Burning Bio News

Air officials for years have blamed dairy cow emissions for the unusually high ozone levels in California’s San Joaquin Valley, but a new study points more to what goes into the animals than what comes out. University of California, Davis researchers, however, found that the bigger ozone culprit appears to be millions of tons of fermenting cattle feed. This previously unrecognized source is likely the reason why ozone levels have not dropped even as the region has implemented control programs, scientists said.

A new Cayuga County (NY) digester facility on County House Road in Sennett, NY will convert manure into energy that will heat nearby county buildings. The Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District will begin building the $9.5 million dollar sustainable-energy digester plant later this month. Soil and Water received about $6.2 million in federal stimulus money — nearly double the amount it anticipated — and about $3.5 million in federal and state grants and aid. –mj: I have a soft spot in my heart for community digesters, but am not sure how $10 million dollars of public benefit will be generated from the 10 million of public cost?

On Thursday, 40 years after that first Earth Day in 1970, smog levels nationwide have dropped by about a quarter, and lead levels in the air are down more than 90 percent. Formerly fetid lakes and burning rivers are now open to swimmers. The challenges to the planet today are largely invisible — and therefore tougher to tackle.

Genetically engineered biotechnology is one of those issues that people love to hate. This article on the ecofriend site lists 12 genetic technologies that are earth friendly including pigs and cow that produce less toxic manure, bacterium that generate fuels and plastics, as well as viruses that produce batteries. It is a nice reminder that the world as we know it is completely changing.

Consumers will pay more for cars upfront under new rules finalized Thursday by the Obama administration that will increase fuel efficiency and for the first time set greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks. The new fuel efficiency standards, issued by the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency as the result of a May 2009 deal with the auto industry, represent a peaceful end to a contentious legal battle over how to regulate tailpipe emissions. By model year 2016 vehicles must get an average of 35.5 miles per gallon. The requirements will add as much as $985 to a vehicle’s initial cost, according to EPA estimates, but buyers will save about $4,000 on fuel over the life of the car, administration officials said.

Scientists at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands have discovered bacteria that can produce oxygen by breaking down nitrite compounds, a novel metabolic trick that allows the bacteria to consume methane found in oxygen-poor sediments. When the team gave the bacteria nitrates, a common oxygen-bearing component of fertilizers, no methane was consumed. But when nitrites, close chemical relatives of nitrates, were added to the mix, the bacteria fed on the methane and released nitrogen gas. That combination suggests that the microbes were breaking down nitrites, using the oxygen to consume the methane and releasing nitrogen as waste.

California is preparing to introduce the first statewide system of monitoring devices to detect global-warming emissions, installing them on towers throughout the state. The monitoring network, which is expected to grow, will initially focus on pinpointing the sources and concentrations of methane, a potent contributor to climate change. The air resources board has bought seven portable analyzers made by Picarro, a company in Silicon Valley that also supplies the machines to the federal government and academic scientists. A Picarro analyzer costs $50,000. It is about the size of a desktop PC and takes precise, real-time measurements of greenhouse gases.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could be blocked by Congress from developing its own greenhouse gas regulations, under legislation announced Tuesday. The bipartisan-sponsored legislation was introduced by U.S. Reps. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo.

The (San Francisco, CA) Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued the season’s second winter “Spare the Air” alert (last week). The alert means burning wood, manufactured fire logs or any other solid fuel, both indoors and outdoors, is banned. It will be illegal for Bay Area residents and businesses to use their fireplaces, woodstoves and inserts, pellet stoves, outdoor fire pits or any other wood-burning devices.

The Environmental Protection Agency is set today to finalize its ruling that greenhouse-gas emissions endanger public health and welfare, opening the door to executive-branch regulations of emissions. Lack of forward progress with Congress and at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen appear to have heightened EPA resolve.

EPA presented Energy Star Combined Heat and Power (CHP) awards to four organizations for using highly efficient systems to save energy, lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce air pollution. CHP (cogeneration) is up to 60 percent more efficient than producing heat and power separately. This year’s winners are:
* Calpine Corporation’s Carville Energy Center (CEC) (St. Gabriel, LA).
* Massachusetts Dept. of Corrections Bridgewater Correctional Complex (Bridgewater, Mass.)
* Equity Office Properties (New York City, N.Y.)
* Patterson Farms (Auburn, N.Y.)

