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December 31, 2010
The European Union has a larger economy and more people than
America does. Though it spends less -- right around 9 percent of
GNP on medical, whereas we in the U.S. spend close to between 15
to 16 percent of GNP on medical -- the EU pretty much insures
100 percent of its population.
If you've been tracking the historic discoveries
of natural gas and oil in Israel in recent years -- and the
intriguing connection of these discoveries to ancient Bible
prophecy -- then you will likely be interested in this week's
headlines:
After record solar-plant approval in 2010, the California Energy
Commission believes its "big push" in solar-thermal projects is
over.
This past year represented a "sea change" as regulators ended a
20-year dry spell and fast-tracked solar-thermal plant approval...
Delegates negotiating a new international
climate deal to cut carbon emissions and address mitigation and
adaptation emerged from a marathon session at the United
Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change 16th Conference
of the Parties Dec. 11, tired but pleased
Last year, Congress passed the Credit Card
Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD)
Act. It was supposed to really end the alleged abuses
perpetrated by the credit card companies. The law
forbids some penalties and interest-rate increases on
existing balances.
It is one of President Barack Obama's proudest
achievements.
Denmark, like, Germany, her neighbor to the
south, is a country that takes renewable energy seriously. The
wind energy industry alone in Denmark is booming with companies
like Vestas and Siemens Wind Power both having production
facilities and bases of operation on Danish soil. Denmark's own
wind based energy also grows exponentially each year leaving
many optimistic that the nation might be one of the few who can
achieve 100% renewable energy in the next several decades.
The federal government picked up thousands of new
buildings in 2009, a real estate spree which raises
questions about the Obama administration's commitment to
savings billions by shedding excess property.
In the southwest Minnesota city of Pipestone,
the last of 110 workers laid off from the Suzlon wind-turbine
blade factory walk out the door this week, all but shuttering
the plant.
It was a grimly fitting end to 2010, which was
characterized by extreme weather from start to finish, with
earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons,
blizzards, landslides and droughts.
House Republicans are ready to battle the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse or
delay new climate-change regulations, according to an
Op-Ed piece in The Wall Street Journal.
A dead zone off the coast of West Africa is reducing the amount of
available
habitat for Atlantic tuna and billfish species,
reports the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a study
published in Fisheries Oceanography. The zone is growing due to rising
water temperatures and is expected to cause over-harvest of tuna and
billfish as the fish seek higher levels of oxygen in areas with greater
fisheries activity.
A rumbling sound filled the air Tuesday while workers pumped fresh
insulation into the walls of Adam Wideen's house.
The
30-year fixed rate mortgage has reached its
highest level in seven months, according to
Freddie Mac.
Interest rates on the most popular
mortgage averaged 4.86 percent for the week
ending Dec. 30, up from 4.81 percent last
week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year
rate averaged 5.14 percent.
Jan. 2 isn't your ordinary Sunday. That day, the Obama administration
officially starts regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and critics have
issued dire predictions of economic destruction.
For 2 years industry officials, states, and environmentalists have
had 2 January 2011 circled on their calendars. That's the date
greenhouse gases officially become regulated pollutants under the
Clean
Air Act—a direct result of a 2007 ruling by the U.S.
Supreme Court that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under that law.
“There’s a lot of regional variation, so there are some exceptions to
the trend,” Armstrong says. “But in general, the Earth is warming, and
glaciers are shrinking in most areas.” Likewise, the human health
implications of the world’s changing ice cover vary regionally.
According to the most
recent issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA), "nuclear electric power
accounted for 11% of primary energy production and renewable energy
accounted for 11% of primary energy production" during
the first nine months of 2010 (the most
recent period for which data have been released).
CME was observed. The CME does not appear to be Earth-directed.slight chance for C-class activity for the next three days (31 December - 2 January). The geomagnetic field was at quiet to unsettled levels.The geomagnetic field is expected to quiet for the next three days (31 December - 2
January)
The grant program, created by Congress in 2009
as part of the economic stimulus package, was designed to
provide companies a more immediate source of money to cover the
costs of installing solar panels than an existing tax credit
provided.
As electric rates rise, the elusive break-even point comes into view
Hefty tax credits and utility rebates have helped fuel a sun- powered
boom that has solar arrays sprouting up on rooftops and carports in
Tucson and across Arizona.
But as prices for solar systems plunge, the market is accelerating
toward the day when the cost of generating solar power will match
standard electric rates - without any subsidies.
Governor Deval Patrick’s administration set an ambitious limit
yesterday on statewide greenhouse gas emissions to be achieved by
2020, through a suite of new and existing policies that balance
energy efficiency and reduced fossil fuel use with cost savings.
It was not that long ago when T. Boone Pickens ranked up there on
television air time with the Snuggie and the Ped Egg. His commercials,
or infomercials, promised that the wind corridor in the central United
States, paired with natural gas, would wean the U.S. off of fossil fuel
imports and push the country towards energy independence.
December 28, 2010
One of Alaska's major exports -- coal -- has been racking up
record shipments over the past couple of years.
Coal developers buoyed by Asia's energy boom and soaring coal
prices are contemplating even more expansion in Alaska.
Despite the lack of "official" information on
the phenomenon known as chemtrails, plenty of scientists,
journalists, researchers and ordinary citizens have created an
alternative media buzz about the spraying of chemicals that can
be seen on most days.
When President Barack Obama joined the ranks of Henry Kissinger
and the other gentle souls who have received Nobel Peace Prizes,
he did something that I don't think anyone else had previously
done in a Peace Prize acceptance speech. He argued for war:
Because conventional
photovoltaic panels produce electricity directly from
sunlight, the energy they generate must either be used as it is
produced or stored – either in batteries or by using the
electricity to produce a fuel that acts as a storage medium for
the energy. Now U.S. and Swiss researchers have developed a
prototype device that directly converts the Sun’s rays into
fuels that can be stored, allowing the energy to be used at
night or transported to locations where it is needed.
With national climate legislation stalled in the U.S. Congress,
environmental advocates are turning their attention to the country's
more action-oriented states.
The Chinese government is expected to spend about 200 billion yuan
($30.10 billion) on water conservation projects in 2011, a tenth more
than in 2010, the state-run China Daily reported on Saturday.
In the beginning, the language of the World Wide
Web was English. Times change though, and the United States’
military’s gift to civilization knows no national boundaries,
and growing worldwide adoption of the internet has changed the
audience make-up to such an extent that the dominant language of
the internet is about to become Chinese.
Peco Energy electricity customers can now save money at the same
time they're saving the planet.
At least seven power suppliers entering Peco's newly deregulated
residential market are offering packages partly or entirely derived
from renewable energy.
The Obama administration is set to expand options for 'end of life'
counseling for Medicare recipients. The White House says it's practical.
Sarah Palin says it's akin to 'death panels.'
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) today updated its guidance on how to properly clean up a
broken compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). Included with the
guidance is a new consumer brochure with CFL recycling and
cleanup tips. EPA encourages Americans to use CFLs for
residential lighting to save energy and prevent greenhouse gas
emissions that lead to global climate change.
Eleven species of wild pollinators in the United
States have turned up carrying some of the viruses known to
menace domestic honeybees, possibly picked up via flower pollen.
Corruption charges against one of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's most trusted political advisers provided the
latest evidence of deep rifts within the Iranian president's own
conservative political camp.
The IRS last week backed
off an earlier rule for next year that prohibits
flexible spending and health reimbursement account
holders from using debit cards to pay for
over-the-counter drugs that now need a prescription.
The video attempts to answer the question of
what is being sprayed in our skies and why. The answers they
find are extremely disturbing.
Two-thirds of U.S. Marine combat forces believe that placing gays in
their units would hurt their effectiveness in the field, according to a
survey the Defense Department ordered.
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg took political
correctness to new heights when she actually apologized on-air for using
the word “Christmas.”
During the stormy debate over his healthcare plan,
President Barack Obama promised his program would not
"pull the plug on grandma," and Congress dropped plans
for death panels and "end of life" counseling that would
encourage aged patients from partaking in costly medical
procedures.
Solar activity is expected to be very low for the next three days (28 - 30 December) with a slight chance of C-class activity The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet for the next three days (28 - 30 December).
Bill McKibben: Jim, more than a dozen nations have set new
high-temperature records this year, and we've seen the all-time
marks set for Asia (Pakistan at 129 degrees Fahrenheit) and
Southeast Asia. Given that the global temperature has "only"
gone up about a degree, can you explain how this kind of heat is
possible?
Until now, the common practice for manipulating the electron
spin of quantum bits, or qubits, – the building blocks of future
super-fast
quantum computers – has been through the use of magnetic
fields
A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack
America during a speech broadcast Monday.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before
we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
The worldwide shortage of clean drinking water
is a serious problem, although in many cases there’s a
relatively simple solution – just leave the tainted water
outside in clear plastic bottles, and let the sun’s heat and
ultraviolet rays purify it. ...Unfortunately, however, there’s
been no reliable way of knowing when the water has
reached a safe level of purity.
Environmentalists say construction of five hydroelectric dams in
Peru as part of an energy agreement with Brazil will damage the
environment.
