Association of Energy Engineers
New York Chapter
January 2004 Newsletter
[Contact information at the end of this document]
January Meeting Announcement
Topic: New York State Energy Code and ASHRAE 90.1
Speakers:
Charles C. Copeland, PE, Goldman Copeland Associates
Evans J. Lizardos, PE, Lizardos Engineering Associates
Where: Cornell Cooperative Extension
16 East 34th Street, 8th floor
When:
Tuesday, January 20th, 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Reminder: $15 for chapter members, $20 for non-members
Sandwiches, soda, networking 5:30-6:00
Recent revisions to the New York State Energy Code have made a primer on the code
changes and compliance with them a topic of great interest. The types of questions most
frequently asked will be addressed. [One AIA/CES HSW credit can be earned by architects
attending this part of the program.]
The basics of ASHRAE 90.1 standard and how it compares to the NYS Energy Code will
be presented.
About Our Speakers
Charles C. Copeland, with nearly 40 years experience in the engineering and design of
mechanical and electrical systems for commercial, residential and institutional facilities, is an
authority on energy efficiency in buildings. He was recognized with an ASHRAE Energy
Award in 1989. He is an ASHRAE Fellow and a member of ASME and BOMA.
Evans Lizardos has served as an officer of many local and state chapters of many engineering
associations He is the recipient of numerous certifications from the Association of Energy
Engineers as well as awards for his professional accomplishments.
2003-4 AEE-NY Advance Planning Calendar (Third Tuesdays)
Feb 17*
Energy Planning for NYC
G.Quinones, Mayor’s Energy Task Force (invited)
March 16
April 20
May18
June 15
Distributed Generation in NYC: The Nature of Con Ed’s Network Grid
Renewable Energy Portfolios and Green Tag Programs
Photovoltaics & the Building Skin: New Analytics
Annual Awards Dinner
*AEE-NY is pleased to present this program in cooperation with the Environmental Business
Association of New York and their Energy Task Force.
AEE-NY November Meeting Report
A New Prescription for Retro-commissioning
By Peter Mellman
A healthy dose of retro-commissioning is good for buildings; but it can also bring painful
side-effects if not done intelligently. November’s meeting brought Adam Hinge from
Sustainable Energy Partnerships, Paul Rode from Johnson Controls, and Peter Savio from
NYSERDA to discuss implementing and funding intelligent retro-commissioning.
There is an enormous stock of existing buildings with systems that do not perform as
designed. The idea behind retro-commissioning is to enhance these existing building systems
with low cost/no cost O&M improvements and without the expense of adding new capital
equipment. But while retro-commissioning is especially alluring to those working with building
systems, it is a process that demands an intelligently organized approach. Historically, agents
tend to address problems one building system at a time rather than viewing the building in its
entirety. It is easy enough to see how this methodology has become the status quo – but it is the
same attitude that led to less-than-optimal function in the beginning. Paul Rode listed several
issues inherent with implementation of a retro-commissioning program:
• The building’s systems were never installed correctly
• The system never performed as it was designed
• Use by the building’s tenants has changed
• Much of the building has been renovated over the years but never the system
• Continual turn-over of operation staff
• Resources spent on a single system with continuing complaints
• Understanding of operations in engineers not consistent
• Major shifts in energy costs
Both Adam Hinge and Mr. Rode stressed a holistic approach to retro-commissioning. Tenant
complaints must be studied to isolate problems. All surviving drawings and specifications
should be collected. The building’s actual load needs to be determined. Operating procedures,
tenant usage patterns and input must be taken into account. Also, often overlooked but equally
as important, is an understanding of the building staff’s level of training and experience.
Clearly, retro-commissioning requires a team effort. Coordination from the building’s
owner, operator and consulting engineers is critical. Furthermore, in keeping with the holistic
approach, the design of a commissioning plan should start at the building’s load and move
backward to its central equipment.
Peter Savio discussed different programs and available incentives for
retro-commissioning projects. Of course, metering strategies and curtailment settings for
NYSERDA’s peak load reduction program were central to discussion. Also mentioned were
some NYISO programs like the Day Ahead Demand Response Program (bid-in at what price one
will curtail).
Mr. Savio recommended http://www.nyserda.org/commissioning.html as a good resource
for further retro-commissioning information and opportunities.
Corporate Sponsor Program
The New York Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (NY-AEE) invites
companies to participate in our Corporate Sponsor Program, which offers opportunities
for its corporate sponsors to become active players in promoting the Association's goals
of energy and environmental conservation and cost savings.
We invite corporate involvement in the future of our Chapter, one of the largest among
thirty-six state chapters of the Association of Energy Engineers, the world's leading
society of energy and environmental professionals.
Chapter membership numbers approximately 500 throughout New York State and
represents some of the nations top energy and environmental experts and leaders.
As a Corporate Sponsor, the company has enhanced opportunities to converse with
these energy professionals who recommend, specify, and/or purchase your products or
services, and your company can enjoy the following additional benefits:
Five individual memberships in the Chapter at no additional cost,
Free business card size Newsletter advertising in each of our nine monthly
issues and additional advertising at a preferred rate,
Inclusion in the Corporate Sponsor listing in each issue of the Newsletter,
Listing on our website, with hotlinks available at no additional charge
Presentation of a handsome Corporate Sponsor plaque at our gala
end-of-season, June meeting,
Eligibility for the awards program and,
Perhaps the most valuable benefit of all, recognition and respect that the firm
earns by assisting our chapter to continue its critical role in the changing energy
environment of New York.
Initial annual Corporate Sponsor membership dues are $275. Renewal is $250.
Current Sponsors:
Association for Energy Affordability Con Ed Solutions
st
1 Rochdale Cooperative
EBM Consulting Service
Imagineers Unlimited
PB Power
Trystate Mechanical Inc.
