Posts tagged 2012
Fee makes big dent in disposable bag use
Mar 10th
Reduces grocery checkout bags by 68 percent
After six months in effect, estimates show that the disposable bag fee has reduced use of paper and plastic checkout bags at grocery stores in Boulder by 68 percent. This reduction means the community has kept nearly 5 million disposable bags out of the waste stream since the fee went into effect on July 1, 2013.
“This is very positive news,” said Jamie Harkins, City of Boulder business sustainability specialist. “The bag fee arose from community concerns about the negative environmental and economic impacts of disposable bags in Boulder, and this progress report shows that we are addressing those concerns and doing so effectively.”
The disposable bag fee is one of several city initiatives aimed at bringing Boulder closer to its goal of becoming a zero waste community and diverting 85 percent of the waste stream away from the landfill and into recycling, composting and reuse facilities.
Of the approximately 22 million disposable checkout bags Boulder uses each year, 60 to 70 percent come from grocery stores. A study conducted by consultant TischlerBise in 2012 projected a 50 percent reduction in disposable bag use by the end of the first year of the fee, with approximately 3.6 million disposable bags subject to the fee (i.e. purchased) in the first six months. In actuality, Boulder shoppers have reduced disposable bag use by 68 percent and have purchased significantly fewer bags, approximately 2.3 million in total.
Of the 10 cents collected for each bag, 4 cents goes directly to retailers to defray fee implementation costs. The remaining 6 cents is remitted to the city to support education and outreach efforts about the bag fee as well as to cover expenses associated with providing bags to portions of the population that might be disproportionately impacted by the fee. No revenue collected as part of the fee program can be used to support General Fund services or programs.
The disposable bag fee does not apply to bags used inside stores for items such as produce, bulk food, or meat and fish, and does not apply to pharmacy prescriptions or newspapers.
–CITY–
CU campus lock-down on 4/20 again (yawn)
Feb 28th
CU-Boulder closes campus to non-affiliates
on April 20 for third straight year
on April 20 for third straight year
The University of Colorado Boulder announced today it will be open to students, faculty and staff on Sunday, April 20, but for the third straight year will be closed to unauthorized non-affiliates.
“As we have said for years now, the 4/20 gathering is not welcome on our campus and has caused serious disruptions to our mission of research, teaching and learning,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “This campus closure continues a multiyear plan to eliminate this gathering.”
The main campus will be closed to non-affiliates from noon to 6 p.m. The Norlin Quad will be closed to everyone throughout the day. Even with the passage of Amendment 64 two years ago, state law does not allow pot smoking in public or possession of marijuana by those under 21.
CU-Boulder began these campus closure actions in April 2012. A Boulder judge upheld the university’s right to take reasonable steps to avoid disruption of the university’s academic mission. In 2012, the closure reduced a traditional 4/20 crowd of about 10,000 to 12,000 people to a gathering of several hundred. April 20, 2013, was a quiet day on campus with no arrests and no one entering the Norlin Quad.
A campus committee, whose members include leaders of the CU Student Government, has met for the past several months to discuss this year’s 4/20 operations. CUSG members have said they want the spontaneous 4/20 gathering to end, but have also expressed concerns and provided input on the planning process. CUSG also wants continued academic dialogue on drug policies and is planning a symposium on those topics for March or early April.
“With the passage of Amendment 64 and now the launch of retail marijuana sales, we believe there is plenty to discuss and debate about drug policies,” said Chris Schaefbauer, CUSG’s president of student affairs. “But that should take place in a thoughtful, academic setting – not among thousands of disruptive people on the Norlin Quad.”
DiStefano said the CU administration supports the students’ efforts to spur debate on drug policies.
“CU-Boulder is a place where academic debate and the free exchange of ideas have always been welcomed and encouraged,” he said. “I applaud the students for continuing this dialogue.”
