If you haven’t heard of the tar sands, they’re a massive operation that people are calling the most environmentally destructive project on the planet. Right now, President Obama is considering signing a permit to allow the development of a new pipeline that would pump “dirty tar sands” oil from Canada to the U.S.

In the past 2 weeks, over 740 people, including religeous leaders, political leaders, environmental activists, writers, opinion leaders and people of conscience have been arrested for sitting in front of the White House to protest the proposed tar sands pipeline which will bring millions of gallons of crude, dirty oil from Alberta Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 10,000 people have signed petitions to President Obama to oppose the construction of this pipeline which could wreak environmental havoc with risks of spills and disruption of land and leaks of toxins in to our precious aquifers. Some of the economic issues at hand are graphically and thoroughly described in the reference: EXPORTING ENERGY SECURITY by Oil Change International, September 2011.

In the overview of this document, the key issues are made and talking points offered:

“TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline is a $7 billion project to bring heavy, sour crude oil from tar sands production in Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, Texas for refining. It has sparked an ongoing struggle as advocates and opponents of the project make their case in various ways to the Obama Administration. Among the most oft repeated talking points by industry and their allies is the idea that Keystone XL is necessary for American energy security, and that its construction will help wean America of its dependence on Mideast oil. But the idea that Keystone XL will decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil is demonstrably false. To issue a presidential permit to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the Obama Administration’s State Department must find that the pipeline serves the national interest. This report demonstrates compellingly why it does not.”

1. “The Keystone XL pipeline is an export pipeline. The Gulf Coast refiners at the end of the pipeline’s route are focused on expanding exports, and the nature of the tar sands crude Keystone XL delivers enhances their capacity to do so.
2. “Valero, the top beneficiary of the Keystone XL pipeline, has recently explicitly detailed an export strategy to its investors. The nation’s top refiner has locked in at least 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity, and, because its refinery in Port Arthur is within a Foreign Trade Zone, the company will accomplish its export strategy tax free.
3. “The oil market has changed markedly in the last several years, with U.S. demand decreasing, and U.S. production increasing for the first time in 40 years. Higher fuel economy standards and slow economic growth have led to a decline in U.S. gasoline demand, while technological advances have opened up new sources in the U.S. Increasingly, the US is exporting oil”

In an article published today, it was revealed that Governor Heineman of Nebraska asked President Obama to oppose the pipeline because it would cross and risk contamination to the great Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska which is “the lifeblood of Nebraska’s agricultural industry”. This is just one of the potential environmental catastrophies that could be caused by oil spills, disruption of wildlife and lands and communities and disregard for the economic welfare and health of the people of the United States.

And finally, the tar sands project produces 3 times the amount of greenhouse gases than any other oil mining processes, threatening to speed up the already relentless havoc wreaked by climate change on our planet.

You can add your voice to this movement to protect our land and welfare in the U.S.:
It only takes a minute to sign the petition. Got to this web site www.350.org/take-a-stand and petiton President Obama, take action or contribute however you can.
Let’s make sure we stop this project and help move the world beyond fossil fuels.

It was a beautiful day in the mountains outside of Flagstaff and a welcome relief from the heat of Southern Arizona. We had escaped the confines of a stuffy conference room and a bureaucratic meeting. We were off to find a “Prayer Circle” in the San Francisco Peaks. This proved to be a tough job and we were about to get an important education.

As we neared our destination, we witnessed a construction zone, a cadre of forest service workers and signs of serious deforestation and disruption of the earth around us. We asked several of the earth moving vehicle drivers, forest service agents, and others where the prayer circle was being held. To a person, they denied knowing anything about it, but to our surprise several of them pointed video cameras at us and our vehicle, recording our presence in this place. Is it a crime to ask directions or to be on public lands?

Eventually we found the people gathering for the prayer circle on our own. There was a small security team. We were politely screened as we approached – with a handshake, a smile and a welcome. They needed to know we were not “unfriendlies”. You can watch the prayer circle proceedings and get more information HERE.

This meeting of indigenous people and supporters is a weekly event on the San Francisco Peaks to address the devastation and desecration of the sacred lands of 13 different Native American tribes. And why is this happening? An entrepreneur from the Phoenix area is trying to build a second ski slope on the San Francisco Peaks by tearing up the land, placing a long chain of water pipes and pumping millions of gallons of reclaimed (sewage) water uphill to make artificial snow…….. in this desert land. The forest service, the water company and the business owner all will profit from this misadventure.

This is yet another in a long list of atrocities committed on the lands and lives of Native American peoples. For example: Witness the mining of extremely toxic uranium on the Navajo reservation, exposing and polluting families and their homes and their water to this deadly substance. They have had no recourse and no reparations. Witness the presence of the most hazardous and toxic emissions from old and woefully inadequately equipped coal burning power plants on the reservations. Families are exposed to high risks of early deaths and chronic illnesses from cancer, chronic lung disease and cardiovascular diseases. Children and vulnerable elderly and the sick cannot go outside their homes because of asthma caused by coal plant emissions on many days. And now these peoples are to be exposed to snow made of wastewater containing the toxic chemical byproducts of our human wastes. But the bad joke is on all of the skiers and children playing in that toxic snow. Everyone will be exposed.

