Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Case for Terrestrial (a.k.a. Nuclear) Energy

The Case for Terrestrial (a.k.a. Nuclear) Energy
William Tucker, Journalist

William Tucker is a veteran journalist. Educated at Amherst College, his work has appeared in Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, the American Spectator, the Weekly Standard, National Review, Reason, the New Republic, Reader’s Digest, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. His articles have won the John Hancock Award, the Gerald Loeb Award, the Amos Tuck Award, and he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. His books include Progress and Privilege: America in the Age of Environmentalism; Vigilante: The Backlash Against Crime in America; and The Excluded American: Homelessness and Housing Policies, which won the Mencken Award. His forthcoming book is entitled Terrestrial Energy: How a Nuclear-Solar Alliance Can Rescue the Planet.


The following is adapted from a lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on January 29, 2008, during a conference on “Free Markets and Politics Today,” co-sponsored by the Center for Constructive Alternatives and the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series.

There have been a host of debates this year between the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. Many of these candidates believe that among our top priorities is to address global warming by reducing carbon emissions. All or most seem to agree that decreasing America’s energy dependence is another. Yet few if any of the candidates have mentioned that nuclear energy—or, as I prefer, terrestrial energy—could serve both these ends.

Right now there are 103 operating nuclear reactors in America, but most are owned by utilities (which also own coal plants). The few spin-offs that concentrate mainly on nuclear—Entergy, of Jackson, Mississippi, and Exelon, of Chicago—are relatively small players. As for a nuclear infrastructure, it hardly exists. There is only one steel company in the world today that can cast the reactor vessels (the 42-foot, egg-shaped containers at the core of a reactor): Japan Steel Works. As countries around the world begin to build new reactors, the company is now back-ordered for four years. Unless some enterprising American steel company takes an interest, any new reactor built in America will be cast in Japan.

This is an extraordinary fate for what was once regarded as an American technology. France, China, Russia, Finland, and Japan all perceive the enormous opportunity that nuclear energy promises for reducing carbon emissions and relieving the world’s energy problems as reflected in recent soaring oil prices. Yet in America, we remain trapped in a Three Mile Island mentality, without even a public discussion of the issue. As folk singer Ani Di-Franco puts it, the structure of the atom is so perfect that it is “blasphemy / To use it to make bombs / Or electricity.”

It is time to step back and question whether this prejudice makes sense.
Fossil Fuels

All living things exist by drawing energy from their environment and discarding part of it as “waste,” so there is nothing inherently shameful about energy consumption. Almost all our energy derives ultimately from the sun. Plants store solar energy by transforming it into large carbon-chain molecules (the process we call photosynthesis). The entire animal kingdom draws its energy from this process by “eating” this stored solar energy. About 750,000 years ago, early humans discovered that they could also draw solar energy from a chain reaction we call “fire.” When heated, the stored energy in carbon chains is released. This heat energy can break down other carbon chains, which causes combustion. Fire has been the principle source of energy throughout most of human history. When historian William Manchester wrote a book about the Middle Ages called A World Lit Only By Fire, he was describing the world of only 700 years ago.

All this began to change about 400 years ago when human beings discovered an older source of stored solar energy—coal. Our most common fossil fuel, coal is the compressed remains of vegetable matter that covered the earth 300-400 million years ago. Coal is superabundant and we will probably never run out of it. It was the fuel of the Industrial Revolution, and it is still the world’s largest source of energy. It is also the most environmentally destructive substance ever utilized. The EPA estimates that it kills 30,000 Americans each year through lung diseases (and in China it is doing far worse). It is also the world’s principal source of carbon dioxide emissions.

Oil, another fossil fuel, is rarer and is believed to be the remains of organisms that lived in shallow seas during the age of the dinosaurs. It was first drilled in 1859, but was used only for lighting and lubrication until the invention of the automobile. Now it constitutes 40 percent of our energy consumption and is perhaps the most difficult fuel to replace. American oil production peaked in 1970 and is now declining rapidly—a fact that explains much of our subsequent foreign policy. The Arab oil embargo occurred three years following the peak, when the producing states realized we were vulnerable. The question now is whether world production will reach a similar peak and decline. As Matthew Simmons has written: “We won’t know until we see it in the rearview mirror.” If it does come, it may not look much different from the quadrupling of oil prices we have witnessed in the last three years.

