Lawyer Sanders Louisville Air Pollution Control District has an agenda for August 20, 2008 meeting.

The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Board will hold its regular monthly meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 20, 2008, in the Board Room, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville. The Board invites the public to attend.

August 20th Meeting Agenda

1. Call to Order - Recognition of Quorum

2. Introduction of new Board Member - William Jacob

Introduction of new District Executive Director - Lauren Anderson

3. Public Recognitions

4. Approval of Minutes - Regular Meeting of July 16, 2008

5. Public Comment 1

6. Unfinished Business

A. Final FY08 Air Quality Trust Fund Report

7. New Business

8. Committee Reports

A. Idling Reduction Working Group met July 18, 2008, and August 15, 2008

9. Staff Reports

A. Director

B. Air Quality Data

C. Enforcement Reports

D. Excess Emission Reports

E. STAR Program Projects

F. Permit Application Reports

G. Lawn Care for Cleaner Air Awards

10. Adjourn

The next Board meeting is Wednesday, September 17, 2008, at 10:00 a.m.

Lawyer Sanders says EPA stepping up enforcement of idling restrictions on commercial fleets in North East.

EPA fined Allied Waste Services of Massachusetts $195,000 penalty for excessive idling of diesel motor vehicles. In 2007, an EPA inspector observed over sixty diesel-powered garbage trucks idling excessively at four Allied depots in Quincy, Fall River, Revere and Brockton. As part of the settlement, Allied Waste is required to implement an anti-idling program with driver training, posted signs, and twice-daily management inspections of the depots' parking lots. Allied will also certify that automatic shut-off devices in its trucks are working and set to a five-minute standard.

This action is part of EPA's ongoing effort to reduce unnecessary engine idling. Idling wastes fuel, emits greenhouse gases and degrades air quality. EPA's enforcement effort is complemented by providing assistance to fleets and facilities to help them find alternatives to idling. An idling truck or bus can waste nearly a gallon of fuel per hour and incurs significantly more engine wear than driving.

The Massachusetts idling regulation enforced by EPA in this case generally limits vehicle idling to no more than five minutes. Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island also have anti-idling laws.

Lawyer Sanders says EPA smacks Roy Farms for violating Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act.

EPA fined Roy Farms, Inc. (Roy Farms) $29,320 for violating Section 112(r) of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA). emergency prevention and planning violations. The alleged violations occurred between July, 2002 and July, 2007. Based on an investigation of Roy Farms conducted in August of 2006, EPA found that the facility lacked a prevention program to protect the public and the environment from off-site release of anhydrous ammonia.

Section 112(r) requires all public and private facilities that manufacture, process, use, store, or otherwise handle greater than a threshold amount of a regulated substance(s) to develop a “Risk Management Program” and submit Risk Management Plans. Toxic chemicals, such as ammonia and chlorine, are covered by the program.

In addition to payment of $29,320 to the U.S. Treasury, Roy Farms also corrected its violations of the Clean Air Act, and agreed to spend at least $84,120 on implementing a Supplement Environmental Project (SEP) within the next three months. The SEP involves purchasing new communications and safety equipment for the East Valley fire Department, Yakima County Fire District #4, to improve the department’s capabilities in responding to hazardous material emergencies in a safe and effective environment.

Lawyer Sanders says web tool tracks Big Oil's money flowing into Congress and keeping America addicted to fossil fuel.

Big Oil companies donated over $13 million on elections in 2006, and they have already spent $37 million in lobbying expenditures this year. The web site for Follow the Oil Money tracks money accepted by members of the U.S. Congress. The web tool is at: http://oilmoney.priceofoil.org/federalRaceGraph.php?type=search

For example, the website reports that Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell, accepted $301,908 from the oil and gas industry since 2000. $168,308 of those dollars were from industry PACS. Senator McConnell supported Bill Oil in 100% of selected votes. With this kind of influence in Congress, is it any wonder our country is addicted to foreign oil and Big Oil is raking in BILLIONS of DOLLARS in profits each month?

Lawyer Sanders says clink on web tool to see how much cash the coal has contributed to your Congressman and Senator.

