"What I Choose Is My Choice"

Read the headline and you think, "Well, of course!" Or maybe you think, "That's a pretty lame attempt at prose." But read it as Billy Corgan screeched the lyrics in Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm" and you get a sense of what your choice can symbolize.

Why the poetic bent to begin this post? Views like this can put you in a lyrical state of mind.

Energy NOW! photojournalist Ian McAllister and I recently traversed Pennsylvania for a story on clean energy jobs, a journey that took us into the upper reaches of the Marcellus Shale. And in that shale gas haven, we met Brian Nielsen. He's a Midstream Operations Superintendent with Chesapeake Energy based in Horseheads, NY.

What? You don't know where Horseheads is? Easy. You just leave Towonda and head Northwest. OK, OK...it's just outside of Elmira (home to one of Dunder Mifflin's regional branches).

Anyway, Brian's story is simple but I think quite compelling. After spending the last 15 or so years in energy transportation (for lack of a better term), Brian jumped to CHK just a few months ago. His rationale? He's from the area, he sees what the discovery of natural gas shale means for his hometown, and he wants to be part of the clean energy revolution.

It's his choice.

Just like it was Billy Corgan's choice to play every single instrument on Smashing Pumpkins' albums and relegate the rest of the band to concert tour duty and lame music video posing. What I choose...

Hero For Hire

Well-trained journalists and storytellers, often the same thing, recognize the value of delivering a surprise. And there's something of an art to introducing a plot twist in just the right place. One of the best I know at this, with all humility, is NBC 4's Kimberly Suiters (yes, we are most definitely related).



While I plan on cultivating this as a nice surprise in the story itself, here I'm just gonna drop the curtain and let you gaze. The guy on the left here is Justin Cox, a two-tour veteran of the Iraq War. He suffered a closed-head injury, came home to California, and now finds himself in the solar business. A business, not coincidentally, that is booming across the Golden State.

My path to meeting Justin involves an interview I did in Oakland this week with Danny Kennedy, the founder of Sungevity. We're working on a story about Proposition 23, a ballot proposal that would effectively rescind a bunch of California's clean-energy regulations. Well, exhibiting true Australian hospitality, Danny invited us for beers following our shoot, hence the plastic keg cups in the picture below (that's Danny on the right, with me and Clean Skies' photojournalist Ian McAllister). Eventually, he tells me Justin's story. I resolve then and there to do turn our shooting schedule upside-down in order to get Justin on camera.



This is a look at our location for the shoot, a rooftop in Riverside, CA where Justin was busy managing a team of residential-solar installers from PPG (who, BTW, are pretty good guys too). I felt a bit guilty distracting Justin from his job, but his patience and character won the day and we felt most welcome (if ill-equipped for the heart).



So look for a much more visual and, I hope, compelling version of Justin's story during a piece we're completing on Energy Jobs. It's slated to air on Clean Skies Sunday (soon to be Energy Now!)the first weekend of October, which should give me ample time to craft a story structure worthy of my subject (who's also attending Med School in his spare time).

I mentioned the heat, right? Well, but the solar crew's estimate we hit upwards of 120 degrees on the roof that day. And the entire time, just a short but well-aimed leap from the roof, this is what was beckoning to us. Sweet relief...

Adaptation

If you've been on the Southern California coast, this shot should feel familiar. The aqua-green surf rolling in long, foamy swells. The clusters of deep green seaweed rotting on the sand, stinking up the entire cove. A electricity generating facility churning warm water out into the chilly Pacific.

Yep, nothing says "So Cal Beach" quite like a power plant (well, nothing except these guys). And today we rolled through or by three of these. El Segundo's natural gas facility, in LA; NRG's Encina plant, north of San Diego; and the San Onofre nuclear generation station between the two. While San Onofre has...oh, what's the best way to put it...the most recognizable profile of the three, Clean Skies News photojournalist Ian McAllister and I spent the most time at Carlsbad. And with good reason.



