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Energy

Alternative Energy Links

My lack of time to write for this blog has reduced me to a compiler of infrastructure news, though such compilation has always been part of Infrastructure Watch. You can links to several alternative energy articles here.

Google Pledges Investment in African Renewables Project

Google pledged to invest in the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya. You can find more about this project here.

Low Gas Prices No Problem for Solar

Low gas prices didn’t last long around here (at least they didn’t stay less than $2 per gallon for long). Either way, Tony Randall discusses why low oil prices are not a problem for the continued growth of solar power in Bloomberg.

Renewables Generators Face Distribution Problems

As the U.S. develops renewable energy resources, it is facing a problem: the places where we most want to use the energy are some distance from the places where we are best able to generate it.  States in the middle of the country are becoming involved in conflicts between clean energy proponents and landowners, sometimes turning environmental and energy groups into uncomfortable allies.

Missouri is one state where the issue has come to head. Earlier this year, the Public Service Commission rejected a project that would carry energy from wind farms in Kansas to users in Indiana. The commission determined that the project was not needed, and many of the public comments received by the commission expressed opposition to the project. The company behind the proposal, Clean Line Energy Partners LLC of Texas, is also proposing a line to connect Oklahoma to Tennessee, which faces opposition in Arkansas.

Environmental groups have been supportive of the Missouri project. Missouri’s chapter of the Sierra Club has acknowledged that the Clean Line route avoids many environmentally sensitive areas, and expressed hope that it will help in the move away from coal. The Sierra Club also supported a Clean Line project in part of Arkansas where it was opposing an oil pipeline project.

Supreme Court Hears Demand Response Case

The Supreme Court has been hearing arguments in a case related to demand response. Demand response refers to methods large energy user adjust their use to reduced demand during normally high use times when energy is expensive. Demand response reduces peak demand, evens out energy use, and reduces cost of energy production.

Companies have created markets to trade these reductions in demand (sometimes called negawatts) as if they were power being supplied to the market. When major users reduce shift use or move use to off-peak times, they reduce the need to ramp up additional generating units, and save money for generators. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has enshrined this in regulations that require energy wholesalers to pay for these commitments to reduce demand the same amount they pay for a commitment to generate electricity.

The crux of the argument before the court is the regulatory authority of FERC. FERC has authority related to wholesale energy markets, where commitments to generate might be traded (and FERC rules say a commitment to reduce demand should get an equal price). The utility customers who are making the commitments to reduce demand are buying energy in the retail market, which is regulated by states.  Opponents of the FERC rules say that it is getting into retail markets in which it has not authority. FERC argues that it is the only agency that can effective regulate this kind of trading, and that there is a public good in the demand reductions and efficiencies provided by demand response.

You can find more about this case here, along with a description of how it may become important to small retail electricity users (i.e. almost all of us).

Infrastructure

John Oliver Thinks Infrastructure Sexy

Comedian John Oliver featured America’s infrastructure in a segment on his show Last Week Tonight. Obviously, Oliver’s tone is humorous and mocking, but he presents a thoughtful essay on the issue. You can see it on YouTube.

States

New Environmental Director in Nebraska

Congratulations to Jim Macy, who was recently appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts to serve as director of the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. Macy has worked in the area of environmental regulation and compliance for decades, including leadership roles at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Transportation

States Take Lead on Infrastructure Funding

Washington senate leaders have proposed to raise the state gas tax to 11.7 cents per gallon over the next three years. The proposal would also redirect a portion of the state’s sales tax to its transportation fund (more here).

Oregon will experiment with a program of fees based on miles driven rather than a gas tax beginning this summer (more here). Many think this is a more rational way to fund highways.

In my home state of the Missouri, the governor came just short of calling for a gas tax hike as part of the state of the state address. Tax Justice Blog has a nice summary of proposals in several other states.