Natural gas is generally considered the most environmentally benign of the fossil fuels. It gives off little pollution and only about half the greenhouse gas of coal. Natural gas was put under federal regulation in the 1950s, so that by the 1970s we were experiencing a supply shortage. Deregulation in the ,80s led to almost unlimited supplies in the ,90s. Then we began the fateful practice of using gas to produce electricity, resulting in a price crunch and the loss of many gas-dependent industries, such as fertilizer and plastics factories, which have since moved to Mexico and Saudi Arabia to be near supplies. Now American gas production seems to have peaked and we are importing 15 percent of our consumption from Canada. Huge gas supplies have been discovered in Russia and the Middle East, but will not do us much good since gas cannot be easily transported over water. Thus China, India and Europe will be able to buy pipeline gas much more cheaply and are already out-competing us on the world market.
Alternative Fuels

Given the precarious state of these fossil fuels, people have begun talking of “alternative” and “renewable” fuels—water, sun and wind. The term “renewable” is somewhat misleading: no energy is “renewable” insofar as energy cannot be recycled (this is the Second Law of Thermodynamics). The term “renewable” usually describes tapping flows of solar energy that are supposedly “free.” But coal and oil in the ground are also free. It just takes work—and energy—to recover them. So, too, solar “renewables” can only be gathered at a cost. They are often limited and may require extravagant use of other resources—mainly land.

What about water? Hydroelectricity is a form of solar energy. The sun evaporates water, which falls as rain and then flows back to the sea, creating kinetic energy. Rivers have been tapped since Roman times and, beginning in the 19th century, dams were built to store this solar energy. Hydroelectric dams provided 30 percent of our electricity in the 1930s, but the figure has declined to ten percent. And all the good dam sites are now taken.

What about wind? Wind energy has captured the imagination of the public and is touted by many as the fastest growing energy source in the world. All of this is driven by government mandates—tax credits and “renewable portfolio” laws that require utilities to buy non-fossil sources of power. The problem with wind is that it is completely unpredictable. Our electrical grid is one giant machine interconnected across the country, in which voltage balances must be carefully maintained in order to avoid damaging electrical equipment or losing data on computer circuits. Wind irregularities can be masked up to around 20 percent, but after that they become too disruptive. At best, therefore, wind will only be able to provide the 20 percent “spinning reserve” carried by all utilities. In addition, windmills are large and require lots of land. The biggest now stand 65 stories tall—roughly the height of New York’s Trump Tower—and produce only six megawatts, or about 1/200th the output of a conventional power plant. In the East, most are sited on mountaintops, since that is where the wind blows strongest.

What about the sun? Solar energy is very diffuse. A square-meter card table receives enough sunlight to run only four 100-watt electric bulbs. At best, solar could provide our indoor lighting, which consumes about ten percent of our electricity. But keep in mind: gathering and storing solar energy requires vast land areas.

Sunshine can be harnessed directly in two ways—as thermal heat or through photovoltaics, the direct production of electricity. In the 1980s, California built a Power Tower that focused hundreds of mirrors on a single point to boil water to drive a turbine. The facility covered one-fifth of a square mile and produced ten megawatts. It was eventually closed down as uneconomical. Last year, when Spain opened an identical Power Tower in Seville, U.S. News & World Report ran a cover story hailing it as a “Power Revolution.” That facility, of course, is completely subsidized by the government.

Photovoltaic cells have more promise. They are thin wafers where solar radiation knocks the electrons off silicon atoms, producing an electric current. At present, an installation about half the size of a football field could power one suburban home—when the sun shines, of course. The problem is that photovoltaics are enormously expensive; using them to provide one-quarter of an average home’s electricity requires investing around $35,000. Their greatest benefit is that they are able to provide electricity precisely when it is most needed—on hot summer afternoons when air conditioning produces peak loads.
Nuclear or Terrestrial Energy

There is one other form of alternative energy often mistakenly grouped with solar: geothermal energy. Geothermal is produced when the natural heat of the earth comes in contact with groundwater. This can produce geysers and “fumaroles”—steam leaks that are now being harnessed to produce electricity.

Where does this heat come from? Temperatures at the earth’s core reach 7,000 degrees Centigrade, hotter than the surface of the sun. Some of this heat comes from gravitational pressures and the leftover heat from the collisions of astral particles that led to the formation of the earth. But at least half of it (we don’t know the precise percentage) comes from the radioactive breakdown of thorium and uranium within the earth’s mantle. This is “terrestrial energy,” and a nuclear reactor is simply the same process carried out in a controlled environment. In order to harness terrestrial energy in the form of uranium isotopes, we mine it, bring it to the surface, concentrate it, and initiate a chain reaction that releases stored energy in the form of heat—the very same process as that used to harness solar energy from coal.