Here's a look at my interview this morning with Steve Hoffmann, NRG's Senior Vice President and Regional President, West. That's NRG Communications Manager David Knox in the pink shirt, keeping an eye and ear on the proceedings. Among our topics of discussion, the potential ramifications of rolling back California's clean-energy regulations and the emphasis NRG is now putting on renewable energy (especially solar).

The subject that really sticks with me, though, is the "history lesson" Steve shared with us as we walked through the plant's de facto photo gallery (1952-1984). The Encina Power Plant has adapted remarkably well since started generating electricity in 1954. What started as burning oil to turn a turbine or two has evolved into a 965-mw natural gas-burning plant with five turbines. This is a shot of Ian and me on the generation floor, which was as spotless as Steve had promised.



So, thanks to the switch from oil to nat gas, the Encina plant is emitting far less CO2 and providing less expensive electricity to So Cal. Driving that point home today? This was one of the hottest days of the year in California, 98 in LA and 80's in San Fran. That means one of the biggest electricity demand days of the year, since everyone wants their air conditioning, right?

And of you don't have AC? Well, as you cool yourself in the surf you might still appreciate the Encina Power Plant and the way it warms this wet section of the Carlsbad coast.

An Army of Two

Our mission on this day was pretty simple. Interview Steven Rose, an economist at EPRI and one of the lead authors of the forthcoming IPCC report. Here's a pic from the interview itself...

So off I go from the Clean Skies studios to EPRI, carrying nothing more than my sunglasses and an iPhone. With me are photojournalists Jevan Alves and Ian McAllister, carrying significantly more: cameras, tripods, lighting kits, hand trucks, etc. We arrive, scope the location, and they set to work (while I pre-interview Steven about essential topics like DC biking and Wisconsin Soccer)...

BTW, that's EPRI media relations exec extraordinaire Clay Perry in the pink shirt above. And that's his handiwork on the table to the left. Knowing this was an early morning and how hard these guys work, Clay had breakfast muffins and fruit ready for The Crew when we arrived. Very thoughtful. Jevan had another shoot immediately after ours, so this was breakfast and lunch for him. Ian, I believe, snacked on blueberry muffins and giant strawberries (hard to resist).

After Ian and Jevan spent 20 minutes setting up, 10 minutes perfecting the shots and lighting, 15 minutes shooting the actual interview, and 10 minutes tearing down everything afterward, we had what would eventually be a 3:30 piece for Clean Skies Sunday. The end result? My name's all over the piece, and Jevan and Ian's fingerprints are all over the final product. Thank you, gentlemen.

See for yourself (about 12:45 into our newscast)...

Behind the Curtain

Wasn't that the moment when Dorothy realized that The Wizard was full of it? She peered behind the curtain and discovered what really went into creating this particular "power."

Nothing nearly so nefarious here. But given the extenuating circumstances we faced putting together this week's edition of Clean Skies Sunday, I thought a peek behind our virtual curtain might be worth a laugh.

First, take a look at the show (posted above). Good interview about the environmental realities of the Gulf spill, a look into BP's most attractive sale items if it needs to start raising cash, plus a talk with one of the many authors of the next UN Climate Report (the last one led to a Nobel Prize).

OK, next take a look at the pictures below of the taping process. We're revamping our Capitol Hill studio, so our old set is out of commission and our new set is still in the some-assembly-required stage. The result? A jerry-rigged lighting grid, no Teleprompter, and me squatting/sitting in front of a gigantic big-screen TV (I'm taller than the monitor). And the ladder? That's my make-shift desk.

So, what happens behind our Clean Skies News curtain? We make sausage, of course.

A True Juggling Act

Ever seen The Flying Karamazov Brothers? A rotating cast of characters plays the same four roles, Russian Guys who can juggle anything. And they do exactly that, based on audience participation. When I saw them, I think one of them juggled a bowling ball, a Spider-Man action figure, and a stick of butter. Sick.

Anyway, I'm doing my best Karamazov impersonation right now by juggling The Energy Report, a handful of Clean Skies Sunday interviews, and a Sunday story on what could be a bit of a BP fire sale. Whew!

