Oil prices falling?

How would a drop in the price of oil affect the environment? It's not too hard to figure out- if oil is cheaper, people will tend to use more of it, emitting more greenhouse gases as they do so. The huge spike in gas prices in 2008 had people speculating that society was on the brink of a major shift to alternative fuels and to a national fleet with significantly higher gas mileage. Those things could still happen, but if prices are low there will be that much less incentive to get the job done soon.

Offshore energy for Maryland?

An article in the Sun today describes the positive conclusion of research commissioned to investigate the potential of off-shore wind energy production for Maryland. Our state has a goal of generating 20% of our total energy from renewable sources, and this looks like a great way to do it. Interestingly I don't see any mention of costs: instead, the research touts the number of jobs the project would bring. While that's undoubtedly true enough, someone has to pay those people's salaries, and that task would fall to the customers of BG&E, I assume. Renewables are worth paying a premium but I'd like to see more in this article about how efficient this source is rather than simply whether or not the project is technically feasible. Still, kind of cool to think that windmills offshore might generate a large share of our state's power, and not too far in the future, either! We'll see what happens.

Mileage tax?

Interesting article today in the Post- as cars get better and better mileage, the revenue collected from gas taxes is dropping. In one way that's a very good thing- the less gas we use, the less CO2 and other greenhouse gases we emit. However, travel by car has other costs that usually aren't directly paid for by motorists, such as maintenance of the roads themselves. Until recently, this was paid for by a gas tax, but as people drive increasingly efficient cars, gas tax revenues are dropping, and governments are having a harder time covering the cost of road upkeep.

Most people agree that the fairest way to pay for roads is to tax drivers, so that those who a) cause the damage and b) benefit from the upkeep are those who pay the most to keep the roads in good condition. A new proposal seeks to do so by having people pay a fee at the gas pump related to how many miles they've traveled. There are still kinks to be worked out, such as how to increase fees for larger vehicles (if you have a Prius, you want to pay less than your neighbor with her Hummer) and how to add in congestion fees. (Congestion fees are added costs tacked on in some places basically for contributing to traffic jams in busy places- you might pay a fee to enter a "downtown" zone during certain times of day, for example.)

Another interesting issue is that the easiest way to track people (by putting GPS's on cars, basically) creates privacy concerns. Unsurprisingly a lot of people don't want the government tracking them all the time! The question then becomes how to get the information needed to fairly assess the tax without violating people's privacy. Tough question!

On a related note, I was pretty disappointed this past summer when the EZ pass program became more expensive. The decision was made to add on monthly fees because the program wasn't paying for itself. I think it's such a good idea to have those devices in cars, both because it keeps traffic moving and because it makes for healthier babies by reducing air pollution. Instead, the budget crunch meant that they basically asked a bunch of people to give them up, and thousands of people did so. Giving everyone an EZ pass and installing lots more gates seems like it would accomplish what they're trying to do with the mileage tax, no? I wonder if that's on the table....

Investigation! Outrage!... And a Heaping Pile of Intrigue

In this article it talks about how there is about 650 million pounds of chicken manure produced in Maryland and farmers don’t really have anywhere to put it. They leave it piled up and some of it leaks into the Chesapeake Bay. An environmental group called the Assateague Coastkeepers flew over a farm in Berlin, Md. and took a picture of what it claimed was a heap of chicken manure leaking pollution into a Chesapeake Bay tributary. The Maryland Department of the Environment did an investigation and determined the heap wasn’t poultry waste at all but treated human waste sludge from Ocean City’s sewage plant. So an activist named Kathy Phillips did her own water testing downstream from the heap and it showed high fecal bacteria levels in the stream. The MDE says they can take any actions they want with or without taking samples from the heap. They said that they were confident that the material was sewage sludge but still intend to take a sample of the water as requested by the Coastkeeper. The case is still not solved yet and the MDE is trying to put it under a cover but the Coastkeeper filed a notice and it became a bigger concern than expected.

