Richard Lugar

“I don’t see any climate bill on the table right now that I can support,” Sen. Richard Lugar said on Nov. 10, dashing any hopes that he might get behind some version of the Kerry-Boxer legislation that’s moving through the Senate.  “We really have to start from scratch again,” he continued. 

Lugar has been leaning this way for some time. The first week of November, he joined with other Republicans in demanding a more in-depth EPA analysis of the Kerry-Boxer bill; the Republicans insist they need more info on the bill’s potential economic impacts, while Democrats accuse them of trying to stall the process. 

In September, Lugar noted the dangers posed by climate change and said the U.S. must reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but criticized the Waxman-Markey climate bill that passed in House in June.  “To give the impression that somehow the Senate must pass a bill comparable to the House, or anything in that ballpark, seems to me is not a very good idea and is one I’m likely to oppose,” the senator said.  Lugar argued that the bill would penalize coal-dependant states like Indiana, which gets more than 90 percent of its electricity from coal.

Asked what kind of climate bill he could support, Lugar responded, “I frankly don’t know, although I’m deeply interested in this.” But he has indicated that he would prefer to focus on energy efficiency and investment in renewables rather than cap-and-trade.  “The real way of approaching this is through conservation, through building modification, through the change in how electricity is delivered,” he said. “Leaving aside cap-and-trade and some very large federal legislation which, in my judgment, is not going to make much difference in CO2 for 20 years, we can make a difference now.”

——-

Here’s more on Lugar and climate, as written by Kate Sheppard on August 24, 2009:

In 2006, Sen. Richard Lugar’s Indiana tree farm purchased credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange, a good indication that he realizes federal climate policy is coming down the pike. He voted for the Climate Stewardship Act in 2003 and 2005, but voted against cloture on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act last year.  This year, he’s a key swing vote on climate legislation.

As the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar has been outspoken about the need for the U.S. to become more energy independent and address climate change.

“We should recognize that energy issues are at the core of most major foreign policy, economic, and environmental issues today. Technological breakthroughs that expand clean energy supplies for billions of people worldwide will be necessary for sustained economic growth,” Lugar said at a January hearing on international climate challenges. “In the absence of revolutionary changes in energy policy that are focused on these technological advancements, we will be risking multiple hazards for our country that could constrain living standards, undermine our foreign policy goals, and leave us highly vulnerable to economic, political, and environmental disasters with an almost existential impact.”

“The United States should recognize that steps to address climate change involve economic opportunities, not just constraints,” he continued.

But Lugar has been adamant that any climate strategy should be part of a global effort, and big developing countries like China and India should be compelled to participate.

Track the debate and take action >>>

He has also expressed concern about the transparency and enforcement of cap-and-trade, as well as its potential costs for coal-dependent states like Indiana. And he wants biofuels and adaptation efforts to play a larger role in climate policy.

Lugar has downplayed the prospects of passing a climate bill in the Senate in 2009. Approving a plan to reduce emissions is “a tough sell to people who are in a recession and whose light bills are going up,” Lugar said in June. “The votes just haven’t been there, and I’m not sure they are now.”

Do you know more about this senator’s stance on climate legislation?  Tell us.

Find out about other senators by clicking on their names in the right column.

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Evan Bayh

Sen. Evan Bayh is widely considered to be a fence-sitter on climate legislation.  He has a generally respectable environmental record, but his home state of Indiana is reliant on manufacturing and coal, so he worries that a climate bill could raise energy costs for his constituents and their employers.  

In August, Bayh and nine other Democrats wrote a letter to President Obama saying they wouldn’t support a climate bill that puts American businesses on an uneven playing field.  They called for a bill to include a tariff on goods imported into the U.S. from countries that don’t have binding targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.  

Here’s a letter Bayh sent to a constituent in early October, confirming his fence-sitter position:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the impacts of global climate change. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns on this issue.

I am deeply concerned about the threat posed by global climate change. The scientific consensus on this issue is unequivocal. Global warming is real and greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are causing it. Scientists and others warn that climate change threatens our nation’s security, and may imperil future generations’ opportunity for safe, healthy, and prosperous lives.

