Charleston City Council convened on February 23, 2010 to receive the Charleston Green Plan, a comprehensive study of ways to make the City more sustainable and to reduce its environmental impacts. The evening proved that the teabaggers, elected and unelected, don't understand the government they want to destroy any better than the Planet they would like to waste.
Image, Right, Mayor Riley Recognizing the members of the Green Committee in City Council's Historic Chamber.
Mayor Riley remains the aging pro, though the years have worn on him. The master who could once play his tightly strung civic instrument like a fiddle now confronts the sprawling metropolis he created which dysfunctionally attempts to unite a priceless urban core with many square miles of suburban nowhere populated by people who get too much of their civic instruction from Glenn Beck.
Charleston has grown from a city where inches matter and detailed knowledge of the background has been the price of admission to a place which stretches from Huger to Johns Island full of people who just got here and a lot of people who have never been anywhere at all. That saved large parts of the urbanizing Lowcountry from devolving into micro cities which can't competently or efficiently govern. It also means that rednecks and teabaggers now show up in the storied room where history has been made at the corner of Broad and Meeting St.
Read about the rest of the meeting in the extended text
Just like our Nation's Capital, our economy is frozen and in a grid lock. We have seen jobs lost and shipped overseas for the last eight years. The Congress is currently working on a jobs bill to help stir the economy. Many say this is a short fix. Others say it is not enough. There is a notion that we cannot create good American Jobs again. We must look at what the last generation did. They invested in short term and long term programs. We need to do the same. There is an energy bill in the senate that can create a whole new industry for America. This industry will bring immense power to our country and promote us to the main innovators of the 21st century. This is the Renewable Energy Industry. Many, whom are opposed to this, believe that it will cost too much. However, 93% agree that it is better to pay a cost now then to ship money overseas to pay for oil which also helps fund terrorism. So we must invest for our future to protect our jobs, our family, and our country. Douglas Wilson, Editor and Chief www.politicsispower.com
Mt. Pleasant, SC, Oct. 24- Lowcountry 350 gathered in Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Memorial Park this afternoon with 73 participants in a global effort to raise awareness about climate change. The participants were asked to get to the park without using fossile fuels. Many came by bicycle. A few walked or came by electric vehicle.
Shortly before 3:50 pm, they formed the bicycles into an oval to form the digit "0." The 73 participants formed the numeral "3" and "5." Some of the Charleton held up signs which spelled out "South Carolina."
350 is regarded as the miximum amount, in parts per million, of carbon that is safe to have in Earth's Atmosphere. The current level is 390 parts per million.
The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department used a large ladder truck to take a photograph of the gathering, one of thousands like it around the earth that day. The effort finished up about 4:00 pm and the particpants returned home while the image when out online to be displayed along with thousands of others.
I urge you to check out the important and informative articles about climate change being posted on the Environment page of the The Guardian's website.
The human race is facing the greatest threat to its existence in its history and the mainstream media in this country seems to be oblivious to this stark reality.
When it comes to taking meaningful action to avert a world-wide catastrophe, time is not on our side.
From grassroots to grasstops, over fifty people took part in Repower South Carolina's Made in America Jobs Tour in the old Timkens plant in Clinton this Wednesday. Elected leaders from across the state attended the event, as well as representatives from Rep. Gresham Barrett's and Sen. Lindsey Graham's offices. There were also students, environmental advocates, and other members of the business community from around the state and North Carolina.
As several speakers noted, investing in clean energy in South Carolina will bring new, good paying jobs to help jumpstart the economy. These are jobs that cannot be shipped overseas. A move towards a clean energy economy will also improve our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and help preserve the enviroment for future generations.
I just (Monday, Sept. 21) received the following e-bulletin from the Physicians for Social Responsibility.
John Hartz Columbia, SC
Dear John,
The power of the EPA to protect us from global warming -- by regulating emissions of carbon dioxide from the biggest polluters in the country -- is under attack in the Senate.
We urgentlyneed you to call your Senators today (Monday, Sept. 21) or at the very latest Tuesday morning. Tell them that we need the EPA to have full authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, regardless of the source. Urge them to defeat the “Murkowski amendment” to the Interior Appropriations bill.
You can reach your senators by calling the Senate switchboard in Washington: 202-224-3121.