Homeowners looking to make upgrades on Uncle Sam's penny have
another year to do so, thanks to an extension of the home
energy-efficiency improvement tax credits.
The extension, which was included in legislation that renewed
Bush-era tax cuts, allows individuals to receive tax credits for
installing qualifying energy-efficient windows, doors, water
heaters, roofs, insulation, heating and air-conditioning units and
biomass stoves at principal residences.
However, those who aim to take advantage of larger savings must
act quickly, as the extension calls for a significant reduction in
tax-credit amounts from this year.
A recent Economist article asks the question of
vertical farming, "Does it really stack up?" In theory, it's a
win-win-win concept for the environment, feeding growing urban
populations locally, and increasing space for agriculture
without more land use. But the reality is that vertical farming
is costly energy-wise due to the need for artificial lighting
and insufficient space for renewable energy installations on
skyscrapers. While many designs exist, no large scale vertical
farm has been built yet.
Several thousand officials from 194 countries just gathered in
Cancún, Mexico, for yet another global climate summit. Dissatisfied with
the pace of climate diplomacy, many individuals are now wondering what
they can do about climate change on their own.
Now here's some really good news. Deforestation in the Amazon -
poster child for the world's rainforests - has plunged to
unprecedentedly low levels. Indeed, at around 6,500 square
kilometers this year, less than a quarter as much has been
felled as in 2004. Admittedly that was a peak year, if not quite
the worst ever; that dubious distinction belongs to 1995, but it
has fallen steadily for five of the last six years, the most
sustained reduction on record.
Four years ago, the president of Jacobs Farm/Del
Cabo, Larry Jacobs, received an unfortunate phone call from
Whole Foods. The retail giant notified him that it was rejecting
the organic dill he had sold the chain because his culinary herb
had tested positive for pesticides.
The U.S. State Department confirms that the
12 terrorism suspects arrested in the United Kingdom last week
had targeted the
American Embassy in London.
Last year's H1N1 pandemic was a wake-up call to many scientists
to how unpredictable and dangerous viruses circulating in the
animal world can be if they jump to humans. The outbreak of
avian flu in 2006 was our first clue.
Since then, there's been a lot of talk about monitoring the
health of the animals most likely to pass on a flu virus with
pandemic potential - pigs and birds
Climate scientists have a diagnosis for the big chill that has
made this month probably the coldest December since 1910 - the
North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).
December 24, 2010
Two years ago today, Harriman cattle farmer Terry Gupton and his
wife, Sandy, woke up to a nightmare that in months to come would
only intensify around them and their neighbors.
Scientists say an
entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia
co-existed and interbred with our own species.
The ancient humans have been dubbed Denisovans after the caves in
Siberia where their remains were found.
There is also evidence that this group was widespread in Eurasia.
Counter-intuitive but true, say scientists: a string of freezing
European winters scattered over the last decade has been driven in large
part by global warming.
The culprit, according to a new study, is the Arctic's receding
surface ice, which at current rates of decline could to disappear
entirely during summer months by century's end.
The population of the United States grew 9.7% to
308.7 million people over the past decade -- the slowest rate of
growth since the Great Depression -- the Census Bureau reported
on Tuesday.
The U.S. Justice Department, under an agreement yesterday, won’t
prosecute the Frankfurt-based
bank for fraud or tax evasion for enabling wealthy U.S. citizens
to avoid $5.9 billion in taxes, after the bank admitted criminal
wrongdoing.
Look under the plastic covers of any smart device, and you will see a
printed circuit board and attachments and wires that should be familiar
to anyone in the computer industry. This simple fact should give
everyone using this equipment pause. Why would this equipment, whose
origins and designs have been forged in a throw-away culture of consumer
electrics, be durable enough for the demands of the electric utility?
The answer is clear. They aren't.
Almost half of all Americans take at least one
prescription drug and the United States healthcare industry is
the world’s biggest – with $300 billion a year spent on
prescription drugs alone, and rising. The
following documentary reveals the underhanded ways these
companies are making their money, promoting drugs irresponsibly
and denying the damage they cause.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its plan for
establishing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution standards under the
Clean Air Act in 2011.
The agency looked at a number of sectors and is moving forward
on GHG standards for fossil fuel power plants and petroleum
refineries—two of the largest industrial sources, representing
nearly 40 percent of the GHG pollution in the United States.
The hoopla over cutting the federal debt is just
that - a lot of hot air. Case in point: The country's ethanol
industry, which enjoys billions in subsidies and which a
bipartisan group of lawmakers are calling for cuts.
The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to approve
its first ever Internet access regulation, which ensures unimpeded
access to any legal Web content for home Internet users.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Colorado state office has
awarded a geothermal lease sale for the first time in nearly 30
years on a parcel of land near the Mount Princeton Hot Springs, a
popular swimming pool and resort.
An inventor and entrepreneur, Adrain did some research and
decided to install an underground geothermal heating and cooling
system.
In one of the most activist lame-duck sessions ever,
Democrats and President Barack Obama appeared on the
verge Tuesday of pulling off a series of stunning
legislative victories during a term that can’t end soon
enough for Republicans, who are increasingly frustrated
that November’s landslide has given way to what one
senator described as GOP “capitulation.”
Federal Reserve efforts to cut interest rates and
pump money into the financial system have reverberated
through the U.S. economy, making it more likely the
recovery will be sustained, the Conference Board’s
leading economic indicators index showed.
Australian climate and ocean scientists are
studying some of the planet's most remote areas using a
multi-million dollar array of high-tech underwater equipment
that provides data vital for the monitoring of almost one-third
of the world's oceans.
City leaders approved a $1.3 million solar power project Tuesday
that has some in town wondering if taxpayers will ever get their
money's worth from the deal.
There is no mystery in Sen. Joe Manchin's mind as to why the
Environmental Protection Agency is dragging its feet on stalled coal
mining permits in West Virginia.
Meredith Whitney, the former Oppenheimer analyst
whose dead-on predictions on the banking crisis vaulted
her to fame, stands by her controversial new call:
Massive unrest across the country as the municipal-bond
market sells off.
While renewable energy production scenario is
improving slowly in many developing nations, more action is now
happening in the oil producing countries of the Middle East.
Because, Middle East countries which have been leading the
non-renewable energy race for the past few decades have now
turned their sights to leading a new race -- A race to become
the world's leading producers and exporters of renewable energy.
The sharply worded statement underscores the sensitivities on
militant sanctuaries in Pakistan, identified in a White House report on
the Afghan conflict as a key impediment to subduing the Taliban.
Nearly one-fourth of the students who try
to join the Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture
of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer
basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new
study released Tuesday.
Today the Obama administration restored
protections for the wild public lands under the jurisdication of
the Bureau of Land Management by creating a new classification
known as "Wild Lands."
A paper mill in Ohio is helping the state meet
renewable energy mandates by replacing coal with paper waste and
biomass in its power plant.
China’s inflation may exceed 5 percent to 6 percent
in some months of next year, the People’s Daily recently
reported, citing Ba Shusong, a researcher at the State
Council’s Development Research Center.
PSNH has been fined $53,000 because one of its power plants
emitted too much pollution back in 2008, but in something of an
ironic twist, the plant in question is the portion of Schiller
Station that now burns wood instead of coal, a change long touted as
one of the utility's pro-environmental moves.
Human drug usage
began at the dawn of civilization and we may have sought out the
first mind-altering substances by watching the behavior of
animals which indulged (goats in particular)
Renewable energy companies are broadening their operations
beyond Europe and the United States to new markets in Asia, but
serious obstacles to the industry are emerging, several industry
analysts told Platts
Well, the sneaky politicians have done what they do best – stab
their own constituents in the back when there is the least amount of
light shining on the political process. Yesterday evening – Sunday
evening – around 11:30 pm, the U.S. Senate slapped the so-called
Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) as an amendment onto the
“Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act” (H.R.2751), passed it
by unanimous consent, without a vote (because very few Senators were
present during the late-night debate on the START Treaty), and sent
it back to the House to be approved.
Hackers equipped with inexpensive radio hardware
and open source software can compromise your mobile phone,
listen to your conversations, intercept your data, or rack up
huge bills on premium services, all without you knowing.
Today, the United States Senate
approved the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) reducing
the vast U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons arsenals and taking a critical
step toward increasing international security.
Millions of Americans are drinking water
contaminated with the carcinogenic chemical that came to
national attention in the 2000 feature film Erin Brockovich.
Laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group
(EWG) found hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, in the drinking
water of 31 of 35 selected U.S. cities.
“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.” Senator
Amidala (Star Wars)
While we ultimately may not have stopped this in the Congress, the
law that was adopted is a different creature than we would have faced
had we not opposed it every step of the way. Recall, the first
version of the bill that passed the House in July ‘09 had severe
penalties and no significant exemption for local production and
distribution.
TAU uses sugar and cornstarch to make environmentally safer
plastics
Environmentalists around the world agree — plastic bags are choking
our landfills and polluting our seas. Now a Tel Aviv University
researcher is developing new laboratory methods using corn starch
and sugar to help sustainable plastics — those that biodegrade and
are even tougher than those made from petrochemicals — compete in
the industry.
