Before the Clean Water Act, two-thirds of waterways were deemed unsafe for fishing and swimming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a look back at the act today, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Nancy Stoner writes that until the act was passed, “municipal and household wastes flowed untreated into our rivers, lakes and streams. Harmful chemicals were poured into the water from factories, chemical manufacturers, power plants and other facilities.”
There was public pressure at the time to sign the act into law. In June 1969, an oil slick on the Cuyahoga river in Ohio actually caught fire, burning for half an hour and causing fifty thousand dollars in damage. Lake Erie was deemed a “giant cesspool,” with only three of its 62 beaches rated completely safe for swimming.
Tonight presidential candidate Mitt Romney will face incumbent President Barack Obama in the second of three debates in a tight race for an election just weeks away. Energy has been more of an issue in this election than recent presidential contests, with the candidates squaring off on coal, green jobs and climate change.
Today a new nationwide poll of over two thousand people by the University of Texas at Austin provides a glimpse into what voters feel about the policies of both candidates. And the results show a preference for the current president’s policies.
“Overall, 37 percent of respondents say Obama’s platform is best for the country, while 28 percent favor Romney’s views on energy,” says the new poll. “More than a third of those surveyed (35 percent) are not sure whose energy policies they prefer or are undecided.”
Sheril Kirshenbaum, director of the University of Texas at Austin Energy Poll, says in a statement that while the economy is a big issue this election, “two out of three consumers say energy issues are important to them,” she says. “Support for increased production of domestic energy supplies remains strong, and we’re also seeing a lot of interest in the promotion of alternative forms of energy and energy-saving technologies that crosses party lines.”
And climate change is becoming more of an issue as well. Here’s what the poll found: Continue Reading →
When Jed Clampett was “shootin’ at some food and up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude,” TV viewers might have thought it was funny. But as it turns out, some of crude oil pipelines in use today in the United States were built about the same time The Beverly Hillbillieshit the air on CBS in 1962. And when the crude comes bubblin’ up from pipelines now? It’s not so funny.
“In 2010, several systems that remain in service today already exceeded 50 years in age, with no major plans to retire existing infrastructure based on … age alone,” said a panel of pipeline executives in “Crude Oil Infrastructure“, a report to the National Petroleum Council. The panel warned that while age doesn’t always matter, “integrity issues,” including corrosion and failure of welded seams, “will become more common due to a number of age-related issues.”
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-860, “Annual Electric Generator Report.” Note: Capacity values represent net summer capacity.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that natural gas energy production finally tied with energy generated from coal in April. Now, that group is projecting that energy from coal-fired plants will likely contract in the next five years.
Between 2012 and 2016, almost 27 gigawatts of energy production from 175 coal-fired generators are expected to be lost – an amount that accounts for 8.5% of total coal-fired energy generation in 2011.
These losses are more than four times greater than the losses experienced during the last five-year period. And 2012, by all accounts, should be the largest one-year decline in coal power generation thus far with a total loss of 9 gigawatts.
According to the report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, several factors have contributed to coal’s decline: Continue Reading →
The US Drought Monitor Map of July 19 shows marked success for Central and East Texas after just one week of strong rains.
Extra! Extra! It’s the Drought Monitor Map we’ve been waiting for – the one that tallies last week’s plentiful rains. As expected, much progress was made. Perhaps the most notable change on the map: almost all of Southeast Texas is in the white, meaning completely drought-free and likely to stay that way.
In addition, the rains were so strong in Central Texas that parts of the area moved down a whole drought stage in just one week. Travis County, which contains Austin, moved from Stage 2 of the drought to mostly Stage 1. (There is still a small sliver in the northwestern part of the county in Stage 2.) Williamson County, directly north of Travis County, moved from mostly Stage 3 to mostly Stage 2. Several counties west of San Antonio moved from Stage 2 to Stage 1 in just one week as well.
As Texas gradually pries itself out of drought, much of the rest of the country delves deeper into it. According to the National Climactic Data Center, 56 percent of the US is now facing drought conditions. This is significant because it is the largest percentage of area since the infamous drought period of the 1950s. Since much of this is taking place in America’s Corn Belt, officials are concerned about the increase in the price of grain, especially corn.
Back in Texas, progress was real and rapid last week, but do residents of the state no longer need worry about the drought? The consensus amongst some of the state’s meteorologists: the rainfall was great, but it’s gonna take a lot more than a week’s worth of rain to get out of a two-year long record drought. Continue Reading →
Yet another earthquake has rattled North Texas. Early Tuesday morning, the city of Keene, 25 miles south of Fort Worth, experienced what the U.S. Geological Survey says was a 2.4 magnitude earthquake.
“We’ve been looking at the question of whether the number of earthquakes occurring across the mid-continent has changed in recent years. And we find that there is a statistically significant increase in the rate just over the past several years. And many of these are in areas where we know there is a lot of energy activity,” U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Bill Ellsworth tells StateImpact Texas.
Natural Gas energy production has finally tied coal.
For the first time, natural gas has tied with coal. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says that energy generation from natural gas-fired plants became “virtually equal” to energy generation from coal-fired plants in April.
Preliminary data shows that each fuel provides 32 percent of total energy generation, with natural gas generating 95.9 million megawatt hours – a figure just slightly less than that of coal, at 96 million megawatt hours.
According to the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook, natural gas production has increased. The reason? More drilling in “shale plays with high concentrations of natural gas” and “recent technological advances.” Texas has seen its fair share of this development with increased drilling in the Eagle Ford and Barnett Shale.
And the EIA projects that over the next 25 years, electricity generation from coal will fall to 38 percent – the result of increased competition from natural gas and renewable energy, along with the impact of new environmental regulations.
Sheyda Aboii is an intern with StateImpact Texas.
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