Moderated by Mary Ellen Ternes, Attorney, co-chair of McAfee & Taft’s Renewable and Sustainability Energy Group; Commissioner, City of Nichols Hills Environment, Health and Sustainability Commission

Panel Experts:

Jason Hukill, AIA, LEED AT LWPB Architecture

Kelly Parker, Guaranteed Watt Savers

Ken Grant, OG&E, Smart Meter Implementation in the Metro Area

David Glover, People Power, Energy Efficiency Evangelist at  a start up in Palo Alto California

Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. (refreshments will be served)
Former First Church of Christ Scientist, 1203 Sherwood Lane, Nichols Hills
Free to attend

Moderated by Mary Ellen Ternes, Attorney, co-chair of McAfee & Taft’s Renewable and Sustainability Energy Group; Commissioner, City of Nichols Hills Environment, Health and Sustainability Commission

Panel Experts:

Jason Hukill, AIA, LEED AT LWPB Architecture

Kelly Parker, Guaranteed Watt Savers

Ken Grant, OG&E, Smart Meter Implementation in the Metro Area

David Glover, People Power, Energy Efficiency Evangelist

Moderated by Suzanne Spradling, Ph.D, Officer of Education and Public Awarness, Planet Nichols Hills; Earth Connections, LLC; Science and Environment Education Consultant

Panel Experts:

Bruce Edwards, Urban Harvest, Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma

Angela Jones, Director of Health and Wellness, YMCA

Kat Goodwin, Director, Employee Gardens, Chesapeake Energy Corporation

John Leonard, Owner, Partner, Organic Gardens, El Reno, OK

Wildlife Biologist, Researcher, & Teacher, Laurie Gillum:

Presenting an educational exhibit of Wildlife Conservation in Oklahoma, featuring a hands-on view of various Oklahoma wildlife.

Falconer, Greg Stipp:

Come see live falcons up close!  Greg’s feathered friends, “TG”, a Gyr/Peregrine Falcon and “Eilene”, a Peregrine Falcon will be at the Earth Day Birthday.

ARF – Animal Rescue Friends of Nichols Hills:

Animal Rescue Friends is a nonprofit humane organization dedicated to pet rescue and adoption of homeless animals.

AnimalRescueFriends.com

Central Oklahoma Humane Society:

Showcasing the valuable services and activities of this vital nonprofit animal welfare organization.

www.okhumane.org

HALO – Human Animal Link of Oklahoma:

This Foundation is dedicated to fostering opportunities to “link” people and animals for valuable emotional and physical benefits.

Art and Jewelry

Henderson Hills Baptist Church “earth friendly” mission project:

Featuring “Magazine Bead” Necklaces made from recycled magazines by women in Uganda.

Children’s Art Tent:

Children will have an opportunity to produce “earth friendly” art through 4 different art activities.  No charge to participate.

Bikes, Trails & Transportation

Wheeler Dealer Bicycle Shop:

Showing quality bikes and promoting cycling programs in Oklahoma.  Advocating trails and bicycling in OKC.

www.wheelerdealerbicycles.com

Green Car Show:

Come see a great selection of new energy efficient cars.

Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity:

Showcasing Habitat’s green LEED standard energy efficient homes for limited income families.  See how Habitat’s Renovation Station recycles donated new, used, and vintage building materials.  Sales of these donations to Renovation Station generate funds to build more homes in our community.

www.centraloklahomahabitat.org

Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality:

Providing great information on living green (including local food, water and energy conservation).  Also presenting the Use Less Stuff campaign.

www.deq.state.ok.us

Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club:

Focusing on clean energy, local food and bottled water wastefulness.

www.oklahoma.sierraclub.org

Urban Harvest / Oklahoma Food Bank:

Learn about this sustainable agriculture program that grows fresh fruits and vegetables for hungry Oklahomans and provides tools to increase family food security and health benefits through education and training workshops.

www.regionalfoodbank.org

Energy

Enersolve:

A local Energy Efficiency Consulting Group offering diagnostic energy audits, green building consulting and efficiency education for residential and commercial settings.

www.enersolve.us

EnergyWise:

Residential daylighting experts showcasing unique solar products including Solatube skylights and solar panels.

www.energywiseok.com

Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative:

Investigating and promoting wind energy resources in Oklahoma.  The OWPI provides resources and economic information to policy makers, land owners, potential wind energy investors, and citizens of Oklahoma.

www.ocgi.okstate.edu/owpi

Pella Windows & Doors:

This manufacturer of energy-efficient windows and doors will show you their products and explain the beneficial results achieved by them.

www.oklahoma.pella.com

Peripheral Energy:

