Adopt-a-Beach along Saginaw Bay, and a Gust of Great Lakes Offshore Wind Support

As heard on the April 6, 2012, Environment Report, part of Friday Edition at 9 a.m. Fridays on Delta College radio, Q-90.1 FM.

Alliance for the Great Lakes

A statewide Adopt-A-Beach program is looking for help in the Saginaw Bay area.

Via windpoweringamerica.gov

Statewide coordinators for the volunteer program are holding informational sessions throughout the state.

One will be held on April 21 at the Bay City State Recreation Area, during the park’s Wetland Wake-Up Day events.

The Adopt-a-Beach program uses volunteers to collect data on beach conditions. That data is shared with local, state and regional health officials, and used by the Alliance for the Great Lakes to help set standards for coastal areas.

The session planned for Bay City is an introductory training session by the Alliance. It will be held on April 21, 10 a.m. to noon, inside the Saginaw Bay Visitor Center, located at the Bay City state park.

For more information, see the Alliance website at greatlakes.org.

Great Lakes Offshore Wind Energy Consortium

Plans for offshore wind projects have received a gust of support in the Great Lakes.

The governor of Michigan recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with 10 federal agencies to enhance the coordination of offshore wind projects in the lakes. Gov. Snyder was joined by the governors of Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania.

The aim is to promote the efficient, orderly and responsible evaluation of offshore wind proposals for the lakes, according to the Great Lakes Commission.

The agreement (pdf) is modeled after similar ones signed between 10 states on the East Coast and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The agencies in the Great Lakes agreement include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies that have regulatory roles or federal interests related to permitting offshore turbines in the lakes.

The Memorandum of Understanding will establish a Great Lakes Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to coordinate and expedite the review of proposals for offshore wind projects.

According to the Obama administration, offshore wind energy resources in the Great Lakes could yield tremendous economic and environmental benefits. Offshore wind in the lakes has the potential to produce more than 700 gigawatts of energy. That’s about one fifth of the total offshore wind potential in the United States.

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The Greatest of the Great Lakes (vote) & Raising Renewable Standards

As heard Friday, Feb. 3, 2012, on Q-90.1 FM, Delta College’s NPR Station …

Right now, Michigan’s electric utilities are working to increase the amount of energy they generate from renewable sources like wind and solar. The work is part of a state law that requires utilities to get 10 percent of their energy from cleaner sources by 2015.

That means burning less coal. But utilities could do even better, according to the Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs coalition. The coalition is working to more than double the state’s renewable energy standard from the current 10 percent by 2015 to 25 percent by 2025.

The Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs coalition includes business, labor and health care groups. They are trying to raise more than $1 million to collect signatures to put the 25 by 2025 question on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

According to the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, the group has until July 9 to file a petition with the state that contains more than 322,000 valid signatures. Proposed ballot language has already been filed.

The proposal would require at least 25 percent of Michigan’s energy to come from renewable sources including wind, solar, biomass and hydropower, by 2025.

The proposal also would limit rate increases to comply with the standard to 1 percent per year.

See also: Renewable energy standards: Seeing beyond percentages

What About Lake Huron?

 

Which of the Great Lakes is the greatest?

 

Great Lakes Echo, a Michigan State University publication, is taking votes on the single best thing to do on each of the Great Lakes.

 

So far, here are some of the ideas.Lake Michigan is the best for surfing, because it has the most consistent waves.

 

Lake Erie is the best for fishing, with the most productive fishery, according to some scientists.

Lake Huron is the best for canoeing, with the most coastline of the five lakes, totaling more than 3,800 miles.

What about the best beach? That’s Lake Michigan, according to the Echo. Lake Michigan is home to Sleeping Bear Dunes, which was named most beautiful place in the United States last year by Good Morning America. It beat out places in Hawaii and California.

Lake Huron also could be considered the best place for kayaking. It’s home to Turnip Rock, a large rock island less than 100 feet off the shores of Port Austin, at the tip of the Thumb.

