Terry Winckler's blog

"Putting lipstick on a pig" describes a PR tactic of making something bad look good. But, two Canadian companies have added a new twist to this old ploy—they've changed the name of the pig.

We're referring to the oil mining practices of EnCana Corp. and Cenovus Energy Inc. The companies employ a form of mining oil from Canadian tar sands that has a bad reputation for being highly destructive to the environment. To counter this, they are no longer using the phrases "tar sands" and "oil sands" in referring to their work. Now they describe themselves as conducting "enhanced oil projects."

Extracting oil from tar sands is one of the dirtiest, most polluting methods—and Earthjustice is challenging a pipeline that would daily bring nearly half a million barrels of oil obtained this way into the United States from Canada. No matter what you call it, there's no disguising its harmful impacts: the excessive greenhouse gas emissions, the vast amounts of water employed in mining, the multitude of toxins released into our air and water.

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin is giving the keynote address this month at the United Nations Environmental Program workshop in Okinawa on the military and the environment. Here's a glimpse of what he will discuss:

What kind of work does Earthjustice do in the Mid-Pacific office?

Since Earthjustice opened the Mid-Pacific Office in Honolulu in 1988, we've represented environmental, Native Hawaiian and community organizations on a wide variety of matters. A large military presence and military training by its very nature threatens harm to the fragile ecosystems in the Pacific and the indigenous cultures that rely on them. We have been involved in several cases seeking to ensure the military complies with environmental laws, everything from protecting marine mammals from Navy sonar to ensuring Army training avoids pushing Hawai'i's critically imperiled species to extinction.

What will you focus on at the U.N. meeting?

I was invited to speak based on the success Earthjustice has had at the Army's Makua Military Reservation on O'ahu, securing protection from live-fire training for endangered plants and animals, compelling the Army to prepare a comprehensive environmental impact statement, and negotiating for clean-up of unexploded ordnance to increase opportunities for cultural access for Native Hawaiians to Makua's many sacred sites. I will address the tools available under American law to ensure the military carries out its planning and operations in an environmentally responsible manner, as well as suggesting ways to improve national and international laws that apply to the military.

Is the Department of Defense becoming more or less respectful of the environment?

It's less a question of "respect" than a realization on the military's part that the public is deeply concerned that training does not destroy the things that make Hawai'i special and that, if the military flouts our nation's environmental laws, it will be held to account. Earthjustice has played a major role both in elevating public awareness of military-related threats to the environment and in bringing litigation to compel the military's compliance with its legal duties.

What environmental laws are most often in dispute when the U.S. military is involved?

The whole gamut of environmental laws come into play. In the Makua litigation alone, Earthjustice has challenged the Army's failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Issues have also arisen regarding the National Historic Preservation Act due to threats to Makua's numerous cultural sites as well as the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, related to the disposal of munitions. In other cases, the Mid-Pacific Office has enforced the military's obligations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (Navy sonar) and Migratory Bird Treaty Act (bombing of nesting grounds in the Northern Marianas).

What is the proper balance between protecting the U.S. and protecting our environment?

It is vital to recognize that protecting our environment is protecting the U.S. Ensuring that we have clean air, water and land, that our natural ecosystems are functioning properly, and that we leave a healthy world for future generations are all paramount national interests that our military must seek to advance, not undermine.

The fact of the matter is that, while despoiling the environment is often more convenient (in military training as in business and other human undertakings), it will rarely be the case that an environmentally destructive undertaking is the only way to ensure the military is adequately trained. More than 20 years ago, Congress amended the Endangered Species Act to give the Secretary of Defense the authority to exempt the military from the law's requirements if complying with the law would endanger national security. That exemption has never been invoked. Environmentally responsible alternatives exist; it just requires a societal commitment to make sure they are implemented instead of more expedient, but more destructive, paths.

UPDATE: Democrats today (Nov. 5) ducked a Republican boycott to pass a climate change bill out of a key Senate committee. One senator described the move as a way to prove the United States is serious about fighting global warming.

President Obama hoped to have a climate change bill in hand to strengthen America's credibility in December at the world climate change conference in Copenhagen—but he may have to settle for a "show of progress" instead. A Republican boycott on the bill this week all but doomed hope of getting a bill passed before the conference.

But, is a "show" enough to convince other countries that the U.S. is no longer the rogue nation it was under Bush? We posed the question to Earthjustice legislative representative Sarah Saylor. Here's her response:

Anyone watching the process knows that our Congressional leaders are moving the legislative process forward. That bill has cleared two of five key hurdles in the legislative process by passing through committee to the House floor, and through the House floor to the Senate.