Green Buildings By Joshua Radoff, Gotham Gazette, January 01, 2004
IF BUILT AS PLANNED, Freedom Tower -- the first new skyscraper slated to go up
at Ground Zero -- will feature 30 windmills high up in the sky, supplying 20 percent
of the building's electricity.
To the uninitiated, this might sound like a Don Quixote-like delusion; putting
windmills in a skyscraper certainly has never been done before. But Freedom
Tower's innovations are actually part of a trend. Whether the windmills prove
feasible or not, a number of such environmentally conscious skyscrapers are going up
across New York City. These so-called "green buildings," a term that is being used
with increasing frequency, are designed to be healthier and more comfortable for the
people living or working inside them. They aim to save energy, produce less
pollution and conserve natural resources.
For years, New York builders were slow to embrace the idea of green buildings. But
this is abruptly changing. "In the next three to four years," says Wayne Tusa of the
U.S. Green Building Council, "the number of green apartments in New York City
will rise from essentially zero to perhaps 3,000."
It's already happening. Just down the block from the proposed Freedom Tower, in
Battery Park City, stands a residential high-rise billed as one of the most
environmentally friendly in any city in the world. The Solaire, which opened last
summer, features solar panels that provide five percent of the building's electricity;
water for the toilets that has been recycled from the showers, sinks and dishwashers;
and paints and adhesives that have no toxic or carcinogenic chemicals.
Advocates of such green buildings conjure up a city slowly filling with occupants
paying less money for energy, feeling healthier and enjoying the knowledge that in
some small way, their actions are making New York City an easier place to live and
breathe. Critics question whether such features can ever have any significant impact
on the environment in a city the size of New York, and whether they are worth the
cost.
What Makes it Green?
The environmentally conscious practices begin during construction, as builders
seek out recycled materials and avoid those that give off harmful gases. (One such
harmful material is particleboard, which is made with glues that give off
formaldehyde.) And the builders recycle as much construction debris as possible.
Existing buildings can be renovated to consume less energy and be more
environmentally friendly. For example, developers can keep the existing steel and the
masonry frame, but replace the walls, windows and heating and cooling systems. In
its New York offices, the Natural Resources Defense Council renovated a loft in the
Flatiron District to emphasize natural lighting by adding a three-story atrium.
A former brewery in Brooklyn, now an apartment building, was renovated with a
number of environmentally friendly features, including something of a meadow on
its roof. Advocates of such green roofs say they keep buildings cooler in the summer
and can also filter the air and rainwater, while providing a habitat for birds,
butterflies and bees.
Once in operation, green buildings employ a variety of features that distinguish
them from more conventional buildings. Some use solar panels to generate electricity
and heat water; others put up windows that are double paned, filled with an insulating
gas and treated with a special glazing that lets light but not heat pass through. Many
of the buildings use special filters to clean more pollutants from the air than those in
standard buildings. And in some, residents can take advantage of special storage
areas for bicycles or landscaped roof decks, while the cleaning staff use products free
of toxic chemicals.
Such practices, advocates argue, do more than benefit their occupants. Using less
electricity can cut pollution from power plants and reduce, at least theoretically, the
risk of a blackout that would affect all New Yorkers. In the same way, using less
water helps everyone, especially during water shortages such as the one in 2002.
Green Buildings in New York
While outsiders might view New York City as the opposite of environmentally
friendly, the city's very density means that residents use less energy and other
resources than most Americans. "The city has long embodied many green
principles," according to the Museum of the City of New York which is presenting
an exhibition on "sustainable architecture" until January 19. As evidence, the
museum cites Central Park, mass transit and the design of early skyscrapers. But it
says, "In the post-World War II era, changes in zoning regulations and the
widespread use of air-conditioning contributed to the design of glass-and-steel
boxes...Wrapped in miles of inoperable, tinted-glass windows, high-rises housed
office workers who, it was argued, no longer needed to be close to sources of natural
light and ventilation. These buildings require massive amounts of fossil fuels to
operate."
Some observers see signs that the attitudes that created such buildings are
changing. They point to a number of buildings that have recently opened in the city.
The new high rise at 4 Times Square, popularly known as the Conde Nast
building, boasts 1.6 million square feet of "environmentally conscious design,"
including circulating 50 percent more air through the building than is required by law
and using non-toxic cleaning materials.
In residences, the poster child for green building is the Solaire. From the outside,
the Solaire is almost indistinguishable from the neighboring buildings, but its guts -the solar panels, the special air filters and so on -- are what make it special. In fact,
some residents may barely notice the Solaire's unique features at first. Lyron
Andrews moved into the Solaire not because he was looking for an environmental
super-structure, but because he loved the serenity of the neighborhood, the acres of
play space for his daughter and the striking views of the Hudson River.
But now Andrews and his family are grateful for other aspects of their new home.
Andrews' 6-year-old daughter suffers from allergies. In their old apartment in Park
Slope, she had to use an air purifier. But because the Solaire filters fresh air coming
into the building twice, Andrews says, "After only one night in the new building, her
allergies were gone, even without the purifier."
The Solaire is a luxury development. The eight-story building now going up at
1400 Fifth Avenue in East Harlem is not. Two thirds of its 128 apartments are
reserved for buyers with annual incomes between $53,000 and $103,000, and many
of the apartments will look out on a housing project. But like the Solaire, 1400 Fifth
is considered to be among the country's most environmentally friendly urban designs.
"Everyone deserves affordable housing that is built in a way that sustains the
environment," says Carlton Brown of Full Spectrum New York, the developer of
1400 Fifth.
To do this, Brown starts with the premise that waste costs money. Well-insulated,
tightly sealed windows will allow for a smaller heating and cooling system. While
most builders make their walls on the construction site, Brown uses walls
prefabricated in a factory. He also uses a lightweight composite recycled steel frame,
which allows him to use less masonry. Such practices consume less material than
conventional construction methods, produce less trash to send to the landfill -- and
cut costs.