A new online tool provides a look at the cash mined by Members of Congress from America’s coal industry. With Congress considering a plan to stop the illegal dumping of coal mining waste into America’s rivers and streams, constituents can go to FollowTheCoalMoney.org and explore the millions of dollars drilled from the wallets of corporations that mine, burn and lobby for coal.
For example, Kentucky's two US Senators have both received money from the coal industry. Since 2000, Sen. Mitch McConnell has received $376,300 from the coal industry, and Sen. Jim Bunning has received $151,960. Clink on this link: http://coalmoney.priceofoil.org/federalRaceGraph.php?type=search

Follow the Coal Money includes data from coal mining companies, coal burning companies, and trade associations and political action committees representing those industries. Electric utilities are included if they generated over 70% of their electricity and a minimum of 3.5 million Megawatt hours from coal in 2006, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

According to the site, as of August 13, 2008 at 3 p.m. EDT, U.S. Senators and Congressional representatives have accepted $37,619,373 from the coal industry since 2000.

Lawyer Sanders says EPA has a new website for kids to learn about avoiding bioaccumulation of neurotoxins from eating contaminated fish.

US EPA launched a new Web site, www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/kids/, to help children and their parents choose the healthiest fish to eat, using interactive stories and games. Whether they catch their own fish or buy it at a store, children and their parents can use the Web site to learn how to try to select fish that are low in contaminants.

The Web site includes stories focusing on different methods of obtaining fish, along with interactive games, to teach children ages 8-12 how to recognize common fish species and use fish advisories to spot the fish likely suffering from heavy metal poisoning.

Lawyer Sanders says Arizona utility caught violating fundamental provisions of Clean Air Act and pays a heavy price.

The Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP) in Arizona must install state-of-the-art air pollution controls at an estimated cost of $400 million, pay a $950,000 civil penalty and spend $4 million on environmental improvement projects in Arizona to resolve multiple violations of the Clean Air Act. SRP got caught red-handed by EPA at SRP’s coal-fired power plant located near St. Johns, Arizona.

EPA’s inspectors found that SRP illegally modified two coal-fired electric generating units at the plant, thereby increasing air pollution. SRP was cited for failing to obtain necessary pre-construction permits and failing to install required pollution control equipment to reduce the byproducts of coal combustion, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). SRP’s conduct was outrageous and demonstrated a blatant disregard of fundamental federal environmental law. EPA hammered the utility for its misconduct and SRP duly deserved its punishment.

After being caught by EPA, SRP must install two scrubbers to control SO2, burners to limit NOx, and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit to further control NOx emissions. This is the first settlement ever to require an SCR retrofit of an existing coal-fired electric generating unit in the Western United States. The controls will reduce combined emissions of SO2 and NOx by over 21,000 tons each year.

SRP will also spend $4 million on environmentally beneficial projects to reduce air emissions and mitigate the impacts of the alleged violations. The projects include the following:

• 
  Retrofitting public school bus diesel engines in the Phoenix metropolitan area with pollution control equipment;
• Installing solar photovoltaic panels on school buildings in Arizona, and funding the maintenance of the panels for at least 10 years; and
• Offering incentives to residential homeowners, such as rebates, toward the replacement of pre-1988 wood stoves with cleaner burning, energy-efficient stoves or hearth appliances.

Attorney Sanders reports that the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life becoming voice for environmental issues in the Jewish community.

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (“COEJL”) is the leading Jewish environmental organization in the United States. Founded in 1993, COEJL represents 29 national Jewish organizations spanning the full spectrum of Jewish religious and communal life and serves as the voice of the organized Jewish community on environmental issues in Washington, D.C. and around the country. COEJL has its headquarters in New York and a national board of 23 trustees. COEJL is a program of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).

COEJL seeks to expand the contemporary understanding of such Jewish values as tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (justice) to include the protection of both people and other species from environmental degradation. COEJL seeks to extend such traditions as social action and g’milut hasadim (performing deeds of loving kindness) to environmental action and advocacy. And shalom (peace or wholeness), which is at the very core of Jewish aspirations, is in its full sense harmony in all creation.
COEJL's website is at http://www.coejl.org/index.php

Attorney Sanders says 9 NKY cities sign MOU with KDOT to fix problems with Dixie Highway in Boone and Kenton Counties.

