Absurd Quote of the Day!

"The dumping of toxic sludge into the Potomac River actually protects the fish in that they are not inclined to bite and get eaten by humans but they go ahead with the upstream movement."

Army Corps of Engineers, 2002

"People Can't Put Their Interests Above the Earth"

Yesterday, Bolivian President Evo Morales addressed the United Nations in honor of Earth Day:

"Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights," he said. "What's happening with climate change is that the rights of Mother Earth are not being respected."

He told the U.N. delegates that "we have the challenge to agree on a universal declaration for the rights of Mother Earth." Morales outlined four principles that he asked them to consider:

• The right to life: "The right for no ecosystem to be eliminated by the irresponsible acts of human beings."
  
• The right of biosystems to regenerate themselves: "Development cannot be infinite. There's a limit on everything."
  
• The right to a clean life: "The right for Mother Earth to live without contamination, pollution. Fish and animals and trees have rights."
  
• The right to harmony and balance between everyone and everything: "We are all interdependent."
  

Morales pointed out how indigenous people in Bolivia have rites and rituals to honor the Earth.  "We now must begin to realize that the Earth does not belong to us," he said. "It's the other way around. We belong to the Earth."

Happy Earth Day!

This pretty much sums up my feeling on today:

Click here to send the card to your friends and family!

I'm so happy to see how Earth Day has hit mainstream media in every direction.  Better yet is all the criticism coming from the side!  You know you are starting to get somewhere when all the crazies (aka Rush, et al) are clamoring for attention.

Hopefully this momentum will continue and we will have 365 days of Earth Day!

Absurd Quote of the Day!

"We don’t know what those other [climate change] cycles were caused by in the past. It could be dinosaur flatulence. Who knows?"

February 12, 2007 - Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), during a congressional hearing on the global warming and climate change report, which concluded for the first time that there was an “unequivocal” link between human behavior and rising temperatures.

Climate Change in the Media; A Bit of Realism Please!

With Friday's EPA ruling that CO2 should be regulated under the Clean Air Act, every media outlet in the country has been talking about the impacts this will have from legislation/regulation to economics. Most of the articles I've read including The Wall Street Journal have been quoting dire consequences from both coal and electric producers. They claim that passing such legislation will be an "atomic bomb... to the U.S. economy".

From the WSJ article, "American Electric Power, a utility giant with 5.2 million customers in states from Texas to Michigan to Virginia, is already considering what coal plants would have to be shuttered and how high rates would have to go to comply with either a regulatory or legislative mandates to curb carbon dioxide. AEP spokesman Pat Hemlepp said rate increases stretch from 25% to 50% and beyond, depending on the climate change strategy that finally emerges from Washington." Talk about scare tactics!

No one believes that whatever legislation or regulation that gets passed is going to be enacted overnight. Coal-fired plants are not going to be running one day and shut down the next. As much as these spokepeople will try to have you believe, it's just not going to happen.

It's going to be an ongoing process - limits are going to achieved over time. What will happen is that jobs will be created here in this country not lost. We need further research on how we can still use existing plants and reduce emissions. There is already a great site, U.S. Climate Change Technology Program, that outlines ongoing research and technologies being considered led by The Department of Energy.

This administration also has already pledged further funding for research on renewable energy. We already have commercial operations for wind, solar, and fuel cell technologies. With the recent collaboration of FERC and MMS, we should be seeing more research and testing in offshore wind and wave energy. The result - more jobs created and less CO2 released in the atmosphere.

Sherman's Lagoon is Now a Musical!

Sherman's Lagoon, the Musical is a hilarious adventure back in time to when Kapupu Lagoon was a kinder, gentler place; while introducing the audience to the strip's already well-loved characters (e.g. Sherman, Hawthorne, Fillmore, and Ernest,) it highlights the dating trials and tribulations of Sherman and Megan.

Listen to the soundtrack on iTunes or Rhapsody.

The audience also meets some new characters: Ernest's smarter little sister, Bentley, a doo-wop chorus called "The Shallow Soles," and the Musical's two antagonists: the hoary ol' fisherman, Cap'n Quigley, and his new accomplice, the Nifty Fish Niblets Queen, Mrs. Gorton. Together, these two dastardly villains plot to vacuum up the oceans of the world - until not a single fish remains!

Complications ensue as Fillmore decides to head off to the Annual Ascension Island Sea Turtle Jamboree, the Big Kahuna's dating advice is cryptic and no help (as usual,) Ernest thinks he has the solution - but doesn't, and Hawthorne is, well, Hawthorne. By the end of the show, Sherman finds himself having to actually save the Lagoon!

FERC and MMS Reach Agreement on US Outer Continental Shelf

On April 9th, an agreement was finally reached between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) on the control of leasing, licensing, and regulating for all renewable energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

Under the agreement:

• MMS has exclusive jurisdiction with regard to the production, transportation, or transmission of energy from non-hydrokinetic renewable energy projects, including wind and solar. MMS also has exclusive jurisdiction to issue leases, easements, and rights-of-way regarding Outer Continental Shelf lands for hydrokinetic projects. MMS will conduct any necessary environmental reviews, including those under the National Environmental Policy Act, related to those actions.

• FERC has exclusive jurisdiction to issue licenses and exemptions from licensing for the construction and operation of hydrokinetic projects on the Outer Continental Shelf and will conduct any necessary analyses, including those under the National Environmental Policy Act, related to those actions. FERC’s licensing process will actively involve relevant federal land and resource agencies, including Interior.

• FERC will not issue a license or exemption for an Outer Continental Shelf hydrokinetic project until the applicant has first obtained a lease, easement, or right-of-way from MMS for the site. FERC will not issue preliminary permits for hydrokinetic projects on the Outer Continental Shelf. In all leases, easements, and rights-of-way for hydrokinetic projects, MMS will require that construction and operation cannot begin without a license or exemption from FERC, except when FERC notifies MMS that a license or exemption is not required.

This agreement will begin to clarify permitting requirements for companies developing offshore wind, solar, and wave energy.

A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding can be found here.