A big new wind blowing out of Texas

We all know they like ’em big in Texas.

Big ranches. Big boots. Big hats. Big ole nasty bulls. Big Cadillacs (some with big ole nasty bull horns on the grill). Big bar-b-que.

And, of course, Big Oil.

Well, move over boys, there’s a new sheriff in town – Big Wind.

The New York Times reports that:

“Texas, once the oil capital of North America, is rapidly turning into the capital of wind power. After breakneck growth the last three years, Texas has reached the point that more than 3 percent of its electricity, enough to supply power to one million homes, comes from wind turbines.”

Texas surpassed California as the top wind farm state in 2006. In January alone, new wind farms representing $700 million of investment went into operation in Texas, supplying power sufficient for 100,000 homes.

Even legendary oilman Boone Pickens is fixin to get into the alternative energy business. Not surprisingly, the quintessential Texan plans to erect the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a city by itself.

” I like wind because it’s renewable and it’s clean and you know you are not going to be dealing with a production decline curve, ” Mr. Pickens said. “Decline curves finally wore me out in the oil business.”

And it turns out there are big profits to be earned, too. Just ask Louis Brooks who fetches $500 a head for each wind turbine he allows to be placed on his ranch in Sweetwater. There are 78 of them so far, 76 more on the way.

How does he like the sound of the blades, each as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet, whirling and humming overhead?

“That’s just money you’re hearing,” drawls Mr. Brooks.

Enjoy the entire story here

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The dark side of energy independence

Is America’s burning desire for energy independence being exploited by profiteers in the coal industry? A story in today’s Toronto Star examines coal-extraction practices in Appalachia that raise disturbing environmental and public health issues. The political machinations alone are enough to turn your stomach. An excerpt:

“This is the new face of coal mining in Central Appalachia. It is called mountaintop removal. Instead of extracting coal the old-fashioned way, by burrowing, the mountain is extracted from the coal – blown up sequentially to reveal each black seam. Everything left over – trees, soil, plants and rock – is considered “overburden.” It’s dumped into the valleys below, filling them up.

Some say as many as 470 mountains in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia have been flattened this way. For the industry, it’s a financial jackpot – fast, cheap and thorough. But for the mountains, and the communities nestled between them, it’s war.

Their homes have been flooded, walls cracked, wells poisoned, streams polluted; their jobs have been forfeited, cemeteries unearthed and communities abandoned. Many suffer from early-onset dementia and kidney stones. And they’ve lost their ancestral home.”We’re mountain people. You don’t understand our connection with the land,” says Gibson, who traces his heritage back 120 years to this very spot. He had never ventured beyond the company store, halfway down the mountain, until he was 11. “We didn’t live on the land, we lived with it.” People who live here think of themselves as collateral damage – accidental victims of a war to feed the nation’s insatiable demand for energy.

Read the entire story: Coal mining ravages Appalachia

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Week’s top environmental & political news

Some of the top environmental and political news stories for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and beyond appearing in EnviroPolitics from February 19 – 22, 2008

New Jersey Environmental News

New Jersey polluters cut emissions Factories, power plants and other polluters cut their emissions of lead, mercury and other hazardous chemicals by 10 percent in 2006, the EPA reports. PSEG’s switch to a cleaner-burning coal at its Jersey City power plant had the greatest impact Bergen Record

Alec Baldwin to nuke critics: Don’t let Corzine off hook “Exelon makes $150 million in profit at that plant (Oyster Creek in Lacey). I don’t think they’ll close it down if they have to build cooling towers,” the actor tells audience at a forum Wednesday night. Exelon’s response: the towers aren’t necessary and could cause environmental problems Gannett

PSEG has big plans for Power profit Expecting to generate between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in excess cash during the next three years, the Newark-based energy company is considering investments in conservation, alternative energy, and maybe a new nuclear plant in South Jersey Star-Ledger

Feral cat colonies pose risk to endangered birds, funds The cats vs. birds struggle in the Victorian seaside resort of Cape May has come down to the carrot vs. the stick AP Press

Trenton rallies behind a bird A migratory shorebird threatened with extinction may soon get a reprieve from New Jersey Bergen Record Gannett

New Jersey Political News

Creamed in the polls, Corzine considers Plan B If there is one thing Jon Corzine learned as chief executive of Goldman Sachs, it is how to count. Yesterday he acknowledged the cold, hard numbers confronting his grand plan to fix state finances through higher tolls: There simply aren’t enough lawmakers willing to vote for it Star-Ledger Bergen Record Gannett Cartoon

Running ’em out of state … on a poll New Jerseyans are generally dissatisfied with Corzine, Lautenberg, Menendez and state legislators, too, according to new poll data Star-Ledger

Corzine’s approvals plummet on tolls Gov. Jon Corzine has an upside-down approval rating of 37%-52%, down from 46%–43% in December, and 73% of voters oppose his plan to raise tolls, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll PolitickerNJ

The ax hovers over most of state budget Gov. Jon Corzine is considering making more high-income residents ineligible for tax rebates, closing some state parks, reducing hours at motor vehicle offices and slicing aid to colleges, hospitals and towns, according to administration and legislative officials familiar with his plans for a no-frills state budget Star-Ledger

Christie faces a grilling over Ashcroft role A congressional committee has called for New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, Christopher Christie, to testify at a hearing next week about his appointment of former Attorney General John Ashcroft to a lucrative assignment as a corporate monitor Star-Ledger

Pennsylvania Environmental News

Rendell: Record oil costs show need for energy independence After consecutive record-setting days where oil futures closed above $100 per barrel, and with expectations that oil-cartel nations will cut production in coming weeks, the governor says Pennsylvania should be investing in homegrown alternatives Gant Daily