Mayors representing the nine Kenton County cities through which the Dixie Highway runs and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) District 6 Engineer signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing them to cooperate in implementing recommendations found in The Dixie Fix Plan. The cities include Covington, Park Hills, Fort Wright, Fort Mitchell, Lakeside Park, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, Erlanger, and Elsmere.

The Dixie Fix Plan (Dixie Highway Corridor Access Management Redevelopment Plan) is a long range planning approach to relieve congestion problems and provide better access to Dixie Highway. It was conducted to identify transportation planning and design solutions to address Dixie Highway’s informal status as the most heavily traveled and congested arterial in Kenton County. The plan is at http://www.oki.org/transportation/dixiefix.html.

The Dixie Highway provides direct access to a variety of business and institutional facilities for nine cities in Kenton County and one city in Boone County. In addition, it serves as a connector for personal, commuter, and commercial traffic on a local and regional basis. Due to its parallel alignment and close proximity to I-71/75, Dixie Highway is commonly used as an alternate route during interstate incidents or during peak hour interstate congestion. 44 traffic signals and over 400 access points (driveways), combined with narrow four-lane segments that lack turn lanes, contributes to travel delays and high accident rates.

Lawyer Sanders says Texas Governor is absolutely right about using food crops for making ethanol and EPA should rethink its position.

In an editorial appear in the Wall Street Journal on August 12, 2008, Texas Governor, Rick Perry, explained his reasoning for requesting a waiver from US EPA from the Renewable Fuels Standards imposed by Congress in 2004.

Gov. Perry replaced George W. Bush when Bush resigned to become President in December 2000. Gov. Perry is a Republican and a fifth generation Texan. If he serves a full second term, Perry would become the longest serving governor in Texas history, with ten years of uninterrupted service.

Gov. Perry served as Texas’ agriculture commissioner from 1991 to 1999. So he has a great deal of experience in the areas of food crops and promoting the sale of agricultural products from his home state. Thus, with this type of experience and background, Gov. Perry’s stinging comments on using food-crops for generating ethanol are interesting to say the least.

In his editorial, Gov. Perry complains that in the last three years, corn prices have risen 233 percent globally and international food prices have increased 83 percent. Prior to the RFS mandate, corn prices were around $2/bushel. Now, corn is nearing $8/bushel. Gov. Perry warns that corn prices may rise even higher, given the ethanol mandate and recent floods in the Midwest. This is driving up the cost of staple food items at the grocery store. And it is also driving up the price of corn based feed, devastating the livestock to the point that Texas cattle feeders have been operating in the red since 2007.

Gov. Perry also observes that increased corn costs have not only negatively impacted the livestock industry, but ethanol producers as well. Escalating prices have eroded the profit margins of ethanol producers and threaten gasoline blenders to choose between bankruptcy or noncompliance, a dilemma Congress could not possibly have intended to impose when it doubled the RFS mandate in Dec. 2007.

In 2007, 25 percent of the U.S. corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which projects that 30 to 35 percent will be diverted in 2008. With ever increasing mandates of corn crop diversion to ethanol production through 2015, the impact on food prices globally, and to Texas specifically will only worsen. The artificial demand for grain-derived ethanol is devastating the livestock industry in Texas while contributing to higher food prices around the world.

The RFS mandate was established by the federal government through the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It was amended in 2007 by the Energy Independence and Security Act, which increased the RFS mandate, requiring 9 billion gallons of grain-derived ethanol be blended into our nations fuel supply in 2008, almost twice the amount from 2007. While well intentioned, the RFS mandates the levels of renewable fuel usage regardless of market signals.

Responding to U.S. EPA’s denial of a waiver, Gov. Perry said that EPA’s decision “not only goes against common sense, but runs counter to the experience of Americans at the grocery checkout counter.” The Texas governor calls EPA's decision a mistake that is severely harming our country’s economy.

Lawyer Sanders says Kentucky missed out on $10 milion in U.S. DOE grants to study ethanol from non-food crops.