With that money, Brown says, "you can reinvest in those areas that will cost a
little more," like recycled or renewable materials or a highly energy efficient heating
and cooling system. (The heating and cooling at 1400 Fifth comes from a geothermal
heat pump, a device that takes advantage of the relatively unchanging underground
temperature of the earth, which is cooler than the air in the summer and warmer in
the winter.)
Taken with the rest of the efficiency measures, 1400 Fifth is expected to eat up 70
percent less energy than a comparable multifamily building. "In the end, the costs
about even out," Brown says. "A sustainable environment can be built at any income
level."
And there are other environmentally sound projects that have been built with a
close eye on costs. These include 299 East Third Street, a new affordable housing
development in Alphabet City, and the award-winning Melrose Commons II
affordable housing apartments in the South Bronx.
But expense remains a major concern. While developers of 1400 Fifth say the project
will cost no more than a conventional building, The Solaire cost eight percent to 14
percent more than a conventional building of the same size. And its developer,
Russell C. Albanese, recently told the New York Times that the 293 apartments in
the building rent at about five percent above the going market rate.
It seems clear that, for now at least, green buildings will be hard pressed to
succeed if they cannot keep costs down. A recent survey by Roper ASW found that
few Americans are willing to pay a lot extra for environmentally friendly products.
"If you look at the green consumer," environmental marketing consultant Jacquelyn
Ottman told Indoor Air, the "consumer part is more important than the green part.
People buy laundry detergent to get their clothes clean, not to save the planet."
And a Clifton, Virginia, developer has pointed out that most people looking for a
place to live tend to focus more on location, the floor plan and nearby schools than
on non-toxic insulation and energy efficient cooling.
The Government Role
Cities such as Austin, Texas, and San Francisco have long featured
environmentally sound construction, but the movement did really begin in New York
City until recently, when the state and city governments began getting involved.
In 2000, Governor George Pataki unveiled a green building tax credit, the first
one of its kind in the country, that has allowed some developers of environmentally
friendly buildings to write off as much as $6 million on their tax bill.
The impetus for the Solaire came from the Battery Park City Authority, a
semi-autonomous state entity, which in 2000 adopted some of the most stringent
green building requirements in the country. When these requirements are applied to
the next generation of buildings to go up in Battery Park City, they will make that
area of lower Manhattan one of the most environmentally-conscious urban
neighborhoods in the world.
Another big institutional booster has been the city itself. In 1999, the Department
of Design and Construction developed a set of guidelines that encourage, though do
not require, environmentally sound building methods for municipal projects. So far,
the guidelines have led to 16 pilot projects with a total construction cost of
approximately $700 million. One, the Queens Botanical Garden Administration
Building, now under construction, will be a pioneer in the field. Among other
features, it will include a system for collecting and reusing rainwater.
And most recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a citywide competition
that would give awards of $5,000 for environmentally conscious designs for various
types of buildings. "With major renewal projects in Lower Manhattan, downtown
Brooklyn, western Queens, Greenpoint/Williamsburg and the far West Side of
Manhattan," said Bloomberg, "the need for sustainable development is as great today
as in any time in our city's history."
Nothing going on in New York, though, will do more to affect the future of
design and construction than the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. The
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has committed itself to incorporating
sustainable design in the rebuilding plans, and the Port Authority has earmarked $100
million in capital funds for it. The details are slow in coming, and it is unclear how
all this will ultimately be reflected in the final designs -- other than the wind-powered
Freedom Tower. But if the most talked-about architecture on earth does indeed go
green, it may create the kind of momentum that eventually persuades the entire New
York construction industry to come around on the idea of building environmentally
conscious apartments and offices. Gotham Gazette http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20040105/200/817
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New Englanders Keep Warm Using Biodiesel Heating Fuel
From the Nov/Dec 2003 issue of Rebuild America’s Partner Update
Although the use of petroleum heating fuel has declined since the 1970s, more than 8
million households in the U.S. continue to use heating oil to keep out winter’s chill, with more
than three-quarters of those users in the Northeast. Residential and commercial buildings
consume over 90 percent of distillate fuel oil in the region, according to the Energy Information
Administration. To reduce consumption of this fossil fuel, and its associated air emissions, the
public school system in Warwick, RI, is blending heating oil with biodiesel, a domestically
produced, renewable fuel.
Rhode Island may be the first state in the country to use a biodiesel blend to heat schools,
according to Robert Cerio, energy educator/manager for the school district, a Rebuild America
partnership.
Biodiesel, whose chemical name is methyl esters, is a fuel that is produced by removing
glycerin from vegetable oil. In the United States, the most popular sources include soybean oil
and recycled frying oil from restaurants. (Corn oil is the most popular for ethanol.) Although
soybeans contribute to the nation’s food supply – cooking oil, veggie burgers and more – there is
a surplus.
Biodiesel can be used in its pure form but is primarily blended with other fuels, such as
petroleum diesel. Biodiesel blends are most commonly used for transportation fuel in school
buses and government vehicle fleets.
Warwick’s Blend
With support from Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian and school system Superintendent
Robert Shapiro, Cerio tested three blends of petroleum heating oil and biodiesel fuel to heat three
schools in 2001. A fourth school used heating oil alone, serving as the control group. The project
was supported by the Rhode Island State Energy Office, the Northeast Regional Biomass
Program and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
After using different mixtures of heating oil and biodiesel, Cerio determined that a blend
of 80 percent distillate fuel oil and 20 percent biodiesel was the best combination for the school
district’s equipment. The fuel, known as B20, burned more efficiently and produced less harmful
emissions than heating oil alone. Other advantages of B20 are that no equipment modification is
necessary to burn the fuel, and it has a Btu content similar to heating oil. The school district now
burns B20 in the heating system at one school.