Water

Baltimore Sewers Featured on Radio

The radio program Marketplace featured the Baltimore, MD, sewer system and the issues associated with a large, aging infrastructure (listen to or read the story here). Baltimore is not unique; these problems are plaguing cities across the nation.

San Francisco Opens New Hetch Hetchy Tunnel

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission opened the New Irvington Tunnel. The 3.5-mile, 9-ft diameter tunnel will carry 265 million gallons a day. It is part of the Hetch Hetchy system, which brings water from reservoirs as far away as Yosemite National Park, 167 miles. (Read more about the project at KQED.)

Real-Time Sensor for Bacteria in Water

A device has been developed in Denmark that can detect bacteria in water. Of course, not all bacteria is harmful, so it seems the usefulness of the tool may be limited to screening for now. However, it continuous, real-time monitoring could be a useful screen to determine when additional testing is should be performed or when a contamination event started. If commercial versions of the sensor are affordable, multiple sensors could be placed in a drinking water distribution system to continuously monitor water quality, disinfection effectiveness, and potential contamination.  You can find out more about the sensor here.

Water and Art

Adres Jacque will build a temporary structure that uses plants to purify water in the courtyard of MoMA PS1. Organisms in the structure will glow in the dark to provide light. See this Fast Company article for more information.

Federal Environment & Infrastructure News

More Challenges to Stormwater Rules

We previously posted about the court overturn of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that limited stormwater discharges.  It looks like federal stormwater rules will get an overhaul by next year.

EPA recently entered an agreement to settle a lawsuit brought by the National Homebuilders Association, Utility Water Act Group, and Wisconsin Builders Association. These groups challenged rules that established national numeric limits on stormwater discharges. EPA agreed to remove the numeric limits and clarify requirements related to best management practices.

This does not mean the end of numeric limits on pollutants in stormwater.  Anticipate permits for stormwater discharges to continue to have numeric limits, but limits based on state water quality standards rather than a uniform national standard.

Related posts and articles

EPA Reconsiders Stormwater Discharge Rule (CE News, Feb., 15, 2013)

More Reactions to the State of the State

Infrastructure USA put together a nice summary of responses to the State of the Union from several infrastructure stakeholder organizations.

More River Problems

We’ve been covering the problems the drought has caused shipping on the Mississippi River. This is just one issue in the larger context of infrastructure on our inland rivers. Our major rivers are our oldest highways and they continue to serve as affordable pathways to transport masses of goods.  Sea Power has a good article on this issues.

Federal News Brief

Hersman Floated as Potential Nominee for Transportation Secretary

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman has been rumored to be a top candidate to replace Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation.

LaHood Criticizes Congress, Republican on Highway Funding

Departing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood criticized Congress, and especially his former Republican colleagues, for failing to pass a long-term transportation bill. He anticipates bold moves from President Obama “when he gets around to it.”

Reactions to the State of the Union

As you might expect, infrastructure organizations were disappointed by President Obama’s State of the Union address.  ASCE gently criticized the president’s “Fix-It-First” plan because it does not address the long-term need to pay for infrastructure maintenance.

Supreme Court May Hear Interstate Water Dispute

Kansas has asked the Supreme Court to hear its case against Nebraska.  The Republic River is an important source of water for agriculture in both states, and the Wheat State claims the Cornhuskers are taking more than its fair share.

Don’t Mess With Texas Water

Texas has water problems.  Like many other places in the country, agriculture in the state was damaged by severe droughts.  Within six months, 18 public water systems could be out of water.  By 2060, the state could be short of its water needs by 8.3 million acre-feet (more than 2.7 trillion gallons).

To address this issue, the Texas Legislature is considering using $2 billion from the state rainy day fund to pay for several water resources project that are part of its 50-year plan.  Twenty percent of the funds would be set aside for water conservation and reuse projects.

Texas’ concern about water resources has extended into an interstate conflict.  The state has asked the Supreme Court to hear its claim that New Mexico is not meeting its obligations under the Rio Grande Compact.

