Sunday 23 Feb 2014
Letter # 321
Dear President Obama,
Footprint Power has obtained permission to build a large gas-fired power plant to replace the old Salem MA coal-fired plant. The Conservation Law Foundation tried to slow them down, and it is the first power plant in the US scheduled to be shut down as part of its permitting. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/business/energy-environment/massachusetts-approves-a-gas-power-plant-with-an-expiration-date.html
But unfortunately, the new gas-fired plant will emit 4 times the CO2 every year than the current Salem coal plant emits now. And it will do so for the next 10 years.
According to the permit, the plant will be allowed to “operate normally” for 10 years until 2026, when it will have to start cutting its emissions. The Salem coal plant currently emits about 500,000 tons of CO2 per year. The new gas plant will be allowed to emit over 2 million tons per year until 2026. Then it will have to gradually cut back to 1 million tons over the next 20 years (2.5% reduction per year). This level of emissions is completely unsustainable. Rather than quickly ramping up renewables and lessening our energy needs, we are planning on emitting more C02 for the next 10 years. We are not just kicking a can down the road, we are kicking a hand-grenade!
This kind of policy isn’t going to work, not for Massachusetts and not for the US. We are increasing the total amount of C02 in the atmosphere at an alarming rate. And once it is there, we cannot control the consequences. The world has changed, the climate has changed, and we will need to quickly change, or face a planet that can sustain only a fraction of the humans now on it. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Let’s get busy now. Let’s show what humans are capable of at their best.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, New Salem Gas Plant Way too Polluting
Monday 24 Feb 2014
Letter #322
Dear President Obama,
I was delighted to read today that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to reduce the Army to the smallest size since before WW II. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/us/politics/pentagon-plans-to-shrink-army-to-pre-world-war-ii-level.html This is excellent news and appropriate for the current geo-political environment. Less good news is that the Defense budget for fiscal 2015 is $496 billion. Let’s reduce that another 1% each year and put the money ($49 million the first year!) towards renewable energy, smartgrids, and other proved technologies to reduce our carbon emissions. Any states that are losing military jobs can have green energy jobs instead! We need to seriously realign our spending with what scientists have been telling us for decades about climate change. We need to immediately cut our use of fossil fuels and their dangerous GHG emissions. There is no time to lose. We have already stalled too long. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline right NOW! Climate disruption is happening now and will only get worse. Let’s use our time and money wisely.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Shift Spending from Military to Climate Protection
Monday 24 Feb 2014
Letter #323 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I admire Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve, for her forceful calls to action during the financial crisis of 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/business/economy/as-crisis-loomed-in-2008-yellen-called-for-action-and-told-jokes.html She persistently cajoled her colleagues to do more to help ordinary households. We need about a hundred Janet Yellens to advocate for swift and immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions RIGHT NOW! There won’t be much of a world economy if we let climate change spin out of control, and the tiny incremental steps we are currently making are far too small and tenuous to head off a climate crisis. “I don’t believe in gradualism in circumstances like these” Ms. Yellen said in March 2008, and these words resonate loudly when I think of current emissions levels and the amount of CO2 already in the atmosphere. I don’t know if Ms. Yellen has ever spoken on climate change, but I would hope that her analytic powers have brought her to the same dire view of the climate crisis as most scientists. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline and show how serious YOU are about the climate crisis. We cannot afford any more gradualism. The time for bold action is NOW!
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Seeking Forceful Climate Advocates
Tuesday 25 Feb 2014
Letter #324
Dear President Obama,
There was an article today about automotive steel and the push by car companies to use more aluminum to lighten car bodies. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/business/detroits-aluminum-diet.html
As background, the article reminded us that federal standards will require “a fleet-wide average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.” That’s more than double the current 25 mpg! There is no way car companies are going to meet the goal, not unless you count electric cars as getting 1000 miles per gallon, or some other sleight of hand! The really chilling statement in the article is that car companies want to “continue to provide the larger and more profitable vehicles that buyers want [like the] F-150 truck.” Buyers want that truck for 2 reasons: advertizing and cheap gas. Ford depends on cheap gas for PROFIT. But this short-term profit comes at great expense to us all and our children. Please double the price of gas at the pump immediately! That’s what it costs in Europe. Make small cars the profit center for car companies! Do not put corporate profit above the best economic planning based on the best scientific data! The US is the #1 carbon polluter per capita in the world (for countries with populations larger than 30 million)! The science is there. Now we need the policy to match the science. And since I know you can’t single-handedly double the price of gas, please stop the Keystone XL pipeline! We are emitting almost as much carbon as ever! We have got to turn this trajectory around post haste.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Let’s Double Gasoline Prices
Tuesday 25 Feb 2014
Letter #325 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I so love these french paintings of poplars. There is such a lovely harmony of straight and fluffy, of rigid and fluid, discipline and serendipity – of the light falling on the trees. They continue to delight me, presenting both the expected and un-expected. Please fulfill my expectations of you and stop the Keystone XL pipeline.
Thank you so much.