 

Most scenic? What about Lake Ontario, with Niagara Falls at the west end and 1,000 islands to the east?

 

You can read more and leave comments at greatlakesecho.org.

 

- Photo comp. via Spell with flickr

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Mich Enviro Report: GREEN River Testing, Steudle in Charge & Offshore Wind

As heard Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 on Delta College Q-90.1 FM …

1.

Students from Bay City Central High School were out this week helping with water quality testing on the Saginaw River.

About 90 students were involved. They worked with volunteers from General Motors, the Bay City School District, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the nonprofit BaySail organization.

The students visited the Saginaw River to assess its water quality as part of the Earth Force GREEN program, funded by GM.

They waded in with sampling nets and chemical testing equipment. Water testing and environmental education stations were set up in the Visitor Center at the Bay City State Recreation Area.

The GM GREEN program aims to inspire youth to be active in their communities and learn more about the complexities of environmental issues. The automaker has been sponsoring the program for about 20 years.

2.

A former Essexville official will lead the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Kirk Steudle, a former member of the Essexville City Council, has been appointed to the presidency of the association. Michigan environmental groups say the post will allow Steudle to have a positive influence on national transportation policy.

According to the Michigan Environmental Council, Steudle has previously supported important initiatives in the areas of passenger rail service and making towns and cities safer and more accessible for pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair users and others.

One of Steudle’s immediate priorities will be working with Congress on the Highway Trust Fund, which maintains highways and other federal transportation infrastructure through a per-gallon tax on gasoline.

Steudle has been director of the Michigan Department of Transportation since 2006.

Prior to that, he was MDOT’s Bay Region Engineer, and responsible for state transportation programs and services for a 13-county region surrounding the Saginaw Bay area. He served on the Essexville City Council in the late 1990s.

3.

The University of Michigan is studying the impact of ice on power-generating turbines operating offshore in the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded more than $1 million to the school for two studies that will explore the effect of winter ice on the collection and distribution of power by offshore wind turbine in the lakes.

According to university officials, the work will include a $400,000 grant to develop computerized modeling tools that will simulate surface water ice and the impact of ice-loading or pressure on offshore structures.

The analysis will inform the design of turbines that could be deployed at varying depths in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

A second, $690,000 award will go to analyze seasonal trends and conduct field measurements related to ice, wind and wave loads on fixed offshore structures.

The studies are tied to another project on the feasibility of offshore wind power on Lake Michigan.

— Photo by Randen Pederson

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Mich Enviro Report: Bay County Wind Turbine, GLRI Money & a Hall of Fame

As heard Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, on Delta College Q-90.1 FM …

1.

Bay County officials expect to save on utility costs with a newly installed wind turbine.

The 4-kilowatt vertical axis turbine was installed recently at the Bay County Community Center in Bay City.

The equipment was paid for with a federal energy efficiency grant totaling almost $600,000, and installed by Affordable Green Energy of Essexville.

This is the second wind turbine installed on Bay County property and funded by the grant. The first was earlier this year at the county’s Juvenile Home in Hampton Township.

Besides the two turbines, the grant also has paid for energy-saving equipment at the Bay County Building and Bay County Civic Arena.

Altogether, Bay County officials say they expect to save 20 percent on utility costs with equipment purchased through the grant.

2.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is funding a number of new projects in Michigan.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced awards of about $4.7 million in grants through the federally funded initiative.

The newly funded projects include money for mapping harmful algal blooms on the Great Lakes. These blooms affect water quality in Saginaw Bay and can result in beach closings.

Central Michigan University also is receiving money to establish gull exclusion zones at public beaches.

And funding is going to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for sediment reduction in the Sebewaing River Watershed.

The 12 grants in Michigan are among 70 grants totaling nearly $30 million that EPA has awarded this year under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

3.

Who would you nominate to the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame?

