Friday, June 6, 2008
The Indianapolis Zoo has launched a new website at www.mycarbonpledge.com that asks visitors to pledge to change their light bulbs to CFLs and make other green commitments. Those pledges are then “green mapped” to show the area covered by the pledges. The site also features blogs by environmental experts, including ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Fighting global warming pollution from oil refinery expansion. Eight oil refinery expansions have been proposed across the Midwest over the past few months due in large part to the newly commercially viable tar sands in Alberta, Canada. Alberta tar sands or Canadian crude is sandy, petroleum rich deposits which can be harvested, then transported to oil refineries to be processed and converted into workable fuel for our cars and trucks, among other things. The potential increase in global warming from the oil refinery expansions is huge. One proposed new oil refinery in Hyperion, SD would add 19 million tons of pollutants - the equivalent of 4 to 6 new coal-fired power plants to the state. The proposed expansion by BP in northwest Indiana is reported to increase global warming pollution by 40%.
I-69 boondoggle: The Environmental Law and Policy Center is working with local environmental, farm, business and taxpayers’ organizations to prevent one of the nation’s great boondoggles: the controversial proposed “new terrain” Interstate 69 highway from Indianapolis to Evansville, in Southwestern Indiana. NBC Nightly News called this billion-dollar highway a “Fleecing of America.” We are fighting for a plan to upgrade existing highways would create a travel time between Indianapolis and Evansville only ten minutes longer than the same trip made on the proposed new highway. This alternative, using Interstate 70 and an upgraded US 41, would save $600 million of taxpayers’ money. It would be far less damaging to farmland, to the environment, and to Indianapolis, Bloomington, and other communities.
Over the next year, ELPC is ramping up its Clean Water Act implementation work in Indiana under new support from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Initial priorities include:
Our attorneys Albert Ettinger and Brad Klein have already begun working with our partners at the Hoosier Environmental Council, Save the Dunes, the Sierra Club and other Indiana organizations to develop new “anti-degradation” rules that would correct future problems like the one involving the BP-Whiting refinery that generated so much controversy last year. We also are following issues related to nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Hoosier State.
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Environmental Law and Policy Center is working with local 
environmental, farm, business and taxpayers’ organizations to prevent one of the nation’s great boondoggles: the controversial proposed “new terrain” Interstate 69 highway from Indianapolis to Evansville, in Southwestern Indiana. NBC Nightly News called this billion-dollar highway a “Fleecing of America.”
There is a better alternative that does not raise the numerous concerns about the I-69 highway project. Some of these concerns are that the “new terrain” highway is:
Economically unjustified: There is no current or projected transportation need for this highway. Every $1 spent on the highway would bring only 81 cents in benefits, according to a study by an impartial Indiana University economist. Costs would exceed benefits by $115 million.
Agriculturally destructive: The project would require construction of 141 miles of new highway, most of it through Indiana farmland. The right-of-way alone would destroy over 3,000 acres of farms, devastating farm families’ livelihoods and Southwest Indiana’s rural economy. Thousands more acres of farms would be lost to gas stations, fast food restaurants and other suburban sprawl.
Environmentally harmful: I-69 would destroy over 1,000 acres of forest, roar through a National Wetlands Project, and cut through geologically sensitive “karst” terrain, threatening to pollute underground water systems and harm the rare species that live there.
Fiscally irresponsible: To pay for a new I-69, Governor Frank O’Bannon would have to use up enormous amounts of Indiana’s discretionary highway dollars. Not enough would be left over to maintain roads and fund vital projects elsewhere in the state.
A plan to upgrade existing highways would create a travel time between Indianapolis and Evansville only ten minutes longer than the same trip made on the proposed new highway. This alternative, using Interstate 70 and an upgraded US 41, would save $600 million of taxpayers’ money. It would be far less damaging to farmland, to the environment, and to Indianapolis, Bloomington, and other communities.
Momentum against I-69 and in favor of the fiscally and environmentally responsible I-70/ US 41 alternative is growing among an unusual coalition of businesspeople, farmers, conservationists and taxpayers. The Indianapolis Star, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Gary Post-Tribune, South Bend Tribune, and Terre Haute Tribune-Star have all editorialized against the proposed new highway and in favor of the I-70/US 41 alternative.
And now Bloomington, the biggest city along the route, has made clear it wants no part of the proposed new I-69. The Bloomington City Council has voted to oppose routing I-69 through Bloomington.
Those who care about Indiana’s agricultural, environmental and economic vitality, about our communities, and about the responsible use of taxpayers’ money should sound their opposition and take action. If they do, the highway can be defeated.
Please visit Commonsense I-69 to learn more.
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