Friday 21 March 2014
Letter # 341
Dear President Obama,
An interesting article on 28 Feb showed that Albany has become a hub for train shipments of Bakken Crude oil, and outlined various safety concerns surrounding this development. I hope these concerns can be quickly addressed.
Of particular interest to me is the speed at which the Bakken fields have been developed.
US oil production from the Bakken fields is up to 960,000 barrels per day – that is up 400% since 2008. And the oil is being transported to US refineries all over the country. What this means is the US doesn’t need the Canada Tar Sands oil because we are swimming in boatloads of our own! TransCanada wants the Keystone XL pipeline so it can refine the stuff on the Gulf Coast and then export it to Asia. Anyone who thinks KXL will help the US be oil independent is misinformed and mistaken. The KXL is of no general economic benefit to the US. The profit is all for TransCanada and a few Gulf Coast refineries. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. It is a pipeline we truly don’t need. I’m not happy we are pumping so much Bakken crude. But since we are, there is really NO argument in favor of Canada’s Kolossal Xcessive Lame pipeline! We don’t need to take the risk to our environment for their gain!
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Drowning in Bakken Crude
Friday 21 March 2014
Letter # 342 (2nd letter today)
Dear President Obama,
I’m writing you to thank and honor two environmental groups: Waterkeeper Alliance and Cape Fear River Watch.
http://www.capefearriverwatch.org
Members of these two groups flew over the Duke Energy Cape Fear Ash Ponds last week and photographed workers diverting water to a canal to flow into the Cape Fear River near Moncure NC. Their actions prompted state regulators to investigate and Duke is now charged with dumping as much as 61 million gallons of coal-ash wastewater into rivers since last September. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/north-carolina-says-utility-pumped-millions-of-gallons-of-ash-waste-in-river.html
Thank you, thank you to these intrepid activists for their dogged determination. Kemp Burdette is head of Cape Fear River Watch and has led this campaign.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news%2Fabc11_investigates&id=9466926
We all try to work locally to clean up our “own backyard,” but we also need to urge government to act responsibly not only about past pollution, but present and future pollution. We must cut carbon emissions sharply. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Stop it NOW! Please take a stance against future carbon pollution. This is really important and URGENT. Please act now to avert climate disasters.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Admire Cape Fear River Watch
P.S. Other news articles on Duke Energy’s recent coal ash spill:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/us/huge-leak-of-coal-ash-slows-at-north-carolina-power-plant.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/us/epa-agrees-to-join-north-carolina-in-reviewing-spill.html
Saturday 22 March 2014
Letter # 343
Dear President Obama,
A full-page add titled Nuclear Matters appeared in the NY Times the other day. It promotes nuclear energy as reliable, carbon-free and economic.
I agree with these statement but I am unnerved at not knowing who paid for the ad. A website is listed at the bottom, and I went to it
but still couldn’t figure out who spent the money on this message. There was a contact email on the website and so I wrote and asked who they were. That was a few days ago and I’ve gotten no reply. I learned in graduate school that communication was a social act involving an emitter, a recipient, and a message. But in our electronic age we are bombarded with failed communication acts – one message sent to millions of recipients (as in spam) and messages lacking a source (as here). Let’s put the human element back into communication.
You can only trust a message if you know from whence it comes. And one trusts people whose actions are commensurate with their words. You talk about the urgency of climate change but I don’t see you acting accordingly. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline to renew my trust in you. It’s bad for the climate and all of us. We need some nuclear power, but I wonder who doesn’t want their name associated with that message! Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Gotta Know Who’s Talking
P. S. Returning to the website a week later, it lists former senators Bayh and Gregg as head organizers. At least the message now has an emitter!
Sunday 23 March 2014
Letter # 344
Dear President Obama,
I loved the article about a new wind technology: BATS – Buoyant Air Turbines. These energy generators float 1000 ft in the air and can be adjusted to capture the most energy from changing winds. What a great idea. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/business/energy-environment/wind-industrys-new-technologies-are-helping-it-compete-on-price.html?
It looks like they’ll be used first in places like Alaska and other places that now rely on diesel, but could be used in lots of places at a very low cost. Let’s develop these technologies quickly. let’s wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Let’s protect the climate by stopping carbon emissions. So hats off to Altaeros Energies and to the state of Alaska, the Energy Dept. and the Agriculture Dept for supporting their work. The US government could do much more to support the quick adoption of renewable energy. Here is one example. and you could do much more to show how urgent a problem you believe climate change to be! Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Stop it today. There are much less harmful ways to satisfy our energy needs. Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Like Buoyant Air Turbines
Monday 24 March 2014
Letter # 345
Dear President Obama,
Words fail me. The risk to the health of the entire planet that we are willing to take for the short term gain of some powerful people defies all sense. And so I send you a Ravenna mosaic detail – an orderly view of nature, beautiful and benign, as presented by artists more than 1000 years ago. We cannot order nature like this over the long term. We have tried and now know that our burning of fossil fuels is changing the entire climate and bringing much instability. Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. It is short-sighted and arrogant. We need to stop burning fossil fuels RIGHT NOW.
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Beautiful Shades of Color
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Letter # 346
Dear President Obama,
I was happy to read the other day that Exxon has agreed to publically state to their shareholders the risks that stricter limits on carbon emissions pose to their business. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/business/in-a-shift-exxon-agrees-to-report-on-carbon-asset-risk.html?
