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Today's News from
ArizonaEnergy.org
Find out what's
going on in our area and around the World from an "energy"
perspective!
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“ When you are in doubt, be still, and
wait; when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with
courage. So long as mists envelop you, be still; be still until
the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists—as it surely
will. Then act with courage. ”
— Ponca Chief White Eagle
July 29, 2011
Northwest forests on public lands are now taking up more
carbon dioxide via respiration than they put back into the
atmosphere, and have become a significant net carbon sink for
the first time in decades as a result...
Rich countries grabbing farmland in Africa to feed their
growing populations can leave rural populations there without
land or jobs and make the continent's hunger problem more
severe, an environmental think tank said on Tuesday.
U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced
that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years
of CIA drone strikes have pushed al-Qaida to the brink of
collapse.
With the close of the first half of 2011 behind us all
indicators are surprisingly optimistic:
Two international teams of astronomers have discovered the
largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the
universe. The researchers found the huge mass of water feeding a
black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years
away. The mass of water vapor is at least 140 trillion times
that of all the water in the world's oceans combined and 100,000
times more massive than the sun.
Slow progress is being made to bring green energy
manufacturing jobs to the United States. But there is mounting
concern over how fast that can happen
Some fathers don’t realize how important they are to their
children. Whether they are involved parents or not, their role
is critical. If they aren’t there anymore or were never there at
all, children miss their dads even if the child doesn’t know
what it is they are missing.
The amount of electricity generated by coal reached a 30-year
low during the first three months of 2011, according to the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA).
When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $50
million to the Sierra Club to help it fight coal-fired
electricity, he made a point of saying that public health is the
central issue. True, the mayor is an advocate for reducing
carbon emissions. But he is also a proponent of cutting acid
rain, soot and mercury that also flow from burning coal.
Amid the power shortage following the Great East Japan
Earthquake, there has been an upsurge in cases of households
being forced to buy overly expensive solar power generation
systems by high-pressure salesmanship.
Stopping fossil fuel development is a crucial part of the
mission for the global climate movement-
The U.S. economy grew less than forecast in the second
quarter, after almost coming to a halt at the start of the year,
as consumers retrenched.
The country's largest owner of nuclear power plants said
today that it doesn't expect enhanced regulations from the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster to impact the economics of
its plants.
The earliest U.S. New Energy action was in California.
Off-grid solar and utility-scale wind drove those sectors in the
early 1980s. But eventually other states realized they had
resources and opportunities, too.
I feel like I'm getting whiplash watching the major players
in the debt ceiling debate. First, the Democrat-controlled
Congresses refused to come up with a budget plan for the last
two years of their majority (leaving the country to operate on
continuing resolutions), which is akin to leaving the checkbook
on the table and just going out and buying whatever you want
because you know you have overdraft protection at the bank.
A technology that could significantly increase solar energy
harvest while reducing the cost of panel installation has been
given a boost today.
A new statewide survey of environment issues conducted by the
Public Policy Institute of California found more residents favor
climate change policy, want to cut greenhouse gas emissions and
believe they are already experiencing the effects of global
warming.
Once again the United States is experiencing record hot
temperatures this summer, which means that electric grids are
working harder than ever to provide the energy needed to keep
commercial buildings and their employees cool. And, as
businesses try to keep costs down the increased use
of air conditioners continues to be a drain on the bottom line.
The solar photovoltaics industry is gaining ground on wind
energy and closing the gap with wind power's previously
"unassailable lead" in renewables investment worldwide,
according to a new study, though other recent analyses indicate
that solar industry is being buffeted by market forces that
leave its immediate future uncertain.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday nominated
Rostam Ghasemi, a commander in the powerful Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps as oil minister, a controversial
choice to head up the most strategic cabinet portfolio given
that the ideological army is on an international blacklist.
People from northern parts of the world have evolved bigger
brains and larger eyes to help them to cope with long, dark
winters and dim skies, scientists said on Wednesday.
Japan and Russia agreed late Tuesday to proceed on
prospective oil and gas projects in Russia's Far East and East
Siberian regions, including the planned LNG project at
Vladivostok, a Japanese government official said Wednesday.
Japan's demand for fossil fuels for power generation will
surge in fiscal year 2012-13 (April-March) if no nuclear power
plants are restarted from ongoing and upcoming scheduled
maintenance programs in the coming months, Japan's Institute of
Energy Economics said Wednesday.
Flash flooding occurred in Alpine, Tal Wi Wi, and Nutrioso
and the Apache National Forest closing Hwy 180 between Alpine
and the Alpine divide bringing forest debris of mud, trees, and
rocks across the road. Arizona Dept. of Transportation (ADOT)
and Apache County Road crews cleared mud and debris quickly that
closed Hwy 180 for a time
The mysterious "creation" particle believed to have turned
flying debris into stars and planets at the dawn of the universe
has evaded capture in a year of hot pursuit, physicists said
Monday.
The head of the world's atomic watchdog said Wednesday that
global use of nuclear energy will continue to increase for
decades despite the ongoing crisis at a damaged Japanese plant.
Federal spending averages about $300 billion per month.
Federal tax collections run to about $180 billion. Our vital
obligations are a lot less than that: Federal debt service is
about $25 billion per month. Social Security is about $58
billion per month. The entire defense budget also is about $58
billion per month. Tax revenues are more than sufficient to fund
each of these items if the president chooses to allocate federal
tax money to this purpose.
Voters will get the chance to decide whether Ohio can opt out
of the national health care overhaul after the state’s top
election official said yesterday that opponents of the federal
law have enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on
the Nov. 8 ballot.
The agency is reconsidering rules issued in 2008 during the
Bush Administration that cover both primary and secondary ozone
standards. EPA sets primary standards to protect the health of
sensitive groups such as the elderly and small children.
Secondary standards protect the public welfare and the
environment from visibility impairment and damage to animals,
crops and buildings.
Environmental disasters seem to have cooled Californians'
support for nuclear power but not for offshore oil drilling,
according to the latest survey by the Public Policy Institute of
California.
multiple C-flares. increased in magnetic complexity. a
chance for M-class flares. On day three (31 July) activity
is expected to increase to unsettled levels with the chance for
active periods due to effects from a
coronal hole high speed
stream.
Flaring of natural gas from wells is on the upswing in Texas
and North Dakota as oil and gas producers rush to develop new
shale plays, and critics are not happy about it.
It’s long been the contention by critics that if the United
States were to adopt a Renewable Energy Standard (RES) or a
Clean Energy Standard (CES), electricity costs would skyrocket
and our nation’s delicate economy would hang in the balance.
The solar power canopies harness sun energy and convert it
into electric power. That power can either recharge plug-in
electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt or provide free power
to the dealership.
“Zero emissions” is a tricky phrase. Electric vehicles
produce zero emissions at the tailpipe, but more often than not
there are emissions at the power plant. The only way to have a
truly zero-emissions EV is to get your power from a renewable
source like the sun.
Standard & Poor’s reiterated that a $4 trillion deficit cut
would be a “good down payment” toward stabilizing U.S. finances,
according to John Chambers, chairman of the company’s sovereign
rating committee.
Akamai might not be a household name but between 15 to 30
percent of the world's Web traffic is carried on the Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based company's internet platform at any given
time. Using data gathered by software constantly monitoring
internet conditions via the company's nearly 100,000 servers
deployed in 72 countries and spanning most of the networks
within the internet, Akamai creates its quarterly State of the
internet report. The report provides some interesting facts and
figures, such as regions with the slowest and fastest connection
speeds, broadband adoption rates and the origins of attack
traffic.
"For a long time, water management in the UK has concentrated
on getting water off land and into rivers and drains and then
into the sea. Perhaps we need to rethink some of these
strategies and divert more of that water into storage for later
use,” he said.
Complaints about MMT are two-fold -- auto groups blame it for
corroding catalysts in the carburetors of cars, while some
studies over the years have raised concerns about potential
health risks from exposure to the chemical compound.
Despite a lack of independent safety testing, the government
has seen fit to declare there will be no oversight of a
genetically engineered grass. Is this the beginning of a GE
avalanche?
The 21st century is not yet a dozen years old, and there are
already 1 billion more people than in October 1999 — with the
outlook for future energy and food supplies looking bleaker than
it has for decades. It took humanity until the early 19th
century to gain its first billion people; then another 1.5
billion followed over the next century and a half. In just the
last 60 years the world’s population has gained yet another 4.5
billion. Never before have so many animals of one species
anything like our size inhabited the planet.
A Union
Pacific freight train carrying more than 60 cars, some loaded
with hazardous substances, derailed on Friday in a desert town
north of Los Angeles, prompting evacuations of nearby homes,
fire officials said.
Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) yesterday released the results of its
Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), which shows
mortgage changing little for the week amid mixed macroeconomic
data. The 30-year fixed averaged 4.55 percent, while the 15-year
remained unchanged from its previous week average of 3.66
percent.
Like its predecessor, the Obama
administration says it cannot count how many people in the U.S.
have had their telephone calls and emails monitored by
government agents in national security investigations under
federal surveillance law.
Rising sea waters may threaten U.S. coastal cities later this
century, while the Midwest and East Coast are at high risk for
intense storms, and the West could see compromised water
supplies.
While the new standard will be a big numerical step beyond
the 34 mpg average mandated for 2012, experts say the secret to
achieving it is not some huge breakthrough such as inventing a
super battery.
A blue ribbon commission studying nuclear waste disposal
options is expected to recommend this week centralized interim
storage of spent fuel and suggest a new search for a geologic
repository for high-level waste, Nuclear Energy Institute
President Marvin Fertel said Tuesday.
In the event of a U.S. sovereign downgrade by a major rating
agency, U.S. Treasuries and broader financial markets could
experience near-term volatility, according to Fitch Ratings.
However, Fitch expects that, over the near to medium term, in a
moderate downgrade scenario (e.g., to 'AA'), U.S. Treasuries
would likely retain their standing as the benchmark security of
the global fixed income market.
Mulching and seeding of burned areas is intended to keep as
much soil on the mountain as possible. Aerial application of
straw mulch has been completed on over half of the contracted
acres on the northern portion of the Wallow Fire. Mulch is being
applied on the severely and moderately burned portions. Over
25,000 acres will be mulched using three different contractors.
They may just be the hardest drugs on the market, if the FDA
are to be believed....William Faloon, from Life Extension
Magazine, said: ’The FDA’s language resembles that of an
out-of-control police state where tyranny [reigns] over
rationality.
A small but vocal group of backyard activists, fearful of
nausea, vertigo, headaches and other potential health effects of
wind turbines' low-pitched whines, has won an agreement from the
state to review the scientific record on the industrial-strength
green energy machines' impact on humans.
More than half of all voters do not trust President Barack
Obama to lead America back to economic prosperity, according to
an exclusive Newsmax poll.
July 26, 2011
Over 10 gigawatts (10,000 MW) of renewable power have cleared
a significant hurdle, with the Department of Defense’s finding
that 229 such projects will have little or no impact on military
missions.
Recent satellite images of a remote Alaska volcano along a
flight route for major airlines show it may be poised for its
first big eruption in 10 years, scientists said.
An iconic species of the American West, the whitebark pine,
is at risk of extinction from climate change and disease, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Tuesday, but no immediate
action is planned.
The accelerating dash for natural gas risks a bitter backlash
as the environmental cost of exploiting new shale deposits and
of transporting it in liquid form spoil its credentials as the
greenest fossil fuel.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner broke off talks with
President Barack Obama on Friday on a deficit-reduction deal to
prevent a devastating default and said he would try to hammer
out an agreement through the Senate.
Norquist and his lobby group, Americans for Tax Reform, have
played an outspoken role in the rancorous debate about whether
to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling.
More than 7,500 Arizonans had been approved for personal
medical marijuana licenses as of Wednesday, despite a
well-publicized court battle that has delayed implementation of
other parts of the law.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal government-sponsored
corporations that back a majority of U.S. home mortgages, would
be forced to stop blocking state and local programs that offer
low-cost energy efficiency loans under a bill introduced
Wednesday by Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, and two other
members of Congress.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined with the Sierra Club
on Thursday in a $50 million, four-year plan to campaign for
replacing one-third of aging U.S. coal-fired power plants with
clean energy.
BP Solar is closing its U.S. manufacturing facility and will
refocus is business on developing solar power projects rather
than making panels for them, a company spokesman said on
Thursday.
Ordinances banning plastic bags – single-use enemy No. 1 in
the Golden State -- are expected on the agendas of a growing
number of California communities now that the state Supreme
Court has ruled in favor of Manhattan Beach and its 2008 plastic
bag ban.
The budget numbers tell a clear story, the report says. Given
the aging of the population and the rising cost of health care,
attaining a sustainable budget for the federal government will
require the United States to deviate from the policies of the
past 40 years in at least one of the following ways:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed one of her simplest
but potentially most transformative diplomatic priorities in
India on Wednesday: clean cooking stoves.
Indiana's huge fleet of coal-fired power plants generates a
massive amount of energy for homes, factories and stores but at
a steep environmental cost. All of those plants combined spew
into the air one of the highest amounts of toxic pollutants of
any state in the nation, according to a new report.