Presenting a device using certified capacitor technology to reduce electric consumption and carbon emissions in residential, commercial and industrial settings.

www.peripheralenergy.com

Sunrise Alternative Energy:

Renewable energy experts – solar, wind & geothermal.

www.sunrisealternativeenergy.com

Health, Food & Beauty Products

Akin’s Natural Foods Market:
Advocate and retailer of natural foods and dietary supplements for optimum health.  Sampling earth friendly and natural products found in their store.

www.akins.com

Eden Salon & Spa:

This environmentally conscious salon will feature its Aveda natural products.

www.edensalon.com

Elemental Coffee Roasters:

Sample delicious coffee made from locally roasted beans.

www.elementalcoffeeroasters.com

Oklahoma Food Cooperative:

Presenting the opportunity to join a monthly order and delivery service of locally grown food.  Explore the diversity of Oklahoma produced and processed foods.

www.oklahomafood.coop

Orange Leaf Yogurt:

Yummy yogurt samples.

www.orangeleafyogurt.com

Rose Ranch, Natural Beef:

Discover this 48-acre Oklahoma ranch dedicated to biodiversity, sustainable living and having fun!  Try their all natural, grass-fed beef burgers served at the Pops “burger truck” on Saturday.

Urban Agrarian / Vegi Van:

Come buy locally grown and produced food sold from Matt Burch’s bio-diesel truck, aka the “Veggie Van”.

Landscaping, Hardscaping & Gardening

Oklahoma Forestry Services:

This division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry is dedicated to the protection and sustainable management of our state’s public and private forests.  Receive assistance on tree selection and care.

www.forestry.ok.gov

OSU Master Gardeners:

Providing up-to-date, research based information on all things horticulture.  Will give excellent landscaping advice!

www.mastergardener.okstate.edu

PaverScapes:

Experts in design, construction and installation of permeable paver hardscapes including driveways, patios and sidewalks.

typavers@aol.com

Nichols Hills Parks, Inc.:

A non-profit organization created for the purpose of planning and implementing the landscaping of the parks, medians, and other common areas in Nichols Hills.  Come find out how you can get involved in the “Adopt-A-Park” program.

www.nicholshills.net

Horn Seed Company

See a display of organic gardening supplies from this Oklahoma City garden center that will help you create an “earth friendly” “people friendly” garden!

Moderated by Hal McKnight, Member Maps 3 Subcommittee, Secretary, Planet Nichols Hills

Panel Experts:

Mayor Mick Cornett by video–Overview for metro of walking, cycling, and the Oklahoma City health challenge.

Bob Berry, Enid, OK advocate for neighborhoods with sidewalks and bicycle lanes

Sarah Yoakam Burger, M.D., Integrative Medicine

Sam Bowman, Advocate of Trails and Sidewalks, served as Oklahoma City Council Member and Oklahoma City Trails Advisory Committee

Moderated by Christine Patton, Co-Chair, Transition OKC

Panel Experts:

Ryan Parrott– Chef – Iguana Lounge
Stephanie Jordan – personal chef
Others to be announced

Moderated by Tracey Zeeck, Public Relations and Advocate for Luxury Green Living

Panel Experts:

Tim Zajac, DeZign Partnerships Inc.

Andy Zeeck, dWELLings Construction

Trey Parsons, Enersolve, Inc.

Andrew Thomas, Resident, City of Nichols Hills, Building a LEED house

Immediately following: Tour of two LEED residences

Whether you buy in to climate change or not, September 2009 was more riveting than fiction.

Michael Crichton’s State of Fear didn’t capture the combined U.S. legislative, executive and judicial branches’ apparent fait accompli regarding climate change regulation. This feels more like “The West Wing” meets “The Pelican Brief” with a dash of “Class Action” thrown in.

Over the past few months, wheels have been set in motion that will almost certainly cause the United States to have climate change regulation in place in the next year or so. Greenhouse gas regulation is standing on our doorstep and pounding on our doors, either through crippling and costly EPA regulation, or on a case-by-case basis as argued by tort lawyers, or through the U.S. cap and trade/tax and trade statute (depending on your news channel of choice). If you’re a policy wonk or lover of intrigue, keep reading. If your eyes are already glazed, you might be tempted to set this aside until your insomnia strikes, but note – things are about to become a lot more expensive, even if there’s no Senate vote on the current energy bill this year.

