Candidates address Climate Change, June 18

WNY Climate Action Coalition

ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE

WHERE DO THE CANDIDATES FOR THE 26TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT STAND?

The 26th Congressional District seat is currently held by retiring Congressman Tom Reynolds. All announced candidates have been invited to attend to present their positions and intended policies to address the pressing issue of climate change.

Please come join the conversation and see if you are inspired to volunteer on one of their campaigns!

Wednesday, June 18, 7 PM

Unitarian-Universalist Church of Buffalo
Elmwood Ave at West Ferry St

Refreshments will be served at 6:30 PM
Click here for a printable flyer

Socially Responsible Investing, June 17th

Tuesday, June 17th

HSBC is holding a
Socially Responsible Investing Seminar

9:00 to 10:30 AM at the HSBC Auditorium, One HSBC Center, Buffalo, NY

PRESENTATIONS:

• David Leach, The Calvert Group, Investing in Green Companies and Resources

• Paulette Crooke, HSBC Regional President, Environmental Initiatives to cut Carbon Emissions

• Local Business Clients in the Environmental Preservation field, Two minute "Commercials" on how their company helps the environment

LIVE THE BRAND: Michael A. Anderson, AVP, One HSBC Center, Buffalo, NY, 716-841-4371 Michael.A.Anderson@us.hsbc.com

BUSINESS: Green Jobs Workshop - June 20

Friday, June 20th - 1:00 to 6:00 PM

BUSINESS to BUSINESS - A Green Jobs Workshop
Daemen College, Wick Center, 4380 Main St., Amherst NY
Admission $15 - Waived if you register by Friday, June 13
Register with Katie Chadwick at 716-852-4191 or at klc27@cornell.edu

PROGRAM AGENDA

• 1:00 -1:10: Introductions & Welcome – Arthur Wheaton, Cornell University ILR School

• 1:10 -1:30: Introductory Remarks – Honorable Antoine Thompson, Ranking Minority Member, Environmental Conservation Committee, New York State Senate

TOPICS & SPEAKERS

• 1:30 - 2:00: Parts and Services Required for Wind Energy Facilities - Bill Nowak - Wind Action Group

• 2:00 - 2:30: Landfill with Methane Capture - John Lembach - Director of Research IBEW Local 86 Rochester, NY

• 3:00 - 3:15: Break – Beverages & Cookies

• 3:15 - 3:45: Opportunities Created by the Reopening of the Highland Avenue Plant in Niagara Falls - Speaker to be determined - Globe Specialty Metals Inc.

• 3:45 - 4:15: New York’s Efforts to Capitalize on the Green Economy - Diego Sirianni - Empire State Development Corporation

• 4:15 - 5:00: Where to Get Help on Breaking into the Renewable Energy Economy - Panel Discussion Moderator: Robert E. Knoer, Esq. - The Knoer Group, PLLC

• 5:00 - 6:00: Social Networking Hour

For a printable flyer, click here.

Business Gets Green meets June 19th

The Second Session of Business Gets Green meets on Thursday, June 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Free Event.

Featured speakers and Topics will include:

• Gilad Amozeg, VP-M&A and Corporate Development, Globe Specialty Metals, Inc., New Silicon Plant in Niagara Falls

• Tracie Hall, Executive Director, U.S. Green Building Council NY Upstate Chapter, The LEED Standard

• Dave Majewski, President, Premier Services, Truly Green Landscaping
  

Businesses that want to give a 1 minute introduction need to pre-register.
Questions? Contact Bill Nowak at bill.nowak2@verizon.net

Videos, Reports, and Business Contacts from the May 15th Session are available here.

Business Gets Green is sponsored by Green Gold Development Corp.

New Coal Power: Advance or Big Mistake?

NY Governor Paterson today announced State support for an 'advanced coal' power plant in Jamestown. The plant is intended to be a demonstration facility for carbon dioxide capture and permanent underground storage, a still unproven technology.

'Advanced coal' is a new name for what the coal power companies have been calling 'clean coal'. To date, there is no such thing. It is not known whether this unproven technology will be commercially feasible, cost effective and environmentally safe. Electricity costs will certainly rise since 'clean coal' power plants will be expensive to build and operate.

