Dozens of home appliances will have to meet higher energy efficiency standards sooner than expected. Rebecca Williams reports the Department of Energy agreed to speed up its rulemaking process to settle a federal lawsuit:
Transcript
Dozens of home appliances will have to meet higher energy efficiency standards sooner than expected. Rebecca Williams reports the Department of Energy agreed to speed up its rulemaking process to settle a federal lawsuit:
The energy department has to propose stricter energy standards for appliances within the next five years.
Attorneys general from 14 states and a few public interest groups sued the Department of Energy. The plaintiffs said the agency was dragging its feet on updating energy standards. In some cases, the agency has missed deadlines by as much as 14 years.
Chuck Samuels is with the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. He says it is time to update the standards for some products.
“But we need to make sure that we don’t require such radical redesigns in products that either they become cost prohibitive or burdensome for many consumers, or that they take away the basic functions and utilities that consumers expect.”
The groups who filed the suit say higher energy standards will save consumers money in the long run.
While the tower is around 3 miles north of Cleveland's shore, a viable wind farm would need to be at least 6 times farther out in Lake Erie. The wind monitoring tower measures the speed, direction, and height of Lake Erie's wind to determine if wind power generation on the lake is economically viable. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Ann Pinkerton)
Godwin and crew install a small wind turbine on top of Cleveland's water intake "Crib." (Photo courtesy of Lisa Ann Pinkerton)
The small turbine tests preliminary wind data gathered by the tower and powers all operations on the "Crib." The size of the turbine was kept small as to not interfere with continual wind monitoring. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Ann Pinkerton)
Proposals for offshore wind farms, from the coasts of Texas to New England have the potential to generate more electricity than land turbines do. Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports these projects face various hurdles to becoming reality, but they’re not completely insurmountable:
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Proposals for offshore wind farms, from the coasts of Texas to New England have the potential to generate more electricity than land turbines do. Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports these projects face various hurdles to becoming reality but they’re not completely insurmountable:
Over the past few months, whenever the weather is favorable, Aaron Godwin of Green Energy Ohio rides a power boat several miles out into Lake Erie. Out on the on the city of Cleveland’s century old water intake structure he’s built a tall wind monitoring tower.
“The upper part of the tower is about 168 feet above the water, so we’re measuring at about 30, 40 and 50 meters, and dual instrumentation at each level, anemometers that measure wind speed and vanes that measure direction.”
Godwin’s got almost a year of wind data and today he’s installing a small wind turbine to confirm what he’s discovered: that the lake’s wind is roughly twice as strong as wind on land. So to Godwin offshore wind farms are inevitable, especially since 75 percent of the nation’s energy use is near coastal cities.
However, proposed projects everywhere face a number of hurdles. One of them is bird and bat migration. Some land turbines have killed creatures that flew too close. But in Denmark, where offshore wind is 15 years old, extensive water foul surveys show little change in bird behavior. Charlotte Boesen is an environmental planner for Dong Energy in Denmark.
“These birds, they do fly around the wind farm. They do not like flying over land you can say and maybe they in some sort they perceive the turbines or wind farm as a similar object.”
Even so, no wind project in the US will ever get off the ground without a full assessment of potential wildlife impacts. That’s why 60% of Lake Erie has already been ruled out by a preliminary study conducted by the wind consulting firm AWS True Wind. Its Executive Director Bruce Bailey says that leaves most of eastern Lake Erie still available, with the best wind about 15 miles northwest of Cleveland.
“That’s where the strongest winds would be found. With water depths still being under say 70 feet.”
Bailey adds the shallow depth of Lake Erie combined with its solid lake bottom and fresh water makes it more friendly to offshore wind generation than oceans.
“You wouldn’t have to deal with the corrosion or the extra cost to safeguard your hardware from corrosion if you’re sighted in a fresh water lake.”
Bailey adds designing against hurricanes makes ocean projects more expensive. On the flip side, Lake Erie’s been known to freeze.
“There are ways to deflect the ice from actually pushing too strongly against or lifting out a turbine foundation. Some of them have already been deployed already in offshore projects in Northern Europe, and some of them are located in locations where you might even get icebergs.”
Another concern is whether these turbines will ruin the natural beauty of America’s Coastlines, even though on the horizon a turbine might only look a big as a thumbnail. Walt Musel of the US Department of Energy says this worry is unfounded.
“It’s worth noting there are no projects in the United States, so most people who object to offshore wind have never seen one.”
Fifteen years ago, projects in Denmark faced the same prejudice. Today tourists rent boats to go see them.
