a couple weeks ago, the Avalanche-Journal reported.  In a story last week, the newspaper quoted from unsealed search-warrant affidavits that authorities contend the company, Absolute Fuel, sold $40 million worth of renewable fuel credits without producing the 36 million gallons of biodiesel they were supposed to represent. 

The owner has not been charged, but federal agents seized records and $4.5 million in cash and property, including a Gulfstream jet, luxury cars and jewelry, the paper reported.   Authorities identified another $5 million in real estate held by the business owner.

The Texas case echoes the wire fraud, money laundering and air pollution charges brought by the U.S attorney in Baltimore a month ago against Rodney R. Hailey, president of Clean Green Fuel.  Hailey, 33, of Perry Hall stands accused of generating "renewable identification numbers," as the fuel credits are known, for 21 million gallons of fuel his company never produced.  Hailey's firm made $9 million on the sale of RINs for nonexistent fuel, according to the charges, and spent much of it on a fleet of luxury cars and jewelry, plus a new home.

Agents seized the cars and froze Hailey's bank accounts, but a prosecutor said they'd only been able to account for about a third of the allegedly fraudulent proceeds. Authorites now are seeking to sell Hailey's home, the cars and other property.  He backed out at the last moment last month on a plea agreement and is now scheduled to be tried Dec. 19.

Shortly after that case broke, I reported in The Baltimore Sun that it appeared to be the beginning of a crackdown by federal officials on the lucrative - and until recently, loosely regulated - market in RINs.  Industry insiders said they'd grown increasingly concerned that lax federal oversight of trading in the credits encouraged scams.  An industry group even set up a link on its website for members to report suspicious activity.  It appears that the Texas firm came to authorties' attention through a tip from a suspicious broker. 

The Environmental Protection Agency did move last year to tighten its record-keeping and reporting requirements for the renewable credits. Some in the industry, however, still question whether the feds have done enough.

(Locked office of Clean Green Fuel and related business.  Baltimore Sun photo by Tim Wheeler)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by the end of the decade shouldn't cost the state any jobs, and may actually trigger new "green" employment, a pair of new studies say.

The two reports by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research were commissioned by the state Department of the Environment, which is required under the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act to produce a draft plan by the end of this year for how to curb climate-altering carbon dioxide and other gases.

The legislature, in approving the law nearly three years ago, ordered the administration to show through independent studies that the effort wouldn't hurt the reliability of the state's electricity supply or hurt manufacturing.  Since then, the economy has tanked, Congress balked at adopting any climate-change legislation, and federal regulatory efforts to deal with greenhouse gases have slowed under fire from those who contend they'll hurt an already slumping economy.

The two UM reports conclude that in Maryland, at least, the effort to cut back climate-harming emissions would improve the availability of power, if anything, and that there would be no significant harm done to manufacturing or to the economy in general.

"We've tried really hard to find all kinds of ways in which, especially during this downturn in the economy, we could take a serious look at this and say, 'Where can it hurt us?'" said Matthias Ruth, director of the UM center.  "And we couldn't find it."

Continue reading "UM study finds MD climate law no drag on economy" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Film maker Josh Fox will be on hand this evening (11/1) at the Enoch Pratt Free Library downtown for a free screening of his controversial documentary "Gasland" chronicling problems with "fracking," the widely used drilling technique for extracting natural gas.

The film, which came out in 2010, was nominated for an Oscar and won an Emmy and several other awards. The oil and gas industry contends the movie contains errors and distortions, assertions which Fox rebuts.

It will air at 6 p.m. in the 3rd floor Wheeler (no relation) auditorium at the library, 400 Cathedral Street.  Afterwards, there'll be a discussion led by Fox.  The event is sponsored by Baltimore Green Works.  For more information, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The second annual Clean Energy Summit blows into B'more today, rescheduled and relocated here after the earthquake in August damaged the Bethesda hotel where it was supposed to be held.  That 'quake may have been an omen.

There'll be a lot of talk at the Hilton Inner Harbor on Friday about solar and wind power, electric vehicles, biofuels, public policy and more.  There's lots happening on those fronts, but plenty of uncertainty and uproar, too. 

Construction is under way on Maryland's first utility-scale solar array in Emmitsburg, for instance, and the state was recently recognized as one of the top 10 states in promoting energy efficiency.  But in Washington, cost-cutting pressures cast a shadow over funding for clean energy, and there's even talk among at least some Republican lawmakers of cutting off tax incentives for virutally all forms of energy, including solar and wind, nuclear and even at least some breaks for oil and gas. 

Despite the federal policy turmoil, more and more businesses and homeowners are looking for clean energy, installing more efficient lighting and solar arrays, among other things.  To help stoke that interest, the summit winds up Saturday with a free consumer show.

From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the public has a chance to drive a Chevy Volt and learn more about solar hot water and photovoltaics, geothermal heating and cooling, the new generation of cleaner woodstoves and - perhaps most important of all - how to go about financing the upfront costs that can ultimately lead to lower utility bills.

For more info, go here.

(Wind turbines on Backbone Mountain near Oakland MD.  2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Maryland is often accused by business groups of going overboard on environmental regulation.

But according to a new study, the state actually lags behind its neighbors and the federal government in a couple key categories - the size of the fines it can levy for pollution violations, and the fees it charges businesses and local governments for seeing that they don't foul the Chesapeake Bay or local waterways.

The Center for Progressive Reform, a pro-regulation think tank based in Washington, argues in a report released today (10/21) that Maryland lawmakers have handcuffed the state's environmental regulators by not authorizing them to impose stiffer penalties on polluters.

The group also contends the state could do a better job protecting the state's waters - and paradoxically, reduce regulatory delays - by charging higher fees for permits to discharge wastes and storm runoff into streams and rivers.

The report was to be presented at a daylong forum at the University of Maryland Law School on how to hold Maryland and other Chesapeake Bay states accountable for their obligations to restore the degraded estuary.

Rena Steinzor, a UM law professor and the center's president, argues that with state and federal budgets squeezed, it's unrealistic to expect much more money can be directed at the cleanup effort in the near term.

"There aren't federal mega-bucks coming for the Bay," she said in an interview. But she added that "we can't sit by twiddling our thumbs" and let the restoration effort stall. "In times like these," she concluded, "the most effective approach is to use deterrence via enforcement."

Continue reading "Study finds MD lags in polluter penalties, permit fees" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The Obama administration may have buckled under political pressure from tightening smog air pollution limits, but the Environmental Protection Agency is belatedly holding Baltimore accountable for meeting an old cap on harmful ozone levels.

The EPA announced recently that it had settled a lawsuit with the Sierra Club over the agency's failure to determine if six major metro areas with severe smog problems, including Baltimore, had met a pollution standard set in 1979. 

The agency agreed to determine if each has come into attainment with the old standard, which deemed it unhealthful if ozone levels in the air reached 125 parts per billion for one hour.  If any cities are not in compliance, they could be required to adopt new pollution control measures.

EPA has changed the ozone pollution standard twice since then, based on advice from health officials and scientists, and now considers 75 parts per billion ozone over an eight-hour period unhealthful to breathe.

The Sierra Club elected to sue EPA after realizing that the federal government never closed the loop with the old standard and determined whether all metro areas had come into attainment, as the law requires.

"That's a mandatory duty," said Robert Ukeiley, Sierra's lawyer in the case.  "EPA has to make that finding (but) EPA didn't make it."

So now EPA is pledging to determine whether Baltimore and the other metro areas - Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (TX), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Springfield (Western Massachusetts), Greater Connecticut, and Boston-Lawrence-Worcester (MA-NH) - have met the old 1-hour ozone standard. 

Continue reading "EPA belatedly enforcing old smog standard" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

With three waste-to-energy projects in various stages of planning now in Maryland,  environmentalists are taking aim at a new state law that sweetened the incentives for building such facilities.

The Environmental Integrity Project this week released a report asserting that waste-to-energy plants generate more pollution than coal-fired power plants.  Activists who joined EIP in releasing the report say they're going to try to convince lawmakers to repeal the law when the General Assembly meets in January.l

The report contends that Maryland's two largest existing waste-to-energy incinerators release more air pollution per hour of energy produced than do the state's four largest coal plants. Toxic mercury and lead, carbon monoxide, the pollutants that form smog and climate-warming greenhouse gases - the report says all are coming out of the incinerators stacks at a higher rate per kilowatt-hour of power generated than they are from coal plants.

With Gov. Martin O'Malley's backing, the General Assembly approved a measure this year that awards lucrative top-tier renewable energy credits to plants producing power by burning municipal solid waste.  Waste burners had been classififed as Tier 2 renewable energy sources before, and the law upgraded them to Tier 1, on par with wind and solar energy facilities.  The bill's passage surprised and angered environmentalists, who unsuccessfully petitioned O'Malley to veto it.

O'Malley administration officials contend that trash is a legitimate renewable energy source, and the state could use the help in meeting its ambitious goal of getting 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2022. Proponents of the plants say their facilities will meet or exceed all state pollution-control requirements.

Mike Tidwell, head of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said activists hope to persuade O'Malley he's mistaken to back waste-to-energy, and they're angling to introduce a bill to repeal the new law.  And in the meantime, he said, "environmentalists intend to challenge the permits of every waste to energy plant in the pipeline until we defeat them."

The three projects in the offing include the new Energy Answers plant in the Curtis Bay section of Baltimore, a new incinerator in Frederick County and a proposed expansion of Harford County's resource-recovery facility. Energy Answers already has all - or nearly all - the permits it needs to start construction.

(Photo: Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Co.(BRESCO) plant, 2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air Pollution, News
        

The pushback against environmental regulation grows, this time against new federal air pollution rules that would help Marylanders breathe easier, according to a state spokesman.

Attorneys general for 24 states (not including the Free State) plus the governor of Iowa have joined with the coal industry in asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to extend a Nov. 16 deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency to impose a rule requiring reductions in emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.  EPA is bound to act by that date under the terms of a consent decree approved by the court.

In asking the court for a year's delay, the states point to an industry-financed study saying that the mercury regulation along with another EPA rule clamping down on cross-state air pollution would increase electricity costs, eliminate jobs and could lead to power shortages.

Similar efforts to delay or block the EPA's power plant rules are being made in Congress, as some power plant operators have warned they'll shut down their coal burners rather than comply because they say it would be too expensive to put on the needed pollution controls.

But according to Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, almost all the coal-fired power plants in the state, including all the largest ones, will comply with the federal rule other states are objecting to.  They've already been required to reduce mercury emissions on par with the federal rule under the state's Healthy Air Act, adopted in 2006 and signed by the governor then, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

Maryland's law is "ahead of the curve," points out Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch.  The state's law required an 80 percent reduction in mercury emissions by 2010 and will ratchet up to requiring 90 percent reduction by 2013 - compared with a 91 percent curb by 2014 or 2015 under the federal rule. 

Indeed, the MDE spokesman says that the federal rule for mercury, as well as EPA's cross-state air pollution rule requiring reductions in smog-forming power plant emissions, "will begin to level the playing field" for Maryland power plants. 

That could be why Constellation Energy, which installed scrubbers on its Maryland coal plants to comply, supports the federal rule along with some other power companies, including Exelon, suitor to merge with Constellation. Critics of the EPA rule say those power companies that support it just don't have as many coal plants to upgrade.

Whatever the case, much of the mercury, smog and health-threatening fine-particle pollution in Maryland's air blows in here from out of state, Apperson notes.  Officials estimate that up to 70 percent of the ozone-forming emissions in Maryland's air, for instance, waft in from elsewhere.

Environmentalists have rallied to EPA's side, releasing a nationwide survey that found strong public support for the disputed air pollution rules.  Two-thirds, 67 percent, oppose any delay in the cross-state pollution rule, and 77 percent object to delaying the clampdown on toxic mercury, according to the poll. Nearly 90 percent of Democrats and even 58 percent of Republicans surveyed opposed congressional action to stop EPA from adopting the rules. 

(Pollution scrubber emits steam cloud at Constellation's Brandon Shores power plant south of Baltimore.  2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters gave Gov. Martin O'Malley a B+ today for his environmental record over the past three years, a slight decline from the record-high A- grade it gave him shortly after he moved into the State House.

