Senator Wetmore's "Going Fishing" Finalist in Millers River Watershed Council Poetry Contest

 Senator Wetmore's "Going Fishing" Finalist in Millers River Watershed Council Poetry Contest

 
MA State Senator Robert D. Wetmore (retired D- Barre) read his auto-biographical poem, "Going Fishing" at the Millers River Watershed Council 2013 Poetry Night on April 5th. 
Wetmore is the author of the "Environmental Bill of Rights," an amendment to the Massachusetts State Constitution. The Environmental Bill of Rights, which was enacted in the 1970s, became the legal basis of the environmental legislation that followed.  Wetmore is also the author of the Massachusetts APR (Agricultural Protection Act).
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Going Fishing
by Robert D. Wetmore

The milk train ran
Through Gardner
Past South Royalston
Headed west to Athol
Echoes of my past
As a teen I’d ride my bike
But in the summers
Getting up at dawn
I’d walk to the train station
Platform in Gardner
Where you paid a nickel
For the men’s room
I’d wait for the milk train
A book bag stuffed with a can
Of worms, fishing gear
Sandwich and canteen
Slung over my shoulder
Waiting for the train
Waiting to go fishing
All aboard seated
A window’s view
Chugging past woods
Crossing the Otter River
To the South Royalston
Depot I’d disembark
At a stone’s throw
From the Millers River Dam
Rapid waters cool pools
Wooded tannin stained
Clouded from the Northern
Reaches of headwaters
Fish pole and bait I’d wait
For a nibble then walk
Along the rail road track
Sun beating down as I searched
For the perfect spot

Drafted in my twenties
Boated to South Korea
With army backpack
Boarded trains then back
Home again I grabbed
My pole and fishing gear
Rode in my brother’s
Borrowed car back
To the South Royalston
Fishing spots now
Choked with pollution
Run-off from paper mills

Then and there I changed
Got into politics
So the rivers might flow
Clean and pure and the fish
Might be worth fishing for




PHOTO CREDIT: Genevieve Fraser

Overview of Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) Performance in Northern States: A Comparison of Heating Costs using ASHPs, Wood Pellets, and Heating Oil

William Strauss

Overview of Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) Performance in Northern States:

A Comparison of Heating Costs using ASHPs, Wood Pellets, and Heating Oil

By William Strauss, PhD

February, 2013

In many policy discussions regarding efficient renewable heating, heat pumps are one of the solutions that are often mentioned.  The renewable component in heat pumps is the heat that is contained in either the ambient outside air or in the earth.  Air source heat pumps (ASHP) harvest the heat contained in outside air.  Ground source (or geothermal) heat pumps use the warmth of the earth.  That warmth is captured with water circulating a deep well or in a long trench.

This brief white paper will focus on air source heat pumps.  Geothermal heat pumps have a more or less stable heat source and their ability to harvest heat from the earth is more or less constant.  Ground source heat pumps while very efficient are expensive to install due to the need for many hundreds of feet of well or trenching[1].  ASHPs have a much lower capital cost barrier than geothermal heat pumps and are often touted as an alternative to traditional combustion based heating systems.

Heat pump systems, as do all central heating systems that have pumps and fans, require some electricity.  The amount of electricity needed by an ASHP to generate a given heat output will vary based on two primary inputs: the temperature of the source (outside air), and the temperature of the heat sink (the home heating system).

Heat pumps are typically measured by their coefficient of performance (COP).  The heat pump uses electricity to run a refrigeration cycle in reverse.  The heat pump absorbs heat from cold air and transmits it into the heating system.  If the outside air is warm enough, it takes significantly less energy to run the pump than the amount of heat it generates.  If the system produces four kilowatts of heat energy for each kilowatt of electrical energy, the COP is 4.

As the outside air temperature falls, so also does the COP as the pump has to work harder to extract heat energy from colder air. 

The temperature that is required for the building’s heating system also affects the COP.  The best uses for air source heat pumps are low temperature radiant heat floors in which the circulating water temperatures are relatively low (around 95^o F.).  The majority of northern homes that have hydronic boiler systems have hot water baseboard/radiator systems that operate at 175^o to 185^o.

The table below shows the COP’s of a typical air source system. 

In actual operation, the system would never operate below a COP of 1.0.  At a COP below 1.0 the systems is worse than a straight electric resistance heating system.

The table below[2] compares the cost of heat from an air source heat pump with the cost of heat from wood pellets and heating oil.  Electricity is assumed to cost $0.125/kWh, pellets are assumed to cost $220/ton, and heating oil is assumed to cost $3.75.gallon.  The cost of the useful heat from pellets and heating oil accounts for the boilers being 87% efficient.  The red cells indicate that the ASHP is more costly than the alternatives.