Call now. The vote on this critical amendment is expected on Tuesday. Background: Even while the Senate is drafting climate legislation, Sen. Murkowski of Alaska has circulated a draft amendment that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for one year from spending any money to regulate or control CO2 emissions from stationary sources including coal-fired power plants, the largest point-source of CO2 emissions in the country.
This amendment is a back-door effort to hamstring the EPA, which has been powerfully effective in improving U.S. air quality and protecting public health. Thanks to the EPA, air in our nation’s cities is substantially cleaner. Nearly the entire country is meeting air quality targets set for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Ozone air quality has improved in 99 of the 104 areas designated as having unhealthy ozone levels. Lead levels in ambient air are 91% lower than in 1980, greatly reducing the number of children with IQs below 70 as a result of dirty air.
The EPA is highly effective at protecting the health of the American people. We need the EPA to act now to reduce CO2 levels. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are already at dangerous levels. We must roll back carbon emissions before they reach the tipping point. Prompt, bold action can still protect us from the worst effects of global climate change. Yet the Murkowski amendment would allow the major sources of greenhouse gases in this country to continue emitting CO2 raising the risk for us and the entire world.
Finally, this amendment would send the most counter-productive message imaginable, at the worst possible time, to foreign governments. It would suggest that the U.S. government is not serious about containing climate change mere months before December’s United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen.
Call your Senators today. Ask them to oppose the “Murkowski amendment.”
The "Age of Stupid" is a film about climate change that will be screened in select movie theaters around the country (including four in SC) on the evening of Monday, Sept. 21.
"The Age Of Stupid" is an enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid from the director of 'McLibel' and the producer of the Oscar-winning 'One Day In September'.
The film stars Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite ('The Usual Suspects', 'In the Name of the Father') as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance? It takes viewers through a world-wide journey that explores the roots of the crisis and our failure to confront it in this fictionalized (but all-too-possible) future. Watch a trailer of the movie at AgeOfStupid.net.
U.K. newspaper The Guardian has called it "the first successful dramatization of climate change to hit the big screen." Find a screening near you and buy your tickets today:
On Friday, September 18, The Climate Protection Action Fund’s Repower South Carolina campaign will deliver over 1,300 letters and petitions, written and signed by constituents, to the Columbia district office of Senator Lindsey Graham. Voters are calling for passage of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that will create millions of jobs, help end our dependence on foreign oil and solve the climate crisis. Repower South Carolina has over 14,300 members in the Palmetto State.
A Zogby International poll released in August showed that a majority of American voters — 71 percent — strongly support House-passed clean energy and climate legislation, citing the job growth that would result from enacting new clean energy policies.
A new report released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) says that South Carolina households would save an average of $308 per year and that 84000 sustainable, jobs would be created in the state over the next ten years if Congress acts now to include strong energy efficiency improvements in energy and climate legislation.
“It’s time to harness the power of American ingenuity to put thousands of people back to work and save South Carolinians money on their energy bills,” said Larry Newton, who has been certified by the Buildings Performance Institute as a Building Analyst Professional. “By supporting stronger efficiency components as part of federal energy legislation, our senators can help our country toward energy independence and greater national security.”
The report also found that energy efficiency policies from the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), which passed the House of Representatives in June, would create 5,000 new jobs and annually save the average household $266 a year.
“While the House bill is a critical first step in moving toward energy independence, this report shows we can save even more money and create more jobs through strong efficiency measures,” said Ann Timberlake, Executive Director of Conservation Voters of South Carolina. “Senators DeMint and Graham should lead the fight for common sense energy efficiency policies and jump start the transition to a clean energy economy.”
ACEEE has called for policy improvements to the federal climate and energy bill that passed the House in June. Their recommendations would generate more than 569,000 clean energy jobs and save the average household $283 per year nationwide by 2020. These policy improvements would result in 48 percent more jobs and 32 percent more consumer savings than the efficiency measures in the House bill.
“These innovative energy efficiency improvements are ready to go in real time, but need strong legislation that will ensure they’re widely put to use,” concludes Timberlake. “We’re talking about using today’s technology to create a safer, stronger, more prosperous tomorrow.”