The slippage represents activists' unhappiness over O'Malley's backing and signing a bill this year to boost incentives for generating electricity by burning trash. Under the measure, "waste-to-energy" plants get top-tier status and lucrative incentives under Maryland's program meant to promote renewable energy developement.  Green groups complained that encouraging more trash burning would pollute the state's air while undermining prospects for developing other renewable energy sources, notably solar and offshore wind projects.

The group also downgraded O'Malley on water quality, reflecting its concern that he has yet to push for an increase in the "flush fee" to finish upgrading the state's largest sewage treatment plants.

The league did give O'Malley top marks for funding land preservation, pushing through climate-change legislation, for drafting the most aggressive Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan of any of the bay-watershed states, and for restricting wild oyster harvests while encouraging watermen to move into aquaculture.

It also credited him with pushing to develop offshore wind energy and for seeking to ban large-scale new development on septic tanks.  Both measures failed to pass this year, though O'Malley hopes to revive them.

Continue reading "O'Malley's green grade slips a little" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

A new poll says 62 percent of Marylanders favor putting huge wind turbines off Ocean City and would be willing to pay as much as $2 per month on their electric bills for it. 

The poll done by Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies of Arnold was paid for by environmental groups which favor offshore wind development in Maryland. It was released the day before the opening of an offshore wind industry conference in Baltimore, at which Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to reiterate his support.

With backing from environmentalists, labor and some clean-energy businesses, O'Malley attemped to spur offshore wind development by pushing a bill that would require the state's utilities to sign long-term contracts to buy the electricity generated by turbines placed a dozen miles or so off the coast. But lawmakers tabled the legislation for more study amid questions about how much ratepayers would have to pay.

O'Malley is expected to renew his push for offshore wind in the General Assembly next year. Supporters say the poll shows he has public backing.

"These poll results couldn’t be more clear," said Mike Tidwell, head of Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the groups that paid for the poll " Maryland voters want the General Assembly to bring offshore wind power to the state. Marylanders understand that the benefits of offshore wind are more than worth a modest initial investment."

According to the pollsters, 62 percent of those who responded to the survey agreed that they would be willing to pay $2 more a month on their electric bill to have a greater percentage of their power from "clean, local" wind turbines rather than from coal, oil and gas.

The support was statewide, with 55 percent backing it on the Eastern Shore in in Southern Maryland, 62 percent in Baltimore's suburbs, 67 percent in the DC 'burbs and 75 percent in Baltimore city.  Pollsters said paying up to $2 more for wind-generated electricity also won favor from 75 percent of African-Americans surveyed.

UPDATE: A second poll released today, done for the developer of a new offshore wind transmission grid, finds even stronger public support for putting turbines off the coast - especially if it means the new industry would bring jobs to Maryland.

The survey, done by Frederick Poll for the Atlantic Wind Connection, finds 77 percent of those questioned favor developing wind power off the Maryland coast  Sixty-eight percent - including 51 percent of the Republicans surveyed - agreed with the statement that they want elected officials to push offshore wind, even if it initially costs more.  Seventy-four percent want offshore wind transmission built, even if it also costs more.

(Wind turbines off the UK coast, Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltmore's air may be less polluted than it used to be years ago, but it still ranks as the smoggiest in the East, according to a report today by Environment Maryland.

The five worst metro areas in the country for ozone pollution in 2010 all were in California, the environmental group reports. Baltimore came in sixth, topping Washington, Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta. While air readings for this year are incomplete and preliminary, the greater Baltimore-Washington area came in fourth behind Los Angeles, Atlanta and Fresno, California.

There have been 19 Code Orange days in the Baltimore area this year when people with breathing problems were advised to limit outdoor activity, and five Code Red days when even healthy folks were urged to stay indoors.  But the report says there were many more bad air days this summer and last than the public realizes, because the warnings were based on an ozone pollution standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, which was not as strict as health experts and scientists had recommended.  Using the tighter standard suggested by the experts, the report contends there would have been a lot more Code Red and Orange warnings issued.

The Obama administration had been preparing to tighten the standard, citing recommendations of a scientific panel. Advocates and health experts argued that tightening the standard would yield health benefits, in terms of reductions in absenteeism from school and work and reduced hospital admissions for breathing difficulties.

But the move drew fierce opposition from business and industry groups, which argued the costs of compliance would hammer an already sluggish economy. The White House pulled back from the effort recently, as President Obama directed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to postpone any further review of the smog standard until 2013.

The shelving angered environmentalists, who contended the Obama administration had acted for political reasons, leaving vulnerable people exposed to harmful air pollution. Business groups welcomed the pullback, and now are calling for EPA to pull back other pending regulations, contending they're too costly and unwarranted as well.

(2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

More than 20 Washington-area environmental activists - including some from Maryland - were arrested outside the White House today as protests continued against building a 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to carry oil wrested from the tar sands of Alberta.

The arrests came on the third day of a series of protests planned through Sept. 3 urging the Obama administration to reject the $13 billion project. TransCanada Corp. is seeking US approval to complete the 36-inch Keystone XL pipeline, which it says will boost American energy security by linking Canadian crude oil with US refineries and sea lanes.

But activists contend the project will lead to oil spills, and that extracting oil from the tar sands will devastate vast forested Canadian habitat and greatly increase climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions. Protestors sported signs supporting development of more wind energy instead.

Mike Tidwell, head of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, was arrested Saturday along with about 60 others. Among the protest's leaders is Gus Speth, a Vermont Law School professor who ran the  United Nations Development Programme in the 1990s and was President Jimmy Carter's top environmental adviser.

(Photo courtesy Chesapeake Climate Action Network)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The University of Maryland announced today it's launching a new environmental research center that will bring together economists, ecologists, engineers and other disciplines to tackle complex environmental issues like water availability, sustainable food production and large-scale restoration of degraded ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay.

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, known as SeSynC, is underwritten by a $27.5 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the largest NSF award ever for the university.

Environmental experts are increasingly recognizing that science alone isn't enough to deal with knotty issues like climate change, ocean degradation and the like.  The center's leadership says its research will draw on social as well as natural science to seek solutions. And they vow to produce what they termed "actionable science," engaging the public as well as scientists.

"The enormity of today's environmental problems requires a new approach to how we conduct research," said Margaret Palmer, a University of Maryland entomologist and environmental scientist who will serve as the executive director of the new center.

To be located in Annapolis, the center will draw additional support from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, which has three laboratories around the state, and from Resources for the Future, a Washington policy think tank.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Some environmental groups are panning the debt reduction deal struck by Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington.

Friends of the Earth called for members of Congress to reject the plan to cut nearly $1 trillion in federal spending now, with another $1.5 trillion in debt reduction to be worked out later. Friends President Erich Pica contended that if only cuts were made, they would undermine enforcement of environmental laws, among other federal functions.

"It is likely to mean more people drinking poisoned water and breathing polluted air, and a slower transition to a clean energy economy," Pica said.

The Wilderness Society also warned that the deal would slash spending on conservation and environmental programs.

Others said environmental spending doesn't seem to take a major hit right away in the deal, but could in the second round of debt reductions.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, for instance, said he worried that environmental protections would suffer without a more "balanced" approach of raising revenues as well as cutting spending.

Speaking to reporters after addressing a national environmental conference in downtown Baltimore, O'Malley said of the deal: "It could undermine the progress that we are working towards not only in the jobs recovery but also in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.

"Cuts sound great," he added. "Members of Congress, some of them like to pound their chests, look into the camera and say ‘cuts, cuts, cuts,’ But there are certain things that we can only do together, and protecting the environment, protecting our nation’s borders, protecting our homeland security, these are things we have a federal government to accomplish."

(Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. speaks to press in Capitol. AFP/Getty photo

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

It's not just the heat, or the humidity - it's the bad air. Experts are forecasting "code red," or seriously unhealthy, levels of smog or ozone pollution today in the Baltimore area.

Air quality is expected to be bad enough today to cause even healthy people to experience shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, fatigue, headaches, nausea, chest pain, and eye and throat irritation if exercising or working outdoors.  People jogging, biking or making any other sort of exertion may feel pain in their chest when taking deep breaths.   And people with asthma or cardiac or respiratory conditions are likely to have more severe reactions to such high ozone levels.

Authorities recommend that people avoid outdoor exercise when ozone levels are expected to hit red levels. And Clean Air Partners, a nonprofit group that attempts to educate the public about air quality, recommends that people take steps to reduce the pollution that forms ozone, by reducing driving, turning off lights and reducing electricity use and by not operating gasoline-powered lawn equipment.

If ozone does reach forecasted "red" levels, it would be the fifth time this year in the Baltimore area, compared with just two "code red" days in the region by this time last summer.

Ozone levels are forecast to reach "code orange" levels in the Washington area, with air quality still bad enough to cause discomfort and health problems for sensitive individuals. The DC area has had six "code red" days so far this year.

Continue reading "Bmore due for "Code red" unhealthy air today" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

NASA's known for space flight, but next week one of its airplanes is going to start buzzing low over central Maryland, dipping down to 1,000 feet off the ground at times.

The series of overflights beginning Monday are part of a monthlong mission to sample the region's air pollution. Federal, state and university scientists hope the data gathered will help them design new air monitoring satellites and ground stations.

For more on the flights and the region's air quality, read my colleague Frank Roylance's story in baltimoresun.com

(P-3B Orion turboprop based at NASA's Wallops Island flight facility. NASA photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Homeowners, if you've ever thought about ditching your messy, polluting gasoline-powered lawnmower, here's your chance: Swap it for a cleaner, deeply discounted new battery-powered job.

On Saturday (6/11), consumers can turn in their old gas-powered mowers for a marked-down rechargeable Black & Decker mower.  Buyers get 31 percent off the $379 sticker price for an 18-inch, 36-volt model and 33 percent off the $429 ticket for one with a 19-inch blade and a removable battery.

The swap will take place from noon to 4 p.m. at Cardinal Shehan School, 5407 Loch Raven Boulevard. But don't procrastinate - only 200 mowers will be on hand to sell.

Why go to the trouble? Because more than 17 million gallons of gas get spilled each year nationwide refueling lawn and garden equipment. Some of that winds up in the nearest water way, and some gets into the air, adding to our region's choking summer smog.  Even the gas that gets in the tank pollutes: a single 3.5-horsepower gas mower emits as much smog-forming exhaust as a new car driven 340 miles.

And if you let the mulching mower mulch and leave off bagging the grass clippings, you can have a healthy lawn without needing to fertilize as much - another help for stressed local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. That's why the city of Baltimore and the local watershed group Blue Water Baltimore have teamed up to co-sponsor B&D's mower swap. For more, go here.

(Old mowers being turned in for new electric ones. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Another heat wave is oppressing Maryland, and air-quality experts are warning today (6/8) could be another "Code Orange" day for all but the western end of the state. Children and adults with breathing or heart conditions should limit their time outdoors because of rising levels of smog, or ozone pollution.

Ozone forms in the air when emissions from vehicles, power plants and other sources "bake" under hot, sunny skies. It can irritate the lungs, triggering coughing and wheezing, and aggravate asthma and other respiratory and heart problems.

Last summer was the hottest on record in these parts, and Clean Air Watch, a blog by Washington-based clean-air lobbyist Frank O'Donnell, points out that there've been fewer days of unhealthy smog levels so far this year nationwide, with national health standards for ozone breached 445 times through May 31, compared with 575 such "exceedances" by the same time last year.

But according to federal data, Maryland and 21 other states, plus the District of Columbia, have already experienced more bad air days in 2011 to date than in the same period the year before, he notes.

While Maryland and other states have made progress in recent years in reducing smog levels, climate experts have warned that global warming is likely to undercut those gains as unchecked emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other so-called greenhouse gases raise the earth's average temperature. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that climate change-induced ozone increases in Maryland could result in about 69,000 additional cases of serious respiratory illnesses, with the health-related impacts of worsening air pollution costing the state more than $133 million in 2020 alone.