Bacharach Inc. tests for efficiency and emissions every month. By switching to B20, the
school is reducing carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. Because
biodiesel does not contain sulfur, the use of B20 results in a 20 percent reduction in sulfur
discharge.
Warwick Public Schools buys its biodiesel from World Energy Alternatives, in Chelsea,
MA. The fuel, processed in Florida, comes from soybeans grown in various locations throughout
the U.S. Cerio blends it on site with heating oil.
Blending biodiesel adds 7 cents per gallon to the final cost, a good buy for the
environmental benefits and reduced maintenance, says Cerio.
Maine Tries It
Farther north, in Maine, the state government announced it will use B20 in four or five
state buildings this winter. The state recently ran a test on one of the boilers, producing positive
results.
The use of biodiesel is part of Gov. John Baldacci’s commitment to advance Maine as a
leader in the use of renewable energy, explains Beth Nagusky, the state’s director of energy
independence. The state supports the use of the fuel because it is domestically produced,
renewable and produces fewer harmful emissions than petroleum heating oil. Nagusky says she
even used a biodiesel blend to heat her home last winter.
Back in Rhode Island, Warwick Public School’s three-year program of using biodiesel
blends for heating ends next March. Cerio hopes to continue the project by expanding the use of
B20 from one building to 13. “It’s been a really big success for us,” he says. The school district
also began using a B5 blend in its fleet of 70 school buses earlier this year, with support from
DOE’s Clean Cities program.
"Biodiesel creates jobs on the production end, supports farmers and is totally organic,"
says Cerio. "It’s a win-win for the environment and the economy." Biodiesel and Warranties
A potential concern for biodiesel is the issue of equipment warranties. Manufacturers
need to agree that the warranties they provide with heating equipment will not be violated by the
use of biofuels. Such warranty statements are being discussed by industry representatives.
Because of tests such as those at Warwick Public Schools, biodiesel advocates do not anticipate
trouble in winning the needed warranty statements for appropriate blends such as B20.
For more information, contact Robert Cerio, at cerior@wpsadmin.org or visit the National Biodiesel Board’s
(www.biodiesel.org).
New California Wind Farm Seen as Model for Wind Energy
By Terence Chea, Associated Press, Jan. 5, 2004
BIRDS LANDING, Calif. - One of the nation's largest wind energy projects is being completed
in the rolling hills between San Francisco and Sacramento, where dozens of turbines rising more
than 300 feet tower over wheat fields and herds of sheep.
The High Winds Energy Center is a model for how wind energy should be developed,
environmentalists say. With turbines nearly 20 times more powerful than earlier generation
machines, it produces electricity at competitive prices and doesn't disturb the surrounding farms
and wildlife.
When all of its 90 turbines are operating by year's end, it will have the capacity to
generate 162 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 75,000 homes, according to
Florida-based FPL Energy, which owns and operates High Winds along with 30 other wind
facilities in 10 states. Set in the Montezuma Hills in Solano County, the new wind farm rises
above six farms and ranches just north of the Sacramento River.
"This is the future of wind power," said Ralph Cavanagh, energy program director for the
Natural Resources Defense Council. "It doesn't displace agricultural uses, it complements them."
Environmentalists have championed wind power as an alternative form of energy for
decades because wind is a free, renewable resource that generates electricity without polluting
the air or water.
But since the first large wind facilities were built in the early 1980s, they have run into
technological, economic and political obstacles. Early versions didn't produce electricity
efficiently enough to compete with fossil fuel, while communities complained that small forests
of turbines marred the landscape and environmentalists fretted that the blades were killing birds.
The new Solano County wind farm, environmentalists say, has overcome such obstacles.
High Winds is a different kind of wind farm from the ones familiar to most Californians. The
state's two biggest areas for wind energy - the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco and the
Tehachapi Pass north of Los Angeles - are home to dozens of wind farms where thousands of
small, low-power turbines dot the hills.
High Winds' turbines are taller, more powerful and more efficient than older generation
turbines, which means the project can generate more energy with fewer machines. Each turbine
generates 1.8 megawatts, 18 times more than the 100-kilowatt turbines built two decades ago.
Older turbines can't rotate from side to side, so they often remain idle, and operate at
maximum efficiency only when the wind blows in the right direction. High Winds' turbines
swivel to face oncoming breezes, capturing energy at wind speeds as low as eight mph, said FPL
spokesman Steven Stengel.
High Winds hasn't run into the kind of opposition plaguing other wind energy projects,
such as the offshore towers near Massachusetts' Cape Cod, where residents worry that 40-story
turbines will harm ocean views, seabirds and tourism. Here in the agricultural Montezuma Hills,
there have been few complaints.
"It's a win-win situation," said Jackie Crockett, chief of staff for Solano County
Supervisor Ruth Forney, who represents the district where the wind farm has been built. "We
just assumed when we took office that it was another thing we'd get complaints on, and we
haven't had any."
Unlike Altamont Pass, where turbine blades have killed an estimated 22,000 birds, High
Winds' turbines rotate more slowly, so few birds get caught in the blades.
And local landowners welcome the extra income - FPL pays between $2,500 and $4,000
a year to lease the space for each turbine, while the surrounding land can still be used to raise
animals, grow crops and other activities.
"Far from being an intruder on the landscape, this represents economic opportunity for
rural America," said the NRDC's Cavanagh. "This is adding value to farms without displacing
the farming."
Projects like High Winds also benefit from government incentives. Wind energy projects
developed since 1994 get 10 years of federal tax credits of 1.8 cents for every kilowatt-hour of
energy produced. The latest credit expires at the end of the year, but wind advocates expect
Congress to extend it again next year.
About a dozen states require utilities to increase their use of renewable sources such as
wind, solar and geothermal energy. A California law passed last year requires 20 percent of the
state's electricity to come from renewable energy by 2017, and state regulators want to push the
deadline up to 2010.
