White House creates climate analysis job

A scientist from the University of Rhode Island who headed research expeditions in the Arctic and the Indian Ocean will soon join the White House in a new position that targets the worldwide issue of climate change.

Kate Moran, associate dean of URI's Graduate School of Oceanography, begins work Monday as a senior policy analyst for President Barack Obama's Office of Science & Technology Policy. In her new role, Moran will provide advice on issues relating to oceans, the Arctic and global warming.

"Climate affects all aspects of our life, our food, our energy, our politics," Moran said in a telephone interview this week as she hurried to pack for her move to Washington. "It affects defense, security, and so it's crosscutting."

Trained as an engineer, Moran was the co-chair of an Arctic expedition in 2004 that sent scientists to the ice-clogged waters above the Lomonosov Ridge, about 155 miles from the North Pole. The expedition drilled first-of-their-kind core samples from the floor of the Arctic Ocean.

The samples showed that temperatures in the Arctic reached an average 74 degrees during a period of global warming about 55 million years ago, a surprise to scientists who previously believed the polar regions would have remained cooler.

Moran also helped lead the first research team to investigate the sea floor at the site of the 2004 earthquake that triggered a deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. The research team debunked the theory that underwater landslides strengthened the tsunami, showing that existing models used to predict and study tsunamis must be revised.

Closer to home, Moran has become known in the public debate over global warming. She testified last year before a U.S. Senate panel that climate change and its human causes are "unequivocal." She supports a proposal to build a massive wind farm miles off Rhode Island's coast, meant to provide 15 percent of the state's electricity needs and reduce the state's reliance on fossil-fuel power plants.

"I think scientists should be more active in speaking about their own science," she said.

Moran made similar statements about global warming last year during a public presentation on climate change held at URI's campus, eliciting hostile questions from audience members who did not believe global warming or doubted that humans contribute to it, said Peter August, a URI professor of natural resource science.

She didn't flinch during the exchanges, showing skills that August thinks could be helpful in Washington.

"She can hold her ground, she can speak with objective authority," August said. "She doesn't get upset, and she doesn't make people look stupid.

Warm Caribbean, Gulf seas threaten corals

Warm ocean temperatures predicted to persist through October in the Caribbean and the central Gulf of Mexico could mean the loss of huge swaths of corals across those regions, U.S. scientists warned Wednesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch network said the conditions may lead to coral disease outbreaks and bleaching, when the stressed organisms expel the colorful algae living in their tissues, leaving a whitish color.

Coral bleaching that lasts more than a week can kill the organisms, since they rely on the algae for sustenance, leading to the loss of reef habitat for numerous marine species.

Sea surface temperatures in parts of the Caribbean are already at levels typically not seen until late summer months when the water is hottest, said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch.

Bleaching can occur when sea temperatures rise just a few degrees above the average of the warmest summer months in these areas where coral reefs live. The general average for the hottest summer months in the Caribbean is about 84 degrees Fahrenheit, Eakin said.

Slide show Corals in crisis View images taken by researcher John Bruno and others of coral reefs stressed by disease, warming seas and other factors.

He noted that sea temperatures in some parts of this region already are at the higher threshold, around 86 degrees, and that some bleaching has already begun. Those temperatures are expected to hold through October.

Scientists fear the bleaching could exceed what was seen in 2005 in the Caribbean, the worst coral bleaching event in the region's recorded history. In parts of the eastern Caribbean four years ago, up to 90 percent of corals suffered bleaching, with more than half dying.

"Just like any climate forecast, local conditions and weather events can influence actual temperatures. However, we are quite concerned that high temperatures may threaten the health of coral reefs in the Caribbean this year," Eakin said.

NOAA also warned of potential high sea temperatures stressing corals near the central Pacific islands of Kiribati, and between the Northern Mariana Islands and Japan.

Scientists hope the early warnings of potential coral stress will lead governments to take protective steps, including establishing temporary restrictions on users of coral reefs in the areas, such as divers, boaters and anglers

Corals around the world are being stressed by rising sea temperatures, causing bleaching events that expose the organisms to disease and death. Carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels is absorbed by the oceans, making the waters more acidic and corrosive on corals. Land-based pollution, such as sewage, beach erosion, coastal development and overfishing also are to blame, experts say.

