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Agency permanently extends comment period for alt. energy leases
In the fall of 2001, Jim Gordon of Energy Management Inc. (EMI) announced his intentions to build a 420 megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts - the nation’s first. Now, the long permitting process that was made even longer by powerful opposition groups, is nearing resolution…finally.
More than 40,000 individuals and organizations have submitted comments on an environmental review of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, according to an article in the Cape Cod Times.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the lead federal agency to review Cape Wind Associates’ plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. Originally, the comments were set to be released last Friday, but officials at the Minerals Management Service postponed the release to give agency staffers more time to organize the overwhelming public response to the proposed wind farm.
As a result of the scoping process’ popularity, the MMS announced that they would be preemptively extending the comment period for all of the remaining “Alternative Energy Leases” from 30 to 60 days.
The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a “National Dialogue” about what information the public needs from the agency and how the agency can better provide that information.
Interested parties can now let the agency know what they think on EPA’s new interactive Web page (I’d love to a fly on that digital wall). Additionally, agency officials will be made available occasionally online for interactive chat sessions. The first of these was held last Thursday, when EPA’s chief information officer Molly O’Neill was made available for answering questions interactively online.
It is no secret that, under the Bush administration, the EPA has cut back on information available to the public through channels like the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the EPA libraries. The administration has also been under tremendous scrutiny for interference with EPA science on several separate occasions throughout the last seven years. And in a recent report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 900 employees of the EPA feel like their work has been interfered with for political reasons; sixty-percent of those who responded to the Union’s survey encountered some form of executive manipulation.
By Mark Seall •
March 10, 2008
“People are getting fed up with a situation where everyone’s talking about doing something about climate change but no one’s actually doing anything,” says Thomas Vellacott, director of Switzerland’s WWF and the man behind a petition for a national vote on climate change.
Under the Swiss system of direct democracy voters have a right to challenge parliamentary laws or pass constitutional amendments by collecting a minimum of 100,000 signatures to force a ballot. In just 18 months, a coalition of green organizations have collected over 150,000 signatures, enough to force a vote on increasing Switzerland’s current 20% Co2 reduction targets to a slightly more ambitious 30%. The initiative has been so popular that people have reportedly been queuing up to sign the petition.
By Timothy B. Hurst •
February 27, 2008
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission conducted hearings and convened a workshop for scientists, economists, environmental activists and representatives of the leading American retailers of ‘carbon offsets’ and ‘renewable energy credits’ (RECs) to learn more about the rather opaque business models and practices of some companies.
Though the hearings were only exploratory in nature, the FTC was able to address some of the concerns and misgivings the public has about unregulated voluntary [...]
By Timothy B. Hurst •
February 13, 2008
(Author’s Note: As I write this, the current weather conditions in Nantucket Sound [Wed Feb 13 16:41 EDST] are ideal for wind power generation. With wind speeds of 38 knots and gusts of up to 45 knots at the location of the proposed offshore wind energy installation, Cape Wind would have produced 422 megawatts of clean, renewable energy local in the last hour).
1. Do you have an opinion about offshore [...]
By Mark Seall •
January 24, 2008
Commercial aviation is coming under increasing environmental pressure due to its high emissions, noise and rapid growth. Militarily aviation in Switzerland is now starting to feel some of the same pressures.
Swiss hotel owner and environmentalist Walter Knutti has become tired of the noise and concerned by unnecessary emissions from military aircraft on training flights from the nearby airbase of Meiringen. Taking action, Knutti has collected enough signatures to force the issue to a popular vote - under the Swiss system of direct democracy voters have a right to challenge parliamentary laws or pass constitutional amendments by collecting a minimum number of signatures to force a ballot.
Under Knutti’s initiative, Swiss voters will decide next month if military jets should be banned from tourism zones.
By Gavin Hudson •
October 26, 2007
Voting, it turns out, may be good for the environment. The World Resource Institute asserts that "a growing literature supports the idea that political freedoms may be as important as economic factors in improving environmental quality." So if you’re concerned about the state of the environment, make sure that you’re expressing your political freedom by voting. (Remember, without registering at least a few weeks before an election, you can’t vote — even
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