J.C. Moore Online
Current Events from a Science Perspective

Posts Tagged ‘Dan Boren’

The EPA vs. Oklahoma Power Companies

Sat ,21/05/2011

The EPA has been charged with reducing the pollutants released into the environment, but they are meeting opposition from power companies, politicians, and people who want cheap energy, though other people’s health and the environment may suffer the consequences . The EPA is accepting comments on the issue through May 23, 2011.  (1)

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking a 95 percent reduction in emissions at three of Oklahoma’s coal-fired power plants owned by OG&E and AEP. (2) This has brought howls from the utility companies and from Oklahoma’s politicians. Utility companies claim that installing scrubbers or converting to natural gas will cost them billions of dollars and drive the rates for electricity up by 10 to 12%. The utility companies have defined the costs for the plant conversions or upgrades in the worst possible terms, without considering the long-term savings of conversion to natural gas or the impact on people’s health.

EPA.  Stopping the EPA has been put forth as a Conservative and a Republican cause, but it really is neither. President Richard Nixon created the EPA to protect the environment as the United States developed industrially. The Clean Air Act was passed not only to reduce smog in our cities, but to ensure that the air was kept pure and clean in our national parks and wilderness areas. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has the right to limit sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds, and particulates to ensure the quality of the air in our region. Limiting regional haze would have the added benefit of improving the health of people, wildlife, and plants in the region. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are known to damage plants and those, along with small particulates, cause respiratory problems in people. Also, the particulates emitted contain mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, dioxins, and radioactive isotopes, which are all health hazards.

Regional problem. The emissions from Oklahoma plants do not remain in Oklahoma, and some of the haze in Oklahoma likely comes from surrounding states, particularly Texas, which has a large number of unregulated power plants. Emissions from a source may remain in the air for many weeks and travel for hundreds of miles. Although each state in the region might wish to address its own air pollution problems, it is a regional problem and must be addressed as such. Some of the states in the region are regulatory averse, and may lack the political will to act in the matter. For instance, a fly ash disposal plant at Bokoshe Oklahoma was allowed to operate for seven years while it violated Oklahoma statutes and apparently caused health problems and possibly deaths among Bokoshe residents.

Cost. The main objection to limiting emissions at the power plants is the cost. However, the power plants have operated for years without paying the true cost of energy production, which should include the cost of limiting their air pollution. It also appears that the companies have overstated the costs by as much as two or three times over the EPA estimates.  AEP reported $1.2 billion in profit last year and OG&E $292 million, so they can apparently afford to address the problem without passing all the costs to  customers.

Timetable. Three years would be a reasonable time for the power plants to come into compliance. It has been known for several decades that the emissions are damaging to the environment and health, yet the companies did not act. Also, the EPA had previously informed the companies that they were out of compliance, yet they have failed to come up with a satisfactory plan. They should have made a move toward compliance long ago, and further stalling should not be allowed.

Alternate plan. The alternate plan of converting the power plants to natural gas is certainly an acceptable plan. Methane produces about 2 1/2 times as much energy per unit of carbon dioxide as coal. And, switching to methane would also alleviate the problem of properly disposing of fly ash, bottom ash, and scrubber sludge. Those, and carbon emissions will necessarily be regulated in the future. Addressing the haze, the solid and liquid waste, and the carbon emissions piecemeal will certainly be less effective and more costly in the long run. If the companies should choose to convert the plants to methane, the added benefits would justify an increase in the timetable of up to five years.

(1) Comments may be submitted to r6air_okhaze@epa.gov or at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/oklahoma_coal_pollution/?r=7901&id=21282-3213732-Kunk_Zx

(2) http://jcmooreonline.com/2011/03/17/the-problem-with-coal-and-politicians/

(c) 2011 J.C. Moore

V   Share This:

The Problem with Coal and Politicians

Thu ,17/03/2011

The EPA has been charged with reducing the pollutants released into the environment, but they are meeting opposition from power companies, politicians, and people who want cheap energy, though other people  and the environment may suffer the consequences.

