Environment , Energy and Sustainability 2012

EEandS_12

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

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

Upcoming Events

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

Legislative Alerts

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

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

La Plata County Actions

Environment and Energy Legislation

US/CO Environment and Energy Positions

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

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

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

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

LWVLPC Positions

LWVUS Reference Materials

Colorado and US News

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

World EES News

Correspondance from our members

Past Events

References

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

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

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