Graham Endorses Cap and Trade

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chamber's leading Democratic advocate of climate legislation, to promote a bipartisan plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The bill does little for nuclear power beyond new training programs and is silent about offshore drilling.

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Here is a link to the original article from The Washington Post.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Pretty Dim Idea

Michael Heberling at The Freeman wrote an article about the truth behind compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). And questions why the incandescent bulbs have been outlawed. In Europe they are illegal now and in the U.S. it will be 2012.

Here are some myths and facts about the CFLs:

Myth: CFLs last ten times longer than the old bulbs and are as bright at the end as they are at the beginning.
Fact: A Department of Energy study found that after 40 percent of the advertised service life, a quarter of the CFLs started to become dim bulbs. If you don’t mind having dim bulbs for 60 percent of the service life, then CFLs should make you happy.

Myth: Even though CFLs cost much more than incandescent bulbs (up to 25 times as much), they last so much longer so the cost over the life of the bulb is less.
Fact: It turns out that the lifespan of a CFL depends on how many times you turn it on and off. Failure to keep the light on causes the bulbs to burn out just as fast as the Edison bulbs.

Myth: Incandescent bulbs lose most of their energy as heat, and that's bad.
Fact: The old bulbs do double duty when they are on: they provide light and heat. When it is light outside, most people don't use the bulbs. They also don't use the bulbs that are on in rooms that aren't being used.

Myth: CFLs aren't harmful to people.
Fact: In some people they trigger headaches or even migraines because of the nearly imperceptible flickering. The BBC reported that the bulbs can also increase the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency recommends that people be no closer than about a foot from these lights for more than an hour a day. The ultraviolet radiation emitted by CFLs is like direct sunlight on bare skin.

Myth: CFLs are good for the environment.
Fact: It turns out that the each CFL contains five to ten milligrams of mercury. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances on earth; it can cause serious health problems, including nerve and kidney damage. The mandate will result in millions or billions of CFLs ending up in landfills where the mercury will leach out to contaminate the soil and groundwater.

A note about the environmental aspects of CFLs. If one breaks in your home, here are the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended guidelines for cleanup:

1) open the windows and evacuate the room for 15 minutes;
2) shut off the heating or air-conditioning system;
3) carefully scoop up the glass using stiff paper and place it in a glass jar or sealable plastic bag;
4) after vacuuming, wipe the canister and put the bag or debris in a sealed plastic bag; and
5) throw away clothing or bedding that comes in contact with the broken glass or the mercury-containing powder. I must not wash contaminated clothing or bedding because mercury fragments may also contaminate the washing machine or pollute the sewage.

Heberling questions why, if the CFLs are so much better than incandescent bulbs, why ban the old bulbs? Won't the market take care of the old bulbs?

You can find the original article here.

You can find the EPA's cleanup guidelines here.

Indians to Environmentalists: Get Lost

The Durango Herald News has an article today about the Hopi Indians and the environmentalists.

Although Indian tribes and environmentalists have worked together sometimes on issues, coal is not one of them. The tribes have a plentiful coal source and sell it to power companies with coal-fired plants. The environmentalists oppose the use of coal in favor of other sources such as wind and solar.

"Environmentalists are good at identifying problems but poor at identifying feasible solutions," said Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. in a news release. "Most often they don't try to work with us but against us, giving aid and comfort to those opposed to the sovereign decision-making of tribes."

On the Hopi reservation, revenues from coal mined by Peabody Energy in northern Arizona's Black Mesa area make up 70 percent of the tribe's $15 million budget. On the Navajo Nation, those revenues make up nearly 10 percent of the tribe's budget.

In 2006, environmentalists successfully forced the shutdown of the Mohave Generating Station on the Arizona-Nevada border - the only other customer for the tribes' coal - when the owner failed to install pollution-control upgrades as required by a settlement with environmentalists.

"The tribe is still reeling from that," said Hopi legal counsel Scott Canty. "To talk about taking the remaining revenues away is just unfathomable. It would just set them back tremendously."

You can find the original article here.

Coal Company Raises Awareness of Cap and Trade

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, helped organize a rally in southern West Virginia to raise awareness for the cap and trade legislation.

Mr. Blankenship said he wanted to show people at the event how government regulation is hurting the coal industry, driving up energy prices and making the country less competitive. "We're hopeful that through networking that they will educate their neighbors and that they'll all begin to speak out," he said. "We think that will make a difference."

The show was held in a reclaimed Logan County strip mine. It was headlined by Hank Williams, Jr., and featured Ted Nugent, who was the MC and who did some performing. Also in for the show was Sean Hannity from Fox News.

Said Mr. Blankenship, "We don't need a government that wants to shut down our coal mines. We don't want a government that wants to increase our power bills. ... We don't want a government that is run by people who believe they can change the Earth's temperature when they can't balance a budget."

The original article can be found here.

Now We See the Light

Pretty soon it will be illegal to sell incandescent light bulbs in the United States and throughout the European Union. GE, the biggest manufacturer of the compact fluorescent bulb that is replacing the old bulbs, lobbied for the change in the U.S. law (1). GE is winning in several ways:

1. They make more money per bulb over the old style of bulb.


2. They save on labor costs because the bulbs are made in China and not America.


3. They have no environmental regulations to work under because China does not have the laws the U.S. does.


4. They get to work under a single federal standard instead of several state standards.


5. They get points with the environmentalists for selling "green" bulbs.

GE is shedding 400 U.S. jobs, although it says it may make a better bulb in the future and bring those jobs back.

And now we find out from the European Union that the ratings given the bulbs are lies from the manufacturers. For example, an 11W CFL is said to be as bright as a 60W incandescent bulb when in reality it is a 15W CFL that is that bright (2).

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1. Carney, Timothy P (2009, August 28). "How GE's Green Lobbying Is Killing U.S. Jobs". The Washington Examiner.
Retrieved August 31, 2009, from The Washington Examiner.

2. Gray, Richard and Julia McWatt (2009, August 29). "Energy Saving Light Bulbs Offer Dim Future". Telegraph.
Retrieved August 31, 2009, from Telegraph.co.uk