America's Great Outdoors Initiative

2012 Progress Report

On December 4, 2012, the Obama Administration released the 2012 America's Great Outdoors Progress Report, detailing key successes of President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, including advancing local conservation priorities, expanding access to lands and waters for recreation, restoring critical landscapes, and creating great urban parks and water trails in American communities.

On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the America's Great Outdoors Report, the Administration's action plan under the America's Great Outdoors initiative to achieve lasting conservation of the outdoor spaces that power our nation's economy, shape our culture, and build our outdoor traditions.

 

The report released outlines ways in which the Federal Government will help empower local communities to accomplish their conservation and recreation priorities by recognizing that the best ideas come from outside of Washington. In the summer of 2010, senior Administration officials held 51 listening sessions across the country to gather input from Americans about the outdoor places and activities that they value most. These sessions drew more than 10,000 participants and more than 105,000 written comments, used to inform the America’s Great Outdoors Report, which when implemented will result in:

• Accessible parks or green spaces for our children.
• A new generation of great urban parks and community green spaces.
• Newly-restored river restorations and recreational “blueways” that power economic revitalization in communities.
• Stronger support for farmers, ranchers, and private landowners that help protect rural landscapes and provide access for recreation.
• The reinvestment of revenues from oil and gas extraction into the permanent protection of parks, open spaces, wildlife habitat, and access for recreational activities.
• A 21^st century conservation ethic that builds on local ideas and solutions for environmental stewardship and connecting to our historic, cultural, and natural heritage. (CEQ)

Center Participation

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D.C. Water Management

In 2004 the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority was forced to settle a federal lawsuit that claimed it failed for decades to stop its sewers from spewing pollution. D.C. Water agreed to build three huge tunnels within 20 years to stop pipes from overflowing during rains, sending billions of gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage into Rock Creek and the Potomac and Anacostia rivers every year.  The $2.6 billion Clean Rivers tunnel project is underway and construction can be seen just off of Highway 295 in Ward 8 at the Blue Plains Waste .

But now, the three-tunnel solution is in doubt, and activists, engineers and bureaucrats are arguing once again about the best path to cleaner waters. Although digging is underway for the first tunnel, D.C. Water wants to put the other two on hold and instead see whether rain gardens, retention ponds and grass rooftops can soak up as much storm-water runoff as the pipes can store. D.C. Water has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for permission to build an experimental “green infrastructure” project and run tests for at least eight years.

The green project would be built where the second and third tunnels were slated to run, along Rock Creek Parkway near the Kennedy Center to protect the Potomac River and in Upper Northwest neighborhoods to protect Rock Creek. A 13-mile tunnel under the Anacostia River and deep into the Northeast near a Home Depot off Rhode Island Avenue, currently under construction, would continue as planned.

The EPA is considering D.C. Water’s proposed “partnership agreement,” and a decision on whether to move forward with public hearings on the changes is expected soon. The green infrastructure proposal is an attempt to delay or cancel part of the tunnel. (Wash Post, 12/3/2012)

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Natural Gas Car - Home Appliance For Refueling

A natural-gas-powered car and fueling system on display at an auto show.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it is working with General Electric Co. and Whirlpool Corp. to develop a $500 appliance that will allow natural-gas powered cars to be refueled at their owners’ homes.

The effort would be Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake’s latest push to promote compressed natural gas as a mainstream fuel and boost its own sales. It is the first attempt at overcoming one of the biggest challenges in putting natural-gas powered cars on the road—convenient refueling.

Chesapeake and other natural gas producers have felt a cash crunch as a technology-led increase in natural gas production has led to a supply glut and brought prices to a decade-low in April.

About 112,000 natural-gas powered vehicles are now on U.S. roads, mostly delivery trucks and other vehicles driving a set circuitous route with easy access to refueling stations. Auto makers have been slower to offer compressed natural gas-fueled passenger cars and trucks, in part because not enough refueling stations exist to service them on long trips. About 540 stations are open to the public, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The appliance that Chesapeake, GE And Whirlpool are developing will fit in a home garage, hook into a natural gas line and dispense compressed natural gas into vehicles designed to use the fuel. Chesapeake said it couldn’t say when the two would make the appliance available. Chesapeake says that once drivers can refill CNG cars at home, General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and other auto makers will boost production of the vehicles.