Agriculture has a new attack being launched on it by the United States Humane Society, the Association of Irritated Residents, Friends of the Earth, and other assorted groups. On September 21, this group of environmental organizations filed a 68-page petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which, asks EPA to issue new standards to regulate air emissions coming from CAFO facilities. –mj: Unless this petition is based on new data, all of their claims are based on data and assumptions that are obsolete. With all the bumps and warts of the US livestock industries, we have the safest, cleanest, and least expensive food system in the world. Why would we want to trade that for importing hidden food adulterants like melamine? I am not anti-trade, I am just amazed at the damage done by well-intentioned - but clueless - political interests.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized new requirements for the nation’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases to publicly disclose their annual emissions, providing the necessary foundation for federal policy to reduce global warming pollution. Reporting requirements will apply to about 10,000 large emitters that account for the vast majority–about 80% to 85%–of the nation’s overall inventory of heat-trapping gases. Data collection will begin January 1, 2010, with disclosure required in the first quarter of 2011. –mj: I think EPA is really dropping to ball here. If the reporting requirements looked like the product label of the USDA BioPreferred Program, the market would pull many of the emissions back into the economy. By isolating these emissions as ‘toxic’ they make it all the more difficult to return them to economic growth. I apologize for the late posting.

United Ethanol’s 2005 conditional use permit was declared null and void by a court of law two years ago because there was concern that the siting procedures were not transparent enough. No further action was taken. Now there are new concerns about emissions and the facility appears to be operating legally without a permit.

Teresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation announced the recipients of the 15th annual Heinz Awards, which this year, focuses singularly on the environment. Created to honor U.S. Sen. John Heinz, the 2009 Heinz Awards commemorate his long-standing commitment to the environment by bestowing $100,000 awards to 10 individuals whose achievements have helped bring about a cleaner, greener and more sustainable planet.

Researchers at the University of California-Davis are set to rebut a 2006 United Nations study that asserted that livestock operations are responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. The study, titled “Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change,” makes use of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that agriculture as a whole emits only 5.8 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gases, said Frank Mitloehner, a livestock air quality specialist who worked on the project. Researchers have also found that livestock accounts for a far lower level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which combine with oxides of nitrogen to create smog, than had been previously thought.

City Utilities of Springfield, MO, conducted a test burn using torrefied wood instead of coal. Torrefied wood is brittle and can be crushed as fine as coal using less horsepower. It will blend, or it can be fired to 100 percent of the fuel rates. Earthcare Products Incorporated, based in Independence, Kansas arranged for the pile of torrefied wood to be available for the test burn.

Todd Neeley is beginning a series on the environmental impacts of ethanol and the environment. This is not an easy subject, but one that the industry must be ever-vigilant with. While much of the community fear of ethanol is based on perception, when ethanol plants are found guilty of permit violations and such it only fuels the fears. Agriculture was blind to the power of this perceived fear with their manure management practices. The result has been a decade of costly regulations. This is the first in this series. If you are interested in following the rest, bookmark the DTN site.

According to U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-SD, Al McGartland, director of EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE), kept Alan Carlin, an economist at NCEE, from presenting his view that the EPA was incorrect in its research regarding greenhouse gases. The EPA declared in April that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a major hazard to Americans’ health. – mj: Buckle up! In my experience, the more mainstream a political fight is, the less progress gets made. The Senate Climate Legislation has been primed by the EPA RFS2 rules and the House climate bill that has passed. This is going to get ugly.

EPA is granting California’s waiver request enabling the state to enforce its greenhouse gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles, beginning with the current model year. The first California waiver request was made in December 2005 and was subsequently denied in March 2008. -mj: The saga continues… This has been a significant controversy. It appears that things will calm down a bit now. However, California currently will not allow on-farm generation of electricity from manure digesters because their NOx standards for stationary engine emissions are 10x more restrictive than the rest of the country. No engine exists that can meet those standards. Hum…