There is another reason to welcome the Environmental Protection Agency’s new air toxics rules imposing limits on the pollutants for coal-fired power plants. Air toxic chemicals rose 16 percent in 2010, according to a report released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency, with metal mining was largely responsible for the increase. Both dioxins, which can cause cancer, and landfill disposal saw a considerable uptick — 10 percent and 18 percent respectively:

Some environmentalists said the new data show why the EPA should swiftly move to release a long-anticipated environmental assessment of dioxin, the first installment of which the agency plans to issue this month. EPA officials say they will issue a report addressing dioxin’s non-cancerous effects first and then later release a cancer-related report.

Some industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, have urged the EPA to hold off issuing the report in what the trade association’s president and chief executive, Cal Dooley, has called “a piecemeal fashion.” Chemical manufacturers accounted for nearly 64 percent of total disposal of dioxins in 2010, though they reported a 7 percent decrease from 2009 to 2010.

There has been much industry opposition to EPA initiatives reducing pollution and toxics, including the cross-state air pollution standard. The EPA rule meant to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, was stayed by a court order, delaying their implementation. Groups including the National Mining Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers fought implementation, calling the rule overreach.

However, the New York Times reports how one coal-fired power plant has been able to install cleaner technology to meet state and EPA standards. Constellation Energy’s Vice President for Environmental Compliance Paul Allen explained they had ample time to update technology to meet new rules: ““When we started making plans for this project, we did it with the expectation that there would be a federal regime, and we still have that expectation.”

When coal and utilities last fought cleaning power plants, citing concerns about reliability, Allen similarly determined “It’s entirely possible to comply with these rules and remain a profitable company.”

Fueled by billions of tons of greenhouse pollution, a surge of record warmth has flooded the United States, shattering records from southern California to North Dakota. “Temperatures have reached up to 40 degrees above early January averages in North Dakota,” the Weather Channel reports. Cities are seeing late-April temperatures at the start of January — Minot, ND hit 61 degrees, Aberdeen, SD hit 63 degrees, and Williston, ND hit 58 degrees, all-time record highs for the month of January.

Daily record highs have been set in Des Moines, Iowa (65 degrees), Rapid City, S.D. (73 degrees), International Falls, Minn. (46 degrees), St. Louis, Mo. (66 degrees) and Fargo, N.D. (55 degrees), to name a few locations. Although the record warmth subsides on Friday for the Plains, the mild air mass will bully its way eastward. We’re talking temperatures in cities such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit and Cincinnati enjoying highs on the order of 10-to-20 degrees above average. High temperatures around 5-to-15 degrees above average will make it all the way to the East Coast including New York City, Washington, D.C. and Charlotte, N.C.

“There has never been a 60 degree temperature recorded during the first week of January in Minnesota’s modern climate record.” Southwestern Minnesota reached the lower 60s.

In Southern California, decades-old records were snapped with 80- and even 90-degree weather, sending surfers to the beaches. Long Beach hit 88 degrees, UCLA hit 89 degrees, San Diego hit 83 degrees, and San Gabriel reached 91.

Although this heat is welcome to schoolchildren, this breakdown of normal seasons threatens serious economic disruption. The total lack of snowcover in the Dakotas means that wildland fires are much more likely. The seasonally cold air following this surge of heat will severely damage the winter crops that are usually protected by at least 3 inches of snow at this time of year.

“Climate dice,” describing the chance of unusually warm or cool seasons relative to climatology, have become progressively “loaded” in the past 30 years, coincident with rapid global warming.   The distribution of seasonal mean temperature anomalies has shifted toward higher temperatures and the range of anomalies has increased.  An important change is the emergence of a category of summertime extremely hot outliers, more than three standard deviations (σ) warmer than climatology.

This hot extreme, which covered much less than 1% of Earth’s surface in the period of climatology [1951-1980], now typically covers about 10% of the land area.  We conclude that extreme heat waves, such as that in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010, were “caused” by global warming, because their likelihood was negligible prior to the recent rapid global warming.  We discuss practical implications of this substantial, growing climate change.

That’s the finding of a detailed climatological analysis by NASA’s James Hansen along with Makiko Sato and Reto Ruedy in which they attribute some of the uber-extreme heat waves to global warming.

Here’s a key figure from “Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice“:

Percent area covered by temperature anomalies in categories defined as hot (> 0.43σ), very hot (> 2σ), and extremely hot (> 3σ).  Anomalies are relative to 1951-1980.  A normal distribution of variability has 68% of the anomalies falling within one standard deviation (σ) of the mean value.  The tails decrease quite rapidly so there is only a 2.3% chance of the temperature exceeding +2σ.  The chance of exceeding +3σ is only 0.13% for a normal distribution of variability.

