Dead bird covered in oil from Bouchard spill, Buzzards Bay, MA, April 2003 (MA DEP)

The National Wildlife Federation is joining the fight for offshore wind energy because we know the climate crisis is the biggest threat to America’s wildlife this century. Properly-sited, responsibly-developed offshore wind can cut our dependence on the dirty fuels that menace wildlife in its production, burning, and most visibly, in its transportation.

A Near-Miss & a Direct Hit

America’s 3rd-largest oil spill on record happened off Nantucket in 1976 when the tanker Argo Merchant ran aground, dumping 7.7 million gallons of fuel oil. Only favorable currents and weather conditions saved the New England coast from a horrific disaster, pushing the oil away from both the coast and key fishing grounds.

The area couldn’t avoid danger a second time in 2003, when the Bouchard 120 barge carrying oil for electricity generation ran aground off Buzzards Bay. It spilled 98,000 gallons of an especially thick, heavy type of oil, fouling fishing grounds for years to come, hurting an area already suffering from high unemployment. But the impacts on birds were even more severe. Hundreds of birds, many of them endangered, were killed in the spill.

“One species that was devastated by the spill was piping plovers, small shorebirds that breed along the Atlantic Coast on sand and gravel beaches,” reported Ariel Wittenberg of the New Bedford Standard Times on the recent 10th anniversary of the spill. “The birds were already endangered before the spill coated 85 percent of the Massachusetts population with oil. The spill also doubled the number of plover eggs that did not hatch that year.”

Far from rare events, oil spills are tragically common.

Researchers from Tetra Tech EC, Inc. & University of Maine installing wildlife monitoring equipment off of Block Island, RI (Capt. Jon Grant)

Turning to Clean Energy Solutions

Today, two projects in this same region are aiming to become America’s first offshore wind energy developments. Cape Wind is hoping to begin construction in a matter of months between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Meanwhile, Deepwater Wind is looking to build several turbines off Rhode Island’s Block Island, which currently gets its electricity from diesel oil. Not only would the projects slash pollution and create hundreds of local jobs, but Block Island would see drastically lower electricity rates.

Polluters aren’t going down without a fight. William Koch, heir to a fossil fuel fortune and owner of Cape Cod estates, is one of several coal and oil barons pouring millions into stopping offshore wind energy.

That’s why the National Wildlife Federation is speaking up for wildlife. Catherine Bowes, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for new energy solutions, works to educate lawmakers in DC and up & down the Atlantic Coast on the best policies to develop wildlife-friendly offshore wind.  As a resident of New Bedford, MA, I’ve testified at two local hearings in support of offshore wind. NWF has teamed up with dozens of national, state & local conservation groups to release our Turning Point report and partnered with offshore wind developers to protect endangered right whales.

Hope for the Future

A letter to the editor from New Bedford’s Allan Duarte on the anniversary of the Bouchard 120 spill summed up the case for New England clean energy:

I hope everyone in opposition to possible future wind farms and solar farms read the “Black Monday” story over and over and realize in their heart and mind that wind and solar farms will mean greener and better future for our children and grand children. I hope they read and realize that an oil spill can take place again anytime, anyplace. The longer we stay depending on oil, the more disasters we must face.

Some worry about spoiling the scenery from solar panels around them, while others study long-term effects from wind turbines. None could compare at all to the long-term effects such as the Bouchard oil spill.

We just don’t get it, do we? To get something in return, we must give something. With wind and solar farms as a solution, we won’t be giving up very much in comparison to oil tankers in the horizon, or smoke stacks in the sky. I would rather see solar panels in the fields, and wind turbines in the sky. Makes so much more sense.

The National Wildlife Federation will keep fighting polluters and we need your help to do it. If you live in southeastern New England, sign up to testify at a local hearing on offshore wind.

Donate today and help NWF continue to fight for wildlife-friendly clean energy

Oiled duck from Mayflower Ark. oil spill. Photo by Lauren Ray.

