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Renewable Energy Focus - Six renewable energy sources judged to be best prospect for future, says report
The best prospects for large-scale renewable energy production and net-energy performance remain wind and certain forms of solar, according to a study released by two California-based think tanks.
“It is reasonable to conclude ... that a full replacement of energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible over the short term; it may be unrealistic to expect it even over longer time frames,” explains Searching for a Miracle: Net Energy Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society. The report was published by the International Forum on Globalization with content provided by the Post Carbon Institute.
DOE's Chalk: Managing Billions of Dollars in Clean Energy Stimulus Funding - washingtonpost.com
At the Department of Energy (DOE), Steven Chalk has experienced the economic crisis as an opportunity, a chance to push energy efficiency.
A career public servant, Chalk manages the distribution of nearly half the $36.7 billion in economic stimulus funds Congress granted DOE this year -- money issued for home weatherization, energy efficient buildings, plug-in hybrid vehicle technology, solar, wind and geothermal power.
Department of Energy - Statement of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Meetings With Indian Leaders
oday I have had the opportunity to meet with Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other distinguished Indian leaders. We had productive discussions about the opportunities for partnerships between our two countries on clean energy technologies.
Meeting the climate and clean energy challenge is a top priority for President Obama. In the past ten months, the United States has demonstrated its renewed commitment to these goals both by supporting domestic policies that advance clean energy, climate security, and economic recovery; and by vigorously vigorously re-engaging the international community through bi-lateral relationships, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, the G20, and the UN negotiations.
The U.S. will continue to work hard toward combating climate change and reaching a strong international agreement that puts the world on a pathway to a clean energy future. Working together, we can meet the clean energy and climate challenge in a way that will drive sustainable, low-carbon economic growth in the 21st century.
Groups fight TVA plan to discharge water from Kingston plant into Clinch River | tennessean.com | The Tennessean
Three environmental groups want the state to throw out a permit it just issued that would allow TVA to dump water tainted with mercury, selenium, arsenic, and other chemicals from the Kingston coal-fired power plant into the Clinch River.
The Clinch, which lies below the power plant, has already received ash moving down the Emory River from the massive ash spill last December.
Earthjustice, Environmental Integrity Project, and the Sierra Club on Thursday filed an appeal of a water discharge permit that the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation issued four weeks ago.
They say letting TVA pipe one million gallons of wastewater a day from a pond with gypsum into the river isn't wise. The material will be a byproduct of the plant's new air pollution system.
BBC NEWS | All change as gas reserves soar
With coal being too dirty and wind farms and nuclear power plants arriving late, it seems the world is left with a stark choice: keep on polluting or turn out the lights.
Unless, that is, someone comes up with an alternative.
Energy executive Rune Bjornson thinks he has the answer.
"Natural gas, more than any other fuel, is an option we have here and now," he tells the BBC in an interview.
And, he adds, there is plenty of it around - unlike scarcer resources such as oil and coal.
Illegally Dumping 100 Million Pounds of Toxic Coal Ash Waste Onto a Pristine
One of the world's largest power generating companies caused horrendous birth defects, lung injuries, and other acute and chronic medical problems from illegally dumping 100 million pounds of toxic coal ash onto a pristine Caribbean beachfront, according to a groundbreaking mass tort lawsuit filed late November 4th against Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corporation ("AES"). The eight-count lawsuit on behalf of 11 plaintiffs, living and dead, from the small rural village of Arroyo Barril in the Dominican Republic was filed in Delaware Superior Court.
Two of the children died after birth from catastrophic birth defects. Two boys survived: one with no arms; the other, born with his stomach outside his body, had to endure several surgeries. Another child was found -- in utero -- to have massive cranial defects and had to be aborted, according to Diane Paolicelli, Esq. of Levy Phillips & Konigsberg LLP in New York City. Paolicelli, who leads the firm's medical malpractice and catastrophic injury practice group, represents birth defect victims.
AFP: US Senate Republicans skip open of climate change talks
Republicans on a key US Senate committee were absent Tuesday as debate opened on a Democratic proposal for sweeping climate change legislation.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee opened its critical debate on the plan at 9:00 am (1400 GMT) without its Republican members, despite last-ditch efforts to avert an opposition boycott from Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs the committee.
Republican Senator George Voinovich did show up soon after the meeting opened, but only to deliver a statement opposing the measure.
Supporters of the climate change legislation are pushing hard to pass it ahead of December's make-or-break global summit in Denmark.
In a statement, the Republicans said they would oppose the bill until they had a "comprehensive analysis" of the economic impact of the legislation from the federal watchdog agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Poll: Carolinians favor conservation over power plants - Charlotte Business Journal:
A growing number of Carolinians say rising demand for electricity can be met through conservation rather than by building more power plants.
That’s a key finding of a new poll commissioned by Duke Energy Carolinas. And it reflects a distinct shift in public opinion from two years ago.
In the latest poll, 43% of the 1,100 N.C. and S.C. residents surveyed say “people and companies will learn to conserve energy and use significantly less electricity.” Only 30% say “government will give permission for more power plants to be built.”
Senate climate bill faces challenges - washingtonpost.com
DEMOCRATS DEEPLY SPLIT
Deal on nuclear plants offered to court Republicans
The climate-change bill that has been moving slowly through the Senate will face a stark political reality when it emerges for committee debate on Tuesday: With Democrats deeply divided on the issue, unless some Republican lawmakers risk the backlash for signing on to the legislation, there is almost no hope for passage.