However, any carbon-constraining mechanism must protect Hoosier ratepayers, workers and businesses from increased costs. Additionally, other nations of the world must be included in this effort, because if they are not, our action will be for naught.

Please rest assured, should legislation regarding global climate change be introduced in the 111th Congress, I will keep your views in mind.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I hope the information I have provided is helpful. My website, http://bayh.senate.gov, can provide additional details about legislation and state projects, and you can also sign up to receive my monthly e-newsletter, The Bayh Bulletin, by clicking on the link at the top of my homepage. I value your input and hope you will continue to keep me informed of the issues important to you.

Office of Senator Evan Bayh

Do you know what your own senators think about climate legislation?  Ask them, then tell us what you find out.

Here’s more on Bayh and climate, as written by Kate Sheppard on 20 July 2009:

Enviros list Sen. Evan Bayh as one of the three Democrats most likely to vote against a climate and energy bill this year. During markup of the energy bill in the Energy and Natural Resource Committee in May, Bayh voted against including a renewable electricity standard—the only Democrat to do so. He cited concerns that it would raise energy costs for Indiana.

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“Washington is poised to impose a renewable electricity standard that could disproportionately impact Indiana and other states that generate most of their energy from coal,” said Bayh in a statement in June.

Bayh has expressed concerns about the economic impacts of cap-and-trade on coal-dependent states like his. He voted against using the budget reconciliation process to pass climate policy earlier this year.  And last year Bayh signed the letter from swing-vote Democrats saying they would have opposed final passage of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.

Do you know more about this senator’s stance on climate legislation?  Tell us.

Find out about other senators by clicking on their names in the right column.

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Indiana renewable package: No can do.Photo: JayskIndiana lawmakers finished their legislative session Wednesday without passing a renewable electricity standard, which might be just as well. This was the plan that would have defined "renewable" so as to include "clean coal" and nuclear energy (as reported earlier on Grist).

The plan would have required utilities in the state to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. A later version of the (now dead) bill watered down the standard, allowing utilities to meet 25 percent of the target with clean coal, 25 percent with coal gasification (IGCC), 25 percent with nuclear, and 25 percent with efficiency. Theoretically, that would have let electricity providers get by without investing in any new bona fide renewable sources.

Indiana lawmakers also failed to pass a net-metering bill that would have increased the amount of electricity consumers can sell back to utilities for credit, encouraging small-scale home energy production.

For a rust-belt state working to remake its economy, this means another year without clean-energy incentives from the statehouse. State renewable advocates, naturally, were disappointed. They said even a weak renewable standard could have attracted wind and solar manufacturing companies by showing the state is receptive to their work.

"The governor and General Assembly continue to undermine the economy of our state by failing to enact renewable energy legislation, costing Indiana thousands of sustainable jobs and millions, probably billions, of dollars in investment," Kerwin Olson, a lobbyist for the utility-consumers advocate group Citizens Action Coalition, wrote in an email.

He blamed the outcome on the influence of the state's investor-owned utility companies. So did Democratic Rep. Matt Pierce, a renewable supporter from the relatively liberal outpost of Bloomington.

"There's a subset of legislators who seem to take their cues from the electric utility industry, which doesn't want anything to happen that's going to create independent forms of generation," Pierce said. "I think they really like controlling the power plants and the power, even though the best-case-scenario is that we might go from being 96 percent coal-dependent down to maybe 70 percent."

Pierce said a renewable standard would have had limited economic potential anyway -- 29 states already have them, and a modest standard wouldn't have been enough to attract many renewable-energy companies. "With job creation, we're already behind the times," he said.

The state General Assembly will meet in a special session later this year to finalize the budget it did not approve in time, though Pierce said it's very unlikely it will revive energy measures then.

Of course, a national renewable electricity standard, such as the one proposed in the Waxman-Markey energy bill, could supersede the current patchwork of state standards. There, too, there's debate over just what "renewable" should mean: U.S. Rep. John Dingell has suggested that nuclear energy should count to make targets easier to meet.