On Monday, I spoke again with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) for an update and they shared the following information with me. The main body of Lake Conway has NOT been impacted, only the adjacent cove/wetland. AGFC estimates approximately 15 acres has been impacted.

AGFC stated that Exxon acknowledged that they didn’t think there would be as much impact on wildlife and were thus not prepared to deal with the wildlife recovery until Tuesday April 2nd. A wildlife recovery center has been set up and the wildlife impact numbers are below (these are of course only the numbers of wildlife actually recovered – as we know from previous spills, most wildlife victims may never be found).  The public recovered numerous ducks the first few days and the HAWK Center took the majority of those.  Tuesday (2nd) they were all transported to the official recovery center to be treated.

Here’s a list of (this is not a comprehensive list but the total of 139 is current as of April 8th). 139 Total individual wildlife recovered

• 139 wildlife recovered
• 37 dead on arrival (23 birds, 5 turtles, 1 muskrat)
• 46 water moccasins euthanized on site due to safety concerns
• 2 raccoons
• 1 beaver
• 1 skunk
• 2 armadillos
• 22 total wildlife cleaned

The first release of recovered animals took place on Monday. Ten turtles and two raccoons were released at the nearby Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area.

How far down the size scale is the tar sands spill hitting? A Mayflower beekeeper had to move her hive after finding several dead bees covered in tar sands oil.

Previous coverage of the Exxon tar sands spill in Arkansas:

• Exxon Tar Sands Pipeline Ruptures in Arkansas, Forcing Evacuations and Threatening Wildlife
• As Arkansas Community Reels from Tar Sands Oil Spill, Wildlife Remain in Peril

Speak Up to Protect Wildlife from Tar Sands

It’s time for America to take a stand against tar sands oil –  the risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great. Please take a moment now to ask President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

A homeowner’s photo of the Exxon Mobil Pegasus tar sands oil spilling through his front yard in Mayflower, Ark. (April 2013)

From that subdivision last Friday, the tar sands oil flowed down a storm drain, through a creek, and into a cove just before Lake Conway, a major sportfishing haven. Exxon Mobil crews are making a stand in that cove, hoping to keep the oil from flowing through a culvert under AR-89 and into Lake Conway. But that cove is also where tar sands oil-covered wildlife keep turning up — a fact Exxon Mobil can’t hide.

Community Hit Hard

Here in Mayflower, everyone’s happy to talk about how the spill has impacted them personally — but ask them to go on camera and they clam up. They know Exxon Mobil now has them over a barrel: the tar sands spill has left their homes somewhere on a scale between devalued and worthless, and an Exxon Mobil settlement is their best hope of getting that money back.

Joined by David Carruth, an Arkansas resident and member of the National Wildlife Federation’s board of directors, we walked into the local Hess gas station/bait shop to see if local sport fishermen had any insight into how local wildlife was faring. The man at the counter told us he lives on Starlite Drive, ground zero of the tar sands spill. He’s staying in a Holiday Inn Express in the next town over on Exxon Mobil’s tab while the cleanup continues.

Homeowner photo of a bird coated in tar sands oil after the Exxon Mobil Pegasus spill in Mayflower, Ark. (April 2013)

I mentioned that Exxon Mobil and other tar sands transporters haven’t been paying into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, claiming the provisions only cover conventional oil, not tar sands oil. He shook his head sadly. “My father landed on Omaha Beach. Back then, folks had a sense of civic duty.”

Wetlands Coated in Tar Sands Oil

From there, we headed to the cove to get a closer look. A homeowner pulled out her phone and showed us photos she’s taken of oiled birds and a muskrat in her backyard. She said she called state officials to report the oiled wildlife but was told they didn’t have the resources to respond. She then called the HAWK Center, which rescued several ducks. Yesterday — four days after the spill — Exxon Mobil finally set up its own wildlife rehabilitation center with an oiled wildlife hotline (1-800-876-9291) and took over cleaning wildlife from HAWK.