About 25 percent of all marine species need coral reefs to live and grow, while 40 percent of fish caught commercially and consumed worldwide use reefs to breed.

Where to store 17,000 tons of mercury?

The U.S. government is trying to find a location to store the country's excess mercury deposits, with seven states being considered. But the government is quickly finding out that very few people want the stuff.

The United States still exports surplus elemental mercury, the purest form, often to developing countries with less restrictive environmental regulations. Then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama sponsored a bill last year to bar mercury exports beginning in 2013, and President George W. Bush signed it.

The bill also requires the Department of Energy to identify a safe, long-term storage site for up to 17,000 tons of mercury, which is so dense that it would fill less than half of an Olympic-size swimming pool. That includes stockpiles held by the federal government, as well as commercial supplies.

Officials are considering sites in seven states:

• Grand Junction, Colo.: Department of Energy's Grand Junction Disposal Site;
• Richland, Wash.: Department of Energy's Hanford Site;
• Idaho Falls, Idaho: Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory;
• Kansas City, Mo.: Department of Energy's Kansas City Plant;
• Aiken, S.C.: Department of Energy's Savannah River Site;
• Hawthorne, Nev.: Hawthorne Army Depot;
• Andrews, Texas: Waste Control Specialists.

Residents are swiftly voicing opposition because mercury is such a toxic substance.

Sometimes called "quicksilver," mercury is a dense, metallic element that occurs naturally in the environment and has been used in gold mining, manufacturing chlorine and caustic soda, batteries, thermometers and other uses. Its use has been in decline in this country since it was linked to health issues, including pulmonary and neural disorders.

Colo., Idaho governors oppose
In Colorado, the Energy Department is considering a site near Grand Junction where uranium tailings are stored. Residents fear mercury could contaminate tributaries that flow into the Colorado River, a water source for millions of people in the West.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter came out against the plan Thursday, saying he will convey his opposition about the proposal to the Department of Energy.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told a radio station that mercury storage there is "not gonna happen" and expressed dismay that he hadn't been notified Idaho National Laboratory was even being considered.

Officials in South Carolina say waste at the Savannah River site from the production of atomic weapons during World War II and the Cold War should be dealt with before more is added.

Nevada officials expressed "grave concerns" about storing the waste at the Hawthorne Army Depot, a 150,000-acre depot in a small, struggling desert town 130 miles south of Reno.

The Bannister Federal Complex near Kansas City is also being considered, but the Kansas City Council unanimously approved a resolution this month protesting the plan.

Best option in Texas?
Officials in Texas, the only site where a private, commercial landfill expressed interest in storing the waste, have taken no position on the proposal. Waste Control Specialists, based in Dallas, already stores PCBs and radioactive waste at its landfill near Andrews in West Texas.

The company has permits to receive mercury at the site, as long as they don't exceed their capacity, said Andrea Morrow, spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The federal government wants to work cooperatively with states to find a safe site, said Frank Marcinowski, the Energy Department's deputy assistant secretary for regulatory compliance.

A draft environmental impact statement is expected to be released for public comment in the fall.

"We are ordered to come up with a site," Marcinowski said. "We see this as an opportunity to help reduce the export and transportation of mercury."