Where is the social justice? The profiteers did not ask permission to desecrate these lands with conditions that you and I would not allow in our own back yards. And all parties try to suppress appropriate public discourse with threats and intimidation.

We live in a Democracy. The Declaration if Independence calls out the inalienable rights of every American the right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Our Constitution guarantees in Article XIV: “..nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property..” Where will the limits be to our freedoms in the pursuit of “profits”?

Here is a fun new game- geared to the kids – that was created by the Nissan producers of their new fully electric car, The Leaf. They address solar and wind, climate change issues and how our world is moving into a clean and sustainable future.
Go to http://the-planet-zero.com/

Renewable energy production, costs and availability are on the move. Many of us who now have electric vehicles are producing are own electricity on our rooftops with solar photovoltaic panels. As the educational pieces that accompany this game tell you, the Japanese are actually able to power their homes from their electric vehicles in their garages when the cars are not in use!

I participated in a Webinar today that reviewed the many ways in which large utility scale solar power plants are working on the reduction of costs, the storage of power for when the sun is not available, and projects that are under development throughout Southern California and Arizona as well in many other countries. The US is the worldwide leader in the development of these large scale projects. We are making real progress towards new clean, renewable forms of energy in a number of ways. There is hope and a great many opportunities lie in front of us. It is time to stop the large subsidies to oil and coal and nuclear power and to move this support into renewable energies for a much better future. And it is critical for our economic future and jobs in the US to support this development here in our country. Otherwise, China, Europe and the rest of Asia are catching up with us. Our energy independence and energy security depend on our making the right choices here at home in America. Check out this website that makes a strong case for jobs in the future being strongly rooted in the renewable energy industries: www.labor4sustainability.org

Do you know where your electricity comes from? In Tucson, a lot of people don’t really know if you ask them. Actually, the power grid draws electricity from a lot of places. But our own power plant is right here in the South side of our City and it burns coal (in addition to natural gas) to produce electricity. In fact, more than 40% of the electricity in the United States comes from burning coal.

Burning coal creates very harmful pollution in the form of ozone and particulate matter. The process of burning coal releases chemicals into the atmosphere that threaten not only the air Americans breathe, but the water we drink, the soil we live on and the food we eat. The EPA classifies many of these chemicals as “hazardous air pollutants” or “air toxics,” a category that means they are known or reasonably expected to harm human health or the environment or both.

Hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants include:
• Acid gases, such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride;
• Benzene, toluene and other compounds such as dioxins and formaldehyde
• Lead, arsenic, and other metals such as mercury
• Over 40% of U.S. mercury emissions come from coal burning
• Radioactive materials, like radium and uranium.

There are 84 different hazardous air and other pollutants. Moreover, 76% of U.S. acid gas emissions come from burning coal. Remember acid rain?

And then there is solid waste from burning coal. Coal ash, like the stuff that is sitting in a big pile in front of the Irvington Generating Station right here in Tucson, contains at least 16 very toxic heavy metals. These include arsenic, lead , mercury, chromium, cadmium and so on. If these are not disposed of properly, they can contaminate our drinking water and blow around as what they call “fugitive dust” in our air. There are 1000 poorly or unregulated, unlined and unmonitored dump sites in the US and 9 of the most toxic ash ponds are right here in Arizona. 140 million tons of coal ash are produced in the US every year.

So why should we care about these wastes? Well, we should care a lot! Air and coal waste toxics contribute to 4 of the 5 leading causes of death and disability in the US. These include chronic lung disease and asthma, heart disease neurological diseases and cancer. According to the CDC, 1 American in every 12 now has asthma. Mercury, lead and arsenic from the solid wastes put 300,000 children a year at risk for mental retardation and lowered IQ. These chemical also cause asthma, birth defects, brain damage, cancer and early death.

If the EPA strengthens and enforces air quality and waste emissions from our coal burning power plants, we can save up to 17,000 lives and $140 billion dollars each year by avoiding excess health care costs from these pollutants. We currently allow 75 parts per billion of particulate matter and we should lower it to 60 PPB. We currently have no regulations of many or most of our coal ash wastes and they need strict controls!

Let’s also not forget that coal burning produces a third of the greenhouse gases on our planet and the reason we are so hot and dry and burning up in Arizona is because greenhouse gases are causing an increase in these weather conditions.

How about not burning coal any more at all! Let’s start getting really serious about putting our investments and financing into solar and wind generating of electric power for Arizona. The technology is here and ready to go. Solar PVs have been powering my home and many homes in Tucson for several years now.