In October, GE and Chesapeake, the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer after Exxon Mobil Corp., announced a modular CNG refueling system advertised as being easy to install at existing gasoline service stations. (WSJ, 11/14/2012)

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Natural Gas Refrigerators

Refrigerators use similar basic concepts, whether powered by electricity or by fossil fuels like natural gas. Both approaches cool storage spaces with a sealed heat exchange system that circulates a liquid refrigerant. When the refrigerant boils, the change to vapor robs heat from the local environment, dropping the refrigerated compartment's temperature. Electric systems control a refrigerant by mechanical compression, but gas-powered refrigerators use absorption refrigeration, a method that works without a noisy compressor.

 

Propane Refrigerator, Natural Gas Refrigerator EZ Freeze 15

cubic foot capacity home style refrigerator freezer.

Video shows 360 degree view of inside and out,

 cooling system, burner box and flue.

 

Different liquids boil and change to vapor at different temperatures. Boiling points also change with pressure. Water, for example, boils at a lower temperature as altitude increases. Other liquids such as freon or ammonia boil at much lower temperatures than water. Even if a liquid boils at a temperature near freezing, the refrigerant absorbs energy from its cold environment as it changes to vapor.

 

Refrigerant coils boil refrigerants under low pressure inside the cold storage compartment, absorbing heat. Hot vapor moves into a different coil, under higher pressure, to condense back to liquid and shed heat into the outside air. To keep coolant circulating, an electric refrigerator uses a compressor to force liquid refrigerant into the evaporator or cooling coil.

 

Gas-powered, or absorption, refrigerators use a liquid to absorb and circulate the refrigerant. In many absorption refrigerators, water acts as the absorbent and ammonia becomes the refrigerant. Recirculating ammonia vapors dissolve in the water within an absorption chamber, releasing heat. The water and ammonia mixture travels to a generator tank. Gas flame heats steam coils inside the tank to evaporate the ammonia from the water. Cooling stages condense the ammonia vapor into pure liquid ammonia, the system's refrigerant. Water circulates back to the absorption compartment.

 

In the evaporator coil located in the walls of the refrigeration compartment, the liquid ammonia boils and ammonia vapor collects heat. Hot ammonia vapor circulates through an expansion valve into the higher pressure condenser coil. In the condenser coil, the hot vapor exchanges heat with the air flowing over the outside of the sealed metal tubing. Cooling ammonia flows back to the absorption chamber. Both the condenser coil and the absorption chamber vent heat to the outside air. If the system can't shed the excess heat because of dirty coils or lack of ventilation, the cooling effect stops. (eHow)

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Susan Rice May Have Stakes in Keystone XL Pipeline

Mother Jones Mag, On Earth Mag (NRDC) and Bill McKibben Object

Susan Rice

Susan Rice holds millions of dollars in investments in Canadian oil companies and banks with stakes in the $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline, according to OnEarth, a magazine published by the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council.

As head of the State Department, Rice would have ultimate authority in determining the fate of the pipeline, which would link northern Alberta's remote oil sands fields to Texas' Gulf Coast refineries.

The Center supports the Rice nomination (if it is made) and we are sure she will recuse herself from the approval process of the pipeline.  The Center is examining the feasibility of facilitating a construction contract for the Keystone pipeline in partnership with S.L. Sibert Management & Construction Company.  The Center would also accept an ownership stake in the pipeline.

The article reveals that Rice has significant holdings in more than a dozen Canadian oil companies and banks that would benefit from the growth of the Canadian tar sands industry and the construction of the pipeline. OnEarth's Scott Dodd finds that nearly a third of Rice's personal net worth—estimated in 2009 to be between $23.5 million and $43.5 million—is invested in Canadian oil producers, pipeline operators, and other energy companies. Financial disclosure reports further show that Rice has between $300,000 and $600,000 invested in TransCanada, the company that is seeking the permit from the State Department to build sections of the pipeline from Oklahoma to the Canadian border.

"It's really amazing that they're considering someone for Secretary of State who has millions invested in these companies," Bill McKibben, founder of the activist groups 350.org and Tar Sand Action,  which have organized protests against the Keystone XL project.

The Keystone XL decision could be one of the first tasks of the new Secretary of State in 2013. (Mother Jones, 11/28/2012)

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Sodium Sulfur Battery

Sodium Sulfur (NaS) batteries are high capacity battery systems developed for electric power applications. A NaS battery consists of liquid (molten) sulfur at the positive electrode and liquid (molten) sodium at the negative electrode as active materials separated by a solid beta alumina ceramic electrolyte. The electrolyte allows only the positive sodium ions to go through it and combine with the sulfur to form sodium polysulfides.