Meanwhile, a political tug-of-war continues in Washington over whether to tighten limits on ozone-forming emissions.  Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to lower the acceptable level of ozone in the air, pointing to research indicating some health effects at concentrations below the current standard, which was set during the Bush administration.  The agency has yet to finalize that proposal, as industry groups have objected, complaining that the costs of reducing pollution levels are unwarranted and a drag on the economy.

(Hazy summer skyline from Federal Hill; 2002 Baltimore Sun photo by Nanine Hartzenbush)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Could weatherizing your home to fight climate change actually be harmful to your health?  Possibly, according to a new study, which warns that indoor environments could be impaired by global warming and some of the measures taken to combat it.

Most research on climate change has focused on its impacts on weather and external ecosystems, but the report today (6/7) by the Institute of Medicine warns people could suffer more from indoor dampness, poor ventilation and emissions from building materials and equipment used to counter the outdoor conditions. Some of the culprits may be the very things done to our homes and workplaces to mitigate climate change by reducing energy consumption, it says.

"America is in the midst of a large experiment in which weatherization efforts, retrofits and other initiatives that affect air exchange between the indoor and outdoor environments are taking place," said Professor John D. Spengler of the Harvard School of Public Health, and the study's lead author. "And new building materials and consumer products are being introduced indoors with relatively little consideration as to how they might affect the health of the occupants. Experience suggests that some of the effects could be negative."

The study, commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, calls on the federal agency to address those concerns as building codes, ventilation standards and other regulatiosn are adopted or revised to cope with climate change.  For more, go here.

(Worker weatherizing Howard County home, 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The smog wave continues for a second day. As of noon Wednesday, ozone readings in the air in Fairhill in Cecil County and in Davidsonville in Anne Arundel County reached "orange" levels, meaning they're a risk for adults and children with heart or respiratory conditions.

For more, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The heat wave gripping Maryland is cooking up unhealthy levels of ozone air pollution, or smog.

With the thermometer hitting another record high of 97 degrees at BWI Tuesday, air monitors reported ozone levels that pose health risks for people with heart or breathing problems in hte Baltimore and Washington areas, but also in western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. Individuals in those sensitive groups could experience health problems and are urged to limit their time outdoors.

Air quality reached "orange" levels, meaning a risk for sensitive groups, in Northeast Baltimore and in Davidsonville, Edgewood and Essex in the Baltimore area. Other areas registering sensitive air quality were Frederick County, Hagerstown in Washington County, Millington in Kent County and Beltsville in Prince George's County.  Ozone actually hit "red" levels, meaning a risk of causing discomfort and breathing problems even for healthy people exercising outdoors, in northern Virginia.  Southern Maryland and Montgomery County, it seems, enjoyed moderate to good air quality.  

Tuesday was the third time ozone pollution has gotten to orange levels this month, but the most extensive worsening of air quality. The other two times orange levels were reached Thursday in Padonia north of Baltimore and on Monday in Calvert County.  In May of 2010, by comparison, there were four days when ozone hit orange levels.

The stifling heat's forecast to hang around for at least another day, and air-quality forecasters are warning of another "Code Orange" day on Wednesday, a risk for sensitive individuals. 

Smog or ozone pollution forms when emissions from cars and trucks, power plants and other sources "bake" in sunny, windless skies.  Officials urge people to cut back on driving, using power mowers and painting, among other things, to reduce emissions when bad air days are predicted.

To learn more and stay up on the latest air-quality forecasts and readings, go here. 

(Worker laying asphalt in West Baltimore towels off perspiration. Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As if it wasn't hot enough already, some green groups and their business allies turned up the heat today on the O'Malley administration and state lawmakers, issuing a report saying Maryland's efforts to reduce climate-warming pollution are falling short and warning of more flooding like that pictured above.

Only one of the top 10 programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state's 2008 Climate Action Plan is on track, according to the report by Environment Maryland, a statewide green group.  Five have shown mixed results, the report says, while the state has made "minimal progress" in one area and no progress at all in three others.

"We've made some progress, but not enough," said Tommy Landers, campaign director for Environment Maryland. To illustrate the need for climate action to avoid rising sea level, he and the others released the report at a press conference on the waterfront in Fells Point, where they displayed a photo of the area under water in the wake of Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003.

The state's participation with other northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which caps carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, is the only program that's essentially on track, Landers said.  Even that, though, needs to be tightened to have more impact, he said, and the tens of millions of dollars raised by making utilities buy pollution "allowances" should be spent more on promoting energy efficiency and renewables. 

The decision announced last week that New Jersey would withdraw from the regional greenhouse-gas effort complicates matters, but doesn't mean it still can't benefit Maryland, the activists say. 

The state has been slow to get started and has underfunded programs to help homeowners and businesses improve their energy efficiency, the report says.  Peter Van Buren, head of Terra Logos Energy Group, a Baltimore energy improvement firm, said nearly 500 homeowners have taken advantage of the rebates offered by the Maryland Energy Administration for home efficiency investments, but those funds are about to run out.

Continue reading "Greens say MD lagging on climate curbs" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

New Jersey's governor is pulling out of a 10-state regional greenhouse gas reduction effort, saying it's ineffective at combatting climate change.  Maryland's Gov. Martin O'Malley has taken his counterpart to task, saying he's "simply wrong."

“The whole system is not working as it was intended to work. It is a failure,” New Jersey's Chris Christie said, according to the Associated Press.  Christie, a Republican, voiced doubts in November about the causes of climate change, but today said he believes it's real and caused at least in part by human activity.

Conservatives have been pressing governors in the Northeast to give up on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which requires fossil-fuel power plants in those states to buy allowrances for their emission of carbon dioxide, the leading gas blamed for warming the earth's climate.  Critics have pointed out that the caps on carbon-dioxide emissions are too loose to require any real reductions.

Maryland is one of the 10 states participating in RGGI. O'Malley, a Democrat, issued a statement saying he was disappointed by Christie's decision and disputing his claim the initiiative is ineffective.

"RGGI represents an important multi-state effort to address climate change at a time when consensus eludes Congress," O'Malley said.  The initiative has avoided carbon-dioxide emissions in Maryland equivalent to taking nearly 3,500 cars off the road, he said.

The auctions have raised $162.4 million in revenues for Maryland as well.  The funds are used to promote energy efficiency and alternative energy, but much of the money has been diverted to lower electric bills for low-income households.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Air Pollution, Climate change, News
        

There's been a lot of debate lately about the costs of building commercial wind turbines off Maryland's coast to help ease climate change. 

A new report makes the case that failure to reduce greenhouse gases at all - whether by wind turbines or some other action - could cost state residents jobs, income and maybe even the culinary star of their summertime feasts, Chesapeake Bay crabs.

According to "Pay Now, Pay Later," by a group called the American Security Project, continued inaction to mitigate the effects of climate change could begin to weaken important state industries and erode jobs. Between 2010 and 2050, the report warns, Maryland could lose $23.7 billion in GDP and 163,000 jobs.

"Climate change is happening, and it will ultimately have a costly effect on the economy of Maryland," says Jim Ludes, executive director of the American Security Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to emphasizing the national security implications of climate change and energy policy. 

Maryland is among the states most vulnerable to climate change, the report notes, but also one of the nation's leaders in seeking to do something about it by promoting development of renewable energy.

Early signs of climate change are already manifesting themselves. The bay has warmed by 2 degrees Fahrenheit and sea level has risen in many places by a foot since 1900. Changes in the bay could affect its iconic crab population, the report argues.

Meanwhile, coastal marshes already have drowned, and beaches and islands washed away. The Environmental Protection Agency projects it could cost Maryland $35 million to $200 million to replenish beaches should water levels rise another 20 inches.

But more than real estate is at stake, the report says. As much as 16 percent of the state's labor force could be affected by changes in key state industries, such as fishing, farming, forestry, tourism, even shipping.

On the other hand, the report, argues, continued investment in and development of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass promise to create jobs and savings for residents. As of 2007, there already were 1,000 "clean energy" businesses in the state employing 12,900 people, and Maryland ranked 6th in renewable energy venture capital investment.

The future of offshore wind is uncertain, as the General Assembly shied from the costs to ratepayers of approving legislation pushed by Gov. Martin O'Malley that would have required the state's utilities to buy electricity produced by turbines placed off Ocean City.

Lawmakers may revisit the issue next year after studying it. But as my colleague Jay Hancock pointed out in a recent column, there are other, less costly ways to slow the increase of climate-altering greenhouse gases, mainly by investing in energy conservation and efficiency.

None of the possible responses to climate change is free up-front, though, so whether it's wind, solar, or energy-efficient lighting, the only real question, as the American Security Project puts it, is whether people are willing to pay now to save later, or pay later for doing nothing now.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is getting the once-over this morning in Washington, with Maryland's cautious approach in the spotlight.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding a hearing on the public health and environmental impacts of the controversial drilling technique. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, is joining Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, in presiding over the session.

Robert Summers, Maryland's acting environment secretary, is scheduled to testify. To read the prepared testimony or see the video, go here. 

The state Department of the Environment has held up acting for more than a year on requests for permits to drill in western Maryland, saying more study is needed of the impacts on drinking water wells, surface water, air quality, forests and land use.  A bill laying out an industry-financed two-year analysis failed to pass Monday in Annapolis.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The air at some large-scale livestock and poultry farms is more polluted than in America's biggest cities and poses health risks to agricultural workers, an environmental group says.  A Johns Hopkins researcher suggests the risks are not limited to the farms, either, but could include rural communities nearby.

Drawing on air quality measurements by Purdue University at 15 farms in eight states, the Environmental Integrity Project contends in a new report that such "concentrated animal feeding operations," or CAFOs, at least occasionally emit harmful levels of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and fine particle pollution. On some days, particle pollution at five poultry operations studied exceeded the federal government's 24-hour safe exposure limit, the Washington-based environmental group said.

None of the farms tested was in Maryland, and all but one of the poultry operations studied were producing eggs rather than broilers, as nearly all chicken houses do on the Delmarva Peninsula.  But at the one broiler producer checked in California, high levels of ammonia and particle pollution were measured, according to Keeve Nachman at Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future, who reviewed the data.  Nor does it appear from the air test results that there's much difference in pollution levels between the two types of poultry farm, he added.

"Based on what EIP found and what the epidemiologic evidence is suggesting, there is reason to be concerned about exposure in communities surrounding animal production sites," Nachman said in an email. "There's a pressing need for community air monitoring to help characterize risks faced by residents and chldren who attend schools near AFOs (animal feeding operations)."

The environmental group says the air pollution detected from Purdue's limited sampling of farms is serious enough that the Environmental Protection Agency should revoke an agreement made under the Bush administration to exempt large-scale animal farms from reporting their emissions. To see the report, go here.

(Chicken house near Pocomoke City.  2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

A crucial element of Gov. Martin O'Malley's push to build wind turbines off Maryland's coast gets a hearing in Annapolis today (March 3), as the House Economic Matters Committee takes up an administration bill that would subsidize their construction by raising nearly every resident's electric bill, at least in the near term.

The administration has proposed legislation, HB1054, that would require utilities in the state to enter into long-term contracts with wind energy developers to buy the electricity the turbines would generate. Wind industry officials say such power purchase agreements are needed to securing the financing needed to go forward.

The bill has the backing of environmentalists eager to see the development of more clean, renewable energy in Maryland, and of unions anticipating the massive turbine projects will yield a bonanza of construction and even manufacturing jobs. But as The Washington Post points out in a story today, a key question for lawmakers is just how much electricity rates have to go up to underwrite this push to put Maryland in the vanguard of developing some of the nation's first offshore wind energy projects.

Producing electricity from wind energy is likely to be more expensive than power from conventional coal- or gas-burning plants at the start, advocates say, because of the high costs of building the turbines off shore and getting their power to land. But they argue that the renewable source will become relatively cheaper over time as the costs of extracting and burning (and offsetting the pollution from) fossil fuels goes up.

If the power deals inked in Maryland are anything like the one struck in neighboring Delaware for an offshore project pursued by NRG Bluewater Wind, legislative analysts say residents could be paying an extra $2 a month, or $24 a year, on their electric bills in 2016, with the surcharge anticipated to gradually decline to half that over the next 20 years.

