Lake Hefner at sunset. Fishers are drawn for the smallmouth bass, white bass and catfish. But mercury contamination remains an unresolved problem. Image from OK.Gov.

Oklahoma’s five coal-fueled power plants are spewing toxic mercury into the air, triggering warnings for Lake Hefner and 15 other state lakes. In July 2010, a study by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (OK DEQ) found 16 lakes in Oklahoma where some species of fish contain levels of mercury above what is considered safe. As a result, the state governmental agency published its statewide fish consumption advisories to protect Oklahomans from consuming too much mercury-laden fish caught by anglers from the state’s lakes.

Mercury from coal-fired power plants settles onto lakes and other waterways, entering the food chain and eventually ending up in fish and the people who consume them.  Mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollutants are subject to no national limit, leaving coal plants to spew as much as they want. It’s been shown to be especially harmful to children and pregnant mothers, where it adversely affects developing brains and can hinder a child’s ability to walk, talk, read and learn.

Progress is being made to clean up lakes like Hefner. More than 900,000 Americans have called on the Environmental Protection Agency to issue long overdue standards for reducing the pollution.  It’s expected to save lives and create jobs. But polluters are out to stop it.

Polluters have found a friend in Senator James Inhofe, Oklahoma’s senior senator.  He’s expected to demand a vote on a “Congressional Review Act resolution (CRA)” before June 21 to strike down the EPA’s mercury and air toxics standards for power plants as soon as today.  The CRA is a wrecking ball that would permanently prevent national standards for mercury and air toxics.

POLITICO has reported that Sen. Inhofe called the new standard “a killer.”  Really, Senator? Joe Mendelson, NWF climate and energy policy director says:

“Senator Inhofe has it backward on what the ‘killer’ is in this situation.  EPA and public health and environment groups all agree that the overdue mercury and air toxics standard will save as many as 11,000 lives, while reducing dangerous mercury exposure to children and pregnant mothers who consume fish laced with the toxic substance. EPA has also created a rule that will foster 46,000 construction jobs and 8,000 utility jobs as plants upgrade to cleaner technologies.

“Senator Inhofe may satisfy his polluter special interest friends by attacking these pollution safeguards, but his Oklahoma constituents and Americans will enjoy cleaner air, healthier water and wildlife, and fewer premature deaths. With these new standards, President Obama and the EPA have proved themselves champions for our health and environment, while Senator Inhofe makes clear he’s the polluter’s champ.”

Polluter Money

Why would Senator Inhofe put polluters ahead of cleaning up the lakes in his state?

Oklahoma is home to five coal-fired power plants that are the source of the pollution. One such power plant, the Northeastern Plant, is owned by American Electric Power (AEP). In 2010, a report benchmarking power plant air pollution (see page 34) found AEP power plants to be the largest collective source of mercury air pollution among all the nation’s largest utilities.

Between 1998 and 2011, AEP spent over $10M lobbying Congress, including plenty over the last year, to rollback air pollution standards like EPA’s new mercury and air toxic limits.  For his part, Senator Inhofe has received nearly half-million dollars from electric utility industries in campaign contributions (including some from AEP) during his career including a whopping $280K this election cycle.

Speak Out!

We can stop Senator Inhofe’s “killer” plan. Take action NOW! Tell Congress that it’s time to clean up mercury pollution in the lakes and waterways that threaten our children and wildlife.

Clean air advocates rally outside the Chicago EPA hearing on the carbon pollution standard (Credit: Sierra Club)

Here is an excerpt from my testimony:

There has never been a more urgent time to stop the carbon pollution that is fueling climate change and ocean acidification. Each year, our nation’s power plants pump nearly 2.3B tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global carbon pollution is increasing in record amounts – jumping by 6% over the last year.  If this pollution path is not altered global temperatures will increase by at least 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F) and potentially 6 degrees C (10.8 degrees F) by 2100.  This current path also leaves wildlife and local communities on the frontlines experiencing the increasingly virulent impacts of climate change on a daily basis.