Marsh coated in tar sands oil from Exxon Mobil Pegasus pipeline spill, Mayflower, Ark., April 2013 (NWF photo)

We pushed through the marsh around the edge of the cove, seeing a steady stream of oily spots and finding some tar balls. We then came upon a huge area of oiled marsh with cleanup crews working to remove as much tar sands oil as possible.

Two workers approached David and I thought for sure they’d tell us to scram. But it turned out they were wildlife rescuers asking if we’d seen any oiled wildlife. “I can’t believe how thick this stuff is,” one told David. “It’s like road tar — it’s nothing like motor oil.”

They estimated wildlife rescuers had found about 30 oiled ducks and other birds, a half-dozen oiled venomous snakes, and an oiled muskrat. They’d also spotted an oiled beaver out in the marsh, but said it was impossible to catch.

The sight of the heavily oiled marsh was a tragic reminder that cleaning 100% of this thick, sticky tar sands oil will likely be impossible; the impacts will be felt for months and possibly years to come.

The National Wildlife Federation will continue to monitor the impacts of the Arkansas tar sands oil spill. See more photos on Flickr and keep checking back to Wildlife Promise for updates.

Take Action

It’s time for America to take a stand against tar sands oil –  the risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great. Please take a moment now to ask President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Exxon Mobil pipeline oil spill, Mayflower, AR, March 2013 (AJ Zolten)

It’s unclear exactly how much oil spilled, but as we saw in the early days of BP’s Gulf oil disaster, the number is growing exponentially each day. “Exxon Mobil officials said the total amount of water and oil pumped out of a Mayflower subdivision nearly tripled Sunday, reaching 12,000 barrels, or 504,000 gallons, compared with estimates on Saturday that crews had pumped 4,500 barrels,” reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this morning.

The spill comes just days after a National Wildlife Federation-led coalition called on federal agencies to develop stronger safety standards for pipelines carrying heavy, corrosive tar sands oil. “It’s clear we need tough new standards to protect wildlife, our natural resources and public health,” said Jim Murphy, NWF’s senior counsel. “Until the right standards are put into place, we shouldn’t be exposing more communities and resources to tar sands risks.”

Watch this clip taken by a man who lives in the Mayflower, Ark. neighborhood where the pipeline ruptured:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Those storm drains head towards Lake Conway, a huge manmade reservoir stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie. Local authorities built several earthen dams to try to keep the tar sands oil out of Lake Conway, but if the water is fouled, it won’t just threaten the fish, it will threaten the area’s recreation economy.

As Reuters reports, the Arkansas spill comes at a critical juncture of America’s debate over whether to accept the risks inherent in transporting Canadian tar sands:

The 848-mile pipeline used to transport crude oil from Texas to Illinois. In 2006 Exxon reversed it to move crude from Illinois to Texas in response to growing Canadian oil production and the ability of U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to process heavy crude.

The Arkansas spill drew fast reaction from opponents of the 800,000 [barrel per day] Keystone XL pipeline, which also would carry heavy crude from Canada’s tar sands to the Gulf Coast refining hub.

Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the impact of developing the oil sands and say the crude is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil. On Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

“Whether it’s the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, or … (the) mess in Arkansas, Americans are realizing that transporting large amounts of this corrosive and polluting fuel is a bad deal for American taxpayers and for our environment,” said Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

It’s not just Keystone XL – there’s also the Enbridge pipeline in Michigan that spilled into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 as well as the proposal to reverse New England’s Trailbreaker pipeline to carry tar sands from Canada to Maine. As NWF reported in 2010, oil disaster’s aren’t rare – they’re tragically common.

The National Wildlife Federation is working with staff, partners and our state affiliate, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation to monitor the impacts of the Arkansas oil spill. Keep checking back to this post and to Wildlife Promise for updates.

Take Action

The risks to our wildlife, communities and clean water are just too great — tell President Obama he should say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

UPDATE: The Helping Arkansas Wild Kritters (HAWK) Center is posting pictures of oiled birds to their Facebook page.

Lauren Ray, a University of the Ozarks student, sent NWF this photo of one of the ducks that was treated at the HAWK Center. According to Lauren, “This duck had already been washed multiple times, yet the oil was still very apparent.”

