EnviroPolitics Blog

Hang out your wash, Save the planet

I always enjoyed the smell of freshly laundered clothes after they hung to dry on an outdoor clothesline.

And the sound of clean sheets snapping like sails when a breeze stirred up.

When I was a kid, my mother hung out our wash in the back yard.

At 80-something, she still does when weather permits.

When my kids were young, and we lived in a ‘starter house’ in a ‘starter neighborhood,’ my wife hung out the wash. Sometimes,

I did too. So did most all of our neighbors. It provided a chance to exchange greetings and maybe some gossip with whomever happened to be putting wash up or taking it down when you were doing the same.

Then we moved to a more affluent neighborhood where, it was made clear to us that “people don’t do that here.” Apparently, it was an eyesore. A sign that you couldn’t afford a clothes dryer. Whatever the reason, it was decidedly déclassé.

If social mores were to change, I admit I probably would not string up the old clothesline. All that schlepping from the basement to the yard. Heavy baskets. Life’s too hectic. Who has the time?

Well, apparently, some folks do.

Today, I stumbled upon a post in the blog of the New Jersey law firm of Stark and Stark in which attorney Jonathan H. Katz explores “a growing environmental movement that has been dubbed ‘The Right to Dry.’ “

Did you know that a study found that “(clothes) dryers can emit up to a ton of carbon dioxide per household every year”?

What for me is a nostalgic sensory experience is, for others, an environmental statement, a legal ‘right,’ and the subject of legislative debate.

Whether or not you’re committed to letting it all hang out, I think you’ll enjoy Mr. Katz’s post.

Hang out your wash, Save the planet Read More »

Broadwater decision falls to NY governor

“WASHINGTON – Approving the Broadwater liquefied natural gas barge Thursday, federal energy regulators took swipes at political leaders in New York and Connecticut who want to keep it out of the Long Island Sound and tossed a hot potato directly into the lap of newly-minted Gov. David Paterson, whose administration can approve or kill it.”

That’s the lead to yesterday’s Newsday story about the latest development in Shell’s controversial proposal to install a liquefied natural gas offloading facility in Long Island Sound. The Hartford Courant’s covered the decision today in State Blasts Broadwater Ruling .

(For more background, see our previous posts: How will Spitzer’s exit affect LNG project? and The latest shot fired in the LI Sound LNG war )

The reaction in the blogosphere has just begun. Early entries include Sphere, Connecticut Energy Blog, Royal Dutch Shell , and SEABGB. No doubt, more to come.

Broadwater decision falls to NY governor Read More »

Rendell hails ethanol but looks beyond it

Like a baseball coach who praises his current squad but has an eye on up-and-comers in his farm system, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on March 13 praised developers of the state’s first ethanol plant at its groundbreaking ceremony but days later was encouraging research to hasten the day when fuel can be produced from such cellulosic sources as switch grass and wood waste.

Making fuel from corn is what BioEnergy LLC’s will be doing at its $265 million ethanol biorefinery now under construction in Clearfield County. It’s Pennsylvania’s first such facility and will be one of the largest in the nation.

The plant is expected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol when operational in 2010–among the largest outputs east of the Mississippi and among the top 10 in the nation–and create at least 110 jobs.

Pennsylvania taxpayers played a significant role, contributing a total of $17.4 million to get the project off the ground.

On March 17, the governor told members of the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts that corn-based ethanol was the “near-term alternative,” a “technologically and economically viable alternative that can be put into our supply today to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

But, he added that he sees cellulosic ethanol technology as “more promising for the state’s future and the environment.”

Rendell plans to convene a cellulosic biofuels summit in Pennsylvania later this year. His administration is already investing in private research and development projects focusing on cellulosic ethanol that may be produced from biomass materials like switch grass, crop residues, small-diameter trees and agricultural waste.

The developers of the state’s first ethanol plant apparently are also looking to the future. BioEnergy plans to build a cellulosic research and development pilot plant next to the ethanol biorefinery to test different types of biomass including organic wastes.

Rendell hails ethanol but looks beyond it Read More »

How will Spitzer’s exit affect LNG project?

Even before Eliot Spitzer’s announcement yesterday that he is resigning as governor of New York, Connecticut politicians opposed to the proposed construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform in Long Island Sound were preparing to lobby Spitzer’s replacement.