Carbon Pollution’s Impacts on Wildlife & People

At a 4 degrees C temperature increase, scientists predict massive extinctions around the globe. In this last year alone, the U.S. has seen wildfires harm the Monarch butterfly migration and push the Houston toad to the brink of extinction, record drought threaten endangered whooping cranes, and extreme floods blow out fish populations in numerous rivers and streams. Our 2011 report Game Changers: Air Pollution, a Warming Climate, and the Troubled Future for America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage details how toxic air pollution and carbon pollution from power plants represents a double whammy exacerbating the disappearance of our nation’s beloved fish and game species. And our recent report On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk provides real world experiences with how the decades-long trend to shorter, warmer and less snowy winters is having major implications for all forms of outdoor recreation.

At the same time, communities across the country face a record number of climate change-fueled extreme weather events that are taking their toll on families and personal property. In 2011, the U.S. experienced over $35B worth of extreme weather losses. This property damage has left families homeless, destroyed critical infrastructure, and placed an immediate human cost on accelerating climate change.  Without a national policy that begins to tackle carbon pollution these problems will accelerate in speed and force and may become unstoppable.

NWF Call for Action

It is for these very reasons that NWF’s affiliates passed a resolution in 2009 resolving that all new coal-fired power plants being built should be required to control their carbon pollution.  EPA’s proposed rule does just that, sets a standard – regardless of fuel type – that says we can no longer indiscriminately pump carbon pollution into our skies, and ensures that as we modernize our power sector we do not saddle future generations with more high carbon polluting infrastructure that lasts for decades to come.

Excerpt from NWF’s 2009 Resolution on Reducing Coal Power Plant Pollutants

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NWF urges that if a new coal-fired power plant is constructed, it be required to capture and permanently store or sequester its carbon emissions upon startup, and achieve near zero carbon emissions within 10 years of start-up.

Importantly, EPA cannot stop there. Since 1999, I have been engaged in efforts to utilize the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution.  One legal petition, numerous court rulings (including two Supreme Court rulings), and three presidents later we are now only tackling the first piece of the nation’s largest sector of carbon pollution.  It has been over 12 years since my own efforts began. I have literally watched my two daughters grow up and close to 40B tons of uncontrolled power plant carbon pollution emitted during this time. We cannot delay additional efforts any longer and standards to control the carbon pollution from existing power plants must follow in short order. There is not only a legal obligation to do so, but also a moral duty to act. We cannot leave future generations wondering why we waited to take the next step.

Have Your Voice Heard

Join NWF in supporting these carbon pollution limits can help to tackle climate change that threatens our protects wildlife – like the Nothern Moose – for children’s future.

Houston Toad Photo by: USFWS, Paige Najvar

The Houston toad is an endangered species that lives exclusively in southeast Texas. It is about 3 inches big, varies in color from light brown to gray or purplish gray, and has an alluring croak.  And it secretes chemicals in its skin to protect itself, such as serotonin and alkaloids, which are used as medicines to treat heart and nervous disorders in humans. Take Our Leap Day Frog Quiz!

Harmed by Record Drought

The Houston toad makes its home in loose, deep sands supporting woodland savannah and needs still or flowing waters for breeding. A five-year review of the toad’s status (see p. 12) conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the need for water makes drought a significant threat to the toad.

As NWF has reported, climate change begets drought.  Since September of 2009, severe to exceptional drought has occurred in central Texas right in the heart of the Houston toad’s limited range. And last year was the driest 12-month period for Texas since measurements began according to Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, who says the Texas drought could continue until 2020.

Even more concerning for the Houston toad may be that climate change exacerbated drought begets wildfires.  Another recent environmental review (see p. 20) has pointed out that the toad’s need for moisture also means that “catastrophic wildlife fires could have devastating effects to Houston toad habitat.”

Devastated by Extreme Wildfires

Unfortunately, on September 4, 2011, a firestorm known as the Bastrop County Complex Fire engulfed Bastrop, Texas and by September 30th had destroyed 1,645 homes, burned over 34,000 acres, and killed two people. This fire is now regarded as the most catastrophic wildfire in Texas history.  The largest population of Houston toads exists in Bastrop County, one of the Houston toad’s few remaining habitats. The fires were so intense they could have wiped out the Houston toad.  A Texas State biologist recently called the Bastrop fire “an extinction level event.”