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Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist ManifestoCourtesy of Indiana University PressI’ve had some great teachers over the years, but none quite like Scott Russell Sanders, the gentle guru of Bloomington, Indiana, and a leading light of Midwestern environmentalism. To call him articulate doesn’t begin to do justice. He exudes a sort of intellectual clarity, in both his works of non-fiction and fiction and in his teaching at Indiana University. (As a former student, I'm a thoroughly biased source.)

Sanders' book Staying Put offers a countercultural vision of what it means to live rooted in a place -- not far from Wendell Berry country, geographically or philosophically. A Private History of Awe charts his development-of-conscience growing up on a military base during the civil rights and Vietnam eras. It’s one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read.

His new book, A Conservationist Manifesto (released this week), presents a host of arguments for why we’re better off thinking of ourselves as citizens and stewards than consumers in the face of ecological disaster. Here’s our recent phone conversation about the book.

Q. What led you to write A Conservationist Manifesto?

A. For the first time in human history, we are causing damage to the entire living system of the planet, and we know that we are doing so. We don’t have models for how to respond, because none of our ancestors ever had to contend with damage on this scale. I’m trying to identify some of the sources we possess within our spiritual and intellectual traditions, and within science and art, for responding in creative ways to our present environmental predicament.

Q. You do a lot of describing a civic "good life" -- through describing what you love best about Bloomington, through describing the work of unsung conservationists, and in your essay that responds to [James Howard] Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere with a "Geography of Somewhere." Why do you take this on?

A. We live in a society that places so much emphasis on private wealth that we forget how important the common wealth—the realm of shared natural and cultural goods--is for our happiness, our wholeness, and our well-being. Advertising addresses the isolated individual, but we don't exist in isolation. We exist as members of relationships, within families, communities, neighborhoods, and workplaces. I write about that communal dimension of our existence because the private dimension is more than adequately dealt with by the popular media.

Q. Sure. It seems like an artistic challenge as well to make successful towns and societies as compelling as dysfunctional ones.

A. None of us wants to live in the midst of trouble, but we do want to read about it and watch it on screen. It's easier to make trouble and failure artistically captivating. So there is this paradox. I faced a similar challenge in my book A Private History of Awe, where I wrote about an enduring and loving marriage. It’s a lot harder to engage people in reading about something that works well over a long period of time than to engage them with something that breaks down in catastrophic and sensational ways.

Most environmental news describes breakdown of one sort or another. Of course, it's crucial for us to be aware of such news. At the same time, we need to know about the creative and promising responses that people are making, the various "arks" people are building to carry what we love and what we need through this time of troubles.

Q. You write about settling in southern Indiana in 1971 and trying to be a conscientious citizen since then. How have you seen the environmental movement, or attitudes toward conservation, change in the Midwest over that time?

A. During my nearly 40 years here in southern Indiana I have seen a rising concern about the preservation of forests, the restoration of wetlands, the cleansing of rivers, and the healing of communities.  As I travel around the Midwest, I meet people everywhere who are involved with farmers' markets, with land trusts, with community-supported agriculture, with schoolyard gardens, and with other efforts to protect and restore portions of the natural world. Every community I visit has organizations devoted to looking after the land and waters, fostering organic gardening, reducing carbon emissions, or other environmental causes. I find that very encouraging.

The central section of A Conservationist Manifesto focuses on Indiana, because this is the place I know most deeply. For the benefit of readers who live elsewhere and who may think of the Midwest as short on wild beauty and environmental consciousness, I wish to call attention to the natural history of my home region and to the conservation efforts underway here.

Q. Your vision about how we ought to live in relation to the natural world stands very much in the tradition of Henry Thoreau, John Muir, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, and such. And you make it pretty clear in your writing that you’re working from within that tradition. I'm curious about how you make your message your own.

A. Well, certainly I have drawn on the great tradition of American nature writing, and I honor those predecessors. But I also feel that I'm doing something different. That tradition was created primarily by men who explored nature in solitude. They made excursions into the natural world, lived beside ponds or climbed trees in the midst of storms or canoed wild rivers, and then returned to write about the experience. I treasure their work.  But I am not solitary.  I write about living in the midst of family, community, and human structures.  I see the natural world not as a wild place out there, but as the matrix from which we arise and in which we dwell.  We breathe it, drink it, eat it, and wear it; we are sustained by nature with every heartbeat.
Among our contemporaries, Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder, in particular, have written powerfully about human relationships embedded within nature.  They exemplify the sort of writer I’ve tried to be, more fully than such earlier figures as Thoreau or Muir.