When Albert Einstein signed the letter to President Roosevelt informing him of the discovery of nuclear energy, he turned to some fellow scientists and said: “For the first time mankind will be using energy not derived from the sun.” This possibility emerged in 1905, when Einstein posited that energy and matter are different forms of the same thing and that energy could be converted to matter and matter to energy (as reflected in the famous equation E = mc2). The co-efficient, c2, is the speed of light squared, which is a very, very large number. What it signifies is that a very, very small amount of matter can be converted into a very, very large amount of energy. This is good news in terms of our energy needs and the environment. It means that the amount of fuel required to produce an equivalent amount of energy is now approximately two million times smaller.

Consider: At an average 1,000 megawatt coal plant, a train with 110 railroad cars, each loaded with 20 tons of coal, arrives every five days. Each carload will provide 20 minutes of electricity. When burned, one ton of coal will throw three tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We now burn 1 billion tons of coal a year—up from 500 million tons in 1976. This coal produces 40 percent of our greenhouse gases and 20 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.

By contrast, consider a 1000 megawatt nuclear reactor. Every two years a fleet of flatbed trucks pulls up to the reactor to deliver a load of fuel rods. These rods are only mildly radio-active and can be handled with gloves. They will be loaded into the reactor, where they will remain for six years (only one-third of the rods are replaced at each refueling). The replaced rods will be removed and transferred to a storage pool inside the containment structure, where they can remain indefinitely (three feet of water blocks the radiation). There is no exhaust, no carbon emissions, no sulfur sludge to be carted away hourly and heaped into vast dumps. There is no release into the environment. The fuel rods come out looking exactly as they did going in, except that they are now more highly radioactive. There is no air pollution, no water pollution, and no ground pollution.
Objections to Nuclear Energy

What are the potential problems with nuclear power?

First, some fear that a nuclear reactor might explode. But this is impossible. Natural uranium is made of two isotopes—U-235 and U-238 (the latter having three more neutrons). Both are radioactive—meaning they are constantly breaking down into slightly smaller atoms—but only U-235 is fissile, meaning it will split almost in half with a much larger release of energy. Because U-235 is more highly radioactive, it has almost all broken down already, so that it now makes up only seven-tenths of a percent of the world’s natural uranium. In order to set off a chain reaction, natural uranium must be “enriched” so that U-235 makes up a larger percentage. Reactor grade uranium—which will simmer enough to produce a little heat—is three percent U-235. In order to get to bomb grade uranium—the kind that will explode—uranium must be enriched to 90 percent U-235. Given this fact, there is simply no way that a reactor can explode.

On the other hand, a reactor can “melt down.” This is what happened at Three Mile Island. A valve stuck open and a series of mistakes led the operators to think the core was overflowing when it was actually short of cooling water. They further drained the core and about a third of the core melted from the excess heat. But did this result in a nuclear catastrophe? Hardly. The public was disconcerted because no one was sure what was happening. But in the end the melted fuel stayed within the reactor vessel. Critics had predicted a “China syndrome” where the molten core would melt through the steel vessel, then through the concrete containment structure, then down into the earth where it would hit groundwater, causing a steam explosion that would spray radioactive material across a huge area. In fact, the only radioactive debris was a puff of steam that emitted the same radiation as a single chest x-ray. Three Mile Island was an industrial accident. It bankrupted the utility, but no one was injured.

This of course was not the case in Chernobyl, where the Soviet designers didn’t even bother building a concrete containment structure around the reactor vessel. Then in 1986, two teams of operators became involved in a tussle over use of the reactor and ended up overheating the core, which set fire to the carbon moderator that facilitates the chain reaction. (American reactors don’t use carbon moderators.) The result was a four-day fire that spewed radioactive debris around the world. More fallout fell on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from Chernobyl than from Three Mile Island. With proper construction such a thing could never happen.

Another objection to nuclear power is the supposed waste it produces. But this is a mischaracterization. A spent fuel rod is 95 percent U-238. This is the same material we can find in a shovel full of dirt from our back yards. Of the remaining five percent, most is useful, but small amounts should probably be placed in a repository such as Yucca Mountain. The useful parts—uranium-235 and plutonium (a manmade element produced from U-238)—can be recycled as fuel. In fact, we are currently recycling plutonium from Russian nuclear missiles. Of the 20 percent of our power that comes from nuclear sources, half is produced from recycled Russian bombs. Many of the remaining isotopes are useful in industry or radiological medicine—now used in 40 percent of all medical procedures. It is only cesium-137 and strontium-90, which have half-lives of 28 and 30 years, respectively, that need to be stored in protective areas.