As the world's richest and largest polluters—the U.S. and China—remain ambigous about taking significant climate change action, the world's poorest contributors are getting support to clean up their acts.

A $74 billion annual fund has been set up to help poorer countries tackle greenhouse gases, and today European Union leaders promised to kick into that fund, although they haven't yet agreed to an exact amount. Critics chastize the E.U. for not doing more, but the truth is, it's a lot more tangible than what the two biggies have so far promised. And with only six weeks before the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, anything tangible is desperately needed.

President Barack Obama may not have enough time before the conference to make good on his vow to make the U.S. a leader in fighting climate change. Almost no one believes Congress will pass a climate change bill before then, and without that legislative support, the president will lack leadership credibility on the world stage.

Earthjustice has begun tracking the Obama administration's progress in rolling back eight years of environmental assault by the Bush administration. We've created a chart that grades President Barack Obama on how well he's done. After reading the chart, come back to this blog post and provide your own comments. We'll be updating the report card as actions warrant.

Photo: NASA/DSMP

President Barack Obama handed out a passel of money today for "smart grid" projects, much of it going towards house electrical meters that can be controlled by power companies. The meters allow companies to manipulate how much electricity each house uses at any given time -- useful in times of power shortages and for being able to shift power from where it's least needed to where it's most needed. The grants also went to  modernizing various components of the grid to make it "smarter."

The federal stimulus grants, while not directly funding clean energy alternatives, are aimed at improving how the nation uses our current electrical transmission set-up, so that such alternatives as solar and wind can be more easily integrated. To emphasize the smart grid connection to alternative energy sources, the president made the announcement while standing in a new, Florida solar energy "farm." Legal efforts by Earthjustice paved the way for the facility.

Clearly, this is just a start towards a highly sophisticated electrical distribution and consumption system. To that end, a Wall Street Journal graphic illustrates a "smart grid city" experiment being conducted in Boulder, Co. In the experiment, smart metering in connection with solar powered battery storage allows total manipulation of a house's electrical input and appliances, even to the extent that the house could be feeding the power grid.

Two years after Earthjustice successfully fought Florida Power and Light's plan to build the nation's largest coal plant near Everglades National Park, the state is taking a giant leap forward toward clean energy.

Today, President Barack Obama is touring FPL's new DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia —the largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S.

"Instead of having a dirty coal plant to provide power, we have clean solar energy," said David Guest, managing attorney for Earthjustice in Florida. "It is gratifying to know that Earthjustice helped change public policy and moved our state to more common-sense technology. We are finally putting the sunshine back in the Sunshine State."

In June 2007, Earthjustice gathered evidence and experts which helped convince the Florida Public Service Commission to consider the full costs associated with polluting coal plants. It was the first time that global warming played a role in a PSC decision, and the first time in 15 years that state regulators rejected a new power plant.

At 25 megawatts, it will generate nearly twice as much energy as the second-largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S.—Nevada's Nellis Solar Power Plant.
 

This week, the federal Minerals Management Service issued a disappointing decision to approve plans by Shell Oil to drill for oil and gas in Alaska's Beaufort Sea—starting next summer.

There are a number of steps and permits for Shell to navigate before drilling begins, but this action sets the stage for large-scale industrial drilling just offshore of the Arctic refuge, directly in the migration path of endangered bowhead whales. An oil spill in these icy waters could not be cleaned up.

With this decision, MMS repeats past mistakes by its failure to properly address the potential for massive environmental consequences, said Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe. A spill would be devastating for people, wildlife and the environment. Earthjustice stopped a similar Shell drilling plan in that area two years ago, winning an injunction from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis of MMS's shallow analysis of impacts.

Join a 30-minute online chat about black carbon with Martin Wagner, head of Earthjustice's global warming work, this Tuesday (Oct. 20) at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. You can do it on your personal computer at home or at work. For details and to register, go to this website.

Black carbon—sent aloft in the smoke streams from cooking fires, factories and such industrial equipment as diesel trucks and generators—settles on glaciers and in the Arctic, warming and melting the ice. It is considered one of the worst climate change pollutants, and one of the easiest to deal with.
 
 

Drift boat shoots whitewater created by removal of Savage Rapids Dam

Today, the Savage Rapids dam—reputedly the worst killer of Rogue River salmon—died a well-deserved death at the hands of those who spent decades seeking its removal. Heavy equipment removed the last barriers, fully opening a channel for river and fish to flow through.

For Earthjustice attorney Mike Sherwood, who watched today's demolition, this is a sweet day. He spent years litigating its removal on behalf of WaterWatch of Oregon. "This is a great day for the Rogue River, and for its coho and steelhead," Sherwood said.

Here's an eyewitness report on the demolition.