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The BEAT
News
November 19, 2008 |
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Follow all the environmental news and events in Berkshire County delivered to your computer weekly.
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In the News
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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The Cost of Bottled Water
(from Water Headlines for November 17, 2008, a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water)
Tap water is a tremendous value for families and communities, typically costing less than half a penny per gallon. Bottled water is often an important and convenient choice for consumers and the traveling public but it certainly has its costs.
Consumers should know about the carbon footprint and environmental impacts of bottled water. It takes a lot of energy to manufacture, transport, and store bottled water. Experts estimate the plastic bottle manufacturing process alone consumes 17 million barrels of oil a year.
Street litter and marine debris are costly concerns, as well. Marine debris is a major pollution problem affecting the world?s oceans, coasts, and watersheds. Although impacts may be more visible at the local beach; marine debris is a national and international problem. Anything can become marine debris. Extremely light-weight items, like plastic bottles, are more likely to become marine debris than heavier items because they can easily be carried by wind from one location to another.
Think globally and drink locally. Tap into the savings and recycle for the streams' sake.
For more information about Water on Tap visit: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/wot/index.html
For more information about the Waste Reduction Model: http://epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/calculators/Warm_home.html
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Project Manager / Trainer
This is a position focusing on managing projects and teaching workshops related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and green building. The position may involve technical assistance, field work, program development, teaching, and possibly staff and program management.
Responsibilities:
- Developing and teaching workshops, classes, and trainings on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and green building using Microsoft PowerPoint or equivalent
- Managing projects at CET that may vary in scope and duration, including direct communication with the client
- Assisting with program development, including implementing new programs, assisting with hiring new staff, and training staff
- Answering questions for staff members and the public on advanced building technologies like solar water heating, solar PV, geothermal heat pumps, and ventilation systems
- Meeting with builders, insulation contractors, and others to recruit participation in CET programs and provide technical support for successful participation in CET programs
- Assist with CET’s energy program work through staff training, quality assurance inspections, and implementation of new services
Qualifications:
- Minimum of 3 years experience in energy efficiency / renewable energy / green building technologies
- Excellent teaching and facilitation skills
- Project management experience
- Excellent computer skills - including word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software
- Ability to prioritize under changing circumstances
- Excellent organizational and time management skills
- Ability to create and work within a budget
- Passion for the environment and community involvement
This position will be a full-time, year-round salaried position with benefits. The expected range of hours per week is 35-45. This position requires travel throughout western Massachusetts on a regular basis.
CET is an equal opportunity employer.
Send cover letter and resume by e-mail or post to:
Megan McDonough
Center for Ecological Technology
26 Market Street
Northampton, MA 01060
meganm@cetonline.org
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Climate Crisis Coalition Call to Action
December 6, 2008 - Celebrating a New Day for the Earth
Friday, November 14
To Friends of the Climate Crisis Coalition,
On Saturday, December 6, 2008, concerned citizens around the world will be participating in the fourth annual Global Day of Climate Action. This important day will be midway through the annual UN climate conference, taking place this year in Poznan, Poland. The Climate Crisis Coalition's international ally, The Global Climate Campaign, is synchronizing demonstrations around the world in as many places as possible - to call on world leaders to take urgent action on climate change. As in previous years, CCC is calling on friends and allies to partake in any way they can.
This year, actions in the U.S. are particularly pertinent because the U.N. conference is going to set the parameters for the all-important post-Kyoto treaty to be signed in December, 2009 in Copenhagen. And with the hoped-for dawning of a new era in Washington, this will represent a last chance for the U.S. to clearly reverse its obstructionist role and set the tone so that a significant, strong and binding treaty can be negotiated. The perils our planet faces demand no less.
CCC will again provide an online network where people can find out about events taking place across the country and groups and individuals can register new events. We only have three weeks to put this together, but with our all-consuming elections behind us, and growing number of citizens eager to keep the President-elect Obama and the new Congress focused on the climate crisis, CCC is convinced that it is not too late for significant actions to take place across the U.S. on or around December 6th. Many are all ready in the works.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Rallies, teach-ins, forums, vigils, movie showings and other gatherings of all types are encouraged. CCC will publicize and report on these actions through postings at the Climate Action: 12/6/08 site.
The Issues
CCC is urging participants to concentrate on four demands.
Binding and enforceable climate legislation in the U.S within the first 100 days of the new Congress that will begin to sharply curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. The U.S. must also exert leadership toward reaching a similarly effective post-Kyoto treaty.
Reduced levels of atmospheric CO2. Our allies at 350.org, inspired by climate scientist James Hansen and author Bill McKibben, are making a compelling case for a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, not just to level off atmospheric concentrations that are already far to high, but to reduce them to a level where the earth and life as we know it has a fighting chance. Top climate scientists have come up with the number of 350 parts per million: that must be our goal and our rallying cry.
100% carbon-free electricity within 10 years. Al Gore has issued a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. This is a goal that must be embraced by all.
Pricing carbon pollution will create powerful incentives for our economy to rely upon energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, both of which will reduce emissions, create green jobs and promote economic and social equity. This involves gradually-increasing carbon taxes on the use of coal, oil and gas, with revenues used to reduce other taxes or distributed directly to individuals on an equal basis. Any of this revenue directed toward developing green energy must be for truly renewable sources - excluding nuclear power and 'clean' coal.