For now, wind remains a minor player in the U.S. energy markets, and while California
leads the nation in use of wind power, less than 2 percent of the state's electricity came from
wind last year, according to the California Energy Commission.
Technological advances, along with government incentives, have now made wind energy
cost-competitive with oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy, said Jan Johnson, a spokeswoman for
PPM Energy, an energy wholesaler that has already sold most of High Winds' output to cities
including Anaheim, Pasadena, Glendale and Sacramento.
"If you have a choice between any form of electrical generation," Johnson said, "are you
going to choose one that generates greenhouse gases or wind power?"
(continued)
Hydrogen's Dirty Details by Mark Baard, Village Voice, January 6th, 2004 9:30 AM
THE DAY AFTER GEORGE W. BUSH's 2003 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, the
president of the National Mining Association, Jack Gerard, wrote him a letter applauding Bush's
plan for a pollution-free future powered by fuel cells, the battery-like devices that use hydrogen
to release energy. "Coal—reliable, abundant, affordable and domestic," wrote Gerard, "will be
the source for much of this hydrogen-powered fuel."
Gerard is right: The so-called hydrogen economy will be a boon for the mining industry. The
clean-energy future that many environmentalists have dreamed of has been turned over to the
coal industry and a notoriously dirty Siberian mining company run by Russian oligarch Vladimir
Potanin. A deal personally smoothed over by Bush has given Norilsk Nickel, one of the world's
worst polluters, a toehold on American soil—and a major stake in the hydrogen economy.
The new mining frenzy is emerging as yet another piece of Bush's "black hydrogen agenda,"
according to the Green Hydrogen Coalition, whose members include the Sierra Club, Public
Citizen, and Jeremy Rifkin, a leading proponent of hydrogen fuel cells.
The coalition favors the use of wind and solar energy to power the reactions that extract
hydrogen from substances like water. But to build the hydrogen economy over the next 30 years,
Republicans are instead planning to burn more fossil fuels and dig for coal and gas on public and
private lands. The Green Hydrogen Coalition noted that the GOP-written Senate energy bill
called for subsidizing the nuke and fossil fuel industries to the tune of $8 billion, twice the
amount set aside for renewable energy sources.
Hard-rock mineral miners will also have a big role in Bush's version of the hydrogen economy.
The most promising hydrogen fuel cell designs depend on expensive platinum group metals, or
PGMs, which catalyze hydrogen with oxygen to release energy while resisting corrosion. Most
PGMs, particularly platinum and palladium, are produced as by-products of nickel and copper
hard-rock mining and smelting, practices that scar landscapes and spew sulfur dioxide and heavy
metals into the air and surrounding waterways.
Only two mines in the world produce PGMs as their primary product. One is the Stillwater
Mining Co. in Nye, Montana, where miners are digging deeper each year to extract palladium
and platinum. The Stillwater mine actually enjoys a good reputation among environmentalists.
It's underground, and its waste rock and tailings contain little of the toxins associated with the
hard-rock mining of other minerals. "Stillwater operates so cleanly you can damn near eat off the
floor," says Jim Kuipers, a mining engineer and consultant who has worked with the Mineral
Policy Center, an environmental group that was not part of the agreement.
But earlier this year, Stillwater, the only U.S. producer of palladium and platinum, was taken
over by Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest producer of PGMs. Bush and Russian president
Vladimir Putin discussed the deal in a meeting in 2002, and Norilsk hired Baker Botts, a law
firm run by former secretary of state and Bush family friend James Baker, to ensure regulatory
approval.
As part of the deal, Norilsk got to name five new directors to Stillwater's board. But they're not
Russians; they're heavy-hitting Americans, including a Bush pal or two: Craig Fuller, who served
as assistant for cabinet affairs to President Ronald Reagan and chief of staff to Vice President
George H.W. Bush; Steve Lucas, a GOP strategist who works as a lobbyist and attorney with one
of California's most powerful law firms; former Michigan senator Don Riegle; veteran mining
executive Jack Thompson; and Todd Schafer, a Moscow-based attorney for Hogan & Hartson,
one of the biggest lobbying firms in D.C. (Schafer was a key lawyer in protecting Potanin's
control of Uneximbank, the cornerstone of the oligarch's holdings.)
Norilsk, which was taken private by the oligarch in a controversial move after the Soviet empire
collapsed, produces palladium as a by-product of its mining operations in Norilsk, an industrial
nightmare city in northern Siberia. The company's smelts have been releasing 2 million tons of
sulfur dioxide each year for over 50 years, damaging or destroying 2 million acres of forest. By
this measure, Norilsk is the worst polluter on the planet. Satellite images from a NASA study of
Norilsk show 100-mile-long plumes of sulfur dioxide and other noxious exhaust over the city.
With Stillwater, Norilsk will have even more power to set prices in the marketplace. Like oil
cartels, PGM producers adjust their output to keep prices up. But prices vary wildly with changes
in the demand for catalytic converters, jewelry, and other products that use the metals.
Norilsk is banking on the hydrogen economy to lift the value of palladium, which was trading at
the start of December at $190 per ounce, well below its one-year high of about $270. The
company announced it will spend up to $40 million annually researching the viability of fuel
cells based on palladium.
Scientists working for fuel cell manufacturers and Detroit automakers, meanwhile, are
desperately trying to reduce the amounts of PGMs needed for use as fuel cell catalysts. Even so,
the Department of Energy's 2003 Annual Progress Report predicts that "the platinum industry
will have to increase its rate of new production capacity to satisfy increased demand" for
hydrogen fuel cells.
This has hundreds of prospectors sharpening their pickaxes and invoking archaic mineral laws
to explore millions of acres of public and private lands in the American West. Many of them are
leasing mineral rights from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.