So while I have so many journalistic balls in the air, here's a look at last week's show. I think our product came out especially well, especially since Susan McGinnis had to make an emergency trip to the Disabled List.

Oh, and here's the aforementioned FKB in action. Almost as mind-boggling as deciphering the more than 1,300 pages of the EPA's Transport Rule proposal. Ouch.

How Washington Works (Or Doesn't)

The biggest lines at The Capitol tend to involve "Mark-Ups," the sessions in which lawmakers discuss and decide the fate of pending legislation. Seems like everyone with a horse in the race wants an ear in the door. That means lobbyists, reps, players (and their stand-ins) are eager to get inside the hearing room.

With a big committee like this one (House Energy & Commerce) comes big jurisdiction and big, broad bills. So, no surprise that this pic gives you an indication of the full house in attendance this day. Not many seats left in the audience, though you can tell more than a few committee members decided they didn't need to be here. Oh, well...it takes less time to count the votes after each proposed amendment that way.

On this day I was following an amendment we expected Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) to introduce, legislation involving the natural gas production technique called hydrofracking. Without getting too "land man" on this, she wants E&P companies to be forced to disclose what's in their fracking fluids (insert punchline here). Trouble is, leadership won't let her bill hit the floor. So she wanted to try something of an end run by introducing the plan and as amendment.

As it turns out, the K Street defense knew all about Rep. DeGette's end run and was in perfect position. Thanks to an eleventh-hour arm-twisting session the night before, seems that lobbyists convinced E&C Committee Chairman Henry Waxman to ask that the Congresswoman withdraw her amendment, even though she apparently had enough votes in place to pass her amendment.

So, bottom line, there wasn't even a vote on the plan. But, in true legislative fashion, lawmaker spent roughly 30 minutes discussing the merits of the amendment. Yeah, even though Rep. DeGette agreed to pull her amendment almost everyone in the room felt the need to outline how they feel about the amendment that was not going to be introduced. And in a flash, half an hour evaporates without anything actually happening. Not that Congress has much no do anyway, right?

Nonetheless, the Washington Nationals are playing .500 baseball right now so you can certainly argue that our town still has its redeeming qualities.

!Viva, La Presidente!

I haven't been any good at Spanish since I was 21 and working at a Sport & Health club with a Guatemalan friend. Pero ahora, yo no practico nunca. Que lastima.

Anyway, that's why I didn't even attempt to say anything in Christiana Figueres' native tongue. The Costa Rican national is now the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yep, now you know why everyone in our enviro circles just calls the position "UN Climate Chief."

Christiana had been unofficially on the job for roughly two hours when I invited her to our studios for an interview. Seemed rational, given the fact that she lives here in the Washington, DC area and we spent weeks covering the Copenhagen climate conference (not to mention all the preparatory conferences in Madrid and Bonn). Nonetheless, I was pretty darn surprised when she agreed.

Turns out, she'd handled something like two dozen phone interviews about her new UN appointment, but we were her very first television interview. And she handled herself beautifully...once she switched suit coats with her personal assistant.

Christiana really has her hands full taking over for Yvo de Boer, who resigned after four years amid a cloud of pessimism. Still, I have a strong feeling that she's prepared for the adversity ahead. Both her father and brother are former Presidents of Costa Rica.

Bueno sustantivo. Good genes.

The Fire Below

"Volcano Erupts, Iceland Evacuates Hundreds"

That oft-repeated headline still strikes me as odd. I mean, you'd assume something as dangerous as flowing lava would send tens of thousands fleeing. Not, apparently, in a country of 300,000 people.

If you followed my Clean Skies News series of stories on Iceland's unique means of converting its natural resources into clean energy, you may have inferred that I did indeed fall in love with the country. Well, not quite, but I will confess to a very strong case of Like.

With that in mind, I've been especially fascinated by the recent spate of volcanic activity in Iceland. In fact, today marked the second time in a month the Eyjafjallajokull glacier has erupted. And, for the second time in a month, hundreds of nearby Icelanders left the scene.

My point? Two, actually.