A nonprofit called the Muskegon Environmental Research and Education Society has formed a Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame.

Society officials tell The Muskegon Chronicle it’s the first of its kind in the state.

The Hall of Fame is taking nominations for the first class to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the spring.

Nominations are due by Feb. 20.

Michigan environmental groups are being recruited to help spread the word about the hall of fame and the nomination process.

— Photo via AGE

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Mich Enviro Report: Earth Day Beach Cleanups, a Festival & Thumb Wind Farms

As heard on Delta College public radio Q-90.1 FM, Friday Edition, April 22, 2011:

Junk from a Grand Haven beach cleanup in 2010. Via the Alliance for the Great Lakes

1.

Today is Earth Day (April 22), and beaches around Michigan are being cleaned up by volunteers.

The Adopt-a-Beach program is in its ninth season, and runs through May 4. This year, volunteers will target spots around the Great Lakes that have seen beach closings or been designated as federal Areas of Concern because of past pollution.

That includes the public beach at the Bay City State Recreation Area, where a cleanup is planned for April 23. It’s the first Adopt-a-Beach cleanup at the state park in recent memory.

Other cleanups are planned throughout Michigan, including in Allegan, Berrien, Muskegon, Ottawa, Van Buren and Wayne Counties.

Adopt-a-Beach is organized by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. During the events, volunteers clear trash and sample water quality. Additional work also is being done this year with funding from the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Last year, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers removed more than 31,000 pounds of trash from Great Lakes shorelines.

2.

More wind farms are coming to Michigan’s Thumb.

DTE Energy plans to build its first three wind farms in Huron and Sanilac counties, to be completed in 2012.

The development is part of efforts to expand the generation of renewable energy in Michigan. Utilities in the state are working to meet at 10 percent by 2015 standard.

The three DTE wind projects will generate about 110 megawatts, according to company officials.

The estimated cost of the project is $225 million. About 50 turbines are to be installed along 15,000 acres in the two counties. The project is expected to create more than 500 construction jobs.

DTE still needs to select a turbine manufacturer, a construction company, and secure permits for the three wind farms.

But the company says it hopes to begin construction next year.

3.

The big Earth Day celebration is planned for Saturday, April 30, in Huron County.

School officials are planning for a seventh annual Embracing Our Earth event, which typically attracts thousands of visitors.

This year’s festival is to take place at Bad Axe Junior High School, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Attractions this year include a Marking Art from the Earth display by the Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art, a rainforest and alligator display, and pedal powered cookies.

The Detroit Science Center also will put on a  “Green Machine” stage show, and there will be live music, face painting and a kayak tank.

Wind farm tours also will be offered, along with mechanical surfboard rides, Segway demonstrations, and more.

—

Green Energy, Saginaw Wind Turbines & Phasing Out Light Bulbs

The Environment Report, now with Audio. This airs Jan. 7, 2011 on Delta College Q-90.1 FM public radio. Text follows …

Environment Report, Jan. 7, 2011 by jeffkart

1.

Consumers Energy provides the most green power among Michigan utilities.

A state law requires utilities to get 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by the year 2015.

So far, Consumers Energy is at 4.7 percent, according to the Michigan Public Service Commission. DTE Energy is at 2.5 percent. Across the state, 3.63 percent of Michigan’s energy comes from renewables.

Consumers Energy operates its largest generating complex, the coal-fired Karn-Weadock plants, in Bay County’s Hampton Township.

The utility has contracted for 396 megawatts of renewable energy, mostly wind power.

Eight megawatts is in commercial operation.

An additional 388 megawatts is due to be online by the end of 2012, according to the Jackson Citizen-Patriot.

2.

In other energy news, plans for Michigan-made wind turbines are off to a good start.

The Public Service Commission has approved power purchase agreements between Consumers Energy and Heritage Sustainable Energy. The agreements, totaling 41 megawatts, are for Garden Wind Farm in Delta County and Stoney Corners 2 in Missaukee and Osceola counties.