Ranchers, Native American tribes, and other people often own the surface. The federal
government often controls the subsurface mineral rights. It's BLM's job to balance the rights of
both sides.
But BLM, which manages one-eighth of the land in the United States and 300 million acres of
subsurface mineral rights, is being too lenient with mining companies, say environmentalists.
BLM has been especially eager to help energy companies exploit coal deposits on ranches in
Montana and Wyoming that are not practical for mining but can be pumped for coal-bed
methane, natural gas that is trapped underground with the coal.
BLM freely admits that it takes its orders from the White House, which is instructing the bureau
to favor fossil fuel developers. "Clearly, we have the president's initiative, and we are charged
with carrying out that initiative," says BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington.
Mineral miners, meanwhile, are taking advantage of laws dating back to the 19th-century gold
rush, but some of them insist that they are doing more than simply joining a 21st-century
platinum rush.
"The whole reason I got into this is to fulfill this fantasy of a new clean source of energy," says
Robert Angrisano, a former Microsoft executive and president of Nevada Star Resources, a
platinum exploration company with mineral rights to drill for platinum in Alaska's Denali region.
"And to do it, we need more research into fuel cells, and more platinum."
Nevada Star is one of a slew of so-called juniors, often underfunded operations run by rich
individuals with little actual mining experience. Their websites often feature pictures of
engineers poring over a map in a wilderness area, with a helicopter perched in the background.
The juniors' chances of finding significant amounts of PGMs are slim, but the rewards would be
great in a hydrogen economy. And since many of these exploration companies trade as penny
stocks on public exchanges, investors are absorbing most of the risk.
Environmentalists reject miners' claims that they are motivated by a desire to build a better world
with less pollution. "Miners are like lemmings," says Mara Bacsujlaky, assistant director and
mining coordinator at the North Alaska Environmental Center. "They're not exploring because
they care about fuel cells, but because platinum happens to be high."
Life Counts: Cataloguing Life on Earth
By Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch (Together with Michael Gleich and Fabian Nicolay)
Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8270-0350-4,288 pages
[Editor’s Note: Some time ago, from whom I have no clue, I received a note in the mail
about this book. The first part of this article is gleaned from the Web. The second part, an
excerpt from the book, I copied from the note. The whole thing, I believe, is valuable
enough to ask you to read it. Dick Koral]
Summary
“Life Counts” is a popular account of the status of global biodiversity at the beginning of the
21st century. The main question is: how does mankind handle the living resources of the earth?
How are we going to combine conservation with economic development in the future? Life
Counts shows how to progress from destructive exploitation towards an era of sustainable
utilization.
Did you know that
• approximately 106 Billion human beings have existed so far on earth today?
• there are more animals on earth than stars in our galaxy?
• the global biomass of ants equals that of humans?
• there are 500 trees and 50 birds per human currently on earth?
What is the relevance of these figures for mankind? “Life Counts” proves with many examples
that the ecological importance of wild animals and plants is severely underestimated. For
example, bees and other insects contribute billions of dollars to the world economy, just through
their pollination of fruits and vegetables.
“Life Counts” presents the balance of biodiversity in a familiar style by means of first class
illustrations and clear infographics. The book was written in close cooperation with the WCMC
(World Conservation Monitoring Centre), the IUCN (World Conservation Union) and UNEP
(United Nations Environment Program). A team of scientists from the WCMC produced a large
part of the data which was used in “Life Counts.”
This book was awarded the prize: "Science book of the Year 2000" in Germany and a
"Distinctive Merit" by the New York Art Directors Club in 2001. It is available in English,
Spanish and Chinese and will be published in Polish and Korean soon. The English version has
been released by Grove Atlantic, New York.
Excerpt from the book:
IN 1980, THE SWEDISH NAVY RECEIVED A REMARKABLE LETTER, in which the forest
administration of the island of Visingso, in Lake Vatter, informed the naval authorities that the
wood which had been ordered for ship construction was now ready. The nonplussed naval
authorities rummaged around in their books and finally found the order - which had been place in
1829. It turned out that members of the Swedish parliament had perceived a threat to the
country’s future defense capabilities.
Oak was at that time considered the best material for shipbuilding, but oak trees take
about 156 years to grow and mature. Since oak forests were disappearing (because of
construction needs), the legislators foresaw that at the end of the next century (that is, in our own
time), there would be a shortage of this crucial material. So they ordered that 20,000 young oak
trees be planted on Visingso and reserved for the future use of the navy. Only the bishop of
Strangnas opposed this project, arguing that, although there would surely still be wars 150 years
hence, warships would probably no longer be made of wood.
As far as war and the materials used in modern shipbuilding are concerned, the
bishop was completely right. Warships have long been made of steel. But the Swedish legislators
were also more correct than they imagined, although in another way. The island of Visingso
delights its residents and visitors by having one of the most beautiful oak forests in Sweden.
Ordinary construction wood became a priceless source of wonder, relaxation, and contemplation.
James B. Carse, a professor of religion at New York University, uses such examples
to illustrate “finite” and “infinite” games. A finite game ends with a victory. Football is such a
game, and so, for the most part, are elections and modern business. The bishop of Strangnas was
right by the rules, since the Swedish navy could have spared itself the expense for tree
plantations: no forest, no cost, 1-0, game won, end of game.
In contrast, the goal of an infinite game is to continue indefinitely. This kind of game
is played by creatures in tropical forests as well as in the jungle of human existence. Birth and
death, love and reproduction, family and the course of generations – these constitute the game of
life. “Finite players seek to control the future, whereas infinite players arrange things so the
future keeps providing surprises.” The members of the Swedish parliament saw to that. And this
also holds true for the maintenance of biodiversity.
What will a forest, a tree, or a beetle be good for in a hundred years? How many
species will there be, and what will they look like? A hundred years from now, our current
hypotheses may seem as absurd as the tattered order slip from 1829. And yet there is something
charming in the idea of a large corporation ordering an island with rare species to be delivered in
the year 2200 – by a binding contract with deposit. Perhaps the Swedish parliament would like to
do it again?