U.S. existing home sales rose
5.6% in November to 4.68 million annualized units, thereby more
than retracing the 2.2% drop to 4.43 million in the previous
month
The third, and final, estimate of third-quarter
2010 GDP saw the growth rate revised up once again although by
only a marginal 0.1 percentage point (pp) to 2.6% from the
second, or preliminary, estimate of 2.5%. Growth in the third
quarter was initially estimated at 2.0% in the advance report.
The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in
fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2
trillion as commitments on government debt and federal
benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed Tuesday.
And just last week, we
achieved another important milestone when the White House released its
long-awaited scientific integrity directive to prevent political
interference in science.
December 21, 2010
This was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes,
super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a
quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a
generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this
year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years
combined.
Vox Day is a Christian libertarian
opinion columnist
In the Arctic, trees and forests just do not
happen. However, long ago they did when the area was warmer and
then turned cooler. As it turns out there are many such northern
forests that have been preserved by mineralization and similar
processes.
Various sources have estimated that
approximately one half to two thirds of annual anthropogenic
carbon dioxide emissions are removed from the atmosphere by
natural processes, primarily by absorption into the world's
oceans.
Clean Edge Jobs is the premier source for clean-tech job
seekers, employers, and recruiters. Search current openings
among the job categories listed below.
Companies interested in kick-starting coal to the
forefront of American energy generation have some
solid backing: The U.S. Department of Energy, which
is plowing in about $1.1 billion or 80 percent of
the cost of a potential zero-emissions coal-fired
facility capable of capturing and burying carbon
emissions.
After lots of fanfare, electric cars have finally
pulled into town. They power-up from a wall socket
or charging station that will connect to the grid,
enabling the potential to cut greenhouse gas
emissions. But, for now, they depend on fossil-fired
electricity - and whether utilities can meet the
demands to be imposed upon them.
A 60-year drought like that of the 12th century could be in
our future, indicates new research by UA scientists.
An unprecedented combination of heat plus decades of drought
could be in store for the Southwest sometime this century, suggests
new research from a University of Arizona-led team.
The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote
on official Net neutrality rules tomorrow, which the
agency claims will provide consumers, service providers,
device makers, and application developers clear rules of
the road for the Internet.
New York's governor has signed an executive order
stopping the process by which natural gas developers
drill for shale until the state completes a study.
What then does that portend for "hydraulic
fracturing" and the shale gas industry?
Water scarcity in the western U.S. has long been an issue of
concern. Now, a team of researchers studying freshwater
sustainability in the U.S. have found that the Southeast, with the
exception of Florida, does not have enough water capacity to meet
its own needs.
More than 30 former defense or foreign policy government officials
and related experts issued an open letter to the Senate Monday
expressing their “professional judgment” that President Barack Obama’s
proposed nuclear weapons reduction treaty with the Russians, called New
START, “is not consistent with the national security interests of the
United States,” and “should be rejected by the U.S. Senate,” which is
considering it now.
The world war on renewables is on. China. India.
And the United States - along with Denmark and others - are out
to battle for supremacy in what will be the next turn in the
industrial revolution.
The U.S. government is creating a vast domestic
spying network to collect information about Americans in
the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent
terror plots, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Some people view imminent wind power development in Somerset
County as a way to boost the economic stability of the region.
Others decry its perceived ill health effects and detriment to the
landscape.
Either way, change is looming.
A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula County
District Court last week.
Jurors – well, potential jurors – staged a revolt.
“This was the year the
Earth struck back,”
reported the AP. “Earthquakes, heat waves, floods,
volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts
killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 —
the deadliest year in more than a generation.
More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters
this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past
40 years combined.
Discussions in Cancun are now
centering on how to reduce the level of global greenhouse gas emissions.
But some of the actions taken here at home are speaking volumes.
U.S. researchers say they've developed a new kind of solar cell
that can generate energy even at night, promising a new form of
renewable energy.
This Christmas, chances are you’ll save the plastic film and
blister packs that your presents come encased in and send it all
off for recycling.
More than 1,000 indigenous journalists and leaders
came together in mid-November to devise a continent-wide strategy
for the protection and education of their communities and to develop
a communications network for the entire hemisphere. Summit
organizers chose the site where 100,000 people marched in opposition
to the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia, in the Cauca region of Colombia.
George Orwell warned us about the use of
meaningless words in politics -- words that are endlessly repeated by
sloganeering politicians until they have no meaning at all. Meaningless
words certainly were on display last week during congressional debate
over the latest tax bill. Over and over again we heard trite, empty
phrases like "tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%", "tax giveaways", "tax
earmarks", and "borrowing money to give to millionaires." Time and time
again the same falsehoods were presented as fact and reported as such by
our credulous media. by Ron Paul
A New York lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal
family claims the desert kingdom’s King Abdullah might want to
move the controversial ground zero mosque to an Islamic cultural
center he would build on the site of a shuttered Manhattan
hospital.
The Senate on Sunday night cleared a food safety package,
curbing earlier fears the popular bill would die by the end of
this session as a result of a procedural error by upper chamber
lawmakers.
The zero-emission technology can convert
saltwater to pure drinking water on a round-the-clock basis –
and its energy needs are so low existing solar technology or
even the waste heat of an air conditioning system could power
it.
For those in breezy parts of Anchorage, there's finally an
opportunity to put brisk, unpleasant winds to good use. Pieces are
falling into place that will let residents and businesses generate
some of their own energy with a wind turbine, and cut their power
bills.
Cancer-causing chromium is turning up in tap water in
more than two dozen cities, according to a study that urges
federal regulators to adopt tougher standards.
Even though scientists at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and National Toxicology Program have
linked the ingestion of hexavalent chromium to cancer, the
EPA doesn't require cities to test for the toxic metal.
Don't kid yourself into
thinking that the worst of the financial crisis has passed. For some
banks, it's just beginning. Eating all those bad loans is hurting all
banks, and many more are going to fail.
It’s not unreasonable to worry that corporate
and government interests force the average person into serfdom.
Chris Hedges’ words, in a recent interview with The Raw Story,
exemplify the concern: “We’ve undergone a corporate coup d’état
in slow motion … Unless we begin to physically resist, they are
going to solidify neo-feudalism in this country”
The
U.N. Forum Convention on Climate Change denied entry to
Indigenous
Environmental Network Executive Director Tom Goldtooth Dec. 8
after a protest with chanting by non-Native participants arose a day
earlier in the halls of the Moon Palace, site of the official U.N.
climate convention. The convention is hosting 194 countries to
further negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol, and climate-related
issues.
After a 33-year journey, Voyager 1 has now
crossed into an area at the edge of our Solar System where there
is no outward motion of solar wind.
This time of year I
usually take a week off from column writing to rest and recycle,
I mean recharge my batteries. But I just stumbled across this vignette from the New York Daily
News about a college kid in Brooklyn who de-litters a little corner of
his world every day and then
blogs about it, with photos
included. Evidently his idea is catching. Our planet could use more
example setters like this fellow, not just this time of year but all
year long, every year.
Last Thursday, the President signed into law HR 4853, the Tax
Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act
of 2010. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed the bill by a vote
81 to 19 and the House of Representatives passed the bill 277-148.
This tax bill was the result of negotiations between President Obama
and Republicans, and will extend the 2001 and 2003 income
tax cuts for all families for two years and unemployment benefits
for one year.
Despite the fact that he believes the real-estate
market is double-dipping and will create another $1
trillion in economic loss, New York University economist
Nouriel Roubini says he expects the U.S. economy to
expand by as much as 3 percent next year.
December 17, 2010
The gall of gas megacorporations is surpassed only by the
preposterousness of their claims. They spend millions each year
trying to convince the public and our lawmakers of the benefits
of "natural" gas (NG), but a quick look at their propaganda
reveals some deep flaws.
Today the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted
unanimously to approve a new program designed to drive small to
mid-sized renewable energy development. Called a "Renewable
Auction Mechanism" (RAM), this next-generation feed-in tariff
program will require investor-owned California utilities to
purchase electricity from solar and other renewable energy
systems up to 20 MW in size.
One of the biggest problems with
solar energy is that the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day. This
means that unless users are only planning on using electricity
when the sun is shining, some form of energy storage system is
required.
The residents of Waterloo, Ontario in Canada have voted to stop
adding fluoride to their water supply. The decision has been
welcomed by anti-fluoride campaigners.
Global dimming is a less well-known but real phenomenon resulting
from atmospheric pollution. The burning of fossil fuels by industry and
internal combustion engines, in addition to releasing the carbon dioxide
that collects and traps the sun's heat within our atmosphere, causes the
emission of so-called particulate pollution—composed primarily of
sulphur dioxide, soot and ash. When these particulates enter the
atmosphere they absorb solar energy and reflect sunlight otherwise bound
for the Earth's surface back into space.
Clean Edge Jobs is the premier source for clean-tech job
seekers, employers, and recruiters. Search current openings
among the job categories listed below.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is releasing its annual national analysis of the Toxics
Release Inventory (TRI), providing all Americans vital
information about their communities.
The UN's big climate conference ended Saturday in Cancún, with
claims of modest victory. "The UN climate talks are off the
life-support machine," said Tim Gore of Oxfam. "Not as rancorous
as last year's train wreck in Copenhagen," wrote the Guardian.
