By Jessica Goad

The Center for American Progress and the Sierra Club are unveiling three documentary videos in a series called “Public Lands, Private Profits.”  One of the videos follows residents of Panguitch, Utah, a small town near Bryce Canyon National Park that has been thrust in the middle of an age-old fight between tourism and natural resource extraction.

At issue is a proposed mine on public lands adjacent to an operating mine on private lands owned by the Alton Coal Company (who declined requests for comment).  The new mine would effectively quintuple the area under development.  Some residents and local business owners fear that the increased truck traffic on Panguitch’s main street will negatively impact tourism, which the county relies on for economic development more than any other county in the state.

The National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and other government agencies criticized the U.S. government’s initial study and approval of the project, which failed to address its impacts on climate change.  While the mine won’t be seen from Bryce Canyon National Park itself, it is close enough that the park might feel the impacts of pollution from the dust kicked up by the mine, which could negatively impact its famous night skies.

Others in Panguitch, including nearly all of its elected officials, are stalwart in their support of the mine because of the promise of more jobs.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management still has time to get it right in the next round of environmental reviews that it is undertaking.  Just today, the agency announced that it will start a supplemental environmental analysis of the proposed new mine.  To find out more about this issue or to take action, visit the Sierra Club’s website.

Jessica is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

by Christina C. DiPasquale and Daniel J. Weiss

U.S. Navy servicemen and women recently debuted the “Great Green Fleet,” the first aircraft carrier strike group to be powered largely by alternative, nonpetroleum-based fuels. Despite this latest success, however, some congressional conservatives on the Senate and House Armed Services committees want to slash funding for this and other Defense Department clean energy programs. This would short-circuit investments in energy innovation that could have civilian applications and benefits, helping our nation become less reliant on oil. In addition, sole reliance on oil-based fuels subjects the defense budget to increased spending for fuel when the price of oil spikes.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus provided the leadership to build the “Great Green Fleet”—an essential milestone in the Department of Defense’s efforts to reduce its oil dependence by diversifying fuels. The development and use of alternative fuels is vital to the safety of our troops because it diversifies the fuel mix that powers their vessels, planes, and vehicles. That makes them less vulnerable to an oil supply disruption in the Middle East or elsewhere. It is also vital to the long-term fiscal health of our nation because any effort to reduce our reliance on volatilely priced fossil fuels is good for our economy. The Navy’s investment in alternative fuels to power the “Great Green Fleet” is an essential effort to reduce its oil dependence and exposure to volatile prices.

The biofuel blends used in the five-ship demonstration were 50-50 mixtures of biofuels—made from used cooking oil and algae—and petroleum-based marine diesel or aviation fuel. About 450,000 gallons of 100 percent “neat” biofuel was purchased in 2011 for this purpose.

Conservative lawmakers have opposed the U.S. military’s use of advanced biofuels, however, claiming that they are concerned about the cost of these new, nonoil fuels. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “I don’t believe we can afford it.” Another critic, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), said during a hearing earlier this year that, “I understand that alternative fuels may help our guys in the field, but wouldn’t you agree that the thing they’d be more concerned about is having more ships, more planes, more prepositioned stocks?”

These arguments ignore the drain on America’s defense budget from oil price spikes such as those experienced earlier this year. The Department of Defense estimates that for every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, the military incurs an additional $130 million in fuel costs. In fact, a Center for American Progress analysis (see table) found that the most recent oil price spike cost the Department of Defense $123 million more for oil purchases from January to May of this year compared to purchases one year ago over the same months. The 2012 price spike forced $1.1 billion more spending for oil compared to the same time in 2010.