Unfortunately, federal regulations require all radioactive byproducts of nuclear power plants to be disposed of in a nuclear waste repository. As a result, more than 98 percent of what will go into Yucca Mountain is either natural uranium or useful material. Why are we wasting so much effort on such a needless task? Because in 1977, President Carter decided to outlaw nuclear recycling. The fear then was that other countries would steal our plutonium to make nuclear bombs. (India had just purloined plutonium from a Canadian-built reactor to make its bomb.) This has turned out to be a false alarm. Countries that have built bombs have either drawn plutonium from their own reactors or—as Iran is trying to do now—enriched their own uranium. Canada, Britain, France and Russia are all recycling their nuclear fuel. France has produced 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear power for the last 25 years. It stores all its high-level “nuclear waste” in a single room at Le Havre.
Conclusion

The U.S. currently gets 50 percent of its electricity from coal and 20 percent from nuclear reactors. Reversing these percentages should become a goal of both global warming advocates and anyone who wants to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil (the latter since a clean, expanded electrical grid could anchor a fleet of hydrogen or electric cars). Contrary to what some critics charge, this would not require massive subsidies or direct intervention by the government. Indeed, the nuclear industry has gone through an astounding revival over the past decade. The entire fleet of 103 reactors is up and running 90 percent of the time. Reactors are making money hand-over-fist—so much so that the attorney general of Connecticut recently proposed a windfall profits tax on them! The industry is poised for new construction, with proposals for four new reactors submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and almost 30 waiting in the wings.

The rest of the world is rapidly moving toward nuclear power. France, Russia and Japan are not only going ahead with their own nuclear programs, but selling their technology in the developing world. America, which once dominated this technology, is being left behind. The main culprit is public fear. Nuclear technology is regarded as an illegitimate child of the atomic bomb, a Faustian bargain, a blasphemous tinkering with nature. It is none of these. It is simply a natural outgrowth of our evolving understanding of the universe. The sun has been our prime source of energy throughout human history, but energy is also generated in the earth itself. It is time to avail ourselves of this clean, safe terrestrial energy.

Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.

REP Policy Paper on Energy and Climate Change

Energy is the pre-eminent strategic issue facing America today. The choices that our nation makes in the production and use of energy create deep and lasting influences on our economy, our position in the world, and on the natural capital that underpins modern civilization.

Making the right energy choices has become crucial. As a result of a convergence of extraordinary geopolitical and environmental circumstances, we are at a moment of both great danger and great opportunity. The conservative ethic of prudence requires us to acknowledge the challenge, and our obligation to be good stewards must impel us to act.

Energy Security

Oil is embedded in modern human society. Oil has a dark side, however. The U.S. sits atop only 3 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. Yet we consume 25 percent of current global production, about 21 million barrels daily. Much of the world’s production, along with the largest remaining conventional oil reserves, is located in world regions racked by poor governance, chronic instability, and violence.

Climate Change

The evidence is clear that fossil fuel combustion is increasing the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide load. Prudence demands that we acknowledge the facts and act. Despite the daunting nature of the challenge, taking it on will create large opportunities in America to reduce energy costs, build new industries, revitalize rural economies, and carry out a constructive foreign policy free from the corrosive influence of petroleum politics.

Here is what the federal government must do:

Establish a Market for Carbon Reductions

The most important step that Congress and the administration must take to reduce oil dependence and lower greenhouse gas emissions is to put a price on those emissions, by establishing a market-friendly "cap-and-trade" system. A carbon tax, the leading alternative to cap-and-trade, would not be as effective in sending a market price signal, and therefore, should not be adopted.

Increase Funding for Energy Research and Development

Reducing oil dependence and stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations will require scaling up numerous advanced energy technologies. A strong research and development program is necessary for moving promising technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace.

Strengthen Energy Efficiency Standards and Incentives

Energy efficiency is consistent with conservative values of frugality and stewardship. As the cheapest, cleanest, and most secure energy resource available, efficiency has a strong track record. It’s time to build on that record of success, through measures to increase efficiency in buildings, industry, and transportation.

Expand Transportation Fuels from Renewable Resources

Ethanol is a promising resource for displacing significant quantities of gasoline when combined with plug-in hybrid-electric drive trains. Research, standards, and incentives should be adopted to accelerate broader use of cellulosic ethanol.

Expand Electric Power from Renewable Resources

Diversifying our electric power system with renewable resources will result in numerous economic benefits, including reduced vulnerability to fuel price and supply risks, economic development opportunities for rural communities, and greater freedom of choice for energy consumers. A renewable portfolio standard, extension of production tax credits, and other incentives should be adopted.