According to the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, the agreements will result in the first large-scale production of utility-scale wind turbines made entirely in Michigan by Northern Power Systems and a key supplier — Merrill Technologies Group.

Northern Power Systems will build the direct-drive wind turbines at a Saginaw plant. The company expects to employ up to 137 people by 2014.

3.

Incandescent bulbs are on their way out, in favor of more energy efficient CFLs and LEDs.

The 100-watt incandescent will be the first light bulb to be banned from U.S. stores, beginning in Jan. 1, 2012.

By 2014, most traditional incandescent light bulbs will be phased out. That’s due to a federal law passed by Congress in 2007.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued new guidelines for cleaning up broken CFLs, or compact fluorescent light bulbs.

CFLs contain a tiny drop of mercury, but experts say the amount of mercury they keep out of the environment is greater. Less coal has to be burned to power a CFL, for instance.

If a CFL breaks, the EPA now says the amount of mercury released as vapor is within the safe range for adults.

***

Thoughts on Disney Green

“What future did you choose, Dad?” 

My oldest asked me that after we got off the Spaceship Earth ride at Disney’s Epcot Center. Or, as my youngest calls it, The Apricot Center.

The ride is the one that takes place in the big Epcot ball. The basic story is about how human communication has advanced from writing on cave walls to this marvelous thing we call The Internet.

Near the end of the ride, you get to choose, on a screen in front of you, how you’d like your future to be. Riding with the Apricot girl, we chose a future focused on the Home, living in the Country, in a dwelling made of Natural Materials, and Car-pooling to work.

From this, the Disney people created a video using 0ur faces, to show us living in a home that runs on green energy, in a world that’s less polluted and a lot more sustainable than the one we have now.

My youngest in her future home. Face paint makes her look funny.

So I thought to myself, “This is pretty positive. Rather than focus on the next Disney movie or something from the Epcot Gift Shop, the take-away message is one about energy, protecting the planet, changing the status quo.”

It’s not like the Disney World experience emphasizes those things. Besides Epcot, we saw Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom. Disney is a place of excess and consumerism. But it’s also a place to spend time with your family. And of all the rides and attractions we saw on our recent trip, I’d have to say that spending time with my wife and two girls was the highlight.

So does the message of green really fit with this Disney experience? Sure. Why not? Disney is a happy place, without the troubles of modern life (at least on the surface). The Mickey Mouse people have built in several positive lessons as part of this, including the Epcot ride, and conservation messages throughout the parks.

It would be easy to dismiss the green at Disney as window dressing. And it is, to some extent. But it got my kids talking.

After we got off the Epcot ride, they played a game that required them to use various forms of electricity to power a city.

“Don’t use the coal,” my oldest daughter yelled to her sister. “Use wind and solar.”

Friday Edition: Offshore Wind, PB&J and Smog

Flickr via RVWithTito

From Nov. 19 Environment Report on Q-90.1 FM, Delta College.

1.

Michigan legislators including Jeff Mayes of Bay City have unveiled a plan to guide wind energy development in the Great Lakes.

The bipartisan legislation, introduced in the House and Senate, would offer greater community control in the development of offshore wind energy projects.

According to Dan Scripps of Leland, the plan would put a framework in place to attract beneficial wind projects to MIchigan.

Under the legislation, at least four public hearings would be required before an offshore wind project is approved.

The law also would prohibit wind projects from being built within six miles of the Michigan shoreline, unless communities agree to an exemption.

Lawmakers say time is of the essence. They say Michigan needs to pass the guidelines before the end of the year, or risk losing out on development opportunities for offshore wind, and associated jobs.

The legislation is based on recommendations from the Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council, or GLOW.

The council includes Bay County Executive Thomas L. Hickner, and held a public input meeting earlier this year at Saginaw Valley State University.

2.
Are you concerned about climate change?

Try eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Seriously.

