Reuters: Kyoto may encourage more pollution and spending

July 7th, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment

A Kyoto Protocol mechanism encourages developing nations to not improve factory efficiency, according to a United Nations methodology panel report released last week.

The $2.7 billion Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows companies and countries in the developed world to meet carbon caps by funding emissions cuts, called certified emissions reductions (CERs), in developing nations. The panel is concerned that this scheme would motivate factories to emit more greenhouse gases than necessary in order to earn more CERs.

“There is a strong incentive to … not improve the efficiency of the plant … during any refurbishment because of the CDM benefits,” said the report.

“Further investigation is required … to identify situations in which overestimation of CERs occurs and improve the methodology accordingly,” it added.

The U.N. methodology panel makes recommendations to the CDM executive board on the types of projects that should qualify for CERs. The methodology panel asked the board for guidance for its next meeting on July 26-30.

READ THIS STORY AT REUTERS.COM

Continue reading Reuters: Kyoto may encourage more pollution and spending

DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

June 7th, 2010 | Press | | Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Joseph Trento, 202-466-4310 or (mobile) 202-255-2441

Janet Wilson, 714-649-0514

DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

Washington, DC, May 11, 2010 – From the beginning, developers of a huge desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif., have promised it would cost the public nothing to build and would provide a critical new drinking water supply.

But dozens of interviews and a review of available records by the Public Education Center’s DCBureau.org show that southern Californians would actually pay at least $640 million over 30 years, including as much as $374 million in public subsidies. All that money would repay construction costs with interest, operating costs with overhead fees, and unspecified profits to investors for what would be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

So is the project a thirst quencher, an environmental problem, or both?

As population swells and climate change could begin to wreak havoc on already dwindling supplies, boosters say it is well worth the price to bring a local water supply to the drought prone region. They say desalination is a crucial piece of multi-pronged strategies to keep California flush with water, and despite recessionary woes, the time is right

But critics say that far from being a New Age answer to water woes, desalters are costly, unnecessary boondoggles that often malfunction and carry damaging environmental side effects. They argue subsidizing the costly plants is the wrong approach, and that conservation, recycling wastewater and other, far cheaper alternatives should be tried first.

Poseidon Resources LLC, the private developer, is pushing to complete a dizzying checklist of approvals before heading to Wall Street for financing later this month. Before the bond sale, it needs to obtain a second rating in addition to the BBB- it got from Standard and Poor’s, the lowest investment grade rating.

# # #

DCBureau.org is a non-profit project staffed by award-winning reporters whose mission is to investigate previously overlooked news stories about significant issues and bring them to the attention of national and international audiences. Janet Wilson, a USC Annenberg Hunt national health reporting fellow, is an environmental journalist based in southern California.

Continue reading DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

June 7th, 2010 | Press | | Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Joseph Trento, 202-466-4310 or (mobile) 202-255-2441

Janet Wilson, 714-649-0514

DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

Washington, DC, May 11, 2010 – From the beginning, developers of a huge desalination plant in Carlsbad, Calif., have promised it would cost the public nothing to build and would provide a critical new drinking water supply.

But dozens of interviews and a review of available records by the Public Education Center’s DCBureau.org show that southern Californians would actually pay at least $640 million over 30 years, including as much as $374 million in public subsidies. All that money would repay construction costs with interest, operating costs with overhead fees, and unspecified profits to investors for what would be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

So is the project a thirst quencher, an environmental problem, or both?

As population swells and climate change could begin to wreak havoc on already dwindling supplies, boosters say it is well worth the price to bring a local water supply to the drought prone region. They say desalination is a crucial piece of multi-pronged strategies to keep California flush with water, and despite recessionary woes, the time is right

But critics say that far from being a New Age answer to water woes, desalters are costly, unnecessary boondoggles that often malfunction and carry damaging environmental side effects. They argue subsidizing the costly plants is the wrong approach, and that conservation, recycling wastewater and other, far cheaper alternatives should be tried first.

Poseidon Resources LLC, the private developer, is pushing to complete a dizzying checklist of approvals before heading to Wall Street for financing later this month. Before the bond sale, it needs to obtain a second rating in addition to the BBB- it got from Standard and Poor’s, the lowest investment grade rating.

# # #

DCBureau.org is a non-profit project staffed by award-winning reporters whose mission is to investigate previously overlooked news stories about significant issues and bring them to the attention of national and international audiences. Janet Wilson, a USC Annenberg Hunt national health reporting fellow, is an environmental journalist based in southern California.

Continue reading DCBureau.org releases in depth investigation into California’s Proposed Desalination Plant

News Service: Study Links Power Plant Fish Kills to Economic Damages in Northwest Ohio

June 3rd, 2010 | Environment | | Leave a comment

According to studies, the cooling intake system of the Bay Shore power plant near Toledo kills billions of fish each year. Fishers, boaters, residents and environmental groups are releasing a new study outlining the economic effects of the massive fish kills caused by the coal plant.

Executive director of the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Association Sandy Bihn argues that First Energy should be held to standards just as fishers on Lake Erie are. She says, “You can only catch so many walleye and so many perch at certain times of certain sizes etc. This plant has no rules: they can kill as many fish as they want each and every day and there are no consequences.”

According to the report, the fish kills are causing $30 million in economic damages to northwest Ohio each year.

READ THIS STORY AT NEWSSERVICE.ORG

Continue reading News Service: Study Links Power Plant Fish Kills to Economic Damages in Northwest Ohio