Read how climate change induced drought and wildfires have also made Monarch butterflies climate victims and impacted the livelihood of one Texas city.

Luckily, while the wildfires had a devastating impact on the Houston toad population, some were found to have survived.  Conservationists in Texas are working to rebuild the population, but the endangered toads will face an uphill battle as the extreme wildfires took away the plants and brush they rely on for cover and safety and the insects the toads eat.

New Carbon Pollution Limits Can Help

We shouldn’t wait any longer for more fire alarms about how the impacts of climate change are harming America’s wildlife heritage.  Climate change-causing carbon pollution is impacting not only the Houston toad but frogs as well.

You can help turn the tide for wildlife–from frogs to polar bears.  Join NWF Action Fund in celebrating the entire Leap Year by supporting new efforts to limit the carbon pollution coming from power plant smokestacks.

Each year EPA’s new air toxic pollution rules will protect wildlife and prevent 11,000 thousand premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, 130,000 cases of childhood asthma and 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis. And it will prevent mercury exposure to children that can adversely affect their developing brains – including effect on their ability to walk, talk, read and learn.

Mercury-laden Fish in Oklahoma Lakes

Interestingly, Senator Inhofe’s homepage features a nice picture of Lake Hefner, Oklahoma.  Not advertised by the Senator’s website is that in July of 2010, a study by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (OK DEQ) found 16 lakes in Oklahoma where some species of fish contain levels of mercury above what is considered safe. As a result, the state governmental agency published its statewide fish consumption advisories to protect Oklahomans from consuming too much mercury –laden fish caught by anglers from the state’s lakes.

An Oklahoma DEQ Slide Show on Mercury provides this advisory:

Mercury Levels in Largemouth Bass Are a Problem Image alabama.gov

Oklahoma Statewide Consumption Advisory for Mercury. In order to protect the most sensitive populations, pregnant or nursing women, women of childbearing age and children younger than 15 years of age are advised to eat no more than one meal per week of predator fish.Predator species of fish in Oklahoma include all species of black bass (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted), striped bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, saugeye, and flathead catfish.

As NWF’s Game Changers report has catalogued, the species of concern listed in Oklahoma are iconic to many sportsmen and women across the country and it is why over hundreds of hunter and angler groups from across the country have to written Congress to stop attacks on the Clean Air Act like Senator Inhofe’s new resolution.

Sen. Inhofe Siding with Polluter Money

So why does Senator Inhofe want to allow power plants to spew mercury and toxins into the air without national limits? Like many in Congress, he is choosing to side with polluter money instead of the public.

Oklahoma is home to five coal fired power plants that each generated over 400 MW of power. One such power plant, the Northeastern Plant, is owned by American Electric Power (AEP). In 2010, a report benchmarking power plant air pollution (see page 34) found AEP power plants to be the largest collective source of mercury air pollution among all the nation’s largest utilities.

Between 1998 and 2011, AEP spent over $10M lobbying Congress, including plenty over the last year, to rollback air pollution standards like EPA’s new mercury and air toxic limits.  For his part, Senator Inhofe has received nearly half-million dollars from electric utility industries in campaign contributions (including some from AEP) during his career including a whopping $280K this election cycle.

Stand Up for Limits on Air Pollution

You can help NWF stop this “pay for pollution” game. Tell Congress that you support EPA’s new mercury limits and you want to protect the air we breathe.

Join thousands of NWF supporters in taking action to stop mercury and carbon pollution from power plants smokestacks that harms our nation’s wildlife — from fish to moose to polar bears.

NWF has been a leader in finding ways to address the climate crisis. While a comprehensive climate plan and a new federal initiative is a more responsible and responsive solution to the climate crisis, NWFers can celebrate several victories over the past year, such as:

• Tackling the major root sources of carbon pollution – cars and trucks and the oil and coal industries;
• Fighting off polluters’ attacks on the EPA when climate deniers and industry naysayers tried repeatedly to undermine EPA’s proper exercise of its authority under the Clean Air Act; and
• Intervening in a federal court case to protect the science that underpins the agency’s actions to limit carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.