The poison lurking in your plastic water bottle

A Potentially deadly toxin is being absorbed into bottled mineral water from their plastic containers. And the longer the water is stored, the levels of poison increase, research reveals. As the sell-by date on many bottled waters is up to two years, scientists have now called for extensive further studies.
The research by world expert Dr William Shotyk - who has vowed never to drink bottled water again - will be published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal next month. It is sure to revive concerns about the safety of bottled water, the world's fastest-growing drinks industry, worth £1.2billion a year.
The tests found traces of antimony, a chemical used in the making of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, used by most mineral-water sellers.
Small doses of antimony can make you feel ill and depressed. Larger quantities can cause violent vomiting and even death. The study stressed that amounts of antimony were well below official recommended levels. But it also discovered that the levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months.
Professor Shotyk, of Heidelberg University in Germany, said: "I don't want to shock people but here's what I know: Antimony is being continuously released into bottled drinking water. The water in PET bottles is contaminated."
He tested ground water and 15 types of bottled mineral water in his native Canada. The ground water contained two parts per trillion (ppt) of antimony. Bottled water had an average 160 ppt of antimony when opened immediately after bottling. But ground water stored in a PET plastic bottle had 630 ppt of antimony when opened six months later.
Professor Shotyk then tried the experiment in Europe, collecting 48 brands of water in PET bottles and water from its source in the ground at a German bottling plant. The water had four ppt of antimony before being bottled, the contents of a new bottle had 360 ppt and one opened three months later had a staggering 700 ppt.
Antimony finds its way into water by 'leaching' from the plastic in the same way that water absorbs flavour from a teabag. Health authorities said even the higher levels of antimony found are way below official safety guidelines, set at around six parts per billion by international environment agencies.
Elizabeth Griswold, director of the Canadian Bottled Water Association, added: "The levels do not pose a risk to humans. They are simply trace elements."
But David Coggan, a Southampton University-based epidemiologist who works with the Medical Research Council, called for further research into the findings.
He said not enough was known about the effects of antimony and how much had to be consumed before it became dangerous. Last year naphthalene, which can cause liver damage in high doses, was found in two bottles of Volvic mineral water. Bacteria which could leach into bottled water has been cited as a possible reason for rising levels of food poisoning.

Hydroelectric Power

Taking the broadest view, the United States Department of Energy describes the derivation of power from water this way: "Water constantly moves through a vast global cycle, evaporating from lakes and oceans, forming clouds, precipitating as rain or snow, then flowing back down to the ocean. The energy of this water cycle, which is driven by the sun, can be tapped to produce electricity or for mechanical tasks like grinding grain."
In more conventional terms -- or at least those that relate to plugging in your toaster -- the process involves driving water, using a variety of methods, through turbines in order to generate electricity.
This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, from diversion to pumped storage. But by far the most common method for achieving hydropower is through building an impoundment facility, or dam, where water is backed up into a reservoir and then released through turbines as needed to meet energy demands

Natural Gas

Natural gas, the first-cousin to crude oil, is a combustible, gaseous fossil fuel often found in underground reservoirs and comprised of methane and other hydrocarbon compounds. It rarely attracts as much interest or headlines as petroleum, but in the last year or so, many have predicted that a new natural gas era may be dawning.
Natural gas is primarily a source for electrical generation that has become increasingly popular because it burns cleaner than oil and coal and produces less greenhouse gases. Many environmentalists and energy analysts view natural gas as a natural bridge fuel between the dominant fossil fuels of today and the renewable fuels of tomorrow. Once merely a regionally based fuel, frequently flared off in oil fields because it was of little use, natural gas is now fast becoming a major international commodity.
Once "stranded" gas is now being piped and shipped around the world. When recent droughts hit Spain, natural gas came to the rescue as a backup source of electricity. When a nuclear plant was closed in Japan, the Japanese also turned to natural gas. Meanwhile natural gas has become a geopolitical weapon for Russia, which flexes its muscles by turning on and then off a pipeline to Ukraine and Western Europe.