In July 2008, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to award 10 grants totaling more than $10 million to accelerate fundamental research in the development of cellulosic biofuels. From the production side, cellulosic biofuels offer one of the best near- to mid-term alternatives that our country has to reduce reliance and imported oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions, while continuing to meet the nation’s transportation energy needs.

Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants. It is a type of biofuel produced from lignocellulose, a structural material that comprises much of the mass of plants. Lignocellulose is composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Corn stover, switchgrass, miscanthus and woodchips are some of the more popular cellulosic materials for ethanol production.

Cellulosic ethanol is chemically identical to ethanol from other sources, such as corn starch or sugar, but has the advantage that the lignocellulose raw material is highly abundant and diverse. (The word "cellulosic" simply refers to the source material.) However, it differs in that it requires a greater amount of processing to make the sugar monomers available to the microorganisms that are typically used to produce ethanol by fermentation.

The grants will be awarded under a joint DOE-USDA program begun in 2006 which aims to accelerate fundamental research in biomass genomics to further the use of cellulosic plant material for bioenergy and biofuels. DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research will provide $8.8 million while USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service will provide $2 million to the following institutions over a three year period:

1. Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (Ithaca, NY), $882,000
2. Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO), $1,500,000
3. University of Georgia (Athens, GA), $1,295,000
4. University of Georgia(Athens, GA), $1,200,000
5. University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA), $1,200,000
6. Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI), $540,000
7. Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA), $587,191
8. Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), $1,200,000
9. Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), $1,200,000
10. Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), $1,200,000

With all the campaign commercials focusing on $4 per gallon gasoline in November's election, Kentucky's Republican Senators leaders failed to bring home research grants on biofuels. Rather than supporting the Bush Administration's quest for Big Oil to drill miles down in the ocean or in the Artic for oil, Kentucky's leaders ought to be bringing these grants to UK, UL, and the other fine colleges and universities in Kentucky. We have failed leadership in Washington, who have forgotten the average Kentuckian cannot afford $4 per gallon gasoline. It is time to ditch Mitch.

Lawyer Sanders says Yucca Mountain is not yet licensed to store nuclear waste material.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began studying Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in 1978 to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation's first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Currently stored at 126 sites around the nation, these radioactive materials are a result of nuclear power generation and national defense programs.

On July 23, 2002, President Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87, allowing the DOE to take the next step in establishing a safe repository in which to store our nation's nuclear waste. The Department of Energy is currently in the process of preparing an application to obtain the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to proceed with construction of the repository.
Yucca Mountain is located in a remote desert on federally protected land within the secure boundaries of the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada. It is approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

If the U.S. Department of Energy receives a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, it will begin shipping nuclear waste from commercial and government-owned sites to the repository sometime after 2017. This opening date of 2017 is a "best-achievable schedule" and is predicated upon enactment of new legislation.The department must ship the waste according to strict federal regulations. The waste will be transported in heavily shielded casks certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission along approved transportation routes. Additionally, the department will provide technical assistance and funding to states and Native American tribes for training emergency response personnel.

Receiving nuclear waste activities at the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management concentrate primarily on the acceptance of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial and government-owned sites to the planned geologic repository at the Yucca Mountain Site in Nevada.Receiving nuclear waste is the formal process of taking title to and physical possession of waste from commercial and government-owned sites. The process includes establishing annual acceptance allocations, verification of waste data, and managing contractual and legal issues associated with waste acceptance.

Lawyer Sanders says U.S. DOE to spend $100 billion on storing nuclear waste even if no new nuclear reactors are built.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that even if no new reactors are built, getting rid of U.S. nuclear waste will cost $96.2 billion and require a major expansion of the planned Nevada waste dump beyond limits imposed by Congress. The revised cost estimate for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas came as the presumed Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, renewed his call for building as many as 45 new power reactors by 2030.

Such an expansion would require a waste disposal program well beyond what is envisioned by the current Yucca Mountain project. The $96.2 billion - in 2007 dollars not accounting for future inflation - includes $13.5 billion already spent on the Yucca project, $54.8 billion for construction and operation over 150 years and closing costs anticipated in 2113. It assumes the site will begin accepting used reactor fuel in 2020 and continue accepting shipments for 50 years. U.S. DOE has not looked into the financial costs if there were a rush in reactor construction on the scale suggested by McCain.

