US sues ‘Beyond Petroleum’ for oil spill

Though BP went green with its “Beyond Petroleum” campaign and helped push America to the precipice of global warming regulation, it’s getting no credit from the Obama Justice Department.

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Seeking maximum penalties, the U.S. government filed a civil lawsuit against a BP PLC (BP) unit in Alaska for breaking federal laws during two major 2006 oil spills in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in the country.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, said that BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. discharged 200,000 gallons of oil onto the North Slope during two different oil spills, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The complaint accuses BP of failing “to prepare and implement spill prevention” and take other measures mandated by the Clean Water Act.

The complaint also alleges that the company “improperly” removed asbestos-containing materials from its pipelines, violating the Clean Air Act, and didn’t comply in a timely manner with a federal order requiring tests, inspection and repairs.

The government asked the court for civil penalties “up to the maximum amount authorized by law,” and to order BP to “take all appropriate action to prevent spills in the future,” the statement said.

No corporate green turn goes unpunished.

Green Job-less: BP Solar axes 620 workers

From today’s Guardian (UK):

BP is to axe 620 jobs from its solar power business – more than a quarter of that workforce – in a move it said was part of the long-term strategy to “reduce the cost of solar power to that of conventional electricity.”

Two cell manufacture and module assembly plants near Madrid, will be shut with the loss of 480 posts while module assembly will also be phased out at its Frederick facility in Maryland, US, with a further 140 redundancies.

BP blamed the cutbacks on the credit crunch and lower-cost competition saying its global manufacturing capacity would still increase during this year and next via a series of strategic alliances with other companies.

“We deeply regret the impact of this business decision on our employees and the local communities,” said Reyad Fezzani, chief executive of BP Solar. “We have a long history at both the Madrid and Frederick sites. Competitive hi-tech manufacturing of ingots, wafers and cells will continue at Frederick. Engineering, technology product development, sales and marketing and other business support functions will also remain at both Frederick and Madrid.”

He said solar markets had been “unsettled by the impact of the global economic environment”, adding that the market had been over-supplied as competition increased and prices had fallen.

Fezzani said the cuts would lead to lower prices for solar power: “The decision is part of the long term strategy to reduce the cost of solar power to that of conventional electricity.”

Perhaps the green job-less in Maryland can find work with President Obama’s stimulus bill program to caulk and weather-strip American homes.

Waxman-Markey Bill: Full Text & Summary

From today’s New York Times:

Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today unveiled a 648-page draft global warming and energy bill (pdf) that is being praised by environmental groups but presents significant political challenges.

The bill by Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts would establish a cap-and-trade program curbing U.S. emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, with a midcentury target of 83 percent reductions of the heat-trapping gases. It also creates a nationwide renewable electricity standard that reaches 25 percent by 2025, new energy efficiency programs and limits on the carbon content of motor fuels, and requires greenhouse gas standards for new heavy duty vehicles and engines…

Click here for the Commerce Committee summary of the bill.

Click here for the full text of the bill.

Regulating private rockets: Final green frontier?

Now the greens want to regulate rocket launches lest they damage the ozone layer.

Here’s the first few paragraphs from the University of Colorado media release:

The global market for rocket launches may require more stringent regulation in order to prevent significant damage to Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer in the decades to come, according to a new study by researchers in California and Colorado.

Future ozone losses from unregulated rocket launches will eventually exceed ozone losses due to chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which stimulated the 1987 Montreal Protocol banning ozone-depleting chemicals, said Martin Ross, chief study author from The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. The study, which includes the University of Colorado at Boulder and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provides a market analysis for estimating future ozone layer depletion based on the expected growth of the space industry and known impacts of rocket launches.

“As the rocket launch market grows, so will ozone-destroying rocket emissions,” said Professor Darin Toohey of CU-Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department. “If left unregulated, rocket launches by the year 2050 could result in more ozone destruction than was ever realized by CFCs.”

My first reaction was, “Oh my, we’re going to be trapped forever on the same planet with the greens!”

But on second thought, since no one really understands the continual fluctuations in stratospheric ozone to start with, nor do they understand (simple chemistry aside) the impact of CFCs on the ozone layer, and since there’s no evidence that any harm was ever caused to anyone or to the environment by whatever spotty thinning may have occurred during the 1980s and 1990s, this new study seems to be nothing more than yet another green anti-technology moment.

Besides, private rocket launches can’t be evil — Google is for them.

Gore-bot installed at Energy Department

President Obama announced on March 27 that he would nominate Cathy Zoi to become Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy.

Zoi is a Gore-bot of the first order.