Q. I want to ask about reverence and irreverence. You make a case for sort of rediscovering reverence--in dealing with the natural world, in dealing with other humans -- Grist tries to make a case for irreverence in approaching deadly serious topics. What gives?

A. Reverence is a profoundly important attitude. Not toward ourselves or our work, but toward the power that we see manifest in the natural world and that we feel moving within us.  Reverence toward that shaping power seems to me the deepest and truest emotion the universe calls for. That awareness runs through A Private History of Awe, as well as A Conservationist Manifesto.  We need to recover a sense of the ultimate value and beauty of wildness, including the wildness that courses through us as human beings.

While we honor the universe, we need to maintain a healthy irreverence toward ourselves.  We need to challenge, to question, in some cases to mock, to look harder at our works, postures, and sayings. Grist has attracted readers who might be put off by the sense of frenzy and righteousness that can creep into environmental writing (including my own). So that’s where irreverence comes in.

Q. What do you make of the so-called "moderate" Congressional Democrats, ones like Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, your representative, Baron Hill, and others who have suggested they may force Obama to slow down or water down renewable energy measures and capping carbon emissions? What do you think of the whole "moderate" or "centrist" terminology?

A. They're not moderate, nor centrist, nor conservative. Insofar as they are endorsing the status quo, which is ruining the planet, they are extremists.  They refuse to recognize how radically our society needs to change. They seem to feel that we can cope with global-scale damage by making little changes around the edges of our lives. They're not moderate; they're timid. We need more courage and vision from all of our leaders, at the local, state, and national levels, and we need those qualities from Republicans as well as Democrats.

The word "conservative" ought to have some connection to the word "conserve."  If you're going to call yourself conservative, you ought to be clear about what it is you want to conserve.  Many conservatives, if they're honest, will say, "I want to conserve as much money as possible in private hands, and I want to protect every opportunity to increase that private wealth, regardless of the cost to society or planet." If we keep treating the accumulation of money by individuals and corporations as the highest good, we will continue to degrade Earth's living systems, and we will leave a sadly diminished world for future generations. That's as immoral a path as I can imagine.

Q. Thanks. What have I missed?

A. Some people come across A Conservationist Manifesto and say, "That title seems confrontational." Maybe it is, I reply, but so is every billboard, every TV advertisement, every speech calling for endless growth, every Hummer on the highway, every assault on the Endangered Species Act, every call for drilling in wildlife refuges. If we plead, "Don't forget that we share the planet with millions of other species, that we are degrading the living conditions for all beings including ourselves, that we are betraying future generations"—if we say all of that mildly and meekly, we have no chance of being heard in our cultural cacophony. We need to be forceful in challenging the ruinous path we're on and the media and ideology that keep pushing us along that path. I hope that A Conservationist Manifesto is written in a measured, thoughtful, lucid way. But I also hope the book conveys a sense of ethical and practical urgency. Right now, anything less than urgency is inadequate to our situation.

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Indiana's statehouse.Flickr: mattindy77The Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation that would define “clean coal” and nuclear-generated electricity as renewable energy.

They're also mulling bills that would define John “Cougar” Mellencamp as a jazz musician and categorize the pork tenderloin sandwich as a vegetable.

Seriously, the energy change, being debated as part of a set of changes to the state's electricity laws, would allow nuclear and clean coal electricity to qualify for state renewable energy funding incentives. And it would let them count toward a renewable electricity standard -- also under consideration in the statehouse -- that would require Indiana utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

Indiana is the only Midwestern state (and one of 21 total states) that does not have a renewable electricity standard. That could change by the time its annual legislative session closes at the end of the month. The proposed energy package would also increase the amount of electricity that home energy producers can sell back to utilities, known as net metering.