Remember folks, there is no return on this storage investment for nuclear energy and the containment period is infinite for all practical purposes. Let's turn our attention and money to clean coal technology and alternative fuels. McCain's plan for 45 new nuclear plants is utterly ridiculous without a true disposal option for new nuclear waste.

Lawyer Sanders says US EPA finally acts to stop animal waste from concentrated animal feeding operations polluting river.

U.S.EPA recently issued a cease and desist administrative order to Ray Hoffman, Jr. Dairy in Windthorst, Texas, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The dairy, an unpermitted Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), is located about five miles west of Windthorst, off Highway 25, about one-half mile south on Munchrath Road, in Archer County, Texas.

EPA ordered the CAFO to immediately stop all discharges of pollutants from its waste lagoons. The dairy has been given 45 days to provide to EPA documentation that the facility has adequate lagoon capacity to contain all waste and process-generated wastewater plus storm water runoff during a 25-year, 24-hour storm event. The CAFO must develop and implement a pollution prevention plan that will include procedures for the proper utilization of nutrients generated by the dairy, proper disposal of dead animals and the proper maintenance of records, especially records documenting wastewater levels in the lagoon to minimize lagoon overflows.

The dairy has 45 days to complete this task. In April 2008, EPA inspected the facility and determined that it did not have CAFO permit coverage. The inspection also revealed an unauthorized discharge from the dairy that entered an unnamed creek that traveled about one mile before entering Little Onion Creek. Little Onion Creek flows about three miles before it enters Onion Creek, which discharges into the Little Wichita River. The Little Wichita River flows about seven-and-one-half miles before discharging into Lake Arrowhead.

The idea of a concentrated animal feeding operation allowing raw animal waste to flow into a tributary of a river is fairly outrageous and disgusting. EPA is absolutely justified in hammering this knuckle head. An apt punishment would be to have the manager of the feed lot swim in the animal waste or drink a full glass of the stream water polluted with animal poo.

Lawyer Sanders says U.S. EPA rejects Texas request for lower level of ethanol on eve of 2008 elections.

Following extensive analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson denied a request submitted by the State of Texas to reduce the nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). As a result, the required total volume of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, mandated by law to be blended into the fuel supply will remain at 9 billion gallons in 2008 and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009.

Current law authorizes U.S. EPA to waive the national RFS if the agency determines that the mandated biofuel volumes would cause “severe harm” to the economy or the environment. The agency recognizes that high commodity prices are having economic impacts, but EPA’s extensive analysis of Texas’ request found no compelling evidence that the RFS mandate is causing severe economic harm during the time period specified by Texas.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established the RFS program – and included amendments to the Clean Air Act to set strict criteria for RFS-related waivers. RFS nationwide volume mandates were increased in the Energy Independence and Security Act, which was signed into law in December 2007.

Lawyer Sanders says Judge Forester rejects proposed consent decree between Lexington and U.S. EPA for Clean Water Act violations.

On August 7, 2008, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester rejected a proposed consent decree that settled Clean Water Act violations by Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. The federal judge rejected the consent decree because he thought the $425,000 civil penalty was too high and that more of that money should be spent on remedial work required by the consent decree reached in February.

In his two page order, Judge Forester said current Fayette County residents “should not be severely penalized for long-standing neglect” by local agency officials. He ordered the two parties to renegotiate the penalty.The rejected decree required the city to spend $250 million to $300 million during the next dozen years to fix many long-standing problems that result in untreated sewage being sent into creeks, yards and basements. U.S. EPA had sued the city in November 2006, charging violations of the Clean Water Act.

Lawyer Sanders says Alaska's Aleutian Islands hit by mutiple explosive volcanic events in last month.

Kasatochi Volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands erupted explosively Aug. 7, sending an ash plume more than 35,000 feet into the air and forcing two biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to evacuate the island. This is the third volcano in the Aleutian Islands to erupt in the last month.