During discharge, as positive Na+ ions flow through the electrolyte and electrons flow in the external circuit of the battery producing voltage. This process is reversible as charging causes sodium polysulfides to release the positive sodium ions back through the electrolyte to recombine as elemental sodium.

This hermetically sealed battery is kept at approximately 300 ^oC and is operated under conditions such that the active materials at both electrodes are liquid and the electrolyte is solid. At this temperature, since both active materials react rapidly and because the internal resistance is low, the NaS battery performs well. Because of reversible charging and discharging the NaS battery can be used continuously.

NaS battery cells are efficient ( about 90%) . This attribute enables the NaS battery to be economically used in combined power quality and peak shaving applications. Multiple batteries are installed in a single, heated and vacuum insulated module as shown in this rendition.

A sodium sulfur battery is a type of molten-salt battery constructed from liquid sodium (Na) and sulfur (S). This type of battery has a high energy density, high efficiency of charge/discharge (89–92%) and long cycle life, and is fabricated from inexpensive materials. However, because of the operating temperatures of 300 to 350 °C and the highly corrosive nature of the sodium polysulfides, such cells are primarily suitable for large-scale non-mobile applications such as grid energy storage.

The cell is usually made in a tall cylindrical configuration. The entire cell is enclosed by a steel casing that is protected, usually by chromium and molydenum, from corrosion on the inside. This outside container serves as the positive electrode, while the liquid sodium serves as the negative electrode. The container is sealed at the top with an airtight alumina lid. An essential part of the cell is the presence of a BASE (beta-alumina solid electrolyte) membrane, which selectively conducts Na⁺. The cells are arranged in blocks for better conservation of heat and are encased in a vacuum-insulated box.

Pure sodium presents a hazard because it spontaneously burns in contact with air and moisture, thus the system must be protected from water and oxidizing atmospheres.

The battery must be kept hot (typically > 300 ºC) to facilitate the process (i.e., independent heaters are part of the battery system). In general Na/S cells are highly efficient (typically 89%). Higher efficiency cells can be designed and built but increase the battery’s cost.

Na/S battery technology has been demonstrated at over 190 sites in Japan. More than 270 MW of stored energy suitable for 6 hours of daily peak shaving have been installed. The largest Na/S installation is a 34-MW, 245-MWh unit for wind stabilization in Northern Japan.

The demand for Na/S batteries as an effective means of stabilizing renewable energy output and providing ancillary services is expanding. U.S. utilities have deployed 9 MW for peak shaving, backup power, firming wind capacity, and other applications. Projections indicate that development of an additional 9 MW is in-progress. Several projects are also under development in Europe and Japan.  (The Energy Blog, 1/18/2006, Wikipedia, Electricity Storage Association)

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Global Steel Glut

This year, steel mills around the world have a production capacity of 1.8 billion tons but will take orders for only 1.5 billion tons. By 2016, an estimated 100 new mills, with total estimated supply capacity of 350 million tons, are expected to come on stream. Companies in Vietnam, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, all backed in some way by their governments, are building or planning new mills.



Stainless steel coil in China, Xinhua/Zuma Press

Getting a definite count on the number of steel mills in the world and actual production capacity is difficult in large part, say industry officials and analysts, because there are hundreds of small, uncounted mills in China, which accounts for 46% of world steel output. Estimates for the number of steel mills in China range from 600 to 800 mills.

The trillion-dollar-a-year global steel industry is expected to remain, for the foreseeable future, the most fractured of major industries. The world's top five steel companies control only 18.2% of global steel supply. By contrast, the world's top five car companies control 50.6% of the global market. And the world's top five sellers of seaborne iron ore— iron ore that is exported by ocean trade routes—account for 66.1% of that market.

In China, where thousands of small mills have sprung up to make the steel bars, beams and other construction materials for new cities and skyscrapers, the government wants the top 10 producers to account for 60% of the country's steel output by 2015 and 70% by 2020, up from around 50% today.  The government wants to get rid of old unproductive and polluting facilities and give the remaining steelmakers "more clout in dealing with the foreign raw-material suppliers. (WSJ, 11/27/2012)

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