In actual operation, the systems would never accrue costs per kWh greater than the cost of electricity (in this example, $0.125/kWh).  The typical air source heat pump system has a supplemental resistance heating component that takes over when the COP is lowered by environmental conditions.  It is clear that if heating oil were the only option, air source heat pumps would be the economical choice in a much broader set of environmental conditions.

The chart below shows a typical operating profile and illustrates how supplemental heat is needed at colder temperatures.

Air source heat pumps can contribute to lowering the cost of heating.  However, most homes in the northern states that experience winter temperatures below 25^o F. cannot be sufficiently heated during with air source heat pumps alone.

In most heat pump applications, domestic hot water demands will still have to be delivered from a separate dedicated hot water heater.  In most applications, the home or business will need a supplemental heating system for colder weather and for domestic hot water.  

Natural gas, heating oil, and wood pellet fueled boilers will continue to be necessary part of home heating systems in in homes and businesses in the northern states.  Natural gas and wood pellet fuel prices deliver heat at the equivalent of a COP of about 2.2.  More costly heating oil delivers heat at an equivalent COP of about 1.4[3].  So anytime the “source” is colder than about 30^o F. and the heating systems is a baseboard or radiator system running at 185^o F., wood pellet fueled boilers or natural gas are the lowest cost source of heat (see that table below for a comparison[4]).

Some of the homes and business in the cold states that are currently using costly heating oil will convert to natural gas.  However, many locations that do not have natural gas now never will have natural gas[5].  If ASHP’s are used, the supplemental heat should come from the lowest cost fuel available. 

For many in the Northeastern and Midwestern states the most economical option for heating will be modern fully automatic and highly efficient wood pellet fueled boilers[6].

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[1] For a home that requires 35,000 BTU/hr (10 kW), the well would need to be 260 to 360 feet deep.  The trench would need to be three loops each 390 to 590 feet long at a depth of about 5 feet.

[2] Data from “Air Source Heat Pump Efficiency Gains from Low Ambient Temperature Operation Using Supplemental Electric Heating,” Minnesota Division of Energy Resources, June 2011, and from “State of the Art of Air Sourced Heat Pump for Cold Regions,” Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, November, 2006.

[3] This is based on the cost per kWh of delivered useful heat from pellets and heating oil when compared to the cost of delivered heat from an air source heat pump running at the respective COP values.

[4] Based on residential prices for propane at $2.70/gallon, heating oil at $3.70/gallon, natural gas at $12/MMBTU, and pellets at $220/ton.

[5] Many locations are of too low of a housing density to justify the cost of delivery infrastructure.  Furthermore, low natural gas prices mean narrower profit margins per unit of energy, which suggests that many marginal population areas will not support the cost of construction.

[6] See www.MaineEnergySystems.com for an overview of these systems.

Local Birds and Climate Change by Tom Pirro (reporting from Massachusetts)

Local Birds and Climate Change 

By Tom Pirro
(reporting from Massachusetts)

Many bird enthusiasts in central Massachusetts now enjoy both Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Carolina Wrens at their feeding stations. But, it wasn’t too many years ago when an area sighting of either of these handsome birds would have been news worthy. In the early years of their range expansion, their presence was first into the milder regions of the state toward New Bedford, Fall River and Cape Cod. Eventually they spread into Greater Boston, the North Shore and Southern Worcester County; and are now regulars in the hill towns of North Quabbin and Worcester County. 

Carolina Wren.  Photo: Tom Pirro

I regularly see Red-bellied Woodpeckers at my feeding station in Westminster and they’ve become widespread across North Central Massachusetts and is no longer restricted to lower elevations. The same holds true for the Carolina Wren, however its habitat is restricted to brushy thickets. 

Red-bellied Woodpecker.  Photo: Tom Pirro

Below is data from the two Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlases, the first took place from 1974 to 1979 and the second from 2007 to 2011. The Massachusetts Audubon Society spear headed both campaigns, dividing the state into roughly 1000 “blocks” which were surveyed by hundreds of volunteer field observers. The frequency in which each of these species has increased is staggering.

Red-bellied Woodpecker
	Breeding Bird Atlas 1 (1974-1979)	Breeding Bird Atlas 2 (2007-2011)
Blocks Present	4	783
Blocks Surveyed	969	1055
Percent	0.4%	74.2%
Carolina Wren
	Breeding Bird Atlas 1 (1974-1979)	Breeding Bird Atlas 2 (2007-2011)
Blocks Present	66	751
Blocks Surveyed	969	1055
Percent	6.8%	71.2%

The Red-bellied Woodpecker and Carolina Wren are considered resident species and remain fairly close to their breeding territories throughout the year, with the exception of a post breeding dispersal. National Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count data shows a similar trend to the breeding atlas data, with a dramatic increase since 1970. It superficially appears their respective numbers maybe beginning to stabilize, but continued monitoring will track their future population in our region.