Keep a Place for Nuclear Energy at the Table

Nuclear energy can deliver large amounts of carbon-free baseload electricity. It is in the nation’s interest to develop promising technologies for improving plant security and economics, managing high-level nuclear wastes, and minimizing risks of theft and diversion of fissile materials.

Ensure Responsible Use of Natural Gas

Natural gas is a relatively clean fuel for power generation and transportation. Gas can serve as a bridge to a cleaner, more diverse, less carbon-intensive energy economy. Steps should be taken to ensure the most efficient use of this fuel and minimize the impacts of gas production in the Intermountain West.

Clean Up Coal

The United States has large coal reserves. Coal, however, is the most problematic of the fossil fuels, because of climate, air quality, and land impacts. Through research and standards, the federal government should speed the transition to cleaner coal technologies, including large-scale carbon sequestration.

Conclusion

America stands at the threshold of both immense risk and opportunity. Beyond the practical economic and security benefits of moving to a cleaner, more secure energy economy, good stewardship is a moral imperative that is central to traditional conservatism. What is needed now is the will to marshal our nation's considerable assets, develop a conservative energy strategy for the future, and put it to work today.

This paper was written by in 2007 by REP Policy Director Jim DIPeso and Government Affairs Director David Jenkins. It combines and replaces two previous policy papers on energy and climate change that were written in 2001 and 2002. Click here to view the paper on the REP site.

Energy Rhetoric Defies Reality

Energy rhetoric defies reality
By Colorado REP member David Lien, published by the Colorado Springs Independent on August 7, 2008

As a big-game hunter and former Air Force officer who cares deeply about our country and its rapidly dwindling wildlands and wildlife, I've about had it with the fairytale demagoguery spewing from oil and gas industry executives and their front groups, not to mention the politicians beholden to them for campaign contributions, who've been doing their damnedest to hoodwink us into believing their "drill-everywhere" rhetoric.

Listen up, folks, because the facts here speak for themselves: Sixty-five percent of the world's known oil reserves are in the Persian Gulf; the United States has only 3 percent, but we account for 26 percent of world demand. Drilling in western Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, New Mexico or anywhere else in this country will not do us any good long-term. It's simple fifth-grade math and common sense.

Foreign oil imports will continue to go up because U.S. oil production peaked 35 years ago and has been declining ever since. Even big finds like Prudhoe Bay did little to slow the decline. Ever since domestic oil production peaked, the need for energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy has been obvious. But instead, like an addict on a binge, we continue to pursue a policy of "strength through exhaustion."

As the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board recently wrote, "A junkie gets desperate when his junk runs out. He's got to have more, and he'll do just about anything in order to keep feeding his habit. America is like that about oil. As our supply from foreign sources gets more expensive and rumors float around that those dealers are running out, we're panicking, ready to trade our natural resources, even the future of the planet, for one more hit."

Our nation simply does not have enough oil to affect world or domestic oil prices. The only way out is to improve fuel efficiency of our vehicles, which consume 40 percent of the oil we use, and by relying on smarter, cleaner and renewable ways to power our economy. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, would not have any impact on gas prices until 2025, and even then it would only reduce prices at the pump by a trivial 1.5 cents per gallon.

Despite the fact our current policy of near-total dependence on fossil fuels has led to repeated supply shortages and price spikes, three economic crises, two oil field wars and global warming, some remain mired in the same old stupidity that brought us here. Tapping what little oil there is in the Rocky Mountains, according to our own government's best estimates, will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil in any significant way.

Besides, worldwide we're using oil five times as fast as we're discovering new reserves. The numbers are irrefutable: The current drilling boom in the West will not move us any closer to energy independence, and it isn't even a possibility if we continue to rely primarily on oil and gas to power our economy. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, Colorado voters were asked about the best way to solve the energy crisis. They chose renewable energy over drilling by 54 percent to 21 percent.

As a concerned citizen, Clinton Greene says, "To be anti-fuel-efficient is to give aid and comfort to terrorists and groups fighting American soldiers. Patriotic Americans should welcome being required to conserve; even soccer moms should be embarrassed by their sport-utility vehicles powered at the price of U.S. soldiers facing death far from their own families. The best way to honor the dead of 9/11 is to take conservation seriously."

Unfortunately, some of Colorado's congressional lawmakers don't agree. U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn recently said, "This "drill-nothing' Congress must cut the rhetoric and get to work."

Yeah, get to work exposing the "drill-everywhere" members of Congress facilitating the liquidation of our rapidly dwindling wild and roadless public lands for the equivalent of "drops in the bucket."

