Guest blog written by Jennifer Walker. She works on water issues at the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The fate of the Hill Country’s Trinity Aquifer and its associated rivers and springs was made a little clearer at a meeting held Monday night in Boerne, Texas. 

The Texas Observer put together an excellent piece on the complicated Groundwater Management Area (GMA) process and what is at stake for GMA 9 and the Hill Country.  The decisions that are made as a result of this process determine the future of the Hill Country. 

The lay of the land

The GMA 9 planning group held three public meeting in June to determine the public’s opinion on several proposed the Desired Future Condition (DCFs) scenarios for the Trinity Aquifer.   A majority of the written and oral comments asked GMA 9 to establish a DFC that would represent current conditions.  This scenario means that current pumping needs would be met and there would be no further drawdown of the Trinity Aquifer.  Essentially the aquifer would be maintained into the future as it is now. 

With the “current conditions” option, there would be limited water available for future growth; however, many local people who participated throughout the process and at the public meetings are concerned about the viability of their future water supplies.  If the area continues to grow, the very nature of the Hill Country is in jeopardy.   The rivers and springs that permeate the area are fed by the underlying aquifers like the Trinity.  If the water levels in those aquifers decline, the amount of water fed into the rivers and streams will diminish as well.

The big decision

So what did the GMA 9 board decide on Monday?  In spite of this input, in an 8-1 vote, they voted to establish a DFC which will result in an average 30-foot drawdown of the Trinity Aquifer over the next 50 years.  Jim Chastain from the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District voted against the motion, advocating for a 10-foot drawdown.  The board members spoke a good deal about how the current conditions or zero-drawdown option was unworkable.  They felt that they had to provide for some future growth and worried the scenario would not provide for exempt wells in the future.  Groundwater districts do not regulate exempt wells but water needs to be provided for them based on Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) projections.    

Hill Country Losses

What does this mean for the Hill Country?  Not all areas of GMA 9 would be equally affected.  Some areas will see smaller drawdowns and other areas will see larger reductions impacting existing wells.  According to the TWDB groundwater report, a 30’ drawdown in the Trinity aquifer will provide for an additional 40,000 acre-feet of water in the GMA 9 area (current use is estimated at 60,000 acre-feet/year), but it will also reduce springs and base-flows to rivers by about 14,000 acre-feet per year.  This is in addition to the 33,000 acre-foot reduction from current pumping. A 30’ drawdown would result in an approximate 25% decrease in spring and base flows over historical conditions threatening the life of the springs and surrounding wells.

GMA 9 will submit their DFC package to the TWDB by September 1st.  Interested parties have the option to file petitions one year from the date of submittal.  Hopefully more people will stand up for the Hill Country to protect this unique and important area.

The article is from the Environmental Defense Fund. Read the original article here.

By Stuart DeCew, 2010 EDF Climate Corps fellow at RBS/ Citizens Financial Group, Joint degree MBA/MEM candidate at Yale School of Management and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, Member of Net Impact

When I need a reminder of why RBS/Citizens Financial Group is investing in energy efficiency, I take a step outside and experience the summer of ’10 for myself.  To borrow (and slightly bend) a phrase from Tom Friedman: three words describe exactly what is going on – it is hot, costly and crowded out there.

Hot

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record since the agency began recording temperatures in 1880.   Moreover, many in the Northeast have experienced a record breaking July.  In Providence, RI, where Citizens Bank is headquartered, the average temperature at T.F. Green Airport has been 74.8 degrees since June 1, which is the highest average temperature on record for that period of time, and over 4 degrees hotter than the normal average.

Costly

The 12-state operational footprint of RBS/Citizens encompasses some of the most expensive electricity markets in the United States.  According to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of electricity this April was just over $0.17 per KWH in the Northeast and just under $0.16 in the Mid-Atlantic.  The prices are approximately 45% and 35% more than the national average, respectively.  Furthermore, peak prices for electricity can be 30-40% higher than off-peak prices in some areas.  Therefore, a 2% increase in energy costs due to a prolonged period of hot weather could pose a risk to the bottom line of a company with an energy budget of tens of millions of dollars that keeps thousands of employees and millions of customers cool during the summer months.