But there are big questions about how effective the renewable standard would be if nuclear and clean-coal sources count toward meeting it.

“We would be the embarrassment of the nation, defining renewable energy to include uranium and coal,” said Kerwin Olson, a lobbyist for the utility consumers advocate group Citizens Action Coalition.

Another problem: as it stands now, the renewable standard bill would apply only to the state’s investor-owned utilities. It would exclude municipal and rural electricity cooperatives, which cover much of the state.

But nothing’s set in stone yet, and the real negotiation will happen in conference committee negotiations over the next two weeks, according to state Sen. Richard Young (D). He agreed to coauthor the redefinitions bill precisely so he could play a greater role in committee negotiations, despite disagreeing with it, he said.

“We should be doing everything we can to encourage renewable energy,” Young said. “I don’t support nuclear energy as something that should be getting extra credits or incentives as a renewable.

“I do support clean coal technology because I think we’re going to need coal for a while. If we’re going to have it, we should make it as clean as we can. I don’t buy the argument that we can get by without it. If you need to put it in ‘renewables’ to get the incentives, OK, I’ll buy that. [But] do I think it’s renewable? No.”

The legislation holds special interest for Duke Energy, which has a “clean” coal gasification plant under construction in Edwardsport, in southwestern Indiana.

A separate bill would make nuclear power projects eligible for the state’s controversial “construction work in progress” law that allows utilities to bill customers for construction costs before plants are finished and producing electricity.

“They can’t get financing from Wall Street, so they need a funding mechanism,” said Olson, of the consumers group. “They’re allowed to bill ratepayers while the plant is under construction, before it’s useful. Our position has always been, if they want to build a plant and can find financing for it, go ahead, but don’t bill ratepayers for it until it’s actually up and a useful facility.” 

Laura Arnold, president of the Indiana Renewable Energy Association and a lobbyist for eight renewable energy companies in the state, emphasizes the economic potential of the renewable standard in promoting it to lawmakers.

“We’re still a manufacturing center,” she said. “We have a lot of idle plants and trained employees who could be manufacturing components for wind turbines … Many of these companies, when they look to locate a manufacturing operation, want to see what the political climate is toward renewable energy before they make an investment. So this is kind of a litmus test of whether the state government is receptive to the renewable energy.”

She said she would like the standard to apply to rural cooperatives (REMCs), but thought it was unlikely to pass in such a form this year.

Of the 29 states with renewable standards, I’m not aware of any that consider clean coal or nuclear energy “renewable.” Ohio has separate standards for renewable and “alternative” energy, with some room for nuclear and clean coal under the alternative standard.

What do you know, dear readers? Have other states employed creative definitions like this? Is there rationale for Indiana’s plan that I’m not hearing? Post tips below or send them to jhiskes [at] grist.org.

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If you don't border the Great Lakes, keep your grubby hands out of 'em. That's the general message of a bill that would bar any major water diversion from Lakes Erie, Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, unless all eight lake-bordering states approve. The so-called Great Lakes Compact, which has passed Congress and heads to the welcoming pen of President Bush, also holds Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to new conservation standards and requires that they regulate their own large-scale water use. The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec have agreed to similar conservation measures. The compact -- which exempts diversions of fewer than 5.7 gallons, a favor to bottled-water producers -- eases fears that thirsty states and even countries would try to siphon the lakes, which hold 90 percent of North America's fresh surface water and 20 percent of the world's supply.

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In 2005, Reynolds, Ind., was deemed the world's first "BioTown," as agricultural officials unveiled a plan to power the 550-person burg entirely with corn, hog waste, sewage, and other energy sources in ready local supply. Three years and many obstacles later, the ambitious proposal is far off track. A significant private investor dropped out; construction on a planned ethanol plant was suspended; work has not yet begun on a planned anaerobic digester. Officials have downgraded their ambition, but say the project will sputter on.

