Labor Unions: Beware

Although support for the TDC power plant may look like a chance to support jobs, the reality it that it is an environmental disaster.

When you support a disaster, you eventually lose….

Labor Unions will lose public support if this TDC center goes through….   Withholding the environmental dangers from the public may work short term and get approval, …

But once built, and when ash particles the size of golf-balls begin to fall on Newark, Stanton, Elsmere, Wilmington and Claymont, the public will ask,,, how on earth could this have been approved?

The truth will come out at that point, that bad people sneaked it through using bad ways…..

You will eventually lose prevailing wage if this TDC goes through…. The public will turn on you.  I almost turned on you before I calmed down. Economics are a strong suit. But one’s life trumps economics.  The environmental consequences of this TDC are gigantic.  Everyone who gets cancer will blame you…  Anything they can do to hurt you will become their dying wish, if you know what I mean….

What to do….

• Support a data center without a power plant.
• Support building a data center in a rural area close by so we get the same jobs… 20 miles into Cecil County or east of Middletown would do the trick.
• Support something else being built on the same location…. One that has no environmental impact.

Putting your loyalty and support behind the Data Center, is like putting your loyalty and support behind a candidate who unknown to you committed child abuse 25 years ago…  At some future point, you lose all your investment…… and are left to fight a defensive war to keep more from being taken away by business groups…..

You did not know this would turn on you.  But it has, and will get worse….   Now is the time to sneak out of the back of the crowd while no one is really looking or counting…..

Signed:  Your most ardent supporter.

K

 

Poison, Poison In Your Hair; Time To Change Your Underware

Thursday it was released that 200 pounds of Sulfur Dioxide was accidentally released from the Delaware City’s PBF refinery..

It was allegedly caused by a mechanical malfunction at the facility …..  Sulfur Dioxide when mixed with H2O creates Sulfuric Acid. Air is full of water.  So are our lungs.

Bloomsberg reported on October 9, 2013 that Delaware City was postponing its Sulfur Dioxide fix till late 2014.  The refinery, which was initially expected to do the work as part of maintenance that month (October 2013), was halting its replacement of an exchanger on the sulfur unit, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t to be made public. … Work was pushed up one year to October 2014.

Had that work been done in a timely fashion, the Thursday’s reported release would never have occurred……..

According to Bloomsberg’s sources,  a coker, crude unit and hydrocracker, a hydrogen plant and desulfurizer,  were all originally scheduled for maintenance upgrades last fall.  Upon receiving costs estimates it was decided to split the job up to cover two fiscal cycles, and the desulfurizer maintenance was pushed to the next fiscal year.  It was known by upper management that this would necessitate a release of SO2 because of  accumulations caused by the outdated equipment. Another release is tentatively planned for September, just before work started.  

Due to wind conditions, the only Delawareans affected would be those downwind.  Only 1713 people live downwind from Delaware City’s gas crackers.   853 men, 860 women.

The average amount of SO2 from an oil burning plant, is 12 pounds per MWh….   Natural Gas is a hundred times less. About one percent of oil and that amounts to .12 pounds or 1 ounce per MWh…  Therefore 200 pounds of SO2 released is equivalent to 19 hours running at a one megawatt hour oil fired plant running full kilter… At a 248 MWh natural gas plant (TDC) running full kilter 24/7, it would be the equivalent of… (248 MWh X .12 lbs SO2/ MWh ) = 29.76 pounds of SO2 per hour….

So on one hand this may not seem like much… The 200 pound release is only the equivalent of  6.7 hours of a natural gas fired power plant running at full steam night and day….  precisely 6 hours and 43 minutes…. less than most of us sleep per night….

On the other hand that is quite a bit.  The Newark power plant will spew out a level of what  this report implies, is considered a toxic release requiring DNREC oversight,  FOUR TIMES EVERY SINGLE 24 HOUR DAY!

President Harker wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times this toxic release at Delaware City, every single day.

Governor Markell wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out frou times the toxic release at Delaware City, every single day.

The Delaware Chamber of Commerce wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City every single day.

The Hammer and Nails Club wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City, every single day.

Sam Latham of the AFL-CIO, wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City, every single day.

Everyone wearing green and holding green signs, is looking the other way when it comes to having this toxic release, occurring ongoing in the heart of Newark, every, single day…..

Whereas only 1713 people due to geography could be even remotely affected from the Delaware city spill,  41 times that amount or 70,500 will inhale 4 times that amount every single day, because of someone’s brilliant idea of building a 248 MWh plant right inside the center of town… 

Pure brilliance.  President Harker.  Pure brilliance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beware Of The Shadow

Nancy’s blog points out that the Newark Data Center’s Listed International Corporate Headquarters are in a little tiny mailbox 6 inches times 4 inches, inside a Mail Boxes Etc. strip mall shop just off Paoli Pike in West Chester PA. Is this whole operation being mapped out by Tinkerbells?