Pollution from Cars and Trucks

Transportation accounts for 27% of U.S. carbon pollution. (Flickr: neoporcupine)

Transportation accounts for 27% of U.S. carbon pollution, the second largest source. NWF has spearheaded the national Go 60 campaign key Midwest states and built support for several key EPA efforts. NWF victories include:

• By 2030, new EPA greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions standards for cars built during model years 2012-2016 will reduce carbon pollution by 307 million metric tons (MMT) annually, approximately a 21% reduction.
• New limits on medium- and heavy-duty trucks that will strengthen fuel economy between seven and 20 percent by 2018 and cut carbon emissions by 76 million metric tons (MMT) annually by 2030.

NWF’s advocacy will help to reduce over 660 million metric tons of carbon pollution per year by 2030. A one-third reduction is nothing to sneeze at, especially after so many years of inaction.

Pollution from Power Plants

Electricity generation is the largest source of pollution. (Photo: Dylan Passmore)

• Generating over 50,000 public comments backing EPA’s new limits on mercury and toxic air pollution. NWF’s “Game Changers” report highlights how the Clean Air Act protects wildlife, habitats and the nation’s hunting and angling heritage. The mercury rule, finalized in December, will reduce mercury pollution by 91% and could retire 10 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity – a reduction on annual carbon emissions by approximately 70 MMT.
• Supporting the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that could shut down five gigawatts of coal-fired electricity generation which could in turn reduce carbon emissions by roughly 35 MMT. NWF helped stop Congress from delaying and overturning this rule.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has explained, “the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance.”

Pollution from the Oil and Gas Industry

Oil refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana. (Courtesy of Planetware.com)

• Support new air pollution limits to reduce the fugitive, uncontrolled methane emissions that occur during oil and natural gas drilling and production. These limits could reduce methane pollution by the equivalent of 65 MMT of carbon dioxide annually. In addition to NWF’s recent report, “No More Drilling in the Dark”, on natural gas fracking, NWF will continue to speak out until the rule is finalized in 2012.
• Pressure EPA to issue new standards to reduce carbon pollution from oil refineries. The 150 oil refineries throughout the U.S. emit 205 MMT of carbon pollution each year and about 3% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In 2011, NWF testified at EPA public hearings in support of reducing these emissions.

Early this year we expect the EPA to propose the first-ever carbon pollution standards for new and existing power plants. If sufficiently stringent, the standards could effectively prevent the construction of any new coal power plants and lead to significant pollution reductions from existing, old and inefficient power plants.

Instead of bashing EPA and promoting mischievous bills to undercut the agency’s work, Congress should be bolstering EPA and helping the agency implement the laws that several bipartisan Congresses and administrations passed. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson summed it up nicely: “Families across the country, including my own, will benefit from the simple fact of being able to breathe cleaner air. That is what environmental protection and the work of the EPA is all about.”

NWF’s gains are significant but there is still a lot more to do and we need your help. Donate to help NWF implement carbon pollution limits on power plants for a cleaner future.

Dr. Amanda Staudt is the lead author of the National Wildlife Federation’s series of scientific reports on how the climate crisis is fueling extreme weather.

Today, the insurance giant Munich Re releaseda comprehensive review that puts a number on the costs of the United States’ 2011 year of extreme weather.  In total, insured losses in the U.S. totaled $35.9 billion in 2011. This is $12 billion above the 2000 to 2010 average loss of $23.8 billion.  Below are some of the report’s other highlights.

You can view the entire Munich Re presentation here.

Image courtesy NOAA.gov

• In 2011 thunderstorm loses led to insured losses exceeding $25 billion. This is more than double the previous record. It was also the deadliest thunderstorm season in over 75 years.

Extreme Wildfires

• 2011 was the worst wildfire year on record in Texas due to persistent drought.
• In spring 2011, over 3 million acres burned in west Texas from 12 major fires with over 200 homes and businesses destroyed, $50 million insured loss.
• In September 2011, the Bastrop County Complex Fire near San Antonio destroyed over 1,600 homes causing insured losses of $530 million.