1) The same geothermal blessings that provide Iceland with about 25% of its electricity and most of its heat can also be seen as a curse, to some degree. But, just as they turned to rotted shark meat for sustenance during Arctic winters, Icelanders are remarkably resilient.

2) Iceland features some of the most talented photojournalists I know. The picture above comes courtesy of my friend Ingi Ingason. At the time he was circling the eruption in a Cessna (flown by his father-in-law). More proof of my claim? This is stunning video from Profilm, the Icelandic production team we used for my shoots there back in the Fall.

Praise from the Power Sector

At what price Power?

Current legislative climate proposals mean power sector costs will perhaps rise significantly, technology could possibly be rendered obsolete (or at least excessively expensive), and essentially what the companies call Business As Usual would change forever.

So, naturally, power providers are supporting the idea. Or at least NRG Energy is, a company deep into Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Coal electricity generation.

I talked with Steve Corneli, NRG's Senior VP of Market and Climate Policy, about the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate bill. The proposal would, at its essence, put a price on carbon. And the first to pay that price, beginning in 2012, would be utilities and power sector players.

Fair? Well, according to Steve the idea of hitting up the power sector first "makes sense." Here's his take on the bill, from our interview at CleanSkies.com.

Bottom line here? The KGL bill is still very much in flux, but what the power sector thinks/says/does about the proposal will influence Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman going forward.

And "forward" could mean Friday, the final day before Spring Break here on Capitol Hill.

Party on, Lindsey.

An Inside Outline

So we now have an draft outline of a draft bill that has yet to be dropped. And drip-drip-drip goes the Senate's legislative process.

In a closed-door session Wednesday, Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman (from left) shared their rough outline for a climate bill with industry leaders. "Industry" meaning the big guns who would be most affected by a cap on carbon emissions. Here's our coverage from this morning's edition of The Energy Report.

I think CAP's Joe Romm lays out the details pretty well (by way of CQ), given that The Details are very much subject to change. Nonetheless, this is a well-nuanced start of sorts:

• An economy-wide cap on carbon emissions that would begin in 2012, with a target of reducing carbon pollution 17 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

• Separate caps on carbon emissions by the electric utilities and manufacturing sectors, which would have to buy permits to pollute from the federal government.

• A combination for the regulated sectors of a “cap and trade” model, under which polluters could trade pollution permits on an open market, and a “cap and dividend” model, which would return revenue from the sale of permits directly to consumers.

• Sections or titles devoted to oil refining, farming, coal, clean energy innovation, and increasing production of nuclear energy and oil and natural gas drilling.

Virtually the first question that comes to mind is, How long will this version be relevant? John Kerry says the next step, a draft bill following reaction from the aforementioned Industry, could be out as soon as the end of next week.

Lindsey Graham's take? The Health Care morass could endanger Senate legislaiton for the rest of the year.

Private Sector Prose

...or "Reality from The Real World."

No, not that Real World (copyright, MTV Productions). The world that exists outside of esoteric policy and political theory.

It's usually pretty refreshing to get a candid, insightful take from private sector leaders. You know, what policy proposals will mean for the rest of us (also known as "Americans").

These are from my recent conversations with NRG Energy'sDavid Crane (top) and PSE&G's Ralph Izzo (below) at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum. Here are the links to our interviews: Izzo, Crane.

This year's venue, The Mandarin Oriental. Always a little more inviting to cover a conference at such a lovely venue. Well, swank might be more accurate than just lovely.

Didn't stay to hit the spa, but Ralph Izzo did tell me he was planning to dive into the hotel gym...until his PR guy told him the schedule was too tight.

We took only 15 minutes of his time, though, I promise. Not our fault.

All Snow, No Blow

You can see the snow on the ground. Hey, that's what you expect in wintertime Canada, right?

What you can't see is all the ice. On the blades of that wind turbine. The one that isn't spinning or generating electricity because it's frozen. (we hit this on The Energy Report, this morning)

This is the Caribou Wind Park in New Brunswick, Canada. 33 turbines, open and online now for only three months. But Canadian Broadcasting says that GDF Suez North America park has already lost 20-days of operation because of blade icing.