Hmmm.  Who else do we know that is very familiar with Mail Boxes Etc…?

Newark City Council Was Told The Zoning Change Was To Allow A Small Ancillary Power Supply, “Like One For An IKEA Store”

    Wow!! That must be one really huge IKEA!

Gulf Stream Weakens; Causes Higher Sea Level Rise In Mid-Atlantic

Finally.  The Gulf Stream is weakening.  It has gotten weaker continuously since 2004.  So much Acrtic ice has been turned into cold water, that it now flows down the Labrador Current and hits broadside into the Gulf Stream as it makes it’s way to Britain and Europe.  If it ever veers south from the impact, parts of Europe, which is further north than Baffin Island, will get the tempertatures of Baffin Island.

This weakening of the Gulf Streams current strength, causes water to build up higher on the outside of the curve, and to sink lower on the inside of the curve.  The inside of the curve is in open ocean.  It affects no one.  The outside of the curve ranges from Virginia Beach upwards to the end of Long Island.

Pictures show the Gulf Stream weakening considerably just before Sandy.

This means water was actually higher and that same higher water was caused by the melting of the Arctic Ice Cap. It wasn’t the actually water flowing down from the Ice Cap, but our high water was caused by the largest seasonal ice melt ever recorded.

Here is the report.

This is for real, man. This is scary.

…And The Vortex Over The Arctic… Was Rent In Two.

January 1-3

January 11-13

I getting a bad feeling about this. Who can tell us? What’s this mean?

Btw. There is a monster hurricane approaching Alaska with a low of 943mb. Category 4 if it were an actual hurricane. It is so huge it would stretch from the East Coast of the US to Denver.

Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches

Good news gets better:

Recently heard this from EFF. Breaking news that took place yesterday. This is from their newsletter.

June 18, 2007
Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches

Landmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls

San Francisco – The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls — the first circuit court ever to make that finding.

Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant. But today’s ruling — closely following the reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups — found that the SCA violates the Fourth Amendment.

“Email users expect that their Hotmail and Gmail inboxes are just as private as their postal mail and their telephone calls,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “The government tried to get around this common-sense conclusion, but the Constitution applies online as well as offline, as the court correctly found. That means that the government can’t secretly seize your emails without a warrant.”

Warshak v. United States was brought in the Southern District of Ohio federal court by Steven Warshak to stop the government’s repeated secret searches and seizures of his stored email using the SCA. The district court ruled that the government cannot use the SCA to obtain stored email without a warrant or prior notice to the email account holder, but the government appealed that ruling to the 6th Circuit. EFF served as an amicus in the case, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Law professors Susan Freiwald and Patricia Bellia also submitted an amicus brief, and the case was successfully argued at the 6th Circuit by Warshak’s counsel Martin Weinberg.

For the full ruling in Warshak v. United States:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa/6th_circuit_decision_upholding_injunction.pdf
For EFF’s resources on the case, including its amicus brief:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa

I find it interesting that we elected a new congress to make the change, but currently, it is the courts leading the way…….A deep thanks of appreciation to EFF for their assistance on this case

Judge Orders FBI to Release NSL Abuse Records

This is from EFF’s website.

Washington, D.C. – A judge ordered the FBI today to finally release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans’ personal information. The ruling came just a day after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the judge to immediately respond in its lawsuit over agency delays.

EFF sued the FBI in April for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the misuse of NSLs as revealed in a Justice Department report. This week, more evidence of abuse was uncovered by the Washington Post, and EFF urged the judge Thursday to force the FBI to stop stalling the release of its records on the deeply flawed program.

“The reports we’ve seen so far about NSL abuse are just the tip of the iceberg,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “FBI officials told the Washington Post that there have likely been several thousand total instances of misuse. Americans deserve answers about this scandal and how the FBI has abused its power to spy on ordinary citizens.”

Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI can use NSLs to get private records about anyone’s domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions without any court approval — as long as it claims the information could be relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation. Without a judge’s oversight, the law is ripe for the abuse that has been uncovered in these recent reports.

“The law itself is the source of the problem. It’s time for Congress to repeal these expanded NSL powers and protect Americans from this abuse of authority,” said Hofmann.

The judge’s order requires the FBI to process 2500 pages of NSL-related records by July 5, and then 2500 pages every 30 days thereafter.