Patricia Espinosa, the Mexican foreign minister who brokered the
final compromise, described it as "the best we could achieve at
this point in a long process."
Oslo-based electric vehicle maker THINK has started
production of the
THINK City EV at its new plant in Elkhart, Indiana. The company
hasn’t wasted anytime getting up to speed...
One thing was very clear at the recent
Future of Electric Vehicles conference in San Jose – innovative
design and development of electric vehicles is not restricted to
the automotive sector. The case-in-point is the Deep Flight
Super Falcon submersible.
NASA has released a new analysis of temperature change. The map shows
temperature anomalies for 2000-2009 and 1970-1979 relative to a
1951-1980 baseline.
In a setback for Nevada, a federal licensing board has refused
arguments that the application of the U.S. Department of Energy to
build a high-level nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain was legally
invalid.
Right out of the gate, a new legislator wants to revolutionize
the permitting process by exempting West Virginia coal used in this
state from the under-fire Environmental Protection Agency.
The Obama administration on Wednesday launched a legal battle
against BP Plc and its partners by suing them for the worst offshore
oil spill in U.S. history, which could cost the companies billions
of dollars.
...the public and private sectors must work together to deter
the very real possibility of cyber attacks on the operating
systems of the nation's critical infrastructure — not just by a
recently discovered worm, known as Stuxnet, but also by far less
powerful threats.
Instead of pressuring reluctant Republican senators
for rapid ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty with Russia, the Obama administration should just
drop it, says Richard Perle, a key architect of
President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War.
With Senate Republicans uniting against a massive $1.1 trillion
omnibus spending bill and threatening to demand a time-consuming oral
reading of the 1,924-page measure, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
tonight elected to ditch the controversial bill.
a long duration B7 flare. slight chance for a C-class flare. continued decline in solar wind speeds ranging from 550 km/s down to 450 km/s through the period. a coronal hole high speed stream becomes geoeffective.
On November 30, the Institute of Medicine issued a new
report on vitamin D. How did the report compare to the opinion of
experts like the Vitamin D Council1?
Rooftop solar installation in the county is spotty at best. One
home or business with solar panels on the roof is typically
surrounded by many others without.
As the incoming chairman of the House monetary policy subcommittee,
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will hold the bully pulpit when it comes to the
nation's money woes.
He's not wasting any time getting right to the heart of the matter.
Spain's fast-growing renewable energy industry grew 28% last
year to contribute 0.81% to the country's GDP, according to a
Deloitte consultancy study commissioned by the country's primary
renewable energy lobby group, Asociacion de Productores de
Energías Renovables, or APPA.
Considering the short term of one to three years, what technology
advances may be expected in the CPV sector? What conversion
efficiencies might be achieved and costs/kW installed reached? And
what, if any, are the technical and investment barriers which must
be overcome in order to achieve these forecasts?
If approved, it will be a dangerous and capricious move that will
undermine our security for years to come.
From an, for this time of the year, unusually cold mid-Germany
(-11C), we send out our last Update and Editorial of the year. The cold
seems to grip very large parts of Europe and may be one of the first
very tangible signs that the climate in Europe is changing. It is quite
normal that it freezes here around this time, but the depth of it is
unusual, as well as the snow in West Ireland, in the South of Greece,
and the extremis of the temperature-drops that have occurred over the
last weeks.
President Barack Obama made major news during
the second annual White House Tribal Nations Conference,
announcing United States’ support for the U.N. Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
New findings by civil engineering researchers in the University
of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering show that treating
municipal wastewater solids at higher temperatures may be an
effective tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The United States risks major supply disruptions of rare earth
metals used in clean energy products unless it diversifies its
sources of the minerals, the Energy Department warns in a report due
to be released later on Wednesday.
30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.83 percent with an
average 0.7 point for the week ending December 16, 2010, up from
last week when it averaged 4.61 percent. Last year at this time, the
30-year FRM averaged 4.94 percent.
Despite tough economic times, rich countries must make good on
short-term pledges of billions of dollars in financing to help
developing countries tackle global warming, the U.S. climate envoy
said.
Lately I´ve spent a good amount of time thinking about how big a role I
believe government should play in society. It´s arguably the essential
question of politics.
I still don´t have my own answer, to be honest. In trying to answer
it, I´ve used the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an example .
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the
same location used for production of electric power. Individual
turbines are interconnected with a medium voltage power
collection system and communications network.
December 14, 2010
Many of us organic farmers share an aversion to
government interference in our affairs. Although there has been
some minor improvement lately, government ag programs and the
Land Grants have not done much for organic agriculture.
Sentiasa Maju, a Malaysian logging company
operating in the state of Sarawak in Borneo, is being accused of
intimidating protesting locals with guns. The locals from a
native Iban community were defending their fruit and rubber
trees against destruction by Sentiasa Maju's bulldozers.
The United Nations climate change conference in
Cancun wrapped up two weeks of negotiations at dawn this morning
with agreement on a package of decisions that UN officials are
hailing as a victory.
United Nations climate change talks which concluded over the weekend
in Cancun, Mexico, have yielded several breakthrough agreements on
elements of a post-2012 global climate deal, the UN said Saturday.
A deal among nearly 200 countries to take modest steps to fight
global warming could help political efforts to fight emissions in
the United States, Washington's top U.S. climate envoy said on
Saturday.
The Chinese government has launched a crackdown on “house churches” —
Protestant congregations that don’t belong to the state-sanctioned
church organization — branding the house church movement a “cult.”
Earth's largest lakes have been warming during
the past 25 years in response to climate change, according to
the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in
major lakes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed
saccharin, a common artificial sweetener, and its salts from the
agency’s list of hazardous substances. Saccharin is no longer
considered a potential hazard to human health.
Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig says the
recovery simply cannot be sped up and that Fed Chief Ben
Bernanke’s efforts to avoid a double-dip by printing money are
nothing less than “a bargain with the devil.
The big question in the Middle East these days is: Who has time on their
side?
The startup this year of East Siberia-Pacific
Ocean (ESPO) shipments from Siberia has positioned Russia to add
to its established role of LNG provider and become an
increasingly important supplier of crude oil to Japan, which has
traditionally depended on the Middle East for most of its
imports.
The ultimate goal is clear to everyone on the
final day of the UN climate talks in Cancun - a single
legally-binding agreement to limit global warming that includes
all countries - the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, China and
the United States, the 37 now bound by the Kyoto Protocol, and
the vulnerable developing countries.
The culprit may be a pesticide that the EPA has allowed on the
market despite the fact that the company which makes the
pesticide has failed to prove it is safe.
Moody's warned Monday that it could move a step closer to
cutting the U.S. Aaa rating if President Barack Obama's tax and
unemployment benefit package becomes law.
The Arizona utility planning a partial shutdown of Four Corners
Power Plant intends to operate the two remaining stacks for decades,
a spokesman said.
On Saturday, New York Governor David Paterson
made New York the first state to place a moratorium on natural
gas drilling that uses hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to
release the gas trapped in shale rock.
North Korea warned Monday that U.S.-South Korean
cooperation could bring a nuclear war to the region, as the
South began artillery drills amid lingering tension nearly three
weeks after the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean
island.
From the "Petroleum Highway" -- a rutted, dusty stretch of
California State Route 33 -- you can see the jostling armies of
two giant industries. To the east, relentless rows of almonds
and pistachios march to the horizon. To the west, an armada of
oil wells sweeps to the foothills of the Temblor Range.
There is a slight chance for a C-class event. The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled during the past 24 hours in response to a coronal hole high speed stream. The geomagnetic field is expected to return to mostly quiet conditions for days one and two (14-15 December). Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected on day three (16 December) as a recurrent coronal high speed stream rotates into a geoeffective position.
Used in the proper amounts, it can make teeth stronger and aid in
the treatment of osteoporosis. When excessive amounts are consumed,
however, it can be a killer — a carcinogen that causes bone, lung
and bladder cancers. The "it" is fluoride, a common additive in most
American communities' drinking water and an ingredient in the vast
majority of commercially produced adult toothpastes.
The uranium company ARMZ, which is wholly owned by the Russian State
Corporation for Nuclear Energy, has paid $610 million for control of
Uranium One Inc., a Canadian company that owns two uranium mines in
Wyoming.
The European
SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, which is developing
technology to automate slipstreaming of multiple vehicles on
highways, is now a year into its three-year program.
Innovation adds to
the wealth of society. Science and technology research and development
lie at the heart of innovation. American leadership in this endeavor,
which this country still owns, cannot be taken for granted.
Report Details Areas Conservationists
Hope Department of Interior Will Prioritize for Guided
Utility-Scale Development
After the Senate takes up the
tax-extension bill it will take up the Continuing Resolution.
Monday evening and all day Tuesday are critical to our effort to
preserve Health & Food Freedom!
Right now, it looks a little like one of those plastic containers
you might fill with gasoline when your car has run dry. But Scott
Gallager is not headed to the nearest Mobil station. The Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist has other, grander plans
for his revolutionary Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer (SBS),
which employs one-celled protozoa to detect toxins in water sources.