Maybe it's not surprising that another wind farm in Minnesota has had a similar problem recently. But, curiously, the site manager at Caribou says colder temperatures would have actually helped the turbines. His point? All the precipitation would have been snow, not ice.

For now, the park is a total lime Fla-Vor-Ice...clean, green, and frozen.

Inhofe's Igloo (or, A Worthless Whiteout?)

I think you can just make out the sign here: "Al Gore's New Home." You know, you let Capitol Hill staffers out into the free world and this is what you get.

Actually, this "igloo" isn't officially the work of Jim Inhofe's Senate staff members. But either way, the point is clear. The recent deluge of snow in Washington is now giving fuel to the fire, if you will, for Global Warming Deniers. And here on The Hill that invariably translates into Conservatives, partisanship being what it is today.

Regardless of whether the push by Inhofe, the American Energy Alliance, and some Virginia Republicans is really just hot air (here's the Clean Skies News story), we're seeing a genuine defensive effort from the Left/Enviros to validate climate change. And, interestingly, they're pointing to the very same weather phenomenon as the Deniers.

On a day DC and the Federal Gov were shut down, buried under the latest 18", The Center for American Progress pulled together a press call with CAP climate blogger Joe Romm and a meteorologist from the Weather Underground. Their main points?

1. The definition of "climate" goes well beyond any individual/anecdotal weather.
2. Global Warming doesn't mean uniformly less snow or colder temperatures.
3. Climate Change results in more frequent extreme weather events.

Without taking sides here I will say that, as a DC-native, two snowstorms in one week that pour 3' of snow on top of Washington in February qualify as an extreme weather event.

Breaking News: The Nuclear Bridge

Are these the happiest guys on The Hill? Co-sponsor Lindsey Graham and longtime nuclear energy advocate John McCain may get just what they want from the long-promised Senate climate legislation.

No time for any pop culture references today. Just received a copy of the Senate climate bill's working draft nuclear title. In short, this is the stuff that just might bridge the gap between Democrats and Republicans on climate legislation.

The info comes from an energy policy strategist closely involved in the closed-door Senate climate discussions. Among the critical components of the nuclear portion of the draft...

• Language emphasizing the importance of commercial nuclear energy as a source of "clean" baseload power. (Something that could clear the way for nuclear inclusion in a "Clean Energy Electricity Standard", or something similar to an R-E-S)
• Investment tax credits to create parity with the benefits enjoyed by wind and solar power. (Both renewable sources received long-term extensions of their tax credits last year)
• $38 billion in loan guarantee authority to be made available for nuclear projects. (unclear if this is comparable to the $54.5 billion in the White House FY 2011 budget proposal)
• Recognition of "the need to minimize the byproducts of nuclear power creation by investing in the research and development of processes to recycle spent waste." (supporting the work of the newly-named Blue Ribbon Commission on waste)

As for another of the bills co-sponsors, John Kerry's office tells me, "The entire bill, including the nuclear component, is under constant negotiation and continues to evolve."

Enough for 60 votes on a clean energy bill? Probably. Enough for 60 votes on a climate bill that includes a cap-and-trade system? Probably not.

"Waiting for the Sun..."

Not sure what that Doors' song was all about (or what almost anything Morrison wrote was all about), but this lyric caught my attention: "Now that Spring has come/That it's time to live in the scattered sun."

Keep in mind, I was coming out of a Senate Environment hearing on solar energy at the time.

Anyway, the "main event" today was Interior Secretary Ken Salazar back among his former Senate peers and touting the potential for solar energy. Some of the numbers the Colorado native tossed out today?

• DOI has received 128 applications for solar development on public lands that would be worth 77,000 MW of electricity capacity.
• DOI has deemed 23-million acres of public land to be "highly suitable" for solar development.
• DOI is "fast-tracking" 13 commercial-scale projects with 4,500 MW capacity, and all should be approved and moving by the end of this year.

Raining on solar's parade (which naturally brings to mind "The Soft Parade"...different Doors album, though), Senator Kit Bond. The Missouri Republican produced chart after chart detailing what he said were US solar companies taking Stimulus funding and investing in foreign production/manufacturing.