Some of our local and national politicians need to take a grade-school math (and common sense) refresher course. Let's hope they do it soon.

Reprinted from Republicans for Environmental Protection

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Treat yourself: Taste something local and organic for Earth Day

Be a localvore and celebrate Earth Day!

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Treat yourself: Taste something local and organic for Earth Day
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Debbi Snook
Plain Dealer Reporter

I once looked up from gardening to find an asparagus growing when I had planted none. It stuck out of the ground between shrubs in a dark corner of my landscape border, tempting me to guess its origin. A gift of the wind? A seed-carrying bird? Or pure garden magic?

I liked the last idea.

A few seasons later, when there was enough to share, I made my first meal of it. It was worth waiting for, as good as any asparagus I'd had, only different - sweet with familiarity, satisfying as a blessing of good fortune, and fresh as it could get.

What a delicious metaphor for eating locally.

Earth Day arrives Tuesday, and in this world of industrial food, so has our runaway appetite for the kind of work, heart and little miracles that produce local food. They can't be commanded into existence, but they can be nurtured.

Here are some ways we can help make them grow:

Eat organic:

Easy to say, when it often costs more. But if you have the money, do it. We all pay a higher price from the pollution caused by nonorganic farming. The taste will convince you to stay. Put organic carrots or celery side by side with conventional veggies and try each of them. You'll be amazed at the difference. Get bushels of information from the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association in Columbus at 614-421-2022 or on their helpful Web site, www.oeffa.org.

Shop at community-based farmers markets:

You can look farmers in the eye at these markets and ask them what they put in their soil, how they treat their animals and how to cook their products.

The season goes into full swing in late May, although early sprouts are up:

Coit Road Market in East Cleveland (at Woodward Road, 216-249-5455; www.coitmarket.org) has gone back to warmer weather hours, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday, and will host a Spring Fling at the market on May 17.

North Union Farmers Market at Shaker Square (216-751-7656; www.northunionfarmersmarket.org) is already back outdoors, 8 a.m.-noon on Saturdays. Its annual spring benefit happens Monday, April 28, at Eton Chagrin Boulevard with another sparkling crop of great chefs.

Blue Pike Market's spring open house runs 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the farm, 900 East 72nd St. in Cleveland (216-373-9461).

Sign a contract with a farmer: Consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture program, a kind of subscription deal where you pay up front and get the latest crops on a regular basis during the growing season. This is the time to start joining, since slots are limited. Check out the CSA lists on the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy's Web site, www.cvcountryside.org, click the Countryside Harvest Guide and scroll down to the CSA list.

Consider joining City Fresh, a partnership between the New Agrarian Center in Oberlin and the Ohio State University Extension. The urban gardening program has its own CSA, which you can join for yourself and, if you like, for someone who can't afford to join. Find out more and attend their monthly meeting 6 p.m. Monday at Great Lakes Brewing Co. or find City Fresh at www.cityfresh.org and 440-774-2906.

Grow your own: No place to grow? Learn about container gardening from Ohio State University Extension of Cuyahoga County (www.extension.osu.e du/lawn_and_garden). Join a community garden (www.cuyahoga.osu.edu, search for "community gardening"). Get info on asphalt gardening programs by contacting City Fresh director Maurice Small at 216-849-8224.

Teach your kids: One of the easiest ways is a trip to Lake Metroparks Farmpark (8800 Chardon Road, 1-800-366-3276, www.lakemetroparks.com), a county park set on a working farm with worthwhile admission fees ($6 for adults, $5 for seniors, $4 for kids 2-11). They will have their own Earth Day festivities noon-4 p.m. on Sunday.

Or sign up your 6- to 10-year-olds for a week of "The Summer Farm and Science School at Crown Point." Contact the working farm and environmental education center in Bath at 330-668-8992, Ext. 101, or go to www.crownpt.org.

Imagine the surprises children can bring to your garden. And to your table.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

dsnook@plaind.com, 216-999-4357

Negotiations to resume on energy legislation

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Negotiations to resume on energy legislation
Posted by rroguski April 17, 2008 01:00AM

Columbus -- Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted will continue today to negotiate changes to his energy and utility regulation bill, after nearly a week of stormy negotiations that dominated Statehouse politics.

The Kettering Republican says he hopes by Tuesday to have ironed out issues that mushroomed into major problems the longer talks went on this week.

Among the most thorny issues still on the table Wednesday night:

• A rule allowing FirstEnergy Corp. to keep charging a residual generation rate to consumers who buy from outside suppliers next year.