The Hartford Courant reported on Tuesday that State Senate President Donald Williams “wants Connecticut to reach out to his (Spitzer’s) lieutenant governor and persuade him to oppose Broadwater.”

Broadwater Energy is a consortium of Shell Oil and TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. that is seeking to build a $700 million terminal some 9 miles from Long Island, N.Y., and 10 miles from the Connecticut shoreline.

Williams noted that Spitzer’s administration was expected to make a decision soon on state permits for the proposed LNG terminal.

The project is opposed by numerous political leaders in Connecticut, including Governor M. Jodi Rell, and the state’s vociferous Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

See our most recent post on the issue: The latest shot fired in the LI Sound LNG war

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On Monday, when the news of the Spitzer sex scandal began to break, environmental writer Tom Andersen’s blog, SPHERE, published a post under the mischievous headline:

Expect Broadwater to Try to Influence Governor Spitzer with Results of Bogus Opinion Survey (although as of this afternoon, he may be preoccupied)

In it, Andersen writes about an email he received from a woman who said she lived on Long Island and had received a phone call last Thursday…

… from a fellow who said he was from an “independent research company” asking me if I would like to take a survey…

You’ll learn a lot about public opinion polls by taking a few minutes to read what Andersen’s tipster had to report. (Just click on the link above).

Folks on both sides of this issue are hunkering down for a whiz-bang public opinion battle. It should be fun to watch.

And it may serve as a preview of coming attractions in New Jersey where ExxonMobil proposes to construct its own LNG receiving terminal 20 miles off the coast.

See: Offshore NJ natural gas proposal draws rapid & rabid response

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POSTSCRIPT: Denise Civiletti, a Broadwater opponent, writes in her blog, Civiletti, that opponents who had been trying to get a meeting for some time with Gov. Spitzer now realize that the date on which they finally succeeded, February 11, was the same day that the governor reportedly was busy arranging an assignation with a high-priced hooker two days later at a Washington, D. C. hotel. She speculates about this in: What was on his mind? Not Broadwater!

How will Spitzer’s exit affect LNG project? Read More »

Disclosure when nature exceeds DEP limits?

Can a municipal planning board require, as a condition of approval, that a developer provide individual deed notices as to the presence of naturally-occurring environmental conditions (such as arsenic levels) that exceed New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s unrestricted soil use standard?

Yes, a state appellate court has ruled.

In the blog, New Jersey Zoning Watch, Saul Ewing attorney Philip Morin provides the background to the decision–and discusses its implications. You can read it here.

Disclosure when nature exceeds DEP limits? Read More »

The latest shot fired in the LI Sound LNG war

If you have not been following the verbal and written attacks and threatened law suits from Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal –all designed to sink BroadWater Energy’s plan to construct a liquefied natural gas platform in Long Island Sound–get yourself up to date by reading:

Connecticut’s LNG solution? Put it in Jersey
NY State must kill Broadwater to benefit public
New York postpones LNG facility decision
NY and CT face off over LNG terminal

With that background, now check out Broadwater Energy’s response. It came today in the form of a letter to the editor of Newsday from John Hritcko, BroadWater’s senior vice president and regional project director. We provide it below in its entirety:

“States win if Broadwater dies” by Richard Blumenthal implores us to repudiate “a false dichotomy between environmental protection and energy supply.” Yet, his arguments ignore the facts and widen the perceived chasm between energy and the environment. Blumenthal correctly points out that New York and Connecticut need more natural gas to feed a growing demand for energy, as well as to fuel cleaner power plants. Indeed, Connecticut’s own 2007 Energy Plan, published by the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board, recommends developing liquefied natural gas import facilities.

But the Connecticut attorney general claims that schemes such as Safe Harbor Energy and BlueOcean Energy, both primarily serving New Jersey and neither having undergone review, can somehow be better than Broadwater in delivering natural gas to Connecticut and New York.

Blumenthal’s record reveals his penchant for regulation through litigation, opposing every energy infrastructure project that could bring down the cost of energy in the region, shutting off electricity to Long Island and now threatening New York with lawsuits. This will lead us to consensus on the shared interests of energy and environment?

Businesses and working families in the region need relief from our high-priced energy. Blumenthal perpetuates the myth that we can’t have conventional energy and a clean environment.

Broadwater would deliver plentiful, affordable natural gas in a safe, environmentally responsible manner, but we need enlightened, confident leadership that is willing to face the difficult challenges of achieving energy security.

The latest shot fired in the LI Sound LNG war Read More »