See data retrieved from http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count

Evening Grosbeaks

In contrast to the recent arrival of the red-bellied Woodpecker and Carolina Wren has been the dramatic decline of wintering Evening Grosbeaks. It hasn’t been  too many years since roving flocks of this species would decimate sunflower seed stocked at feeding stations, to the point of nearly out competing Gray Squirrels! Over the past 15 years this species has become increasingly scarce in the North Quabbin and Worcester County regions, a former winter strong hold for this large and attractive finch. The Christmas Bird Data painfully supports this observation, in recent years both the Athol and Westminster CBC’s often miss this species on the count, unheard of a decade ago! 

See data retrieved from http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count

Bicknell Thrush

In many cases, such as with the Red-billed Woodpecker, this may not be bad news as there appears to be plenty of suitable habitat (deciduous forest) to allow a northward expansion. Of concern are species with more northerly distribution which may get crowed off the continent. The Bicknell’s Thrush which inhabits elevations generally above 3000 feet in balsam fir has a range limited to the Northeastern US and Southeastern Canada.  (see below).  This species once bred on Mount Greylock in Western Massachusetts, but only one was detected during the most recent Breeding Bird Atlas and likely a late migrant. Of concern for this species is the threat of a warming climate that could essentially  “flood” the Bicknell’s Thrush from its elevated island breeding grounds. 

Bicknell’s Thrush range map.  Wikipedia

There are many reason for a species range expanding or contracting.  Global climate, which is  currently being “assisted” by humans, is certainly one of them.  According to Audubon, 60% of 305 regularly occurring winter species are shifting their respective ranges an average of 35 miles northward, while less than ½ that number appear to be averaging a more southern winter distribution. Certainly some species such as Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Carolina Wren may benefit (at least in our region) while others may not, such as Evening Grosbeaks. More concerning are species with limited ranges which may be driven from existence such as the Bicknell’s Thrush.

Charcoal - Past, Present and Future By Thomas Reed

Charcoal - Past, Present and Future
By Thomas Reed

Tom Reed demonstrates principles of gasification at ETHOS*

Charcoal cave art, at Lascaux, Roufignac in France (15,000 to 9,000 BC)

The evolution of Humans and Charcoal is intimately intertwined, important still today, and probably more important in the future.

PAST:  While Mother Nature produces generous supplies of wood that can be used for cooking and heating, wood can't be used for indoor heat and cooking because the smoke will cause lung disease and early death.

Early Humans likely understood this 100,000 years ago or whenever.  Simians evolved controlling their environment and living in caves.

Cooking and heating your cave\home with charcoal is pretty straightforward.  Reducing metal oxides to metals has driven a great deal of charcoal use, leading to the deforestation of large areas - like Alsace Lorraine during the Napoleanic wars, to make bronze for his cannons.

The Indian tribes living on the headwaters of the Amazon developed a civilization dependent on converting biomass to "Terra Preta", black soil. Archeologists believe that half a million Indians converted large areas of terrible laterite soils into high
Productivity Terra Preta, probably by pit burning.

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TODAY charcoal is used primarily for weekend barbecues, and to make activated charcoal for medicinal purposes.  (Home heat only (in Japan), and metals are now made using coke from coal.)

FUTURE USE:  Charcoal has been discovered  to be a wonderful soil amendment, doubling or tripling the yield from poor soils.  Few farmers are aware of this and even fewer are making and using charcoal.

We could begin using charcoal as a soil amendment if we had the political will.  Each ton of charcoal put into the soil keeps 3.7 tons of charcoal from entering the atmosphere.

(Wood contains 50% carbon.  Charcoal from that wood only contains ~20% carbon.  Therefore for each ton of charcoal made there will be 1.5 T tons of CO2 in the off gases if they are burned. But if the charcoal had NOT been made, 2.5 tons of CO2 would eventually have entered the atmosphere.

However, if the off gases from making the charcoal are used for cooking or making electricity, the whole process would not put any excess CO2 to the atmosphere, since that amount of cooking or electricity would have contributed an equivalent amount of CO2 to the atmosphere from fossil fuels.)

Humans have been adding CO2 to the atmosphere from coal and oil.  100 years ago there was only 0.03% CO2 in the atmosphere and it now risen to 0.04%. It is projected that we may already be suffering global warming of a few degrees and if we stay on the same course it will increase dramatically as China and India begin consuming fossil fuel like we do.