Unsure what to do with expired or unwanted medication,
patients often bring them back to the pharmacy hoping to be able
to return the items there.
Groundwater at some Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash sites
is contaminated with arsenic and other toxic pollutants and is a
health hazard, a report says.
Do you believe your senators in Washington, D.C. should
reflect their constituents’ views?
This week the news
media has been dominated with news about how the House
Republicans, led by many tea party members, were proposing an
irresponsible bill that had no chance of passing the Senate or
being signed by the President Obama.
It was called “Cut,
Cap, and Balance” and has been characterized by many as the most
irresponsible legislation ever proposed.
Democrats reacted angrily to reports that the White House is
cutting a deal with House Republicans to boost the U.S. debt
ceiling and reduce deficits by about $3 trillion over 10 years
without immediate revenue increases.
Do you know someone whose Alzheimer’s progression sped
rapidly after surgery?
The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people
every day is about to plummet.
The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of
the world’s 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two:
cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.
Underground storage tanks used by fuel stations also may leak
when holding the so-called E-15, GAO report said. The findings
are based on federally sponsored research into potential E-15
use at fuel stations.
Recent analysis by E Source shows that 81 percent of
households in the United States already have at least one
compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). And in the two states with the
lowest market penetration of CFLs (North and South Dakota), more
than two-thirds of households have one.
The health implications of polluting the environment weigh
increasingly on our public consciousness, and pharmaceutical
wastes continue to be a main culprit. Now a Tel Aviv University
researcher says that current testing for these dangerous
contaminants isn't going far enough.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating
Energy Star requirements for home dishwashers and furnaces. The
new requirements are a part of Energy Star’s overall commitment
to protect people’s health and the environment by encouraging
energy efficiency.
For the first time, the European Union has committed itself
to the final disposal of its nuclear waste. Heads of government
today adopted the radioactive waste and spent fuel management
directive, "in order to avoid imposing undue burdens on future
generations."
Established in 1934 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ex-Im
Bank provides tools to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods
and services. Ex-Im operates as an independent federal
agency and as such does not "cost U.S. taxpayers." By
congressional mandate the Bank has been aggressively increasing
its support of U.S. renewable energy. In just nine months Ex-Im
Bank has committed US$100 million to renewable energy products
and services.
"Eighty-five percent of consumers think that
bio-based/renewable also means biodegradable, and 60 percent
think biodegradable products magically disappear when you throw
it away," he said.
A lot has changed in the world of waste-to-energy since Marc
Rogoff first wrote a book on the subject in the late 1980s.
As the world becomes more interconnected, and cross-border
commerce helps lift millions out of poverty, logistics companies
that are so important to supply chains must find a balance
between optimal efficiency and mitigating their impact on
people, communities, and the planet.
The Departments will test how the fuel cells perform in real
world operations, identify any technical improvements
manufacturers could make to enhance performance and highlight
the benefits of fuel cells for emergency backup power
applications.
He said the company was ahead of the road map's schedule in
some areas. Based on their progress to date, the IAEA said their
plan to achieve cold shutdown by early next year could be
possible.
As the Federal Reserve printing presses roll and the dollar
shrinks ever smaller in value, gold will rise further and
further.
U.S. Congressmen Paul Gosar (AZ-01), Jeff Flake (AZ-06), and
Steve Pearce (NM-02) today introduced the Wallow Fire Recovery
and Monitoring Act, legislation that would expedite the removal
of hazard, dead and dying trees in the community protection
management areas in the Wallow Fire area.
Budget cutting means that the federal fund for helping needy
Americans pay higher electric bills in the winter and summer had
already run out of cash before the current heat wave hit.
This week at Johns Hopkins
The case of Jeffrey and Erica Henderson provides a
continuation of the critical examination of Child Protective
Services in the United States, as well as the legal framework in
which CPS operates.
In recent decades, the Energy Department has led
technological innovation that vastly improved the energy
efficiency of our refrigerators and freezers (and thousands of
other household appliances). As a result, it’s a lot easier on
your pocket and on the environment to keep that ice cream at
peak frosty perfection.
More than 5,200 hydrogen fueling stations for cars, buses and
forklifts will be operational by 2020, up from just 200 stations
in 2010, according to a report by Pike Research.
Indonesia can't get enough power to feed its booming economy
and fortunately for Mochamad Sofyan, investors are lining up to
invest billions of dollars in the country's growing green power
sector.
Eight months after he narrowly survived an assassination
attempt on the streets of Tehran, Fereydoon Abbasi, the nuclear
physicist whom Iran’s mullahs have put in charge of the
country’s Atomic Energy Organization, is presiding over what
intelligence officials in several countries describe as an
unexpected quickening of Iran’s production of nuclear material.
Surprisingly, little tweaks in buying habits really can save
the jobs of our fellow men and women. It really is good news
because it shows that no matter how hopeless the job situation
gets, some degree of recovery is possible with positive action.
These are but two incidents in my personal life where Western
medicine was not just adequate for the job... western
medicine was unequaled for the job. My daughter's Chiari
malformation and the ruptured discs in my neck were mechanical
problems that required the skilled hands of a surgeon to
correct. That we had such doctors was truly a blessing, and I'm
thankful we live in a country that has such wonderful care.
Japan's government ordered the suspension of all shipments of
beef cattle from Fukushima prefecture on Tuesday after
discovering that cattle fed rice straw contaminated with high
levels of radioactive cesium had been shipped nationwide.
Japanese private research labs with radiation testing gear
have been flooded with orders for checks on food and soil
samples after shipments of contaminated beef deepened public
anxiety over radiation leaks from the crippled Fukushima nuclear
plant.
Thousands of sweltering New Yorkers turned up the heat on Con
Ed yesterday - blasting the utility for leaving them without
power in the midst of a withering heat wave.
A man who doesn't want anyone to know
who he is has been sitting in the Utah County jail for three
weeks. Police say he was arrested on minor charges, but they
can't just let him out. [why CAN'T they "just let him out?"
ed]
Large companies are committing to
reduce diesel and gasoline use in their fleets by incorporating
electric vehicles (EV), alternative fuels, and fuel-saving
measures into their daily operations. It is all part of the
National Clean Fleets Partnership which is a public-private
effort which pairs companies with the Department of Energy.
Midwest residents would pay less for electricity, have more
job opportunities, and breathe healthier air if their state
adopted stronger clean energy standards, according to a
peer-reviewed report released today by the Union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS).
A year-long military-led investigation has concluded that
U.S. taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the Taliban
under a $2.16 billion transportation contract that the United
States has funded in part to promote Afghan businesses.
Polar bear cubs forced to swim long distances with their
mothers as their icy Arctic habitat melts appear to have a
higher mortality rate than cubs that didn't have to swim as far,
a new study reports.
Over the same period, coal generation fell 4.1 percent.
Natural gas generation rose 4.0 percent.
There has not always been a need to know precisely how hard
the wind blows 350 feet above Earth’s surface. Today, wind
turbines occupy that zone of the atmosphere, generating
electricity. So NOAA and several partners have launched a
year-long effort to improve forecasts of the winds there, which
ultimately will help to reach the nation’s renewable energy
goals.
The danger of more oil leaking from Exxon Mobil Corp's
ruptured pipeline in Montana has ended, the Environmental
Protection Agency said.
The Republican leadership appears on the verge of approving
NEW FUNDING AUTHORITY for the Obama Administration's insidious -
yet resoundingly rejected - agenda for America.
Witnesses to the camp attack said the suspect, dressed as a
policeman and identifying himself as such, appeared to be doing
a security check related to the Oslo bombing. They said he used
the ruse to lure camp goers closer before carrying out the
attack.
People living in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida are most at
risk in the United States from toxic emissions spewing from coal
and oil-fired power plants, two leading American environmental
groups said in a report on Wednesday.
Experiments at the world's
biggest atom smasher have yielded tantalising hints that a
long-sought sub-atomic particle truly exists, with final proof
likely by late 2012, physicists said Monday.
"We know everything about
the Higgs boson except whether it exists," said Rolf Heuer,
director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear
Research (CERN).
Proactive steps, including actions suggested by the Go Green
Adjust the Thermostat and Turn off Lights Not in Use Forever
stamps, resulted in an energy reduction of nearly 30 percent
since FY 2003, equal to the average annual energy use of
approximately 100,000 U.S. households.
A coalition of environmental groups says higher U.S. fuel
efficiency standards would be good for the economy, car
companies and the environment.
The headwind is the worry that a possible default after the
Aug. 2 deadline would send the market into a tailspin. While the
market isn't panicking yet, it seems hard pressed to move much
higher until this issue is resolved.
After insisting they would not agree to a deal on raising the
debt ceiling and cutting the deficit without some form of tax
increase, Democrats have backed down and are now touting a
proposal from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that calls for
no new taxes.
On the other hand, nuclear
power has dropped by 0.9% and coal has declined by 4.9%; natural
gas increased by 3.6%.
Solar activity is expected to be very low to low for the next
three days (25-27 July). Region 1260 is most likely region for
C-class events. onset of a coronal hole high speed stream at
about 24/2200Z. Wind speed reached 650 km/s during the
period.Day three (28 July) is
expected to be quiet to
unsettled with a slight chance for isolated
active periods,
with the expected arrival of a recurrent coronal
hole high
speed stream late in the period.
Because traditional and renewable energy production methods
are evolving toward more water-intensive technologies while
demands on dwindling water supplies are growing, water
consumption needs to play a bigger role in energy policy, a new
report says.
The installed capacity of wind and solar power grew faster
than that of any other power technology, according to a recent
analysis of the global power plant market released by Greenpeace
International.
The Republican chairman of a key House of Representatives
committee overseeing offshore energy development Monday
circulated a draft bill that would reorganize the Interior
Department's permitting and safety agencies.
Researchers have created an artificial lung that uses air as
a ventilating gas instead of pure oxygen - as is the case with
current man-made lungs, which require heavy tanks of oxygen that
limit their portability. The prototype device was built
following the natural lung's design and tiny dimensions and the
researchers say it has reached efficiencies akin to the genuine
organ. With a volume roughly the same as a human lung, the
device could be implanted into a person and even be driven by
the heart.
Small fish play a big role in the oceans and catches should
be cut sharply to safeguard marine food chains from plankton to
blue whales, an international team of experts said on Thursday.
A recent study shows that solar panel installed on the
rooftops of the building can helps to keep cooling the building
under the solar panels. Not only to cooling, the solar panels on
the rooftops of the building can also add a little heat in the
building during the winter.
While the economy bumps along, the solar market is
experiencing an unprecedented boom. The industry in the first
quarter grew by 66 percent year-over-year.
Officials from Standard & Poor’s and other credit rating
agencies told a gathering of Republicans this week that a
default on the nation’s debt by the federal government could
lead to a “death spiral” in the bond market.
Your 1-acre homestead can be divided into land for raising
livestock and a garden for raising fruits, vegetables, plus some
grain and forage crops.
Los Angeles has surpassed the Bay Area as home to more
"green" jobs than any other region in the nation and those jobs
will more than double in number in the next 30 years, according
to a study released today by Californians for Clean Energy and
Jobs Network (CCEJ Network).
The long-awaited report on electronic stewardship from the
Obama administration was met with mixed feelings from industry
experts, with some calling it practical and others saying it
didn´t go far enough.
I'm sure you've noticed ... grocery store prices are
insane. It seems that each week, you have to write a bigger
check for fewer bags of groceries. What the heck is going
on? I'll tell you what's going on - global food prices have
increased about 37% in the past year alone. They've almost
tripled in the past six years.
he European Commission has approved seven voluntary schemes
for ensuring that rainforests are not destroyed to grow biofuel
crops.
Prof. Eicke Weber, spokesperson for the Fraunhofer Energy
Alliance, says that the transition to renewable energy is set to
deliver an economic pay off in the years to come and points out
that various studies show a shift to alternative energy sources
will raise the GNP in the coming decade and create new jobs
Cleanup
work at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant is proceeding
smoothly and the prospects are good for bringing it under
control, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog said Monday after
a visit to the crisis-hit plant.
Traditional electronic meters measure usage and require a
meter reader but smart meters measure in real time, alert
consumer of usage, and can be remotely disconnected to control
usage.
Youth in their 20s and 30s are taking their hands to the
plow, but what does the new trend in Hipster farming mean for
the food future? It is true, many of the younger generation
don’t trust typical farming operations and are risking a new
career in either growing their own and selling at local markets
or taking on the family farm.
News reports and punditry reveal a shocking ignorance of the
role played by rating agencies in the US deficit debate.
Depending on the commentator’s bias, rating agency actions have
been either lionized or demonized, often inappropriately.
After dispelling some unfortunate myths about rating agencies, I
will offer the reader a more informed assessment of how the
three dominant rating agencies are handling the debt ceiling
crisis.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
was expected to release the results of their joint investigation
next Wednesday, but the team said they need more time to "ensure
that all evidence is properly weighed and considered."
COMEX gold and silver futures were up substantially in
volatile trading as equity markets headed lower on growing
concerns about the stalled US budget talks.