But the Post story notes that the US Energy Information Administration recently projected the costs of electricity generated by conventional fossil-fuel power plants over the next 20 years actually would drop, at least partly as a result of an anticipated boost in natural gas production from vast reserves in Marcellus shale deposits underlying Appalachia, including western Maryland, and from elsewhere in the US. Based on the federal energy cost forecasts, legislative analysts note that the wind surcharge could be more like $3.61 a month, or $43.35 a year by 2016 and would still be $2 a month or more 20 years later.

Advocates would say even the higher cost projections are small price to pay for getting clean power that won't worsen climate change. But Maryland lawmakers are wary of raising their constituents' power bills after the uproar that ensued when electric deregulation sent rates skyrocketing several years ago.   The question of what wind will cost, and who pays, could be key.

(Wind turbines off England, AFP/Getty images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Green may be the new black in pro football, at least for the next year, with the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl Sunday. But even before the team from Wisconsin prevailed in Dallas, sports venues across the country have been trying to green themselves up - to save some money, of course, but maybe a little bit as well to burnish the image of excess that surrounds professional sports events.

Super Bowl XLV was played in the spanking new $650 million Cowboys Stadium, which by one account is one of the "top 10 green stadiums" in the country. Hard to imagine how such a mammoth place could be green, but according to SunRun, a home solar service company that rated the stadiums, the Dallas Cowboys' home is aiming to reduce its solid waste by 25 percent, its energy use by 20 percent and its water consumption by a million gallons annually.

M&T Bank Stadium, the home of our Baltimore Ravens, didn't make the cut for SunRun's top 10 green stadiums.   It doesn't have solar panels, like Seattle's Qwest Field, nor was it built to meet LEED energy and environmental standards, as was the Nationals' newish baseball stadium in Washington.

But M&T's working to reduce its environmental footprint nonetheless. Jeff Provenzano, director of football facilities for the Maryland Stadium Authority, says he's aiming to green up Baltimore's gridiron enough to earn LEED certification for energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive operations and management of an existing building - something he says no other existing NFL stadium has done to date.

"Green is the new buzzword in all aspects of what we do," Provenzano said. 

It's not easy to go green, when you're packing 70,000 people - about the population of Towson - into a stadium.  But working in partnership with the Ravens and the stadium's food and housekeeping vendors, Provenzano said they've managed to make major inroads in recycling the mountains of trash generated by every event, and to trim the facility's eye-popping electric bills.

"We do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that most people don't realize or probably care about at the end of the day," he said.

Continue reading "Going green on the gridiron" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Maryland may have acted years ago to curb harmful mercury emissions from power plants within its borders, but it's still a health threat here because neighboring states have yet to crack down on the toxic pollutant, an environmental group's report says.

Coal-burning power plants in Maryland had to install new pollution controls by last year that reduce mercury emissions by 80 percent.  I reported last year on the completion of work at Constellation Energy's Brandon Shores plant, one of the last to install pollution scrubbers to comply with the state's Healthy Air Act and the nearest to Baltimore.

But a new report by Environment Maryland notes that similar controls have not been required in other states, and Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia have the second, third and fourth highest emissions, respectively, of mercury in the country.  All are within Maryland's "airshed," where pollutants put into the air in one state are carried by prevailing winds into neighboring states.

Robert M. Summers, acting secretary of the environment, noted in a news release that 73 percent of the mercuy air pollution measured in Maryland is coming from outside the state's borders.

He and others called on the Environmental Protection Agency to follow through with an air-quality standard it is set to propose in March that would curb mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants.  The federal standard, if proposed as drafted, would reduce mercury emission by more than 90 percent, advocates say.

The report - and a press conference held today - are meant to put public pressure on EPA to go through with the regulation in the face of pushback from industry and its supporters in Congress, where legislation to block new EPA rules is said to be in the works.

(Brandon Shores power plant, with new scrubber. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

President Obama heartened environmentalists when he set a new national goal last night of Americans getting 80 percent of their electricity from "clean energy" by 2035, but he then dismayed some by including nuclear power and coal in his definition of what's clean. 

And interestingly, Obama didn't even mention climate change as a reason to wean the country from its addiction to fossil fuels. Instead, government incentives to develop clean energy will yield "green" jobs and help America regain its technological edge in the world economy, he argued.

"Some folks want wind and solar," he said during his State of the Union address to Congress. "Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."

A bevy of environmental groups praised the president's speech afterward, reiterating his argument that government incentives to develop renewable energy could generate needed jobs.  They also applauded his vow to end federal tax breaks for the oil industry.

"A true clean energy standard will foster more renewable electricity and energy efficiency and encourage us to leave behind old, dirty technologies we've proppsed up for too long already," Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in her blog.

But others voiced their displeasure at Obama's insistence that nuclear and coal are part of the nation's energy future.

"Coal, nuclear power, biofuels and natural gas are inherently dirty," said Erich Pica, president of the Friends of the Earth. "Telling Americans anything else is misleading."

Conservatives, meanwhile, disparaged the president's pledge to promote clean energy as more government waste that'll only drive up energy prices and create jobs abroad.

Obama didn't bring up climate change this year, a switch from last year's State of the Union address.  Obama similarly emphasized clean energy then, but linked it with the need for the nation to address climate change and called for a comprehensive energy and climate bill to get passed.  The Senate failed to act, however, amid deep divisions over the issue, and intense lobbying from industry that had coal-state Democrats vowing to oppose it.

The president did defend environmental regulation last night as he spoke about plans to  eliminate burdensome government rules and red tape.  

"It's why our food is safe to eat, our water is safe to drink, and our air is safe to breathe," Obama said. 

Unmentioned again, though, is the move by his Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases as a way of combatting climate change - a move Republicans and some Democrats in Congress vow to block.  

(President Obama delivering the State of the Union to a joint session of Congress, Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Hundreds of environmental activists rallied in Annapolis yesterday evening to show their support for green legislative action in the General Assembly.  There'll be plenty of bills to keep them busy, from boosting offshore wind to clamping down on lawn fertilizer, banning arsenic in chicken feed and taxing plastic shopping bags. But a key legislative leader suggested out of activists' hearing that the "big ticket" - and most contentious - measures likely will have to wait until next year.

Enhancing offshore wind energy prospects, requiring communities to address polluted runoff and protecting state environmental programs from budget cuts are the top priorities of the state's green groups.  Buoyed by yesterday's turnout - and the presence of green-leaning elected leaders in the governor's office and General Assembly - activists vowed to make their voices heard.

"We are the faces no longer of tomorrow. We are the faces of today," Chesapeake Bay Foundation President Will Baker said.  Politicians who ignore envirionmentalists "do so at their peril,"  he concluded, to applause.

Adding to the greens' sense of optimism was the appearance before them of Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, who's promoted recycling, renewable energy and other environmental programs in his affluent, suburban county.  Ulman is  president this year of the Maryland Association of Counties, a group that's often opposed environmentalists  in Annapolis, especially in their push for tougher "smart growth" legislation to curb suburban sprawl.  Ulman told the group he personally supports their goals, though he can't guarantee that most other county officials will go along with him.

"You have a friend," he told the activists. But he cautioned, "you don't have a miracle worker."  

Continue reading "Green hopes in Annapolis ride on offshore wind" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Perdue plans to harness the sun to help run its Delmarva-based poultry and grain empire.

The company announced Wednesday that it would install more than 11,000 solar panels - covering the equivalent of 10 football fields - at its corporate headquarters in Salisbury and at its feed mill in Bridgeville, Del.

The company, one of the largest in the chicken business, says its solar play will be one of the biggest on the East Coast.

The panels, made by Standard Solar based in Rockville, will actually be owned and operated by Washington Gas Energy Services Inc.

Perdue signed a 15-year agreement to buy the electricity produced by the panels - 3,700 megawatt hours of electricity a year, on average, the company says, which it estimates is roughly what it takes to power 340 homes. Of course, since the sun doesn't shine all the time, the amount generated at any one time will vary.

Steve Schwalb, Perdue’s vice president of environmental sustainability, estimated the electricity from the solar panels will reduce Perdue’s carbon footprint by 3,000 tons per year. 

(Stock photo, Standard Solar) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Today's the opening day of Maryland's General Assembly, and supporters of developing offshore wind power plan to "swarm" the State House to press legislators to make it a priority, even as they are preoccupied with closing a massive budget gap.   Lawmakers gather at noon to launch the 90-day session.

Environmental activists and union leaders have joined forces this year to seek legislation that would require power companies to sign long-term contracts with developers of offshore wind projects. They contend that's needed to overcome the financing hurdles the fledgling industry faces.

Winds off the Atlantic coast are much stronger and more reliable than they are over land, where all industrial wind turbines have been placed so far.   Not everyone agrees, though, that offshore wind deserves another push from government.

Professor Benjamin F. Hobbs, director of the Environment, Energy, Sustainability & Health Institute at Johns Hopkins University, contends that mandating development of offshore wind in that way would do little for the environment while boosting energy costs consumers must pay.   Better, he says, to let the market decide which forms of renewable energy are the most economical.

"Offshore wind power plants are slightly more productive than onshore wind plants but not enough to make up for the much greater construction and transmission costs (as much as double onshore costs)," Hobbs wrote in a letter published last week in The Baltimore Sun. He said he'd concluded that after conducting a study comparing the costs of offshore wind development versus onshore in Great Britain.

(Wind turbines off Germany, AFP/Getty 2010)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As we start a new year, it's worth looking back at the big news of the past year - if only because many of those developments will resonate through 2011 and for years to come.

So here's my list of the top 10 green stories of 2010:

1)  Gulf oil spill: The catastrophic explosion, fire and blowout of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off Louisiana's coast took 11 lives and earned a spot in history as the nation's worst oil spill, gushing from April 20 until mid-July. Short-term, the impacts were not as bad as many had feared, as much of the oil dispersed, but the long-term ecological effects won't be known for some time. The disaster also prompted the Obama administration to reverse course and drop plans to expand offshore oil drilling in the Gulf and elsewhere - something that's likely to be challenged with the Republican takeover of the House in Congress.

2) Congress shuns climate action, EPA steps in:  While inaction rarely gets the same headlines, the decision last summer by the Senate's leaders to pull the plug on climate and energy legislation ranks, if not outranks, the Gulf oil spill in significance.  Where politicians feared to tread, however, the Environmental Protection Agency plunged ahead.  EPA at year's end announced initial requirements for limiting emissions from power plants.  Efforts are brewing in Congress, though, from Republicans and some Democrats to strip EPA of its authority - or funding - to follow through.

3) Bay gets pollution diet, crabs rebound:  The Environmental Protection Agency finished the year by putting the Chesapeake Bay on a "pollution diet," requiring 20 to 25 percent reductions in the amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment getting into the estuary from its 64,000-square-mile watershed.  It remains to be seen, though, how much state and local governments will do in the coming year, as they struggle with budget gaps and sluggish economies.  Meanwhile, the bay's iconic crustaceans staged a second straight year of strong recovery from near collapse, with the annual winter survey showing a 60 percent increase in the crab population over the previous year, to a level not seen since the late 1990s. 

4) Wind gets a push offshore, and lawsuits on land:  The prospects for giant turbines eventually catching the sea breezes off the US East Coast grew last year, with pushes from the Obama administration and from states like Maryland.  The Interior Department set up a "fast track" approval for offshore wind leases, and in November invited bids for placing turbines a dozen or more miles off Ocean City.  The state's first two industrial wind projects got built on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County, but conservationists filed suit alleging the turbines would harm endangered bats.

5) Baltimore greens up, slowly:  The city took steps last year - however haltingly - to make itself a greener, more sustainable place.  After years of debate over plastic shopping bags, City Council acted to curb their littering by imposing a "partial ban" - allowing supermarkets and other stores to keep using the flimsy throwaway sacks as long as they encouraged their customers to recycle or shop with re-usable bags.  The city got its first food "czar," Holly Freishtat, to encourage more healthful eating among city dwellers.   And municipal officials also quietly issued green building standards last summer, after sitting on them for a year to mull over developers' concerns that they'd stifle urban revitalization.  Stuart Kaplow, president of the local chapter of the US Green Building Council, calls the city's 2007 green building law, nor fully in effect, a "game changer." 