They currently place valuations on oil reserves that assume that all of those reserves will be pumped and sold. Current scientific understanding says we cannot burn all those reserves without destroying the planet. So reserves that cannot be used have NO value to the company. The same is true of all the other large oil and gas companies worldwide. I look forward to seeing what Exxon says about this situation – supposedly on Monday. I, for one, have divested my investment portfolio of big oil and gas. Their business models are unsustainable. Please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline TODAY! We need to quickly reduce our carbon emissions. We can’t afford to wait any longer. Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Oil Reserves are High Risk Assets
Thursday 27 March 2014
Letter # 347
Dear President Obama,
Thank you for your new website climate.data.gov, although its ability to simulate and visualize disasters is probably years away. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/us/politics/white-house-to-introduce-climate-data-website.html The real problem is that sea level rise and flooding will be uneven, so if scientists agree that global levels are rising, they don’t agree on the particulars. So what your visualization tools will need are a series of dials, so a “Sandy-type” storm hitting a particular town could be adjusted for tide levels on a particular day, long slow rain accumulation versus short fast, and other pre-existing conditions. It could be a bit like the old computer game Roller Coaster Tycoon where you could vary the height, the slope and the speed of the roller coaster, sometimes to disastrous effect. You don’t actually need huge amounts of NASA and NOAA data, a few recent benchmark storms overlaid on local tide tables could give a good start. Meanwhile, please stop the Keystone XL Pipeline! Stop it NOW! The sooner we cut carbon emissions, the less disruption we’ll have to our climate and lives. Our carbon pollution is building a rollercoaster of climate disasters! Let’s try to limit the dangers!
Thank you.
Susan Ringler, Roller Coaster Scaredy-Cat
Sunday 30 March 2014
Letter # 348
Dear President Obama,
Russia has the fuel: oil and gas; Ukraine has the pipelines; Europe has the cash to buy. So the three are interlinked. Russia recently upped the price of natural gas for the Ukraine from $350 to $500 per 1000 cubic meters. Europe pays $350. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/world/europe/russia-steps-up-economic-pressure-on-kiev.html?
Germany buys Euros 40M of energy from Russia and sells it Euros 40M of manufactured goods. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/world/europe/obama-russia-crimea.html?
Ukraine now wants Germany’s help on a reverse-flow pipeline –so Ukraine can buy cheaper fuel from Europe! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/world/europe/russia-steps-up-economic-pressure-on-kiev.html? This is ridiculous because that “cheaper fuel” is Russian. Posturing over pipelines is just a way to negotiate price! Meanwhile US oil/gas company opportunists lobby for faster permitting of export LNG to Europe and Ukraine to lessen Russia’s dominance. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/world/europe/us-seeks-to-reduce-ukraines-reliance-on-russia-for-natural-gas.html
The State Dept. claims this is good for our national security and Europe’s ! So they are all rush rushing to make as much money a possible from fossil fuels. The real path to national security and independence is in Renewable Energy! Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Stop it NOW. Time wasted on “energy diplomacy” is just another delay. Sharp carbon reductions NOW is what the planet needs.
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Pipeline Diplomacy Pointless!
Monday 31 March 2014
Letter # 349
Dear President Obama,
It’s tough to discuss inter-related issues when I limit myself to one-page letters. So let me expand a little on yesterday’s topic of Russian-European-US energy Diplomacy. Germany is Russia’s largest gas customer, followed closely by the Ukraine. Germany and Italy each get a third of their imported fossil fuels from Russia.
And it is now in the interest of both Europe and the US to lessen this dependence on Russian fuel. But it is very important for Americans to know that the US State Dept started a new Bureau over 2 years ago for the purpose of energy diplomacy! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/world/europe/us-seeks-to-reduce-ukraines-reliance-on-russia-for-natural-gas.html
The 85-person Bureau of Energy Resources was created in late 2011 by Hillary Rodham Clinton, “for the purpose of channeling the domestic energy boom into a geopolitical tool to advance American interests around the world.”
Last week Carlos Pascual, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/business/global/q-and-a-us-policy-goals-on-global-energy.html head of this Bureau (and a former American ambassador to Ukraine!), was sent to Ukraine to offer them shale gas or LNG. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/world/europe/nato-chief-russia-europe.html
The State Dept. should not be hawking US fossil fuels abroad. That they are, shows just how small a threat the US government really thinks climate change presents! So please stop the Keystone XL pipeline! and shut down the Bureau of Energy Resources! Your legacy will be tarnished forever if you don’t. Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Infuriated by Bureau of Energy Resources
P.S. Follow this link and scroll to bottom of article for a picture of the Gas Pipelines in the Ukraine – lots of them. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/27/world/europe/ukraine-divisions-crimea.html
I tried linking to just the graphic, but the town names disappeared, so did it this way.
Wednesday 2 April 2014
Letter # 350
Dear President Obama,
GO GREEN Postage Stamps
Reduce our environmental footprint
step by step USA 2013
Well today I celebrate the Post Office and especially their Go Green stamp. I’ve bought over 300 for my letters to you. They encourage us to “Reduce our environmental footprint step by step.” I was hoping, when I started these letters asking you to Please stop the Keystone XL pipeline, that I wouldn’t have to write this many. But here I am, 13 months later, still writing. Bill McKibben named his non-profit 350.org hoping it would get us to limit carbon emissions to a safe level. It didn’t work, but he didn’t stop. I won’t stop either! Please stop the KXL now! I’ll keep picking up my pen until you pick up yours.
To repeat what I said in Letter #7 (9 March 2013) “…if I persist long enough I at least will be helping sustain the post office and demonstrating to my family and friends the depth of my concern.”
Thank you.
Susan J. Ringler, Value the Post Office