The Aleutians are a chain of small islands that separate the Bering Sea (north) from the main portion of the Pacific Ocean (south) and extend in an arc southwest, then northwest, for about 1,100 miles (1,800 km) from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula to Attu Island, Alaska, U.S. The archipelago consists of 14 large islands, some 55 smaller islands, and innumerable islets, all of which occupy a land area of 6,821 square miles (17,666 square km) and are part of the U.S. state of Alaska. The major island groups from east to west are the Fox Islands, the Islands of the Four Mountains, and the Andreanof, Rat, and Near islands. The Komandor Islands near the Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) are geographically part of the Aleutians.

The Aleutian Islands form a segment of the Circum-Pacific chain of volcanoes (often called the Ring of Fire) and represent a partially submerged continuation of Alaska's Aleutian Range. Most of the islands bear marks of volcanic origin; some volcanoes remain active. The shores are rocky and worn by the surf, and the approaches are dangerous; the land rises abruptly from the coasts to steep, bold mountains. The main navigational lanes through the chain are the Unimak, Umnak, Amukta, and Seguam passes.

Characterized by fairly uniform temperatures, high winds, heavy rainfall, and persistent fog, the Aleutians are practically devoid of trees but are covered with a luxuriant growth of grasses, sedges, and many flowering plants. The Aleutian Islands unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge covers 4,250 square miles (11,000 square km) and extends between Unimak (east) and Attu (west) islands.

Lawyer Sanders says T. Boone has a plan to move America to alternative American-based energy!

According to T. Boone Pickens, every year America sends almost $700 billion out of our nation's economy to foreign nations for their oil. That's four times the annual cost of the Iraqi war and almost one-and-a-half times the projected U.S. deficit for 2009. It ends up in the pockets of a few friends and a lot of enemies. Last year America sent more than $300 billion to countries controlled by oppressive or unstable regimes.

To see Picken's plan to end this inane debacle, Pickens has created an event called August Call-to-Action <http://push.pickensplan.com/events/event/show?id=2187034%3AEvent%3A648051> on Push.PickensPlan.com where you can report the results of your outreach. Also, you can go to his <http://push.pickensplan.com> homepage for more information and updates.

Lawyer Sanders says U.S. House science committee looking into U.S. DOE/FutureGen $173 million clean coal project.

The House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN), Subcommittee on Energy and Environment Chairman Nick Lampson (D-TX), and Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman requesting further materials related to the termination of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) participation in a cooperative agreement with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance. The Committee is requesting the materials by Monday, August 18th.

The Committee has been attempting to determine the basis of the decision to terminate DOE’s participation in the FutureGen project. The House Committee on Science and Technology has jurisdiction over all the civilian research and development programs of the Department of Energy, and was not consulted by the Department regarding this decision.

The Committee sent the first request for documents in a letter dated April 2, 2008. On June 26, 2008, the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held a business meeting to discuss issuing a subpoena, but a last-minute promise from White House Counsel to Subcommittee Chairman Miller to produce the documents averted a subpoena being authorized.

The Committee has reviewed those documents, as well as all the other materials provided by the Department, and determined that DOE began its decision-making process about withdrawing from the FutureGen project much earlier than originally thought. The additional materials sought by the Committee should shed light on the Department’s decision-making and management of this program.

On January 30th, when the termination was made public, Chairman Gordon said: “For five years the Administration has touted the prospective benefits of FutureGen, and Congress has provided funds to move this project forward. Over this time period Congress has allocated $173 million in taxpayer dollars to this program. Now, we hear through the rumor mill that DOE may be abandoning this program at a time when the U.S. should be investing heavily in carbon-neutral energy technologies.”

Lawyer Sanders says U.S. House passes Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2007 onto Senate.

On July 9, 2008, U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4174, the Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2007, by a voice vote. This bill establishes an Interagency Committee on Ocean Acidification to plan and oversee a program to research and monitoring to better understand the potential impacts of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems.

Ocean acidification is the process by which the pH of seawater is being lowered through the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The oceans have absorbed about half of the CO2 released over the past 200 years due to human activities.