Continue reading "Looking back - and ahead" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

In a bid to make Bmore greener, the city is expanding its tryout of locally produced, cleaner-burning biofuels to heat municipal buildings.

The Board of Estimates has approved an agreement to spend up to $1.3 million over the next year to test 440,000 gallons of vegetable-based fuel in the boilers of three city facilities - the Back River wastewater treatment plant, Eastern health center and the Pimlico fire and training complex.  The fuel is to be supplied by New Generation Biofuels, which has a production plant in South Baltimore. 

"Today, Baltimore took a great step twoards becoming a more energy efficient and sustainable city," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a press release announcing the deal.

The city's been testing biofuel from New Generation for the past year, and found it burned much more cleanly than heating oil.   Ted Atwood, director of the city Department of General Services, said the alternative fuel produced far less air pollutiion  - no sulfur or particulate emissions, and greatly reduced nitrogen oxide emissions - an important consideration in a metropolitan area that still suffers bouts of unhealthful smog every spring and summer.

The biofuel, made from vegetable and soybean oil, is no more expensive than heating oil, according to Michael P. Cook, energy chief for the city's general services department.  The biofuel provides just 70 percent of the heat value when burned as does fuel oil, but it's also priced 30 percent less.

Continue reading "City warms to cleaner heating fuel" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As giant wind turbines start generating power atop the highest ridge in western Maryland, they raise questions anew about what price we're paying, environmentally, for our energy choices.

The towering windmills, visible for miles around, represent "green," renewable energy of the future to many.  But they've become lightning rods for debate about their impact on wildlife and on scenic mountain vistas.

Increasingly visible, too, is the extraction of coal, one of Appalachia's oldest energy sources. We get half or more of our electricity from coal-burning power plants, but the fossil fuel is a major contributor to climate change, and the ash left over from burning it poses disposal challenges.  Though mining is down from historic levels in western Maryland, surface mines have grown in the past decade and crept closer to towns such as Frostburg.   A new underground mine near Grantsville also prepares to tunnel under the Casselman River, home to such remarkable but rare species as the hellbender salamander.  Many of the region's streams still suffer from acidic water draining from old abandoned mines.

The biggest buzz these days, though, is coming over prospects for tapping previously unexploited natural gas reserves locked in Marcellus shale deposits underlying Garrett and western Allegany counties.  Hoping to cash in on a boom that's already under way in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia, landowners in Garrett have leased or sold rights to drill beneath 124,000 acres, more than a quarter of the county.

But the extraction method, called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," has proven controversial, with critics saying it's responsible for gas leaking into nearby residents' wells and for contaminating streams and ground water. Industry officials say problems have been overblown but they've tightened up operations anyway.

Regulators say they're seeing to it that current mining operations aren't adding to the region's water quality woes, and they vow to require "state of the art" environmental controls on drilling for for gas in Maryland's Marcellus shale - if any at all is permitted. 

That's not enough for some, who want legislation to ban any shale gas drilling until the state overhauls its regulations to impose safeguards.  Some also want to put a hold on any more utility-scale wind projects in Garrett - a third is in planning - until the county establishes some requirements there for buffering them from homes and decommissioning them when they're shut down. 

Read more about the state's conflicted energy frontier in The Baltimore Sun.  And check out the video of the wind turbines, some of them already spinning.

(Constellation Energy's Criterion wind project in Garrett County, Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston; aerial photo western Maryland surface mine by Jim Dougherty for Chesapeake Climate Action Network)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

It's apparently snowing in downtown Baltmore, only these "flakes" don't melt.

On Friday morning, Robert Neelbauer reports a flurry of white stuff fell on the street and sidewalk outside his home in the 300 block of N. Charles St.  It looked like snow, he emailed, but picking it up you could tell it was bits of foam.

"There was enough of it that the neighborhood/downtown association folks were sweeping it up," Neelbauer emailed.  He's concerned that it's falling into the Inner Harbor as well, which already has more than its share of trash and debris.  Such foam-falls have happened at least two other times he can recall in the past three months.

"It goes without saying that this stuff is bad for the environment," Neelbauer says, "but if someone is pumping this stuff into the air then that is a major pollution issue and someone should be held accountable for it."

The bits are probably too large to get lodged in your lungs, but for sure you wouldn't want to ingest a lot of it. 

Anyone else seeing snow falling that doesn't melt?  Any ideas where it's coming from?

(Photos by Robert Neelbauer)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

As sailors will tell you, you can't be in a hurry if you're relying on the wind to get you places.  The same is true with developing offshore wind energy.  Don't expect to see tiny turbines spinning far out to sea when you're at Ocean City next summer, or for several more years at least.

There was a predictable hurrah (which this newspaper helped fan, because it was news, after all) when the federal government announced Monday that it is opening up the Atlantic Ocean off Maryland's coast for bids from potential developers of offshore wind power projects. 

Gov. Martin O'Malley, who's made offshore wind a centerpiece of his administration's energy policy, issued a statement calling the federal announcement "another step forward for Maryland's new economy."  He'll no doubt tout offshore wind again when he speaks later today at Towson University about his vision for creating a "new economy" in Maryland that relies heavily on "green" jobs like building, running and maintaining wind turbines.

To be sure, there are likely to be jobs created in Maryland when - or if - wind takes off in a big way.  The O'Malley administration cites a recent projection that 4,000 manufacturing and construction jobs would be created during the development of a one-gigawatt "wind farm" off Ocean City, with another 800 permanent jobs dedicated to running and maintaining the more than 300 massive turbines that would need to be erected.

But though we could certainly use them in the current slump, those jobs are not just around the corner.  Unless the regulatory process picks up speed, it will be a few years yet before any offshore wind project gains all the necessary approvals to move forward in Maryland, much less breaks ground, or water, or whatever.  NRG Bluewater Wind, the company proposing to put wind turbines off Delaware's coast, said in August that the shakeup in the federal Minerals Management Service since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has delayed the permits it needs to move ahead, and postponed that project by two years.   It's now not expecting to start generating any electricity from offshore breezes until 2016.  And Maryland's offshore development is trailing Delaware's. 

Continue reading "Get set to wait on offshore wind" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Environmental activists are celebrating election returns indicating they still have clout in Annapolis (and California), but the outlook in Washington isn't so green.

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters says that 88 percent of the candidates it endorsed, 119 out of 138, won their races on Tuesday, with two races still too close to call as of mid-day Wednesday.  The most prominent of those, of course, was the reelection of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, whom the league had endorsed way back in January, even before it was clear Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. would challenge him. 

League executive director Cindy Schwartz said the results show Marylanders are passionate about the Chesapeake Bay and are "growing increasingly concerned about over-development and traffic, and recognize the need to create new clean energy jobs." 

She also claimed the returns confirm that "environmental issues always are top of mind when voters go to the polls."

Hard to dispute the first assertion, as I've not seen any recent poll results on growth and green jobs.  But the second contention about environmental issues being a priority with Maryland voters seems a tad optimistic.  A long series of independent public opinion polls through multiple elections, including this year's, have always found the environment, even the bay, taking a back seat in voters' minds to the economy, education and crime.   Voters care about the environment here, to be sure, but still not as much as other issues.

Perhaps another key to the league's high electoral batting average this year was its teaming up with labor (teachers and service workers) and with another environmental groups, Sierra Club and Environment Maryland, to pool efforts in making phone calls, sending out emails and producing campaign videos.

Overall, Republicans picked up a half-dozen seats in Maryland's House of Delegates, reports The Sun's Julie Bykowicz, while possibly losing two seats in the Senate, depending on the final outcome of close counts.

Locally, Baltimore city voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment (Question B) setting up one or more funds to promote sustainability, maintain city parks and improve the urban environment.  That could come in handy for ensuring that revenues can be raised through fees or other means to clean up litter in the harbor or retrofit storm drains.  Anne Arundel voters also put a dedicated environmentalist, West-Rhode Riverkeeper Chris Trumbauer, on the County Council.

California remains firmly green as well, it seems. There, voters defeated a ballot proposition to stall that state's climate-change law.  Proposition 23 had been heavily underwritten by industries opposed to the impending regulations. 

In Washington, though, it appears voters in Maryland and across the nation have made it much tougher for Congress to pass the Chesapeake Bay cleanup or climate-change legislation that have languished on Capitol Hill the past year.

Continue reading "Greens do well in MD, but face 'uphill battle' in DC " »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Air Pollution, Chesapeake Bay, Climate change, News
        

Maryland's environmental regulators say they took a record 3,099 enforcement actions in the past year, though penalties collected dipped by 23 percent.

In its annual enforcement report, the Maryland Department of the Environment says the number of actions taken for violations of air, land, water and radiation regulations increased by nearly 7 percent overall in the 12 months that ended July 1.  

That's the highest tally since reporting began in 1998, and a 54 percent increase in actions taken since the beginning of the O'Malley administration, the report notes.  But much of that big jump in enforcement actions came largely in one area - checking on X-ray machines used by dentists and doctors.  Not counting radiation safety, the overall increase was 21 percent the past four years.

The agency collected $5.1 million in penalties, down from $6.5 million the previous year, but officials noted the prior total was inflated by the imposition of a single $4 million fine.

Overall, inspections, audits and spot checks of businesses for compliance with environmental regulations increased by nearly 2 percent, the department reports.    

Not everything was up.  The number of inspections, audits and checks for water pollution violations slipped, as did visits to construction sites - perhaps a reflection of the continuing building slump in that case.  The number of actions taken increased, though, as did penalties collected.   The state has come under fire in the past year for its oversight of industries and municipalities discharging to rivers, streams and the Chesapeake Bay; the Waterkeeper Alliance petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to strip Maryland of its delegated authority to enforce water pollution laws unless the state does a better job.

Continue reading "MD environmental "cops" post record year" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The record heat we experienced this summer carried over into the nights as well, it seems. Environmentalists are pointing to that as a harbinger of what they call the "dark side" of impending climate change.

In Maryland, 12 of 16 weather stations in the Historical Climatology Network reported their nighttime low temperatures this summer were the highest ever recorded, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. And the other four stations in the state reported their average lows after dark were among their five warmest.   To see the Maryland data, go here.

The hot summer nighlts weren't limited to Maryland or the mid-Atlanatic, either.  NRDC says nearly one out of four weather stations in the lower 48 states recorded hotter average night-time lows than at any time since 1895.  The phenomenon extended across the East and Midwest.

One summer does not global warming make, of course, but this one comes on the heels of the hottest decade on record.  Why do enviros call hot summer nights the "dark side" of climate change?  The NRDC's Kim Knowlton says the nights are particularly bad for the elderly and those unable to afford air conditioning, since they can't get relief from the heat even after dark.

BTW, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that this has been the hottest year on record globally so far.  The first eight months have been as hot as the same period in 1998, the hottest year to date, the agency says.  And this summer, at least the three months from June through August, has been the second warmest.  For more, go here.

(People playing in Inner Harbor's Sondheim Fountain, July 2010, photo by Colleen McCloskey) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Clean Air Act, a sweeping environmental law that's widely credited with helping millions of Americans breathe easier - and even saving lives - but is still the focus of fierce debates. 

The Baltimore area once had such bad summertime smog that its air ranked among the nation's unhealthiest, second or third only to Los Angeles'.   The air quality has improved in both places since then, with ground-level ozone pollution concentrations declining.  Acid rain, once blamed for killing lakes and streams in the Northeast, has also abated.

Those gains didn't come without conflict, as industries warned they'd be ruined by requirements for now widely accepted pollution controls like putting catalytic converters on cars and scrubbers on coal-burning power plants, and removing lead from gasoline.  Nationally, chronic ozone levels were 14 percent lower in 2008  than in 1990, the year Congress made its last major revision of the law.  Other pollutants were down even more. (Smog, though, is heavily influenced by weather, and this summer's extreme temperatures have pushed ozone levels back up this year - though still not to the extremes seen in decades past.)