Why should our kids and our most vulnerable adults not be able to go out to play or live their lives without risking their health or their ability to survive? Let’s clean up our air. Let’s do it for the kids and their future on this planet. Ask the EPA to get busy and enforce those better standards now! And ask Congress to fund the EPA so that it can do its job. And let’s all get busy living in an environmentally sustainable way.

By Dr. Eve Shapiro and Dr. Matt Heinz Special To The Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:00 am

A lawsuit has been filed in the Arizona Supreme Court to block Gov. Jan Brewer and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, from freezing or dropping patients from our state Medicaid plan.

Why is this step necessary? In 1996, Arizona voters passed Prop. 203 by a significant majority. This measure increased AHCCCS eligibility from 33 percent to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, the federal poverty level is about $24,000 for a family of four. Arizona voters rightfully agreed that the previous coverage limit was inadequate.

Unfortunately, the Legislature neither implemented this plan nor several other voter measures.

In 1998, the Voter Protection Act was passed, which stated that the Legislature had to implement any voter- passed measure. In 2000, Prop. 204, with the same eligibility level as Prop. 203, was approved by a majority of voters in every county in the state. This measure was partially funded by Tobacco Settlement Funds, partially by state general funds and partially by federal funds that match 2-to-1 what the state pays in Medicaid costs.

Over the next 11 years, Prop. 204 has enabled over 300,000 Arizona citizens to get health insurance and thereby improve access to health care. This group is almost one-third of the total number of patients on AHCCCS, a growing number due to our current poor economic conditions.

This year, in an attempt to balance the state budget, the Legislature and Brewer have decided that they can drop up to 250,000 people from AHCCCS to save $500 million, in blatant disregard of the Prop. 204 legislation.

They claim that they have no choice, but there are always choices. The Arizona Hospital Association has offered the Legislature a plan to assess its income, thereby raising about $200 million.

In addition, capital-gains taxes have brought in more than $180 million more than anticipated.

Also, somehow the money was found to give corporate tax breaks of more than $400 million to attract new business to the state, although having a healthy, well-educated population would seem to be a first step to attracting business.

We suspect that it is not a practical matter about finding funding, but an ideological one. Many legislative members believe that it is not government’s role to help people obtain health insurance.

They don’t seem to understand that this attempt affects us all. A recent study found that dropping Prop. 204 would cost the state 30,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in gross state product.

In addition, people without health insurance will continue to get sick and end up in emergency rooms, affecting access to health care for all of us.

Many of the people losing insurance will suffer from worsening of chronic illnesses and possibly early death.

Rural hospitals, with a significant number of patients on AHCCCS, may be forced to close their doors or limit services, affecting all people living in those areas of the state.

Urban hospitals will become rapidly overwhelmed as they trim their workforces while having to treat sicker patients from many miles away.

Community health centers will struggle under the burden of more patients with no health coverage.

In addition, by giving up federal matching funds, we are turning aside up to $2 billion that goes directly to support AHCCCS payments to hospitals and doctors.

This is a wrong and illegal move. It will now be up to the courts to stop it

Dr. Eve Shapiro is chair of the Prop. 204 Committee. Email her at: shapiroe@email.arizona.edu

Dr. Matt Heinz represents Legislative District 29 in the state House of Representatives. Email him at: mheinz@azleg.gov

The disastrous chain of events at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Facility, following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, have given us a critical warning and an unprecedented opportunity. We have heeded the warning and taken steps to review our own nuclear power facilities and work in every way possible to prevent such a disaster in this country and elsewhere. The NRC has undergone a task force  review of the 101 nuclear power plants in the US and prepared their report.

This week, the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force, which reviewed the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster for lessons to improve safety at US nuclear reactors, presented its recommendations to the whole Nuclear Regulatory Commission. While these recommendations are not perfect and much more needs to be done, they are a starting point and should be acted upon as quickly as possible by the NRC.

Despite the documentation of multiple lapses in assuring safety at plants, the nuclear industry has already come out swinging in opposition, claiming that there isn’t enough known about the Fukushima accident to make any changes to our regulations. If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission votes to adopt these recommendations, there will be opportunities for stakeholders – including the public and the nuclear industry – to weigh in.  Yet, two of the five NRC Commissioners have already voted to punt these recommendations to NRC staff for further review, essentially burying the recommendations in endless bureaucracy. (See statements by 2 of the NRC commissioners below)

Commissioner Svinicki’s vote can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-kls.pdf
Commissioner Magwood’s vote can be fount at  http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/cvr/2011/2011-0093vtr-wdm.pdf

This move is shameful because it is so dangerous to our public health and safety.  The industry is claiming that it is rash to do such basic things as “reevaluate and upgrade as necessary the design-basis seismic and flooding protection” at operating reactors.

The NRC must vote to move forward expeditiously with improving nuclear power plant safety for our Nation.    Anything less would be abdicating its job of protecting public health and safety.

You can make your opinion known to the NRC:
Contact Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission, (301) 415-1969 at NRCExecSec@nrc.gov