Air Quality
New Study: Reducing Smog Brings More Health Benefits
In the same Washington Post article on the monkey business surrounding the new PM pollution standard comes news of a new study that concludes cutting smog pollution could bring added health care benefits that haven't been accurately estimated in the past.
Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and MIT examined data for five years between 2003 and 2008 from the 20 Eastern states and the District of Columbia where power plants and boilers are required to limit nitrogen oxide pollution between May 1 and Sept. 30 each year – in other words, "oozne season."
During this time, they found prescription drug expenditures dropped by 1.9 percent, or $900 million a year, and the states and DC had 2,200 fewer annual premature deaths among individuals aged 75 or older.
“This is now new evidence of the evidence of the health benefits of ozone reductions, which was not available when the president overturned the previous effort to revise the ozone standard,” said MIT economist Michael Greenstone, who has informed White House officials of his findings.
Imagine Our Surprise: PM Standard Weakened By White House
Confirming what a lot of observers had already suspected, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the White House submitted a new federal air standard for Particulate Matter air pollution this year that was higher than EPA originally proposed.
It's not the first time the Obama Administration has been accused of sacrificing science-based air quality standards for politics. Last year, the White House mugged EPA's Lisa Jackson with a last-minute decision to forgo tightening the Bush-era ozone/smog standard that she had already termed "legally indefensible."
Particulate Matter, or is the widespread and increasingly insidious pollutant that can be breathed-in and affect not only your respiratory system, but pass through the lung lining into the blood stream to also impact brain and heart function.
Based on a recommendation from its own panel of scientists, the Agency proposed a tightening of the PM standard from 15 to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. That recommendation then went to the Office of Management and Budget, which in the last 20 years has grown to have veto power over all EPA regulations. OMB directed the EPA to set the limit slightly higher, between 12 and 13 mg/m3. That doesn't sound like much of a change, but it could be the difference between areas like DFW getting a pass or having to adopt a plan to better control PM pollution.
Critics see the move as one more example of science taking a back seat to politics in the Obama White House when push comes to shove.
Kilnheads across the country just saw the same thing happen just last month with the EPA's proposed rollback of new cement plant emission rules that were 20 years in the making and on the verge of being implemented. However, that move is a stumper compared to the yanks that restrained the EPA on new ozone and PM rules – both national standards with widespread implications. Why is the EPA going out of its way at the last minute to bow to cement industry pressure when there don't appear to be nationwide political implications or impacts to these rules? We hope the Post can snoop around and get to the bottom of this reversal the same way it's reported on the retreats in ozone and PM.
Nationwide Insurance Makes It Official: Fracking is a Bad Risk
After circulating on citizen group blogs in upstate New York for a day or two, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company confirmed that an internal memo outlining new prohibitions on insuring individuals or businesses who lease land for natural gas fracking was authentic and reflected company policy. With the disclosure Nationwide becomes the first insurance company to say it won't cover damages caused by horizontal fracturing.
According to the memo,
“After months of research and discussion, we have determined that the exposures presented by hydraulic fracturing are too great to ignore. Risks involved with hydraulic fracturing are now prohibited for General Liability, Commercial Auto, Motor Truck Cargo, Auto Physical Damage and Public Auto (insurance) coverage.”
This prohibition applies to landowners who lease land for shale gas drilling, and contractors involved in fracking operations, including those who haul water to and from drill sites; pipe and lumber haulers; and operators of bulldozers, dump trucks and other vehicles used in drill site preparation. That's a lot of the gas fuel cycle suddenly not covered.
Nationwide is the first to de-couple itself from fracking, but we bet it isn't the last. Some analysts were suggesting that negative publicity surrounding the fracking process influenced Nationwide's decision. Given the discovery rate of new hazards associated with fracking over the last two years, that's not a factor likely to get better with time.
It may be that at by the time all the dust settles, the gas industry will have to depend on some kind of massive government bailout to even be able to get fracking insurance. This is the same problem the nuclear power industry faced 50 years ago. No sane insurance company would offer coverage for a nuclear power plant, so the federal government stepped in and subsidized it in the form of the Price-Anderson Act. Without this literal Act of Congress, there wouldn't even be one nuclear power plant in the U.S.
Insurance companies aren't politically bias. They aren't partisan. They aren't treehuggers. They operate according to cold hard stats. And now those stats say fracking is a very bad risk. So bad that at least one major carrier has stopped even offering policies that cover damage from it.
If, like the City of Dallas, you were hoping to lease your land for natural gas drilling, this is something that should concern you.
“Altering the Odds:” Texas Heat Waves 20 Times More Likely than 50 Years Ago
This year has seen the hottest half year in US history. Last year was one of the 15 hottest years ever recorded. It not only seems hotter. It's actually getting hotter. There's a reason for that, and it ain't sunspots.
Researchers working at universities in Oregon and England have estimated that "La Nina" weather patterns combined with global warming have increased the likelihood of such record-setting heat waves in Texas by 20 times compared to the 1960's.