Oiled duck from Mayflower Ark. oil spill. Photo by Lauren Ray.

Tar sands refining complex in Alberta, Canada (Photo: Kris Krug)

1. The Supplemental EIS is mostly bad news. Few of the things we hoped would be included — such as climate impacts and threats to endangered wildlife like whooping cranes and woodland caribou — were seriously examined.
2. Remember all of those problems with tar sands pipeline spills? Apparently the State Department decided they weren’t worth paying much attention to, even after the biggest inland spill in U.S. history, spill risks aren’t adequately addressed in the SEIS.
3. Once again, Tribal communities are being left out of the conversation. The federal government is required to “meaningfully consult” with tribes on issues that affect them, but the SEIS ignores the concerns of Native American groups despite widespread opposition to the project.
4. Legal experts believe the State Department should have re-evaluated the entire project in light of new information that’s come up over the last year. For example, back when KXL was proposed, the US wasn’t producing nearly as much domestic oil as it is now. When the point of a review is to evaluate “purpose and need,” you would think they would actually evaluate whether we need it.
5. In a rare bit of good news, the SEIS acknowledged that tar sands oil is fundamentally different from conventional oil.

President Obama visited Iowa last August during the region-wide drought that decimated crops and cost U.S. taxpayers around $20 billion. Climate change, driven by use of fossil fuels like tar sands, is causing extreme weather events around the globe. (Photo: USDA)

Where Does That Leave Us on Climate?

There are lots of problems to pick apart here, but let’s tackle the big one: climate change. President Obama has cast himself as the leader who will bring us back from the edge of planetary catastrophe, which makes this Keystone report even more baffling. The pipeline alone is bad enough (the greenhouse gas equivalent of 4.6 million cars) and we know that if it’s built, it will drive more tar sands mining. Crazily, the State Department is figuring that Keystone XL would just be one of many pipelines coming out of Canada in the next few years, and therefore can’t be held responsible for the resulting climate catastrophe. But in fact, Keystone is the linchpin for future development in the tar sands region. Mostly as a result of the campaign against Keystone, we’re already seeing that oil companies are slowing investments in the tar sands — the self-fulfilling prophecy of “more development –> more US oil imports” is being proven wrong in real time.

And if Obama rejects the project, it makes it that much harder, politically and economically, for the next company to build a pipeline through the U.S.; precedent will have been set. In other words, the State Department has fundamentally ignored its own role in how this scenario plays out. If they allow pipelines to get permits, the tar sands will be developed. If they reject the permits, the oil industry will really struggle to get its dirty product out of Canada. Just take a look at the cage match they’re fighting over the “Northern Gateway” pipeline, the Canadian equivalent of Keystone XL, which is going nowhere fast, thanks to steadfast opposition from First Nations (tribal) groups and tens of thousands of other citizens north of the border.

According to Jim Lyon, NWF’s vice president for conservation:

If Keystone XL wouldn’t speed tar sands development, why are oil companies pouring millions into lobbying and political contributions to build it? By rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, President Obama can keep billions of tons of climate-killing carbon pollution locked safely in the ground.

NWF will be coming out soon with a more detailed analysis of the report, but right now we’re incredibly disappointed with what the State Department has put forward. Fortunately, we still have a chance to make our voices heard — there will be a 45-day public comment period, and you’d better believe we’re going to get loud. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this decision is ultimately President Obama’s to make, and we need him to stop the madness now. Keystone XL would take our climate to the point of no return. If he cares about his legacy, his kids, wildlife, or the billions of people around the world who are facing the looming specter of climate change, he has to say NO to this pipeline. There is no other option.

Speak up for people and wildlife! Tell President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and protect our planet.

“Our opponents are trying to make this debate about [greenhouse gases]…You could shut down oilsands production tomorrow and it would have absolutely no measurable impact on climate change.”