The Rio Grande Compact is an agreement that allocates water from its eponymous river to Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.  Texas claims that wells drilled in New Mexico since the signing of the compact are depleting flow in the river.  New Mexico officials claim that it is not violating the compact because it is delivering the required amount of water; so long as that happens, it believes state water laws should prevail.

Related posts and articles

Amid Drought, Water Wars Pick Up on Borders (White, A., Texas Tribune, Jan. 16, 2013)

Around the Nation: Texas Legislature Concerned about Water (Infrastructure Watch, Jan. 15, 2013)

As Texas Bakes in a Long Drought, Water Becomes a Focus for Legislators (Fernandez, M., New York Times, Jan. 12, 2013)

Drought Fuels Water War Between Texas and New Mexico (Postel, S., Resilience.org [National Geographic Newswatch], Jan. 21, 2013)

Texas, New Mexico tangle over water (Haederle, M., Los Angeles Times, Jan 25, 2013)

Courts Overturn EPA Rules

Cellulosic Biofuel Mandate

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules setting quotas for cellulosic biofuels use.  These quotas began after passage of a law in 2007 to encourage “advanced” biofuels.

Production of cellulosic biofuels has been slower than projected.  The American Petroleum Institute, which brought the suit against the EPA, argued that gasoline refiners were required to meet a requirement they had little control over meeting.  The cellulosic biofuel producers were getting all the carrots; the gas producers were getting all the sticks.

The court more or less agreed.  They found that the quota was not consistent with likely Congressional intent.  In addition, the rule differed from other environmental regulation in that the group regulated, refiners, was not the group in control of the technology the agency wanted to develop, producers of cellulosic biofuels.

This is not a complete overturn of quotas for advanced biofuels use.  There are more widely available non-cellulosic biofuels that meet the legal definition of advanced biofuels that the agency can substitute to keep up the quota.

Stormwater Is Not a Pollutant

EPA also lost a case in federal district court related to stormwater discharges.  EPA rules established in 2011 limited stormwater discharges into Accontic Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River.  Virginia sued claiming that EPA only has the authority to limit pollutants, not the discharge of stormwater itself.  The court agreed.

So far, it is not common for EPA to regulate stormwater discharge as a surrogate for setting limits on the pollutants in stormwater.  They have used the strategy only in Virginia and Missouri.

Related posts and articles

Court Overturns E.P.A.’s Biofuels Mandate (Wald, M. L., New York Times, Jan. 25, 2013)

Judge: EPA Can't Treat Stormwater as Pollutant (Honeywell, R., Governing FedWatch blog, Jan. 8, 2013)

Book Review: Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Barnett, Cynthia.  Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2011.

America has a problem.  We’re a thirsty nation.  Actually, it’s more like we’re addicted to water, abusing it.  We subsidize its use on a grand scale in industries that use it inefficiently, even wastefully, and in locations where it is naturally hard to come by.  We allocate it based on facts that are no longer true, and were doubtful or changing even as we made our policies.  In our sometimes blind enthusiasm, we overreached and now we are mire in unintended consequences.  To top it off, we rarely change our ways until a crisis is already upon us.

Cynthia Barnett describes these problems in her book Blue Revolution.  She also looks around the country and the world for solutions.  Her essential solution is a water ethic.

Atnone time, people were intimately connected to water.  Farmers watched for rain.  Children fetched pails of it from the stream or worked a pump handle.  Communities were built around watermills where people brought in grain or carried away flour. 

Of course, water is no less essential to modern life.  We depend on it for drinking, cleaning, sanitation and green lawns.  It is essential or the energy that light and cools our homes and powers our computers.  The abundance of food in our groceries stores is partly a testament to the abundance of water used to irrigate fields that don’t get enough rainfall for the crops we grow.

What is different is the way we view water.  For most of us it is cheap, nearly free in comparison to other utilities and services we use in our homes.   We can get as much as we want whenever we want by opening a valve.  Water is something we hold back with dams, divert with canals, and pump through pipes.  It bends to our will—except when it doesn’t.