How did we get here? No, we didn’t join the European Union or sign any international treaties. Back in 2007, in a case called Massachusetts v. EPA (perhaps the “air” version of “The Pelican Brief”), the United States Supreme Court interpreted the 1970 Clean Air Act (and 1990 amendments). The Court found that the “sweeping” and “capacious” language of the Act clearly included greenhouse gases, as long as the EPA determined that the greenhouse gases might “endanger” our health and environment. So, the EPA had its marching orders: evaluate endangerment.

Now for “Class Action” – if you remember the buried report. While some at the EPA worked on “endangerment,” others were responding to an unobtrusive 2008 appropriations bill provision. This little sleeper provision required the EPA to inventory U.S. greenhouse gas emissions with a mandatory reporting rule for companies which emit greenhouse gases, like power plants, and a whole lot of other facilities.

On April 10, 2009, the EPA proposed for public comment this mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rule, setting the reporting threshold at 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions each year (25,000 mtCO2e for short – the lingo). That’s metric tons of “carbon dioxide equivalent” greenhouse gas emissions – calculated using “global warming potential” factors for each of the individual greenhouse gases, like methane. This “equivalency” allows the EPA to compare our emissions to the rest of the world’s.

Turning now to “The West Wing.” On April 24, 2009, in response to the Supreme Court’s mandate, the EPA proposed for public comment its “endangerment finding,” concluding that – lo and behold – greenhouse gas emissions are endangering us. While we were all mulling this over, on September 15, 2009, the EPA took action on the rule at the center of the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision.

The EPA proposed for public comment new greenhouse gas emission standards in the form of new fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks (“light vehicles”). Then, on September 22, 2009, the EPA finalized the mandatory reporting rule it had proposed back on April 10, 2009. This means that over 10,000 facilities emitting greenhouse gases will have to monitor their greenhouse gas emissions starting January 1, 2010, and report these emissions by March 31, 2011.

While industry continues to reel from the shock of the final reporting rule, the EPA announced on September 30, 2009, that final adoption of its fuel efficiency standards proposed 15 days earlier automatically triggers Clean Air Act permitting (including mandatory emission reduction requirements) for all of those greenhouse gas emitters over – you guessed it – the same 25,000 mtCO2e threshold set as the reporting level in the September 22, 2009, final reporting rule. All of this activity is required, says the EPA, by the existing provisions of the Clean Air Act, as resuscitated by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA decision. With its actions on September 15, 22 and 30, 2009, the EPA has set the stage for expensive and litigious Clean Air Act permitting, including emission reduction requirements, for major greenhouse gas emission sources. No legislation required.

None.

Now back to the courtroom. Into this mix and from a completely different direction, on September 21, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dropped a bomb: Connecticut v. American Electric Power. This is an unprecedented decision from a case in which states sued power plants for the plants’ perfectly legal carbon dioxide emissions, based upon common law public nuisance claims. The Second Circuit held that because there is no current greenhouse gas regulation, then there is no “political question defense” to common law claims of public nuisance arising from those greenhouse gas emissions. In English, this means that, because there is no current greenhouse gas emission regulation, plaintiffs can survive initial motions to dismiss and possibly go to trial (most cases filed never make it to trial) based on allegations of public nuisance caused by as-yet-unregulated, and thus completely legal, carbon dioxide emissions. This decision would seem to beg testing by those who have squeezed the last bit of blood from the most recent round of class action product liability settlements. It also creates incredible uncertainty for businesses, like power companies, that may be completely legal greenhouse gas emission sources.

Onto this stage, the U.S. Senate introduced the Kerry-Boxer “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” on September 30, 2009. Unlike its U.S. House of Representatives sister bill, Waxman-Markey (adopted by the House in June of 2009), the Senate’s Kerry-Boxer bill, as introduced, did not contain the Clean Air Act permitting exemption that would have preempted the complicated, expensive and litigious Clean Air Act permitting scheme discussed above.

Thus, the choice among climate change regulation alternatives now appears to be between (1) chaotic common law nuisance suits to fill in the lack of regulation, or (2) crippling EPA regulation, possibly in addition to (3) Congressional adoption of the Kerry-Boxer “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” unless somebody figures out a way to include the Clean Air Act exemption that had been gifted away by Waxman-Markey.

The White House Climate Czar (former EPA Administrator Carol Browner) has proclaimed there will be no vote on the energy bill this year. That will give us all plenty of time to consider EPA regulation or regulation by judicial fiat as the alternative. While the academic might appreciate the intrigue, again, most of us will probably just take away this one thing: pretty soon, just about everything will become more expensive.

