“The Whole World Is In Non-Attainment for Greenhouse Gases”

BL England plant – fossil dinosaur – Gateway to Cape May

Corporate Polluters Hijack Cape May County’s Good Name

BL England coal plant – soon to become “Cape May Energy Center”?????

[Update below]

Did Cape May County get naming rights?

That’s the least they could ask for as corporate polluters seek to appropriate the County’s good name in a scheme to rename the notoriously ugly industrial pollution scar on Great Egg Bay – The Gateway to lovely Cape May County –  “The Cape May Energy Center”.

Cape May – a special place known for charming gingerbread Victorian B&B’s along narrow gas lamp lit streets, and world renown migratory and shorebird habitat, and intimate lovers’ walks on the beach.

Is a climate destroying fossil fuel plant compatible with that? Be sure to put that landmark on the brochure for “Eco-tourism”!

Cape May peninsula – this is what coastal erosion looks like

That ugly industrial scar would remain for another 40 years or so – if it’s not underwater by then – if DEP approves a new air pollution permit for the proposed re-powering of the old coal & oil plant to a natural gas fueled plant, cynically to be renamed “The Cape May Energy Center”.

Over a hundred people came out last night – including a small group of dedicated activists – to urge DEP to think about what’s at stake – captured in the above photos.

Enjoy it now folks, because it’s soon all gone as climate driven sea level rise and storm surge erode and ultimately inundate the whole Cape May Peninsula – Game Over for Piping Plover!

Small group of activists protest before the hearing. Where the hell was everybody? What are all those well Foundation funded groups doing?

Ignoring all this beauty and meaning, I tried to speak the language of the DEP bureaucracy last night – complex technocratic regulatory-speak, designed to obscure reality and mask the operation of economic and political power and  frustrate democracy and evade responsibility.

I advised DEP that the whole world is in non-attainment for greenhouse gases – a riff on “The Whole World Is Watching!” – as CO2 levels exceed 400 ppm and record heat and extreme weather are experienced throughout the world at a terrifying and accelerating rate.

[Update 5/23/16 – this is what I mean by a terrifying and accelerating rate.]

The DEP hearing officer and stenographer duly noted my testimony.

But did they listen? Do they get it?

Sunrise on the beach with Dad