Climate activists and environmentalists were not happy with the Governor's support for the initiative. “This power plant is ill-advised from both environmental and economic points of view and does not deserve to go forward,” said Walter Simpson, co-founder of the Western New York Climate Action Coalition and leader of a coalition of groups opposed to the plant. He criticized the Governor for "acting before an $800,000 New York State Energy Research & Development Authority-funded study to examine the geological and legal issues associated with carbon capture and storage in the Southern Tier region has begun". Brian Smith, Western New York Program Director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment said “Investing millions of tax dollars in unproven, highly questionable technology is unwise.”

It is not known whether underground storage of carbon dioxide (carbon sequestration) is safe and permanent. Would you like to have toxic concentrations of carbon dioxide stored underground where you live? Suppose toxic concentrations of the gas leak out? What do you think: Advance or Mistake?

Here's Tom Toles' take on carbon sequestration:

[Click to enlarge]

No Fuel Costs or CO2 using Wind Turbines

Dave Bradley of the Buffalo Wind Action Group wrote informative answers to questions asked about my post, Clean Coal: More Expensive, Less Desirable. The answers are in the comments section below that post, but in case you missed them, I decided to post them here:

Question: How much of that $1.5B cost for Huntley is government subsidy?
Answer: Most of that $1.5 billion (and it could be $2 Billion) is the cost of constructing the facility AND the Air Separation plant(s) to supply it with O2 instead of air. The subsidies come from allowing the CO2 pollution to occur, and also from the long term power purchase agreement that would take place between NRG and the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The price stability (very hard to find in NY) would protect it from competition from lower cost generation, such as onshore wind turbines.

There may also be certain subsidies from either NY State or the Dept. of Energy for this initial trial plant (though other such projects have been done on a slightly smaller scale). But the main subsidies are the essentially cost free allowance to pollute our atmosphere with fossil fuel derived CO2, not including the costs of coal mining (like mountain top removal), and the preferential stability that a Power Purchase Agreement gives (wind projects get no such treatment from NYPA in NY). That will lower the financing insecurity, and save the owners billions in higher interest costs that would otherwise happen if NRG has to sell this power on the NYISO at whatever rate NYISO goes for at any given time - the so-called free enterprise route.

Question: And how much solar or wind generating capacity could that much money buy? 680 MW?
Answer: As for the $1.5 billion in capital, that could buy 750 MW of installed onshore wind capacity - a very decent sized wind farm, or set of farms. With an average of 33% output (typical NY value), this would deliver an average of 250 MW of power. However, most of the costs would be involved in paying down the debt - no fuel costs for wind turbines. That avoids this terrible fate.

The Huntley plant was built for $40/ton coal, and so far this year, prices are now near $108/ton, with this just the early part of summer. The coal price spike is due to oil and natural gas prices going up, as well as the devaluation of the dollar, which allows Europeans (Euro currency) to buy our coal cheap (to them) and the increased demand just spikes U.S. prices. The one virtue of coal used to be its cheapness - and that is also fading away.

Clean Coal: More Expensive, Less Desirable

A 'clean coal' technology has been proposed that will provide power to generate electricity without emitting global warming pollution. The idea is that modified coal power plants would capture the polluting gas, carbon dioxide, pump it into open spaces underground, and store it there permanently. The technology has been promoted by coal mining and power companies, and has been supported by President Bush and the three presidential candidates. However, carbon dioxide capture, storage, and safety remain unproven, and the cost of building clean coal power plants is proving to be prohibitive.

The cost of the FutureGen clean coal project in Illinois rose from $1 Billion to $1.8 Billion, including $1 Billion in government subsidies. Fearing that the already high cost would further increase, the U.S. Energy Department canceled the FutureGen project. Another clean coal plant proposed in Edwardsport, Indiana would cost an estimated $2.35 Billion, a $365 Million increase from earlier estimates.

Here in the Buffalo area, an ailing economy and the need for new jobs are driving demands to build a clean-coal power plant in Tonawanda, NRG's proposed Huntley plant. The cost last year was estimated at $1.5 Billion. The current cost and status of the Huntley plant are not clear, and NY State is moving away from coal power to decrease pollution. Recently, in nearby Rochester, NY, a coal-fired power plant was shut down and converted to use natural gas, which generates less carbon dioxide than coal, and doesn't emit mercury pollution.

