rootstock II's List: energy_renewables

"To return from Europe to the United States, as I did recently, is to be struck by the crumbling infrastructure, the paucity of public spaces, the conspicuous waste (of food and energy above all), the dirtiness of cities and the acuteness of their poverty. It is also to be overwhelmed by the volume and vital clamor of American life, the challenging interaction, the bracing intermingling of Americans of all stripes, the strident individualism. Europe is more organized, America more alive. Europe purrs; even its hardship seems somehow muted. America revs. The differences can feel violent.

In his intriguing new book, “The United States of Excess,” Robert Paarlberg, a political scientist, cites the 2011 Pew survey as he grapples with these divergent cultures. His focus is on American overconsumption of fuel and food. Why, he asks, is the United States an “outlier” in greenhouse gas emissions and obesity, and what, if anything, will it do about it? Per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the United States are about twice those of the other wealthy nations of the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. American obesity (just over a third of American adults are now obese) is running at about twice the European average and six times the Japanese.

Paarlberg argues persuasively that these American phenomena are linked. "

"Expanded voting by mail in this week's municipal elections doubled voter turnout but created a problem: It will take a week to determine the winners in at least six close city council races because many ballots still may be in the mail.

But a state lawmaker is proposing a change that could speed up the process of making winners apparent.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, wants to erase a state law that prohibits county clerks from updating public vote counts between election night and the final, official vote canvass — which must be held seven to 14 days after the election."

"Hospitals have a free and powerful tool that they could use more often to help reduce the pain that surgery patients experience: music.

Scores of studies over the years have looked at the power of music to ease this kind of pain; an analysis published Wednesday in The Lancet that pulls all those findings together builds a strong case."

"In the late 1990s, biologists and hydrologists set about restoring Utah's Provo River. The river had been dammed and forced into channels. Now, nine years later, the river's had a major turnaround, and so has a creature that had all but disappeared - the Columbia Spotted Frog. Beth Hoffman reports."

"For the past nine years, some of America's biggest producers of fresh salad greens and vegetables have been waging a quiet war on wildlife surrounding their fields, all in an effort to keep your veggies free of contamination from disease-causing bacteria.

Now, a fresh analysis of safety data suggests that the effort is mostly in vain. Clearing away wildlife habitat does not make food any safer.

The battle started with the great spinach scare of 2006. Bagged spinach from a farm in California sickened 200 people around the country, and three of the victims died."

"Utahns like green energy right up to the point that they have to pay for it.

A new Envision Utah online survey found thousands of Utahns prefer renewable-energy sources.

The overwhelming majority of those who logged in to take the survey (87 percent) said they were willing to dedicate more of the state's land and resources to developing energy sources including wind and solar power.

The surveys "reinforce something that groups like HEAL have been saying for a while — that Utahns want more renewable energy than they're getting," said Matt Pacenza, executive director of HEAL Utah. "Even in a state like Utah, we just over and over again see that people in Utah want to buy more renewable energy."
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But support flagged at bit when cost entered into the picture: About two-thirds (65 percent) said they would be willing to pay more for their power if it would bring more renewable sources online.

Still, those surveyed most preferred proposals that used fossil fuels to keep costs low."

"Heat-trapping pollution from U.S. power plants hit a 27-year low in April, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday.

A big factor was the long-term shift from coal to cleaner and cheaper natural gas, said Energy Department economist Allen McFarland. Outside experts also credit more renewable-fuel use and energy efficiency.

Carbon dioxide — from the burning of coal, oil and gas — is the chief greenhouse gas responsible for human- made global warming.

Electric power plants spewed 141 million tons of carbon dioxide in April, the lowest for any month since April 1988, according to Energy Department figures. The power plants are responsible for about one-third of the country's heat-trapping emissions."

"The favored site for a new Utah State Prison may well be known Tuesday. The Prison Relocation Commission's leaders have called a meeting that day, believing they have the information needed to pick one of the four sites under consideration. Their recommendation will then go to the Legislature and Gov. Gary Herbert for a final decision.

"This has been an unprecedented and intricate process that has become very emotional for residents of the four communities," said Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, a co-chairman of the commission. "We owe it to them and to the rest of the state to arrive at a decision as quickly as possible without compromising the integrity of a very complex site-review process.""

"Young men today have aspirations of being hands-on fathers as well as breadwinners — supportive husbands who also do dishes.

But as they enter that more responsibility-filled stage of life, something changes: Their roles often become much more traditional.

Millennial men — ages 18 to early 30s — have much more egalitarian attitudes about family, career and gender roles inside marriage than generations before them, according to a variety of research by social scientists. Yet they struggle to achieve their goals once they start families, researchers say. Some researchers think that’s because workplace policies have not caught up to changing expectations at home."

"This summer, when all the right conditions come together, professors and graduate students from the University of Utah, Weber State University and Utah State University head to the shores of the Great Salt Lake to fly their aerostat with the goal of answering a previously unexplored question: Why is so much more ozone, a pollutant generally associated with hot, smoggy cities such as Los Angeles, found over the Great Salt Lake than on the Wasatch Front?

On smoggy days, ozone levels are nearly three times as high over the lake as along the neighboring Wasatch Front.

Together with funding and assistance from the Division of Air Quality, the group intends to map Utah's summer skies to track the perplexing pollutant.

Their effort, they hope, will shed light on the origin of summer ozone in the state — the first step in finding a more efficient means of addressing one of Utahs' top health concerns.

"We know the photochemistry will be different over the lake," said John Sohl, a physics professor at Weber State University. "We just don't know how.""

"State economic development officials say thousands of new jobs are coming to Utah in the solar-energy industry.

SolarCity already has a presence in Utah after putting solar panels on the Olympic Oval and Utah’s National Guard buildings. Friday the California-based company announced it’s bringing a regional headquarters to Utah. Brendon Merkley is SolarCity’s executive director of customer operations for Solar."

"Three Salt Lake City police officers who claim they were sexually harassed by a deputy chief and subjected to retaliation say they plan to file suit against the city over their treatment.

In a notice of claim filed with the city, the three women say they were dissuaded from promptly complaining about Rick Findlay because he occupied a position of authority over them and, as deputy chief in charge of Internal Affairs, their complaints would be screened by him.

And when they did complain, the claim says, the women's concerns were not handled "in the ordinary course of such complaints" and the investigation was delayed until Findlay could retire last year."

"Earlier this month, a state board that controls how millions in federal mineral royalties are spent on local projects approved lending the money to four coal-producing counties — Carbon, Emery, Sevier and Sanpete.

With domestic demand for coal declining as natural gas becomes the fuel of choice for generating power, many see Asian markets as the best hope for ensuring the survival of central Utah's coal industry.

"This is an opportunity that will bring about an ability to open markets and gain an international presence we've never had as rural counties," Carbon County Commissioner Jae Potter told colleagues on the Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB). "For our economy to grow outside the Wasatch Front, it will take this type of investment.

"This guarantees decades of jobs throughout the state, not just Carbon County," he added. "This is a one-time opportunity. This will not come back to us in five years."

Potter's rural county and three others — home to most of Utah's remaining coal mines — want to buy into the Oakland Global Trade and Logistics Center, a port complex being built on the former Oakland Army Base at the foot of the Bay Bridge.

If all goes as planned, Utah's overseas coal shipments could start as soon as 2017."