To review the EPA’s climate change activity, see www.epa.gov/climatechange

To see history in the making, review the two court cases Massachusetts v. EPA, Supreme Court Decision: www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf

Connecticut v. AEP, Second Circuit Decision

For the Senate draft energy bill, see kerry.senate.gov/cleanenergyjobsandamericanpower/intro.cfm

Mary Ellen Ternes, Esq. is a former chemical engineer from both the EPA and industry. She is currently a shareholder with McAfee & Taft, chair of its Environmental Practice Group, co-chair with Richard A. Riggs, Esq. of its Renewable and Sustainable Energy Industry Group and is serving a three-year term as City of Nichols Hills Environment, Health and Sustainability Commissioner.

In the process of moving to a new house over the past few weeks, I began to regret all of the unwise purchases made when I moved into my old house five years ago. Perhaps the frustration of sorting through countless poor consumer choices is the perfect inspiration for writing about ways we consumers can minimize our municipal solid waste generation.

Now, before someone worries that perhaps I’m going to advocate not buying anything at a time when we’re hoping consumer confidence will remain high, don’t fret. I’m a consumer, too. But we can make better choices.

Minimization of municipal waste generation has been pioneered by cities in densely populated areas of the country where landfills are full and new landfill space is limited, so there is no shortage of general “how-to” guidance out there. But, you ask, if open land is plentiful in Oklahoma, why should we worry about our waste generation?

One reason is that our waste is hauled by trucks with relatively poor fuel efficiency, which contribute to the air pollution that has caused central Oklahoma to border on a violation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Trucks visit our homes each week to pick up our waste – often twice a week – idling much of the time, which creates the highest pollution rates. It’s difficult to justify the fuel use or the resulting air pollution from unnecessary volumes of solid waste.

There are two types of waste we can easily try to reduce: excessive packaging and yard waste. More often than not, packaging is produced simply to be disposed of, but in the process of making it into your hands it has been transported to the site where the goods are manufactured, then with the goods to the distributor, then to the retailer, then in our cars to our homes. It ends up in the landfill because it’s generally not reusable. With few exceptions, excessive packaging generally represents an expensive and carbon-intensive inefficiency in our consumption. As for yard waste… did you know that 20 percent of the waste we send to the landfill in central Oklahoma is yard waste? Why are two of every 10 bags of garbage that could be excellent compost diverted to the landfill instead?

The EPA says that between 1960 and 2007, the waste that each of us generates has almost doubled – from 2.7 to 4.6 pounds every day. That’s a lot of resources that we’re pitching out the window (figuratively, usually) at an unsustainable rate. The EPA promotes “source reduction” – reducing the amount of waste we generate first (before recycling), recognizing that it can help reduce waste disposal and handling costs by eliminating the costs of recycling or sending it to a landfill, and also conserving resources and reducing pollution.

In addition to learning from other cities that have pioneered source reduction, we can also follow industry’s lead.

Helpful tips on reducing the amount of waste we generate:

www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/reduce.htm

Tips on managing yard waste: pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2861/F-887web.pdf

EPA’s waste minimization programs:

www.epa.gov/waste/hazard/wastemin/tools.htm

Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s Land Protection Division: www.deq.state.ok.us/lpdnew/p2index.htm

For a comparison of hazardous waste volumes generated by industry in 1991 to 2007, see the EPA’s National Biennial RCRA Hazardous Waste Report (Based on 1991 Data) at www.epa.gov/epawaste/inforesources/data/br91/na.pdf and the 2007 National Hazardous Waste Biennial Report at www.epa.gov/epawaste/inforesources/data/br07/index.htm.

While our municipal waste has doubled, U.S. industry has eliminated huge volumes of solid hazardous waste (compare 305 million tons of hazardous waste generated in 1991 to 46 million tons in 2007), and saved a great deal of money in the process.

We need to figure out how to be more efficient (e.g., ultra-convenient and significantly processed foods are efficient only from a time perspective, especially the single-serving sizes). Once we decide on workable and resource-efficient strategies, then we buy only what we need. When we make a decision to buy something, we need to consider whether we can reuse whatever we don’t consume of our purchase, from the good itself to its packaging. If we can’t reuse it and we still want it, then we should try to recycle it or compost it. And then, only as the very last resort, we bag it and send it to the landfill, where hopefully it will decompose and be recaptured as methane so that we can reuse it as natural gas. We can make better choices.

Now, here’s my question: How do I avoid buying toys that consist of lots of little pieces, where the absence of a single piece renders the entire toy solid waste, and only some of which I recovered when I cleaned out the playroom in the move? Maybe I should just buy the packaging. My kids love bubble wrap (pop pop pop pop).