Here's my wrap of Secretary Salazar's appearance today. We had a lot going on today, so please be patient until the story hits.

You know, "Waiting for the...Fun". (that was awful, sorry)

The Smartest Guy(s) In the Room

I know that line has been appropriated for the Enron book and now has something of a sarcastic undertone. But I'm convinced that when Dr. Steven Chu walks in the room, he instantly holds the title of Smartest Guy In the Room.

In the room. In the Building. Heck, maybe even the entire city of Washington. The Secretary of Energy really is that bright. And his 1997 Nobel Prize is a pretty strong case in point.

This is a snapshot I took during the Secretary's recent appearance before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. I thought it was interesting that, from this angle, Dr. Chu doesn't really stand out.

Yeah, everyone at the hearing either wanted to listen to every word he said (journalists) or have him listen to every word they said (senators). But here? Looks like just another guy in a suit and tie.

I did ask the Secretary a few questions following his testimony. One of them was about the extent of federal regulation he foresees as necessary to change US behavior (both commercial and consumer) and move us further toward a clean energy economy. But what I really took note of was his approach to answering my question. He became something of a professor, using analogies to help me/The Media understand his point.

And maybe that's why Steven Chu is such a strong candidate for Smartest Guy In the Room (or any room for that matter). He doesn't necessarily want you to understand how smart he is. Rather, he merely wants you to understand. Period.

Fric-Frack-Foe?

I'm not so sure you want these people looking at you. Not all at the same time, at least.

You see, everyone you see here sitting in a plush leather chair and facing right to left here is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. And if they're looking at you, you're probably a witness called to testify before a committee hearing. Not sure you wanna be front and center in this room.

On this particular day, these House members gathered ostensibly for a hearing about the proposed ExxonMobil acquisition of XTO Energy. The chairmen of both companies were there, the only witnesses called to testify, in fact. But instead of discussing the business implications of the mega-marriage, committee members apparently wanted to talk only about the value of natural gas.

Yes, unilateral subcommittee agreement on a single issue. What're the odds?

Actually, the odds on natural gas aren't long at all. It generates electricity with far fewer carbon emissions than coal, a far lower cost than nuclear, and far better baseload results than wind or solar. Oh, and the U.S. also has a titanic supply in its shale gas formations. As most committee members seemed to say, What's not to like?

Well, the way we get that natural gas out of shale rock does have some critics. Hydrofracking is the subject of the House and Senate FRAC Acts, neither of which is expected to get a vote. But at this E&C hearing, even one of the co-sponsors seemed to be applauding the practice.

Or you could take the word of Steve. Actually it's Steven, as in Steven Chu. As in Secretary of Energy and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Steven Chu. He's down.

Reyjkavik, Rock City!

No, not quite as catchy as the title the members of KISS gave to Detroit. But Iceland's capital is making a case for itself as "Rock City."

This is the view from above Reykjavik, looking out across the sound and upon some of the country's glaciers (they cover more than 10% of Iceland's surface). This island was/is/will always be a volcanic island. Rock, essentially. And the make-up of Iceland's topography and geology could hold the essential ingredients for storing carbon emissions.

The final installment of my series on Iceland's clean energy profile involves The CarbFix Project. While other efforts to sequester carbon focus on storing CO2 underground, usually in rock formations, CarbFix has a novel approach. The scientists I spoke with in Reykjavik say they have a method to convert carbon emissions into rock.

Yeah, the stuff you exhale? Imagine that turning into rock! Solid rock, matter that will not leak CO2, stable for thousands of years.

This afternoon on The Energy Report we're airing my story on CarbFix, and you can catch it on Clean Skies Sunday this weekend as well. Of course the easiest way to see the piece, and find extensive interviews with the sharp minds now driving the project, is by word-searching on our site CleanSkies.com.

Since this is the final element of the Iceland series, and since I don't want to leave you with a KISS song stuck in your head, here's something from the country's most famous musical (and most infamous sartorial) export.

Takk fyrir.