Even so, the law remains a battleground, as air-quality standards have been repeatedly tightened in response to new research indicating some segments of the population still suffer health problems from chronic exposure to lower levels of ozone and fine particulates.   There's a fight now over a new move to lower ozone limits again.  

The biggest struggle, though, is over the EPA's use of the Clean Air Act to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.  With climate-change legislation stalled in Congress, the Obama administration has moved ahead with moves to track and ultimately limit carbon dioxide emissions, relying on a Bush-era Supreme Court decision upholding the law's use to deal with climate change.  Lawmakers, some of them representing oil and coal-producing regions, have introduced bills to block further action. arguing carbono-dioxide emission regulations would hurt the economy.   

Amid tug of war in Washington over federal action, states like Maryland, meanwhile, have adopted their own laws clamping down on pollutants (Health Air Act) and are proceeding under state legislation to do the same with greenhouse gas emissions within their borders. 

Clean air, as ever, is a hot topic.  For more on the law, go here.

(Constellation Energy's Brandon Shores power plant, 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Today's another Code Red air quality day in the Baltimore area.  Health experts recommend folks stay indoors, particularly those with asthma or other chronic breathing difficulties.  They also urge driving less and avoiding refueling during the daytime, to reduce the release of smog-forming emissions.

Ground-level ozone, commonly called smog, reached unhealthful levels as predicted around 2 pm in the Edgewood area of Harford County, and to a "code orange" level in the Aldino area, meaning levels were high enough to affect sensitive individuals with breathing problems.

The hot summer has made breathing clean air tougher much of the summer. This is the seventh "Code Red" day this summer for the Baltimore area, compared with just one during last year's balmy, rainy summer and four during 2008. And there've been 27 "code orange" days in the B'mroe area - as opposed to 10 last year - when folks with asthma and other chronic lung conditions need to be careful about exerting themselves outdoors.

It should be noted that smog levels have generally improved since the 1980s, as states and the federal government have required cleaner-burning gasoline and more pollution controls on cars and trucks and power plants.

But scientists have found that chronic exposure to even lower levels of ozone can be harmful to health, so the Environmental Protection Agency is considering setting even tighter standards for health air, which is generating push back from industries fearing more costly regulation of their emissions.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It looks like all the cars tearing around the Inner Harbor next Labor Day weekend won't be racing just for the checkered flag - some at least will be trying to outdo each other in hybrid and alternative-fueled road rockets.

The American LeMans Series plans to stage a race here the day before Charm City hosts its first IndyCar Grand Prix race, Don Markus reports today in The Baltimore Sun.

An official announcement is planned on Wednesday, but a spokesman for the racing organization confirmed it would be bringing its act here.

Some may wonder how a bunch of cars burning rubber and fuel can be all that "green." But the American LeMans Series, or ALMS, pits race teams against each other not just for speed, but for fuel efficiency.  Cars use one of five alternative fuels or energy sources, and compete for points on fuel efficiency.  As I reported last year, the US import of European Le Mans style racing went "green" in 2008, meeting criteria set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department.

Of course, that'll be small comfort to those put out by the disruption of downtown traffic for the racing - or, for that matter, the yearlong street repairs already under way to prepare for the three-day event.   But hey, it's another excuse to give B'more's underused public transportation system a try, right?

(American Le Mans Series' 12 Hours of Sebring race March 20 in Sebring, Fla. Photo by Steve Nesius/Associated Press)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

People living downwind of cement plants like the one outside Baltimore should breathe easier, as the federal government has ordered major reductions in emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from them.

The Environmental Protection Agency made final Monday rules for cement kilns, imposing the first mercury pollution limits for existing facilities while tightening emission curbs on new plants.  When fully in force by 2013, the EPA's action should result in a 92 percent reduction nationwide in releases of mercury, a widespread fish contaminant that can damage children's developing brains. 

The rules also should lead to similarly large drops in emissions of harmful fine particles, acid gases and other pollutants, EPA projects.

A Portland cement industry group warned that the pollution limits would require US plants to spend "several billion" dollars collectively on controls and could force some older facilities to close.  But EPA estimates the health benefits far outweigh the costs.

The new rules pose no major problems for Lehigh Cement Co.'s plant in Union Bridge, according to plant manager Kent Martin.  Indeed, the Carroll County plant expects to achieve the new mercury limit a year earlier than EPA requires, he said in an email, because of a pollution-reduction accord the company struck last year with the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Continue reading "Cementing cleaner air" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Tired of your gas-hog lawn mower? If you move fast, you can trade it in next weekend at Camden Yards for a battery-powered electric grass cutter.

In a "special arrangement" with the Maryland Department of the Environment and Clean Air Partners, Marylanders can buy a deeply discounted Neuton lawn mower.  You could save up to $324 on a 19-inch bagger-mulcher job that lists for $499.

If you bite, you'll do your small bit to reduce summer smog, as the old mowers get scrapped and recycled.  Gas mowers account for 5 percent of all air pollution in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates.  And an hour of mowing with one produces as much smog-forming pollution as driving 350 miles. 

This green mower may not appeal to all lawn lickers, though.  The Neuton CE 6.4 got a so-so review from Consumer Reports.  Ease of use and handling were pluses, but bagging and mulching "only fair."  CR also found the battery on its tested model only lasted 45 minutes - not suitable for a big yard.  There are other cordless electric mowers CR rated more highly, made by the usual major mower manufacturers.  But then again, you probably won't be able to find one new at the prices offered under this deal.

To get in on the "great mower exchange," participants need to register online, then bring their old gas mower (and the $$) to Camden Yards Lot C on Saturday, Aug. 14 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.  The company's only selling 1,000 of its mowers, so it's first come first served. 

(Neuton photo) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

With 100-degree temperatures and cloudless, practically windless skies forecast for the next few days, it's a perfect recipe for unhealthful air quality.

The Maryland Department of the Environment warns that today, tomorrow and Wednesday are all predicted to be Code Red air quality days.  That means ground-level ozone, aka summer smog, could reach levels in the air we breathe where it's best to stay indoors as much as you can.  At 9 a.m. Monday, it's already Code Orange in downtown Baltimore, with ozone levels bad enough that children and those with breathing or heart conditions ought to stay inside.

High ozone levels in the air can cause shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, fatigue, headaches, nausea, chest pain, and eye and throat irritation.  Exercising outdoors in this kind of air can make it painful to take deep breaths.

Ozone forms when chemicals in vehicle exhaust, paint, aerosol products and power plant emissions all mix in the atmosphere on hot sunny days.  So if you want to do your part to help the air quality, cut down on driving and mowing lawns on days like this.

To stay current on air quality in the Baltimore and Washington areas, check out Clean Air Partners.   And if you want to know more about smog here and elsewhere on the continent, check out The Smog Blog produced by atmospheric scientists at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

(Blistering morning at the Inner Harbor, 2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Supporters and opponents of a refuse-burning power plant in south Baltimore squared off Monday night, with residents of Brooklyn and Curtis Bay saying they need the jobs the nearly $1 billion project would bring, while environmentalists warned it would emit health-threatening air pollution.

About two dozen people turned out for the public hearing called by the Maryland Public Service Commission, which must decide whether to approve the 120-megawatt "renewable energy" plant in Fairfield.  Only about a third spoke during the brief hearing at the Polish Home Hall in Curtis Bay, but the majority favored the project proposed by Energy Answers International of Albany, NY. 

Kurt Kramer, project manager, said the company aims to build the facility (artist's rendering above) to gold LEED standards on a capped portion of the contaminated old FMC chemical plant (pictured below) on Patapsco Avenue.  The project would employ boiler technology used in coal-burning power plants to generate electricity and steam from shredded municipal trash, tires, auto parts and wood waste.  It would be more efficient and cleaner than standard waste-to-energy incinerators, Kramer said, exceeding federal pollution-control requirements for emissions of particulates, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, mercury and lead, among other things.

The project manager also contended the facility would pump more than $40 million a year into the local economy, employing 300 to 400 people on a daily basis in its construction.   Company officials have said the plant's operation would employ about 200.

Environmentalists, though, warned that the plant would still be a significant polluter in an area long besieged by industrial emissions and wastes.  Lisa Lincoln of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network contended that it would be one of the state's largest emitters of mercury if built. She said regulators need to limit the types of waste the plant could burn to safeguard the community, and impose tighter pollution limits.  

Kimberly Wilson of the Environmental Integrity Project noted that the plant would be near two schools in an area "already overburdened" with industrial pollution and hazardous waste dumping, and with one of the state's highest death rates for chronic respiratory disease.  She also warned that the plant would run afoul of permitting and enforcement requirements in the federal Clean Air Act if approved by the PSC.

But Andy Dize, president of the Community of Curtis Bay Association, said residents were not as concerned with air pollution as they were with getting jobs in a community struggling with crime and poverty.

"Air pollution used to be a big issue decades ago," said Dize.  But with the gradual closure of factories in the area over the years, emissions have declined.  Community leaders have been talking with Energy Answers for nearly two years, he said, and are confident that the plant can be operated with proper oversight from the state so that pollution will not be a problem.  "Energy Answers provides a bright spot for the community," he said.

Continue reading "A burning debate in south Baltimore" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

When the mercury climbs above 90 degrees on sticky, sun-drenched days, it's more than the heat and humidity you need to watch out for. Ozone, also known as smog, forms as vehicle exhaust, power plant emissions and other pollution bake in the lower atmosphere.

The Baltimore area is under a Code Orange air-quality alert today, meaning children and adults with breathing or heart ailments shouldn't spend much time outdoors.

This is not to be confused with the Code Red heat alert issued Sunday by the city Health Department, which opens air-conditioned "cooling" centers around town when the temperature gets above 90 degrees.

The B'more area has had five Code Orange days so far this year, thanks to hot spells in April and May. But that's half of what we had in 2009, when we also had one Code Red day - where air quality gets so bad even healthy people are advised to stay indoors or limit strenuous outdoor activities. The year before, 2008, was even worse, with 21 Code Orange days and 4 Code Red days.

While weather plays a big role in summer smog, laws and regulations cranking down on vehicle and power plant emissions appear to be having an effect, officials say, by removing the ingredients needed to make our air hard to breathe.

To see where the smog is and how bad it's been - or going to be - check out the Clean Air Partners website. You can sign up there for air-quality alerts. Also, for those who want to know more, I recommend "The Smog Blog," a daily diary of air quality in the US put together by atmospheric researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  The map below, just one of the graphics on the website, depicts hourly ozone readings nationwide.

(2002 Baltimore Sun photo by Nanine Hartzenbusch; map Courtesy AIRNOW (EPA/Sonoma Technology Inc.) through the US Air Quality Smog Blog) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

With Baltimore's cruise business growing, here's a sobering report card for green travelers.

Friends of the Earth, in its second annual assessment of the environmental performance of cruise lines, finds many of those "love boats" still pollute the air and water more than they need to, fouling the very places they're taking vacationers to see.

"For the second year in a row, we've found that cruise lines are doing less than they can to limit the environmental impact of their ships," Marcie Keever, the group's Clean Vessels Campaign director, said in a release accompanying the report.

Only a few cruise lines, for example, have retrofitted their ships to plug into available portside electricity when docked, reducing their air pollution. About a third apparently still dump raw or minimally treated sewage overboard.  And only about a third make it easy for prospective customers to learn online about the cruise lines' environmental practices and performance. 

Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group, says on its website that recent pollution violations by cruise ships have served as a wake-up call to member companies to redouble their efforts to improve their environmental performance.

Not much has changed from last year's report card, though. Disney and Royal Caribbean improved their grades, while Holland America and Princess lost groud. 

Of the three rated cruise lines that serve Baltimore, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean got a D-plus, and Carnival a D-minus.   American Cruise Lines, which sails the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast from Baltimore, wasn't rated.

To see the ratings, go here.

UPDATE:  The Cruise Lines Industry Association, which disputed the Friends' earlier report card, issued a statement saying this one was flawed and arbitrary as well. The industry group says its ships treat all "blackwater" aka sewage before discharging it, and it contends its members "meet and often exceed all applicable international and federal environmental standards."  For more, go here.