Extreme Mississippi River Flooding

• In 2011, heavy snowmelt, saturated soils, and over 20 inches of rain in a month lead to the worst flooding of the lower Mississippi River since 1927.
• Record river crests at Vicksburg and Natchez; Morganza Spillway opened in Louisiana to protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans from possible levee failures.
• The flooding caused extensive agricultural damage, property, and inland marine losses. The estimated economic losses are $2 billion and insured losses of $500 million.

And just in case you may think 2011 was an aberration, the report suggests that this is part of a trend that is consistent with the scientific predictions of mounting extreme events finding that:

• Average annual winter storm losses have almost doubled since the early 1980s.
• Average thunderstorm losses have increased fivefold since 1980.

Clearly, waiting any longer to limit the nation’s sources of carbon pollution is like adding fuel to the storms and extreme weather events that are costing our country dearly. There is some news good on that front.  In 2012, we can take action to start pushing back against these real world impacts of climate change.  Later this month, the EPA is expected to propose new carbon pollution limits on the nation’s power plants. Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of climate change causing air pollution pumping roughly 2.4B tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year.

Visit our Action Center and see how you can help!

Over 630,000 mercury postcards were delivered to the EPA in Boston, MA last week! The event was held at the Environmental Protection Agency’s office in Boston.

“This tremendous response signals that Americans know how important it is to cut down on mercury, arsenic and other dangerous pollutants in the air we breathe,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 1 office in Boston.

Hundreds of supporters came to encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to pass the proposed rule that would limit mercury contamination caused by coal fired power plants. The EPA is collecting comments until Aug. 4, 2011.  If you haven’t gotten the chance to take action against mercury pollution click here!

Last Friday, July 29, Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) held a press conference in support of an amendment to the House Environment and Interior Appropriations bill that would protect people and wildlife by striking a rider in the bill that delays the Environmental Protection Agency’s  ability to limit mercury and other harmful air toxics emitted from power plants. (Click here to read more)

Another event took place in Omaha, Nebraska where protesters  gathered  outside of Rep. Lee Terry’s (R-Neb) office to speak out against the Keystone XL Pipeline.  The Keystone XL pipeline–a pipeline that would cut through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas–carries dirty tar sands through America’s heartland and threatens public water supplies, crop lands, & wildlife habitats.

Rep. Terry (R-Neb) recently brought a bill to the house floor that expedited the permitting process and requires the President to make a November 1st decision on the $7 billion Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. After seeing the devastating effects of the Yellowstone Oil Spill last month, protesters dropped off 91 ears of corn representing the 91 leaks that are predicted to take place if the pipeline is built.

Hot Off the Press:

This article was published in the Boston Globe by Beth Daley.  It covers the mercury comment delivery to the EPA in Boston, MA.

What You Can Do:

USFWS

1. Stop Hard Rock Mines from Poisoning Grizzlies! Right now, grizzly bears of Bristol Bay, Alaska are at risk from the toxic pollution of hard rock mining.

2. Take Action! Help protect polar bears and many more wildlife by editing and sending a message to your members of Congress, urging them to stop this unprecedented attack on wildlife.

It’s officially summer, and while we’re all enjoying some fun in the sun there are a few reasons to stay indoors this July: ozone alert days.   Last week in Holyoke, Massachusetts where they have already experienced 24 orange alert days, and 4 red alert days, the National Wildlife Federation partnered with Sierra Club, Neighbor to Neighbor, and Nuestras Raices to call attention to the staggering rate (24%) of asthma in youth; that’s 1 in 4 kids within the community (10% is the state average).

Virgenmina Perez with grandson, Junial Cruz

The event took place in one of Nuestras Raices’ community gardens where elders and children work together to build a stronger community and work on projects that benefit Holyoke residents. The event was attended by Virgenmina Perez & her grandson, a 2 year old boy, Juniel, who suffers from asthma. Virgenmina also shared the story of her 6 month year old great-grandson, who was hopsitalized for 3 months because his asthma was so bad. Find out how ozone pollution affects your health.