Senate panel tries bypassing climate bill boycott | Politics | Reuters
Democrats who control a key U.S. Senate panel said they would begin debating a climate change bill on Tuesday, despite a planned boycott by minority Republicans who are demanding more study of the issue.
Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, wants to have a bill approved by her panel before an international summit on global warming convenes in Copenhagen in December.
The wrangling over when debate can start illustrated how difficult it will be to get any bill to the Senate floor and passed into law before year end, complicating President Barack Obama's hopes that the United States will take a leading role in Copenhagen.
Republicans move to delay climate bill progress | U.S. | Reuters
All seven Republicans on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plan to boycott next week's work session on a climate-change bill, an aide said on Saturday, in a move aimed at thwarting Democratic efforts to advance the controversial legislation quickly.
"Republicans will be forced not to show up" at Tuesday's work session, said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Republican senators on the environment panel.
BBC NEWS | Denmark in climate deal warning
Denmark's prime minister says he does not think a comprehensive deal on climate change will be finalised at a December summit in Copenhagen.
Lars Loekke Rasmussen spoke ahead of an EU summit at which climate change will be one of the main topics.
Nanotechnology Now: "Nanoparticle breakthrough could improve solar cells"
Abstract:
The sun may soon power many more homes and appliances, thanks to chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University. They have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order. The technology, which won an R&D 100 Award this year, has the potential to vastly improve photovoltaic cells and further spur the growing nanotech revolution.
Nanoparticle breakthrough could improve solar cells
Idaho Falls, ID | Posted on October 29th, 2009
INL chemist Bob Fox and his ISU colleagues were looking for a better way to make semiconducting nanoparticles for solar cells. When the researchers introduced "supercritical" carbon dioxide — CO2 that behaves like both a gas and a liquid — to their reactions, they generated high-quality nanoparticles at low, energy-saving temperatures. And, surprisingly, the nanoparticles were incredibly uniform.
With subsequent tweaking, the team figured out how to make nanoparticles of prescribed sizes — anywhere from 1 to 100 nanometers — with unprecedented precision. Because the properties of nanoparticles are so strongly size-dependent, the implications of this breakthrough are vast.
Business Journal of Milwaukee: A lot of wind over Lake Michigan
A Michigan public university plans to test a floating wind turbine platform to demonstrate how wind energy could work on Lake Michigan.
Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative & Renewable Energy Center received $1.4 million in federal funding to conduct the study. The university plans to have the platform installed by the fall of 2010.
Meanwhile, We Energies plans to issue a request for proposals in early November that will be the start of a $3 million study sanctioned by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to determine the feasibility of wind turbines on Lake Michigan.
We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey said the energy utility is not involved in the Michigan study, but will collaborate with Grand Valley State to share information
Arizona Rep. Giffords authors U.S. Solar Roadmap bill as CA plows ahead
In continued efforts to promote clean energy, U.S. House Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) has introduced the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, which is now on its way to the full House after achieving commendable bipartisan support after short deliberation in the Science and Technology Committee. Giffords’ bill would designate the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as the leading organization for developing a strategic plan to direct solar energy research and its deployment into the commercial sector. The legislation would also allocate $2.25 billion for solar research over the next five years, which is a far cry from the pro-oil Bush administration that pillaged funding for renewables.
US climate plan must spread costs evenly -experts | Reuters
* CO2 credits could help consumers -Congress budget arm
* Senate Democrat in oil state worries about refinery jobs
By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gases should be designed carefully to avoid unfair economic pain in fossil fuel industries and other parts of the economy, experts told lawmakers on Wednesday.
The aim of a cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gases at the center of the climate bill introduced by Senate leaders this month would transform the economy from being based on fossil fuels to more nuclear and renewable power.
"The shifts will be significant," Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told a U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing.
The Associated Press: GOP senator's protest grinds the Senate to a halt
The Senate ground to a halt Wednesday in a display of what an individual senator can do to protest his treatment by some of Capitol Hill's most powerful barons.
Instead of passing a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects and then moving on to other business, the chamber slogged through a 30-hour protest by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who halted further legislative business after one of his pet ideas was dropped from the bill.
At issue is one of Coburn's top issues — greater transparency in government — as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It's part of his drive for greater transparency in government.
Germany to Cut Solar Subsidies in 2010, Pfeiffer Says (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
Germany’s next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010, the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats said.
Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has “massively increased” by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted. The government is “obliged” to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters in Berlin today.
“We will review the overall renewable energy law in 2011 but will undertake reductions in solar subsidies taking effect as soon as next year,” Pfeiffer said after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel’s prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party.
Key New Ingredient In Climate Model - Environment - an eLab Article at Scientist Live
For the first time, climate scientists from across the country have successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change, questioning previous assumptions regarding carbon feedback and potentially helping to refine model forecasts about global warming.
The results of the experiment at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research are published in the current issue of Biogeosciences. They illustrate the complexity of climate modeling by demonstrating how natural processes still have a strong effect on the carbon cycle and climate simulations. In this case, scientists found that the rate of climate change over the next century could be higher than previously anticipated when the requirement of plant nutrients are included in the climate model.
ORNL's Peter Thornton, lead author of the paper, describes the inclusion of these processes as a necessary step to improve the accuracy of climate change assessments.
BBC NEWS | Mexico shuts troubled energy firm
Mexico has closed a state-run energy distribution firm with about 40,000 employees and 25 million customers, blaming the scale of its losses.
Federal police seized the offices of Luz y Fuerza del Centro. Spending at the company was increasingly outpacing sales, according to the government.
The firm faced an "unsustainable financial situation", President Felipe Calderon said.
Mexico is trying to cut public spending to offset falling oil revenues.
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