(2009 Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Offshore wind in Maryland could get a boost from the Obama administration's approval of the controversial Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, proponents seem to think.

While wind may be looking up, prospects for drilling for oil and gas off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts aren't helped by news that the oil leak off Louisiana's coast from the destroyed Deepwater Horizon platform is five times worse than previously thought.  The Coast Guard says 5,000 barrels of oil may be escaping daily into the water, and it's looking to try to burn off the fuel before it can reach the sensitive wetlands along the coast.

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service is still a ways from being prepared to invite developers to show interest in placing wind turbines off Ocean City or Assateague Island.  But Maryland's Department of Natural Resources is busily scouting out where the best spots are to catch the wind -- also,  where there might be conflicts with birds and other marine life, with fishermen and ships.  

DNR held open houses earlier this month to lay out what it's found out already and to seek comment.  If you missed them, you can still see what was presented.  The posters are viewable online, just click here and scroll down.  Of particular interest are the maps, slides 17 through 20. DNR hopes to post all its information in an online coastal atlas in June.

One of the natural features to be avoided likely would be cold-water corals such as sea whip that grow on the bottom off OC.  Charter fishing Capt. Monty Hawkins first told me about them, and he has narrated a video essay describing the bottom features and their value as fish habitat, which you can see below. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

With prospects for a Senate climate bill under a cloud, the Obama administration has turned up the heat.  The Environmental Protection Agency says in a new report that there is "clear evidence" that human activities are altering the Earth's atmosphere and that climate is changing.

The EPA report lays out 24 "indicators" showing that climate is already shifting, most of them spotting trends in the United States.  Greenhouse gas emissions have increased 14 percent in the United States from 1990 to 2008.

Among the highlights: 

- Seven of the 10 warmest years on record in the continental US have occurred since 1990;

- Sea level rise has doubled its pace over the long term average since 1993;

- Six of the 10 most active hurricane seasons have occurred since the mid-1990s.

- Eight of the top 10 years for "extreme one-day precipitation events" (aka deluges or blizzards) have occurrred since 1990.

- The sea surface temperature has increased, with average temperatures in the past three decades higher than at any time since large-scale measurements began over a century ago.

- The average length of the growing season in the lower 48 states has grown by about two weeks since the beginning of the last century; much of the increase has occurred in the last 30 years.

- Birds in North America (like these brown pelicans at Barren Island in the Chesapeake Bay) have shifted their wintering grounds northward by about 35 miles since 1966, with a few moving hundreds of miles.  Birds also have shifted inland from the coasts, another indication of warming interior temperatures. 

- Though snow varies from year to year, the amount of North America covered by white stuff any given year was significantly lower, on average, from 2000 to 2008, than it was during the 1970s.

Continue reading "EPA turns up climate heat as Senate dithers" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Constellation Energy plans a celebration today of the startup of its new emissions scrubber system at the Brandon Shores power plant near the mouth of the Patapsco River.  The Baltimore-based power company has invited politicians and others this morning (3/1) to come see the system recently completed at a cost of $875 million.

The scrubber technology is expected to remove at least 95 percent of the 1,300 megawatt coal plant's sulfur dioxide emissions and 90 percent of its mercury emissions.  As I reported in a recent article in The Sun, there's a lot to remove - Brandon Shores and the nearby H.A. Wagner power plant together have been the nation's largest emitter of hazardous air pollutants.

Now, Constellation is saying, the scrubbers should make Brandon Shores one of the cleanest coal-burning plants of its size in the country.

One pollutant the scrubbers won't remove, though, is carbon dioxide.  A byproduct of burning coal, CO2 is the main "greenhouse" gas produced by human activities that scientific authorities say is gradually changing the earth's climate.  Though you can't see it, it's pouring out of the scrubber stack seen at left, along with the billowing white water vapor.  Brandon Shores emitted 7.8 million tons of the gas in 2008, according to government figures supplied by Constellation's John Quinn.

The scrubbers weren't supposed to deal with carbon dioxide.  They're meant to bring Constellation's plants into compliance with Maryland's Healthy Air Act, a 2006 law targeting power plant emissions that contribute to the Baltimore region's summer ozone and year-round particle air pollution problems.  The law also aims to curb releases of mercury, which can get into the food chain through fish and can cause nerve and brain damage, especially in young children.  If Constellation's scrubbers work as well as the company believes, the plant will meet or exceed the law's required reductions - for those pollutants

But the scrubbers will actually cause the plant's emissions of carbon dioxide to increase about 2.5 percent, company spokesmen say.  That's because the plant will be using some of the electricity it produces to run its scrubber equipment, and will need to burn more coal to make up for the diverted power.  Reducing the plant's contributions to climate change likely will require "carbon capture and storage," a technology that is still being tested at several power plants around the country.  Congress has yet to act on federal legislation that might require carbon dioxide reductions nationwide, but under a 2009 state law, power plants and other industrial sources of greenhouse gases in Maryland will have to reduce their emissions 25 percent by 2020.

(Thanks to Roger A. Pielke Sr., senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institutes for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, CO for pointing out in his blog that I didn't mention carbon dioxide in my Sun article.)

(Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As the first decade of the new millenium draws to a close, here's our look back at some of the biggest stories in Baltimore and beyond about the environment and green living. Feel free to remind us of those we overlooked.

FIRE DOWN BELOW: A freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derails and catches fire in a century-old rail tunnel beneath Howard Street in July 2001, triggering a water main break and power outage that paralyzes downtown for days, sending thousands of workers home and canceling Orioles games. Though hydrochloric acid leaked from one car, there were no explosions or releases of more toxic chemicals, and no one was seriously hurt. The city and CSX Transportation blame each other for the disaster, which reveals not only the fragility of our infrastructure but the risks of routine transportation of hazardous materials through heavily populated areas. (Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

SNAKEHEADS! Dubbed "Frankenfish" for its reputed ability to breathe air and "walk" short distances out of water, the northern snakehead turns up in June 2002 in a Crofton pond. State poisons the pond in what proves to be a vain attempt to eradicate this highly invasive import from Asia. More are caught two years later in a Wheaton pond and then in the Potomac River. They are just the most sensational of a rogues' gallery of troublemaking exotics found during the decade, including emerald ash borers, mitten crabs and most recently Didymo, freshwater algae discovered in western Maryland that can blanket stream bottoms with slimy grayish mats. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)

BAY BLUES: Far short of the goals they'd set to clean up the bay, states and the federal government agree in June 2000 to new goals for reducing pollution fouling the water and for restoring the estuary's fish and grasses, this time by 2010. By late 2007, though, officials acknowledge they're not even going to come close, as polluted runoff from farms and development remains largely uncontrolled. States pledge to accelerate restoration work and hold themselves more accountable, but set 2025 as their new cleanup target date. President Obama in May 2009 declares bay a national treasure and orders federal agencies to take lead in lagging cleanup effort. Blue crabs, meanwhile, suffer perilous decline through decade and prompt severe catch restrictions, leading to a federal disaster declaration for bay's crabbing industry. Crabs begin to rebound as decade ends, though catch curbs remain. Virginia and Maryland eye Asian oysters after diseases and pollution devastate native bivalves; but scientific concerns about another non-native introduction kill the idea. (Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

CHANGING CLIMATE: UN-backed scientific panel that's been studying earth's climate since 1980s reports in 2001 that there's new and stronger evidence that planet is warming and most of it stems from human activities such as burning fossil fuels. In 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues even stronger update, finding warming "unequivocal" and humans "very likely" the main cause. Bush administration opts for more study. Maryland joins other states in adopting own goals for reducing planet-warming greenhouse gases and participates in regional "cap and trade" curbs on power plant emissions. Obama pledges US action, but UN-backed talks in Denmark in December 2009 fail to agree on new global compact.

Continue reading "A decade worth of green" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

It turns out those big concrete barriers put up along busy highways to shield neighboring residents from the roar of traffic also reduce how much air pollution they get from the passing vehicles. 

That's what a new government study found, anyway.  Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency  released harmless "tracer" gases along highways to track how they were dispersed through the air - and by extension, indicate what happens to harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide, soot and benzene that are emitted by cars and trucks going by.

The researchers found that in addition to blocking out sights and sounds of traffic, the barriers apparently channel air flow - and many of the pollutants - up and away from nearby residential areas. 

"We also found that the barriers tend to trap pollutants in the area of the roadway itself, especially at night in low wind-speed conditions," said Dennis Finn, a NOAA meteorologist from Idaho, and lead author of the study, published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

That ought to be an added relief to residents sleeping in homes shielded from highways by those barriers - though if you're on the highway you may not want to breathe too deeply or stay long if you find you have to stop your car on the shoulder in one of those concrete sound-barrier canyons.

(1998 Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox of sound barrier being built on I-695 near US 40)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Older communities, long regarded as blighted and polluted, are beginning to change that image by ripping up some of their asphalt and concrete and giving the land a chance to breathe again.

 Little Edmonston, a working-class bedroom community on the outskirts of the nation's capital is the latest example of this greening of urban America. I wrote about the Prince George's County town's "Green Street" project in The Baltimore Sun today.  In this picture, the town's mayor, Adam Ortiz, shows how the community's busy main thoroughfare, Decatur Street, is being narrowed to make room for "bio-retention cells," aka trees and grasses to soak up polluted stormwater running off the streets and parking areas.  Standing behind him is Neil Weinstein, executive director of the Low Impact Development Center, which has been assisting the town with the project.

Besides soaking up damaging runoff, the native trees to be planted in the new strips between sidewalk and street also will help clear the air and provide shade and bird habitat. New, energy-efficient street lamps and bike lanes on porous pavers  will add to the makeover.

The construction is financed with a $1.1 million economic stimulus grant - one of seven "green" infrastructure projects in Maryland receiving a total of $3 million in funding through the Recovery Act. But the Edmonston project couldn't have been "shovel ready" without the assistance of a $25,000 design and engineering grant the year before from the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

Such retrofitting of older communities is vital, because most of them were built before anyone recognized that funneling rain water quickly from streets and parking lots into storm drains would ravage streams and pollute the Chesapeake Bay.  Baltimore and other cities and towns are beginning to grapple with how to do what little Edmonston is doing, but on a massive scale.  The cost is likely to run into billions of dollars, but Weinstein, who's also signed on to help Baltimore with its retrofits, says people need to start thinking of it more as an investment than a cost - an investment in cleaner water and more attractive neighborhoods. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It seems that emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases took a dip in Maryland even before lawmakers in Annapolis agreed to reduce them.

Relying on federal data, Environment Maryland reports that carbon dioxide emissions in the Old Line State from burning fossil fuels declined 6 percent from 2004 through 2007. Maryland was in good company - 16 other states also trimmed their emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use in that time period, according to the environmental group's latest report.

The decline is interesting because it predates the recession, which experts say has dampened energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions because of reduced economic activity. The US Energy Information Administration, for instance, projects that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use nationwide are likely to be 5.9 percent lower this year than last.

Environment Maryland says the decline in carbon dioxide emissions in Maryland and other states shows that climate-warming pollution can be reduced without harming the economy.  The group is pressing Congress to pass legislation aimed at curtailing emissions nationwide while promoting energy efficiency and renewables.  Much of the debate in Washington is over how much that will increase the costs of energy and whether that will hurt the economy at a time when the nation is still grappling with high unemployment.

Environment Maryland suggests that carbon dioxide emissions dropped in states with policies and standards promoting energy efficiency.  Maryland, which ranks 10th in per capita carbon dioxide emissions, came in 12th in a 2008 rating of its policies by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington-based advocacy group. 

But all that happened before Maryland lawmakers approved the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act this year aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and even before the state approved EmPower energy-efficiency legislation in 2008 that was pushed by the O'Malley administration.  It was that bill aimed at achieving a 15 percent reduction in per capita energy consumption by 2015, that helped Maryland earn its relatively high ranking on energy efficiency.