The Power of Water
By Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 12, 200 IN 2000, Secretary of
the Interior Bruce Babbitt was attempting to resolve a dispute in Arizona over rights to water
from the Little Colorado River. The Clinton administration had just negotiated the Good Friday
settlement in Northern Ireland, and Babbitt commented, "If we can achieve peace in Northern
Ireland, we should be able to settle the Little Colorado River controversy." To which Senator Jon
Kyl, Republican of Arizona, replied, "The situation in Northern Ireland only involved religion.
This involves water."
Robert Glennon recounts that updated version of an old one-liner in his Water Follies:
Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters.
Water remains a source of widespread concern and bitter controversy, and Glennon's
work is part of a steady stream of books, articles, and reports that suggests that the concern and
the controversy won't recede any time soon. The publications include calls to arms to prevent
further damage to freshwater ecosystems, histories of the degradation of the world's great rivers,
and sobering assessments of the impact of pollution and waterborne diseases around the world.
The debates and analyses are not limited to scholars and international agencies.
Newspapers describe battles between American and Mexican farmers over rights to water from
the Rio Grande, and between farmers and salmon fishermen in the Pacific Northwest over how to
irrigate fields without depleting the streams the fish need to survive. Water-use policies in one
state or one country have cascading effects throughout watersheds. When Georgia taps the
Chattahoochee River to provide more water for Atlanta's burgeoning population, wetlands -- and
the oyster fishery -- in Alabama suffer.
No continent or region is immune. The editors of Conservation, Ecology, and
Management of African Fresh Waters write, "Africa's precious fresh waters and the life they
support -- much of it unique -- are under siege. Africa is not only facing a continent wide
shortage of potable water, but overall water quality has declined markedly during the past decade
owing to multiple perturbations including progressive deforestation, exponentially increasing
human populations, and urbanization."
Last spring the United Nations Environment Program warned that a large swath of the
Middle East -- from Saudi Arabia through Syria and Iraq -- would face severe water shortages by
2032.
And in The Future of the Southern Plains, Sherry L. Smith, a professor of history at
Southern Methodist University, describes plans of the Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to buy up
ranches in West Texas to mine them for water. He is able to do so because, under Texas law,
groundwater is private property, and landowners can "pump underground aquifers to their heart's
content -- even to the point of pumping them dry."
"Water mining," she adds, "poses serious threats to the Ogallala Aquifer and to the
farmers whose irrigated fields depend upon it. ... This situation adds up to a potentially explosive
political conflict with ranchers battling oilmen-turned-water-miners and urban water users
challenging rural users' assumptions that the water's highest and best use remains agricultural.
The economic and environmental ramifications are enormous."
In Water Follies, Glennon, a professor of law and public policy at the University of
Arizona, writes that, as with many other environmental issues, confrontations over water are
marked by contested science. Hydrology, he notes, is complicated, and devising models that
accurately reflect the consequences of water-use policies is difficult and time consuming. In
many cases, proponents and opponents of any policy have competing and contradictory models.
He focuses on a series of cases in which pumping of groundwater has had unintended,
negative consequences, from subsidence in new housing developments in Florida, to the total
disappearance for much of the year of rivers such as the Santa Cruz, in Tucson. In most, if not
all, cases, he writes, planners have willfully, or through ignorance, put short-term economic and
political interests ahead of hydrology.
Beyond that, he adds, "There is no honor among thieves, nor among states as they
struggle over the control of water -- regardless of whether the states are western, eastern, or
southern. In interstate water disputes, states argue for whatever position will secure for them the
largest amount of water. Nor do states feel obliged to be consistent from one piece of legislation
to another. Arguments of convenience and self-interest dictate each state's position. From the
states, we hear howls of protest that other states have failed to protect the flows in interstate
rivers from diminution through groundwater pumping, but less concern for how a state's own
pumpers may be producing the same effect."
The recent books include several ecological histories of major rivers, describing their
transformation from health before the Industrial Revolution to, in the words of one author,
"sewers" by the middle of the 20th century. For instance, in The Rhine: an Eco-Biography,
1815-2000, Marc Cioc, a professor of history at the University of California at Santa Cruz,
writes, "The transformation of the Rhine from a free-flowing to a harnessed river was slow and
gradual -- far too slow for most of those living on the river's banks to fully comprehend. But by
the mid-1970s the river was so thoroughly manipulated, and its self-cleaning ability so
compromised, that its survival as a biological habitat was seriously in doubt. In some cases,
humans themselves sapped the river's vital lifelines by usurping its floodplain and banks. In other
cases, humans acted as inadvertent catalysts of decline, as when they added phosphorous and
nitrate nutrients to the river, creating a chain reaction that began with excess algal growth and
ended with water eutrophication."
Bureaucrats in the states that bordered the Rhine "used the term river when they really
meant channel and bed," Cioc writes. "Their engineers fretted over the loss of property from
flooding, but paid scant attention to the floodplain; their industrialists and urban planners
concerned themselves with the quality of the water that flowed into their factories and cities, but
not with the quality of the water that poured out of their sewage drains."
Cioc writes that the belated recognition of the ecological damage to the Rhine has led to
improvements since the 1970s. "The river is far cleaner, more spacious, and more biologically
robust than it was 30 years ago," he says. "It may never inspire another generation of poets and
painters, for the Romantic Rhine, like the Roman Rhine before it, now belongs to the past. But as
the river comes back to life, it has at least begun -- at long last -- to shed its image as Europe's
sewer."
Even so, as Sandra Postel and Brian Richter point out in Rivers for Life: Managing Water
for People and Nature, just as we are learning how crucial rivers are ecologically and what can
be done to restore the services they provide, we are placing expanding demands on them.