2 trillion barrels of carbon-free oil?! No problem, according to industry spokesman Alex Pourbaix. (Photo: Kris Krug)

AHAHAHA! Oh, I’m sorry, I thought he just said that Keystone — a massive commitment to the dirtiest fuel on the planet — would have no impact on climate change. That would be ludicrous, of course, so of course he must have misspoken…wait, what’s that? There’s more?

“The oilsands and their greenhouse gas emissions impact have been overstated.”

Hmm…guess not.

Rule #1: Look Who’s Talking

Let’s step back for a minute and consider the tiny little issue of credibility. On the one hand: Alex Pourbaix, millionaire oil executive and spokesman for a company whose stock price is desperately linked to Keystone XL. On the other hand: Science.

For argument’s sake let’s say that Mr. Pourbaix is right, and that we can magically burn 2 trillion barrels of tar sands without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Even then, we’re still left with a 2,000 mile long, leak-prone pipeline cutting across some of our country’s best farmland. We’re still left with an oil industry that has carved up Alberta’s boreal forest — and tens of thousands of acres of critical habitat for wolves, caribou, and migratory birds — like some post-apocalyptic nightmare. And we still have ever-rising prices at the pump, because committing to tar sands means we won’t invest in clean energy nearly as much as we need to.

But, unfortunately for TransCanada, that climate-neutral scenario is a load of [insert colorful euphemism for "bologna"] that doesn’t stand up to the most basic scrutiny, which is why the nation’s leading climate scientists sent President Obama a letter earlier this year urging him to deny the permit for Keystone XL:

Eighteen months ago some of us wrote you about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, explaining why in our opinion its construction ran counter to both national and planetary interests. Nothing that has happened since has changed that evaluation; indeed, the year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is.

Conservationists, Tribal leaders, and thousands of others packed the National Mall to protest the Keystone XL pipeline on Feb. 17 (photo: 350.org)

It’s clear that TransCanada is spooked. They’ve spent the last few years assuring investors that their project will get built, despite an anti-tar sands movement that gets louder by the week. I marched on the White House with 40,000 other Americans last weekend, calling on President Obama to fulfill his promise and take strong action on climate, which means saying “NO!” to Keystone. He knows he has a decision to make, and it’s awfully hard to ignore the moral argument against tar sands when the facts are so clearly aligned. Or at least, the facts according to science. TransCanada might want to crack open a textbook and reacquaint themselves with reality.

Tell President Obama to stand up for people and wildlife! Say NO to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Photo: Lou Gold

How Tar Sands Impacts Our Changing Climate

Tar sands production in Canada’s Boreal Forest is fueling the climate crisis (not to mention destroying wildlife habitat in the largest terrestrial ecosystems in the world). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has the potential to increase carbon pollution by 27 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 6.2 million cars on the road for 50 years.  Woah! That’s a lot of emissions. This project would lock us into decades of dirty fuel dependence at the exact moment in history when we need to take serious action against a rapidly changing climate and embrace our clean energy future. We need to get it together. Our future depends on it.

What This Means For Wildlife

Scientists warn that without significant new steps to reduce carbon pollution, our planet will warm by 7 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, with devastating consequences for wildlife. The climate crisis is already changing the playing field for wildlife and urgent action is needed to preserve America’s conservation legacy, according to our new report: Wildlife in a Warming World: Confronting the Climate Crisis.

“We know what’s causing the climate changes Americans are seeing in their own backyards and we have the solutions to secure our climate and safeguard our wildlife for future generations,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “What we need is the political leadership to make smart energy choices and wise investments in protecting our natural resources. We can’t leave this problem for our children and grandchildren to fix – they’ll judge us based on what we do now.”

How We Can Transform Our Energy Future

Photo: Marine Jaouen

On Sunday, February 17th, join thousands of Americans at a historic rally in Washington D.C. to protect polar bears and other wildlife at risk from climate change.

Protect wildlife from dirty fuel that is contributing to climate change!

