In a move we suspect is meant to protect hungry bears, rabid squirrels, and roaming psychopaths who are known to frequent U.S. National Parks, a U.S. District Court judge has reversed a Bush Administration decision allowing loaded guns in National Parks.
The Bush rule change had shifted a 1980’s policy that forced gun owners to carry their weapons unloaded and in a difficult to reach location such as a trunk or suitcase while in National Parks. The change allowed gun owners to carry loaded, concealed weapons through the parks, providing they possessed a concealed weapons permit and the state where the park is located allows concealed weapons. The Bush rule was widely protested by current and former NPS rangers and law enforcement officers.
Judge Collen Kollar-Kotelly called the Interior Department’s rule making "astoundingly flawed" and that the rule would not stand on legal grounds. The department failed to research possible environmental effects the rule change would cause across the country, as required by law. Judge Kollar-Kotelly has given the Interior Department until April 20th to react to the injunction.
The National Rifle Association sees things a little differently. Chris Wood, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, said the group will continue to fight last week's decision. "We didn't give up in the fight to change the old, outdated rule and we are going to pursue every legal and legislative avenue to defend the American people's right to self-defense," Cox said last Friday.
We agree with the comments of Bill Wade, former superintendent of Virginia's Shenandoah National Park and chairman of the executive council of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. "We’ve said from the beginning that the [Interior Department] was proposing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. The department presented no evidence during its rule making that a change was needed."
Strange though it may sound to those Americans who champion the second amendment as the most important of all the rights we have, we can state with 100 percent certainty that we'll sleep much better knowing our neighbor in the next tent over isn’t packing heat – bears, squirrels, and psychopaths be damned.
In a tale that shows just how powerful an ally the need to cut carbon emissions could become for the nuclear industry, the Hawa’iian legislature actually held hearings recently on HB1, a bill that would have initiated nuclear energy development in paradise. The bill would have directed "the department of business, economic, development, and tourism to develop a permitting process for nuclear energy generation facilities in Hawaii." After one day of hearings by the Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water, Land and Ocean Resources, members voted unanimously to hold it.
Marco Mangelsdorf, co-owner of solar integrator ProVision Technologies, was not surprised at the outcome: "It's over, done, held till forever. Actually, it could conceivably be revivified next year at the discretion of the committee chairs, but don't bet on it. Nuclear power in Hawai’i? Give me a break." In the meantime, with electrical rates at 30 cents/kwh, combined with federal and state incentives, ProVision is thriving, hiring a new operations manager, all to handle systems of 100kw or less, he notes.
In another example of how acronyms create acrimony in Washington, the Department of Interior’s Secretary Ken Salazar and the acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission John Wellinghoff have reach a truce in a regulatory turf battle over off-shore renewable energy development. At issue in the dispute was the Department’s Minerals Management Service’s refusal to give up control of wave, tidal, and ocean current (hydro-kinetic) projects to FERC which, in turn, was unwilling to let the MMS permit and regulate these new energy developments in addition to offshore wind projects.
In a joint statement issued last week, DOI and FERC have agreed to divvy up the offshore energy pie. "Our renewable energy is too important for bureaucratic turf battles to slow down our progress. I am proud that we have reached an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding our respective roles in approving offshore renewable energy projects," said Salazar.
In the end, the MMS ceded control of the hydro-kinetic projects to FERC. Staffers of both agencies have been instructed to write up a memorandum of understanding which will establish procedures and formalize the process for licensing and regulating renewable off-shore renewable energy developments (OSREDs). So, to get this straight – DOI and FERC will write an MOU detailing how MMS and FERC will regulate OSREDs. Got it?
Okay, so we made up OSRED, and we’re taking an easy shot at governmental agencies bickering over who gets to regulate what, but this is actually a pretty significant step in creating a new energy economy and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. Let’s hope the agencies keep working to develop environmentally sound policies while working to develop these "OSREDs."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has issued a Secretarial Order instructing federal agencies to prioritize alternative energy development on federal lands. Citing critical needs in reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, creating a clean energy economy, and employing Americans who've lost their jobs, Salazar instructed the agency to make production, development, and delivery of alternative energy a top priority.
"More so than ever, with job losses continuing to mount, we need to steer the country onto a new energy path," Salazar said. "One that creates new jobs and puts America out front in new, growing industries, one that promotes investment and innovation here at home and one that makes wise use of our domestic resources" he said.
The order also establishes an energy and climate change task force that will work to identify specific public lands where Interior can facilitate the development of large-scale, wind, geothermal, and other alternative energy projects. Interior will also work closely with other federal agencies, American Indian tribes, and states to determine where electric transmission infrastructure is needed to bring the energy to large urban centers.
While some of this development may occur offshore as Interior manages 1.7 billion acres of waters along America’s coasts, the BLM has identified nearly 21 million acres with potential for wind energy development in 11 western states and 29 million acres in the southwest with high potential for solar.
We're excited that the Secretary has recognized the desperate need to develop these resources, we just hope that fast-tracking bad ideas isn’t a result of the latest western energy boom. Energy development means road development, water development, habitat fragmentation, and other significant environmental consequences, which will trigger NEPA analysis, consultation, and other important environmental protections. Just hiring enough new staff to properly analyze all of these proposals ought to employ most of the hydro/bio/geo/whateverologists that’ve graduated from America’s colleges in the last three years.
