Energy

Richmond Planning Commission to Require a Comprehensive Cap on Chevron's Crude Oil

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:52:32 -0500

Community applauds the decision as necessary to prevent more pollution and related health ailments in the Bay Area

The Richmond Planning Commission voted to require a "comprehensive crude cap" as a part of Chevron's proposed expansion of its Richmond oil refinery. "This was a significant step fotward for environmental justice in the city of Richmond and beyond," said Dr. Henry Clark, executive director of the West County Toxics Coalition. Hundreds of community members with the Richmond Alliance for Environmental Justice, a coalition of community-based organizations, packed the hearing and urged Richmond's Planning Commission to stop Chevron from expanding the refinery's capacity to process heavier and dirtier crude oil.

Energy Costs, Conservation, and the Poor

Editor2 — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:07:04 -0500

By Andrew McAllister

Meeting monthly payments for household energy use is increasingly difficult for families with incomes at or near the poverty level. While the system of extraction, generation, and distribution of energy in usable form has many other economic and environmental impacts on most sectors of society, for the poor, the monthly bill is this system's most direct consequence. Living in (often forced to rent) the least efficient housing in the country, the typical poor household faces energy costs of up to 25% of its total income. This household has but two options: reduce consumption and/or look for aid in meeting unmanageable energy costs. Federal funding for both of these options, however, has been dwindling since the mid-80s; more and more responsibility for controlling these costs to the poor falls on local governments and groups.

Energy Policy and Inner City Abandonment

Editor2 — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:42:18 -0500

By Carl Anthony

Few people realize the price inner cities have paid for our national love affair with the automobile. But the evidence of devastation is not hard to find. White flight to the metropolitan fringe, driven in part by racism, is linked to destruction of human resources in the metropolitan core, to waste of petroleum energy, pollution of air and water, and degradation of urban biological resources. But older urban neighborhoods can help lead the way to more sustainable cities and suburbs.

Oakland First City in the US to Contemplate Oil Independence!

Editor2 — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:44:08 -0600

The Oakland Apollo Alliance is excited to announce a recent step forward for "green-collar jobs" in Oakland. In October, Oakland became the nation's first city to explore "oil independence." The City Council voted unanimously to create an Oil Independence Task Force of experts to effectively research and write a plan for radically reducing Oakland's oil consumption by the year 2020. This is a critical development because the City Council required job creation to be a top priority in the search for solutions. In addition to restoring our environment, "Oil Independence" will also mean job opportunities for Oakland residents! The Task Force is expected to complete its work by mid-2007. The Oakland Apollo Alliance helped write portions of the City Council resolution, and also organized a well-attended rally at City Hall that highlighted growing public support for this effort. The Oakland Apollo Alliance is grateful to City Councilmember Nancy Nadel for her leadership in sponsoring the legislation.

Debunking False Solutions

Editor2 — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:29:59 -0500

By Sasha Lilley

Earlier this year, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman visited agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland’s Decatur, Illinois, headquarters to tout its part in President Bush’s Biofuels Initiative. The secretary posed for photos with then Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Chair G. Allen Andreas and announced that the Department of Energy would offer up to $160 million for the construction of three bio-refineries to expand U.S. ethanol production.

"Partnerships with industries like these will lead to new innovation and discovery that will usher in an era of reduced dependence on foreign sources of oil, while strengthening our economy at home,” Secretary Bodman said from ADM’s trade floor. Given the absence of conditions imposed by the Department of Energy, the three bio-refineries could well be partially coal-powered. ADM already operates coal-fired plants at its company base in Decatur, Illinois, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is currently adding another coal-powered facility at its Clinton, Iowa ethanol plant and planning another coal fired plant in the town of Columbus, Nebraska.

The Greening Economy

Editor2 — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:57:16 -0500

By Jackie Tsou Related story: Richmond Turns Green

In municipalities across the country, an unusual phenomenon is gaining momentum. It is the merger of two ideas traditionally believed to be opposites of each other—economic development and environmental protection—to create strategies for “green economic development,” or “sustainable development.” The creation of a “sustainable economy” is an attempt to find effective solutions to our country’s dependency on fossil fuels, while simultaneously boosting local economies through job creation. Now investors and policy-makers everywhere are pleasantly surprised to discover that green economic development promotes both, environmental protection and production performance.

Contaminated Contracting in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Editor2 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:38:02 -0500

By Rita J.King

How is it possible that soil samples from St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans have been found to reveal a serious health threat by countless environmental groups, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to insist that the area is safe, despite massive spills of oil and toxic chemicals?

“The first step in solving any problem is admitting that you have one, but the government is pretending there’s no problem,” says Anne Rolfes, executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB), a non-profit that measures air and soil quality for residents near Exxon Mobil’s Chalmette power plant. After Katrina, LABB empowered residents to measure the contamination stemming from the toxic stew of chemicals and oil saturating the parish from 44 spills and Murphy Oil’s Meraux refinery.

Indigenous Power: A New Energy Economy

Editor2 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:48:33 -0500

By Winona LaDuke

The U.S. is the wealthiest and most dominant country in the world, yet it can’t keep the lights on in New York City, nor can it provide power in “liberated” Baghdad. Centralized power production based on fossil fuel and nuclear resources has served to centralize political power, to disconnect communities from responsibility and control over energy, and to create a vast wasteful system. We need to recover democracy. And one key element is democratizing power production.

Let’s face it, we are energy junkies. The U.S. is the largest energy market in the world, and we consume one third of the world’s energy resources with five percent of the population. We are undeniably addicted—our economy is based on the burning of dinosaurs and on wasteful production systems. In other words, oil. Ninety-seven percent of the total world oil consumption has been in the past 70 years.

Cycle of Destruction: Energy Exploitation on Sacred Native Lands

Editor2 — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:56:56 -0600

By Clayton Thomas-Muller

Alternative Energy

Editor2 — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:44:27 -0500

Innovative ideas and steps toward a more sustainable global system

By the International Forum on Globalization

There is no longer any reason for this unsustainable [global energy] situation to persist. Considering the social, environmental, and security problems intrinsic to fossil fuel-based economies, it is a wonder that this form of energy production has survived to the present at all.