* Administration wants $452 mln over 5 years for reactors
* Money, safety concerns with small reactor plan-lawmaker
* Industry says improves safety, produces less waste
Greece may have to move over. While global investors and
financial regulators have been transfixed in recent months on a
possible European debt crisis, Venezuela, a major oil exporter,
ranks just behind the cradle of Western civilization in terms of
the risk of defaulting on its debt and roiling global financial
markets.
I rarely give any credit to Tim Geithner, a man who has
failed at just about every stop he’s made over the course of his
career.
But his words above correctly sum up the situation America is
in right now regarding this debt ceiling debacle.
There’s a lot of opinion circulating about the possibility of
a debt default. Although it’s currently estimated that the
government has until Aug. 2 before it hits that point, the
legislative deadline is currently at Friday, July 22. We asked
members of our Financial Braintrust to chime in on what could
happen, and answer a few basic questions about the debt ceiling
for our readers.
July 22, 2011
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently announced
the approval of four new projects on public lands, the launch of
environmental reviews on three others, and the next step in a
comprehensive environmental analysis to identify 'solar energy
zones' on public lands in six western states.
The Gates Foundation has long been in an aggressive effort to
vaccinate the world and often targets poor Africans. The Gates’
web site showcases Melinda Gates applauding Malawi for enforcing
vaccine programs with its helpful “health surveillance
assistants.” She calls Malawi one of the few countries “on track
to reach the UN Millennium Development Goal.” And who are those
assistants meeting the goal? Hyper-vigilant medics with help
from police.
“We fully recognize the public desire to continue recreation
on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests (ASNFs) is paramount.
Getting the Apache side of the forest open for all users is a
huge undertaking, because of the vast area impacted by the fire.
Dissatisfaction and anger with the federal government are at
a nearly 20-year high, according to the results of a new ABC
News/Washington Post poll released Wednesday.
ENERGY REVOLUTION UNDER WAY
...it is clear that although the United States' energy
posture constitutes a serious and urgent threat to our national
and economic security, that challenge also represents a great
opportunity. It is well past time for us to take threats to our
energy security seriously and to begin to overhaul how we've
been going about energy in a business-as-usual-manner,
especially in Washington.
Solar energy is gaining fans in homeowners who aren't just
tree huggers -- they're penny pinchers.
BP Solar will close its Frederick operation early next year,
and many of its 80 employees may lose their jobs.
The company has moved its headquarters to Houston, where BP
America has its main offices.
According to the Associated Press, a recent study has
revealed that three quarters of America's nuclear reactors have
leaked radioactive tritium from buried pipes that transport
water for the cooling of reactor vessels. This tritium could in
turn find its way into the groundwater. While industry officials
do reportedly check these pipes for leaks, they can only do so
in either indirect or costly, labor-intensive manners. Now,
however,...
Photovoltaics could be the most economical form of energy
generating electricity within the next decade, even supplanting
traditional fossil fuels.
Coal's salvation may be lost. Now that American Electric
Power, the biggest burner of coal-fired power in the United
States, has decided to delay its critical carbon sequestration
venture, the coal sector has taken a powerful blow.
Obama's entire political position on the debt limit is based
on a giant bluff: that default looms and "I cannot guarantee
that Social Security checks will go out" if the limit is not
raised. It's a bluff, and he knows it.
The U.S. is extraordinarily good at nurturing entrepreneurship
and invention, but not as good at building industries around
those inventions. Case in point: While America leads in venture
capital investments in clean energy, it has ceded leadership in
manufacturing and deployment to European and Asian countries.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise published their
recent findings that pursuing daily chores is a great way to
increase activity that benefits cardiovascular health and more.
Who fares better, the town mouse or the country mouse?
According to recent German research, city dwellers experience
much higher percentages of anxiety, release of stress hormones,
hypertension, depression and mental disorders. Social scientists
predict that around 70 percent of the world will live in urban
developments by 2050.
Five Great Lakes national parks and lakeshores are feeling
the impacts of climate change, finds a new report by the Rocky
Mountain Climate Organization and Natural Resources Defense
Council. Lake Michigan may have some winters with no ice cover
within 10 years, and Lake Superior may be ice-free in about
three decades, the report warns.
Creek Stewart is a survival instructor whose main interest
lies in building compact-sized and clever survival kits. One of
his latest projects is to modify a pump-action shotgun and cram
it full of survival stuff, essentially creating a combination of
a weapon and survival tool ... perfect in case of a zombie
apocalypse.
It's a classic debate about government's role. Case in point:
The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a rule that
will drastically cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions
-- a move that has greenies applauding and coal advocacy groups
making dire warnings.
Sort of.
Only this time, it's not potatoes--it's wheat. And this time,
unlike the Irish in the 1840s, we can see it coming.
Genetically modified wheat trials are “cropping up,” namely
in Australia, despite consumer disapproval and export rejections
from Europe, Russia, Canada, and Japan.
MARINES TRUDGING through hot, dusty
Afghanistan are replacing heavy batteries in their backpacks
with rolled-up solar sheets. It is part of an initiative by the
Marine Corps to use new energy technologies to make the military
more effective. One Marine Corps goal is to cut per-soldier fuel
use in half by 2025.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released
final guidance on Appalachian surface coal mining, designed to
ensure more consistent, effective, and timely review of surface
coal mining permits under the Clean Water Act and other
statutes.
Clean Air Act protections will cut dangerous pollution in
communities that are home to 240 million Americans
Although public outrage at the use of TSA full-body scanners
continues to grow, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit,
maintains TSA’s right to use. According to the recent Electronic
Privacy Information Center (EPIC) vs. U.S. Department of
Homeland Security case, full-body scans are not
unconstitutional. EPIC argued that they were illegal searches
under the fourth amendment, but judges held that they are
“administrative searches,” not to detect crime but protect
people from terrorism.
The Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility
that the United States could default as a deadline for raising
the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit looms, a top Fed
policymaker said on Wednesday.
GMO supporters and scientists are unflinching under
ever-growing public disapproval of GM foods. Instead of “this
will end world hunger,” the new ploy is, “this will make you
healthy.”
Gold prices will surge to $1,800 an ounce by the end of this
year, and silver will soar to $70 an ounce by March as physical
demand climbs in Asia and investors seek a haven asset, Newedge
USA LLC said.
Wind and solar are making an impressive showing around the
world. Green energy investments are up 32 percent over the last
year, according to the United Nations.
Exelon and SunPower Corporation with the City of Chicago
completed the nation's largest urban solar power plant on a
41-acre industrial brownfield in Chicago's South Side and in
doing so, set off a potential trend.
"People want to be able to produce power here because then
we're more in control of the power we're going to be consuming,"
said Anne Kuszpa, chairwoman of the Nantucket Energy Study
Committee. "We would like to be able to produce it here and use
it here."
Now, however, the future of these projects is up in the air
as the town deals with questions about state regulations,
renewable energy credits and a rule known as the net metering
cap.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Fiscal Year
(FY) 2012 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill on
July 15, 2011.
One step at a time.
Unless you're a convicted criminal, you don't lose all your
freedoms in one big fell swoop. Because if too many freedoms are
taken away all at the same time, then as a nation we'd be sure
to rebel like it was 1775.
Climate
and food production is a subject that needs more study in coming
years but for now even the U.S. Agriculture Department finds it
almost impossible to estimate the effects of one on the other.
In an effort to rid the country of Monsanto’s
GMO products, Hungary has stepped up the pace. This
looks like its going to be another slap in the face for
Monsanto. A new regulation was introduced this March which
stipulates that seeds are supposed to be checked for GMO
before they are introduced to the market. Unfortunately, some
GMO seeds made it to the farmers without them knowing
it.
Fossil fuels are melting the Arctic, which is giving us
access to more fossil fuels that will melt the Arctic more.
Billions for Infrastructure Needed
Don't get starry-eyed over all that projected shale-gas. It's
one thing to dig it out. It's another to transport it. And at
least one trade group says that massive amounts of investment
must now go into creating the pipelines that would carry that
fuel.
The Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority in New Jersey
agreed to pay a $375,000 penalty and will invest more than $52
million in repairs and upgrades to its infrastructure following
releases of untreated sewage into various waterways.
Libyan
leader Moamer Kadhafi Thursday ruled out talks with his foes to
end a five-month rebellion against his rule and said the battle
had already been decided in his favour.
Atlantis and four astronauts returned
from the International Space Station in triumph Thursday,
bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last,
rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears.
Professional, 40-minute documentary reviews cold fusion
history and the significance of the emergence of Rossi's energy
catalyzer technology. Witnesses, primarily Professor Sergio
Focardi of the University of Bologna, describe the experimental
set-up of the E-Cat. (YouTube / MayerAmschelBauer; June
23, 2011)
Clearly, Senator McConnell and liberals in the Senate think
placating President Obama and the far left is smart politics.
They are wrong.
Today, Roundup Ready crops blanket US farmland. According to
USDA figures, 94 percent of soybeans and more than 70 percent of
corn and cotton planted in the US contain the Roundup-resistant
gene. Back-of-the envelope calculations tell me that nearly
200,000 square miles of prime farmland—a land mass about
two-thirds the size of Texas—now grow crops rigged to flourish
amid an annual monsoon of Roundup.
Two years ago, Marcello Bartolotta made a bet with a friend
that he could find a way to make a gasoline engine run on
virtually anything that burns.
The Mt. Vernon man began a long trial-and-error process in
his backyard, with nothing but plumbing parts available at any
local hardware store. His test subject was an unmodified
generator engine, now connected to his one-of-a-kind
"evaporizer" that turns liquid fuels into vapors and allows the
engine to run smoothly and cleanly on all manner of fuels.
The city and National Grid have set up eight refrigerators in
prominent parts of the city.
Is it a new way to get residents to think cool thoughts? Sort
of.
Heat advisories and warnings have been issued in 17 states,
and temperatures may hit 100 degrees on the East Coast this week
as the heat wave scorching the Midwest rolls toward New Jersey.
It would be the "first big interaction" between the two sides
in many months, he said, and could lead to increased open
interaction between the two sides in the months to come.
Utah-based Savage Companies Wednesday said it has begun work
on a "multi-user rail terminal" served by Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Railway in Trenton, North Dakota, to bring delivery of
Bakken shale crude oil by rail.
The Interagency Task Force on Electronics Stewardship is
expected to release the long-awaited report on developing a
policy for the handling of electronic waste later today.
For many thousands of years, our indigenous ancestors lived
free and independent of Christian European domination. Thousands
of years of being free resulted in our nations and peoples
possessing to this day the inherent right to freely define our
own political status, and to freely pursue our economic, social,
and cultural development. Even today, we have the inherent right
to live free of and from American domination.
The health implications of polluting the environment weigh
increasingly on our public consciousness, and pharmaceutical
wastes continue to be a main culprit. Now a Tel Aviv University
researcher says that current testing for these dangerous
contaminants isn't going far enough.
What spreads the sea floors and moves the continents? What
melts iron in the outer core and enables the Earth’s magnetic
field? Heat. Geologists have used temperature measurements from
more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that
some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow
from Earth’s interior into space.
At the same time, global investment in renewable energy
increased more than 20% to US$211 billion and renewable energy
capacity now accounts for about a quarter of global power
generating capacity if including hydropower.
The federal government will leverage its purchasing power to
drive the electronics manufacturing and recycling industries
toward more sustainable products and practices, according to a
report released today by an interagency taskforce on electronic
stewardship.
The geomagnetic field was mostly unsettled for the majority
of the period, before decreasing to quiet conditions as Bz
turned primarily north. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at
geosynchronous orbit reached high levels during the period.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be unsettled to active for
days 1-2 (22-23 July), then decreasing to mostly quiet on day 3
(24 July) as coronal hole effects wane.
Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have created a
vaccine that stops the high one gets from from heroin. Designed
as a therapeutic option for those trying to break their
addiction, the vaccine produces antibodies that stop heroin as
well as other psychoactive compounds metabolized from heroin
from reaching the brain to produce euphoric effects.
You are what you eat, so they say. But a new study shows it
might be hard to know exactly what that is because calorie
labeling at chain restaurants can be deceptive.
The number of countries using wind energy for
electricity generation increased in the first half of 2011 to
86, according to international non-profit association WWEA. The
total capacity of wind turbine installations across the world is
now over 200 GW, with annual generation of over 430 Twh. This is
equal to 2.5% of global electricity consumption.
Almost everyone in the alternative energy community is aware
of Andrea Rossi's cold fusion based E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer)
technology. It is a game changer that allows vast amounts of
energy to be produced by inducing a nuclear fusion process
between small quantities of nickel powder and hydrogen gas.
For the seventh year in a row, Seattle´s recycling rate rose.
Last year, 53.7% of the city’s municipal solid waste was
recycled, an increase of 2.6% over 2009. It is the largest
increase in the recycling rate since 2006, according to the
city’s 2010 Recycling Rate Report.
The California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA) is set to
graduate its first class in recycling and resource management
this week, the Brentwood News reported.
Nanotechnology was supposed to revolutionize the world,
making us healthier and producing cleaner energy. But it’s
starting to look more like a nightmare.
