On April 21st, 350.org will premier “Do the Math,” a film documenting Bill McKibben’s tour around the country last fall to educate and empower the people of our country to take action against our fossil fuel economy.

See the newly released preview of the film here:

Check out this new report from Environment America.  If the ten Norteastern states between Maryland and Maine formed a county, this country would be the tenth largest emitter of carbon pollution in the world.  The report also shows that lowering carbon pollution is consistent with a growing economy.

An excerpt from the release:

“In the wake of Winter Storm Nemo, Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irene, the Northeast must double-down on its commitment to lead the nation in reducing the pollution that’s warming the planet and changing our climate,” said Rob Sargent, energy program director for Environment America.

The report: ‘A Double Success: Tackling Global Warming While Growing the Economy with an Improved Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative‘ also shows that lowering global warming emissions is consistent with a growing economy. Between 2000 and 2010, the economies of the ten Northeast states grew twice as fast per capita as other states while per capita carbon dioxide emissions declined 25 percent faster.

“By promoting clean energy and energy efficiency programs, RGGI helps keep energy dollars in our local economy while reducing the risk of climate change-related costs,” said Pat Stanton, senior vice president for policy and advocacy at the Conservation Services Group, a large energy services company. “In the last five years, RGGI has helped to spur CSG’s growth. We have added over 450 new employees and improved the efficiency, comfort, and affordability of thousands of New England homes.”

Recent analyses also indicate that RGGI has produced a $1.6 billion economic boost to the region through 2011 and that strengthening RGGI could produce an additional $8 billion in economic benefits.

“By using RGGI to accelerate investments in energy efficiency, the Northeast states have made RGGI into a winner for businesses and consumers in the Northeast,” stated the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships’ public policy director Jim O’Reilly. “This report shows that RGGI will continue to be a critical tool for states to manage their energy use and maintain our competitive advantage as we emerge from the economic downturn.”

 Read more here. 

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 

“The head of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is pressing the state attorney general to take legal action against the owner of a landfill where foul odors and underground smoldering have raised concerns.

DNR Director Sara Parker Pauley sent a letter to the attorney general’s agricultural and environment division Thursday, requesting the state “institute appropriate legal action to resolve any past, present, or future environmental violations” at the Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill at 13570 St. Charles Rock Road, just north of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The 52-acre landfill is owned by Phoenix-based Republic Services Inc.

No examples of violations were included in the director’s letter.

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said the office had received the request, but declined to comment about what steps the office may take. “We just received the referral and do not have further comment at this time,” Gonder wrote in an email.

In a statement, Bridgeton Landfill LLC said the company “has been cooperating with MDNR and local government officials at all levels as we work to resolve the odor issues at the landfill. We’re now looking forward to also working with Attorney General Koster and his team.”

Bridgeton Landfill is a subsidiary of Republic Services.

On a website the company created about the landfill’s odor problem, bridgetonlandfill.com, Republic Services stated Thursday that drilling over the next five days for new gas collection wells in an effort to manage odors could actually increase the odors temporarily. “We apologize, and want you to know that we are working as quickly as possible to minimize these occurrences,” the company’s posting stated.

Permitted in 1985, the Bridgton landfill stopped taking waste in 2004. For the past two years, an underground portion of the landfill has smoldered, giving off foul odors. Complaints about the smell intensified in October after Republic Services drilled holes in the ground to respond to the buildup of heat at the property.

DNR has been conducting air quality sampling near the landfill to evaluate potential public health concerns related to air quality. On Tuesday, DNR said concentrations of hydrogen sulfide levels in February warranted further review. Heavy exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause headaches and irritation to the nose, eyes and throat, the DNR said on its website.

The subsurface fire at the Bridgeton landfill is 1,200 feet from radioactive waste at the West Lake Landfill, an adjacent landfill, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“With these kinds of sites, the companies seek to delay, delay, delay,” said Kat Logan, director of environmental policy at the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, a statewide environmental organization based in University City. She said she supported DNR’s request for the attorney general’s office to take legal action. “This is the DNR saying, the state can’t afford to clean up this mess and Missouri taxpayers shouldn’t be left holding the bag,” Logan said.”

Read article on stltoday.com here.

From Eco-Watch:

Today President Obama nominate Ernest Moniz to be the next U.S. Secretary of Energy.

“In his role as Secretary of Energy, we urge Mr. Moniz to prioritize clean, renewable energy as climate solutions over destructive fossil fuels and boondoggles like liquefied natural gas exports,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.

“We would stress to Mr. Moniz that an ‘all of the above’ energy policy only means ‘more of the same,’ and we urge him to leave dangerous nuclear energy and toxic fracking behind while focusing on safe, clean energy sources like wind and solar,” said Brune.

Tomorrow, February 28th, Mayor Slay will be holding a press conference at the St. Louis’ Lambert Airport to announce the City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan and the Mayor’s Sustainability Action Agenda of initiatives for priority implementation.  The City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan was formally adopted by the City’s Planning Commission as a Topical Plan on January 9, 2013. The final version is available on the City’s website.

The event will be held in the lower level of Terminal One at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport near the Starbucks at 12:00 noon.

Source: EcoWatch

Today, during President’s Day weekend, more than 35,000 people marched to the President’s doorstep to support immediate action to contain climate change. People from more than 30 states across the country whose land, homes and health is being threatened by the climate crisis, as well as students, scientists, indigenous community members and many others are participating in this largest climate rally in U.S. history.

Read full article here. 

Source: The Guardian

“Environmental groups in the US expect that Barack Obama will use hisstate of the union address to re-set the politics of climate change.

In a soaring inaugural speech, Obama defined the climate crisis as a moral issue for the generations. For his follow-up act, the president must persuade Americans that climate change is a clear and present threat to their daily lives and their livelihoods, requiring action now, said Paul Bledsoe, who directed the White House climate change taskforce under Bill Clinton.