Borrego Solar, a $60-million solar integrator with strong east and west coast activity, has some advice for fellow solar companies trying to get by in a low- or no-credit economy: Skip residential in favor of commercial and governmental installations…in the east.
A few days after getting a $14-million cash infusion last month, Borrego promptly sold its residential business to Vermont-based groSolar to focus exclusively on those sectors of activity, and primarily in the mid-Atlantic states of New York and New Jersey. The money, says Borrego president Mike Hall, will be used to improve Borrego’s low-cost integration solution already partly developed for flat commercial roofs and to further develop its use in other applications.
Though Hall expects California to be the largest market for the next few years, he sees greater opportunity on the Eastern seaboard. "California will still grow, but growth will be larger in other areas. We saw that when we went into Massachusetts, which had incredible growth. Projects are happening in New Jersey and, while it’s not perfect, their SREC program has come a long way. It definitely favors larger projects. That is why a lot of ½ mw and megawatt projects are happening," Hall said. He added that the company’s choice of commercial and governmental projects is due in part to the Obama Administration’s focus on renewable energy. "In 09 we think there will be incredible opportunities created by the administration," he said.
In what could be a trend, Gainesville, Florida’s municipal utility Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) last month adopted the U.S.'s first true feed-in tariff, a la Germany’s fixed-rate, long-term payment for solar energy.
As of March 1, GRU customers with new PV systems can get $0.32 per kwh for 20 years. On a recent conference call organized by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), Wilson Rickerson, principal consultant at Rickerson Energy Strategies LLC noted that "FIT ideas here in the US have moved from a head-scratching idea to…still a head-scratching idea, but more acceptance." Probably to avoid looking like Euro-copycats, U.S. legislators often call FITs "renewable energy payments," and Rickerson said 9 states now have FIT legislation under consideration, and 9 more are talking about them as a way to meet RPS goals.
On the federal level, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) has proposed a federal FIT, though it has not been voted on, and state and local authorities may well beat the feds to deciding that FITs provide the best investor security in this period of uncertainty regarding tax equity financing.
The Associated Press reported last Thursday that the Senate voted 52-42 to defeat a bill amendment introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Murkowski was trying to force the Obama Administration to undertake a lengthy and arduous process to revers ... YES, you guessed it: another last minute Bush Administration rule change. This particular last minute regulation prevented greenhouse gas emissions from being considered in listing the polar bear on the endangered species list.
Murkowski and other Republican Senators were critical of language in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill (HR 1105) that allowed officials in the Obama Administration to remove the Bush Administration’s regulations without following the restrictive and lengthy process typically required to undo previous administration’s rule changes. The regulations in question prevented the government from considering global warming and greenhouse gas emissions in whether to list the polar bear on the Endangered Species List. The polar bear is currently listed as threatened.
Murkowski had sought to amend the bill by removing the language. Fortunately for the bears, the Senate voted to keep the bill intact. If you live most of your life on Arctic ice and that ice is melting, you’d be wise to figure out why. Fortunately for polar bears, some pretty sharp scientists have figured that out on their behalf. And it turns out that climate change might have something to do with all the melting ice.
By preventing scientists from including the effects of climate change in determining whether to list the bear or not, Bush’s regulations effectively removed from consideration the single, most significant factor threatening the bears. It's heartening to know that the Senate recognized the ridiculousness of these regulations and validated what all of us crazy environmental wackos have known for years -- the regulations were not only ridiculous, they were immoral, illegal, and should have never been issued.
Gene Beck, president of Orange, California-based solar leasing specialist EnviroTech Financial Inc., is less enthusiastic about the positive real-world impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan on the solar industry.
The change eliminates the risk of a wind farm losing its PTC income by having to shut down at any time over 10 years.Beck does not think all wind farms will automatically choose to take their ITC money and run. "Some projects would still take the PTC, depending on their hurdle rate, and the size of the turbines, their production rate," he said.
President Obama signed a memorandum last week instructing U.S. agencies to consult with scientists about projects that could harm endangered species. The Bush Administration had issued a last minute rule change that allowed each agency to decide for themselves how their projects would effect endangered species. For some reason, leaving the Department of Transportation, the Army Corps of Engineers, he Defense Department and other agencies to determine these effects didn’t sit well with President Obama.
In a meeting with Department of the Interior employees, Obama referred to the previous administration, saying "Today I've signed a memorandum that will help restore the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations."
The move makes consultation mandatory for governmental agencies. Obama addressed the crowd of Interior employees for the agency’s 160th birthday. While the memorandum doesn’t overturn the Bush Administration's rule change, it does re-require agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Employees cheered the news.
As do we. For the last month and a half, we’ve been reporting on the efforts of the Obama Administration to undue the last minute efforts of the Bush Administration. From controversial drilling leases in Utah, to slowing down the permitting for off-shore oil drilling, to this, the Obama Administration is marking a very different track than its predecessor.
Yeah, OK, we can be the change that we want to see in the world. But unless powerful people in powerful positions want to be that change as well, nothing's going to change.
So now, finally, there's a place where you can go for news and analysis of politics from an environmental perspective.