The Economy: Wall Street may be recording record
profits, but the job market is lagging. As such, hard-pressed
consumers will continue to look for value...
In a few short weeks, more than 100 new senators and representatives
will arrive in Washington, D.C. ready to make decisions that will impact
our health, safety, and environment.
Regrettably, many of these people listen more to corporate executives in
the oil and coal industries, electric utilities, and big agribusiness
than they do to scientists with objective data.
A federal judge declared the Obama
administration's healthcare law unconstitutional Monday, siding
with Virginia's attorney general in a dispute that both sides
agree the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will decide.
Weekly oil data from the US Energy Information Administration and the
American Petroleum Institute should show a draw of about 3 million
barrels in US commercial crude stocks for the reporting week ended
December 10, analysts polled by Platts said Monday.
The city of Wichita, Kan., wants to organize its waste hauling
companies into a cooperative,...The authors of a new study on orbital
space junk are proposing an earthly solution to the problem: a
Superfund-style program to tackle the cleanup of debris whizzing around
in space.
A blizzard dumped thigh-deep snow on some areas of the upper
Midwest on Sunday, playing havoc with travelers and causing the roof
of a large stadium, the Metrodome, to collapse in Minneapolis.
December 10, 2010
Calling it "one of the greatest threats facing
our planet," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced
that USDA is taking action to meet the challenge of climate
change. Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change
Conference, the Secretary said USDA continues to take steps to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions "by helping farmers, ranchers
and forest landowners to be even better conservationists."
Arizona Public Service Co. has signed contracts for the
construction of two photovoltaic power plants with a combined
capacity of 37 megawatts. Both plants will be developed by
SunEdison, with APS taking ownership at completion.
Imagine
you live on an island, a tropical paradise.
Turquoise waters rise and fall at the shore’s edge. The ocean’s
rhythmic sounds lull you into a sense of security. All feels right
in your island home.
Suddenly, reality strikes.
You’re a lifelong resident of an island in the
Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and you’ve got 10
days of drinking water left.
Recently, NASA officials announced the
discovery of arsenic-eating bacteria that challenges the
understanding of life as we know it. The organisms are unique in
that they subsist without phosphorus, thought to be a universal
building block of all living things, substituting arsenic in its
place. Recovered from the arsenic-rich confines of Mono Lake in
California, the bacterium actually thrives on the poisonous element,
incorporating arsenic into its DNA. The landmark finding has excited
the scientific community by opening the door for many possibilities,
both terrestrial and
beyond. But what does it all mean for Earth's fundamental
element — water?
A new methodology to assess
the nation's potential to store carbon dioxide (CO2) is
available.
Beekeepers and environmentalists Wednesday called on the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to remove a pesticide that could
be linked to colony collapse disorder from the market and to
issue an order to stop its use.
Committing funds to climate change mitigation
and adaptation strategies in developing countries will lead to a
safer, healthier and prosperous world for all, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates at the United
Nations climate change conference in Cancun today, urging them
to find ways of raising the required resources.
Novel metal catalysts may be able to turn greenhouse gases
into liquid fuels without producing more carbon waste
If fossil fuels burn completely, the end products are carbon
dioxide and water. Recently, the carbon dioxide is a waste product,
one that goes into the air — adding to global warming; or the oceans
— acidifying them; or underground — with as yet unknown
consequences.
With China now the clear global renewables leader and new countries
emerging as key contenders in the market, a new world order is apparent
in the clean energy sector, according to Ernst & Young's latest
Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices of 30 countries.
China has answered efforts to ban credits from
industrial gas projects in the European carbon market by
threatening to release potent greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere unless developed nations pay what environmental
groups are calling a "climate ransom."
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday defended the calculations
he and others in the federal government made in estimating how much oil
flowed from Macondo wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico earlier in 2010,
after indications surfaced last week that BP may dispute those estimates
in federal court.
Beginning with
the January 2011 monthly data, all climatologies, anomalies, and
indices presented within and related to the monthly Climate
Diagnostics Bulletin will be updated according to current WMO
standards.
Once again, this time last week in Michigan,
the federal DEA has teamed up with recalcitrant
state and local law enforcement in a bid to
negate the will of the public and the law of the
land. Heavily-armed state and federal lawmen
raided a pair of medical marijuana gardens in
the town of Okemos, outside Lansing, breaking
windows, throwing smoke grenades, and seizing
thousands of dollars worth of equipment and
medical marijuana plants -- all in a raid of a
facility that is undeniably within the confines
of
Michigan's medical marijuana law.
In a last-ditch effort to resurrect S.510, the
Food Safety Modernization Act, House Democrats are effectively
hiding approval of the bill inside another bill -- HR 3082, an
appropriations bill meant to fund the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
Despite Democratic efforts,
Republicans on Thursday prevented a vote on the
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, putting the repeal of a ban
on gays serving openly in the military in doubt.
Contrary to popular belief, birth control pills
account for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the
nation's drinking water supplies, scientists have concluded in
an analysis of studies published on the topic. Their report
suggests that most of the sex hormone — source of concern as an
endocrine disrupter with possible adverse effects on people and
wildlife — enters drinking water supplies from other sources.
To help find solutions to the nation’s bed bug problem, the
Federal Bed Bug Workgroup is convening a second national summit
set for February 1-2, 2011, in Washington, D.C. The summit is
open to the public and will focus on ways the federal government
and others can continue to work together on management and
control of these pests.
Environmental Protection Agency regulations may result in over
50,000 megawatts of coal power plant retirements and up to $180
billion in compliance costs for remaining plants, consulting firm
The Brattle Group said in a report.
Small businesses and middle market companies put the brakes on
growth-oriented investments last year and are sending mixed signals
about their intentions for the year ahead. The owners and managers of
these firms are not blaming this lack of investment activity on the
absence of credit — it’s the economy they say is holding them back.
Governor
Richardson has made clean-energy related economic development
one of his top priorities during his Administration. As part of
that commitment, the Governor directed the Energy, Minerals and
Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) to pursue strategies to
enhance the market for New Mexico-produced natural gas by
stimulating increased demand for natural gas within the state.
The FDA is responsible for tens of thousands of
deaths after approving dangerous drugs and lethal cocktails taken by
tens of millions of Americans who either have no access to the truth
about the FDA or are so gullible and trusting, they believe a stamp of
"safe" by that evil agency means it's okay to take their approved drugs.
Advocates of S. 510 use arguments that pale in comparison to the deaths
caused by the FDA:
The millions of chickens at Hillandale Farms can make quite a
mess. Getting rid of that mess has traditionally meant trucking tons
of manure to area farms where it is then spread on the land as
fertilizer.
The ice sheet consists of layers of compressed snow and covers
roughly 80 per cent of the surface of Greenland. Since the 1990s, it has
been documented to be losing approximately 100 billion tonnes of ice per
year -- a process that most scientists agree is accelerating, but has
been poorly understood. Some of the loss has been attributed to
accelerated glacier flow towards ocean outlets.
A technique helping stroke victims regain their
mobility has won the 2010 Danish Research Result of the Year
award and is now attracting attention from investors keen to see
the research move from the lab and into rehabilitation centers.
A new international population study, led by the
University of Cincinnati, will be the first to examine the human
developmental effects of environmental exposure to the complex
metal mixture found in electronic waste (e-waste).
BP and its contractors made a series of decisions that were
"breathtakingly inept" ahead of the largest offshore oil spill in
U.S. history, a co-chair of the White House oil spill commission
said on Wednesday.
No, it’s not true. Taking action to fight climate change is good for
our country and will bring numerous economic, public health, and
security benefits. In fact, the most costly and risky thing we can do is
nothing because that ensures that global warming emissions will continue
rising—this path will likely lead to costly impacts like more extreme
weather events, sea-level rise, and threats to energy and water
resources.
During November
2010, the ongoing La Niña was reflected by below-average sea
surface temperatures (SSTs) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. For the second straight month, only small changes were evident
in the Niño SST indices, which ranged from –1.3oC to –1.7oC
at the end of the month
Many coastal wetlands worldwide - including several on the U.S.
Atlantic coast - may be more sensitive than previously thought to
climate change and sea-level rise projections for the 21st
century.
Residents of the Himalayas and other mountain areas face a "tough
and unpredictable future" as global warming melts glaciers and
threatens worse floods and water loss, officials said during U.N.
climate talks on Tuesday.
On the Hawaiian island of Molokai, time moves
slowly and life is intentionally simple. Many Molokai residents
rely upon the fruits and vegetables they grow or the fish they
catch at sea to subsist as their ancestors have for centuries.
Additional supplies that cannot be grown or acquired from
within, arrive with a high price tag from the U.S. mainland via
Oahu, urging most individuals to think locally.
Even before California's power companies have met a year-end
target of getting 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources
such as wind or solar, state Sen. Joe Simitian is upping the ante.
A planned solar panel project at Mt. Abram could provide all the
ski resort's energy without angering neighbors.
Using a geology-based assessment methodology,
the U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of 38 trillion
cubic feet (TCF) of undiscovered natural gas, 159 million
barrels of natural gas liquid, and no oil in accumulations of
0.5 million barrels or larger in the Arkoma Basin Province...