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Daylight-saving time was enacted as an energy-saving measure, but when time springs forward on March 9, people may actually use more energy, says a new study. When all of Indiana began to participate in daylight-saving time -- before 2006, only 15 of the state's 92 counties would spring forward and fall back -- researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara started tracking Hoosiers' energy bills. The result: Indiana households paid an extra $8.6 million annually for electricity after the switch, likely due to increased air-conditioner use. Critics say that Indiana's situation might not apply nationwide. Besides, says Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who drafted a daylight-saving-time extension that went into effect last year, other studies have concluded that extra evening light means "less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time, and increased economic activity."

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The media giant CBS has agreed to pay $31 million to clean up six ultra-polluted Superfund sites around Bloomington, Ind. CBS is the corporate successor of Westinghouse, which ran industrial operations in the area that polluted streams and groundwater with high concentrations of PCBs. An agreement to clean up the contamination in the 1990s was abandoned; CBS has been negotiating another deal with the state and U.S. EPA ever since. "The citizens of Bloomington have lived for too long with fish advisories because of the high concentrations of PCBs in fish in local streams," said the EPA's Mary Gade. "The settlement puts into place measures that will reduce PCB levels in fish and bring about a day when fish in [area streams] can be safely eaten by people and animals alike."

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Apparently not having received the memo that denying coal plants is the hip thing to do, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has approved an application from Duke Energy to build a coal-gasification plant in the city of Edwardsport. The bright side (if you can call it that): Duke will have to submit a plan on how to capture carbon-dioxide emissions from the plant. But still.

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The U.S. EPA is not so much enforcing the Clean Water Act, says a new report from green group U.S. PIRG. According to EPA data, 57 percent of the country's industrial plants and municipal wastewater facilities dumped more than the allowable level of pollutants and sewage into waterways at least once in 2005, the most recent year that records are available. The average violation was nearly four times the legal limit. Of course, the Clean Water Act turns 35 next week, so why shouldn't it relax a little? Meanwhile, in a timely case in point, Indiana may ease limits on toxic dumping into a Lake Michigan tributary by a steel mill in the infamous city of Gary (go on, just sing it). Indiana recently inspired public outcry when it considered allowing BP to increase pollution discharged into that very lake.

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Indiana's Tippecanoe County is home to 155,000 residents whom apparently are swamped with visitors, as the county has 355,000 public parking spaces. We'll just float this by them: Parking lots can contribute to water pollution, erosion, the urban heat island effect, and local flooding. Which could be extra dangerous for those in a Tippecanoe -- if you get our drift. They could be up a creek without a paddle. It gives us a sinking feeling. OK, we're done.

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Indiana regulators give BP a pass on meeting federal soot regulations

Last week, oil company BP backed off of a plan to dump lots more ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan; this week, Indiana regulators granted the same refinery an exemption to a federal rule that would have required it to halve its soot emissions. Because we certainly wouldn't want it polluting too little! The Indiana Department of Environmental Management suggested that meeting federal soot regulations would pose "an extreme hardship" to poor BP.

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BP says it will back off from releasing more Lake Michigan pollution

In what's being billed as a victory for environmentalists, oil company BP has said it will back off from dumping more pollution into Lake Michigan. The company had just weeks ago received permission from Indiana state authorities to increase the amount of sludge particles and ammonia it could release into the lake each day. But pressure campaigns from greens as well as from Great Lakes politicians and others prompted BP to rethink its plan, at least for now; the company's promises to pollute less are not legally binding. BP's pollution increase was to accompany a $3.8 billion expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery, a plan that the company still intends to go through with, though spokespeople maintain that it is considering possible technological solutions to keep pollution levels from rising. "BP is hearing loud and clear that they need to do something different," said Cameron Davis of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "The public doesn't want business as usual."

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EPA suggests wishy-washy compromise in Indiana BP permit mess

Officials from the U.S. EPA have stepped in to quell the furor over a controversial permit the state of Indiana granted to a BP refinery. The permit will allow BP to discharge more ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan -- at legal limits, but increased over previous amounts. Residents and politicians in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and nationwide are up in arms over the decision: several city councils have passed resolutions opposing it, as has the U.S. House of Representatives; at least one Chicago alderman is calling for a BP boycott; and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) has called for a review of the state's permitting process. So what's EPA's solution to the whole mess? The agency, meeting with company officials today, will nicely ask BP to invest in nearby pollution-reduction projects like sewer upgrades and shoreline restoration. "If BP can't or won't do more at its own facility," says EPA regional administrator Mary Gade, "perhaps they can do more to protect the lake in other ways."