According to the PB&J campaign, an online nonprofit, a plant-based lunch like peanut butter and jelly will reduced your carbon footprint by 2.5 pounds of emissions compared to an animal-based lunch like a hamburger or chicken nuggets.

Those 2.5 pounds of emissions at lunch are about 40 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions you’d save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan.

The PB&J campaign is supported by a registered charity called Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs and can be found at pbjcampaign.org.

Sure, it’s a goofy way of discussing climate change. But the Great Lakes could benefit from more PB&Js, based on predictions from government scientists.

The potential effects of climate change on human health in the Great Lakes region are of concern, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Weather disturbances, drought, and changes in temperature and growing season brought on by climate change could affect crops and food production in the basin. Changes in air pollution patterns as a result of climate change also could affect respiratory health, causing asthma, and new disease vectors and agents could migrate into the region.

— Photo Credit: RVWithTito

3.

The American Lung Association of Michigan is one of a handful of groups in the state to endorse pending EPA pollution limits for smog.

A national coalition of more than 200 public health, advocacy and faith-based groups is endorsing the limits, which they say would save 12,000 lives and prevent tens of thousands of asthma and heart attacks each year.

The groups cite research that shows stronger limits on ozone would do more to protect public health.

Smog, also called ground-level ozone, is connected to emissions from factories, power plants and motor vehicle exhaust, when chemicals react in the presence of sunlight.

Ozone burns lungs and airways, and cause everything from chest pain and coughing to premature death. Children and seniors are particularly vulnerable.

The EPA plans to release a new smog standard by the end of the year. Stricter standards would require businesses to spend billions of dollars on new pollution controls.

Michigan Women of Wind … Without Blades?

Listen to this big idea: A wind turbine without blades.

Michigan Women of Wind Energy are holding a kickoff meeting on Oct. 27 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Novi Library. Keynote speakers include Dawn White, co-founder and president of Accio Energy, which is developing a wind energy device without moving parts.

Women of Wind Energy is an international organization, in the U.S. and Canada.

In Novi, they’ll be talking about networking, mentoring and scholarships for women in the field of breeze power.

Dawn White spoke last year at a TEDx event in Detroit. Here’s what she had to say.

A Year Since Copenhagen, And No Great Lakes Wind

* Hello Mlive readers. Traffic has surged on this blog post today. I thought it was just the awesome writing. It turns out that it’s (also) because the link was featured on Mid-Michigan Afternoon Links. I don’t work for The Bay City Times anymore, but I’m still very much in the game. Check out jeffkart.com for links to my writing. Also consider the RSS for Mr. Great Lakes. Thanks.

This month, October 2010, marks one year since I became an iPhone user … and one year since I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, on a whirlwind energy tour. One of the highlights was a trip to an offshore wind farm. And back then, it was just a matter of time before the Great Lakes would be sporting big blades.

A year later, there are no offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes. But I saw another offshore wind farm today. The world’s largest is now spinning on the Thames estuary in southern England. There are 100 windmills on the water there, and more are planned. A picture posted on MSNBC doesn’t even look real. But it is.

What’s also real is opposition to offshore wind. People have apparently grown used to ugly coal plants that belch toxics into our skies and our Great Lakes. Yet the thought of seeing 300-foot-tall, three-bladed wind turbines just makes people nervous. Will they be aesthetically pleasing? Will they make too much noise, or disrupt fishing or recreational boating?

Yes, no, no and no. What’s not easy on the eyes, ears or soul is greenhouse gas emissions and mercury, both of which come from those ugly old coal plants people seem to have grown used to.

Sure, wind isn’t the 100 percent answer. It won’t generate everything we need. Turbines aren’t as beautiful as a natural vista. But there’s wind here, and it beats shipping in coal from out of state.

I wonder what the case will be one year from now. Wind turbines on the Great Lakes? Or a new coal plant? Go Vikings.