For the judge’s order:
http://www.eff.org/flag/nsl/bates_order.pdf

For EFF’s supplemental memo:
http://eff.org/flag/nsl/supplemental_memo.pdf

For the Washington Post article on NSLs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/13/AR2007061302453_pf.html

MINNER’S VERSION OF “LIVABLE DELAWARE

Executive Order No. 14 Regarding Gov. Minner’s “Livable Delaware” Agenda

WHEREAS, Delaware has a well deserved reputation as an ideal place to live, work, raise a family, and enjoy recreational activities;

WHEREAS, our natural resources, sound economy, opportunities for personal and business success, and overall quality of life will add almost 190,000 additional Delawareans by the year 2020, a growth rate faster than any northeastern state;

WHEREAS, Delawareans are concerned that the quality of place in our state is threatened by sprawl, traffic congestion, loss of farmland and open space, diminished air and water quality, and a shortage of affordable housing;

WHEREAS, residential, transportation and employment patterns can have direct impacts on the means by which we move about the State and attainment of Delaware’s air quality goals and the protection of public health;

WHEREAS, haphazard sprawl and unplanned growth create an inefficient demand for public infrastructure, services and facilities that all Delaware taxpayers must finance, no matter where they live;

WHEREAS, the Cabinet Committee on State Planning Issues has undertaken an extensive process of analyzing long term growth trends, soliciting public opinion, and considering the implications of expected growth throughout the State over the next 25 years, and has approved a comprehensive set of goals and strategies set forth in “Shaping Delaware’s Future: Managing Growth in 21st Century Delaware, Strategies for State Policies and Spending” to guide Delaware’s overall development and to ensure efficient, rational and cost-effective investments in necessary infrastructure;

WHEREAS, those development goals are restated herein:

Direct investment and future development to existing communities, urban concentrations, and growth areas. Protect important farmlands and critical natural resource areas. Improve housing quality, variety and affordability for all income groups. Ensure objective measurement of long-term community effects of land use policies and infrastructure investments. Streamline regulatory processes and provide flexible incentives and disincentives to encourage development in desired areas. Encourage redevelopment and improve the livability of existing communities and urban areas, and guide new employment into underutilized commercial and industrial sites. Provide high quality employment opportunities for citizens with various skill levels to retain and attract a diverse economic base. Protect the state’s water supplies, open spaces, farmlands and communities by encouraging revitalization of existing water and wastewater systems and the construction of new systems. Promote mobility for people and goods through a balanced system of transportation options. Improve access to educational opportunities, health care and human services for all Delawareans Coordinate public policy planning and decisions among state, counties and municipalities. WHEREAS, these planning goals provide an opportunity to promote sustainability of our economic and ecological growth and will maintain and enhance the qualities that make Delaware a unique place to live;

WHEREAS, the State must provide leadership and set an example by bringing its policies, programs, regulations and expenditures in line with the approved goals and strategies, and must play a major role in encouraging growth in areas that we’ve agreed are appropriate to accept it;

WHEREAS, my State of the State Address of January 25, 2001, calls for the development of “Livable Delaware” principles to keep sprawl in check, reduce traffic congestion, strengthen our towns and cities, improve our environment and protect our significant investment in roads, schools and other infrastructure;

NOW, THEREFORE I, RUTH ANN MINNER, by the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of Delaware, hereby declare and order on this 22nd day of March, 2001:

1. As part of Livable Delaware, the Office of State Planning Coordination shall immediately make available to all State departments and agencies a copy of the “Shaping Delaware’s Future” report and the adopted state development goals, along with instructions for preparing the implementation response called for herein;

2. All State departments and agencies shall, no later than August 31, 2001, complete and submit an implementation plan for these development goals and strategies which:

(a) Identifies all Department programs, policies and actions which are impacted by or can be used to support the state development goals and strategies; (b) Identifies administrative, organizational, regulatory, or statutory actions to be taken, including those already taken or underway, to ensure compliance and consistency with the state development goals and strategies;

(c) Identifies existing laws, programs, policies and actions that impede implementation of the development goals and strategies;

(d) Identifies how capital and budget planning will be used to implement the State investment strategies;

(e) Identifies essential legislative actions needed to ensure that state agency authorities and programs are consistent with and support the development goals and strategies;

(f) Sets forth an action plan, schedule for undertaking such actions, and proposes measures to gauge progress toward achieving the State development goals and investment strategies.

3. No later than October 31, 2001, the Cabinet Committee on State Planning Issues shall review and provide comments to the agencies and Office of State Planning Coordination on the implementation responses required in this Executive Order.

All We Are Is Dust in The Wind

There are some problems with wind power. First of all, the largest problem is the wind. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it isn’t. This may not mean much if you know or care little about electricity, except that it comes on when you flip the switch.