An ambitious solar energy project on a massive scale is about
to get underway in the Arizona desert. EnviroMission is
undergoing land acquisition and site-specific engineering to
build its first full-scale solar tower - and when we say
full-scale, we mean it! The mammoth 800-plus meter (2625 ft)
tall tower will instantly become one of the world's tallest
buildings
Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) yesterday released the results of its
Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), which shows mortgage
rates changing little over the previous week following mixed
economic and housing data. The 30-year fixed average 4.52
percent and the 15-year fixed averaged 3.66 percent.
U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government
bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
The government recently sold its remaining 6% stake in the
company to Italian automaker Fiat. It wrapped up the 2009
bailout that was part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program six
years early.
Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has
already played a critical role in weakening Russia's ability to
wield an "energy weapon" over its European customers, and this
trend will accelerate in the coming decades...
Westar Energy's top air-quality official says it will be
impossible for the state's dominant electric company to comply
with new federal pollution regulations taking effect at the
beginning of next year.
Organic produce and pasture based meat and dairy have less of
an environmental impact than their conventionally produced
counterparts, a recently released report by the Environmental
Working Group (EWG) found.
What are investors to do if the unthinkable happens?
In other words, how should investors respond if Congress and
the White House can’t agree on a debt limit increase by Aug. 2,
and Uncle Sam begins defaulting on its debt obligations?
Putting your money in gold is one viable option, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
Under the direction of the Unified Command, almost 600 people
are now involved in the response and cleanup effort including
ExxonMobil's North America Regional Response Team, the Clean
Harbors and ER oil spill response organizations and additional
contractors.
With an entire planet being slaughtered before our eyes, it's
terrifying to watch the very culture responsible for this - the
culture of industrial civilization, fueled by a finite source of
fossil fuels, primarily a dwindling supply of oil - thrust
forward wantonly to fuel its insatiable appetite for "growth."
July 19, 2011
An estimated 1 million Syrians took to the streets Friday to
press for the ouster of President Bashar Assad, whose use of
force and offers of dialogue have failed to stop a four-month
revolt. At least 32 protesters were killed around the country,
including more than 20 in the capital of Damascus.
Almost 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used on fields and
orchards in the United States — each year.
Range anxiety, the fear that such vehicles will leave the
vehicle's occupants stranded well short of their destination,
remains one of, if not the main barrier to the widespread
adoption of EVs
Americans need to work on average 10 years longer to pay off
the country's mounting debts, says Philippa Malmgren, a former
economic adviser to George W. Bush and founder of Principalis
Asset Management.
The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives said the Justice Department has been
withholding key information from congressional officials and
that the department sought to protect its political appointees
from criticism over a failed anti-gun trafficking operation that
allowed hundreds of weapons to be smuggled to Mexico.
A short video (embedded at the bottom of this blog post) that
they took of the "floating ice city" was for a while trending on
YouTube, and for good reason: Although the clip is short, it is
long enough to demonstrate the immensity of the expanse of ice
stretching in front of the camera.
The reason [the US economy] isn't doing better is quite
simple - excessive government spending. Federal spending in 2000
was about 18% of GDP. Today it is close to 24%. This means that
6% of private sector GDP has been "crowded out." It's simple - a
bigger government = a smaller private sector = slower job
growth.
The founder of business incubator Idealab was among the
investors who provided $1 million in funding to Boulder-based
Cool Energy Inc., a manufacturer of low-temperature Stirling
engines that convert solar thermal energy and waste heat into
electricity, according to Securities and Exchange Commission
filings made public Friday.
While it only appears that the City of Oak Park, MI dropped
charges toward Julie Bass for planting
a vegetable garden in her front yard, she wants to
clarify that charges have not been dropped. She may not be
spending 93 days in the slammer for growing veggies, but she
faces similar punishment - for her dogs! But
the garden fiasco is not over, more on that below.
A clash at a police station that left at least four people
dead in western China's restive Xinjiang region was "a terrorist
attack," a government official said on Tuesday, but an exile
Uighur group accused police of firing on peaceful protesters.
The premier source for clean-tech job seekers, employers, and
recruiters. Search current openings among the job
categories listed below.
Mayor McKinley Price peered through binoculars on the 10th
floor balcony outside his City Hall office, viewing a panoramic
landscape of waterfront property dominated by black coal piles.
The utility plans to shut down the units at the 53-year-old
station due to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Utility
Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Utility MACT) rule, which
the agency intends to finalize in November 2011 with emissions
control technologies to be installed by Jan. 1, 2015.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-196 July 15 to
cut federal funding for renewable energy while boosting funding
for research into emissions control technology and a nuclear
waste repository.
Many of us would not be alive or well had it not been for
badly needed supplements which we ourselves had to research,
seek out, and purchase with our spare change. We recently
reported on the sneak attack on supplements and the new bill is
finally available for public view. Please contact your senators.
We cannot let the likes of the FDA or IOM (who hate vitamin D)
seize full control of our health!
In 2006, approximately 30 years after the Ford Motor Company
had dumped toxic waste on the land of the Ramapough Mountain
Indians, the Ramapough filed a class action lawsuit against Ford
and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to countless
premature deaths.
Egypt's military rulers commissioned a top judge Monday to
form an electoral commission, starting the process of organizing
the country's first elections after the popular uprising that
ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
A mock nuclear cask from Alamance County traveled through
Asheville on Friday, part of a rally by the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League to raise awareness regarding
nuclear fuel waste transports and storage in North Carolina.
San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay has opened a new exhibit to
address plastic waste in the Earth´s oceans."Perils of
Plastics" is a temporary multimedia exhibition that combines
playful features with hard-hitting facts and a do-it-yourself
element to raise awareness and personal action, according to the
aquarium.
Pessimism over the United States’ economic outlook ruled as
speakers last week took the stage at the annual FreedomFest in
Las Vegas, reports HumanEvents.com. With the Aug. 2 deadline
looming for a decision on the federal debt ceiling, speakers
painted a grim picture of things to come.
Scientists in Australia are reporting encouraging early
results from a simple eye test they hope will give a noninvasive
way to detect signs of Alzheimer's disease.
The FDA’s draft guidance on New Dietary Ingredients strikes
many facets of the health freedom front. It makes the FDA judge,
jury, and executioner of supplements, manufacturers, and
distributors. It undermines previous protection under DSHEA
legislation formed in ’94 and let’s synthetic botanicals off the
hook – find out why.
First time violence has broke out in Sanaa since President
Saleh left country
Ford Motor Co. is using recycled tires, carpet and blue jeans
in an effort to reduce the environmental footprint of its new
vehicles.
A move to ban to "fracking" is stretching across the Atlantic
Ocean. The French parliament has now voted to outlaw the
controversial technique to withdraw shale-gas. And now the New
Jersey legislature has done the same, although the conservative
governor there must still sign the measure if it is to become
law.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) hopes to put a makeshift
roof over the reactor 3 turbine building at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant in preparation for Typhoon Ma-on.
Marisa GrimesGlobal consumer confidence cautiously edged up
one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence
increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European
consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which
battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according
to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence
Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S...
Fiery reds and oranges nearly covered the United States on
meteorologist maps as a massive heat wave hit hard in much of
the country on Saturda
Thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) troops
crossed into northern Iraq over the weekend, bombarding Iraqi
Kurdish villages.
The Iraqi government has quietly
acknowledged the Iranian military operation on Iraqi soil, but
has not called it an invasion.
Iran has made dramatic progress in its ballistic missile
programs over the past year, unveiling three new missiles it
claims are already in production, including an innovative design
that could be a “game-changer” if used against U.S. aircraft
carriers, an Israeli expert widely considered one of the world’s
top authorities on Iranian missile programs says.
James Grant, founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer and
one of Wall Street's strongest advocates of the gold standard,
says it's past time to leave the faith-based dollar. Grant calls
the fiat dollar "one of the world's astounding monetary
creations.”
The operator of a damaged nuclear power plant was scrambling
to put a makeshift protective covering over a reactor building
Monday as a powerful typhoon was moving towards Japan's main
island.
How did earthquake-prone Japan, where two atomic bombs were
dropped at the end of World War II creating a strong antinuclear
weapons culture, come to embrace nuclear power just a few
decades later?
"Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth," a review paper that
will be published on July 15, 2011, in the journal Science,
concludes that the decline of large predators and herbivores in
all regions of the world is causing substantial changes to
Earth's terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.
Officials in Maine announced a $900,000 settlement with
Chevron for the company’s decades-long discharge of more than
140,000 gallons of oil in Hampden, located near Bangor.
Medical-marijuana dispensaries can't yet operate in Arizona
pending a judge's ruling on Proposition 203. But that doesn't
necessarily keep cardholders from finding pot.
At least a handful of clubs that provide patients with
medical marijuana have opened up in the Valley to fill that
void.
Five million people are at risk of cholera in drought-hit
Ethiopia, where acute watery diarrhea has broken out in crowded,
unsanitary conditions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said
on Friday.
The United States is one of the few countries where Congress
sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates "periodic
uncertainty" over the government's ability to meet its
obligations, Moody's said in a report
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is safer, although subjects
must sometimes ingest a contrasting agent in order to obtain
more distinct images.
The U.S. Department of Energy will pay nearly $60.6 million
to the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) as part of a
settlement over costs incurred by the power provider for on-site
storage of used nuclear fuel from the 830 MW Cooper nuclear
power plant.
Oxygen absorbers are a great way to pack food for long-term
storage. They only work when the air/oxygen is controlled with a
sealed storage container. Mylar bags and plastic buckets with a
good seal seem to be the best way to control this.
If you think the last few days have been tumultuous for
markets, just watch as Aug. 2 approaches.
Financial markets have largely ignored the debt limit talks
in the U.S. so far. They're reacting instead to concerns about
debt in Europe and dismal employment numbers.
Region 1254 (S22E11) produced the largest event of the
period, a C1/Sf flare, two CME's were observed in LASCO C2 and
C3 imagery but neither appear to be Earth directed. The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to unsettled
levels on day one (19 July),
and at quiet to active levels on
days two and three (20-21 July), as
another coronal hole
high-speed stream becomes geoeffective.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published last week the
results of its 2011 EU-wide stress test of 90 banks in 21
countries(1). The aim of the 2011 EU-wide stress test is to
assess the resilience of the banks involved in the exercise
against an adverse but plausible scenario.
Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg says another
recession is only one small shock away, despite the fact that
the stock market remains strong.
Toxic radioactive waste now will be stored in steel and
concrete containers at a Fairfield County nuclear plant that for
nearly three decades has submerged the atomic refuse in a pool
of water to keep the material from overheating.
Have you ever wondered
why the CPI, GDP and employment numbers run counter to your
personal and business experiences? The problem lies in biased
and often-manipulated government reporting.
They are the least of the creatures that swim the Catawba
River: baby fish, inches-long shad, eggs and larvae. More than 2
billion die in U.S. waterways each year, casualties of the
nation's hunger for electricity.
We are told by U.S. Treasury officials and the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO)
that the Federal Government's debt is now just over 100% of our
nation's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
and while this level of debt is "alarming", it is "still
sustainable." Meanwhile, Greece's sovereign debt is now 157% of
its GDP, and the nation is on the verge of default and collapse.
According to a team of researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs
School of Engineering, the solar panels sprouting on increasing
numbers of residential and commercial rooftops around the world
aren't just generating green electricity, they're also helping
keep the buildings cool.
They say it's a lousy piece of property, a salt-plagued
wasteland where many crops won't grow.
Delta sunshine, however, doesn't discriminate.
National investment in solar research and development would
gain $10 million under an amendment to the proposed 2012 federal
budget narrowly approved Friday by the U.S. House of
Representatives.
President Barack Obama isn't taking debt-limit talks
seriously but is rather waiting for Republicans to make
proposals on the issue and then jump at the chance to trash
their ideas, says former GOP presidential candidate and Forbes
Magazine Publisher Steve Forbes.
There are over 5,000 known varieties of the potato, but today
we eat less than a dozen of them. There are over 15,000
varieties of beans in existence, but you’ll find only five or
six of them at your grocery store. Ever hear of a banana melon?
Most people haven’t, and you won’t see them in stores. Yet they
were once a prized melon, widely sought after.
Syrian troops flown in on helicopters descended on an eastern
town near the Iraqi border Sunday where scores of soldiers
defected to join the four-month-old uprising against President
Bashar Assad, witnesses and activists said.
An apparent life-and-death battle over environmental
regulation is boiling up between Texas and the EPA after the
federal agency announced a new air pollution rule last week.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday signed energy legislation to
encourage more natural gas production and require energy
companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, a
drilling method that has raised environmental concerns.
On June 23rd, 2011 the International Energy Agency (IEA) made
a significant announcement. For just the third time in its
history, it announced the release of oil from strategic
reserves—some 60 million BBLs over the preceding month. The
announcement pointed to the Libyan situation, where it estimated
some 132 million BBLs of light, sweet crude oil had been removed
from the market by the end of May, 2011 and noting that greater
supply tightness (and the resulting run in up in prices) could
threaten the fragile global recovery. The impact of this "shock"
announcement was pretty immediate as crude prices fell with
Brent Futures falling close to 7.5 percent in the immediate
aftermath
Phosphate is a mineral that is used in fertilizer to boost
agricultural productivity. It is greatly responsible for the
"green" revolution and the increased output of farms around the
world. Unfortunately, the world will be coming to a point, if
certain trends hold, where we will run out of phosphate. The
mineral is widely used, but utterly unrecycled. Like fossil
fuels, phosphate may come to a point where it is too costly to
use, and world hunger may be the consequence.