The Akron-based utility has argued that it would still be obligated to supply power if independent marketers failed to provide enough power.

Leigh Herington, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, testified this week before the House Utilities Committee that NOPEC will not be able to attract new suppliers unless the language is stripped out of the bill allowing FirstEnergy to collect the residual generation charges.

In other words, consumers who buy power from outside suppliers should have to pay only FristEnergy's distribution rate, not any part of its generation rate, he said.

• A Senate requirement that wind and solar development be halted if the construction costs of the green energy drove up a utility's generation rates by more than 3 percent. Advocates of green energy say they can live with the limit because the power from renewable projects will represent only a fraction of the total power generated and its cost will be blended with power from traditional power plants.

Still, the last House version did not include explicit language but instead authorized the Public Utilities Committee of Ohio to decide the issue on a case-by-case baisis.

• A demand by American Electric Power that it be allowed to begin basing its rates on wholesale market prices at a faster rate than allowed in the bill.

As last written, the legislaiton would allow AEP to begin basing just 10 percent of its total sales on market rates next year and 10 percent additionally every year for five years. At that point the state could stop the progression and force the company back under traditional regulation.

The underlying issue behind the struggles is how quickly the state's utilities can begin basing their rates on wholesale market prices.

Strickland may have lost the battle with FirstEnergy even before he unveiled his original bill last September.

The company argues that since it moved ownership of its power plants to unregulated -- though wholly owned-- subsidiaries, the state cannot regulate the generation portion of its rates.

Despite the assertions of FirstEnergy executives, however, most of the players in this week's Statehouse drama do not think the company would actually want to sell all of its power outside the state.

Husted's problems holding his version of the bill together began a week ago when he unveiled the House rewrite of the bill

Within a day, Gov. Ted Strickland threatened a veto if it ever reached his desk.

What followed were five days of around-the-clock negotiations with the administration as well as the Senate, plus volley after volley of complaints and proposed amendments from utilities, consumer groups and industrial power users.

In short, the process overwhelmed the bill.

After midnight Monday, the House Utilities Committee approved the measure as Husted had drafted it -- but not before Democratic members walked out and Husted had a face-to-face stalemate with Strickland.

Husted on Tuesday night said the legislation has become unrecognizable even to him, but he nevertheless scheduled a House session for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, which was delayed until 9 p.m.

Husted cancelled that session in the late afternoon and issued a statement saying he intended to keep working on the legislation before Tuesday's regularly scheduled session of the House.

Earlier in the day, Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, said he did not intend to convene the Senate again this week just to consider Husted's legislation.

In an interview, Harris also said he thought rather than have the Senate debate the measure he would send it directly to a conference committee of the two chambers.

By law, the Senate president and House speaker each choose three members to meet and iron out the differences in a bill.

Selling an environmentally friendly lifestyle in Rocky River

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Selling an environmentally friendly lifestyle in Rocky River
Posted by rmezger March 10, 2008 16:07PM

Chris Stephens/The Plain Dealer

Rebecca Reynolds sells environmentally friendly products for the home and body at her new store, Planet Green, in Rocky River.
Rebecca Reynolds doesn't know how she contracted a blood-clotting disorder that brought life to a temporary halt in her late teens.

All she knows is that doctors called it a virus and treated her with steroids -- high levels of steroids. And that before her ordeal was over she lost her spleen, her gall bladder and almost her life.

That's behind her now, and she's vowed never to get sick again. For her, that means eating healthy, living smart and avoiding environmental toxins. It's a holistic philosophy that she's passed on to three daughters and as many other people who have cared to listen.

In January, Reynolds, 43, opened Planet Green, a small retail store in the Old River Shopping Area on Detroit Road in Rocky River. It's as much a shrine to area artisans as it is to sustainable living. The products in her store are not only green but usually local.
Planet Green

Location: 19056 Detroit Road, Rocky River

Owner: Rebecca Reynolds

Contact: 440-333-9333

Related business: Green Clean Inc.

There's furniture made from discarded oak barrels. And from wood reclaimed from demolished homes.

There are vegan cookies. And organic bedding woven from cotton never treated with pesticides or herbicides.

There are organic, fair-trade herbal supplements courtesy of Earth Healers of Lakewood.

There's health food for the dog.

Reynolds even has a refilling station in the store for her own Green Clean line of cleaning products. She developed them after many years of scrubbing other people's homes. She recalled how it dawned on her, while spraying chemicals in a shower with a cloth over her face, that she didn't even know what she was protecting herself from.