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BP allowed to increase waste discharges into Lake Michigan

The ugly (and imaginary) conflict between environment and economy has reared its head in Indiana, where state and federal regulators granted exemptions that will allow oil giant BP to discharge more waste from a refinery straight into Lake Michigan. You may recall that BP is moving "Beyond Petroleum." But first it has a few things to take care of -- like this $3.8 billion expansion of a facility in Whiting, Ind., that will process Canadian crude oil. Claiming that there isn't enough room on-site to upgrade its water-treatment plant, BP sought permission to increase discharges of ammonia and sludge into the lake, diluting them with water 200 feet offshore. Officials, apparently wooed by the prospect of 80 new jobs, said OK, while clean-water advocates protested the decision. "We're not necessarily opposed to this project," said Lee Botts, founder of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "But if they are investing all of these billions, they surely can afford to spend some more to protect the lake."

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Dear Umbra,

With Earth Day coming up, our environmental group at Purdue, Campus Greens, is trying to plan some events. Last year we had 15 groups handing out information and we provided free veggie burgers plus other food. This year we were hoping to expand on that success and include some activities like having people manually power a TV, washing machine, or some electronic device. Other than that, we're really struggling for ideas and support at a die-hard conservative school. Any help would be appreciated.

Anthony
West Lafayette, Ind.

Dearest Anthony,

Thank you for your letter. I would rather eat horse food than veggie burgers, so I welcome the opportunity to weigh in and suggest activities that I personally would find more enticing.

Suitable for all.

Photo: iStockphoto.

Please don't fret. So many Earth Days have passed since 1970 that you should not be starting from scratch on this one. No need to invent things out of whole cloth when we have 35 years of experience at colleges around the nation, and the internet to help us pilfer those examples.

Earth Day activities can be celebratory or educational, and the educational ones can be aimed at a green audience or at novices. You've got your speakers, your awards, your sorting of trash on the main quad, your Top Ten Things You Can Do lists, your tree plantings, your volunteering at schools, your Car-Free Day. A fun event might just be nominally earthy, like a band or a scavenger hunt. You're just trying to raise awareness, and get a few more fish in the net, so it doesn't need to be completely original.

If you have the funds and time, it might be nice to have a mixture of activities, so that your group feels invigorated and advanced by at least part of the event, rather than run down by a poor response. If you expect your audience to be conservative, you might find a speaker who could give an introductory talk pitched to non-greens, something like "Theories of Global Warming and the U.S. Economy."

You also might have luck with an activity specific to Purdue and the concerns of Purdue students and staff. We all know conservation can be good to our wallets. What could you instigate, or pass out, or sell, that would reduce student expenses, or improve their lives, that would also be approved by the administration? If you met with plant operations or a budget group, could you ask them for input on how you could work together to cut electricity or garbage costs, or beautify the campus, or something along those lines? Perhaps you'll find a project that Campus Greens can do in tandem with the college. Wouldn't that be killer? You would get college support, maybe a little money, definitely promotion, and you could kick it all off on Earth Day.

Maybe that's a fantasy, but I know you can find something better than a human-powered TV. If you want to highlight humans as an alternative energy source, bike tune-up workshops would be better.

Bossily,
Umbra

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The small farming community of Reynolds, Ind., is gearing up to take advantage of its ripest renewable resource: vast amounts of stinky hog poop. Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and the Indiana Department of Agriculture have designated the one-traffic-light burg as the world's first "BioTown." The plan is for its homes and businesses to run on electricity generated by the burning of methane released from hog waste. "The goal is to create a new use for the manure that's surrounding the town -- as a biofuel," says Deborah Abbott of the state Ag Department. Methane from the town sewer may eventually be tapped as well. Officials also want to get all the vehicles in town running on fuel with a high percentage of corn-derived ethanol or soy-derived biodiesel. "We're very excited," said Charlie Van Voorst, president of the Reynolds Town Board. "They're advertising us as a showcase for the world."

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