Crowded

In both New York and New England, the organizations that manage the regional power grids (NYISO and ISO-NE) reported near record highs of demand for electricity earlier this month.  On July 6^th, as thermometers spiked above 100 degrees across the east coast, AC units snapped on and electricity meters spun faster.  That day, New England experienced the 4^th highest demand for electricity in its history and New York came within a degree or two of their own electricity demand record.  In short, the hotter the temperature, the closer we push the power grid to its limits.  In the near term, only by lowering the consumption of electricity at peak hours can we reduce the risk of a wide spread power outage in the region.

In order to respond to these dramatic changes in temperature and rising energy costs, RBS / Citizens has undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce overall electric consumption.

1. The company is developing a more advanced system to budget, track and project energy costs and consumption at individual properties in the US.  With this improved data, internal decision makers can set more accurate internal targets for energy consumption and costs and then benchmark their performance against industry standards.  In addition, RBS/Citizens analyzed how to optimize the use of office space in order to consolidate the company’s operational footprint.  This resulted in more effective use of office space, a smaller energy budget and more cohesive and geographically consolidated teams of employees.
2. Since the majority of the bank’s energy use is concentrated at its larger facilities, energy audits have been conducted at seven of the largest facilities, resulting in some 4.5 GWH of identified energy savings.   In one facility alone, we will be able to reduce our peak demand by more than 100 kilowatts.  This is the equivalent of removing two average-sized Citizens bank branches from the grid.   We are now in the process of conducting seven more energy audits at critical facilities in order to continue that effort
3. In order to address the energy use of smaller facilities, we are working with regional property managers to conduct free energy efficiency audits at a number of bank branches and smaller office buildings.   In order to reduce the transaction costs of doing a large number of smaller projects, RBS/Citizens is working to develop and enhance partnerships with electric utilities, energy efficiency auditors and building performance contractors.  In the past few weeks, I’ve identified a number of programs offered by the utilities to provide free energy audits for smaller commercial buildings in New York and Connecticut, reached out the program managers and energy efficiency auditors and began supervising energy audits at these smaller properties.

Increasing energy costs have always held the attention of leaders of the company.  It is also becoming clear that addressing the challenges associated with these costs in an effective manner will require the company to make investments in energy efficiency. In a world that is hot, costly and crowded, record breaking temperatures make the return on those investments look even better.

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The article is from the Environmental Defense Fund. Read the original article here.

“How long can these people go on talking about the future as if climate change isn’t going to be part of it, let alone a determining factor?“  That is a question I often enough exasperatedly mutter to myself when listening to politicians or a variety of policy experts discussing the shape of the future with never a mention of the impacts of climate change.

Behind the scenes it may not be as bad as it looks. Gwynne Dyer wrote his book Climate Wars partly because he discovered that climate-change scenarios were playing a large and increasing role in military …

Read the full article here.

While Capitol Hill suffers partisan paralysis, states are stepping up to promote economic and job growth, energy independence and cleaner air.  

And why not?  Leadership on clean energy and climate change has multiple benefits, from creating jobs, to lowering monthly utility bills, to stimulating a thriving green economy, to name a few.

Take the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a bipartisan partnership of seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces.  These partners are collaborating on a regional approach to clean energy and climate change.  The WCI outlined its plan today, which is estimated to save the region about $100 billion (U.S. dollars) between 2012 and 2020. 

California, a founding member of the WCI, has proven that leadership pays, whether it’s the $56 billion it has saved since passing groundbreaking energy efficiency standards in the mid ‘70s or the $9 billion in clean energy venture capital that has been invested in the state over the last few years.

Many states have followed California’s lead and this leadership is blazing the trail to our national and global clean energy future.  Last week, the Center for Climate Strategies unveiled a report showing that if 23 of the leading policies being implemented in states were taken national, the U.S. could reduce its carbon pollution to 27% below 1990 levels by 2020, far surpassing President Obama’s short-term commitment of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.  

Ultimately, it is national and international action that will unleash the greatest benefits of clean energy, pivot our nation and world away from dangerous fossil fuel dependence, and create long-term and sustainble economic growth.  In the meantime, states and regions are taking critical steps to pave the way so their local communities can reap the benefits.

The article is from the Environmental Defense Fund. Read the original article here.