Southern governors heard dire predictions about the potential for disaster created by climate change during the Southern Governors' Association's annual meeting in Williamsburg this week. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Global climate change over the next 20 years will cause intense droughts in the Southwest, floods in the Northeast threatening the coastline and urban areas, and significant storm damage along the Gulf Coast, a panel of Southern governors was told yesterday.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Engel, director of the Climate Change and State Stability program of the National Intelligence Council, told the governors that the changes could also affect U.S. national-security interests -- aggravating poverty, degrading the environment and destabilizing fragile government regimes of nations around the world.
He said that although the U.S. will be "less affected and better equipped than the vast majority of nations to deal with climate change," it will still face challenges. Engel said these range from the costs to control emissions and respond to emergencies, to safeguarding against the potential for terrorists to "obtain and utilize" nuclear material and expertise that will increase as more countries pursue nuclear power as an energy source.
And yet South Carolina, a state with 2,876 miles of coastal shoreline, apparently had no representation or leadership at the meeting. In what has rapidly become a "Dog bites man" story, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was nowhere to be found at a meeting that attracted some 400 participants with 70 industry groups ranging from Northrop Grumman and Exxon Mobil to Capital One and Norfolk Southern helping to foot the bill. One can only assume the meeting's agenda issues of "Health and Human Services, Energy and Environment, Energy Demands and Climate Goals, Developing a 'Smart Grid', and Transportation Issues" wasn't enough to motivate South Carolina's amorous chief executive to attend.
When it comes to greedy developers building more stuff on Kiawah Island, God weighed in on this issue eons ago. If you pull out your trusty Bible and flip to Matthew 7:26-27, God says only a fool builds a house on sand, describing the pitfalls in great detail: rains, floods, and winds that will tear that sucker down. Far be it from me to ignore the word of God, so I can only presume that the Kiawah Development Partners haven't made it that far through the Good Book, yet. According to the Charleston Post and Courier:
Kiawah Development Partners, the island's master developer, owns the 150-acre sand spit and wants to build up to 50 homes there. The company's plans came to light last summer after a Post and Courier Watchdog report showed how U.S. Rep. Henry Brown wanted to change a federal law so future homeowners on the spit could get an insurance break.
Oh Henry, always starting fires he can't put out. The Firebug's got some family and financial ties to the world of Lowcountry developers, so I guess selling out his constituents can only help his bottom line, if not his near bottom ranking in Congress. The folks at the Coastal Conservation League and Kiawah Island residents are still fighting this issue, and let's hope they win if for no other reason than I don't feel like paying for rich people's insurance. But, as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. And, that's exactly what Henry Brown and the Kiawah Development Partners are banking on.
SC Progressive Network director Brett Bursey has uncovered one of the biggest legislative hoaxes ever, that's really saying something in South Carolina.
S. 235, which the Senate Agriculture Committee will consider this Thursday, defines renewable energy resources for the state's energy policy. Right between "energy conservation and efficiency" and "solar photovoltaic energy" is...nuclear fuel reprocessing.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, your S.C. Senate wants to make sure nuclear energy is green.
As Bursey points out:
These same lunatics run the asylum that passed legislation last session to let private corporations charge rate payers - up front - to build nuclear reactors. SCE&G predicts a 37 percent increase in your utility bills over the next decade to subsidize construction that can’t get private financing or insurance. It’s likely that the final bill will be twice what SCE&G claims.
A rational legislature, concerned about our energy future, could have put a similar golden carrot on the stick that led to the development of real renewable resources.
How many of us would install solar panels if we could pay for them incrementally over a decade? How many good and enduring jobs could be generated if we put support behind real renewables? The $4.5 billion dollar reactor is predicted to provide 500 jobs after construction. That’s a cost of $9 million a job.
I sat down yesterday with Sen. Phil Leventis to discuss his proposal for restructuring DHEC, the need for tax reform and what government should be doing to help citizens during the recession. Sen. Leventis has long been one of the Senate's leading voices for protecting the environment, and he also spoke yesterday about the proposed coal plant Santee Cooper wants to build.
Leventis was elected to the S.C. Senate in 1980. A decorated fighter pilot, Leventis served in the U.S. Air Force from 1969-74 and in the S.C. Air National Guard from 1974-99. He volunteered for active duty during the Persian Gulf War, flying 21 combat missions over Iraq & Kuwait, and retired as a Brigadier General.