This year on Sunday, April 20, the following measures will be in place:
- Students, faculty and staff are all welcome on campus and invited to make use of university facilities as they always do.
- Students, faculty and staff will be asked to present their Buff OneCard IDs at campus entrances and other areas.
- Consistent with prior years’ protocol, law enforcement officers will politely and professionally engage those wishing to enter the campus to ascertain if they are affiliates or approved visitors. This will involve checking Buff OneCards for students, faculty and staff and credentials for registered visitors. Those unaffiliated with CU-Boulder, or who are not approved visitors, will not be permitted on campus.
- Visitors who have official business, meetings or other officially sanctioned activities on the CU-Boulder campus will need to obtain a visitor’s pass. More details on that process will be announced soon.
Funding for the campus security measures comes from insurance rebates to the campus, not from tuition, student fees or taxpayer funds.
-CU-
CU: Gas-fired plants help clean the air
Jan 10th
U.S. power plant emissions down with natural gas/new technology
Power plants that use natural gas and a new technology to squeeze more energy from the fuel release far less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants do, according to a new analysis accepted for publication Jan. 8 in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The so-called “combined cycle” natural gas power plants also release significantly less nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which can worsen air quality.
“Since more and more of our electricity is coming from these cleaner power plants, emissions from the power sector are lower by 20, 30 even 40 percent for some gases since 1997,” said lead author Joost de Gouw, an atmospheric scientist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The decommissioned Arapahoe power plant in south Denver.
De Gouw, who works at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), and his NOAA and CIRES colleagues analyzed data from systems that continuously monitor emissions at power plant stacks around the country. Previous aircraft-based studies have shown these stack measurements are accurate for carbon dioxide (CO2) and for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide can react in the atmosphere to form tiny particles and ozone, which can cause respiratory disease.
To compare pollutant emissions from different types of power plants, the scientists calculated emissions per unit of energy produced, for all data available between 1997 and 2012. During that period of time, on average:
- Coal-based power plants emitted 915 grams (32 ounces) of CO2 per kilowatt hour of energy produced;
- Natural gas power plants emitted 549 grams (19 ounces) CO2 per kilowatt hour; and
- Combined cycle natural gas plants emitted 436 grams (15 ounces) CO2 per kilowatt hour.
In combined cycle natural gas plants, operators use two heat engines in tandem to convert a higher fraction of heat into electrical energy. For context, U.S. households consumed 11,280 kilowatt hours of energy, on average, in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. This amounts to 11.4 metric tons per year of CO2 per household, if all of that electricity were generated by a coal power plant, or 5.4 metric tons if it all came from a natural gas power plant with combined cycle technology.
The researchers reported that between 1997 and 2012, the fraction of electric energy in the United States produced from coal gradually decreased from 83 percent to 59, and the fraction of energy from combined cycle natural gas plants rose from none to 34 percent.
That shift in the energy industry meant that power plants, overall, sent 23 percent less CO2 into the atmosphere last year than they would have, had coal been providing about the same fraction of electric power as in 1997, de Gouw said. The switch led to even greater reductions in the power sector’s emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which dropped by 40 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
The new findings are consistent with recent reports from the Energy Information Agency that substituting natural gas for coal in power generation helped lower power-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2012.
The authors noted that the new analysis is limited to pollutants emitted during energy production and measured at stacks. The paper did not address levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants that leak into the atmosphere during fuel extraction, for example. To investigate the total atmospheric consequences of shifting energy use, scientists need to continue collecting data from all aspects of energy exploration, production and use, the authors concluded.
Authors of the new paper, “Reduced Emissions of CO2, NOx and SO2 from U.S. Power Plants Due to the Switch from Coal to Natural Gas with Combined Cycle Technology,” are de Gouw (CIRES), David Parrish (NOAA ESRL), Greg Frost (CIRES) and Michael Trainer (NOAA).
CIRES is a joint institute of NOAA and CU-Boulder.
-CU-