In the December of 2009,
the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) published a
comprehensive treatise on the geology of gas hydrates which is entitled
Natural Gas Hydrates – Energy Resource Potential and Associated Hazards.
A new World Economic Forum report developed in
partnership with Accenture was presented today at the Green
Solutions Event at COP16 in Cancun. The Energy Efficiency:
Accelerating the Agenda report emphasizes the urgent need for
energy efficiency to be at the forefront of the global agenda.
The Army is shipping powerful new rifles to its snipers in
Afghanistan to kill insurgents who are firing from greater distances
and shooting at troops more frequently than in the early years of
the war.
On November 29, 2010, the New York State Assembly passed a
bill imposing a state-wide moratorium on new authorizations for
hydraulic fracturing.
A remarkable study published in the Cochrane Libary found no
evidence of benefit for influenza vaccinations and also noted that
the vast majority of trials were inadequate. The authors stated that
the only ones showing benefit were industry-funded. They also
pointed out that the industry-funded studies were more likely to be
published in the most prestigious journals…and one more thing: They
found cases of severe harm caused by the vaccines, in spite of
inadequate reporting of adverse effects.
The U.S. push for nuclear power stalled 30 years ago. Now, some
industry leaders are trying to get it back up to speed.
President Barack Obama signed the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement into law Dec. 8, signaling
the end of one approval process necessary to get money into the
hands of Indian class members. The ball now goes to the overseeing
court, which is charged with ensuring the settlement is fair.
“A U.S.-Israeli exploration group led by
Texas-based Noble Energy drilling at the Leviathan prospect in
the eastern Mediterranean has
found indications of natural gas, the
Israeli partners said on Monday…
Campaigners presented a petition of more than a million
signatures to the EU executive on Thursday, demanding a halt to
approvals of new genetically modified (GM) crops.
In all wells in all four fields examined here,
water production commences with gas production—there are no
examples of wells with water-free production and no examples
where water production commences after first-sample gas
production.
In recent days, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have
been launched against several sites, including those belonging to
Amazon,
MasterCard, PayPal and the Swiss payment transaction firm
PostFinance, after each terminated WikiLeaks accounts or pulled
the plug on services
It's not entirely true that bigger projects have no
economies of scale, but these two charts illustrate the
larger point: Most economies of scale in solar PV
and wind power are captured at a relatively small size.
If this program is renewed, the wind industry alone is poised to create
20,000 new jobs in 2011. If Congress allows it to expire,
Americans will be laid off, while we lose the clean energy manufacturing
race with China.
When Republicans take control of the House of
Representatives in a couple weeks, the national
legislative agenda will also change. While trimming
the national debt is the top goal, Americans can
also expect to less emphasis on environmental
regulations and more focus on expanding businesses.
The Shiite Sadrist movement was the key bloc that assured Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's re-election, and now the fiercely
anti-U.S. fundamentalist group wants its cut in return: A bigger
role in Iraq's new government. Already, it has gotten bolder on
the ground.
Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA®)
President and CEO Rhone Resch released the following statement
today applauding the Senate's inclusion of a one-year extension
of the Department of Treasury Section 1603 program in their tax
bill compromise:
Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon
and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk reached a final
agreement Friday after four days of negotiations
focusing on U.S. demands that South Korea rework the
accord to address its big trade surplus in automobiles.
From residential rooftops to utility-scale
farms, all users of solar energy want to get the most power from
their systems. Everyone is looking for technologies that enhance
power harvest and get the highest wattage from a solar
photovoltaic (PV) installation.
Against the backdrop of a fierce national debate
over illegal immigration, the Supreme Court on Wednesday will
hear a challenge to an
Arizona law that revokes the licenses of companies that hire
undocumented workers.
Air travelers will soon have a bird's-eye view of a solar farm
when they peer out jet windows at Tucson International Airport.
You thought you had the right to choose what you eat? The FDA
says you don’t. They claim that there is no fundamental right to
choose your food or freedom to contract for it. Responding to a
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund lawsuit, the FDA clearly states
that you do not have the freedom of choice in your diet.
Republicans gnashed their teeth in frustration as
the national tide of GOP resurgence washed up against the massive
Democratic fortresses in Nevada, Washington state, Colorado and
California. When they neither toppled nor faltered, most conservatives
resigned themselves to a divided Congress with the Republican House and
the Democratic Senate forever at war.
Not so.
The bitter consensus in workshops and plenary
sessions over the past week is that we can't wait for Obama or
the industrialized nations to take decisive action. Along with
the growing list of governments ready to move forward to reverse
global warming...
What does renewable energy cost? Isn't it still more expensive than
fossil fuel electricity? Way more? In a word: no.
Today, California approved a
cancer-causing pesticide that scientists call “difficult, if not
impossible to control,” and “one of the most toxic chemicals on
earth.”
30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.61 percent with an
average 0.7 point for the week ending December 9, 2010, upfrom last
week when it averaged 4.46 percent. Last year at this time, the
30-year FRM averaged 4.81 percent.
The United States onTuesday launched a new drive to boost exports
of renewable energy products with a warning from Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke that the United States could lose jobs in that area
because Congress has not passed an energy policy.
...missteps cited by the NRC put Progress on a
short list for federal action if the company suffers more
troubles. For now, the NRC won't fine Progress, but the agency
may increase inspections of the 40-year-old plant near
Hartsville.
On December 8, the House of
Representatives passed a
Continuing Resolution (CR)
H.R.3082. A CR is supposed to provide temporary, stopgap funding for
the government while budget bills are worked out. But this CR included
the language of the Senate food safety bill—language that will still
affect small food producers (organic farms, small farms, mom-and-pop
roadside stands, etc.) most of all. It will completely transform the
food and farming industries—for the worse.
“Do federal, state and local governments have a
right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices
affecting our health? The San Francisco Board of Supervisors
voted to forbid restaurants from giving gifts with meals that
contain too much fat and sugar, a measure aimed at McDonald’s
Happy Meals.
Today we reveal the thirty agribusiness front
groups and industrial agriculture lobbyists that continue to
fight the Tester amendment. One of the few saving graces of the
Senate’s controversial FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S.
510)...
Supporters of wind and solar energy urged Congress on Wednesday
to renew a federal grant program credited with jump-starting
renewable power projects nationwide.
The incentive program is set to expire at month's end unless
Congress acts...
Because battery technology hasn’t developed as
quickly as the electronic devices they power, a greater and
greater percentage of the volume of these devices is taken up by
the batteries needed to keep them running. Now a team of
researchers working at the Center for Integrated
Nanotechnologies (CINT) has created the world’s smallest
battery...
U.S. home values are poised to drop by more than $1.7
trillion this year amid rising foreclosures and the expiration
of homebuyer tax credits, said Zillow Inc., a closely held
provider of home price data.
December 7, 2010
The grant – in addition to providing Native Americans living in
Montana and Wyoming with inpatient treatment – addresses needs that
aren’t covered in typical chemical dependency funding like firewood
for sweat lodges, sober housing, transportation, child care, job
training and faith-based spiritual support.
The blight, commonly known as "greening," is the world's most
destructive citrus disease.
GMO juice would likely be reviled by critics of the biotech
industry as "Frankenfood." But Arnold and other experts say there
simply may be no other choice in the battle against greening.
Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1108 into
law in April. It eliminates the
requirement for a concealed-carry weapons
permit, but does require gun owners to
accurately answer if an officer asks them if
they are carrying weapon concealed. It also
allows officers to temporarily confiscate a
weapon while they are talking to an individual,
including during a traffic stop.
The Federal Reserve has revealed details of more than $3
trillion in emergency aid it provided to U.S. and foreign banks
during the financial crisis.
Chevron may have shined a light on the future of
energy production. The second largest U.S. oil company
plans to buy Atlas Energy, which has access to an
estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the
Appalachian Basin.
Clean Edge's first annual
U.S. Clean Energy Leadership Index,
announced today, provides the industry's most comprehensive and
objective analysis and ranking of how all 50 states compare
across the spectrum of clean-energy technology, policy, and
capital.
It all sounds so easy: Impose higher average gas mileage
standards on the auto industry. Motorists will not only save money,
but America will wean itself off oil.
Just one problem. In meeting the new regulations, cars could cost
thousands more than buyers would ever save on fuel costs, industry
leaders and experts warn.
China is hopeful of "positive results" in the U.N. climate talks
in Cancun, its chief negotiator to climate change talks said in
comments published by state news agency Xinhua on Sunday.
There is widespread pessimism about the ongoing talks, as rich
and developing nations have clashed over the future of the Kyoto
Protocol for fighting global warming.
Climate change is fanning longer- and deeper-burning fires in
interior Alaska, changing the area from a carbon sink -- where
planet-warming gases are stored naturally in the soil -- to a carbon
emitter, scientists reported on Sunday.
New Jersey is far out in front of other East Coast states with
its plans for offshore wind power -- and could become a front line
in the gathering political battle between old and new energy
industries.
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency weighs whether to
define coal ash as hazardous waste, a Duke University study
identifies new monitoring protocols and insights that can help
investigators more accurately measure and predict the ecological
impacts of coal ash contaminants.