Personally, I believe I am experiencing global warming here in Barre, Mass.  I was surprised last year that we had no sub zero days and very little snow.  As of today, Dec. 11, 2012, the temperatures have seldom dropped below 40 F, rain or shine.

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However, global warming due to CO2 may not be linear.  Our atmosphere currently contains 21% oxygen, thanks to ~ 4 E14 tons of carbon buried in the form of coal and oil.  Yet, before this happened during the Carboniferous age 360-300 Mya, the temperature was only a few degrees higher during the Devonian age.  Once the fraction of sunlight in the infra-red that is absorbed by CO2 has been exceeded, no further warming will be felt with further increases.

For further information on the use of charcoal aka Biochar as a remedy for the modern world.  Check out Biochar 101 at http://www.charcoalremedies.com/agriculture/biochar/101


NOTE:  * ETHOS
Engineers in Technical and Humanitarian Opportunities of Service (ETHOS) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to facilitate research and the development of appropriate technology by forming collaborative North-South partnerships between universities, research laboratories, engineers, and non-governmental organizations in foreign countries.

“CHP” – A Game Changer for the US Economy By Genevieve Fraser

 Masnedø CHP power station in Denmark. This station burns straw as fuel. The adjacent greenhouses are heated by district heating from the plant. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogeneration

“CHP” – A Game Changer for the US Economy

By Genevieve Fraser

In late August as the nation prepared for a long Labor Day weekend, a White House executive order put a different spin on the way the nation’s industrial sector will handle energy efficiency in the future.  The Obama initiative is destined to make “CHP” (combined heat and power) a catalyst for American productivity and competitiveness while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Combined heat and power technology can be applied to fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil as well as to biomass, an environmentally friendly renewable fuel.

Cogeneration, aka CHP, implementation is designed to spur investments in the manufacturing and jobs sector of the economy by decreasing energy consumption in a sector that accounts for over 30 percent of the nation’s energy.  The concept behind combined heat and power (CHP) is to generate electric power and useful thermal energy from a single fuel source instead of separate sources of heat and power (SHP).  

According to a US Department of Energy report, A Clean Energy Solution (8/2012), “Instead of purchasing electricity from the distribution grid and burning fuel in an on-site furnace or boiler to produce thermal energy, an industrial or commercial facility can use CHP to provide both energy services in one energy-efficient step.”

“The average efficiency of power generation in the United States has remained at 34 percent since the 1960s — the energy lost in wasted heat from power generation in the U.S. is greater than the total energy use of Japan. CHP captures this waste energy and uses it to provide heating and cooling to factories and businesses, saving them money and improving the environment,” the DOE report states.  “CHP can also be an attractive resource for commercial or institutional facilities such as schools and hospitals, in district energy systems, and in military installations.”

The August 30, 2012 “Executive Order -- Accelerating Investment in Industrial Energy Efficiency” focuses on a number of national priorities including improving the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing, increasing energy efficiency, reducing emissions, enhancing our energy infrastructure, improving energy security and growing our economy.  However, the use of CHP in the US has been limited because of a host of market and non-market barriers, including federal and state regulatory barriers.   

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will be hosting a series of workshops to foster a national dialogue on developing and implementing state best practice policies and investment models that address the multiple barriers to greater investment in industrial energy efficiency and CHP.  However, twenty-three states already recognize CHP in one form or another as part of their Renewable Portfolio Standards or Energy Efficiency Resource Standards. And a number of states have initiated specific incentive programs for CHP.  For example, the Massachusetts Green Communities Act includes a rebate incentive for efficient CHP systems of up to 50 percent of total installed costs.  For more information, visit the US DOE’s Clean Energy Application Centers website: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/distributedenergy/ceacs.html

NOTE: Genevieve Fraser of GF Strategic Enterprises is a recipient of a Massachusetts Environmental Commendation and is a former environmental technical writer and planner with the Private Industry Council.

A Vision for Building a Community-Based Economy for the 2nd Franklin District

A Vision for Building a Community-Based Economy for the 2nd Franklin District

By Genevieve Fraser

I suspect we share similar ideals.  We want children to be well fed, live and play in a safe environment and receive a well-rounded education.  We want affordable, cutting-edge health care for all – and to assure our elders and veterans and those in need of special care receive the support services they need and deserve. Our towns must have sufficient funds to provide vitally needed services.