Coal's future looks bleak on Wall Street. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have downgraded coal company stocks across the board. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America said lending for coal-fired power plants will be contingent on utilities demonstrating they would be economically viable under future federal rules on emissions. A federal tax on carbon dioxide emissions is inevitable. Together with the high cost of cleaning coal, the tax will make coal a more expensive and less desirable source of energy.

Fortunately, clean energy sources, like wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal, provide alternatives to burning coal. Clean energy sources do not emit carbon dioxide pollution, and are environmentally safe and renewable. Low-cost, reliable hydropower from Niagara Falls is attractive to manufacturing companies and is creating new jobs in Western NY. Wind turbine towers are sprouting up across the region. A national shift to clean energy sources will create millions of new jobs in construction, engineering, manufacturing and other areas, and will reduce global warming pollution. It will be a win-win situation for Americans and the planet.

500 New Jobs: Silicon for Solar Electricity

The idle Globe Metallurgical Plant in Niagara Falls will reopen under the parent company, Globe Specialty Metals, Inc., and produce high-purity silicon, a rare commodity essential to make solar-electric panels. Globe will create 500 new jobs, as well as additional jobs needed for construction of a new 100,000-square foot facility. The new facility will produce 4000 tons of solar-grade silicon per year by 2011, and overall the plant will produce 30,000 tons of metallurgical grade silicon annually.

"In about seven months from now, approximately 150 people will be working there, not including contractors who will complete the construction," said Alan Kestenbaum, President and CEO of the New York City based company. In 1.5 to 2 years, an additional 350 people will be added to the staff. The average salary will be approximately $52,000, as reported in Business First of Buffalo.

Kestenbaum said that “This project will be a cornerstone for New York State to become a major center for production and research for renewable energy, and in particular solar energy products", as reported in a Buffalo News story. Globe will invest $60 million to retool the existing metallurgical-grade silicon plant and to construct and outfit a new facility to produce the premium-grade silicon product.

An economic development package supplying low-cost electricity from the Niagara Power Project was key in attracting Globe Specialty Metals to western NY. Empire State Development Corp. (ESDC) and the NY Power Authority partnered to develop the incentive package that provides Globe with 40MW low-cost hydropower over 5 years, and up to $25 Million in Empire Zone Benefits for up to 10 years. In the agreement, 25% of Globe's solar-grade silicon will be used to attract new solar panel manufacturers, positioning NY as a potential solar energy hub. The timing of this news couldn't be better as the National Solar Conference organized by the American Solar Energy Society will be held in Buffalo in 2009!

The ESDC sees the incentive package as necessary to develop the green economy in western NY. Others question the amount of subsidies and the need to waive payment of taxes, as detailed in the Buffalo News report by James Heaney, and covered in his News blog. Still, with so many incentives from the Federal government directed towards the fossil fuel economy that is linked to global warming pollution as well as environmental, health and security concerns, isn't about time that we take a giant step necessary to establish a green economy in western NY based on producing a commodity essential for a clean, renewable energy source? I'm for it. Perhaps some of the issues will be addressed in the June 19th session of Business Gets Green, where a representative from Globe Specialty Metals is slated to speak.

Business Gets Green meets on June 19th

The second session of Business Gets Green is set for Thursday, June 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the Buffalo Museum of Science.

According to meeting organizer, Bill Nowak, 15 businesses have already signed up for the 20 one-minute introduction slots at the beginning of the meeting. E-mail him at bill.nowak2@verizon.net to preregister to give a 1 minute introduction of your business.

Featured speakers for the session will include:

• Gilad Amozeg, VP-M&A and Corporate Development, Globe Specialty Metals, Inc.
• Tracie Hall, Executive Director, U.S. Green Building Council NY Upstate Chapter
• Dave Majewski, President, Premier Services

Reports on the first session of Business Gets Green, Videos of the featured presentations, and Contact Information for participating businesses are available here.

Business Gets Green is sponsored by Buffalo's Green Gold Development Corporation.