IJTV is a new regular feature here on Indigo Journal. Each week, we'll sit down with a member of the General Assembly to discuss the issues facing South Carolina. Let's us know what you think.
For those who think my main purpose on this blog is to criticize Mark Sanford, brace yourselves: our governor is absolutely right about something.
That something is government restructuring, and nothing illustrates that fact like the dispute over whether or not Santee Cooper can build a new coal-fired generating station in the Pee Dee.
Months ago, the staff of one state agency - the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) - decided that another government agency - the SC Public Service Authority (better know as Santee Cooper) - could build the plant.
Environmental groups, concerned that the plant will produce 93 pounds of mercury and 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, appealed the permit DHEC granted, and the agency's board will hear that appeal tomorrow.
Now a third state agency, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has waded in with its opposition to the project in a letter from DNR director John Frampton.
A worsening of environmental mercury pollution that builds up in fish poses “grave” risks to humans. Coal plants emit mercury, which is absorbed by fish in rivers. People eating these fish risk brain damage.
Allowing the release of an additional 10 million tons of carbon dioxide a year carries “the risk of enormous consequences” because the gas is building up in Earth’s atmosphere and can cause “irreversible, global climatic impacts by the year 2035.”
Constructing large coal ash ponds at the plant could be harmful. Recently, Tennessee had an “environmental disaster of enormous consequences” when dams surrounding a coal-fired power plant’s ash ponds broke. The new plant would burn millions of tons of coal a year, and ash eventually could be put into gigantic pits near environmentally sensitive limestone bluffs along the Great Pee Dee River.
So we have three state agencies wrestling over one of the key environmental issues of the 21st Century. Two of them are executive branch agencies, and in any sensible form of government "executive branch" means the governor is in charge.
But this fight won't be settled by the governor, or even by the real chiefs of South Carolina's state governmental tribe, Glenn McConnell and Bobby Harrell.
No, boys and girls, there are seven referees in this game, and if you can name one of them without looking it up on The Google, I'll buy you lunch. (Hint: the DHEC board, appointed by but not answerable to the governor)
I'm not even going to get into the details of the dispute or the merits of the arguments. We'll never know whether the people of South Carolina want a new coal plant or not because the system is designed to keep them from effectively expressing their will - or, really, to even learn enough about the issue to make an informed decision.
And if you really won't to throw a monkey wrench into the whole debate over South Carolina's energy needs and environmental protection, consider this.
Today - just one day before the DHEC board will decide which of its fellow state agencies to side with on building a coal-fired plant - yet another state agency will decide whether to allow Santee Cooper and SCANA to build two nuclear plants.
In honor of NVB, I'd like to serve up this article from The State about the general failings of DHEC to protect our soil, water, and air. It's the first of an eight-part series by reporters John Monk and Sammy Fretwell that examines the role of DHEC, it's performance, and the people who have been impacted by their action (or inaction).
Here's an excerpt:
Imagine a state agency that helps developers build in fragile areas close to the ocean — at taxpayer expense.
Imagine an agency that oversees homes for the disabled in which at least three people have died from neglect in two years.
Imagine an agency posting one of the nation’s worst records for cleaning up leaks from underground gasoline tanks — in a state where more than a quarter of residents drink from wells.
Imagine an agency that regulates garbage landfills helping to turn the state into a trash mecca for the Southeast.
Stop imagining.
That agency exists.
Its name is DHEC — the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
I don't know too mcuh about DHEC, but I know this series isn't going to be pretty. Check The State for the rest of the story as the week progresses.
Update: Looks like Palmetto Scoop found it's green streak (or maybe just the usual anti-government streak) and reported on this earlier. We should mention that NVB was one of the voices that brought attention to the sewage spill listed as one of the "four main incidents".
Image, Right, Mayor Riley Recognizing the members of the Green Committee in City Council's Historic Chamber.
There were also students, environmental advocates, and other members of the business community from around the state and North Carolina.
On Friday, September 18, The Climate Protection Action Fund’s Repower South Carolina campaign will deliver over 1,300 letters and petitions, written and signed by constituents, to the Columbia district office of Senator Lindsey Graham. Voters are calling for passage of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that will create millions of jobs, help end our dependence on foreign oil and solve the climate crisis. Repower South Carolina has over 14,300 members in the Palmetto State.