The larger problem stems from the fact that electricity can not be stored. It has to be used immediately. And a secondary problem is that if we get too much, or too little, at any time, we go black.

Imagine this scenario:

“Sir: sensors show winds picking up off Rehoboth. We are climbing from 9, 12, 15 19 mph. We show all turbines moving at peak efficiency. Power entering Indian River grid.”

Supervisor: “Pull power plants off line NOW! Shut down Edgemoor and Del City! Are they off line yet? Open connectors to PA and MD now, Get on the phone tell them we have 1.5 megawatts barreling their way! NOW!

Monitor: “Sir, wind speeds dropping off Rehoboth now. We’re at 9, 6, 4 mph. Turbines are shut down and off line. ”

Supervisor: “Damn! We’re going black. Open connectors! Tell Edgemoor and Del City to fire full up: we need full capacity. Tell PA and MD we are on standby to import…..”

Monitor: “Sir, wind speeds are climbing again……..”

Perhaps these few words can describe better than a hundred reports on why wind power is not the most reliable source of electricity. This scenario would instantly change if technology were to produce some type of battery which could store live electricity to be used later whenever it was needed.

Rule one of management has always been to find someone who is doing it right and do what they do. So in an effort to analyze the economics of wind power I turned to Denmark, the leader of Wind power technology and the country producing the highest percentage of its power by wind.

The results seemed promising at first. They have been leading the curve on wind power since the early eighties.

By 2005 they planned to have up to 29% of their power generated through wind. As more wind towers came on line, the more the fluctuations became apparent and the tougher it became to control the grid.

Here is the scoop. Most of the energy is generated during winter and at night. Coincidentally, those are the times of least demand. The excess energy is sent to Norway, Sweden, and Germany at bargain rates. As a part of the whole grid, wind power contributes 1 %. So the entire grid can contain these wild fluctuations with little impact. The sad irony is that in Norway and Sweden, hydroelectric sources are taken off line, and no net reduction in CO2 gases is achieved. The good side is that, even though no coal fired power plants have been idled, less coal and therefore less gases have been released, although not as much as is promised when the statistics are rolled out in community and government meetings.

When wind is not blowing, expensive energy is imported into Denmark from the grid. Consequently Danes pay more per kilowatt for their electricity than their neighbors.

This is reality. In theory, a farm of 200 1.5 megawatt turbines can generate 300 megawatts of energy that, if stable, can take two expensive carbon=burning power plants off line. In theory, the US power grid is large enough that Delaware’s wind farm fluctuations can have minimal impact. In theory, if the wind were consistent, then Delaware would need no power emissions.

But when they say a 1.5 capacity, they speak of just that: “capacity”. When wind conditions are perfect and the turbine is running at full efficiency, then they have a 1.5 megawatts of generated power. But how often do those turbines reach capacity? Based on historical data, over a good year, 20 capacity is one the best figures out there. Perhaps Rehoboth is better. Not every oil well strikes pay dirt, and so it could be with wind turbine locations.

It appears that many countries have rethought wind power. Norway studied Denmark and decided against it. Ireland, Japan, Germany, are just a few countries who have dropped all incentives on new turbines being built in their countries. Denmark, officially continues to promote wind power, despite some unsuccessful attempts within is own parliament to cut back, perhaps due to the fact that Denmark manufactures 80% of the worlds turbines.

There are other problems as well. Theoretically just this past year, measurements of damage to ecosystems from the loss of kinetic energy from the wind as it passes through a wind farm, has been touted. Not to mention a large number of bats and birds have been slaughtered. Right off the migratory bird route of a nation, may not be the best place for a wind farm. But if it is enough off shore, far away from birds flight paths, perhaps no harm is done.

The turbines make a sound, likened to a motorcycle engine with a cutout exhaust system. The newest models brag they cannot be heard over 5 kilometers away. That should be safe for Rehoboth.

Occasionally when the sun hits just right, the turbines throw off a strobe light effect that is particularly annoying. Flash Flash Flash..

Unfortunately there are some serious negatives associated with a wind farm off Delaware’s coast. What seemed like a win-win no brainer when making a cursory scan over the initial sales pitch, becomes a tough choice when all the research has panned out.
It deeply saddens me because ten years ago, as I drove north from Fenwick Island, and saw Indian River behemoth to my left, I too became inspired that what Delaware truly needed was a wind farm off our coast to show America that “yes, we could get energy without any carbon emissions………..”

So, is this the death knoll for wind power here in Delaware?………..Well, I’m afraid……………It’s possible, but …………….Well,… actually……………….

No, it is not the end of the wind power argument.