Virgenmina Perez described how it felt to have 5 of her family members suffer from asthma:

“It is tough for me, it’s tough for all of my family, it is tough to see somebody who cannot breathe.”

These residents were rallying for cleaner air, a problem they attribute to the Mount Tom Coal Plant.  This local power plant emits so much pollution through particulate matter that it has resulted in higher rates of asthma.

“Clean up what they’re doing, and if they want to do business go ahead, but clean up what you’re doing, stop polluting the people stop putting toxic pollution out into the air and stop making the people of Holyoke sick,” said Drew Grande of the Sierra Club.

Hot Off the Press:

Vehicles Fuel Efficiency Article

This piece written by the Commissioner of District 18 in Oakland County, David Woodward, shows how all Americans–Democrats, Republicans and Independents– want cleaner, greener cars and trucks.

“Keeping our auto companies competitive is crucial to our economy, and if we don’t build on progress we’ve made and get even more fuel efficient, we’re going to fall behind.”–David Woodward, Commissioner Oakland County district 18.

What You Can Do:

1. Request postcards! Would you rather send a postcard to the EPA? Let us know if you want to sign a postcard– and recruit 20 others concerned about mercury in fish to do the same! Contact kordickj@nwf.org
2. Submit a comment to the EPA letting them know you want stricter regulations on mercury emissions.  It is SO easy and takes seconds.
3. Help protect river otters by sending a message to the EPA asking them to restore the Clean Water Act protections!

Green Mountain College estimates that its biomass facility will reduce the college's carbon footprint by as much as 50 percent. (Green Mountain College)

One school exploring all its options for becoming carbon-neutral is the University of Iowa (UI), and its biggest step towards that goal is an award-winning biomass facility that runs in part on a breakfast cereal byproduct.

“Our goal is to be on 100 percent renewable [energy],” says Ferman Milster, University of Iowa’s Assistant Director of Utilities. The campus began using one of its two boilers for biomass commercially in 2004, and since then it has been burning one very particular source of biomass-discarded oat hulls from a Quaker Oats facility in nearby Cedar Rapids. The oat hulls are co-fired with coal so that 50 percent of the heat output of that boiler comes from biomass.

“In 2009, we shipped in and burned 24,000 tons of oat hulls,” Milster explains. The oat hulls cost UI about half as much as coal, per 1 million Btu of energy produced, and they produce 7,000 Btu/lb. versus coal’s 11,000 Btu/lb.

Oat hulls are also very lightweight compared to coal-7 lb/ft³ versus coal’s 55 lb/ft³, and they get trucked in 20 miles from the plant to the campus biomass facility. “We get our coal from southern Illinois,” adds Milster. By not burning as much coal, UI estimates its actions are the equivalent to taking 1,200 passenger vehicles off the road each year, and the energy generated from the oat hulls alone is enough to power about 900 homes annually.

The Quaker Oats facility in Cedar Rapids produces close to 100,000 tons of discarded oat hulls annually, and the 75 percent that UI doesn’t use goes into livestock feed and bedding, or various high-fiber foods for human consumption. Burning the oat hull biomass at UI, however, produces a full 11 percent of the entire University’s energy use and saves the school over $750,000 annually on its utility bill. All this has been accomplished without the school having a technical precedent for burning light, fluffy oat hulls. In fact, UI had to make several modifications to its boiler before it worked properly.

The University of Iowa also uses a second boiler for backup and testing other types of biomass fuel sources. “I’m sitting here looking at eight or ten bags of stuff people have made,” explains Milster, “wood chips and wood pellets, and they are all asking me, ‘Can you burn this?’” Already the EPA has sponsored an extensive wood pellet test at UI, but the school found that the wood pellets (brought in from Minnesota or Wisconsin, according to Milster) would have cost them twice as much as what they pay for their coal.

“We’re not going to go out and do something that costs us a whole bunch more money,” says Milster, “and that’s key for this. It’s one thing to be environmentally-friendly, but it’s another thing to be environmentally-friendly at a cost you can afford.”

Green Mountain College (GMC) in Vermont is also examining the “costs” of biomass and responsible sourcing in the region. Not to be overshadowed by the biomass successes of its neighbor, Middlebury College, GMC will be testing its new $6.8 million biomass facility over the next two months, hopefully being fully online by April 2010.