This is par for the course. So far this election season, fossil fuel groups have spent more than $153 million — to  get pro-fossil fuel policies in place. In 2011, 90 percent of campaign contributions went to the GOP, and 10 percent to Democrats. The biggest spenders were Shell ($25.7 million), Exxon ($25.4 million), and ConocoPhillips ($22.9 million). The five companies’ oil PACs have donated over $2.16 million this election cycle. Koch Industries also spends big money to pressure Congress, with $16.2 million on lobbying and more than $1.3 million from its PAC (the top oil and gas spender).

*** You can help fight the influence of polluters in our political system.  Click here to find out how. ***

The undue influence was the subject of a recent NWF Campus Ecology report that concludes polluters are determined to get their anti-conservation agenda passed into law, and roll back critical regulatory protections.

Not only is this money fueling political campaigns, it is behind many of the shadowy attack ads and television spots that rail against environmental protections, undermine clean energy and promote more coal, gas and oil, ads sponsored by entities with innocuous-sounding names like Patriotic Americans for Clean Energy.

image courtesy ph2dot1.com

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s trade group (no, not an “institute”), is the biggest dirty energy spender at $37 million so far with its “I’m an energy voter” ads, complaining about efforts this year (that NWF supports) to repeal wastefuloil industry subsidies.

The True Cost of Dirty Energy

The oil, gas and coal industries are among the most profitable of all businesses. They are peddling fuels that spew carbon pollution that has created a virtual blanket around the planet causing global warming and leading to more severe weather more often, protracted heat waves and drought, more intense hurricanes and floods, sea level rise, crop failures, water shortages and massive wildfires.

Big Influence

The student-aimed NWF guide unmasks the multiple ways that oil, gas and coal companies worm their way into molding public decision-making to pad their pockets. It pinpoints how dirty energy – coal, gas and oil — companies bankroll the campaigns of incumbent Congressional leaders and other candidates by financing political action committees (PACs), super PACs, so-called nonprofit “social welfare groups” and other entities, some without public disclosure. Since 1999, the oil, gas, and coal companies have greased the campaigns of members of Congress to the tune of almost $1 billion dollars.

NWF also fingers 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations that may be more powerful than super PACs because they can accept unlimited amounts of money and hide their donors. These groups can escape the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs. These shadow groups have outspent super PACs by a three-to-one margin.

This onslaught of dirty energy money has results. NWF points to 109 votes in the House of Representatives since the start of 2011 for policies that enrich the oil and gas industry, including 45 votes to weaken environmental, public health, and safety requirements applicable to oil companies; 38 votes to block or slow deployment of clean energy alternatives and 12 votes to short-circuit environmental review of the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Reality Check

Money can’t buy you happiness, the old saying goes, but in this year, Big Oil, Big Gas and Big Coal are buying their happiness, at the expense of the people, by outspending, outgunning the rest of us. It’s high stakes for them, but ultimately the stakes are even higher for us, the people who will be stuck breathing dirty air and drinking dirty water if they continue to call the shots.

*** You can help fight the influence of polluters in our political system.  Click here to find out how. ***

It was all about the future of energy at an event at the Center for American Progress here in DC Friday morning when CAP released their  new report:  “Regional Energy, National Solutions:  A Real Energy Vision for America”.  NWF authored the Midwest  and Southeast chapters of the report.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs under the straits of Mackinac. Photo: MDOT Photo/Video Unit

Meanwhile, back at the event,  speakers including Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, described a diverse national clean energy strategy, built on the powerful energy, manufacturing and technology assets of regions across America.  Speakers and the report contrast this diverse clean energy plan to the American Petroleum Institute’s “Drill Baby Drill” vision: more oil and other fossil fuels.  Period.   That vision is conveniently simple.  The impacts, less so.

Fossil fuels play a large role in today’s economy, but we now know that the energy that powered the last two centuries comes with a side dish of volatile prices, environmental, health and safety risks, and it speeds climate change -which, by itself, threatens our economy, security, and sustaining the natural world for our children.

Fortunately, as Friday’s report describes, the energy world has changed.  Today we have a wealth of large scale opportunities that take energy, our economy, and the future of wildlife and our outdoor heritage forward together.  

