Congress blocks pollution controls

Landfill biggest climate polluter

New wells to be drilled in order to burn off even more methane

By Spencer Hunt THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Franklin County landfill leaked 11,900 tons of methane in 2010, making it the top industrial source of climate-change gases in central Ohio, according to a first-ever federal inventory.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the landfill and 19 other businesses and entities across central Ohio emitted a total of 1.45 million tons of carbon dioxide, a climate-change gas. Methane is 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, so the EPA describes the Franklin County landfill as emitting 262,582 tons of “carbon-dioxide equivalents.”

Polluters in Columbus include Ohio State University, which released 174,315 tons of carbon dioxide, and the Anheuser-Busch brewery on the North Side, which emitted 54,392 tons.

However, central Ohio’s contribution to climate change is nothing compared with the damage caused by large coal-fired power plants. American Electric Power’s Gavin plant in Gallia County is the No. 1 polluter in Ohio, having emitted 16.74 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2010.

The EPA’s new greenhouse-gas inventory shows that operations across Ohio might face federal climate-change limits — if they are ever enacted. With 244 sources reporting a total of 175.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, Ohio ranks third in the nation for pollution, behind Texas and Indiana.

To cut down on such pollution, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio plans to drill 20 wells into the Franklin County landfill this year to funnel more methane to flares that burn off the gas. There are 137 wells now, said Jodi Andes, a waste authority spokeswoman.

• Officials also plan to start siphoning off methane this year to sell as fuel for cars that run on compressed natural gas, she said. “You’re taking a waste and creating economic development.”

At the Pine Grove landfill near Amanda in Fairfield County, Republic Services started drilling methane-collection wells last year and might burn the gas to generate electricity. The landfill is the area’s No. 2 source of climate-change gas, emitting 224,164 tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents in 2010.

Scott Potter, Ohio State’s senior energy adviser, said the university cut its carbon footprint in 2006 when it switched from burning coal to natural gas to heat campus buildings.

“We essentially dropped our campus-wide emissions 60 to 70 percent,” Potter said.

Methane is a primary component of natural gas and produces carbon dioxide whether it’s burned to heat buildings or destroyed in a landfill flare, but burning it creates less pollution in the eyes of government officials.

Landfills don’t report carbon dioxide produced from flares, because the EPA deems it no different from the amount of carbon dioxide that would naturally rise from decomposing organic matter in soil. Ohio State has to report it because it is produced by an industrial process to create heat.

The closing of some power plants will help reduce Ohio’s carbon-dioxide output, but that’s not the reason for the shutdowns.

Recently enacted limits on mercury and other toxic compounds have made the Picway power plant in Pickaway County too expensive to run, said Melissa McHenry, an AEP spokeswoman. It will shut down in 2014.

Akron-based FirstEnergy cited similar reasons for plans to close four plants along Lake Erie by September.

Picway emitted 88,426 tons of carbon dioxide in 2010. The FirstEnergy plants released a total of 12.8 million tons.

No federal regulations or laws place limits on carbon dioxide, methane or other climate-change gases. Efforts to pass limits have stalled in Congress for years. “There is a great deal of disagreement in the public and certainly among politicians as to whether we actually have a problem,” said Nolan Moser of the Ohio Environmental Council, which supports limits.

Industry groups say limits will hurt efforts to grow and support businesses.

“Given that the economy is slowly beginning to show signs of recovery, any additional regulations to businesses would in turn cost those business,” said Charlotte Hickcox, environmental policy director for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

shunt@dispatch.com

ERIC ALBRECHT DISPATCH    Methane gas is burned off in a flare at the Franklin County landfill in the southern part of the county. There are 137 wells bringing gas to the flares now; 20 more are planned.

Farming Schools coming

STATE SENATORS’ PLAN

Ohio could get schools on farming

By Jim Siegel THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

While Gov. John Kasich stressed in his State of the State speech last week the need to match work-force training to Ohio’s available jobs, three Republican senators are already working on a plan to get students, particularly from urban and suburban areas, motivated to join the state’s largest industry.

They stress that the $107 billion-a-year industry is all-but-guaranteed to continue growing, with expanded job opportunities in high-tech fields that will require hands-on training along with a strong education in science, math and technology.