If the world doesn't act now, it faces a catastrophic global
food shortage by mid-century.
Folks wanting to buy electric cars from local dealers will have
to wait a bit longer as some won't be available for months.
Mark and Valerie Hubbard saw an opportunity to become more
energy-efficient -- and benefit from a federal tax credit that
expires at the end of the year.
During the past two weeks, the general financial media
commented with vigor — and on a daily basis — about the supposed
resurgence of the European debt crisis, leading many
financial-market participants to become overly concerned about
the potentially negative impact of that so-called crisis on the
U.S. economy.
Nearly all companies with a big Web presence,
and search engines in particular, are known for gathering the
user's browsing history and other personal information to
improve on the services they offer...
A breakthrough in supercapacitor performance has been achieved
with the development of a device that can store as much energy
as a battery while recharging in seconds.
engineers at the University of Maryland's A.
James Clark School of Engineering and College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources, have managed to harness and exploit the
self-replicating and self-renewing characteristics of TMV to
build tiny components for more efficient lithium-ion batteries.
Indigenous plaintiffs from the Peruvian Amazon
won their appeal today in a human rights and environmental
contamination lawsuit against U.S. oil giant Occidental
Petroleum, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
ruled that the case should be heard in Los Angeles, where the
oil company is headquartered.
Iran's OPEC governor said Tuesday that oil prices at $100/barrel in
the short term seemed "completely natural," warning that the world faced
a looming oil supply crisis because of production declines of up to 10%
from producing fields.
Israeli police said on Saturday they had arrested two people
suspected of setting a deadly forest fire that has spiraled out of
control for three days.
The fires on Mt. Carmel near Haifa in northern
Israel have been extinguished as of Sunday night. Israel's
worst-ever forest fire started Thursday in a neglected trash
heap and spread quickly across tinder-dry forestland on Mt.
Carmel. Nearly five million trees on 10,000 acres were burned;
experts say the forests will take years to recover.
Every action has a reaction. This applies to the currency market
too.
Google has unveiled an online technology that allows scientists and
researchers to track and measure changes to the environment using 25
years worth of
satellite data. Google Earth Engine, introduced during
climate talks in Cancun, utilizes "trillions of scientific measurements"
collected by NASA’s LANDSAT satellite, the company said.
The Nigerian government has given its security
forces a mandate to wipe out rebel camps and end militancy in
the main oil-producing region within the next month, the head of
the special military unit in the Niger Delta said December 6.
The oceans are acidifying at probably the
fastest rate for 65 million years — with unknown implications
for the three billion people who depend on fish for protein, a
report released at the 2010 UN
The looming water crisis in the American
Southwest – and the role of immigration-driven population growth
– is the topic of a paper published this month by the Center for
Immigration Studies and authored by New Mexico journalist
Kathleene Parker.
With today’s 9.8 percent unemployment figure and the buffoons
in Washington wanting to raise taxes on the majority of
successful small-business owners, I have come to the conclusion
that we need someone who has actually created jobs to be our
next president.
A large filament erupted from the southeast quadrant of the visible solar disk beginning at approximately 1535Z. This eruption was seen in SDO imagery and by ground based observers. The associated CME was observed There is a slight chance for C-class x-ray events for the next three days.The geomagnetic field is expected to remain quiet for the first two days of the forecast period (07-08 Dec). A recurrent coronal hole high speed stream is expected to become geoeffective near the end of day 3 (9 December) bringing a chance for unsettled geomagnetic conditions.
Combination generates pure hydrogen gas and desalination
facilitated by external power supply
“robotic trousers” to replace a wheelchair. The
fruits of his labor are now set to help others with his ReWalk
robotic exoskelton set to go on sale from the start of 2011.
It’s no big mystery why turtles and other reptiles bask in the sun – being
cold-blooded animals, they’re gathering heat to warm their bodies, so they can
be active. Recently, however, scientists from Israel and the UK discovered that
the Oriental hornet has been putting a “high-tech” spin on that model... the
outer layers of its body work as a natural photovoltaic cell, converting
sunlight to electricity. The scientists then proceeded to create a cell of their
own, using the hornet as their inspiration.
The major U.S. ethanol incentive would be cut by 20 percent but
given one more year of life in a Senate tax bill that also would
revive a biodiesel tax credit that died a year ago.
The US shale gas boom has the hallmarks of a technology bubble: firms
need continual re-capitalization but their gas output is not
demonstrably profitable. Value is instead based on reserves and
technology.
If there's one place you don't want to be caught
wandering around right now, it's the demilitarized zone that
separates North and South Korea.
Senate Has Not Reported S510 Out To House Yet!
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT IT COULD
DIE AT THIS STAGE
On December 6, the Supreme Court granted review of the
climate
change climate tort suit Connecticut v. American Electric
Power ("AEP"), setting the stage for a major decision on the
availability of common law remedies for climate-related harms.
Debates about judicial review concern the propriety and scope
of judicial supervision of democracy, and involve the
countermajoritarian dilemma: How to square the principle of
popular sovereignty with the practice of allowing appointed
judges, accountable to no contemporary constituency, to
overturn laws enacted by elected legislators?
The Good News: Growth of the
Global Grassroots
The world's fishing industry is fast running out of new ocean
fishing grounds to exploit as it depletes existing areas through
unsustainable harvesting practices, according to a study published
Thursday.
(Editor's Note: Rather than simply
dispensing the news (as found) as we have for years now, we will
from now on also inject our own thoughts as time and energy permits.
We have for years felt that we needed to "let
the news speak for itself". We now feel that we are at or
very close to the 12th hour...that the "climax" is occuring.
Perhaps, it would be appropriate to, from time
to time, inject our interpretation to the news to help give the
reader some hints as to the meaning or connectedness to the
various ENERGY NEWS articles.)
December 3, 2010
For renewable energy, these are not the best of times.
Public skepticism about climate change is rising in the United
States and other developed nations. Legislation to reverse the
output of greenhouse gases got a pasting in Congress. Funding for
research and development is uncertain.
African nations can break dependence on food imports and produce
enough to feed a growing population within a generation despite
extra strains from climate change, a study said on Thursday.
Currently, the world’s largest capacity wind
turbine is the Enercon E-126, which has a rated capacity of 7.58
MW. It has held that honor since its introduction in 2007, but
is under threat of losing the title with a number of 10 MW
turbines currently in development...
Bamboo, a wild grass that grows in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, could help tackle climate change and
provide income for local communities, a conference has heard.
With the aviation industry recently announcing
self-imposed CO2 reduction targets, the search is on for more
environmentally friendly fuels for use in passenger aircraft. A
number of aircraft manufacturers and airlines have been looking
at alternative fuels
The third busiest Atlantic storm season officially drew to end on
Tuesday but the U.S. shoreline and its key energy producing hubs
were mostly untouched by any of the year's major storms.
Domestic solar energy companies such as
GoSolarUSA (PinkSheets:GSLO) and its competitors could be adding
thousands of jobs over the next year when many industries remain
stagnant, according to a solar jobs census conducted by non-profit
research organization the Solar Foundation.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference got underway in the
Mexican beach resort of Cancun Monday with calls for decisive action
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide as part of an effort to
curb global warming. But participants are looking for advances on a
handful of issues rather than an overall agreement that would
legally bind nations to reduce emissions.
While it has been nearly two years since LS Power pulled the plug
on that $1.3 billion, 750-megawatt Elk Run Energy Station project,
Shatzer hasn't lost his desire to promote clean, sustainable energy.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the
$3.4 billion Cobell settlement Nov. 30. The deal
now must be signed into law by President Barack Obama to enter a
judicial phase of oversight.
Now is not the time for the Tennessee Valley Authority's chief to
receive a raise that triples his annual salary to more than $3
million, according to a Bradley County commissioner.
The Danish company Dantherm Power has recently
announced its plans to sell solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plants
as environmentally-friendly power stations for private homes.
In setting the record,
the Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion travelled a distance of
1,531-miles on a route that started in Maidstone in the U.K.,
went to the South of France and back. In total, 20.4 gallons of
diesel was used on the trip, resulting in a total of 90 mpg –
well beyond the claimed 64.2-mpg rating for the car.
The dollar proved to be last month’s best investment, beating
stocks, bonds and commodities, confounding officials around the
world who said Federal Reserve policies would debase the U.S.
currency.
Here's a message TV viewers may not want to mute: The days of
getting blasted out of the easy chair by blaring TV commercials
may soon be over.
The prospect of a flourishing US electric car market would not end
crude oil imports into the US, but would at least broaden the fuel mix
and help cut the country's dependence on oil, speakers said Wednesday at
a clean energy conference.
he U.S. is losing its edge in energy innovation
to China, and it's time to reclaim it for the sake of future
economic prosperity, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a
speech on Monday.
The European Union has opted for a policy of energy liberalization
while leaving market forces to solve the problem of long-term supply
security, Algerian Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi told a meeting of the Gas
Exporting Countries Forum Thursday.
A research team led by the University of Bristol
has used STFC's ISIS Neutron Source to come up with a new way to
treat carbon dioxide (CO2), so that it can be used in efficient
and environmentally friendly methods for extracting oil.