‘Unfunded mandate’: Senators focus on $1 billion price tag for upgrades It may be hard to imagine that a body of water that does not border Pennsylvania could cost the commonwealth more than $1 billion Lewistown Sentinel

‘Nobody free pass’ on Chesapeake Bay mandate There was no silver lining in comments Wednesday by state DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty about the potential $1 billion impact of a federal mandate to clean up the water flowing from PA into the Chesapeake Bay Sun Gazette

Hearings set on costs of Chesapeake Bay cleanup Lawmakers in Harrisburg will try to figure out this week how to keep municipalities from being bankrupted by the cost of cleaning up the bay Lancasteronline

Army Corps nixes dam on Susquehanna River The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it’s denying a permit for an inflatable dam to be built across the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre Morning Call

Pennsylvania Political News

Street jury says it is deadlocked on 7 charges After two full days of deliberations, the federal jury considering fraud and tax charges against T. Milton Street Sr. announced yesterday that it was deadlocked on seven charges Inquirer

Liquor reform on the rocks? Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh has two words for the backers of the latest bill to dismantle the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board: “Keep plugging” Patriot News

Fumo back surgery spurs rumors he might quit race Daily News

21 state lawmakers plan to retire this year Ask state Sen. Gerald LaValle if his support for the legislative pay raises in 2005 is the reason he’s retiring from the Legislature this year and you’ll get a blunt answer Post-Gazette

New York/Region/World

The parks, he knows. The trees, don’t ask NY Times
Funds in doubt for new Tappan Zee Bridge LoHud.com
Bruno chases cold cash in warm weather Times Union
Utility, state settle case over coal plant Post-Standard
Condos next in Catskill factory do-over Times Union
State grows Adirondack preserve Times Union
Mayor, council may spar over E-recycling New York Sun

Try a no-obligation, 30-day subscription to EnviroPolitics: Free Trial

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DE’s wind-power debate has implications for NJ

This post was updated on Februray 20.

The battle over a proposed 150-turbine windfarm off Delaware’s Rehoboth Beach intensified Saturday as the president of Delmarva Power published an op-ed letter in the Wilmington News Journal attacking Bluewater Wind project as too costly.

The outcome of the debate has implications for New Jersey which also is preparing to consider proposals for ocean wind farms. Neighboring Pennsylvania is ahead of both states in wind-energy development.

“Fifty million dollars to $70 million per year for 25 years — well over a billion dollars — this is what is at stake in this critical issue for our customers, ” wrote Gary Stockbridge.

The Delmarva executive said his company is seeking proposals from 20 regional wind energy developers and expects those bids will be some $50 million less, per year, than Bluewater Wind’s offshore proposal.

“There is only one reason to rush into a 25-year contract for $5.6 billion that will not even start for five years, ” he wrote, “a fear that the alternatives will present a far more attractive proposal.”

Stockbridge contends that Delaware has explored only a single renewable solution–the Bluewater Wind offshore proposal.

The Bluewater project also is the subject of a new round of hearings in the Delaware State Senate which are expected to run through early March.
More than 100 attended a hearing on February 7 at which Delaware Audubon Society Conservation Chairman Nicholas A. DiPasquale accused committee chairman Harris B. McDowell, III of “trying to derail the offshore wind energy project” and open a debate over green energy alternatives, such as cheaper land-based wind turbines.
But the meeting also attracted critics of the wind-power project, including University  of Delaware Engineering Professor Charles Boncelet who testified that offshore wind turbines would still require conventional fuel backup and would drive up consumer costs.
The Delaware debate is no doubt being monitored by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s administration which also has expressed an interest in offshore wind projects. The pace of that development has been slower in the Garden State primarily because the NJ Board of Public Utilities wants to get a handle on the financial nuances of such a project and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection is commissioning studies, in advance of public debate, to address the inevitable questions about the effects of wind turbine operations on birds and ocean life.
In Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell saw the advantages of wind energy early in his first term of office. He helped woo Gamesa Corp., a major Spanish wind turbine manufacturer, to the Commonwealth where it’s building a manufacturing plant for wind turbine generator blades in Ebensburg, Cambria County. That project will involve up to 500 construction jobs and create more than 200 permanent manufacturing positions.
Gamesa also has decided to locate its U.S. headquarters and East Coast development in Philadelphia. In all, the facilities will combine for a $40 million investment in the state.
Gamesa has worked out 600 megawatts’ worth of agreements to sell wind-generated power to Pennsylvania utilities, with a goal of reaching 1,000 megawatts, enough to power more than 300,000 homes.
Numerous on-land wind farms built across Pennsylvania in recent years with state funding incentives already account for a total of 129 megawatts, with another 84 megawatts scheduled to come on line within the next year.

Care to share your views on the Delaware debate or any other aspect of wind energy? Just click on the “comment” line below and have at it!

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Big alternative energy vote ahead in PA

Ready for a floor vote when Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives reconvenes next month is Special Session HB 1 .

The measure, considered the cornerstone of Governor Ed Rendell’s Energy Independence Strategy, allocates $850 million in bond funding to the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority and the Commonwealth Financing Agency to support research, development and deployment of various alternative energy projects and technologies.

The bill provides rebates for consumers who purchase of energy-efficient appliances and also funds a rebate and grant program to encourage the use of solar energy.

The legislation also authorizes grants and loans for alternative energy projects, alternative fuels, demand-side management and energy-efficient measures.

Specific earmarks include $30 million for facilities manufacturing wind turbines and other energy components, and $25 million for pollution control technology projects at certain coal-burning electric-generating and cogeneration facilities.

More at: House adds more to ‘green’ energy bill

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