We all need good paying jobs, safe housing and the amenities that make life enjoyable. But our economy is in trouble.  We can no longer rely on “business as usual.” Added to that uncertainty are the all-to-obvious impacts of climate change that have spawned weird weather patterns and a fear that dust bowl era crop failures will drive up food prices and create scarcity. 

I believe creative solutions still can be found right here at home using our “Yankee ingenuity!”

As state representative for the 2^nd Franklin District, I will bridge the gap between ideals and the challenges ahead by rebuilding our local economy so that adequate revenues can flow into our nearly depleted public coffers.  I propose we create Industrial Bio-Parks built around CHP (combined heat and power) renewable energy.  These facilities would provide heat and electricity to a pellet plant, greenhouses, food processing centers and 21^st Century industries that will contribute to environmental solutions, not problems.  The 2nd Franklin District Industrial Bio-Parks will serve as incubators for new and emerging manufactured products with our community colleges providing education and training for well-paying jobs.  At the heart of this Green Economy would be recreation and tourism and an expanded agriculture and forest and wood products industry promoted by a Green Certified Buy Local Program. 

Let’s work together to make this a reality.

NOTE: Genevieve Fraser is a Democratic candidate for state representative for the 2nd Franklin District.

2nd Franklin District state rep candidate Genevieve Fraser Defends Cape Wind at DPU Hearing

Genevieve Fraser

IN DEFENSE OF CAPE WIND  
by Genevieve Fraser
 

NOTE: The following testimony was presented by Genevieve Fraser  to the Department of Public Utilities at a hearing on Cape Wind on May 30, 2012.  The hearing was held at the Department of Public Utilities Headquarters, One South Station, 5th Floor, Boston, MA.

Docket Reference D.P.U. 12-30

 

It is small comfort to realize if mankind is rendered extinct through continued, wanton use of greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuels, the planet may return to the floral lushness of the proverbial Garden of Paradise MINUS Adam, the perpetrator of his own demise. 

Today, California smog threatens the giant redwoods – smog created from energy production and trucking, diesel freight train corridors, motor vehicle exhausts, solvents, pesticides and other fossil fuel derived compounds, along with fires escalated by sustained winds that ravage unmanaged forest landscapes.  Meanwhile, East Coast cities are also shrouded in a cocoon of air-borne pollutants.  It seems as if the natural world has turned against those who would be its master.

DPU Hearing 5/30/2012 - Boston, MA

Though some regard natural gas with its reduced CO2 content as the gold standard of fuels, they fail to measure its true cost – the environmental catastrophe to aquifers caused by fracking which can be likened to blowing up mountain tops to extract coal, or putting our oceans’ flora and fauna at risk through deep water drilling.  Gas, coal, oil are all fossil fuels that generate global warming and climate change.  Their toxins are dead matter, EXCESS carbon exhumed from biomass created eons ago.  These toxins overload the atmosphere and cannot be successfully recaptured – though we are stressing our forests to the max attempting to do so.  Yes, even natural gas is a fossil fuel – not part of the living, breathing world.  It too needs to be phased out if we humans are to survive.

Cape Wind, however, offers hope of a cleaner, healthier world.  The ocean’s wind currents, close to a land base, can harness energy that can be captured without destroying forests and farmlands so vitally needed for food and shelter and fiber-based products.  Offshore wind farms harness more frequent and powerful winds than are available to land-based installations and have less visual impact.  By utilizing ocean borne wind energy - working in tandem with solar, geothermal, hydro and sustainably harvested biomass that recaptures its own gasses as it re-grows and regenerates itself as part of the natural cycle of life – we are using natural resources native to the atmosphere to help power our collective global civilizations. 

The crisp, pollution-free, off-shore Cape Wind, in conjunction with other renewables, can be harnessed to create bio-based fuels for transport and bio-based non-toxic products and chemicals that will produce jobs within the manufacturing, farming and forestry industry.  This, in turn, will help foster clean air, clean water and soil, as well as flourishing biodiversity amid flora and fauna as an overly mature forest is sustainably harvested and put less at risk for disease and fire.

But if Massachusetts is to become part of this legacy, it is critical that the Department of Energy Resource’s (DOER) abide by its stated commitment to apply the best possible science for wind, solar and biomass and all other renewables in the face of the opposition to each of these technologies that exists. 

Perhaps someday - through the use of off-shore wind, solar, geothermal, hydro and sustainably harvested biomass and other non-harmful technologies yet to be developed – we can reduce the territorial conflicts among people so often generated by a fight for resources – and come to live in balance and harmony with nature in what future generations may come to regard as a true Paradise.

NOTE: Genevieve Fraser, a recipient of a Massachusetts Environmental Commendation, is a Democratic candidate for state representative for the 2nd Franklin District.