There’s no end in sight for the strain of high oil prices on the Department of Defense. According to Energy Department statistics, world oil prices will average an estimated $145 a barrel in 2035 (in 2010 dollars), up from the current $85-to-$110 range this year. Read more

Figure 1: Global fossil fuel subsidies in billions of dollars per country from National Geographic.

by Dana Nuccitelli, via Skeptical Science

The International Energy Agency (IEA) made headlines recently by concluding that fossil fuels received far more global subsidies than renewable energy in 2010. However, it appears that the IEA survey only included data from the countries with the largest fossil fuel subsidies, which are mainly developing countries whose economies largely depend on fossil fuel production.  National Geographic’s The Great Energy Challenge also includes fossil fuel subsidy data from developed countries (Figure 1), bringing the total global value close to $500 billion for 2010.

Bear in mind that exactly what is defined as a “subsidy” can be rather subjective, so these are just rough estimates.

It’s worth noting that this trend is changing.  For example, in the USA in 2011, fossil fuel subisidies in the form of tax breaks were down to $2.5 billion while renewable energy and energy efficiency programs received $16 billion in subsidies.  Even many developing countries like Iran (with the largest orange circle in Figure 1 at over $80 billion in 2010 fossil fuel subsidies) dramatically reducing their subsidizing of fossil fuels (in 2011 Iran’s subsidies were down to $20 to $30 billion).

Nevertheless, despite the movement in the right direction, global fossil fuel subsidies are still much higher than renewable energy subsidies, despite the fact that fossil fuels and associated technologies have been established for decades to centuries.  Fossil fuels also receive another massive subsidy which is rarely taken into account in these types of calculations – carbon emissions.

Social Cost of Carbon

Read more

Could your coffee cup also be a battery? Credit: Rice University

Expectations in the battery industry were, until recently, that the cost of Lithium-Ion, sodium nickel chloride (known as ZEBRA), and vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) would plummet to less than $200/KWh in the next decade. Instead, Lux Research has released a market report that says that the high capital costs associated with battery production will keep costs at or near $500/KWh for at least the next 10 years.

Though the projected prices are lower than current prices, they fall substantially short of the expectations which were perpetuated, notably, by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Each battery type has its own impediments for achieving the lower cost goals. According to the report, Li-ion batteries will steadily lose market share to the other types, but will remain in demand due to their high energy density. Lux projects the cost of Li-ion batteries to fall 45 percent in the next decade.

The outlook is less optimistic for ZEBRA batteries. Lux says that the production costs associated with these molten-salt batteries accounts for up to 60 percent of total costs. Until the process of refining the raw materials can be improved, costs for ZEBRA batteries will remain high. ZEBRAs, however, have the most commercial potential of the three types examined.

Vanadium pentoxide is the key component of VRFB batteries and has a notoriously variable market. Lux suggests that vertical integration and supply agreements for vanadium pentoxide are key to lowering long term costs.

Despite these predictions from Lux, exciting new battery innovations are taking place that have the potential to lower costs, improve performance, and, in one case, completely revolutionize the concept of the battery.

Read more

Former GOP Rep. Bob Inglis is “urging conservatives to stop denying that humans are contributing to global warming.”

Inglis, a South Carolina Republican beaten by the Tea Party in 2010,  is launching the “Energy and Enterprise Initiative” at George Mason University to push “conservative solutions to America’s energy and climate challenges.”

The National Journal (subs. req’d) reports:

The campaign will push one policy: a new tax on carbon pollution or gasoline consumption, paired with a cut in the income or payroll tax, creating a revenue-neutral, market-driven solution to an environmental problem while cutting taxes that conservatives dislike.

In short, the party of monolithic knee-jerk climate denial turns out to be bilithic. Okay, technically, a bilith is “a prehistoric monument composed of two stones usu. constituting a pillar capped by a slab.”

And it’s true that the national GOP is now prehistoric when it comes to climate science (see National Journal: “The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones”). But as recently as 2008, climate change was not a hyper-politicized issue — the presidential candidates’ position on climate science was a nonissue since both agreed on the science. Republicans today, however, have become synonymous with climate denialism, staying silent as the country bears the hottest 12 months on record.
Read more

by Abrahm Lustgarten, via ProPublica

A road buckles due to the intense heat in Chicago creating dangerous conditions for drivers.