The record price of gold and the universal obsession with the
sparkling metal make it a parallel global power.
A new study published in the journal, Science, has quantified
the forests' role in regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in
the atmosphere. Because plants absorb CO2 as part of their
metabolism, the greater the forest, the more CO2 is removed, and
the impact of global climate change is decreased. The study
found that the world's established forests remove 8.8 billion
tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year. This equates to nearly
one third of all annual fossil fuel emissions from humans.
The analysis, Integrated Generation Technology Options,
examines pulverized coal, integrated gasification combined-cycle
(IGCC), natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC), nuclear, biomass,
wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), and concentrating solar thermal
generation technologies from the nearterm to 2025.
We're losing the right to manage our own health. Even the
right to choose our food is being stolen. We can stop it, but
only by ending the basis on which it's being done—not by
addressing each action.
"We are adding more than 4 acres of solar panels to the
rooftops of Topanga and Fashion Square," he said. "Conservation
and sustainability are among our company's priorities."
International instability, disruption of essential
infrastructure serving global markets and energy supplies are
among the climate change impacts from abroad that could affect
the United Kingdom at home finds a new report, published by
Foresight, the government's futures think tank.
Unchecked global warming could threaten public health and
increase health costs by exacerbating ground-level ozone—the
primary component of smog. Fortunately, this fall the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will announce proposed
standards to curb global warming emissions from our nation’s
dirtiest power plants and later this year will issue similar
standards for oil refineries. These standards will help protect
the public’s health and our environment from the dangerous
consequences of global warming
The United States granted Libyan rebel leaders full
diplomatic recognition as the governing authority of Libya
yesterday, after five months of fighting to oust longtime ruler
Moammar Khadafy.
The first shipment of biodiesel fuel grown and processed in
North Carolina for the military will arrive today at Marine
Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
The Obama administration is seeking to help Mongolia become a
vast nuclear waste dump for commercial reactors in Japan, the
United States, and the United Arab Emirates, according to a
draft nuclear cooperation agreement obtained by Newsmax.
At issue is how much the customers of a utility should pay
for the outside lawyers and experts the company hires to help
win approval of a rate increase.
The easiest way to explain Gallup's discovery that millions
of Americans are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than they
ate last year is to simply crack a snarky joke about Whole Foods
really being "Whole Paycheck." Rooted in the old limousine
liberal iconography, the quip conjures the notion that only
Birkenstock-wearing trust-funders can afford to eat right in
tough times.
An oppressive and potentially deadly summertime mix of
sizzling temperatures and high humidity baked a large swath of
the country again on Sunday, pushing afternoon heat indexes in
dozens of cities to dangerous levels.
July 15, 2011
Supervisors united in support; nearby residents opposed
The Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a
vast solar energy farm west of the Tucson Mountains that was
pitched as a linchpin for the area's ability to lure such
commercial ventures in the future.
The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, Fla.,
recently awarded a consortium of three contractors a $667
million design-build contract for a 3,000-ton-per-day mass
waste-to-energy facility.
Yukon River Gold LLC has
announced the suspension of fish buying operations this summer
in the remote Alaskan village of Kaltag, pending review for a
permanent closure of the facility. This closure results in
elimination of 70 jobs this summer, in this remote village of
less than 800 people, where jobs are scarce.
Wetlands, forests and farmlands soak up large amounts of
carbon dioxide but rising amounts of the gas in the atmosphere
mean these carbon "sinks" could become less effective at
fighting climate change.
Hot on the heels of unprecedented growth, Australian solar
installations will reach a cumulative 1 GW by the end of July
2011. Installations in 2011 alone are on track to exceed 1 GW,
with monthly installation rates increasing four-fold within the
first half of the year. Concerningly, the growth
is unsustainable, indicative of a race-to-the-cliff, as severe
wind-back of incentives has recently occurred. But a promising
glow is developing on the horizon...
The AUD$3.2 billion (£2.1bn) agency has been set up by the
Federal Government and will bring together a range of clean and
renewable energy initiatives previously administered by
different agencies
Crews have completed hazard tree removal along 75 miles of
Forest roads out of an estimated 200+ miles that needed to be
done. There are ten feller-buncher machines and eight saw crews
that are doing this work. Their work is being slowed somewhat
due to hazardous conditions as intense rains have caused
rockslides, mudslides, and fallen trees to come across the
roads. Lightning has also been a threat
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the
central bank is prepared to provide additional stimulus if the
current economic lull persists.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff
Bingaman (D-N.M.) will likely release a proposal for a clean
energy standard (CES) to boost low-carbon electricity despite an
impasse with the panel’s senior Republican, a top
Bingaman aide said.
Three big guns from U.S. politics are offering a twist on the
chronic funding shortage for the country's infrastructure:
taxing oil directly.
The United States' copper-based electric grid is estimated to
leak electricity at an estimated five percent per 100 miles (161
km) of transmission. With power plants usually located far from
where the electricity they produce will actually be consumed,
this can add up to a lot of wasted power.
Phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA) are chemicals that are
commonly found in plastics and household products such as
solvents and cleaners. Being common in places that people live
and eat, they will eventually make their way into the body.
Coal-fired utilities in a 23-state region of the eastern
United States will have to ramp up their emissions control
efforts by Jan. 1, 2012 in order to comply with the
Environmental Protection Agency's "Cross-state Air Pollution
Rule" that was issued on Thursday.
Duke Energy has spent $5 million over the past two years to
fix corrosion in pollution-catching devices at its power plants,
which are among dozens nationwide plagued by the problem.
In households across the U.S., water usage is declining
slowly but steadily; a trend that is expected to continue for
the next 15 years or even more. This is good news in light of
the challenges some areas in the U.S. face when it comes to
managing this essential resource. At the same time, it presents
a challenge to water utilities, who must adapt their systems and
rates to reduced consumption trends in order to cover fixed
costs and maintain reliable service.
Spain has less water than a week ago to generate hydropower
and irrigate crops, the latest official data showed on Tuesday,
potentially adding to its already hefty burden of gas and grain
imports.
A new report concludes that each ton of carbon dioxide
emitted in the atmosphere inflicts as much as $900 in
environmental harm - almost 45 times the amount the federal
government uses when setting regulations. The gap, advocates
say, disguises the true value of emissions reductions.
Under current utility electric vehicle (EV) tariffs, it is
always cheaper to recharge an EV than to fuel a conventional
gas-powered vehicle, according to a new study released today by
Northeast Group, LLC. The study benchmarked and analyzed the
first wave of EV-specific tariffs launched by electric utilities
across the United States.
he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced plans
to improve its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program
as part of an ongoing effort initiated in 2009 to strengthen the
program.
Exxon Mobil said it had begun preliminary work to replace the
pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 1,000 barrels of
oil into the Yellowstone River in Montana two weeks ago.
Free Flow Power Corporation announced that it has been
successfully operating its first full-scale hydrokinetic turbine
generator in the Mississippi River since June 20, 2011.
In what less than two years ago was a cornfield, a vision of
a clean energy future is now up and running, where modern
versions of the ancient concept of the flywheel both store and
release electrical power from and to the grid.
The March 11 monster tsunami that hit the Fukushima No. 1
nuclear plant destroyed the critical backup power system and
triggered the meltdown of hundreds of fuel rods in reactors 1, 2
and 3.
The globe experienced the seventh warmest June since record
keeping began in 1880. The Arctic sea ice extent was the second
smallest extent for June on record.
The report covers green jobs between 2003 and 2010, and
serves as a useful map of just where the clean economy can be
found. The short answer: Everywhere.
The so-called on-bill financing,
if deemed viable and implemented by the PUC, would allow
consumers to finance renewable energy systems over time through
their electricity bills.
Despite the US Constitution promising protection of inventors
who reveal their inventions, some in the US Patent Office are
systematically obstructing the technology in the USA, while
helping to transfer the technology revealed to the US Patent
Office (on the promise of a patent) overseas.
Uh oh. If you’ve been following the issue here at RGB, you’re
aware of the fact that the US Department of Agriculture has been
making life very easy for Monsanto, the big agriculture behemoth
that controls a huge share of US (and global) seed production.
They’ve approved a number of Monsanto’s genetically modified
(GMO) crops already this year. But the latest development blows
the doors off what has happened so far.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday
evening to rein in the federal Environmental Protection Agency
by making it easier for states to grant water quality permits to
coal operators.
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee has
approved a restrictive spending bill for Fiscal Year 2012 that
allows uranium mining on public lands adjacent to the Grand
Canyon, prohibits funding for the U.S. EPA to set greenhouse gas
standards, and exempts oil and utility companies from the Clean
Air Act.
The House rejected a bill Tuesday aimed at repealing a slew
of light bulb efficiency standards that conservatives have
targeted as an egregious example of federal overreach.
Through dedication and sheer ingenuity, Drs. Ruit, Tabin and
their team developed a procedure that can see the cataracts that
have left large numbers of people blind for two years or more,
can be removed and replaced. Allowing them to see their homes,
families and friends once again.
Across the Horn of Africa, a fierce drought is forcing more
than 10 million people to rely on emergency food aid, up from a
previous forecast of six million, according to the U.N. World
Food Programme.
A comparison between Focus Fusion, which uses a principle of
lightning in an apparatus the size of a small garage, with
research costs at around $3 million, and the United States'
National Ignition Facility, which uses lasers in a football
stadium sized array, with research costs at around $3 billion --
1000 times more -- while producing far more energy considering
the input energy requirement and apparatus size and cost.
Japan's prime minister says he wants the country to learn
from its ongoing crisis and become less reliant on nuclear
energy.
These are sunny days for Arizona's solar-energy industry,
with photovoltaic panels sprouting up on rooftops and major
utility- scale installations planned across the state.
But some see clouds forming.
Land and water issues, including restrictive public-land-use
policies and opposition from some environmentalists and
neighbors, have stalled some major projects, a report by a
University of Arizona law professor concludes.
Large integrated oil companies have reduced their US refining
capacity by nearly 10% in the past 30 months, and could reach as
low as 20.245 million b/d by the end of the year, from 23.653
million b/d at year-end 2010, as they follow a path of
"dis-integration," according to a Raymond James investor note
issued on Monday.
We've got a problem with our food supply, however. Prices are
going up all over the place because of global shortages due to
natural disasters, growing demand from a rising middle class in
China and India, the explosion of fuel prices, and the use of
crops for biofuel instead of feeding people.
The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving
President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect,
unilaterally increase the nation's debt limit to avoid a
first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The report warns that gridlock in Washington is preventing
the U.S. from being the world's clean energy leader. It urges
federal, state and local governments to adopt policies that
encourage the growth of the green economy, noting that the U.S.
already lags China in clean energy investment.
"The brutal truth is, unlike our global competitors, we have
no strategic framework for expanding the clean energy economy,
A nuclear reactor in Japan was forced to shut down due to
infiltration of enormous swarms of jellyfish near the power
plant.
A similar incident was also reported recently in Israel when
millions of jellyfish clogged down the sea-water cooling system
of a power plant.
The
swollen Missouri River was swamping more farmland in Missouri on
Wednesday as federal officials began to prepare for a gradual
reduction in water releases from a key dam starting later in
July.
More than 40% of this year’s US corn harvest, about 5.05
billion bushels, is expected to be used to produce ethanol. That
surpasses an estimated 5 billion bushels that will be used for
livestock feed. This is the first time more corn has been used
to produce ethanol than to feed cattle, pigs, and chickens.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) today are announcing for the first
time products recognized as the most energy-efficient in their
categories among those that have earned the Energy Star label.
While solar panels are very useful at converting the sun's
rays into electricity for immediate use, the storage of that
energy for later use is ... well, it's still being figured out.
The energy can be used to charge batteries, for instance, but
that charge will wear off over time. Instead, scientists have
been looking at thermo-chemical storage of solar energy.
A new report, "The
Economic, Environmental, and Social Benefits of Geothermal Use
in the Eastern United States" by the Geo-Heat Center describes
the use of geothermal energy east of the Mississippi River.
Documented direct uses of geothermal waters-primarily for
spas and resorts with some space heating-currently exist in
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.
The fuel to power the world’s machinery and vehicles for
thousands of years can be derived from electromagnetic wave
conductors. We have known for 80+ years that electromagnetic
coupling can be used to harness the freely available cosmic rays
(electromagnetic radiation) and power the World. A simple
antenna is an electromagnetic conductor which converts harnessed
radio waves in free space to an electrical current. This
electromagnetic conversion can power all our machinery,
including our automobiles.
Bartosz Grzybowski, a physical chemist
at Northwestern University, and his team of colleagues offer
evidence in a paper published in Science, that shows that
what scientists have believed to be true about the causes behind
the creation of static electricity, is wrong. Instead of one
object winding up with more or less electrons as a result of
rubbing together, they claim, there is an actual transfer of
slight amounts of actual material.
An innovative commercial-scale facility to make ethanol from
corncobs, leaves, husks and stalks will receive financial
support from the Obama administration. Energy Secretary Steven
Chu has offered a conditional commitment for a $105 million loan
guarantee to support development of the new plant, nicknamed
Project Liberty.
