Home efficiency program poised for growth.
New York Times 12 Mar
Economics
Energy
More Solutions StoriesJohns Hopkins to spend $74M to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half.Baltimore Business Journal 12 Mar State regulators approve $9 million in solar research grants, PG&E solar contract.Los Angeles Times 12 Mar Bio-fuel plant opens.Fiji Times 12 Mar EditorialsThe natural gas story.If the questions about impact on water supplies can be answered satisfactorily, and we believe they can, let's use it effectively to create jobs, lessen dependence on foreign energy, cut our defense costs, change our balance-of-payments picture for the better and make our air cleaner. Houston Chronicle 14 Mar Global warming challenge.The possibility of suspending California's Global Warming Solutions Act, a law unlikely to change temperatures but certain to wreak economic havoc, appears to have increased dramatically. Orange County Register 12 Mar Going green vs. going broke.Will cutting carbon kill jobs in California? Republicans say California can't afford its global warming law. But the real question should be: Can we afford not to cut pollution? Los Angeles Times 11 Mar In climate change hot seat: Van Schalkwyk may be able to make a difference.Does Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk have what it takes to bring together a deeply divided world long enough to agree to a legally binding global climate accord in two short years? Johannesburg Business Day 11 Mar Obama's energy 'deal'.President Obama used his January State of the Union speech to promise "a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants" and "new offshore areas for oil and gas development." Judging by its recent decisions, we'd say his Cabinet hasn't received the memo. Wall Street Journal 11 Mar Go slow on push to cut 'footprint.'Even if you concede the contention that climate change is being caused by humans ---- and that debate will continue ---- we could eliminate our carbon output entirely yet have a minimal effect on the world's climate. San Diego North County Times 07 Mar Raising the gas tax might be the only way to wean americans off oil.Surprisingly, climate proposals in Washington, such as the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill, wouldn't do all that much to slash American oil consumption in the near future. Washington Post 05 Mar Cars homes projects to lower carbon emissions by 355,000 tonnes.Three separate sustainable energy projects set to be implemented by the Government, assisted by the Inter-American Development Bank, will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 350,000 tonnes, in addition to saving the Bahamas Electricity Corporation $1.36 million per annum in fuel imports. Nassau Tribune 05 Mar OpinionTaxpayer-subsidized manure digesters stimulate factory farm pollution.At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled plans to promote manure digesters as a way to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. Madison Capital Times 14 Mar The front line of climate justice.We cannot hold our health, the health of our communities, the health of future generations, nor the health of our economy hostage to the greedy interests of the parade of polluters. States can lead the way toward climate justice. And it is with hope that New Mexico becomes the first. High Country News 14 Mar Cars, bombs and climate change.If we are to have a constructive dialogue about the smartest policy responses to global warming, we need to replace our fixation on far-fetched, Armageddon scenarios with realism about the true costs of dealing with this challenge. Colombo Sunday Times 14 Mar Nuclear is safe, efficient way to meet energy needs.Savings from using nuclear energy are likely to increase significantly as the cost of burning fossil fuels, especially coal, rises due to government controls on carbon dioxide emissions. Myrtle Beach Sun News 14 Mar We must take full advantage of Marcellus Shale.It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale that underlies large parts of New York State and Pennsylvania. Buffalo News 14 Mar Wind turbines: 'Eco-friendly' - but not to eagles.The same hills that provide lift for soaring birds offer heavily subsidised profits for wind farm developers. London Daily Telegraph 14 Mar Green practices will fuel economy.If we do it right, we get cleaner air, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and enhance our national energy security. We get more innovation, more sustainable jobs that cannot be outsourced Nashville Tennessean 14 Mar Stop playing games with green policy.Should China, now already the largest polluter in the world by many standards, play sitting duck and do nothing to go green? China Daily 13 Mar |
Inspired by nature.