“It’s going to help us reduce our carbon footprint by over 50 percent,” explains Dr. Williams Throop, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Green Mountain College. “It will heat almost all of our buildings and shift about 85 percent of what has been oil to biomass.” GMC also expects to save over $200,000 annually in utility costs and produce 20 percent of its electricity from biomass.

The biomass facility will burn roughly 4,400 tons of wood chips annually, “all of which will be sourced within a 50-mile radius,” says Dr. Throop. GMC will be contracting with the same biomass broker as Middlebury, Cousineau Forest Products, and first preference for materials is wood byproduct, not clear-cut and chipped-up trees.

Still, “it’s very hard to get good data on where this stuff is coming from,” explains Dr. Throop.

UMM's gasifier, which burns corn stover and other products, in operation. (Matt Zaske/ University of Minnesota-Morris)

Additionally, the Voluntary Carbon Offset Protocol, published by the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), says that “fuel switching can produce legitimate offsets by reducing the amount of emissions produced from the use of fuel for the same activity.”

According to Lucas Brown, professor of Environmental Studies at GMC, however, it does pay to look “upstream” in regards to one’s biomass source.

“Once you go beyond the point-of-use and start looking at upstream costs,” Brown explains, “it gets extremely complex really fast. With wood chips, for instance, while a tree grows it sequesters carbon. You cut it down, burn the chips, the carbon goes back into the atmosphere, feeds another tree. It should be a closed loop, but there is a certain amount of energy involved in the extraction, processing and distribution associated with those chips. But, at least according to the IPCC, if you transport those chips 30 miles versus 300 miles, it doesn’t really matter because it’s still a climate-neutral fuel source.”

GMC and Middlebury have been discussing in detail how much they would be willing to spend on sustainable sourcing for their biomass. “For example,” Brown says, “if we’re spending $35 a ton for wood, would we be willing to pay $70 a ton if it could be documented where it came from and that it was sustainably forested?”

It’s not as if Vermont is in danger of losing its forests in the near future, but these are the larger questions both GMC and Middlebury want to keep in mind. In fact, according to Bill McKibben’s book, Hope, Human and Wild, Vermont has grown from being only 35 percent forested in 1850 to being 80 percent forested today. McKibben writes, “Not only do we have our woods back to use more wisely as the economic base of a more sustainable economy, we also have our woods back to help in reshaping our desires.”

“Within a 60-mile radius [of GMC],” explains Brown, “170,000 green tons of trees grow annually, in net growth. It gives you an idea how small of an impact burning 4,400 tons has on the forest ecosystem. We are very confident there is a sufficient supply for us, and we’re doing our best to make sure it’s all harvested locally and harvested sustainably.”

Workers install UMM's absorbtion chiller, which cools buildings in the summer. (Matt Zaske/ University of Minnesota-Morris)

“Unfortunately, our facility is not working as planned,” says Joel Talleksen, researcher for the UMM biomass project. “There are some engineering issues. Some problems probably could have been predicted, but for others we didn’t have someone else’s experiences to know exactly how to do things, so we did them the best we could.”

The UMM biomass facility, when it is operational, is anticipated to provide 80 percent of the school’s heating and cooling needs, and in conjunction with other UMM alternative energy projects, Talleksen suggests UMM may even become carbon-negative, putting extra energy back on the local power grid.

“In the current economic climate, with energy prices having dropped hugely,” Talleksen explains, “it’s becoming a harder sell to do some of the things we wanted to do.” One phase of the biomass project that did get completed was the addition of absorption chillers, which will replace electric chillers UMM is using now to cool the campus in the summer months.

“Right now,” explains Talleksen, “in the middle of summer our campus is using more electricity than any other time of the year, and we have no students around.”

As for the actual biomass facility, not much has been burning except for various testing procedures, but Talleksen has not been deterred from realizing the facility’s potential: “[Biomass] is an emerging industry, and that’s one of the reasons a university is a good place to do some of the research on this, because we can have small hiccups and still go forward as planned.”