Above all, perhaps the largest impediment to offshore wind power is its high cost. Installation in water is expected to be double the cost of on land construction. However, once farms are producing power, electricity companies are open to buying it.
Out on Lake Erie, Aaron Godwin is packing up his tools for the day. He says there is an up side to those high capital costs. He says in the future, turbines will be so large it’ll make more sense to manufacture the parts locally, giving America’s manufacturing industry a ray of hope.
“Energy is a guaranteed growth market. Wind power is the fastest growing energy sector in the entire world. Why would you not want to get involved in that guaranteed growth market? It just does not make sense.”
Godwin says if the US can clear these hurdles of public perception, engineering, and environmental impacts, he thinks the US economy might find a pleasant surprise: consistent, green energy, built and harnessed off the blue coasts of America.
For the Environment Report, I’m Lisa Ann Pinkerton.
The Department of Energy is proposing new efficiency standards for furnaces. Rebecca Williams reports critics of the new rule say it won’t save consumers money:
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The Department of Energy is proposing new efficiency standards for furnaces. Rebecca Williams reports critics of the new rule say it won’t save consumers money:
The new rule would be just a two percent increase from what’s currently mandated. The rule would require new furnaces to be 80 percent efficient. That means 80% of the energy is used to heat your home while 20% is vented up the flue.
Energy groups say it’s basically no change, because most of the new furnaces on the market are already 80 percent efficient, or better.
Ketari Callahan is president of the group Alliance to Save Energy.
“It really only puts in place and codifies what the market is doing today. So it really is just far too weak and it keeps people from saving the money they otherwise would.”
Industry groups say a stronger standard isn’t needed. They say consumers in colder climates already tend to buy the most efficient furnaces.
Three states have passed their own laws for furnace efficiency that are stricter than the federal standard.
The home appliance industry is taking issue with a lawsuit filed by several states. The states want improvements made on energy efficiency standards. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
The home appliance industry is taking issue with a lawsuit
filed by several states. The states want improvements made on energy efficincy standards. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
In all, fifteen states and the city of New York have filed suit,
claiming the Department of Energy is years behind schedule writing
updated energy efficiency standards for twenty-two common appliances. The
states say if the federal government would get up to speed, consumers would benefit.
But the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers says there are
good reasons the government is behind schedule. General Counsel
Chuck Samuels says the energy department faces a lot of complex
rule-making.
“It is impossible for any agency to do all these rule-makings. What DOE has been forced to do is to prioritize and pursue those standards
that which will have the most benefit.”
Samuels says refrigerators and clothes washers have become much
more energy efficient. He acknowledges that tougher rules for other
large appliances like furnaces and air conditioners have not been
finished.
Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been photographing wildlife for more than two decades. (Photo by Charity Nebbe)
Carl Sams capturing swans on film, in Southeast Michigan. (Photo by Charity
Nebbe)
Wildlife photographers Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been taking pictures of Michigan wildlife for more than twenty years. What started as a hobby has become a lucrative business and spawned two best-selling children’s books. But this year, the work has become about more than just taking beautiful pictures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charity Nebbe has the story:
Transcript
Wildlife photographers Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been taking pictures of Michigan wildlife for more than twenty years. What started as a hobby has become a lucrative business and spawned two best-selling children’s books. But this year, the work has become about more than just taking beautiful pictures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charity Nebbe has the story:
(Sound of birds chirping)
It’s early morning, and Carl Sams and his wife and partner, Jean Stoick, have gotten up to take pictures of wildlife in the early morning light.
“Oh, look, we got a deer. Right out there in the water. Is that beautiful. This is incredible. The very doe – I worked here back in 1982 – she crossed this lake, just the lake here, and she was pregnant, and since then I’ve taken over a hundred thousand pictures. Now this doe, she’s actually out eating lily pads right now, and this is typical for deer at this time of year to do that.”
For Carl, taking pictures of wildlife came naturally; he’s always loved spending time outdoors.
“I grew up hunting and fishing, but I sold my guns and bows for a down payment on a lens and now I can shoot a hundred thousand deer and not be arrested, no seasons, no license, and I can be out here all the time. Not many people can make a living at something that they really love. This is a dream.”
When Carl started to make a living from his pictures, he and Jean bought a second camera so she could join him in the field. Most of their pictures are taken near their home at a park in southeast Michigan. And over the past twenty years, Carl and Jean seem to have developed a rapport with the creatures they photograph.
(Sound of camera)
“Okay, ready?”
Jean coaxes a wing-flap out of a female swan as if she was a fashion model.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
(Sound of camera snapping)
STOICK: “Wasn’t she perfect?”