Kevin Krejci/flickr
What if we could solve big environmental problems simply by shifting our approach - from relying on human cleverness to mimicking nature? That is the idea behind biomimicry. High Country News 14 Mar Living spaces that stress less.From switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances, to collecting rainwater and installing photovoltaic panels, how are experts making buildings that use less energy and generate less waste? Talk of the Nation 14 Mar Japan aims its home fuel cells at Europe.Following the success of a half-price subsidy for CO2-busting fuel-cell heat and energy generators for homes, Japan is now poised to shift its attention to supplying the UK and Germany with this hi-tech, next-generation energy source. BBC 14 Mar U.S. firms working to lower cost of solar energy.One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in Toledo, once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass. McClatchy Newspapers 14 Mar Efforts to store carbon dioxide underground face Randolph County opposition.Rumors that East Central Indiana could become an underground storage site for carbon dioxide have prompted opposition to CO2 sequestration in Randolph County. Muncie Star Press 14 Mar Delaware gains $2 million in carbon credit sale.Delaware sold more than $2 million worth of smoke last week through a regional program created to reduce climate-changing greenhouse-gas emissions. Wilmington News Journal 14 Mar New era for 'Saudi Arabia of renewables.'Scotland's wave and tidal power revolution will get under way this week when ten projects involving hundreds of devices are granted permission to start work off the north coast. Edinburgh Scotsman 14 Mar Biomass plans moving too fast.An environmental group is worried that Traverse City Light & Power is on an unstoppable fast track to building a wood-burning biomass power plant in Traverse City, but the public utility insists a decision hasn't been made. Traverse City Record Eagle 14 Mar Local innovators explore algae as a fuel source.In the short term, members of the Energy Innovation Group have started biodiesel production from vegetable oil and have experimented with a unique solar-powered greenhouse — intended to be a growing environment for algae as a source of fuel. Providence Journal 14 Mar 512-acre solar farm proposed in Upper Pittsgrove Township.Cropland here may see a new use in the near future after plans were submitted to the Upper Pittsgrove Township Planning Board to construct a 72 megawatt solar farm on 512 acres here. Salem Today's Sunbeam 14 Mar Musicians look to clean up their acts.Industry gathers to discuss how to make lavish rock'n'roll tours more environmentally friendly. London Independent 14 Mar Clean Water Act deal opens path to acidification abatement.
SarahWynne/flickr
U.S. EPA settled a lawsuit yesterday by agreeing to use the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification – a move that some see as opening a side door to federal curbs on greenhouse gases that scientists link to problems in the marine environment. Greenwire 13 Mar Putin in deal to build nuclear reactors for India.
World Economic Forum
India and Russia today signed a nuclear co-operation agreement, which paves the way for the building of about a dozen nuclear reactors in India, with Russian help, over the next few decades. London Guardian 13 Mar Leno engineers a rerun.
General Motors
"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is reviving the turbine-powered EcoJet: "In 1963, Chrysler Corporation produced a batch of turbine cars and took them on test drives around the world. In countries where people were still riding bicycles and donkeys, Americans were driving jets." New York Times 13 Mar Made in the U.S.A.: Efficiency materials.While solar and wind manufacturers in the United States struggle to fend off Chinese competition, energy efficiency equipment seems to have no such problem. New York Times 13 Mar Tree planting for carbon raises questions.Officials signed up villagers for East Africa's first tree carbon project, with funding from the World Bank to pay for storing carbon in newly-planted trees. But the project led to some unintended consequences. Living On Earth 13 Mar Hungary sells used CO2 permits, sparks EU concern.Hungary is selling 2 million U.N.-backed carbon emissions permits which have already been surrendered by companies, it said on Friday, raising concern that their buyers could use them again to comply with the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme ETS. Reuters 13 Mar £3bn coal power plant will test strength of Ed Miliband's environment rules.A new plant in Scotland will have to prove that carbon capture technology works. London Guardian 13 Mar Honda drives toward home solar hydrogen refueling.Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars. Reuters 13 Mar Progress seen on forest scheme, Germany to join.Around 60 countries pushed ahead on Thursday with a multi-billion-dollar scheme to reduce climate-changing emissions from deforestation, to which Germany added its support, British minister Joan Ruddock said on Thursday. Agence France-Presse 13 Mar Forest carbon counts: Flannery.Prominent climate change scientist Professor Tim Flannery last night sent out a message to Tasmania's three major political parties one week out from a state election: that forest carbon is precious. Launceston Examiner 13 Mar World Bank to partner with Caribbean on renewable energy options.On Thursday, the President of the World Bank met with the heads of government of CARICOM countries in Rouseau, Dominica. Small island states face unique challenges, and the Bank is exploring opportunities to support renewable solutions. Kingston Jamaica Observer 13 Mar British Columbia OKs 19 projects in clean power push.British Columbia has given the green light to 19 private-sector clean energy projects that together will generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, enough power to supply nearly 218,000 homes in Canada's Pacific Coast province. Reuters 13 Mar Kenya approves new mega wind farm.The government has approved Gitson Energy Ltd's plans to build a 300-megawatt wind farm at Bubisa in Marsabit. Turkana Windpower also plans to build a 300 MW wind farm at Turkana. Nairobi Daily Nation 13 Mar Sunshine is free, so can photovoltaics be cheap?Here's how to make a solar cell from silicon: take one solid block of doped silicon, saw it into thin wafers, layer said semiconductors beneath a panel of transparent glass, connect them to a metal electrode that can channel away the electrons knocked loose by incoming photons. Scientific American 13 Mar |