Some of PSE&G’s (PSE&G) natural gas pipelines were laid down a century ago. The New Jersey utility continued using cast iron until the 1950s. Now there is approximately one methane leak for each of the pipeline’s 3,900 miles. Though PSE&G intends to replace the entire cast iron and unprotected steel infrastructure, this is too costly ($1.5 million to $2.0 million per mile)to do overnight. With the help of new technology developed by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Google and Colorado State University. PSE&G is natural gas pipeline emissions by 83% in the area surveyed area, while replacing about 1/3 less mileage to do so.
Thirty-seven years ago, the United States was poised on the edge of an energy revolution. The interdepartmental plan that Dr. Allan Hoffman presented President Jimmy Carter outlined how the nation could derive 20% of its’ power from renewables (principally wind & solar) by the year 2000. What could have happened, if Carter’s successors had pressed forward, is another of the great “ifs” of history. Hoffman answers another question in his book THE U.S. GOVERNMENT & RENEWABLE ENERGY: how America adopts energy policies.
There have been salmon die-offs since the mid-1990s. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was on the verge of addressing this issue more than a decade ago. Vested interests objected. The idea was shelved until last year’s drought. After water temperatures rose 4 degrees above the lethal ceiling (68 degrees F), 96% of the returning adult sockeye died before they could pass beyond the Lower Granite dam. Now a coalition of environmental groups is forcing EPA to protect salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The United States has known that burning fossil fuels destabilizes our climate for over fifty years, but taken few steps to prevent this. Even now, 18 months after President Obama declared “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” the nation does not appear to be ready to switch away from a fossil fuel based energy system. According to Our Children’s Trust, this is discriminating against the rights of the very generations who will experience the worst effects of Climate change. So 21 Climate Kids are suing America.