Marchionne, who is chief executive officer of Fiat and Chrysler
Group LLC, says natural gas engines offer a better way to cut
emissions because they’re cheaper than competing technologies. He
also argues electric cars, which General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor
Corp. are betting on, present “too many obstacles” such as the
recharge time for batteries.
Since summer, signs of severe food insecurity — droughts, food
riots, five- to tenfold increases in produce costs — have erupted
around the globe. Several new reports now argue that regionally
catastrophic crop failures — largely due to heat stress — are
signals that global warming may have begun outpacing the ability of
farmers to adapt.
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – the main contributor to
global warming – show no sign of abating and may reach record levels
in 2010, according to a study led by the University of Exeter.
Google Inc unveiled technology on Thursday it says will help
build trust between rich and poor countries on projects designed to
protect the world's tropical forests.
As winter tightens its icy, gloomy grip on the
Northern Hemisphere, many of us are turning to our fireplaces or
wood-burning stoves for physical and psychological warmth.
Unfortunately, however, burning wood releases carbon into the
atmosphere – a conundrum for people who want to minimize their
CO2 footprint but still stay warm.
A binational coalition of over 70 mayors from
Quebec, Ontario and the eight Great Lake States fear that the
proposed maritime shipment of 16 giant radioactive steam
generators from Ontario's Bruce Power to Sweden for recycling
could release radioactivity into the water in the event of an
accident during shipment.
Long a proven technology in Europe, green roofs are becoming
increasingly common in U.S. cities, with major initiatives in Chicago,
Portland, and Washington, D.C. While initially more expensive than
standard coverings, green roofs offer some major environmental — and
economic — benefits.
Tax cuts proposed by President Barack Obama’s all-star
deficit-cutting panel are in line with the ideas of President Ronald
Reagan, says Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH.
A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the
Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber
because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that
tax provisions originate in the House.
Filtering out the light from brighter stars,
astronomers detected the faint signature of small, dim red dwarf
stars in nearby elliptical galaxies (R), and found these are
much more numerous than in our own Milky Way
In a video highlighting a project the Solar Electric Light Fund
(SELF) completed in Burundi, Bob Freling states that he believes
access to energy is a human right. Do you agree?
Some low-lying island nations face the "end of history" due to
rising sea levels unless the world takes stronger action to slow
global warming, a spokesman said at U.N. climate talks on Monday.
When the Tennessee Valley Authority approached
the region's educational institutions and explained
that the nuclear sector would soon go on a hiring
binge and that it would need qualified workers,..
he government of Colombia has declared a state
of national catastrophe due to the intense rains that have
inundated much of the country, causing more than 160 deaths and
affecting more than 1.4 million people.
Starting next April, a Lufthansa Airbus A321
aircraft making the daily flight between Hamburg and Frankfurt
will be running partially on biofuel.
Global meat production increased by only 0.8 percent in 2009 to
281.5 million tons, a slowdown from the 2.4 percent growth rate of
2008. But the increase continued the steady growth of the past
decade. Since 2000, global meat production has risen by 20 percent.
Grupo Bimbo, one of the world's biggest breadmakers, will build a
$200 million wind farm to supply almost all of the electric power
needed for its Mexican operations, the company said on Thursday.
In a press conference held today, scientists
working with NASA announced the discovery of a new microorganism
right here on Earth that employs a survival strategy never seen
before in any other life form.
Nigeria's anti-corruption police
said on Thursday they planned to file charges against former Vice
President Dick Cheney in a $180 million bribery case involving a former
unit of oil services firm Haliburton.
Teaneck resident Ray Evangelista is building a 4,400-square-
foot, two-story colonial that's got everything a homeowner could
want -- except a furnace.
The outlook for Planning Reserve Margins in North America is
sufficient to meet winter peak demands, a report from the North
American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released today
says.
Massive and Permanent New Levels of Taxation:
Acidification of the seas linked to climate change could
threaten fisheries production and is already causing the fastest
shift in ocean chemistry in 65 million years, a U.N. study
showed on Thursday.
State officials, utility companies and some of their customers
appear to be poised to fight federal regulations that could send
electricity rates skyrocketing.
The Thermostat Recycling Corp. and Heating, Air Conditioning &
Refrigeration Distributors International have formed a partnership to
expand a national recycling program. The new agreement formalizes a
long-standing working relationship between the two organizations.
When will production of oil and coal peak?
After the peak, production will decline because supplies are
being depleted and no new sources are to be found. Peak
oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global
petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of
production enters terminal decline.
Citizen groups spent Tuesday morning asking the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to reconsider allowing the power plant to
continue its relicensing procedure.
A recent study found that the incidence of neurodegenerative
diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Lou
Gehrig's disease, has increased in far greater numbers than previously
suspected.
The news about the potential health dangers of
the TSA's naked body scanners just keeps getting worse. An
increasing number of doctors and scientists are going public
with their warnings about the health implications of subjecting
yourself to naked body scanners. These include Dr Russell
Blaylock (see below) as well as several professors from the
University of California who are experts in X-ray imaging.
Local lawmakers are opposing rate increases requested by two
utilities and seeking ways to make utilities more sensitive to the
financial strains facing the state's consumers.
Texas House Republican and former presidential candidate Ron
Paul says the world could soon wake up to realize that the U.S.
government is the “biggest counterfeit machine in the history of
the world.”
Europe’s debt woes are at risk of spreading to Portugal and
Spain, and rising budget deficits in the euro area are a
concern, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor
who predicted the global financial crisis.
More than 757,000 tons of food scraps and plants
have been collected in San Francisco since the city began its
urban compost program in 1996, according to Recology Inc., which
provides waste collection and recycling services the city.
A familiar site along many interstates is
launching a new pilot project to install electric vehicle
chargers.
Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE),
today announced that it has completed construction on the largest
photovoltaic solar power plant in the U.S.
The 48-megawatt (MW) Copper Mountain Solar facility, located in
Boulder City, Nev...
When most people think "solar electric power" -- even people in our
industry -- they tend to think "sunbelt." California, Arizona,
Texas, Florida, that's where the future of solar lies in the United
States. It's one of our industry's biggest myths, one that the Solar
Electric Power Association (SEPA) works every day to refute.
Solar energy is more accessible to Americans than ever before.
There are federal tax credits, cheaper photovoltaic systems on
the market and hefty rebates that make a return on investment
more attractive.
This is what it looks like when the world's greatest rainforest
is thirsty. If climate scientists are right, parched Amazon scenes
like this will become more common in the coming decades, possibly
threatening the survival of the forest and accelerating global
warming.
Recently, the House Committee on Science and Technology's Energy
and Environment Subcommittee held a hearing entitled: "A Rational
Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the
Response." Recent hearing focused on the basic science, the
evidence, and the response to climate change.
The Transformer (TX) program calls for a
vertical-takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle that can travel 280
miles by land or air and carry up to 1,000 pounds
The Republican nominating process of 2012 will be
totally different from that of other years. In fact, it will be the
opposite of what we are used to.
America's first house made primarily of hemp has
been built. Using a product known as Hemcrete – a mix of
industrial hemp, lime and water – a team of 40 volunteers,
sub-contractors and designers have recently completed
construction of a hemp house located in Ashville, North Carolina
the Senate passed its version of the Food Safety bill by a
margin of 73 to 25, and sent it on to the House of Representatives for
approval. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) had
previously agreed to accept the Senate’s bill in place of the
House’s version, already approved, so this approval was expected to be
pro-forma.
But it turns out that Section 107 of the Senate bill contains a
revenue-raising (i.e., taxing) provision. And such a provision is
unconstitutional:
The U.S. may suffer a double-dip recession and see unemployment rise
to 10 percent next year unless the Obama administration and Congress
agree on more stimulus for the economy, the United Nations said.
Employers added fewer jobs than forecast in November and the
unemployment rate unexpectedly increased, vindicating the
Federal Reserve’s decision to pump more money into the economy
to spur growth.
The December 14 FOMC meeting,
characterized U.S. economic activity as continuing to “improve,
on balance, during the reporting period.” 10 districts reported
some form of growth, while the other two districts reported
business conditions as “mixed.”
The staff of the National Oil Spill Commission recommended Thursday
that the oil and natural gas industry form a separate, independent
organization to dramatically raise safety standards and police the
companies drilling on the US Outer Continental Shelf.
The news is grim on the coal front.
Ten utilities in the past 18 months have declared they will close
more than 36 of their most rundown coal-burning electric power
units, according to a tally in the New York Times earlier this week.
Clearly coal, which provides have of the electricity generation
in the United States, is embattled.
The United States has a ton of wind potential
and especially offshore. But its inability to develop a reliable
energy policy is not just hurting the wind sector, it's also
working to benefit the coal industry. That's the view from one
manufacturer, which also says that the recession has taken its
toll.
The era of natural gas discoveries in North American shale formations
has ended and the industry also is seeing the end of new unconventional
oil plays, resulting in rapidly closing window of opportunity for
potential joint ventures, company executives said Wednesday.
World temperatures could soar by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees
Fahrenheit) by the 2060s in the worst case of global climate
change and require an annual investment of $270 billion just to
contain rising sea levels, studies suggested on Sunday.
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