Susan Ringler, Love Monet’s Poplars
Wednesday 26 Feb 2014
Letter #326
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read recently of Richard Branson’s leadership in the Caribbean on switching to renewable energy and microgrids. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/business/energy-environment/caribbean-islands-agree-to-swap-diesel-power-for-renewable-sources.html
His non-profit, the Carbon War Room, http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/22/22climatewire-bransons-carbon-war-room-puts-industry-on-fr-73959.html
promotes switching from diesel electricity generation to renewables. Microgrids are perfect for small islands – and there are thousands of small islands that can benefit from them. Hooray to Mr. Branson for leap-frogging from diesel to renewables, by-passing natural gas completely! The future lies in renewables and these islands are taking control of their energy future. For large nations with entrenched fossil fuel industries, the future is murkier. We too need to eschew natural gas and go straight to renewables, but the vested interests will fight that tooth and nail. Sometimes smaller players get it right a lot sooner than large ones! Please help America get it right and stop the Keystone XL pipeline! There is no need for this dirty tar sands oil and we need to discourage Canada from drilling for it. The future of all of us is at stake, please get it right. Stop that pipeline today and let’s move quickly into a clean energy future.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Love Microgrids
Wednesday 26 Feb 2014
Letter #327 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I just hosted the Transportation Working Group of 350MA.org at our monthly meeting at my house. Members reported on a variety of activities from attending the MIT transportation club networking event, to commenting on the MBTA’s 5-year capital improvement plan (CIP) at a public meeting, to joining cambridge CPAC “climate protection action committee.” We formed this working group almost a year ago because regional and state transportation agencies are slow-moving bureaucracies that tend not to innovate, but the infrastructure choices and decisions they make, the equipment they purchase, lock-in energy patterns for decades. Raising the importance of climate change and climate disruption on our transportation systems results in better long-term planning. This same kind of long-term thinking reveals that oil pipelines will soon be retrograde and outdated on planet Earth. Let’s not build another one! Please say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline. We need to quickly shift to renewables, quickly stop emitting carbon pollution. Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Transportation Working Group
Thursday 27 Feb 2014
Letter #328
Dear President Obama,
Thank you to Denmark for their support of the Cape Wind offshore wind farm! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/us/funds-and-new-timetable-for-offshore-wind-farm-in-massachusetts.html Denmark’s EKF recognizes that Cape Wind makes sense both economically and environmentally! That small country has a clear-sighted vision that many in the US lack. Denmark does not have a large domestic fossil fuel industry. So it does not have fossil fuel lobbyists muddying the discourse and telling lies. Denmark can see that the future lies in renewables. US scientists can see it too. But the US public is more naive and easier to fool. The truth will out, but it may take a while – all of which time we continue to emit tons of carbon pollution. So I ask you to please STOP the Keystone XL pipeline! Please stop it today and put your charisma and your voice behind an urgent push for renewable energy. If Denmark can see long term profit in wind energy, so can we.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Thank you to Denmark
Thursday 27 Feb 2014
Letter #329 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
An article in the New York Times today reports that a State Dept. inspector general investigation concluded that the State Dept. followed agency guidelines pertaining to conflict of interest when it hired ERM to write a report on the Keystone XL pipeline. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/us/politics/no-conflict-of-interest-found-in-favorable-review-of-keystone-pipeline.html
But the report also recommends that the State Dept. IMPROVE its conflict of interest procedures! Conclusion: the State Dept. followed its own pitifully weak procedures! That doesn’t make the ERM (Environmental Resources Management) report unbiased or factual. It just means inadequate procedures were followed! It would be shameful to use the ERM analysis to justify building this pipeline that the world just doesn’t need. Ultimately you have to look beyond the report and beyond State Dept. procedures when you decide whether to allow the KXL! The decision is yours and you can’t hide behind procedures and guidelines. Your legacy will be judged on what you do here! Please do the right thing. Stop the KXL today!
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, State Dept. needs Better Procedures
Friday 28 Feb 2014
Letter #330
Dear President Obama,
The other day I made a pound cake. The French call it a quatre-quart (4 quarters). That’s because the basic recipe is equal parts of flour/sugar/butter and eggs. The recipe I use calls for 5 eggs separated, 2 sticks of butter, 1 ½ cups of sugar and 1 ½ cups of flour. I also use a bit of salt, vanilla, baking powder and lemon extract. In English we call it pound cake because you can use a pound of each of the four basic ingredients. This is a recipe that is at least 3 or 400 years old and makes a delicious dense cake. I write about this cake today because it symbolizes for me PLENTY. Life is very good for many on this planet – we have plentiful food and health and friends. There is really no need to keep wanting more and more. Larger homes and kitchens and cars don’t give you a better cake. Using more fossil fuel than we need doesn’t give us better lives. Let’s recognize that we can cut back a little and still have plenty. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline and show that you care deeply about protecting the climate. Let’s slow down climate change as much as we can – so future generations have plenty of time to enjoy this wonderful planet too.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Quatre-quart Baker (Pound Cake)