President Barack Obama raised the stakes in the third
straight day of budget talks Tuesday by warning that senior
citizens and veterans may suffer first if the debt ceiling is
not raised by Aug. 2.
World oil consumption is expected to rise by 1.32 million b/d
in 2012 as the global economy expands by 4.1%, boosting demand
for OPEC crude, OPEC said Tuesday in its latest monthly oil
market report.
Owners and operators of U.S. commercial nuclear power
reactors purchased nearly 47 million pounds of uranium from U.S.
and foreign suppliers during 2010; 92% of this total was of
foreign origin.
Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants
near the Afghan border if the United States cuts off aid, the
defense minister said on Tuesday in an interview with Pakistani
media.
New legislation brings in its wake a period of confusion and
adjustment, as the businesses and individuals it affects come to
terms with new responsibilities and/or restrictions. But the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has
been accompanied by unusually high levels of FUD -- fear,
uncertainty and doubt.
PV variability isn't so much of an issue now, but as it
scales from what is "large" today (~20MW) to "large" in the
future (multiple hundreds of MW sites), intermittency will have
a definable cost for utilities...
Solar activity is expected to be very low with isolated
C-class activity likely for the next three days (15-17 July).
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled during the past 24
hours due to residual effects from the CH HSS.
The University of Miami's College of Engineering has designed
a light-emitting diode (LED) light that utilizes an array of
LEDs 100 times smaller than conventional LEDs. The device is
more flexible, maintains lower temperatures, and has an
increased life-span over existing LEDs.
There are several sources of revenue that will not grow
government, but will shrink it, warming the most conservative of
hearts. Conservatives should not reject all efforts to increase
revenues. Some are not taxes. Some are good common-sense
policies that can help reduce the footprint of the federal
bureaucracy, stop unnecessary subsidy of frivolous litigation,
and increase our energy self-sufficiency, all while
generating increased revenue to use in cutting the deficit.
Opposition from the International Sleep Products Association
(ISPA) and other manufacturing groups meant that a Rhode Island
bill that would have required mattress manufacturers and
retailers operating there to participate in an ´extended
producer responsibility´ (EPR) program was not passed.
Scientists have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea in
Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say
it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a
global public health threat.
The special thing about this year’s Full Buck Moon is that,
to the naked eye, it will look full as it rises on both evenings
around sunset.
Our inefficient, carbon-based energy economy threatens to
irreversibly disrupt the Earth’s climate. Averting dangerous
climate change and the resultant crop-shrinking heat waves,
more-destructive storms, accelerated sea level rise, and waves
of climate refugees means cutting carbon emissions 80 percent by
2020.
Ohioans who carry a concealed firearm and obtain their Ohio
concealed handgun license (CHL) have undergone training and read
the Ohio Attorney General guidance on use of deadly force and
self-defense. "Castle Doctrine" has made using such force much
simpler to understand if defending your life or family member
from someone breaking into your occupied home or vehicle, but
life is not always simple.
A group of six states including
Wyoming is exploring ways in which the deployment of “green”
technologies might affect the job market in coming years.
More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes soil to release
the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, new
research published in this week's edition of Nature reveals.
"This feedback to our changing atmosphere means that nature is
not as efficient in slowing global warming as we previously
thought,"...
With the sun beating down, Air Products switched on its
nearly $9 million solar farm in Trexlertown on Tuesday to the
tune of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Japan Task Force
today recommended that the NRC's "patchwork of regulatory
requirements" developed "piece-by-piece over the decades" should
be replaced with a "logical, systematic and coherent regulatory
framework" to further bolster nuclear reactor safety in the
United States.
Most of all, we want violence in the home to stop, and we
believe the first step towards lowering the rates of family
violence is to provide the means toward an open and frank
discussion of it. It’s not enough to draw a connection to root
causes. Now’s the time to take a stand.
Lying in
most circumstances is immoral. And lying to cover up one’s
crimes might be especially egregious, and arguably criminal in
itself. But Casey Anthony was acquitted of the actual crime of
murder. As far as the state is concerned, she has not been
proven guilty. So why is her dishonesty with the police an
offense against the law?
The spectre of people developing new and strange allergies,
indigenous seeds losing their genetic codes and disappearing
altogether, farmers making bumper harvests -- or no harvests at
all -- is in the air.
The U.S. government is supplying about 20 percent of
Americans' personal income through a variety of channels,
including jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and
disability, according to an analysis conducted by Moody’s
Analytics.
A key US House of Representatives committee passed a slate of
four bills designed to speed up siting and permitting of
renewable energy projects on federal lands, over the objections
of Democrats who said the bills would result in a blossoming of
new lawsuits.
The U.S. nuclear industry's top cop will weigh major changes
in how it regulates the country's 104 reactors after Japan's
Fukushima disaster, a move that will help shape the future of
the power source and could lead to significant cost increases.
The United States said Tuesday
that Syrian President Bashar Assad has failed to prove himself a
worthy leader nearly two months after being challenged by
President Barack Obama to guide his country toward a democratic
transition or leave power.
When is it time to break up with your utility? Perhaps
it’s when they come to ratepayers for $30 million in cost
overruns on a “free” smart grid project. Or when they fail
to meet deadlines to propose a new franchise agreement. Or
when they cite national security in an effort to avoid sharing
load information. Or when they crash your office with 9
employees to present their delayed franchise plan. Or
perhaps when the propose raising rates again to keep up with
rising fossil fuel prices.
Just days after the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) insisted
that there is no medical value to marijuana, the White House
appeared to contradict the position, saying in a report that
there may actually be "some" medical value to "individual
components of the cannabis plant" after all.
With high debt and falling stocks, Italy appears to be the
next European economy on the brink. Investors and European
officials are now sounding alarm bells.
World Population Day is an annual event,
observed on July 11, to raise awareness of the
problems of overpopulation and continuing population growth. It
grew out of the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11,
1987, the approximate date on which the global population
reached five billion people. Less than a quarter century later,
world population will reach 7 billion on October 31 this year,
according to United Nations population projections.
Xcel Energy now is seeking a 5.8 percent electricity rate
increase for its Wisconsin customers for 2012, according to the
state Public Service Commission.
Cleanup crews have used 40,000 linear feet of materials such
as absorbent booms and sweeps, and 8,600 square feet of
absorbent pads to clean the 1,000 barrels of crude oil that
spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana, the U.S. EPA
said.
July 12, 2011
The recent class-action lawsuit brought against Taco Bell
raised questions about the quality of food many Americans eat
each day.
Chief among those concerns is the use of cellulose (read:
wood pulp), an extender whose use in a roster of food products,
from crackers and ice creams to puddings and baked goods, is now
being exposed. What you're actually paying for -- and consuming
-- may be surprising.
Hundreds of people on Monday took to the streets in the
eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, the administrative center of
Nangarhar Province, to protest against Pakistani shelling,
Afghan TV channels reported.
The
lives of half a million children in the Horn of Africa are at
risk, international aid agencies said on Friday, as the worst
drought in decades forces thousands of people to flee their
homes each day.
Alberta reported mixed results on Thursday in its battle with
the mountain pine beetle, with six million hectares of forest in
the western Canadian province susceptible to attack.
Fourth attack on pipelines supplying gas to Israel in 2011
The Pakistan military declared Sunday that it doesn't need
U.S. aid, as the White House confirmed that United States is
withholding about $800 million in aid to Pakistan's armed
forces.
A bill has moved through a U.S. House of Representatives
subcommittee that would prohibit the U.S. EPA from designating
coal ash as hazardous material, a designation that a trade group
representing the industry says would place an unwarranted stigma
on the substance for its beneficial uses.
After approximately $4.5 billion paid out to victims of BP's
record-breaking Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company is urging
U.S. officials with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility to halt
further compensation.
New data shows that 2010 was a record year for California's
efforts to encourage homeowners and businesses to install
rooftop solar panels.
Europe's biodiesel industry could be wiped out by EU plans to
tackle the unwanted side effects of biofuel production, after
studies showed few climate benefits, four papers obtained by
Reuters show.
Coal is expected to be maintained at more than 1 billion tons
per year even with a projected closure of 40 GW of coal-fired
generation because of proposed regulations, according to the
Integrated Energy Outlook for the second quarter of 2011...
The Drug Enforcement Administration has ruled marijuana
should remain classified as a dangerous drug like heroin because
studies have not confirmed its medicinal value, but the agency
may itself be to blame for the lack of evidence.
Attempts to create a vaccine that works against a wide set of
strains and therefore provides protection against unforeseen
strains have encountered difficulties relating to the structures
that hold the virus itself.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced it will
postpone, by 18 months, some of the stricter new Energy Star
appliance efficiency standards mandated in the wake of the March
2010 scandal over laxity and false reporting triggered by a U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Deep-pocketed nuclear power lobbyists may pack a big punch in
Washington, D.C., but they are
getting knocked out altogether at the state legislative level.
So far in 2011, the nuclear power industry has a record of zero
wins and six losses in Iowa,
Kentucky,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
North Carolina, and
Wisconsin.
America's supermarkets are awash in genetically modified
foods. Over the past decade, biotech companies like Monsanto
have dominated dinner tables with crops like corn, soybeans and
canola modified to survive lethal doses of herbicides, resulting
in increased herbicide use, a surge in herbicide-resistant
weeds, and the contamination of organic and conventional crops.
XTO Energy, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), is under
investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) after a 13,000 gallon hydraulic fracturing
fluid spill at XTO Energy's natural gas drilling site in Penn
Township, Lycoming County, PA.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer surprised few attendees at the
Western Governors’ Association meeting last week when she
acknowledged that one of her biggest fears as she began running
the state two years ago was the possibility of a devastating
wildfire. Her fears were realized this year as Arizona set a
record for acres burned by wildfires. More than 800 blazes have
sparked around the state leaving nearly one million acres—one
percent of Arizona’s total land mass—burned. Where green once
thrived, only dead trees and denuded ground cover remained—a
prime setup for that ‘perfect storm’ when monsoon rains arrived.
In just a few years, the U.S. government has shifted from an
embrace of fuel-cell vehicles to a distinctly cold shoulder.
Electric cars are a game-changing technology with an
Achilles' heel -- the battery. ...Experts agree consumers will
never fully embrace electric vehicles until they can travel as
far as a gas-powered car on a single charge.
California plans to get a third of its electricity from wind,
solar and other renewable energy, but Governor "Moonbeam" Jerry
Brown wants more. Soon.
An old idea to generate electricity by exploiting differences
in ocean temperatures is getting a new look thanks to rising
energy prices.
First the good news: You're getting a raise! Now the bad
news: Inflation is going to demolish it.
A growing number of school districts from Boston to Western
Massachusetts are embracing a new kind of school to pursue
educational innovations and compete more aggressively with
charter schools.
Drops in solar cell prices and surging interest in developing
nations led to a 32% increase in investments in renewable energy
globally in 2010, a United Nations report finds.
Overall, the $211 billion in investments in wind, solar,
geothermal and related technologies was driven by policies in
nations that increasingly require such power worldwide.
A Japanese nuclear power plant has come under fire for trying
to sway the outcome of a public forum on atomic safety, dealing
a fresh blow to the industry's credibility four months after the
world's biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
The Obama administration was hit with devastating employment
figures on Friday that showed only 18,000 new jobs were added in
June – 83 percent less than the projected figure.
On June 18, the second round of 2011’s UN climate change
negotiations ended in Germany. As the talks drew to a close, the
atmosphere was familiarly grim: little had been achieved.
In the same way that polluted water can be deceptively clear,
polluted soil can just look like plain old dirt. Given the
contaminants that can be left behind by gas plants, oil
refineries and other industries, however, it's very important to
check that the soil in an area isn't toxic, before
building houses or growing crops there.
The La Nina weather anomaly blamed for one of the worst
droughts in the southern United States could revive this autumn,
the U.S. Climate Prediction Center forecast on Thursday.
In the latest twist to the saga involving the increasingly
likely desecration of sites held sacred by some American
Indians, a coalition of Indian citizens has filed a last-ditch
legal appeal against the U.S. Forest Service, hoping to change a
tide that has long seemed unchangeable. By using science and the
law to back their religious and spiritual beliefs, the coalition
wants the courts to find that the federal agency failed in its
duty to protect the public’s health, while breaking the federal
government’s own environmental rules as a result of deciding
that a company could develop a ski resort using treated
wastewater...
An elevated, electric rail line connecting communities on
Oahu's south shore with the Honolulu International Airport,
downtown Honolulu and Waikiki, is one of more than two dozen
transit projects that will receive federal funding this year,
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday.
The fact is that Big Medicine and their political allies want
to make us all more dependent on government and the medical
establishment. Obamacare has only accellerated this process.
An NRC report says workers were given the wrong instructions
for the job and used equipment that could have interfered with
an escape during the outage in April, the reports said. Workers
were reportedly anywhere between two seconds and two minutes
from a radiation overdose depending on their proximity to a
stuck radioactive cable.
With panel prices coming down, PV might seem like a possible
solution to the growing energy needs of emerging economies in
Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
A strong earthquake jolted on Sunday the same area of
northeastern Japan that was hit by a massive quake in March, but
there was no sign of further damage along the coast or to the
crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials said.