“I think he has to frame climate change as an issue here, now, and as a threat. I think he has to frame it as a domestic issue – not a global issue,” he said. “The challenge is to frame climate change as an issue with large costs that are only going to grow. That is his biggest opportunity. That is what he has to do.”"

Read the full article on The Guardian page here. 

Source: St.Louis Post Dispatch

A group of renewable energy advocates and solar installers says Ameren Missouri is violating the state’s 2008 green power law, but the utility strongly denies the claims.

Renew Missouri, the group that led the push to pass the state’s renewable energy law, filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Missouri Public Service Commission.

The group says Ameren’s strategy for complying with the renewable energy standard is stifling new green energy projects and jobs in Missouri.

“There’s no wind development, and the solar carve-out is not being met with actual solar energy being delivered to Missouri,” said PJ Wilson, Renew Missouri’s executive director.

The case revives long-running arguments over how the renewable energy law is implemented. The measure, approved as Proposition C in 2008, requires investor-owned utilities to use renewable energy for a fraction of electricity sales.

Utilities are required to use renewable energy sources for 2 percent of electric sales this year, and the amount steps up to 15 percent in 2021.

From NewsTribune.com:

“COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A coalition of Missouri environmental groups has filed complaints against three major utility companies questioning their commitment to renewable energy requirements state voters approved in 2008.

The Columbia Missourian  reported Monday that Renew Missouri and seven other environmental advocacy organizations asked the state Public Service Commission in late January to review the actions of Ameren Missouri, Empire District Electric Co. and Kansas City Power & Light.

A 2008 law approved by Missouri voters required investor-owned utilities to generate at least 2 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2011. That requirement increases to 10 percent in 2018 and 15 percent by 2021. Utilities that don’t meet the standard can buy renewable power from other sources to help cover the gap.

Leaders of Renew Missouri, which wrote the ballot language later known as Proposition C, envisioned utilities building new solar panels, wind farms, landfill gas plants and other environmentally friendly approaches to satisfy the requirements.

Instead, said group director PJ Wilson, energy producers seem to be doing as little as possible to comply with the letter of the law.

“I thought my job was done on Nov. 4, 2008,” he said. “Now here we are five years later.”

Regulators with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which created the actual rules defining acceptable renewable resources for power companies, expressed disappointment in the standards’ failure to spark new investment in renewable energy.

“In passing Proposition C, Missouri voters communicated their interest in more renewable energy than had been previously developed in Missouri by 2008,” agency attorney Jennifer Frazier wrote in response to Ameren’s first-year compliance plan. “This first set of filings demonstrates that Missouri’s renewable energy standard is not creating significant additional renewable energy development.”

The utilities told the newspaper they are following the law.

“We are fully compliant,” said Warren Miller, Ameren’s vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs.

“Empire has and will continue to meet the requirements of the renewable energy standards in both Missouri and Kansas per state statutes,” added Empire spokeswoman Amy Bass.

Ameren attorney Wendy Tatro disputed her DNR counterpart’s suggestion that the company fell short of voters’ expectations.

“There is no basis to believe that Missouri voters voted for ‘more renewable energy,”’ she wrote in response the agency’s comments. The new standard “does not require any utility to add any amount of new renewable energy. It only sets forth the percentage of energy generation (or an associated level of renewable energy credits) which must come from renewable energy sources.”

Empire and Kansas City Power & Light did not respond to the department’s statement.

Ameren has added photovoltaic solar panels to its headquarters building, but all that energy is consumed on site. The company also completed a small facility in Maryland Heights in May 2012 that converts landfill gas to electricity.

All three utilities offer rebates to their customers who install solar panels on their homes or businesses.

Wilson said those efforts represent small fractions of the utilities’ total energy sources and shouldn’t be held up as examples of an increased commitment to renewable energy.

“It’s offensive, really, for them to say, ‘Look at all the stuff we’re doing,’ because the stuff they’re doing is a far cry from where they’re required by law to be,” he said.

The Public Service Commission previously ruled that the three utilities are complying with the standards. The utilities have 30 days to respond to the new complaint, said Cheryl Voss, the commission’s director of regulatory review.

An industry group for investor-owned utilities and power companies and an organization for industrial energy consumers challenged the Public Service Commission’s administrative rules in court, but the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District rejected that legal challenge in November.”

 See article here. 

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“Hurricanes, floods, droughts and a newly climate-conscious Barack Obama are helping boost efforts around the world to fight climate change.

Top political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos say recent natural disasters, along with Obama’s inauguration announcement this week that he’s making the battle against rising temperatures a pillar of his second term, could rev up the glacially slow climate pact negotiations and revive fundraising for global action to cool the planet.

“Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde told participants at Davos.

The U.N.’s climate chief, Christiana Figueras, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that Obama’s emphasis on climate “definitely is a political boost.” She said Hurricane Sandy and drought in the Midwest last year helped push climate change back onto the U.S. political debate.

“We also need to see clearly much more engagement from the United States, we need to a confirmation from the new leadership in China that they remain on course and are willing to engage further. From the Europeans, we need to see that they also remain on course,” Figueras said. “And then all of the emerging economies, in addition to China, need to begin to explore the opportunities that they have.”

The U.N. climate talks, now two decades in the making, have so far failed to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists say are warming the Earth.

Participants at the Davos forum _ which identifies extreme weather as one of the top three risks to the global economy _ called for global action.

Until now, rich and poor countries have accused U.S. leaders of hampering the global fight against climate change, which scientists say is causing a rise in temperatures and sea levels, threatening island nations and other low-lying areas, and shifting weather patterns to produce more droughts, floods and devastating storms.”

Read more here.