Tired of sitting in airplanes that seem to taxi forever on the runway? Sick of waiting for crowded, delayed trains? Going insane sitting in your car in endless traffic?

Buckle up. It could get a hell of a lot worse.

From derailing trains to SUV roll-overs, this summer’s intense heat wave has already created some inconvenient and scary situations for travelers. And considering that record temperatures seen over the last two weeks could be “cooler-than-average” in many areas of the country by mid-century due to global warming, travelers should expect far more headaches during the summer travel season.

Here are three transportation problems caused by the recent record-breaking heat wave.

1) At Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC on Friday, as temperatures climbed well over 100 degrees, a U.S. Airways plane got stuck on the runway when its wheels sank into the softening asphalt. The flight was delayed for about three hours until a large tow could pull it out of its rut.

2) At roughly the same time the U.S. Airways plane got stuck, a metro train traveling from Prince George’s County, Maryland to Washington, DC was derailed due to a warped track. The excessive heat caused a “heat kink” that forced the train off its tracks. Luckily, none of the 55 passengers were injured.

3) Across the country, travelers driving in their vehicles also faced dangerous conditions as roads buckled due to pressure from intense heat. In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, five sections of Highway 29 blew up in one week — in one case causing two SUVs to flip on the highway at roughly the same moment.

From June 2011 to June 2012, the U.S. has seen the warmest 12-month period on record; last month, daily temperatures for the lower 48 states was 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th century average; and across the country; and in the first six days of July, we saw 1,916 daily high-temperature records broken.

So what happens when these temperatures are the new normal in summer? Travelers better prepared for a hellish — and in some cases, more dangerous — commute.

Peter Sinclair, who runs the blog Climate Denial Crock of the Week, just put together another fantastic film, this one a compilation of the recent extreme weather events around the U.S. The film’s title, taken from a quote by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, is a scarily accurate and simple description of our new reality: “Welcome to the rest of our lives.”

A round-up of the top climate and energy news.

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, faces a widening revolt by the country’s leading scientists against sweeping cuts to government research labs and his broadly pro-industry policies. [Guardian]

Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, was even more pointed. “It’s not about saving money. It’s about imposing ideology,” he said. “What’s happening here is that the government has an ideological agenda to develop the Canadian economy based on the extraction of oil out of the Alberta tar sands as quickly as possible and sell it as fast as it can, come hell and high water, and eliminate any barriers that stand in their way.”

If you thought the first six months of the year were chock full of weird weather events, just wait — according to climate scientists there is an increasing likelihood that El Niño conditions will soon develop in the tropical Pacific Ocean. [Climate Central]

An Earth observation satellite conceived by former Vice President Al Gore — but banished to a Maryland warehouse by foes of climate change after George W. Bush beat Gore for the presidency — could get a ride into space as early as 2014. [Boston Herald]

New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies. [ProPublica]

A coalition of about a dozen environmental groups is preparing to file a lawsuit as early as Tuesday seeking greater protections as Shell prepares to begin drilling exploratory wells off the North Slope of Alaska this summer, spokesmen for the groups said. [New York Times]

BMW is lobbying to water down European plans to improve the fuel efficiency of cars at the same time as trumpeting its green credentials as the official car sponsor of the Olympic Games, according to internal documents seen by the Guardian. [Guardian]

Authorities failed to properly warn residents in the Black Sea region of floods that killed at least 171 people and left others scrambling for safety, Russia’s emergencies minister acknowledged Monday, adding to public outrage fueled by widespread mistrust of the government. [Wall Street Journal]

The national average for regular unleaded fuel rose 5.6 cents this week to $3.382 per gallon, AAA said Monday. [The Hill]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee this week takes up the “No More Solyndras Act” — a measure presumably designed to keep the U.S. from wasting money, especially on shaky start-ups based outside Republican congressional districts. [Businessweek]