The monsoons arrived on schedule in northern New Mexico on
Monday, bringing with them the promise of containing a monster
wildfire that has broken records in the state.
But they also brought potential peril from flash floods, wind
bursts and lightning, with possible flooding made worse by the
ground-clearing fires.
Diversity is a prime feature of Native America. This is
evident in the impressive assemblage of Native nations that
continue to exist, the many languages we speak, the stunning
geographical variety that is North America, and the rich
cultural mosaic that is in abundance. That said, as indigenous
peoples, many would agree that historically we generally acted
from a common set of values that transcended individual nations
C2 with a Type II radio signature (est. shock velocity 977
km/s). A CME associated with this eventa slight chance for
M-class activity for the next three days (12-14 July). The
geomagnetic field was quiet to active during the past 24 hours.
The increase in activity is due to a combination of the coronal
hole high speed stream (CH HSS) and the CME observed on 09 July.
A Sudden Impulse (SI) was observed. The geomagnetic field
is expected to be unsettled to active with isolated minor storm
periods for the next three days (12-14 July) due to the onset of
a recurrent CH HSS and the anticipated arrival (late on day two)
of the CME observed early this morning.
A fiscal 2012 spending bill unveiled Wednesday by House
Republican appropriators includes a policy rider that would
prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from
regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and
refineries for one year.
A municipal power system’s sustainability goals have been
increased and accelerated recently, even while some states are
softening their green energy stances. And a new contract in
Arizona seemed to emphasize the point.
The first Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous
(GEO-1) satellite has begun delivering infrared imagery. The
system will detect missile launches around the globe, improve
intelligence gathering, and increase situational awareness on
the battlefield.
Officials in scorching Phoenix began harnessing the power of
the sun on Wednesday to help chill commuters baking in
triple-digit temperatures as they wait to use the city's light
rail system.
Three senators reached a deal on Thursday to repeal the $6
billion per year ethanol tax credit by the end of July, an
agreement that must still be passed by Congress.
For the first time, all scombrid species (tunas, bonitos,
mackerels and Spanish mackerels) and billfishes (swordfish and
marlins) have been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species.
The White House is weighing the option of using executive
order privilege to push its spending plans through, bypassing
congressional approval.
Since the turn of the 19th century, however, the
“Redwoods of the East” have been reeling. Chestnut blight was
one of the largest ecological disasters of the 20th
century.
The American chestnut was felled by a microscopic fungal
spore, first spotted in New York City in 1904 and identified as
Endothia parasitica.
An Arizona farmer shares what he has to do to sell his
organic goods at a farmers market.
The USDA claims in writing that they own the
“organic” name. Farmers have to use “homegrown”
instead to promote their organic goods at local markets.
Payroll employment in June came in well below expectations of
a 105,000 increase rising only 18,000 in the month. As well, the
disappointing gain represented a slowing from an already weak
gain in May of 25,000 that was revised down from an initially
estimated 54,000. The gain in April was a more robust 217,000
although this was revised down from a previously estimated
232,000.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh must "expeditiously" sign
a deal that would have him transfer power to his vice president
and step down, the White House counterterrorism chief told Saleh
in a meeting at a hospital where the Yemeni leader is being
treated for serious injuries.
We are in an economic mess for the ages. Federal debt and
deficits continue to skyrocket to mindboggling heights and
economists agree we are headed straight to disaster. Meanwhile
the unemployment rate stands at a whopping 9.1 percent two years
into the economic "recovery."
The answer to this
quandary, or at least a good part of the answer, is just under
our noses. I'm talking about domestic energy production.
Following reductions in feed-in-tariffs across Europe, the
rapid rise in the photovoltaic project pipeline in the US market
now represents one of the most compelling PV market growth
opportunities anywhere in the world.
Voters in Iowa, where the first renewable energy purchase
requirement began in 1983—and where this year so far, wind has
generated 18.8 percent of the state’s electricity—overwhelmingly
approve of wind energy and the companies that make it.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a
proposal under the Clean Air Act that would waive requirements
for systems used at gas station pumps to capture potentially
harmful gasoline vapors while refueling cars.
Agent Orange, created by Monsanto, has been rediscovered by
Brazilian ranchers and illegally used to clear Amazon forestry.
It kills trees faster with less manpower and is not as easily
detected as heavy machinery.
Leaders are pondering the nation's energy fate without
adequately considering the effect that such policies will have
on limited water supplies. Energy production is water-intensive
-- a fact that could likely impede green energy development as
well as that of shale gas.
Cardinal President John Grabner told
the Cleveland Plain Dealer
that the bankruptcy filing is necessary because the company is
having trouble obtaining "working-capital financing" from its
primary lender, Wells Fargo.
Revenue-ing and government idleness at its worst. Julie Bass
of Oak Park, Michigan faces 93 days in jail for doing the
unthinkable – growing organic veggies on her own property.
Her crime? According to city planner Kevin Rulkowski, “That’s
not what we want to see in a front yard.” She is cited for
breaking a code that states “a front yard has to have suitable,
live, plant material.” Yet her garden is well kept and could be
mistaken for flower beds. Rulkowski defines “suitable” as what’s
“common.”
July 8, 2011
Friday's much-anticipated release of revised international
aviation fuel standards officially allows commercial airlines to
a blend conventional jet fuel with up to 50 percent biofuels.
Japan will require an estimated 55,000 b/d more oil over
July-September for its power sector, based on the latest
assumption that none of the shut nuclear reactors in the country
will be allowed to restart during summer, industry sources and
analysts told Platts Thursday.
With renewable energy development in the West in full swing,
researchers and a host of companies are turning their attention
to developing energy storage facilities that could someday help
integrate renewables on the grid.
Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is
largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade
after 1998 because of sulphur's cooling effect, even though
greenhouse gas emissions soared, a U.S. study said on Monday.
Over the last year nearly half of the Obama White House’s
staffers have received raises during a time when employment is
stagnating and the vast majority of people in the private sector
are doing without a raise.
Jennifer “Jade” Jones sounded like she was about to air some
dirty laundry about the council members when they ordered her to
be taken away despite the mayor’s orders to let her have the
floor. She was hospitalized for a torn ligament.
This groundbreaking book, by MOTHER
EARTH NEWS Publisher and Editorial Director Bryan Welch, cuts
through the pessimism and denial that pervade today's
discussions of sustainability and invites readers to visualize a
verdant and prosperous future for humanity and all the living
things that share our planet. As a practical guide, it offers a
process for making our current lifestyles more sustainable and
inspires us to look beyond the immediate obstacles to nurture
the "destination fixation" that stimulates all of humanity's
greatest achievements.
Bioenergy is already around double the size of nuclear energy
globally, according to the World Bioenergy Association
Seaweed may prove a viable future biofuel -- especially if
harvested during the summer.
Biomass energy facilities will be exempt from proposed cuts
to power plant emission levels. The New York Times reports that
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will give biomass
plants a three-year pass while the agency studies the effects of
emissions on climate change in its final plan.
Expensive hot fusion research continues to this day with
preparation for the unpractical, multi-billion dollar
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
Thankfully, Andrea Rossi's cold fusion Energy Catalyzer is a
commercial ready technology that can revolutionize the energy
landscape immediately, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
Just as the BP Gulf oil spill and the Japan nuclear plant crisis
forced those communities to re-evaluate the energy produced in
their backyards, the residents of Montana will soon face similar
challenges.
First, though, there’s quite a mess to clean up.
Report demonstrates how climate change could increase "bad"
ozone, threatening health and economy
he U.S. EPA announced that five coal ash impoundments at the
Alliant Energy Corporation’s Interstate Power and Light facility
in Burlington, Iowa, meet safety requirements.
Solarplaza published a photovoltaics (PV) module manufacturer
ranking for monocrystalline silicon solar cell technologies. The
group lists the top 10 and top 50 most efficient solar cells.
Back in 2007, along with my colleagues Steve Hayward and
Kevin Hassett, I co-authored a policy study examining the
possibilities of a carbon tax or carbon cap-and-trade. The
findings of that study were that a revenue-neutral carbon tax
was better than cap-and-trade, which would be better than
regulation.
Although several months have passed since the devastating
earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan, the resulting nuclear
power plant crisis, and the effect on the world environment is
still far from over. The health risks caused by the meltdown of
nuclear fuel rods in at least three reactors actually melting
down will be felt for hundreds of years to come.
"While you can sound really smart in Washington by saying
that Social Security is going bankrupt, the facts say the
opposite," Baker writes in the Des Moines Register.
"According to the Social Security trustees' report, if we did
absolutely nothing the program could pay every penny of
scheduled benefits through the year 2036."
Qualifying As 'Open Dumps' For Arsenic, Lead, And Other Toxic
Waste
Our economy was built on and our lifestyles depend upon
relatively inexpensive, abundant, reliable sources of energy.
Looking just at the fossil fuels oil and natural gas,
they are critical for transportation and, increasingly for
electricity, but they also serve as feedstock for plastics,
pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, lubricants and construction
materials.
The market momentum toward greater energy efficiency in
commercial buildings, the proliferation of smart grid
technologies, and the growth of renewable energy installations
both on a distributed basis as well as at the utility scale are
all driving heightened interest in the opportunity for energy
storage in commercial buildings.
The subsurface oceanic heat content anomaly (average
temperature anomalies in the upper 300m of the ocean, remained
elevated, but weakened slightly throughout the month, in
accordance with the declining strength of above-average
temperatures at depth. While weak, the atmospheric circulation
anomalies remained consistent with certain aspects of La Niña.
The agreement, reached June 14, commits the EPA to ensure at
least 18 plants in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming
comply by 2012 with the Clean Air Act haze rules that have been
in place for over a decade but have yet to be enacted.
University of Toronto engineering researchers reported in
Nature Photonics a new solar cell that may pave the way to
inexpensive coatings that efficiently convert the sun's rays to
electricity.
Talking with wind energy engineer Fort Felker about turbine
manufacturing is like taking a breath of fresh air. A hearty
fellow with a big voice and a slight southern drawl, he doesn't
come across as someone who holds a patent in winglet technology,
a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and was
instrumental in the design of the modern wind turbine. He comes
across as someone who believes in the power that renewable
energy has to change the world – and the important role that
solid mechanical design and analysis tools play in order to make
that happen.
A move to ban to "fracking" is stretching across the Atlantic
Ocean. The French parliament has now voted to outlaw the
controversial technique to withdraw shale-gas. And now the New
Jersey legislature has done the same, although the conservative
governor there must still sign the measure if it is to become
law.
It's widely recognized that asthma rates have increased
significantly since the 1960's and continue to rise. With
increases in asthma and other allergic diseases centered on
industrialized nations, a recent hypothesis suggested that the
disappearance of specific microorganisms that populate the human
body due to modern hygiene practices might be to blame. Now
researchers claim they have confirmed this hypothesis by proving
that a certain gastric bacterium provides reliable protection
against allergy-induced asthma.
The Gemasolar Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant near
Seville, Spain, has achieved a full 24 hours of solar power
production one month after starting commercial operation. The
19.9 MW plant uses a huge array of mirrors to heat a molten salt
storage system in the central tower which is then used to run
steam turbines, resulting in the ability to continue energy
production after the sun goes down.
This is a huge purchase for a minor government agency. And
they're not the only government agency getting in line to buy.
Government orders have now locked up the capacity of all
the major manufacturers of emergency food supplies. If
you've tried recently to buy a larger quantity, you probably had
trouble finding anyone who could fill your order.
A hybrid photovoltaic-piezoelectric device has been developed
at the Institute of Material Research and Innovation (IMRI) of
the University of Bolton which is capable of generating
electrical energy from solar, wind and rain energy.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is proud to unveil the 2011
Hybrid Scorecard. More automakers are delivering real
environmental benefits at good value, yet others continue to try
and use the "hybrid halo" to peddle small benefits, bigger,
dirtier engines, and lots of unnecessary bells and whistles. To
find out how they stack up...
A new study by researchers from Syracuse and Yale
universities provides a much clearer picture of the Earth’s
temperature approximately 50 million years ago when CO2
concentrations were higher than today. The results may shed
light on what to expect in the future if CO2 levels keep rising.
The study which for the first time compared multiple geochemical
and temperature proxies to determine mean annual and seasonal
temperatures...
The U.S. economy is emerging from a panic, and not just a
recession, says Jeff Korzenik director of regional portfolio
management at Fifth Third Bank.
While the default index remains benign on a historical basis,
the upward trend over the past two months bears continued
scrutiny and vigilance. Tokyo Electric Power Company continues
to be the firm with the world’s highest one-month default risk
among rated companies.
One day before a crucial U.S. budget meeting between the
White House and congressional leaders, a high-ranking senator
said Republicans have agreed to including significant revenue
increases in a deficit-reduction framework.
Some of the most promising large-scale solar technologies --
thermal systems that concentrate sunlight to make steam that
runs generating turbines -- may require too much land and water
to be cost-effective and environmentally sound, says UA law
professor Robert Glennon.
Advances come amid reports Gadhafi seeking a deal under which
he would step down.