Dark Days for Green Energy

Wind and solar power have been growing at a blistering pace in recent years, and that growth seemed likely to accelerate under the green-minded Obama administration. But because of the credit crisis and the broader economic downturn, the opposite is happening: installation of wind and solar power is plummeting.Factories building parts for these industries have announced a wave of layoffs in recent weeks, and trade groups are projecting 30 to 50 percent declines this year in installation of new equipment, barring more help from the government.
Prices for turbines and solar panels, which soared when the boom began a few years ago, are falling. Communities that were patting themselves on the back just last year for attracting a wind or solar plant are now coping with cutbacks.
“I thought if there was any industry that was bulletproof, it was that industry,” said Rich Mattern, the mayor of West Fargo, N.D., where DMI Industries of Fargo operates a plant that makes towers for wind turbines. Though the flat Dakotas are among the best places in the world for wind farms, DMI recently announced a cut of about 20 percent of its work force because of falling sales.
Much of the problem stems from the credit crisis that has left Wall Street banks reeling. Once, as many as 18 big banks and financial institutions were willing to help finance installation of wind turbines and solar arrays, taking advantage of generous federal tax incentives. But with the banks in so much trouble, that number has dropped to four, according to Keith Martin, a tax and project finance specialist with the law firm Chadbourne & Parke.
Wind and solar developers have been left starved for capital. “It’s absolutely frozen,” said Craig Mataczynski, president of Renewable Energy Systems Americas, a wind developer. He projected his company would build just under half as much this year as it did last year.
The two industries are hopeful that President Obama’s economic stimulus package will help. But it will take time, and in the interim they are making plans for a dry spell.
Solar energy companies like OptiSolar, Ausra, Heliovolt and SunPower, once darlings of investors, have all had to lay off workers. So have a handful of companies that make wind turbine blades or towers in the Midwest, including Clipper Windpower, LM Glasfiber and DMI.
Some big wind developers, like NextEra Energy Resources and even the Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, a promoter of wind power, have cut back or delayed their wind farm plans.
Renewable energy sources like biomass, which involves making electricity from wood chips, and geothermal, which harnesses underground heat for power, have also been slowed by the financial crisis, but the effects have been more pronounced on once fast-growing wind and solar.
Because of their need for space to accommodate giant wind turbines, wind farms are especially reliant on bank financing for as much as 50 percent of a project’s costs. For example, JPMorgan Chase, which analysts say is the most active bank remaining in the renewable energy sector, has invested in 54 wind farms and one solar plant since 2003, according to John Eber, the firm’s managing director for energy investments.
In the solar industry, the ripple effects of the crisis extend all the way to the panels that homeowners put on their roofs. The price of solar panels has fallen by 25 percent in six months, according to Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, who said he expected a further drop of 10 percent by midsummer.
(For homeowners, however, the savings will not be as substantial, partly because panels account for only about 60 percent of total installation costs.)
After years when installers had to badger manufacturers to ensure they would receive enough panels, the situation has reversed. Bill Stewart, president of SolarCraft, a California installer, said that manufacturers were now calling to say, “Hey, do you need any product this month? Can I sell you a bit more?”
The turnaround reflects reduced demand for solar panels, and also an increase in supply of panels and of polysilicon, a crucial material in many panels.
On the wind side, turbines that once had to be ordered far in advance are suddenly becoming available.
“At least one vendor has said that they have equipment for delivery in 2009, where nine months ago they wouldn’t have been able to take new orders until 2011,” Mr. Mataczynski of Renewable Energy wrote in an e-mail message. As he has scaled back his company’s plans, he has been forced to cancel some orders for wind turbines, forfeiting the deposit.
Banks have invested in renewable energy, lured by the tax credits. But with banks tightly controlling their money and profits, the main task for the companies is to find new sources of investment capital.
Wind and solar companies have urged Congress to adopt measures that could help revive the market. But even if a favorable stimulus bill passes, nobody is predicting a swift recovery.
“Nothing Congress does in the stimulus bill can put the market back where it was in 2007 and 2008, before it was broken,” said Mr. Martin, the tax lawyer with Chadbourne & Parke. “But it can help at the margins.”
The solar and wind tax credits are structured slightly differently, but the House version of the stimulus bill would help both industries by providing more immediate tax incentives, alleviating some of their dependency on banks.
Both House and Senate would also extend an important tax credit for wind energy, called the production tax credit, for three years; previously the industry had complained of boom-and-bust cycles with the credit having to be renewed nearly every year.
Over the long term, with Mr. Obama focused on a concerted push toward greener energy, the industry remains optimistic.
“You drive across the countryside and there’s more and more wind farms going up,” said Mr. Mattern of West Fargo. “I still have big hopes.”