Their findings were part of the annual "State of the Climate" report prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along with a study published in the July issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. "Climate change has altered the odds of some of these events occurring," said Tom Peterson of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) steadily increased in 2011, with the global annual average exceeding 390 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since instrumental records began. Many climate scientists now believe that we must decrease that number to no more than 350 ppm in order to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
Dallas City Hall just got through patting itself on the back for reaching its GreenHouse Gas reduction goals of 6 years ago – although it appears that a lot of GHG pollution within the city of Dallas wasn't actually inventoried to get that pleasant result. The city is now grappling with a new gas drilling ordinance that could send annual GHG totals for Dallas soaring. What is the responsibility of a city that, on the one hand, promotes itself as a regional leader in air quality efforts, and on the other hand, wants to open itself up to the un-and-under-regulated emissions of gas mining and processing?
Proposed Corpus Pet Coke Plant Too Dirty for New Power Plant Rules
A $3 billion proposed power plant that would sit on Corpus Christi's bay and emit over 13 million tons of Greenhouse pollution a year may never be built because it can't meet new EPA power plant emissions rules. That's the headline of this Monday Fuel Fix article by the Houston Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue.
Chase Power was planning on opening the the Las Brisas (the Breezes) power plant in 2013, but that may never happen unless the company or the state of Texas is successful in lawsuits against the Agency's New Source Performance Standards.
Those standards don't apply to older plants, but they do apply to power plants under construction or planned, like Las Brisas. They require all power plants to achieve greenhouse emission limits that are difficult to meet without CO2 sequestration or other carbon-eating technology.
Las Brisias is designed to burn Petroleum Coke, a refinery by-product that is particularly nasty and releases as much carbon as coal. If it ever is built, it would instantly become the fourth largest CO2 polluter in the state.
Instead of trying to adapt or find a technology that could greatly reduce its carbon footprint, Chase Power is joining Texas in suing the EPA, while also petitioning to get an exemption from the Agency that would allow it to disregard the new greenhouse gas rules. Their local Congressman, Rep. Pete Olsen, is more than happy to oblige them.
Why Isn’t This Happening in Midlothian?
A Zachary Construction Company-owned San Antonio cement plant is finally going forward with the nation's first full-scale carbon capture plant .
Austin-based Skyonic Corp. will build a $125 million facility by 2014 to recycle 15% of the cement plant's CO2 emissions, or about 83,000 tons a year, into less-harmful byproducts such as bicarbonate soda. It also promises to filter acid gases and heavy metals pollution out of the kiln's plume.
Skyonic has a patented process called "SkyMine" that it says converts carbon dioxide emissions into baking soda and can be retrofitted to any industrial plant. The company received $25 million in stimulus funding from the Department of Energy toward the final cost of the San Antonio facility.
The project was first announced in 2010, but had trouble attractign addtional private funding until now.
Cement plants are among the largest point sources of CO2 on the planet, and the industry as a whole accounts for just over 5% of the world's human-made CO2 . Kilns are among the first wave of facilities that had to inventory their Greenhouse Gas pollution for EPA in 2010, and are expected to be targeted for actual reuductions in the future.
Modernization among the three large cement plants in Midlothian has reduced their carbon foot print over the last 20 years, but they still remain the largest point sources for CO2 pollution in North Texas, with over two million tons of emissions annually self-reported by Ash Grove, Holcim, and TXI in that 2010 inventory – the latest we have.
As Gas Mining Moves East, So Do Smog Violations
Failing the Test on Smog
This is a response to statements in this.
1) "The downward trend" that Mr Clawson of TCEQ says has only been "interrupted," is, in fact continuing, and he knows this because it's TCEQ monitoring that's proving it. This last March saw the highest ozone levels ever recorded for that month since TCEQ air quality monitoring began in 1997. It's only June, and there are already two monitors whose three-year runing average "Design Value" is above the old 85 ppb standard. The "best ever" ozone summer we were supposed to experience this year, according to TCEQ's prediction to EPA submitted in December, is completely off the rails.
2) The "87 ppb" Design Value Mr. Clawson cites is from 2010. Last year it was 92 ppb – at the Keller monitor. This year so far, the Keller monitor is already at a Design Value of 87, a violation of the old standard and something TCEQ said would not happen.
3) The NCTCOG claim that,"the DFW region has a tougher time than other metropolitan areas in the U.S. because of its climate plus its position downwind from outside sources of pollution" is also misleading. Houston is a hotspot for bad air, and yet last year DFW exceeded the number of bad air days and the severity of the violations in that city. Other metropolitan ares downwind of power plants as well as DFW, and yet they've all managed to do better in achieving cleaner air. Atlanta, Phoenix, and other Sunbelt cities that started out at the same smoggy spot a decade ago have all conquered the old 85 ppb std. DFW has not. It's already blown it again this year. Instead of blaming climate or coal plants, it is more realistic to blame DFW's air quality failure on a lack of political will by local and state officials to get serious about decreasing air pollution.
However, there is one large area of policy where the excuses of lack of will and new downwind sources collide – in the official lack of attention paid to the rise of Barnett and Haynesville Shale gas pollution as a source of smog in DFW.