As the oceans become more acidic it will be more difficult for shellfish, corals, and types of plankton to form their structures, like shells and skeletons. Loss of these organisms will affect the entire ocean food web because fish and marine mammals rely upon plankton and shellfish as a food source. This has serious implications for humans as well. Fish and marine organisms provide approximately 15 percent of the world’s protein. Currently, the U.S. is the third largest seafood consumer in the world; costal and marine commercial fishing generates as much as $30 billion per year and roughly 70,000 jobs.

H.R. 4174, the FOARM Act, was introduced by Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) on November 14, 2008. This legislation favorably passed the House Science and Technology Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on June 18 and the Full Committee on June 25. Next, this bill will be sent to the Senate for further consideration.

Lawyer Sanders says U.S. EPA hits Bistrol-Meyers Squibb with Clean Air Act violations in case filed in Southern District of Indiana.

Under a proposed Clean Air Act consent decree filed in federal court in Evansville, Ind., Under a proposed Clean Air Act consent decree filed in federal court in Evansville, Ind., Bristol-Myers Squibb, a large international pharmaceutical maker, will be required to retire or retrofit 17 industrial refrigeration units by July 2009 at facilities in Mt. Vernon and Evansville, Ind.; Hopewell, N.J.; and Humacao and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The total cost of this work is estimated at $3.65 million.

In addition, the company has agreed to perform a supplemental environment project that will involve retiring two comfort cooling units at its New Brunswick, N.J. plant and connecting the air conditioners to the company’s new centralized refrigeration system. The new system uses water-chilled coolers which act as the refrigerant to minimize the use of chemical agents in the chilling process.

Combined, the measures that the company is performing will remove over 6,350 pounds of harmful HCFCs from their operations. Further, the company will take additional steps to assure compliance with the EPA regulations at thirteen of its facilities and pay $127,000 in civil penalties.

The proposed consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. Bristol-Myers Squibb is required to pay the penalty within 30 days of the court’s approval of the settlement. A copy of the consent decree lodged today is available on the Department of Justice Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/open.html.

Lawyer Sanders says M/V Windsor Castle busted for dumping oil sludge into U.S. Waters and lied about it.

According to the plea agreements in the case, the M/V Windsor Castle arrived at port in Houston, Texas and was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard. Coast Guard inspectors learned that the vessel’s chief engineer had ordered crew members to dump oil sludge and bilge wastes into the ocean and had falsified the ship’s oil record book to conceal these discharges. Coast Guard inspectors discovered and seized the bypass hose and pipes used to dump the oil sludge, bilge waste, and contaminated ballast water overboard.

International and U.S. law prohibit the discharge of waste oil without treatment by a device known as an oil water separator. The law also requires that all of the oil transferred onto, off of, or between tanks within a ship be recorded in an oil record book so all the oil on a ship can be accounted for when the ship is inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The court fined BNSMS $1,200,000 and ordered the company to make a $300,000 community service payment to the congressionally-established National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of fish, wildlife, and plants and the habitat on which they depend.

The district court also placed BNSMS on three years of probation during which it must implement and follow a stringent environmental compliance program that includes a court-appointed monitor and auditing of BNSMS’ ships for compliance with environmental laws.

Lawyer Sanders says dead zone in Gulf of Mexico is 8,000 square miles and growing, but EPA remains silent.

Kentucky Waterways Alliance is among environmental groups from nine states that petitioned U.S. EPA to set and enforce pollution standards in the Mississippi River basin and the Gulf of Mexico. EPA’s failure is causing a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The petition followed on the heels of EPA’s announcement that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the second largest to date at 8,000 square miles.

The dead zone is an area of water where oxygen levels are too low to support marine life. It's caused every year by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that flows into the gulf from the Mississippi River, much of it from fertilizer runoff from farm fields. According to Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Kentucky is responsible for 9% of the phosphorous and 6% of the nitrogen that contributes to the dead zone. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is an area of water where oxygen levels are too low for marine life to live. Without oxygen, nothing lives. , is caused every year by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution flowing into the Gulf from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers.

Would U.S. EPA take any action if 8,000 square miles of land was void of life as a result of chemicals in runoff? My goodness, pollution in the uncontrolled runoff is killing one of God's most beautiful gifts to us.