Large scale clean energy implementation is happening across the country. Graphic: Center for American Progress

 Or, as NWF climate policy director, Joe Mendelson, said about last weeks pipeline “anomalies”:  “The best approach to our energy challenges isn’t building more pipelines, its embracing clean energy solutions that don’t spill or explode”

So whats really happening out there?

As we show in the report, states and regions all across the country are proving that they can prosper by implementing new energy technologies at scale. They show that a diverse national clean energy strategy anchored on strengths of the whole nation can build hundreds of thousands of jobs, and revitalize our economy. These solutions are real  and they may include some surprises:

• Offshore wind is the only utility-scale energy resource abundant enough to contribute substantially to the sustained, long-term energy demands of the Atlantic Coast region. Developing just 54 gigawatts of offshore wind in Atlantic waters would generate $200 billion in economic activity and create 43,000 permanent, well-paid technical jobs, in addition to displacing the annual output of 52 coal-fired power plants. (these regional bullets excerpted from CAP’s press release, and fact sheet)

NWF’s own recent report The Turning Point Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy underscores these results and emphasizes the diverse economic opportunities for states from Maine to Florida from robust adoption of offshore wind.  NWF was happy to join Clean Energy States Alliance who authored the Atlantic coast chapter of today’s report on their release.

Building the next generation of fuel efficient vehicles.  Photo: Sam VarnHagen/ Ford Motor Co.

• In addition to revitalizing American manufacturing, the deep oil savings from vehicles now being built in the Midwest under strong new fuel economy standards mean net savings to consumers of more than $54 billion a year in 2030 and will add 570,000 jobs to the economy.

• The Southeast boasts more firms across the high-tech smart-grid value chain than any other region and continuing to lead this transition offers the opportunity to create diverse job opportunities. At the same time, if [through enhanced efficiency], the region were to cut energy use across the region by 16 percent in 2030  consumers would see an annual savings of $71 billion and 520,000 jobs by 2030.

• In the Gulf Coast region, each $1 million in investment in ecosystem restoration can create as many as 36 jobs across a huge range of occupations and skill levels—more than equivalent investments in traditional infrastructure projects.
• The Mountain West boasts nearly unlimited renewable energy resources and these nonhydro projects, either under construction or in advanced development, represent 71,872 jobs. A study by Headwaters Economics found that from 1970–2010, nonmetropolitan counties in the West that had more than 30 percent protected federal lands increased jobs by 345 percent. Nonmetropolitan counties with no protected federal lands saw just 83 percent growth.
• The solar industry in California has experienced significant growth over the past 15 years. Since 1995 the number of solar businesses grew by 171 percent, and total employment jumped by 166 percent. As a point of comparison, the total number of California businesses has grown by 70 percent and employment increased by 12 percent.

These examples are not the only promising clean energy opportunities for the given regions, nor have we covered all the regions or promising technologies for the nation. But they clearly show a wealth of win-win energy opportunities in front of us that deliver to communities,  industries, and the environment across the country.  America’s energy strategy should start there.

Imperial and Suncor are among the largest developers of Canadian tar sands oil. This convoluted corporate maze of oil behemoths is in bed with Enbridge, the company behind the Kalamazoo River oil spill, the most costly onshore spill in U.S. history. Now, it apparently wants to pump tar sands oil from Alberta through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to the port of Portland for overseas markets. Tar sands oil is a heavy, corrosive, diluted bitumen and is known as one of the dirtiest, most-polluting, hardest-to-clean-up fuels on the planet. The tar sands business is booming in Canada and the corporate hawks are positioning to pounce on the profits they see in this dirty product by using New England communities as conduits to export markets.

It’s no wonder ExxonMobil doesn’t want to come clean. The company’s not clean. It was ExxonMobil that caused the infamous 1989 Valdez spill, a disaster that spewed 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s pristine waters. In July 2011, the company’s Silvertip Pipeline dumped 42,000 gallons of oil into Montana’s Yellowstone River.

840,000 of tar sands crude spilled into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River last year