In January 2007, she became the Alliance for Climate Protection’s founding CEO. The Alliance is Al Gore’s non-profit front for advancing his personal wealth-building agenda. He is a foudning partner in the UK-based investment company, Generation Investment Management, and a partner with the U.S. based ventuire capital firm of Kleiner Perkins.

Beyond buffalo-ing America about global warming, Zoi’s has a passion for smart-metering — that is, enabling local utilities to ration your electricity.

Zoi was the chief of staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore administration, where she managed the team working on environmental and energy issues (1993-95). She was also a manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she pioneered the Energy Star Program.

In a March 30 op-ed in Roll Call, Zoi wrote,

We stand at the verge of a major opportunity for leadership that can take our economy in a new direction…

I guess that means what wealth doesn’t go down the toilet will go into Al Gore’s pockets.

WAR! Utility sues New York over CO2 regulation

War has been declared in New York over global warming regulation!

Indeck Corinth L.P., which operates the Corinth Generating Station, an electric power plant in Corinth, NY, sued New York state on January 29, 2009 claiming that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeast U.S. is illegal.

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Rhode Island have signed on to the RGGI agreement.

Indeck Corinth claims that New York’s involvement with RGGI,

  • Is ultra vires and violates the state constitution;
  • Imposes an impermissible tax not authorized by the state legislature;
  • Is arbitrary and capricious as implemented by New York;
  • Is pre-epmted by state and federal regulations;
  • Violates the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution; and
  • Violates Indeck Corinth’s dues process and equal protection rights

Click here for a copy of Indeck Corinth’s complaint.

Indeck Corinth and New York State are now arguing over the venue for the suit. Indeck Corinth wants the suit heard in Saratoga County where it is a major employer. New York wants the suit heard in Albany County where it has homefield advantage.

Congrats to Indeck Corinth for having the courage to challenge green aggression, oppression and regression!

Washington Times reviews ‘Green Hell’

I don’t want to spoil the Washington Times review of Steve Milloy’s new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, but former White House speechwriter John R. Coyne, Jr. describes Green Hell as:

strongly written and well-documented… convincing

Check out Coyne’s review and then rush off to Amazon.com to get your copy of Green Hell!

If you think of it, get an extra copy for a friend, colleague or family member who needs to be wised up on the green threat!

‘Green’ NBC saves $2 million; Execs go thirsty

NBC Universal announced today that it saved $2 million in 2008 by going green — that is, reducing power use and reducing bottled water consumption by executives.

So how much water do NBC execs drink? And how do we know that NBC’s power savings aren’t more appropriately attributed to 2008’s poor business climate.

Of course, NBC Universal had 2008 revenues of almost $17 billion — so the alleged savings, if they’re even true, hardly qualify for significant digit status.

A more effective cost-saving strategy for NBC’s parent company, the global warming-lobbying General Electric, saved $12 million by forcing its disastrous-for-shareholders CEO Jeff Immelt to waive his 2008 bonus.

$8,000 for a 200-year green door?

From an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle entitled, “Not enough green for green living,”

… “So how much do [the eco-friendly windows] cost?” I asked, while Barry gave me an overview of the various windows that she sells, often at trade shows on green building.

“A lot,” Barry said in her lilting South African accent, demonstrating how one particular brand of window makes a complete seal when closed.

“OK, how much?”

“Well, like this big sliding glass door costs $8,000,” she said, slowly sliding a massive glass and wood door shut. One can buy a cheap door in similar dimensions at Home Depot for $500.” I raised my eyebrow.

“The wood is Forest Stewardship Council certified,” she added. “It was made to last 200 years!”

Green dishwasher soap doesn’t work; Encourages soap smuggling

The Associated Press reports that,

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don’t work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

More…

Real estate agent Patti Marcotte of Spokane stocks up on detergent at a Costco in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and doesn’t care who knows it.

“Yes, I am a smuggler,” she said. “I’m taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with.”

(In truth, the ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent — not its use or possession — so Marcotte is not in any legal trouble.)

Marcotte said she tried every green brand in her dishwasher and found none would remove grease and pieces of food. Everybody she knows buys dishwasher detergent in Idaho, she said.

Supporters of the ban acknowledge it is not very popular.

“I’m not hearing a lot of positive feedback,” conceded Shannon Brattebo of the Washington Lake Protection Association, a prime mover of the ban. “I think people are driving to Idaho.”

As the American Thinker put it,

It’s not easy being green.

From the dishwasher soap industry,

“We’ve tried to market no-phosphate dishwasher detergents, but consumers flatly rejected them.”

Cap-and-Trade War

From today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page:

One of President Obama’s applause lines is that his climate tax policies will create new green jobs “that can’t be outsourced.” But if that’s true, why is his main energy adviser floating a new carbon tariff on imports? Welcome to the coming cap and trade war.

Click here for the full column.