Her concoctions include all-natural ingredients, no chlorine bleach or ammonia. And for $2 less than the original purchase price, they can be refilled in one of the sturdy plastic bottles they come in.
Chris Stephens/The Plain DealerA bout with a blod-clotting disorder in her late teens made Rebecca Reynolds vow never to get sick again. It's one reason she has opened her store, Planet Green, whose offerings include natural and organic products.
"First of all, this whole store started after years of [my] being an educator on environmental toxins," Reynolds said. "And people would ask me all the time, 'Rebecca, where do I get organic clothing, organic bedding and items for my home?' And, so, this is how this concept came about for Planet Green."

Re-use is a common theme among products in the store, including Nicole McGee's Second Time Design jewelry. She scours the Ohio City sidewalks near her home for pieces of junk that might make for links in a necklace or a bracelet. Her favorite source for discarded items is the Shaker Cycle shop in Tremont where she gets bits of bike chains, washers and broken pieces of metal.

It's kind of an extension of her world view, she said, "that there's potential in everything, especially things that we cast aside and may not see value in."

Her stuff sells for less than $25.

"I'm pretty economical," she said. "I don't have the cost of materials."

Chris Deffenbaugh, 42, has found a way to reclaim oak barrels, turning them into beds, bars and stools. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow wooden barrels for aging wine and spirits to be used more than once, he said, which means there are a lot of perfectly good barrels out there.

Deffenbaugh gets his through brokers with some coming from California's wine country and others from the bourbon belt in Kentucky. He crafts them into furniture in a studio behind his house in Wooster with the help of his father and his best friend.

While his wares can be found at two locations in Wooster, Planet Green is the only place that carries them in the Cleveland area, he said.

Reynolds' view of a holistic lifestyle extends beyond humans and includes their pets, which explains the $7 bags of Deez Bonz for sale at Planet Green.

Danielle and Dennis Piotrowski created the all-nautral dog biscuits. They came up with the recipe after their pug Gabby was diagnosed with cancer. They figured a better diet would keep her healthier, Danielle said, so "we decided to get her off the bag food."

The biscuits come 20 to a bag. They are made of organic flaxseed meal, organic olive oil, organic cheese (mild cheddar) and free-range chicken and eggs.

"We've had people actually eat them," Danielle said, "and they're like, 'Hey, these are great.' "

For Reynolds, Planet Green is another way to promote a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. A mission shaped by the emotions of her own ordeal, and those of others she encountered along the way.

"You sit with a mother who has a toddler on their lap who has just been diagnosed with some rare leukemia and you're changed," she said. "You're changed. You want to pass the message around. You want to help people."

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Story of Stuff

"The Story of Stuff," a new short film released online this winter, takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture and exposes the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff. Throughout the 20-minute film, activist Annie Leonard, the film’s narrator and an expert on the materials economy, examines the social, environmental and global costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

“We’re running out of resources. We are using too much stuff. Now I know this can be hard to hear, but it’s the truth and we’ve gotta deal with it. In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. Gone.”

Leonard’s illustration of a culture driven by stuff allows her to isolate the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. “The Story of Stuff” examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of consumerism—and how those notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

According to the film, consumer mania may have been born from the post World War II era, but economic manipulation has driven consumerism to where it is today. From the limited life cycle of personal computers to changes in footwear fashion, Leonard demonstrates that products are either designed to be regularly replaced or to convince consumers that their stuff needs to be upgraded. This notion of planned and perceived obsolescence drives the machine of American consumerism year round.

The film features Leonard delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Written by Leonard, the film was produced by Free Range Studios, the makers of other socially-minded, web-based films such as “The Meatrix” and “Grocery Store Wars.” Funding for the project came from The Sustainability Funders and Tides Foundation.
The story of stuff—Facts & Figures

* The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population but we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste.
* Eighty percent of the planet’s original forests are gone. In the Amazon alone, we’re losing 2,000 trees a minute.
* There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce today.
* Thirty percent of the kids in parts of the Congo now have had to drop out of school to mine coltan, a metal we need for our cheap and disposable electronics.
* Each of us in the U.S. makes 4.5 pounds of garbage a day. That is twice what we each made 30 years ago.

The film’s website, www.storyofstuff.com, serves as an interactive launch pad for information and activism. The site features hundreds of organizations working to change the cycle of the materials economy and offers viewers “another way.” The site includes resources and information, a footnoted script, a suggested reading list and ideas for educational activities and discussion topics for local screenings of the film.

Click Here for The Story of Stuff.

(Reprinted from EarthWatchOhio.org's Web site.)