I'm wondering if there weren't other factors at play in the 2004-2007 dip in CO2 emissions than a conscious attempt to improve energy efficiency or deal with climate change.  The decline apparently happened largely as a result of power plants switching from coal and oil to natural gas and other cleaner-burning fuels.  Could that switch have stemmed from government regulation of conventional air pollutants, which also are generated by burning fossil fuels, and big jumps in oil prices in the run-up to the recession?

Even if so, it's still noteworthy that climate-warming pollution dropped in Maryland and some other states while economic growth continued (albeit unsustainably). 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Air Pollution, News
        

Here's a listing where you don't want to be No. 1.  Forbes.com, which is fond of doing lists, has come up with "America's most toxic cities."  The business news site has ranked the nation's 40 largest metro areas by the dirtiness of their air and water, the number of places spewing toxic pollution and the number of Superfund hazardous waste dumps.

Atlanta earns the dubious distinction as forbes.com's most toxic city.  It lacks the smokestack industries one might typically associate with pollution, but the sprawl capital of America has some of the worst air quality, thanks to all the motor vehicles cruising its spaghetti bowl of pavement.

Following Atlanta are Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

Where's Baltimore? It ranks 32nd on the forbes.com list.  But that doesn't mean Charm City is all that clean, because oddly the list is in reverse order, with cleanest on top and dirtiest at the bottom.  When the list of 40 is flipped to rank the most toxic first, B'more comes in 9th. Not such a green showing. 

One has to wonder if forbes.com hasn't piled on a bit, though.  It lists 37 Superfund sites in Baltimore, when the Environmental Protection Agency only counts 11 in the city. The total doubles when the suburbs are included, but that's still well short of the figure used in the rankings.

But hey, look on the bright side.  Baltimore is only slightly worse than Portland, Oregon (#31, or 10th most toxic) often regarded as one of the crunchiest green places in the country.

Seem like a fair ranking to you?  Or a bad hit?

(2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Environmentalists worry that the push to clean Maryland's air could wind up degrading the state's waters.

Under the state's Healthy Air Act passed in 2006, coal-burning power plants are required to reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, which impair our breathing, foul the Chesapeake Bay and make some fish unsafe to eat in large quantities. Beginning next year, the plants are supposed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by almost 70%, sulfure dioxide emissions by 80%, and mercury emissions by 80%.

To meet those requirements, the coal plants are in the process of installing "scrubbers" to clean the pollutants out of their smokestacks before they get into the air. But environmentalists are concerned that the pollutants scrubbed from the stacks may wind up in the water if there aren't adequate safeguards to clean the plants' wastewater.

Even before the scrubbers are hooked up, they note, at least one coal-burner, Mirant Corp.'s Morgantown plant in Charles County, is discharging hundreds of pounds of toxic chemicals daily into the Potomac River. Based on the company's own sampling, the water coming out of the Morgantown plant's outfall pipe into the river is carrying more than 200 pounds of arsenic and nearly 600 pounds of selenium a day.

"It's just shifting pollution from one medium to another in an area already suffering from pollution,'' says Jennifer Peterson, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington. The University of Maryland's environmental law clinic pressed the group's concerns with the state Department of the Environment.

Continue reading "Cleaning the air at water's expense?" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Air Pollution, Chesapeake Bay, News
        

You may be wondering: What's this guy doing, cooking out on a grassy parking space downtown?  No, he's not tail-gating before a Ravens game.  It's a somewhat unusual come-on for a novel approach to car-sharing that's getting a tryout in Baltimore.

Relay Rides is the brainchild of Shelby Clark, pictured above.  With a small but dedicated team, the long-haired Harvard graduate business student is signing up people in Charm City who want ready access to wheels from time to time.  Nothing unusual about that, you say?  Like Zipcar, right?  Well, he's also rounding up car owners willing to rent out their vehicles when they're not using them.  He wants to help the two groups find each other.

Clark, a Denver native, says he got the idea for "peer-to-peer" car-sharing after finding once that he had to slog two miles through wintry streets in Beantown to pick up the nearest Zipcar available on short notice. "I was biking through the snow and hating life,'' he recalls, "And, passing cars sitting on the side of the road, I was thinking how inefficent this is.  'These cars haven't been driven in weeks,' he says he thought to himself. 'Why can't I take one of these?'"

Not that he dislikes Zipcar.  Clark says he's used the car-sharing service a lot since his car died in San Francisco a couple years ago.  But he says he's learned the hard way you can't count on getting a convenient vehicle if you don't plan at least a couple days ahead.

"This idea makes a lot more sense - it's for the people and by the people,'' says the 27-year-old MBA student.  The appeal for car owners?  "Everybody could use a couple thousand dollars right now."  And for someone wanting to start a business on limited capital, he says, it helps not to have to buy the vehicles you plan to rent out. "Since we don't have to pay for these cars, we can grow the system much much quicker," he notes.

Continue reading "Novel car-sharing biz sprouting here" »

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Air Pollution, Going Green, News, Products, Urban Issues
        

There's a newly green dry cleaner in town: the Glyndon Lord Baltimore Cleaners.  The shop uses GreenEarth Cleaning, a solicone-based solution, which is like sand, instead of perchloroethylene. Perc is used by most dry cleaners and is considered a health and environmental hazard by the Environmental Protection Agency.

A few options for greener cleaning have cropped up in recent years, and experts don't agree that they are all perfect alternatives.

Here's what the Union of Concerned Scientists says about the silicone method: "Silicone cleaning is a proprietary technology that employs a silicone-based solvent to clean clothes. The solvent itself is currently considered safe for the environment because it degrades to sand, water, and carbon dioxide, but it has caused cancer in lab animals in EPA studies. In addition, it is manufactured using chlorine, which can generate harmful dioxin emissions."

The group points to other methods, including wet cleaning, which uses water and special computer-controlled washers and dryers and mild detergent. The EPA considers this among the safest pro cleaning methods. There is also carbon dioxide cleaning that uses liquid CO2 captured as a by-product of industrial processes. It the same stuff used to carbonate soda.

You fashionistas could consider not dry cleaning at all. Some stuff can go in the gentle cycle or be hand washed. You could try that special stuff meant to be used in the dryer in a bag. Or you could try not buying stuff labelled "dry clean only."

For its part, Glyndon Lord Baltimore Cleaners says it continues to research the best methods. In the meantime, operators also recycle hangers and containers, use earth-friendly soaps to clean most wet-cleaned clothes, drive high-mileage diesel vans and supply reusable bags to customers.

Anyone use Glyndon? Other dry cleaners. Or have you found alternative methods that are eco-conscious and actually clean?

Photo courtesy of außerirdische sind gesund via flickr

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Air Pollution, Fashion, Going Green, Products, Tips
        

The program is a little behind schedule, but Baltimore's new Charm City Circulator buses are definitely coming this fall, members of the Charm City Circulator Team say. The system will be made up of a fleet of 21 hybrid-electric buses that will pick up residents in close-in neighborhoods such as Federal Hill and Fells Point and take them to stops around downtown.

The idea is to get people out of their cars by making it really convenient and cheap -- FREE -- to get around downtown. The buses have been behind schedule because of the recession and problems in the automotive supply chain, the team says.

But in the next few weeks there will be visable progress, including info panels at stops, signs and street markings for the "buses and bikes only" lanes on Pratt and Lombard. (Hmm, how do we feel about buses and bikes sharing lanes? And if we're okay with that, wouldn't we like to see some north-south lanes as well? I believe the city is working on such lanes.)

Anyway, the buses are supposed to run seven days a week, every 10 minutes and along three routes. There's also a plan to allow people trying to get across the harbor to take the Water Taxi Harbor Connector for free. It will leave from Maritime Park at Living Classrooms Foundation in Fells Point and from the Tide Point dock in Locust Point every 10 minutes. Go to www.watertaxi.com for more info.

So, think you'd take the new bus?  

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Air Pollution, Going Green, News, Urban Issues
        

Well, hon, you better plan on sweating a lot more, and staying indoors for your own safety. It seems that global climate change could double the number of oppressively hot days in Charm City and significantly worsen our summertime smog pollution, making something as simple as breathing more perilous for those with asthma, lung or heart conditions.

That was the warning delivered today in Clifton Park by a handfull of scientists and environmental activists who called a press conference there to highlight the health threats facing urban residents as the planet heats up.

"Baltimore is facing a blistering hot future due to global warming," says Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation.  Climate scientists predict that average temperatures nationwide could increase by 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit within the lifetime of children born today, Inkley said, but the extremes could be even worse.

Here in Baltimore, it could mean roughly two dozen extremely hot days a year, twice what we swelter through now, according to the federation's analysis.  To read the full report, go here.

About one in four Baltimore residents lacks air conditioning, Inkley says, making them especially vulnerable to the heat.  And with 20 percent of city households living below the poverty line, they can't afford to have or run the AC.

More and longer heat waves could translate into more people being felled with health-threatening heat stress, notes Dr. Cindy L. Parker, codirector of the program on global sustainability and health at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Without prompt treatment, Parker says, the headaches, nausea and faintness afflicting heat stress victims can worsen into heat stroke, leading to brain damage and even death.

As if the heat is not enough, Inkley pointed out there'll be a "double whammy" as rising temperatures worsen the city's chronic bouts of summertime ozone air pollution. With the outdoor air already unhealthy to breathe at times for sensitive adults and children, higher temperatures are likely to raise the ozone levels siginficiantly, Inkley warns. Ozone inflames the lining of the lungs, causing coughing fits and tightness in the chest and may actually send some people to the hospital with breathing or heart problems.

"A lot more of us are going to become ill if we don't act," says Parker. "We can't simply adapt to ever-rising temperatures."

As if to emphasize her point, the Clifton Park swimming pool, one potential oasis from the heat, sat empty. The group called the press conference to remind the public that once Congress gets through with the health-insurance reform debate, it has pending legislation to deal with climate change. The House has already passed a bill aimed at curbing climate-warming emissions of carbon dioxide, but the Senate has yet to take it up. An aide to Sen. Barbara Mikulski stepped up to point out that she is a cosponsor of the legislation.

(2006 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Time.com writes this week about a study that shows lower IQs in babies whose moms were exposed to polluted air.

I often wonder when I'm running along busy Fort Avenue to Fort McHenry if the exhaust is makes the exercise not worth it. I'm sure that not a good thing, but the story says adults have some coping mechanisms. Babies, particularly when they are fetuses, do not.

The story reports on a study in the journal Pediatrics that links mothers' exposure to high levels of environmental pollutants while pregnant to a four-point drop in children's IQ scores by age 5. They said that can be significant.

The researchers also point out that we know how to reduce pollution from cars and factories and are in many cases. Perhaps we should be doing more?

Associated Press file photo in Kansas

Posted by Meredith Cohn at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Air Pollution
        

We may have been lulled by the wet, relatively mild spring we've had so far, but yesterday provided a reminder that summer is fast approaching - and with it worsening air quality, aka "smog."  Time to pay attention, especially if you have compromised breathing already.

Ozone in the air reached "Code Orange" unhealthful levels on Monday in Padonia, north of Baltimore city, for children and adults with respiratory and heart ailments, who are likely to be more sensitive to pollution.

It's not uncommon to have "bad air" days in summer, as strong sunlight is all that's needed to make ozone from the pollutants spewing from car and truck tailpipes, power plant smokestacks and a whole range of other sources.

Ozone is a good thing in earth's upper atmosphere, where it helps shield us from skin cancer by blocking out some of the sun's ultraviolet rays; closer to the ground, though, it can "burn" our lungs and bronchial passages if inhaled in the air we breathe.  High levels of ozone can cause coughing and wheezing, shortness of breath, chest pain, headaches and nausea, and eye and throat irritation. Even for health adults, exercising in ozone-polluted air may make it painful to take deep breaths. 

Last year, there were 25 bad ozone days in the Baltimore area.  Normally, they peak in June and July, though they can happen earlier, in May or even sooner.  The first Code Orange days this year actually hit during a brief warm spell on April 25 and 26.

When ozone levels soar on sweltering days, it's best to keep kids - and yourself - indoors, especially if you have health conditions already.  You can get daily air-quality forecasts and even check ozone levels real-time here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Air Pollution, News