"Within a generation," they write, "some three billion people will be living in countries
that hydrologists classify as water-stressed based simply on the amount of water available per
person. Is there hope for rivers and freshwater species in those places? ... All people must have
access to sufficient water, food, and energy for a healthy and secure life. At the same time, a
large global middle class aspires to the high-consumption lifestyles now enjoyed by the richest 1
billion people -- including meat-rich diets, luxurious caches of clothes and cars, recreational
golfing, and sizable homes with lush green lawns. Even as world population is growing, per
capita global water demand is rising, intensifying total human impacts on freshwater
ecosystems."
Postel, who directs the Global Water Policy Project, in Amherst, Mass., and Richter, who
is director of the Nature Conservancy's Fresh Water Initiative, argue that despite the
demographic, consumptive, and climatic pressures that threaten the world's rivers, we still have
time to save aquatic ecosystems and will eventually try to do so once they degrade to the point
that human survival is at stake. The question, they ask, is how bad things will have to get before
we take action.
"We are moving rapidly toward a freshwater world of greater ecological degradation,
species extinction, and loss of natural ecosystem services," they write. "This may not be the
world we want for ourselves or our descendants, but it is the one that is coming if no course
corrections are made."
Those course corrections will not be easy. As Robert O. Collins, professor emeritus of
history at the University of California at Santa Barbara, writes in The Nile, the Nile basin, which
provides water "for 250 million people today, must provide for 600 million in 2025."
More generally, he writes, "With their profligate reproduction, their constantly increasing
economic activities, and their implacable determination to exploit resources, humans have
transformed every major river of the world, including the Nile. Water has been withdrawn and
consumed for expanding urban and rural populations, industry that pollutes, and agricultural
irrigation, whose returnable water carries salts and insecticides."
Collins writes, "There is magic and power in free-flowing water; when it is confined,
there is death and decay."
Postel and Richter expand on that point: "Ecologists are now warning us that stewardship
of nature is not an altruistic act, but rather a rational one of self-preservation. The goods and
services that aquatic ecosystems provide are too central to human well-being for us to get along
for any great length of time without them. They perform functions we depend upon and cannot
replicate. Technology has not freed us from this dependence, but has blinded us to it. Whether
we realize it or not, our staying power as a species depends upon our ability to coexist with other
species."
The burden of their analysis and those of many other authors who have looked at the
health and history of the world's rivers is that we have the scientific tools and can devise the
innovative policies needed to protect the ecosystems and meet human needs. But the time is
short, and many of the policies and philosophies that have shaped water management in the past
will have to be abandoned.
Malcolm G. Scully is The Chronicle's editor at large. SOME RECENT BOOKS ABOUT
WATER Conservation, Ecology, and Management of African Fresh Waters, edited by Thomas L.
Crisman, Lauren J. Chapman, Colin A. Chapman, and Les S. Kaufman (University Press of Florida,
2003). The Future of the Southern Plains, edited by Sherry L. Smith (University of Oklahoma Press,
2003). The Nile, by Robert O. Collins (Yale University Press, 2002). The Rhine: an Eco-Biography,
1815-2000, by Marc Cioc (University of Washington Press, 2002). Rivers for Life: Managing Water for
People and Nature, by Sandra Postel and Brian Richter (Island Press, 2003). Water Follies: Groundwater
Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters, by Robert Glennon (Island Press, 2002). Copyright ©
2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Recycled Plastic Bridge -- Inexpensive and Eco-Friendly
Plastic bottles are being recycled into bridges, one of the latest creative uses for old milk
cartons, soda containers, and the like.
A 56-foot-long, one-lane bridge over the Mullica River in southern New Jersey, built
almost entirely of a special, super-strong plastic blend, has held up well for more than a year, and
the team of Rutgers University scientists behind the project sees a big potential market for small
plastic bridges, though they say the technology isn't yet ready for large,
heavily traveled spans, such as those that are part of the interstate highway system.
The New Jersey bridge was erected for just $75,000, compared to the estimated $350,000
that a standard wooden bridge would cost. Plastic bridges are also preferable to wood ones
because they don't need to be treated with chemicals to ward off insects.
For more: The Washington Post, Louis Jacobson, 08 Dec 2003
NEW YORK CHAPTER AEE
www.aeeny.org
Officers
President: Asit Patel
(718)292-6733 apatel@aeanyc.org
V.P and Secretary: Michael Bobker (212)279-3902 mbobker@aol.com
Treasurer: Jack Davidoff (718)963-2556 jack-ecselectrical@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor: Dick Koral (718) 552-1161 rkoral@citytech.cuny.edu
Newsletter Advertising: Please address inquiries to Treasurer Jack Davidoff
(concluded on next page)
Committee Chairs
Recruitment: Roger Shults (908) 322-5260 ras4133@yahoo.com
Awards: Fredric Goldner (516) 481-1455 Fgoldner@emra.com
(International President – AEE)
Scholarships: George Kritzler (201) 664-6370 gkritzler@aol.com
Board Members
Thomas Matonti, PAST President (212) 460-4185 matontit@coned.com
George Birman
(212) 688-0959 georgebir@msn.com
Harry Davitian
(631) 751-9800 hdavitian@entekpower.com
John Leffler
(212) 868-4660 Jleffler@goldmancopeland.com
Pat Impollonia
(212) 854-2290 pi44@columbia.edu
John Nettleton
(212) 340-2937 jsn10@cornell.edu
Paul Rivet
(845) 359-4434
energyx@ucs.net
Past Presidents
Thomas Matonti (1998-99), Jack Davidoff (1997-98), Fred Goldner (1993-96), Peter
Kraljic (1991-92),
George Kritzler (1989-90), Alfred Greenberg (1982-89), Murray Gross (1981-82),
Herbert Kunstadt (1980-81), Sheldon Liebowitz (1978-80)
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