This analysis builds on some of the recent new papers on the subject, such as “Study Finds 80% Chance Russia’s 2010 July Heat Record Would Not Have Occurred Without Climate Warming” [see figure below]

The entire Hansen et al paper is a must-read.  The authors explain why they focus on summer:

Summer, when most biological productivity occurs, is the most important season for humanity and thus the season when climate change may have its biggest impact.  Global warming causes spring warmth to come earlier and it causes cooler conditions that initiate fall to be delayed.  Thus global warming not only increases summer warmth, it also protracts summer-like conditions, stealing from both spring and fall.  Our study therefore places emphasis on study of how summer temperature anomalies have been changing.

The paper also explains the ‘dice’ metaphor and why they are not fans of using a new climatological period, such as 1981-2010 in place of 1951-1980.  I will excerpt some key parts and post some key figures.

First, you may be wondering why the top chart of summer hot area percentage doesn’t have as clear a trend for the United States as it does for  North America or the globe.  As the authors explain:

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The American Petroleum Institute rolled out it’s latest multi-media assault this week to convince voters and politicians to continue supporting the fossil-fueled status quo. The campaign comes just as the primary election season reaches a fever pitch, and is designed to keep political hopefuls focused on “brown jobs.”

API’s newest television ad, which supposedly portrays grassroots supporters expressing their love of oil and gas, was recently shown by undercover activists to be nothing more than a scripted job. Not much of a surprise, perhaps.

It’s tough to hit back with the same amount of money deployed for a campaign like this (the cost of which API won’t disclose.) So why not hit back with humor? Here’s an ad mocking the “I Vote 4 Energy” television spots, produced by PolluterWatch:

 

In the past five decades, winter temperatures in the Northeastern U.S. have risen by 4 degrees F, causing noticeable changes in levels of snow and ice during the slowly shortening winter months. The trend was recently highlighted by 50 scientists in New Hampshire, who wrote an open letter to GOP candidates campaigning in the state, asking them to take global warming seriously.

Along with the impact to tourism and recreation, one of the region’s most culturally-significant products may also suffer from increasingly warm winters: Maple syrup. Producers are noticing shifts in the length of the tapping season, and thus the amount of sugars contained in spring sap dripping from maple trees.

The short documentary film below explores the impact that warmer temperatures are having on this industry. It profiles Martha Carlson, a long-time syrup producer who’s investigating what those changes mean for the future of maple syrup.

Water burst through a Brazil dam yesterday, in northern Rio de Janeiro, causing a declared state of emergency in 66 towns as they try to evacuate citizens from the floods and landslides. Local media report nine dead, and some 13,000 displaced by the disaster. Flooding, a common threat from the increasingly heavy rainfall in southeast Brazil, has affected 2 million people nationwide this year.

A Reuters video shows flooding up to homes’ rooftops:

The disaster comes almost a year-to-date after one of Brazil’s worst floods in its history, which killed more than 900 people and left 31,000 displaced.

The largest newspaper in the state Mitt Romney once governed has endorsed former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman in the lead up to the New Hampshire primary.

Here’s the key excerpts from the Boston Globe editorial, “For vision and national unity, Huntsman for GOP nominee“:

He has stood up far more forcefully than Romney against those in his party who reject evolution and the science behind global warming….

Strong economic growth put Utah in the top five in job creation during Huntsman’s tenure, while he gave tax credits to companies developing solar energy. He … joined the Western Climate Initiative, which set goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

Of course, even Huntsman has waffled at times — see Call Jon Huntsman “Crazy”: He Flips on Climate Science (and Earns an F in Geography). UPDATE: Huntsman Mostly Flops Back).  But nowhere near as consistently (inconistently?) as Mitt has waffled.

Other stories below: A coal-fired plant eager for pollution rules; Keystone pipeline puts Obama in a pinch

Forecast: 2012 Worst Year for Gas Prices

To the dismay of drivers across the country, 2011 went down in the record books as having  the most expensive gasoline average ever, $3.513 for the year, 72 cents per gallon higher than 2010′s yearly average, according to GasBuddy.

Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst, projects that by Memorial Day, the national average will be between $3.86 to $4.13 per gallon, and that prices in 2012 will come close to or set new all-time highs. If that happens, drivers could spend $200 to $300 more for gas this year.

Inflation adjusted data from the Energy Department’s U.S. Energy Information Administration confirmed that 2011 was a record year. The real annual average for a gallon of regular gas last year hit $3.56, up from $2.90 in 2010, according to the EIA. From its data that begins in 1919, the previous record high was in 1981, at $3.45.

A Coal-Fired Plant That Is Eager for U.S. Rules

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