Mary Ellen Ternes, Esq. is a recovering chemical engineer from both EPA and industry. She is currently a shareholder with McAfee & Taft, chair of its Environmental Practice Group, co-chair with Richard A. Riggs, Esq. of its Renewable and Sustainable Energy Industry Group and is serving a three-year term as City of Nichols Hills Environment, Health and Sustainability Commissioner.

I have to apologize to my little black dog, Mack. He’d jog beside me all day long if he could keep running in the excess lawn sprinkler water that creates ephemeral (bordering on intermittent) streams along our streets. Sorry, Mack (I’ve got a biscuit for you), but considering the energy required to produce clean potable water, wasting any water at all really doesn’t make sense. Let us count the ways.

First, ground water or surface water has to be pumped to a drinking water treatment plant. At over eight pounds per gallon, water’s heavy. Pumping water through miles of pipe that may be old and partially blocked by mineral deposits requires a lot of power, especially the hundreds of millions of gallons we demand each day.

Second, we take this untreated water and treat it to meet the U.S. EPA’s numerous drinking water standards for microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfectant byproducts, inorganic chemicals (including metals), organic chemicals and radionuclides. Then we test it in certified laboratories and report the results, demonstrating that it complies with the EPA’s standards (something bottled water producers don’t have to do, being regulated by the Food and Drug Administration rather than the EPA). As an example, Oklahoma City treats an average of 90 million gallons per day with a peak consumption day of 189 million gallons. That’s moving and treating and delivering 375,000 tons of water on an average day in Oklahoma City.

Third, we pump all this now lovely potable water to our homes, miles from the water treatment plant, up and down hills, probably through more old occluded pipes, requiring even more power.

We turn on our taps and miraculously find this refreshing, cool, clean water that has come such a long way, that’s been treated and demonstrated to meet 87 individual EPA drinking water standards, ready at our faucets for our consumption in any manner we wish. Do we issue a cry of amazement? Are we driven to our knees by the cleverness of our public utility? Do we marvel at the sheer convenience of it all? (Is the “no” that deafening?)

Maybe we don’t pay enough for it. At about 0.25 cents per gallon, tap water is certainly cheap enough to waste (bottled water can run you about $6.50 per gallon). To Mack’s delight, we’re happy to waste this cheap tap water by massively overwatering our lawns, particularly during thunderstorms, creating artificial springs at each address that run into the storm drains that go right to the river, along with all the expensive lawn chemicals we just applied.

If we wanted to save money, particularly in cities that have adopted increasing rate structures for more intense water use, we could decide to be just a bit more deliberate in applying water to our lawns. We could adjust our lawn sprinkler heads and watch during a watering cycle to see whether we’re applying too much or watering the concrete. We could also avoid using sprinkler heads that create that very fine mist during the hottest time of the day. That fine mist evaporates as much as 50 percent of the water we thought we were applying so that it never actually reaches our grass. Drip irrigation is considerably more efficient and may even be healthier for our plants by avoiding conditions which encourage mold and rot and encouraging development of a deeper root base.

Over-watering our lawns is just one of the many obvious ways we waste water. We could avoid wasting more water by fixing leaky pipes and faucets and switching to high-efficiency toilets, washing machines and showerheads. We could turn off the water while we’re brushing our teeth and only run the dishwasher and washing machine when they are completely full.

Water conservation ultimately makes good sense and can save us all a lot of money that we could spend on other things, like other energy-efficiency projects. Mack’s not going to like it, though. I’m pretty sure he puts up with my jogging just so he can play in the water.

WaterSense

The EPA has been working on ideas for water conservation through its WaterSense program and has identified all kinds of water-efficient consumer goods, services and WaterSense partners.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), to be taken up again by the U.S. Senate this fall, includes a section on WaterSense (Section 215), providing statutory authority for the EPA to expand its program to reduce water use and thereby reduce the strain on water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and conserve energy used to pump, heat, transport and treat water. For more information, see www.epa.gov/watersense.

Test your water sense at www.epa.gov/watersense/quiz.

Calculate your savings at www.epa.gov/watersense/calculator.

Closer to home:

www.okc.gov/water/service/Forms/HouseHoldWaterUsage.aspx

www.okc.gov/water/service/Forms/WaterQualityReport.aspx

And for a recent report on comparing regulation of bottled water to tap water: www.gao.gov/new.items/d09861t.pdf

Mary Ellen Ternes, Esq. is a recovering chemical engineer from both EPA and industry. She is currently a shareholder with McAfee & Taft, chair of its Environmental Practice Group, co-chair with Richard A. Riggs, Esq. of its Renewable and Sustainable Energy Industry Group and is serving a three-year term as City of Nichols Hills Environment, Health and Sustainability Commissioner.