Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1220

Another recent BP spill of 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals at Texas plant where 15 people died in 2005.

While BP touts the mild success of its most recent attempt to contain the massive gusher spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, they would probably rather people don't notice the other spill they recently caused, this one of deadly benzene from a refinery in Texas City, TX.  In this repost, TP has the story.

The refinery released more than 400 pounds a day of the chemical over a 40-day period from early April to mid May of this year, BP quietly informed the state environmental regulator ...

California gets first transmission-connected solar farm

The variable nature of wind and solar resources has always been one of the knocks on renewable energy, under the theory that integrating unpredictable resources will make it impossible to manage the electric grid.  However, recent research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory indicates that the electric grid is capable of accommodating much larger amounts of renewable energy than we currently use.

A new California solar project proves variable resource integration can happen in the...

Bill Gates backs grossly misleading ad on clean energy R&D

This is an outright falsehood*:

*Actually, it is still false with or without the asterisk — even if the ad is well-meaning in a far-too-little, far-too-late sort of way.

In fact, the asterisk goes to a statement in the bottom half of the ad (see below) that is also false:  "In 2007, American consumers spent $6 billion on potato chips; U.S. spending on clean energy R&D that year was $1.8 billion."

Here's why those statements are both false and misleading:

The ad — sponsored by the American Energy...

Energy and Global Warming News for June 11, 2010: Wind companies to buy more U.S. parts

Wind Companies to Buy More U.S. Parts in Agreement With Unions

Wind-energy companies agreed to buy more parts from U.S. suppliers, and a labor union promised to join in lobbying Congress for a requirement to use more renewable energy.

The accord announced today by the American Wind Energy Association and the United Steelworkers union grew out of objections by lawmakers that federal money was being spent to purchase clean-energy components made abroad.

The agreement "sends a very positive...

Tea Party and FreedomWorks plan demonstration against mandatory trash collection

Memo to Tea Partiers:  The point of the original Boston tea party wasn't actually to pollute Boston Harbor.

The tea party movement and their corporate-funded astroturf backers at FreedomWorks often claim to be fighting "big government." For instance, FW complained that the individual mandate in the new health care law was an "unacceptable, unconscionable, … complete perversion of the liberties our founders fought and died to protect."

Now, local chapters of the tea party andFW  are...

Scientists to BP: "You're gonna need a bigger boat!" - Official gusher estimates finally reach levels reported 6 weeks ago

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water.

Back on May 1, Climate Progress reported "Oilpocalypse Now: WSJ reports BP oil disaster may be leaking at rate of 1 million gallons a day."  Self-deluded BP has been lying to itself and others, lowballing the leak rate — and concealing the images needed for independent analysis — for far too long.  The result has been a wholly inadequate response that comes  straight out of the the mother of all disaster movies.

Finally USGS...

Barrasso calls temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling "A second assault on the Gulf"

Last month, the Interior Department instituted a six-month moratorium for wells deeper than 500 ft, directing them to "cease drilling any new deepwater wells, including wellbore sidekick and bypass activities." Secretary Salazar explained "With the BP oil spill still growing in the gulf, and investigations and reviews still under way, a six-month pause in drilling is needed, appropriate, and prudent."  Duh.

But the addicts demand another fix even as the country sees the devastating...

Silver linings in the muck

It seems insensitive to talk about silver linings in the middle of the life-killing BP oil disaster in the Gulf.  But in fact, there are a couple we should recognize and act upon now.  Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, makes the case.

There's hope, for example, that the spill is proving the folly of trying to extract every last drop of a finite resource by invading ever more difficult and sensitive places.  The past safety record of offshore...

As both its stock and image collapses, BP hires former Bush-Cheney and Goldman-Sachs officials to 'defend its interests' and restore its reputation

The Times understands that Mr Prodi, who twice served as Italy's prime minister, is a key member of an "international advisory board" assisting BP that also includes Josh Bolten, the former chief of staff to President George W. Bush. Both Mr Prodi and Mr Bolten are former employees of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that advises BP. BP's former chairman Peter Sutherland also held a senior role at Goldman.

BP has embarked on an aggressive campaign to repair its public image in the wake of...

NASA: Easily the hottest spring — and Jan-May — in temperature record - Plus another record 12-month global temperature

Lmonth tied May 1998 as the hottest on record in the NASA dataset.  More significantly, following fast on the heels of easily the hottest April — and hottest Jan-April — on record, it's also the hottest Jan-May on record [click on figure to enlarge:].

Also, the combined land-surface air and sea-surface water temperature anomaly for March-April-May was 0.73°C above the 1951-1980 mean, blowing out the old record of 0.65°C set in 2002.

The record temperatures we're seeing now are especially...