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking a 95 percent reduction in emissions at three of Oklahoma’s coal-fired power plants. This has brought howls from the utility companies and from Oklahoma’s politicians. Utility companies claim that installing scrubbers or converting to natural gas will cost them billions of dollars and drive the rates for electricity up by 10 to 12%. The utility companies have defined the costs for the plant conversions or upgrades in the worst possible terms, without considering the long-term savings.  Conversion to natural gas would eliminate the problem of  coal combustion products such as acidic gases, mercury vapor, fly ash, and bottom ash. Although coal is cheaper than other fuels, it delivers less energy per unit of CO2 produced. Coal  produces 314 kJ/mole while natural gas produces 890 kJ/mole, almost 3 times that of coal. Considering Oklahoma’s abundant supplies of natural gas, it would make sense for Oklahoma to begin switching power plants to natural gas.

The power companies and the politicians have tried to define the problem as the cost of the  “elimination of haze”, as if there were no other environmental damage done by burning coal. That is because the elimination of haze under the Clean Air Act is all the EPA is presently empowered to do. Coal is 65 to 95 % carbon. What about the rest? Coal contains small amounts of mercury, chromium, lead, cadmium, arsenic, sulfur, particulates, and radioactive isotopes. Man burns 6 billion tons of coal each year, releasing millions of tons of pollutants into the air and leaving several hundred million tons behind in the coal ash. Some pollutants eventually find their way into the water, the food chain, and into us. Oklahoma has adopted limits on fish consumption because of high levels of mercury. For comparison, mercury is 100 times as toxic as cyanide, arsenic is 20 times as toxic, and chromium(VI) is 4 times as toxic. These three are also are carcinogenic and accumulate in tissue. Even exposure below the allowed levels increases the chance of cancer over time. The small town of Bokoshe, Oklahoma is located near an unregulated fly ash disposal site. The incidence of cancer among the residents of the town is extraordinarily high, though the power company claims there is no link between that and their fly ash.

The sulfur and nitrogen oxides released by coal combustion harm plants and produce acid rain. A recent article headlined “Pecan growers say coal-fired plant killing trees” described the plight of orchards downwind from a power plant with inadequate pollution controls. One farmer said his pecan crop dropped over the years from 200,000 to 8,000 pounds. The combustion of coal  also releases 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Because  CO2 in 3water is an acidic, the oceans have become over 20% more acidic in the last century. That has led to the destruction of coral reefs and endangered crustaceans and the phytoplankton that convert CO2 to oxygen. Without phytoplankton, life in the oceans would be impossible. The concentration of CO2 in the air has increased 38% as well.  As a potent greenhouse gas, it is causing the Earth to warm, glaciers and polar ice to melt, and the climate to change in ways we will not always like. The Supreme Court, in Massachusetts v. EPA, ordered the EPA to make a determination as to whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant. The EPA has found, based on the best scientific evidence, that CO2 is an endangerment to public health and has moved forward to regulate it.

Oklahoma’s politicians, such as Sen. Jim Inhofe and  Congressman Dan Boren, are working on a solution- for the power companies benefit. They want to strip the  EPA of  its power to regulate pollution.  They also claim it is a states rights issue, and that the EPA has no business regulating Oklahoma industries. However, the pollution generated by Oklahoma’s power plants does not stay within its borders, nor is all the pollution in Oklahoma from Oklahoma sources. Much of it blows up from Texas, the state with the highest number of power plants out of compliance. Acidic gases released by coal combustion, and even mercury vapor, can travel for thousands of miles before being brought to Earth by precipitation, and much of the CO2 will stay in the air for centuries. Regulation of carbon emissions needs to be done on a national and even international level. It is a bad idea to focus on short term economic costs while ignoring the environmental costs, such as polluting the Earth and letting rural Oklahoma become a dumping ground for the power companies’ waste.

Note added on 11/ 20/2017: Mountaintop removal of coal has become a big problem. The widespread mining practice has caused a public health disaster, with more than a thousand extra deaths each year in areas of Appalachia where mountaintop removal operations take place. “We are studying a situation where many people are dying, and for us to say it is only correlational and so let’s keep studying until we know more, I think is immoral at this point,”. http://e360.yale.edu/features/a-troubling-look-at-the-human-toll-of-mountaintop-removal-mining .