Our water policies and technologies have often had unintended consequences.  We turned deserts into productive fields, but much of the water is lost to evaporation.  We moved water great distances to supply cities, but it encouraged profligacy that threatens those distant, expensive supplies.  Dams that were engineering marvels may soon stand at the ends of empty lakes.

Sure, changes in technology and policy are needed to stop, and hopefully reverse, these problems.  Barnett doesn’t stop there.  Our approach to water arises from the way we value it, think about it, and relate to it.  Our present state came from valuing water little, thinking about it little unless it was our job, and relating to it little except for those who intensely depended on a highly subsidized supply.

The water ethic Barnett proposes would value water, both in the sense of personal appreciation and economic cost and opportunity.  It would seek the best use of the water we have, especially what is locally available.  It creates opportunities for people to contact water and understand where it comes from and how it is affected by use.  It is something that spreads organically from person to person, neighborhood to neighborhood, business to business, and city to city.

It is an ethic that is within reach, too.  Barnett describes how places that have long had extreme relationships with extreme water environments, like the Netherlands, Singapore and Australia, have changed their relationship with water.  These are not just policy shifts, they are cultural changes.  Even in the United States, there are places where a new water ethic is taking hold and people understand how important and fragile water is.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Elixir by Brian Fagan

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

This review of Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett appears courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews, where you can find review of other books on water and ethics.

Federal Activity

Georgia Appeals Lake Lanier Decision
Infrastructure Watch has been loosely following the Lake Lanier case. A federal judge ruled that the Corp of Engineers could no longer divert water from the lake to supply water to the City of Atlanta. Georgia recently appealed the decision.

Related posts and articles:
Courts Could Affect Uses of Lake Lanier
Georgia Loses Lake Lanier Battle
Judge Winnows Down Central Question in Lake Lanier Case
Most Important Case for Georgia in Decades

Bill Would Authorized Reimbursement to States for International Water Projects
Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (TX) has introduced a bill (H.R. 947) that would authorized the International Boundary and Water Commission to reimburse the States of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas for the costs of water projects undertaken under the jurisdiction of the Commission.

Kansas City to Improve Sewers, Decrease Overflows

The City of Kansas City, MO, agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems, at a cost of more than $2.5 billion over 25 years, to eliminate unauthorized overflows of untreated raw sewage and to reduce pollution levels in urban stormwater. A consent decree filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri requires the city to implement an overflow control plan.

When completed, the sewer system will be able to capture and convey combined stormwater and sewage to the city’s treatment plants. This will keep untreated sewage from reaching surface waters.

Under the agreement, Kansas City will pay a civil penalty of $600,000 to the federal government, in addition to the $2.5 billion it will spend to repair, modify and rebuild its sewer system. As part of the agreement, the city will spend $1.6 million on a supplemental environmental project to implement a voluntary sewer connection and septic tank closure program for income-eligible residential property owners who elect to close their septic tanks and connect to the public sewer.

Kansas City’s, sewer system collects and receives domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater from a population of approximately 650,000 people in the city and 27 neighboring satellite communities, including a portion of Johnson County, KS. The system covers more than 420 square miles, and includes seven wastewater treatment plants, 38 pumping stations and more than 2,800 miles of sewer lines, making it one of the nation’s largest.

Of the 420 square miles covered by the system, 58 square miles mostly within the city’s urban core are presently served by combined sewers, which carry both stormwater and wastewater, and the remainder of the system is served by separated sewers. Under the consent decree, Kansas City has agreed to expedite certain projects that are expected to provide more immediate relief to residences and other properties situated in under-served areas of the city.

Since 2002, Kansas City has experienced approximately 1,294 illegal sewer overflows, including at least 138 unpermitted combined sewer overflows, 390 sanitary sewer overflows, and 766 backups in buildings and private properties. The overflows are in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and the terms of the city’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for operation of its sewer system.

