The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

Concerned citizens showed up at the State House last night to share their energy priorities and ideas with the Governor’s Climate Change Task Force.  After listening to two brief presentations from DES about NH specific climate change indicators, projected impacts and task force goals, NH citizens talked back and gave the task force an earful, including:

- Transition to renewable energy
- More public transportation
- More park and rides
- More walk-able communities
- Incentives for solar panels, wind turbines, hybrid cars etc.
- Increased access to alternative fuels
- Education via schooling and public campaigns
- Increased “green jobs”
- Better access to recycling programs
- Citizen involvement!

How the task force organizes all these suggestions is a mystery to me.  Read the article in today’s Concord Monitor for more details on the hearing or check out the Task Force homepage for more information.

I ran into a new employee for the Coal Industry last night.   For nine day’s worth of work, this individual is going to be paid $3,000 to try and convince Ohio citizens that coal is “clean” and a good choice for our energy future.  Even though the shyster-in-training seemed to be aware that the campaign is misleading American voters, he couldn’t refuse the hefty paycheck.  (Maybe his employers know the job is heavy lifting … even in Ohio.)

Check out this blog or this Washington Post article for more information about the Coal Industry’s astroturf campaign. 

A few reports and articles have recently brought the viability of grain-based or corn ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels into question.  Grain based ethanol is a fuel that a majority of the Presidential candidates highlight as they list off the various clean alternative energy sources they support.

There has been concern for some time about the “energy ratio” of producing fuel from corn, because so much fuel goes into the creation of the corn itself, including in fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides made from petrochemicals.  Add to that the fossil fuels used to transport the stuff “out East,” and you’ve got a product likely to create more CO2 than it will save.

Now that ethanol has gained favor and subsidies, we’re beginning to see another issue cropping up (pun intended).  In last week’s issue of the agribusiness newspaper Feedstuffs, Tom Elam lists “10 inconvenient facts” about grain-based ethanol.  Elam notes that total ethanol production in 2007 equaled 1.6 billion gallons of gas, the equivalent of only three days of Saudi Arabian oil production and only 1.1% of U.S. gasoline consumption.  Elam concludes that if this small level of production is already increasing the global costs of food production, ethanol should not be subsidized as it is today, it should be taxed.

Another critique came in a recent report in the journal Science.  The report found that to replace 10% of petroleum consumption with grain-based biofuels it would require 43% of current cropland in the U.S. and 38% in Europe.  The feasibility of replacing such large percentages of crop land for ethanol is dubious.  The authors conclude that the “up front emissions cost” caused by clearing of more forests would nullify the benefit of any long term reductions.

The Science report is not entirely bleak.  They also suggest that the “conversion of woody biomass into fuel” an industry with potential in New Hampshire, “may be ‘compatible’ with retaining forest carbon stocks.” 

There is an interesting opportunity to learn more about wood as a renewable energy source in New Hampshire this Saturday.  New England Wood Pellet is hosting a Wood Energy Day at their Jaffrey manufacturing plant to teach citizens about this cutting edge technology. Candidates interested in learning more about making renewable fuels the New Hampshire way might want to stop by.

We are asking the presidential candidates to commit to a comprehensive climate change action plan to be implemented within 150 days of being elected.

The House is set to debate a new energy bill today, but this is by no means a climate change plan.  Many key provisions that would help our nation reduce its carbon footprint and achieve energy security are conspicuously missing. 

Even after the Senate passed an energy bill that raised CAFE standards to 35 mpg, there was no mention of raising fuel economy standards in the House.  Read about the Senate bill in our June 22 blog.  There is also no renewable energy standard included in the bill.  Both fuel efficiency and renewable energy standards would help free our country from the environmental burden of oil and ensure that American industry not fall farther behind the curve on clean renewable energy.

Here is what E&E News reported would be included in the bill:

“The underlying 786-page energy bill is a combination of measures reported out of roughly 10 committees. Major provisions include greater appliance, lighting and building efficiency; funding to boost biofuels development and delivery; a host of other renewable energy research program authorizations; a measure to make the federal government ‘carbon neutral’; programs to boost development and demonstration of carbon capture and sequestration; steps to create a ’smart’ electrical grid; repeal of some Energy Policy Act of 2005 royalty incentives; and many others.”

These provisions are improvements, but fall drastically short of actually combating climate change.  The title of today’s blog; “No energy bill can substitute comprehensive climate change legislation” was a direct quote from yesterday’s New York Times editorial “An Incomplete Energy Bill.“  The statement touches on the important difference between the issue of energy and climate change.

This just in from Zo Tobi and the Re-Energize NH march…

“2 days to go: growing the green economy

‘Welcome to Litchfield, walkers. Folks are talking amongst themselves.
Come back next year and see the fruits of your labor - you got all the local farmers to participate. Hoorah!’
- Liana Eastman, farmer, Nesenkeag Coop Farm…

When the heat neared 90, we set off, already sweaty but powered on by a good morning swim and early press coverage on NPR, international radio, and the front page of The Nashua Telegraph. As the temperature broke 100 degrees and our voices cracked from singing ‘Ooo, it’s hot out here’ perhaps too many times, Stonyfield came to the rescue with a donation of ice cream for lunch.

A few blocks and blisters later, we arrived in a very different place than where we had started – Manchester, or fondly referred to by many as Manchvegas, a business capitol for the state. There we were greeted by Representative Lilly Mesa and others who highlighted for us the importance of business in building a green economy…”

Read more …