NEBBE: “Exactly on cue.”
STOICK: “Exactly on cue.”
For many years, they sold prints of their work to magazines, calendars, greeting card companies, and on the art show circuit. Then recently, they decided to create a book about white-tailed deer. But as they were selecting their pictures, Jean’s imagination took them in another direction.
“I noticed that we had an awful lot of good images of the deer and birds interacting with a particular snowman that we had built three years earlier. So I mentioned to Carl, I says, ‘You know, why not do a children’s book? It would be a whole lot more fun.'”
That first book became the best-selling children’s book Stranger in the Woods. Their second book, Lost in the Woods, is the story of a fawn alone in the forest. All of the animals it encouters worry that the fawn is lost, but in the end, we learn its mother leaves the baby alone because it has no scent and won’t attract predators. She’s free to forage for food and come back later to take care of her fawn.
The pictures are meant to be beautiful and the book fun to read, but Carl and Jean are hoping the readers will remember what they learn.
“The lost fawn concept is a mistake that people make over and over every spring. They unintentionally rescue fawns that they think have been abandoned, and children are good messengers.”
The couple is working to spread their message with visits to elementary schools and libraries. That fills a lot of their days, but almost every morning and every evening, they can be found doing what they love to do most: taking pictures.
“It’s amazing how graceful she is. I think sometimes she likes to pose. Here she comes again.”
The Government Accountability Office is telling the Forest Service to improve how it deals with the woody material it clears from forests. (Photo courtesy of the USDA)
The government’s effort to reduce wildfires in forests has some
side effects, and a Congressional watchdog agency says the U.S. Forest
Service isn’t doing a very good job of dealing with those side effects.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
The government’s effort to reduce wildfires in forests has some side effects. A Congressional watchdog agency says the U.S. Forest Service isn’t doing a very good job of dealing with the side effects. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The Forest Service clears out a lot of smaller trees, limbs, and underbrush from forest floors. The idea is to remove what could become fuel for wildfires. Generally, the material is turned into wood chips. The wood chips can be used as fuel or in wood composite products for construction.
The Departments of the Interior and Energy have been working together to try to find new ways to use what the government calls the “woody biomass.” But the Forest Service doesn’t have anyone coordinating with the other agencies.
The Government Accountability Office is calling on the Forest Service to appoint someone to take responsibility for overseeing and coordinating the agency’s “woody biomass activities.” The GAO indicated the material currently has little or no commercial value, but finding new markets for it would be helped if the Forest Service coordinated its efforts with the other agencies.
A surplus of carbon dioxide is created during big events like the Superbowl. To counteract this, the NFL has plans to plant trees in Detroit. (Photo by Sarah Lawrence)
Officials from the National Football League plan to plant acres of trees in Detroit. They’re hoping to offset extra greenhouse gases that will be emitted during next year’s Super Bowl. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:
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Officials from the National Football League plan to plant acres of trees in Detroit. They’re hoping to offset extra greenhouse gases that will be emitted into the local atmosphere during the upcoming Super Bowl. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:
The U.S. Department of Energy estimated an extra 260 tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere during the last Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida. A team of scientists from Princeton University determined three and a half to four acres of trees were required to absorb the extra greenhouse gases. Similar computations are now being done to determine how many trees to plant in Detroit.
Deborah Gangloff is the executive director of American Forests, a group that helps companies design what are called carbon neutral programs.
“We can address a great deal of the excess carbon dioxide issue with trees. Trees are going to sequester lots of carbon dioxide. What matters most is not the type of tree you plant, but whether that tree is well suited to the site, whether it s a healthy tree and whether it’s in its growing climate.”
She says these programs can t solve the problem of excess greenhouse gases unless they re paired with conservation and reduced consumption.
Earlier this month, the Department of Energy announced that
spent nuclear fuel from American research reactors will be melted down
and stored, rather than reprocessed and reused. The announcement comes
at the same time that Canadian researchers are planning to recycle
nuclear
waste into reactor fuel. Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator
Suzanne Elston says that this is one time when recycling shouldn’t be an
option.
The U-S Department of Energy will dispose of spent nuclear fuel instead of reprocessing it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… some environmentalists and anti-nuke groups are applauding the decision:
Activists in Canada and the U-S are trying to stop plutonium from
dismantled warheads from being shipped to Canadian nuclear power
plants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… the
first shipment was recently slipped into Canada and another is coming
this spring:
Transcript
Activists in Canada and the U.S. are trying to stop plutonium from dismantled warheads
from being shipped to Canadian nuclear power plants. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports the first shipment was recently slipped into Canada
and another is coming this spring:
The Canadian government plans to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium from dismantled
nuclear warheads from Russia. Canada suggested it could mix the weapons-grade
plutonium with uranium and use it for fuel in its nuclear power plants.