The settlement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court. A copy of the consent decree is available on the Justice Department Web site and on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 Web site.

You can read the original EPA news release here.

More on Missouri River in North Dakota

After recently posting about a federal court decision to revisit the environmental impacts of a Bureau of Reclamation project in North Dakota, Infrastructure Watch came across this article on water demands for the oil industry in western North Dakota.

Missouri, Manitoba Force Bureau of Reclamation to Take “Hard Look” at Project

Missouri and the Canadian province of Manitoba sued to prevent the transfer of water from Lake Sakakawea of the Missouri River to Minot, ND. They claim that this interbasin transfer would introduce alien species to the waterways effected by the project.

This is the second time Judge Rosemary Collyer (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) has ordered the Bureau of Reclamation to take a “hard look” at the project and its environmental effects. Collyer found that the Bureau’s environmental review was too narrow, considering only the anticipated change in lake levels as a result of the transfer.

Portions of the pipeline that is part of the Northwest Area Water Supply Project have already been constructed. The project ran into trouble in 2002 when Manitoba first filed suit.

Relate posts and articles:
Missouri Comes Out Swingin Over River Divserion Plan
Judge Orders Interior to Re-examine Water Pipeline Plan

Georgia Loses Lake Lanier Battle

A federal judge recently ruled that Georgia had illegally taken more water from Lake Lanier than was permitted under the federal law that authorized creation of the lake. Much of this water was used to supply drinking water to Atlanta.

The court gave Georgia three years to negotiate new allocations with Alabama and Florida. Alternatively, Congress may set new allocations by law.

Related articles and posts:
Court rulings could settle water war
Ruling leaves North Georgia with water crisis
Takin' Atlanta to the Woodshed
Water Resources News (Aug. 27, 2008)
Water Resources News (Aug. 19, 2008)
Question of right to water central in Lanier case

Water Resources News

Courts Could Affect Uses of Lake Lanier
Decisions from two federal courts could affect the use of water in Lake Lanier. In a case before the Supreme Court, Georgia is seeking validation of it’s agreement with the Corp of Engineers to use the lake as a water supply. A U.S. District Court is considering whether Congress purposed to use the lake as a drinking water source when it authorized its construction.

Additional Information
Court rulings could settle water war (Atlanta Constitution-Journal, Aug. 21, 2008)
Water Resources News

Environmental Protection Agency Considers What’s Navigable on Los Angeles River
The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of starting its own assessment of whether the upper reaches of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries are traditional navigable waters. Such a determination would affect whether the federal Clean Water Act would apply to the waterways. The Corp of Engineers has already determined that the lower 50 miles of the river are navigable.

Additional Information
Los Angeles River may get protection through the Clean Water Act (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 19, 2008)

McCain Backs Off Renegotiation of Colorado River Water Compact
Sen. John McCain, presumptive Republican nominee for president, recently backed off comments he made indicating support for a gradual renegotiation of an agreement that has governed water rights and use along the Colorado River since 1922. He says his comments were misunderstood and he does not support a change to the agreement. Reaction to the concept of renegotiating was largely negative in the affected states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and Democrats have sought to make it a campaign issue in the region.

Additional Information
McCain now says Western water pact should stand (National Examiner [Associated Press], Aug. 20, 2008)

Water Resources News

Judge Winnows Down Central Question in Lake Lanier Case

U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson has announced that the first question to be decided in an ongoing multi-state battle for water in Lake Lanier is whether or not metropolitan Atlanta has the right to use the lake as a primary water supply. Alabama and Florida, which originated the suit against the Corp of Engineers to keep it from providing more water from the lake to Atlanta, argue that the drinking water supply was not a purpose for which the lake was authorized, but a secondary benefit. Georgia officials argue that drinking water supply was an original purpose of the lake.

Additional information:
Question of right to water central in Lanier case (Stacy Shelton, Atlanta Journal-Consitution, Aug. 12, 2008)