CCC and its allies are planning a major petitioning campaign to Congress and the Obama Administration requesting that equitable carbon pricing be an essential component of a new comprehensive climate bill that needs to be enacted in the first 100 days of the 111th Congress. The website where groups and individuals can support this effort, sign the petition, and send letters to Washington will be launched on November 20th!
We now have remarkable opportunities at a unique juncture in our history. Any help that you can offer would be most appreciated. Please let us know by return email if you can assist with the December 6th Global Day of Action or with our Carbon Pricing Initiative. And, please click here to make a contribution which would now be especially appreciated.
Together, with allies around the world, we can make December 6th, 2008 an event that helps move us toward a New Day for the Earth.
Tom Stokes, CCC Coordinator
tstokes@kyotoandbeyond.org
Ezra Small, Project Organizer
esmall@kyotoandbeyond.org
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Proposed New Hazardous Waste Regulations for Public Comment
Name & Citation of Regulation(s): Hazardous Waste Regulations -- 310 CMR 30.000
Brief Explanation and Rationale for Proposed Changes: Several of these proposed changes to the regulations are intended to clarify the regulatory and permitting requirements for waste oil, used oil fuel and other regulated recyclable materials. Other revisions are clerical fixes. One final change involves the adoption of a federal exclusion for certain medical nitroglycerine wastes.
Hazardous waste transporters and generators indicated that additional clarity in certain areas would make it easier for them to comply with the hazardous waste regulations. MassDEP is adopting the medical nitroglycerine exclusion because it agrees with EPA that, in finished dosage forms, medical nitroglycerine that does not exhibit a hazardous waste characteristic poses little if any threat to human health and the environment.
Web Link to View Draft Regulations: http://www.mass.gov/dep/service/regulations/newregs.htm#hwregrev
Public Hearing Information: Public hearings will be conducted under the provisions of M.G.L. Chapter 30A.
For dates and locations for the hearings, see http://www.mass.gov/dep/public/hearings/hwregrev.htm.
Testimony may be presented orally and/or in writing at the public hearings. The period for accepting written comments will remain open until 5 p.m. on December 19, 2008. Submit to: MassDEP, Business Compliance Division, c/o James Paterson, One Winter St., 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02108.
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First-in-Nation RGGI Auction Brings $13.3 Million to Commonwealth for Use in Energy Efficiency Programs, Winter Energy Costs
Next Carbon Dioxide Auction on December 17 to Include All Ten RGGI States
The second auction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions allowances by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will be held December 17, and all 10 RGGI states - including Massachusetts - are expected to participate in this auction and offer more than 31.5 million allowances for sale. The Commonwealth will be offering more than 4.3 million allowances for sale that day.
The second auction follows the successful first-in-the-nation auction in September when Massachusetts and five other RGGI states sold 12.5 million allowances at a clearing price of $3.07 per allowance. That sale resulted in proceeds of $38,575,783 for Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The Commonwealth will use its share of $13.3 million from the first auction to help fund energy efficiency programs administered by electric and natural gas utilities, start-up of the new Green Communities program that will include renewable energy efforts, and fund additional efficiency programs to tackle the expected high winter energy costs.
"We will use these funds to help municipalities find greener solutions to their energy challenges, and help consumers reduce their energy bills," said Governor Deval Patrick following the first RGGI auction. "With a difficult winter ahead, we expect to put these resources to work immediately."
The Green Communities Act signed by the Governor in July allows RGGI auction proceeds to be used to fund the Green Communities program of incentives and assistance for municipalities to adopt energy efficiency and renewable energy measures, to support energy efficiency, conservation and demand response programs, and to reimburse the Commonwealth for administrative costs associated with the RGGI program.
Gov. Patrick announced that $3.5 million of the RGGI proceeds will be used for 2008 utility-administered energy efficiency programs, $5 million will be allocated for the start-up of the Green Communities program, $4.3 million will be used for additional energy efficiency efforts to combat high winter energy costs, and $500,000 will be allocated for administrative and vendor costs associated with the state's participation in RGGI.
State environmental officials - Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt and Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Phil Guidice - said they were pleased with the results of the first RGGI auction, adding that RGGI's success shows that auctioning all or most CO2 allowances can work well as part of a market-based program and it can serve as a model for a federal cap-and-trade program.
Massachusetts is one of 10 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states pioneering the first mandatory cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The states have committed to cap and then reduce the amount of CO2 that power plants in their region are allowed to emit, limiting the region's total contribution to atmospheric greenhouse gas levels.
After the 10 RGGI states have stabilized power sector carbon emissions at their capped level by 2014, the cap will be reduced by 2.5 percent each year from 2015 through 2018, resulting in a 10 percent reduction overall.
RGGI intends to hold quarterly auctions during the first RGGI three-year compliance period, commencing January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2011.
The 10 states participating in RGGI are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
For more information about RGGI and the CO2 auctions, turn to: www.mass.gov/dep/air/climate/index.htm#rggi or www.rggi.org
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