Protestors in the U.S. and Canada vowed they’d stop the shipments. During public
hearings in Michigan, some environmentalists and politicians said they’d lie down in
the road to stop trucks. So, when the U.S. Department of Energy planned a shipment of
sample material, the DOE made the shipment classified. Nobody was told when or where
the plutonium would be shipped. This month, the secret shipment left Los Alamos and
entered Canada at Sault Sainte Marie.
Verna Lawrence is the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She’s outraged her town was
not notified the shipment was coming.
“We’d have barricaded I-75. I had people that would go with me. How dare they do that
to us in our area with the Great Lakes Basin. It’s crazy!”
Mayor Lawrence says the federal government is shipping the plutonium against the
wishes of the people.
“See, the Canadian government and the United States government are in cahoots. They
don’t give a damn about anybody else. And let me tell you another thing: the governors
are not protecting their citizens. If I was the governor and I had the National Guard
and the State Police, they would not set foot on the state of Michigan.”
Just on the other side of the border, the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario also was
not notified.
Once in Canada, the shipment was put on a helicopter and flown to the Chalk River
Nuclear Power Plant where the fuel is being tested. Protestors say it was flown to
avoid blockades by activists and native people. The only road from Sault Ste. Marie to
the Chalk River Nuclear Plant runs through the Garden River Reservation. Cathy
Brosemer is with a coalition of environmental groups in Ontario called “Northwatch.”
She says the shipment was kept secret and the helicopter was used to avoid angry
peopole along the route.
“What we’ve been dealing with right now is the utter contempt the government holds its
citizens in. The government decided to ignore the public’s views on this issue and
literally fly over our heads.”
Canada’s nuclear industry says that’s not the case. Larry Shewchuck is a spokesperson
for Atomic Energy of Canada, Limited (AECL). AECL operates Canada’s nuclear power
plants. He says avoiding protestors was not the reason AECL used the helicopter.
“Quite frankly, AECL was just as happy to leave the shipment on the road. It was the
government of Canada that asked us to put it in the air because that’s what Canadians
were asking for. So, in the end, we did what the politicians wanted.”
Shewchuck says at public information stops this past fall, many people suggested if
the shipments were as safe as AECL and the Canadian government said they were, they
ought to fly them to the nuclear plant.
Protestors question whether a last minute switch from ground transportation to air was
a regulatory shell game to trick opponents of the plutonium shipments. Shewchuck says
the change was proper and followed the rules.
“The regulations in Canada did not have to be changed to accommodate air transport.
Air transport was made under existing Canadian regulations. Everything was done by the
book and nothing had to be changed.”
Environmental activists in the area don’t believe it. Cathy Brosemer says that flight
might have violated regulations and might be key in an effort to get an injunction.
“We believe that there have been some breaches in the way that this was handled and we
are going to try to get something to stop the test of the substance at the CANDU
reactors in Canton/Chalk River.”
The AECL plans to go ahead with tests of the plutonium mix fuel. Brosemer says the
environmentalists will also seek an injunction to stop future shipments. This spring,
Russian plutonium is scheduled to be shipped through the St. Lawrence Seaway, on
through the Great Lakes and finally to the Chalk River plant in Ontario.
The U.S. Department of Energy says there won’t be any more shipments from the States.
And official with the DOE spoke on the condition his name not be used. He says while
the United States is helping to pay for the disposal of plutonium from dismantled
Russian nuclear warheads, the U.S. has decided to use its plutonium in American
nuclear power plants.
The mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Verna Lawrence, doesn’t believe the Energy
Department. She says she and other people opposing the shipments have to be more
vigilant.
“We got to get somebody on the inside, I think. You know, that’s the only way we’re
going to – If you can’t lick ’em, trick ’em, you know. But we’ll figure out a way
because that’s just the first shipment. There’ll be many, many, many more.”
Officials in Canada and the U.S. say it’s ironic that the shipments are causing so
much controversy among some of the same people who opposed the nuclear arms race.
Canadian officials say the nuclear material as fuel is a safe and efficient way to
dispose of weapons-grade plutonium. If the mixed fuel works well in Canada’s nuclear
plants, regular shipments of plutonium from Russia’s dismantled warheads will travel
through the Great Lakes region for at least the next ten years.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