(C) 2011 J.C. Moore

V   Share this.

Both a Congressman & Wealth Redistribution in Camouflage

Sat ,24/07/2010

Dan Boren (D-OK) has made a number of ads critical of his Democratic primary opponent, Jim Wilson.  It bothers many Oklahomans that Boren appears to be just camouflaging himself as a Democrat because his father was a highly respected Democratic Governor and Senator. It’s not clear whether the acorn fell really far from the tree or if Boren’s ads represent what a Democrat has to do to be elected in Oklahoma. One ad showed Boren in new camouflage gear, tags still attached, cocking a gun at his opponent. However, the ads have not gone over well as State Senator Wilson, who Boren chastises as Oklahoma’s “most liberal” senator, was a combat marine in Vietnam.

An article recently appeared in the Daily KOS containing a video making fun of Boren’s ads and criticizing him for supporting a “Flat Tax” scheme. (1) True to form, in the tree scene in the video, Boren is wearing the unofficial state color – camouflage. He is the  only Democrat among 61 Republicans in Congress supporting the “Flat Tax”(or “Fair Tax”) scheme.

Boren apparently hasn’t thought that Flat Tax scheme through. My Congressman, Frank Lucas (R-OK), also favors a “Fair Tax” scheme that would replace income taxes with a national sales tax ( a consumption tax) (2). Boren says it would be a sales tax of 30%. It  may need to be higher for it to be “revenue neutral” as we have to raise a certain amount of revenue to support our government and that would not change. What the “Fair Tax” would change is that more of the tax burden would shift to the middle and lower income groups, those  already benefiting the least from state and federal tax cuts. (3)

While many like the idea of the Fair Tax’s simplicity, that may turn out not to be the case. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was supposed to bring us “simplification” of  our income taxes but there is little evidence that it has worked. Adopting a national sales tax will have a ripple effect across our economy with unknown consequences. For instance, we would have to tax internet purchases and raise import duties to keep the wealthy from shopping overseas for major purchases.

Economist Mike Moffatt has worked out who would be the likely winners and losers under the Fair Tax proposal: (4)

Winners:

  • People who are inclined to save: People who do not consume as much will benefit from the plan.
  • People who can shop in other countries: People who take a lot of overseas vacations or living near the Canadian or Mexican borders.
  • People who can avoid sales taxes: Those who can exchange or barter services and goods, or the unscrupulous who can buy for personal use and claim as a business use.
  • The wealthiest one percent: They will see an average tax cut of about $75,000 per person.

Losers:

  • The Poor: The working poor pay little income tax but they must spend a larger proportion of their income to survive. They’d pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than wealthier individuals.
  • Families: Tax breaks such as dependent deductions, earned income credits and child care credits would disappear. It would hurt families with incomes less than $200,000 but help families with income above $200,000, due to the dramatic reduction in the top tax rate.
  • Tax Accountants, IRS Employees and Income Tax Lawyers: Yes, but they’d survive somehow.
  • Seniors: They’ve already paid a lifetime of income taxes and this would now tax them again on consumption as well. They would end up paying a disproportionate share of taxes.

Overall, the Fair Tax is fairer to some than to others, and it looks to be most fair to the wealthy. Our present graduated income tax code is based on the ideas that those who profit most from our country’s wealth, resources, and opportunities should pay a greater share of their bounty in taxes. The rich may not think that’s fair, but that’s fairer and more pragmatic than shifting more taxes to those who have little.

Note added on 3/29/2012: Congressman Dan Boren has decided not to run again for Congress in 2012. This post about his 2010 campaign has been left as it explains the disadvantages of flat tax schemes – and also what a Democrat might try to do in Oklahoma to be elected.

(1) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/3/881389/-Dan-BorenCongress-Worst-Democrat-Has-A-Primary

(2) For an in depth analysis of the consumption tax see:  http://mises.org/daily/1768

(3) For historical top tax rates see:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213

(4) http://economics.about.com/cs/taxpolicy/a/fairtax_5.htm