They think that, if they market the field properly, students can get pumped up about making a long-term career in agriculture.

“The agriculture industry is different than most people think,” said Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, noting that only 10 percent of jobs are on the farm. The world is projected to grow from 7 billion people to 9 billion by 2050, opening more opportunities in crop and livestock production, air-and water-quality research, bioproducts and biofuels, including energy from waste.

• But Widener said that much of the curriculum taught in high-school vocational agriculture programs is 80 years old, and the number of agriculture teachers has dropped by 5 percent since 2005.  (How sad that this is said in what seems to be disparagement – - anything that old, it is assumed is not very valuable – - but my money is on – it’s probably what would be called organic today. and therefore – worth it’s weight in gold.    Jan)

In the 2013-14 school year, Widener wants to create regional schools with a focus on agriculture that eventually would serve kids in grades six-12. He hopes to begin in Springfield, where the city school district has agreed to donate a vacant building. The plan is to start with a ninth-grade class and expand each year.

Widener, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is teaming with Sen. Peggy Lehner of Kettering, who heads the Senate Education Committee, and Sen. Cliff Hite of Findlay, chairman of the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

The schools’ name — Global Impact STEM Academies (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) — intentionally leaves out the word agriculture.

“Everyone agrees, from college-admission specialists to educators to parents, that you can’t use the word agriculture because everyone sees that as a dead-end job,” Widener said. “There are jobs. We have to refocus our message.”

The senators envision schools that do not operate under a normal block-scheduling day, but where students complete projects, do field research, hear guest lecturers and earn college credit. Lehner said she recently discussed the academies with kids from a tutoring program in Kettering.

“Those kids’ eyes and their parents’ eyes lit up,” she said. “They liked the structure of a school like this, very project-oriented. They were captured by something different for them, opening up a whole new world to them.”

Job opportunities in agriculture have never been better, said Linda Martin, associate dean and director for academic programs at Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Over the past five years, the college has seen 92 percent employment of its students within six months after graduation, and 82 percent of graduates take their first job in Ohio.

“We have more job opportunities than we have students, and that trend is expected to continue through at least 2015, and many say much longer than that,” she said.

Widener wants a structure for the schools similar to that of the Dayton Regional STEM School, which is partnered with Wright State University and draws students from 20 districts.

“What’s on every business’s mind before they expand or relocate to a state? Work force,” Widener said. “Every state has their own economic-development programs, can offer you grants, can name a road for you. (We) can say, here’s the work-force development that starts in the sixth grade.”

Adam Sharp, vice president of public policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau, said his members are interested in the STEM school idea and are trying to learn more.

“Compared to other segments of the economy right now, agriculture is doing really well,” he said. “It’s because of innovation, science and efficiency in production. It’s a growing industry with a lot of opportunities for young people.” jsiegel@dispatch.com  

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(Jan’s Comments:

Because the subject of our nation’s health is of such vital importance  even as we observe the deteriorating quality of wellness and most of us fully realize that what we eat has everything to do with our well-being -  – I find the information of this post very important – - and worrisome.

If the mission of these plans were to be to instruct and fully explain the beauty of “natural farming” using principals of proper, organic  technology, I would be thrilled, for that is vitally needed.  But from what I think I understand, it is the new technology based on the miracle of  genetic engineering, chemical fertilizers and increased use of pesticides, all of which are hugely detrimental to our nation; the soil,  everything grown in that soil,  to our waterways, all the animals including humanity.  This is the stuff of nightmares.

I’ve been all but shouting from the rooftops about the chemicalization of our world in terms of agriculture and medicine.  We are, through this process, destroying our world and ourselves with this slow, nasty suicide  and it is a morbid waste.    It is anchored in GREED and borne out of IGNORANCE.  Scientists know, but they have been bought and paid for as have so many of our elected leaders. 

Just in the last few days alone, I have posted several articles from Mr. Cummins of the Organic Consumers Assoc.  wherein is articulated beautifully, the truth of what is going on. 

Please do all you can to tell those you have elected to serve our needs, to understand that we deserve better than this – tell them what you want.   Thank you.  )