I think this situation should be handled in the proper manner. We don’t know how much the manure could have an effect on the bay. It could do major harm to the animals living in the water and it could have a ripple effect to humans since we eat crabs and fish from the bay. One way they could handle it is to find a way to use the manure in ways that they use cow and horse manure. It may be helpful for land and plants. Another is to just put it in trash bags and take it to the dump. Items that are in the dump are similar to it and probably can’t be reused so they can just add it with it.

-Damien Kinchen

Palm oil

Palm oil developers push into Indonesia's last frontier: Papua

Palm oil is a highly coveted natural resource: it is a major ingredient in many everyday foods and functions as biofuel (Wikipedia, Palm Oil). Because of this, developers are always looking for large undeveloped tracts of land in warmer climates on which to create palm plantations. Many fragile ecosystems in tropical regions are quickly being converted into palm plantations. This article focuses on Papua and West Papua, the two regions which comprise the western half of New Guinea (Wikipedia, New Guinea). Many would argue that New Guinea possesses some of the world's most unusual and fascinating animals, which makes the issue that more critical to nature-lovers.

The article focuses on "Up for Grabs," a report which summarizes an investigation of the conversion of Papuan land into palm plantations; it goes into detail of just exactly how palm oil companies are making this a reality. In many cases, their methods are what some would consider drastic, or even unethical. For example, one company had a local child unknowingly sign his family's land over to the developers for decades. Many farmers are being paid "below market rates" for their land, which will generate an exceptionally high amount of revenue for developers compared to what they originally paid for it. Some farmers were led to believe development would improve their general welfare, but the promised benefits (schooling, housing, transportation) were never delivered. Other developers began clearing land before obtaining appropriate permits to do so. The report urges the suspension of palm oil permits until more sustainable methods of development are implemented.

In a related article, "Cheerios maker linked to rainforest destruction", I learned that palm oil is a common ingredient found in several everyday foods (Cheerios, Betty Crocker, etc.) and many are protesting General Mills' usage of non-sustainable palm oil. Apparently mass rainforest destruction in Indonesia (and I'm assuming elsewhere) is caused by palm oil plantations; not only is biodiversity being lost to this industry, but it creates harmful greenhouse emissions as well. Fortunately for the local wildlife, some companies are now starting to only harvest sustainably-grown palm oil. This is another example of how our everyday activities are affecting resources in a completely different part of the world, but the word seems to be out and progress is being made which benefits everyone from the U.S. consumers to the Papuan farmers.

Personally I would like to see more ethical practices carried out in the industry, perhaps a co-op where local farmers are put in charge of the harvesting (providing them with jobs) or sustainable farms (which benefit the local biodiversity). Southeast Asia, Indonesia and New Guinea harbor some fantastic species - orangutans, elephants, rhinos, birds of paradise, parrots, tree kangaroos - and it would be tragic to lose them to unnecessary extinction.

Tim Carney

China & renewables

This article in today's New York Times is about China making progress in developing its renewable energy industry. The author is worried about US competitiveness, but personally I'm more worried about the huge amount of coal that China currently uses to fuel its amazing growth. I'm happy to see China making investments in this kind of technology, and I'm happy to see technology being transferred from countries like Denmark so that it can be more widely used. Coal is still the cheapest to produce and use if you don't think about the externalities it creates, and I doubt that will change any time soon, so kudos to the Chinese government for diversifying their energy portfolio, even if it means paying more up front!

Chicken waste and the Chesapeake

I talked about this a little bit in class on Friday, but please take a look at this 2008 article from the New York Times on chicken farming and the health of the Bay. A few interesting statistics:

• 570 million chickens are raised per year in the state of Maryland
• They create 650 million pounds per year of chicken waste
• We spend about $100 million per year to protect the Bay
• The chicken industry contributes about $700 million per year to the MD economy
• Many farmers already do a lot to minimize their impact, including leaving buffer strips and recycling some waste at the world’s largest chicken manure recycling plant, which produces organic fertilizer pellets
• Agriculture contributes over 40% of the nitrogen and phosphorus that pollute the bay, and 70% of the sediment
• As of 2008 farms don't need permits and don't get regularly inspected: they just have to file "nutrient management plans" which are not public. Failure to file results in a $350 fine.