Monday, 12 Mar 2007

What's a Couple of Coal Plants Among Friends?

TXU buyers announce plans for two coal-gasification plants

The private firms that proposed a $45 billion buyout of Texas coal giant TXU continue to make some hearts go pitter-pat. After announcing that TXU would scuttle plans for all but three new coal-fired power plants, the firms added Friday that they would look into building two coal gasification plants -- facilities that use a chemical process to gasify coal and can then capture and store carbon dioxide. Ooh, "clean coal"! Progressive thinking! Right? Well, those keeping score at home might notice that the news turns three coal plants into ... five. Sneaky. "We're going to take it at face value, and say this is a huge step forward for the climate and power plant technology here in Texas," said Tom Smith, head of the Texas office of Public Citizen. Meanwhile, foes of TXU and of the deal are keeping a wary eye on things. "The agreement has a lot of loopholes in it," said Karen Hadden of the Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition. "We've got no reason to trust their promises."


Anika Rahman works to inspire Americans to support women's and reproductive rights -- a goal worth pursuing in and of itself, but also as a step toward environmental consciousness. Rahman is president of Americans for UNFPA, or the United Nations Population Fund. (Wherefore that extra "A," UNFPA?) As InterActivist this week, she speaks up about building a global community, where she finds hope in a suffering world, and why she irritates retail cashiers. Send Rahman a question by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish her answers to selected questions on Friday.

Get Me Rewrite!

Part two of intergovernmental climate report no sunnier than part one

No Monday would be complete without a dash of grim global-warming news, so here goes. Part deux of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is due out in April, and according to a draft, things are looking quite the opposite of good. The report, the second of four scheduled to be issued by IPCC this year, focuses on the effects of climate change. Among other bleak things, it says effects are already being felt -- as opposed to the 2001 report, which said chaos was still on its way. It also says unless the world takes action on emissions (and hey, maybe even if it does), we face massive water and food shortages, increased death rates for the world's poor, flooding, fire, and species extinction. Coming to a neighborhood near you in as little as two decades! "This is the story. This is the whole play," said Canadian climate scientist Andrew Weaver. "This is how it affects me, you, and the person next door." The report awaits government review, but no major changes are expected.


Today a reader writes in with a perplexing dilemma: she avoids buying bleached paper products like diapers and napkins at home, but then she takes her kids to the (chlorine-filled) pool for a swim, sometimes twice a week. Is this family in toxic trouble? Are the threats posed by bleached products and germ-free pools the same? Advice maven Umbra Fisk dives in to explain the difference.

He Believes in Miracles

Former Jamaican bobsled team founder seeks energy independence as mayor

It's a career crisis we've all faced at some point: what comes after you've created the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team? For George Fitch, now the mayor of Warrenton, Va., the answer stinks. Fitch wants to make the 8,000-person town energy independent by 2010 by building a $30 million biomass plant at the local dump. Are you in love like we're in love? "You don't have to be a big fan of Al Gore to realize that this is critical to our community and our national security," says the Republican mayor, whose optimism and fiscal sensibility seem to be winning over residents of the farming community 50 miles west of D.C. But let's get one thing straight: they're not environmentalists. "My idea of an environmentalist is somebody who wears Birkenstocks and carries a knapsack and has too-long hair and spends his free time working for the Sierra Club," says town councilor John "Sparky" Lewis. "But I have a great respect for the land, and I think we could all be better stewards of it." That'll do, Sparky.