4) The statement that only "5 percent" of the smog-forming emissions in DFW come from oil and gas drilling and production is also highly misleading. First, we know this is one of the fastest-growing categories of air pollution over the last decade. The increase in gas pollution is erasing decreases in emissions from other sources. Second, according to the information submitted by TCEQ to EPA last December, oil and gas emissions are the second largest source (20%) of smog-forming Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs in the 9-county DFW non-attainment area. That's more than the total VOCs produced by all on-road vehicles in the same 9 county area. Based on recent field studies by NOAA and others, this is probably an underestimate.
This statement also ignores the impact of gas emissions to the south and east of DFW, like Freestone County's, that are not included in the 9-county area inventory, but are probably influencing air pollution here.
What's always left out of this pie chart is the fact that cars now have a removal efficiency of approximately 90%. No other major sources come close to that kind of effort, despite technology being available to achieve it – at cement kilns, gas operations. and coal plants. That's where "the lowest hanging fruit" remains. But since all those industries are large contributors to the politicians directing the status quo, there's no political will to target them. Exhibit A: the 2011 DFW clean air plan submitted by the state, which relies primarily on marketplace forces to replace old cars with new ones, instead of any new round of pollution controls for any industry sources.
5) The NCTCOG claim that "monitors in the north Dallas and Frisco areas have had the highest readings of the region but the plume seems to be shifting west" is also based on old data. In fact, the opposite is occurring. Violating monitors are moving EAST (just like gas mining). And there are more of them. From 2008 to 2010, Eagle Mountain Lake and Keller were the epicenter of smog in DFW. But in 2011, while Keller tripped the std, EML did not. Moreover, during that same 08-10 period there were only 1-3 monitors in violation of that std. Last year, there were seven. And they included not just Keller and Parker County, but Denton, Grapevine, Pilot Point, Frisco and North Dallas – directly in contradiction to the NCTCOG claim.
This year, the very first monitor to record four "exceedances" of the 85ppb std was located near Mockingbird and I-35 in Central Dallas – the first time that monitor has done so since 2005. Moreover, the fourth exceedance came in June – the earliest that has happened since 2006, when 12 out of 19 monitors were in violation at the end of the summer.
As much as the officials and agencies would like us all to ignore the summer of 2011 and think of it as an aberation, it would be more prudent to see it as another warning sign that DFW needs to do much more to get safe and legal air.
The Petrochemical Circle of Smog
Here's a piece by Texas Tribune off-shoot "State Impact" that more or less revels in the news that the Shale boom in Texas and elsewhere is now finally making its presence felt in the petrochemical capital of the world – the Houston Ship Channels and surrounding communities long the Gulf Coast. Fracking has made natural gas and its condensates so cheap and plentiful that billions are being spent to build new plastics manufacturing and processing plants. It's the "re-birth of the U.S. petro-chemical industry," to quote one producer.
Already the hub of something like 60% of all petrochemical capacity in the US, the Houston/Harris County area has an on-going historical struggle with air pollution. Residents who live near huge facilities like the Exxon-Mobil Baytown Refinery are always on guard against catastrophic accidents, much less the daily or weekly indignities of breathing its perfectly legal voluminous air pollution. Much of the pollution is not only toxic but also adds to Houston's smog problems.
These new Shale-driven facilities, while cleaner than their older counterparts, will nevertheless be adding tens of thousands of tons of new air pollution to the Houston skies. That's going to complicate things for getting cleaner air in Houston. They haven't really mastered how to have clean air after the first birth of the petrochemical industry, much less a rebirth.
DFW is downwind of Houston. When it's harder for Houston to achieve cleaner air, it's also harder for DFW. What else makes it harder for DFW to achieve cleaner air? Large new sources of Un-and-under-regulated emissions from Shale gas mining.
So gas is mined and processed here in North Texas, where it adds to a chronic air quality problem for us. Then it's shipped to Houston, where it's use in making new plastic adds to chronic air quality problems for that city, as well as returning via predominate winds during ozone season to further contribute to deteriorating air quality here in DFW. It's the Petrochemical Circle of Smog.
Listen Up: Bill Nye the Science Guy Schools Big Media On Climate Change
Here's yet another scientist saying that reporting climate change as a he said/she said, two-sided controversy is wrong-headed and akin to giving flat-earthers "an equal say" every time we talk about astronomy. Only this time it's Bill Nye, THE Science Guy:
Science educator Bill Nye on Monday told CNN that they weren’t doing the public any favors by giving climate change deniers equal airtime because “the two sides aren’t equal.”
“There are a couple of things that you can’t really dispute,” Nye explained to CNN’s Carol Costello. “Sixteen of the last 17 years have been the hottest years on record. That’s just how it is.”
“I appreciate that we want to show two sides of the stories — there’s a tradition in journalism that goes back quite a ways, I guess — but the two sides aren’t equal here. You have tens of thousands of scientists who are very concerned and you have a few people who are in business of equating or drawing attention to the idea that uncertainty is the same as doubt. When you have a plus or minus percentage, that’s not the same thing as not believing the whole thing at all.