Solar panels produced by Helios Solar Works of Milwaukee will
be used by the U.S. Army, the FBI and other government customers
under a strategic partnership announced Tuesday by Arista Power
Inc.
The worst drought in 60 years is causing a severe food crisis
in East Africa. In Kenya, the world's largest refugee camp is
overwhelmed as 10,000 climate refugees from across the
drought-stricken region arrive each week seeking water, food and
shelter.
NASA's Aura Satellite has provided a view of nitrogen dioxide
levels coming from the fires in New Mexico and Arizona.
Detecting nitrogen dioxide is important because it reacts with
sunlight to create low-level ozone or smog and poor air quality.
NATO denied a Libyan government charge Thursday that the
alliance is intentionally using its airstrikes to assist rebel
advances, saying it is sticking to its mandate to protect
civilians.
Global banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs said
Thursday it was expecting considerable oil price upside in the
next 6-12 months as rising demand fueled by improved global
economic growth cut into OPEC spare capacity
The finding, in a new study by the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, could have implications for the food chain. The
region of floating trash in the Pacific Ocean is double the size
of Texas.
Future thermal energy storage would likely cover the
temperature range from the sub-freezing point of water to
ultra-high temperatures of some 1000°C. Heat-of-fusion
technologies offer greatly extended useful service lives and
cost-competitive long-term costs. While compact thermal energy
storage systems are possible, most such systems would likely be
built on a large scale that involve massive volume. Most future
research into thermal energy storage may involve
high-temperature systems that generate steam and energize air
turbine engines.
The global photovoltaics (PV) inverter market will slide more
than 10% this year, due to an inventory surplus from 2010 and
price pressures. These combined forces will bring PV inverters
back below $6 billion. However, according to IMS Research, Asia
and the US installs are growing, and new products are pushing
inverter costs back up.
The push hasn’t come hard
or fast enough. For all the talk about getting more renewable
energy projects going on federal lands, the policies in place
don’t move projects to the industry’s liking.
produced a C1 event, The geomagnetic field is expected to be
mostly quiet on day one (08 July). Quiet to unsettled conditions
with a chance for isolated active periods are expected on day
two (09 July) due to the effects of a recurrent coronal hole
high speed streamSolar activity is expected to be very low to
low for the next three days (08-10 July).
Syrian security forces may have committed crimes against
humanity during a deadly siege in May, Amnesty International
said Wednesday, citing witness accounts of deaths in custody,
torture and arbitrary detention.
Deepwater Wind, one of three developers in the Northeast
vying to build the US' first offshore wind farm, has won a key
court ruling for its 28.8-MW project off the coast of Rhode
Island.
How many showers would the members of a given household or
street have in any one week; how long would those showers last;
and how much water would they typically consume? How many times
would those householders flush the toilet in an hour or a day,
and how much water would their washing machines and other
water-using appliances consume?
The Scottish Government has released its 2020 Routemap for
100% renewable electricity and 30% overall renewable energy in
Scotland by 2020.
Last week was sunny in my home country, the Netherlands. At
home, we have small photovoltaic (PV) installations connected to
the (non-smart) grid through an inverter. I witnessed the
disconnection of the grid and my PV inverter during a sunny
period with virtually no load generated at home.
Solar Ivy was inspired by traditional mansions, where ivy
decorates the exterior walls and reflects the organic essence of
nature.
While local water officials and residents in South Texas
express fears that the rapid growth of oil and gas drilling in
the region will suck up precious water supplies during a time of
serious drought, state officials and industry experts say such
concerns are overblown.
With federal subsidies for ethanol, wind energy and other
alternative energies targeted for possible cuts, many in Kansas'
congressional delegation say they won't defend them.
U.S. researchers say energy transmitted by radio and
television transmitters, cellphone networks and satellite
systems can be captured and harnessed.
Mike Scharf's work with termites has shown that the
insects' digestive systems may help break down woody biomass for
biofuel production.
Ethanol is the most commonly used biofuel worldwide and is
made by fermenting the sugar components of plant materials,
usually sugar and starch crops such as sugar cane, corn and
wheat. The difficulty in accessing the sugars contained in woody
biomass...
Not only is the organic waste kept out of the landfill, but
it also takes up much less space - one ton (0.9 metric tons) of
garbage can reportedly be converted to about 600 pounds (272 kg)
of solid cake mulch and liquid effluent.
Humanity is near to breaching the sustainability of Earth,
and needs a technological revolution greater and faster than the
industrial revolution to avoid "a major planetary catastrophe,"
warns a new United Nations report.
30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.60 percent with
an average 0.7 point for the week ending July 7, 2011, up from
last week when it averaged 4.51 percent. Last year at this time,
the 30-year FRM averaged 4.57 percent.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today finalized
Clean Air Act regulations that will slash hundreds of thousands
of tons of pollutants from coal-fired power plants that drift
across state borders.
U.S. and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday
allowing each country's trucks to traverse the other's highways,
implementing a key provision of the North American Free Trade
Agreement after nearly two decades of bickering.
When the Rodeo-Chediski Fire ended it was largest wildfire in
Arizona history. Those who lived through it surely had no
thoughts that another catastrophic fire could ever happen in the
same region within their lifetime that would top the 2002
Rodeo-Chediski blaze.
The United States doesn't need another nuclear or coal power
plant. Instead, it's time to abandon our 20th century
electricity system, dominated by large, centralized utilities,
for a 21st century electricity system: a network of
independently owned and widely dispersed renewable energy
producers
It was compact, it had its own carrying case, and it would
cook with bottled gas, charcoal, or wood--whatever we could find
to crank that baby up! We could have baked beans and peach
cobbler ready in no time!
If the government is going to save you from yourself, if you
go from Point A to Point B in the premise that you are not smart
enough to manage your own life, then where does that government
benevolence stop? With seat belts? With mandating your light
bulb usage or toilet bowl requirements? Where does the long arm
of government reach stop and your rights begin?
July 5, 2011
Bank of America said it will
provide $1.4 billion in financing for a $2.6 billion project
that will put solar panels atop industrial buildings in 28
states.
Only a huge new government intervention is going to fuel
robust economic growth, a hedge fund manager says. Massive hikes
in government infrastructure spending similar in scope to those
used in the Great Depression are needed, says Barton Biggs,
managing partner at Traxis Partners.
Satellite data released today by the Brazilian government
confirmed a rise in Amazon deforestation over this time last
year.
The Energy Department has been teaming up with Nevada
lawmakers on an almost monthly basis to announce loan guarantees
for renewable energy projects across the Silver State, each of
which is expected to create a few hundred jobs.
...two new studies declare that artificial sweeteners
found heavily in diet sodas lead to diabetes, cancer and other
chronic problems. Oh yeah, and this diet favorite makes people
fat after all. Of course, this will not shock those in the
natural health community.
Nevada will be the site of one of the few next-generation
ethanol plants in the world, DuPont announced today.
The biorefinery will use corncobs, leaves and stalks as
feedstock rather than corn. It will join a proposed Poet plant
in Emmetsburg as Iowa’s two next-generation refineries, to go
along with 40 corn-fed ethanol plants in the state.
Studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists
have confirmed that the presence of Escherichia coli
pathogens in surface waters could result from the pathogen's
ability to survive for months in underwater sediments. Most
E. coli strains don't cause illness, but they are indicator
organisms used by water quality managers to estimate fecal
contamination.
Saboteurs have again blown up the pipeline that carries gas
from Egypt to Israel and Jordan forcing a shutdown of the gas
flow, Egyptian and Israeli sources confirmed Monday.
Butte College, near Sacramento, California is the first
college in the US to be ‘grid positive' - it generates more
electricity than it needs from its solar arrays and thus
can deliver energy to the electric grid, making a tidy profit.
* Survey shows 90 pct favor renewables
* Automobile industry wins best marks
* Chinese overestimate their clean energy sources
A new
national survey has found that by taking a “green position” on
climate, candidates of either party can gain the votes of some
citizens while not alienating others. Voters tend to favor
candidates who believe that humans have contributed to global
warming and that the nation should take action, according to
Stanford University’s poll.
The Federal Reserve's recent quantitative easing program, a
$600 billion bond buyback program designed to stimulate the
economy and the latest in a series of similar assets purchases,
really didn't help the economy that much, says former Fed
Chairman Alan Greenspan.
After years of study, debate and anticipation, Golden Valley
Electric Association is officially in the wind power business.
Vast
deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech
electronics products, have been found on the floor of the
Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists
said on Monday.
American automobiles have a limited diet, but gasoline's
monopoly at the pump may be ending. The giant of U.S. automakers
is turning to something cheaper and cleaner: natural gas.
General Motors Corp announced plans this week to develop its
first natural gas-powered engine, overcoming its long aversion
to alternative fuels and joining a host of smaller players
working to put natural gas in car engines.
Washington needs a debit card, not a credit card, and no
debit card would better serve the U.S. economy more than a
return to the gold standard, says James Grant, editor of
investment newsletter Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.
A jury in Maryland awarded plaintiffs suing oil company Exxon
Mobil about $1.5 billion for a 2006 leak at a gasoline station,
according to court documents.
One Oregon lawmaker is using
Independence Day as an opportunity to push for energy
independence. Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced legislation Wednesday
that he says will eliminate America's dependence on foreign oil
in 20 years.
Libyan rebels have flatly rejected an African Union peace
plan for their country because they said it would leave Muammar
Gaddafi in power.
Did you know that US women are currently facing prison time
for murder after suffering miscarriages and stillbirths?
At least 38 states have introduced “foetal homicide laws” and
around 300 women in South Carolina alone have been arrested for
suspected actions that may or may not have occurred during
pregnancy.
The swollen Missouri River breached another section of a
southwestern Iowa levee on Thursday that has failed previously,
forcing some evacuations and closing part of Interstate 29,
authorities said.
Morocco's overwhelming approval of a new constitution
granting new rights to women and minorities was met with scorn
by some democracy advocates and hope by foreign policy experts
that the reforms could become a model for Arab monarchies facing
uprisings.
New York state would throw open its share of one of the
world's richest natural gas deposits to drilling under
recommendations made by its environmental agency, creating a
potential boom feared by environmentalists.
PLEASE do not vote for ANY incumbent unless you know and
agree with their voting record
The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in
Japan has had little effect on support for nuclear power in the
United States. Participants in a recent survey generally believe
the industry will learn from the crisis and improve safety. The
results were included in a survey by APCO Insight paid for by
the Russian nuclear energy corporation. Results were released
June 30 by the American Council on Global Nuclear Energy.
An
undetermined amount of crude oil spilled from an ExxonMobil
pipeline into the Yellowstone River in Montana, prompting
evacuations of nearby residents on Saturday, authorities said.
A U.S.
federal judge upheld the status of polar bears as a species
threatened by climate change, denying challenges by a safari
club, two cattlemen's organizations and the state of Alaska.
Taking prenatal vitamins around the time of conception
decreased the risk of autism in the children by almost half,
finds a study of mom/child pairs from California. Mothers with
specific genetic variants that hinder the breakdown of nutrients
important to early brain development – like folate – were
further at risk if they didn't take prenatal vitamins.
During the first quarter of 2011,
renewable energy sources (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar,
water, wind) provided 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy or 11.73%
of U.S. energy production. More significantly, energy production
from renewable energy sources in 2011 was 5.65% more than that
from nuclear power
“I was part of a group this week that said, ‘No more,’” Paul
explained. “We’re tired of talking about extraneous issues.
We’ve had not one minute of debate about the debt ceiling in any
committee. We haven’t had a budget in two years. We haven’t had
an appropriations bill in two years.”
A partial-halo CME was observed lifting off the southwest
with an estimated plane of sky speed of 525 km/s. hance for an
isolated C-class flare for the next three days (04-06 July).
A growing number of people are investing in small electricity
generating wind turbines for residential use, despite the bad
economy, and backers of wind power say they expect advances in
technology and manufacturing to make them even more popular.
Residents of Miami-Dade County, Fla. have doubled the amount
of items that are recycled in the three years since the county
started its single-stream curbside recycling program.
Today, both the FDA and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) dropped
policy “bombs” on those of us who use dietary supplements. It is
no mere coincidence that both were released on the Friday before
a holiday weekend. By timing the introduction of their
anti-supplement legislation and regulatory guidance this way,
the FDA and Sen. Durbin are both hoping to evade negative
publicity.
Federal subsidies for ethanol push up ethanol production and
the price of corn, according to a report released today from the
University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research
Institute.
By installing networks of electric prongs along the riverbed,
the energy can be captured and fed into the National Grid,
reports the Daily Telegraph.
Tanzania will build an unpaved road through the Serengeti
National Park and game rangers will control traffic to avoid
disturbing the annual migration of wildebeest.
"The Serengeti road project has not been abandoned ... we
have just revised it.
During the years when governments and the media were focused
on preparations for the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations, a
powerful climate movement was emerging in the United States: the
movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power
plants.
As politicians in the US continue to talk about the pointless
and unreachable goal [sic, ed]of "energy independence,"
it's a good time on this Independence Day weekend to take a look
at just how many gains have been made in that ultimately futile
quest over the past six months, with an eye in particular on
just the past month.
If "news" is something that someone, somewhere, does not want
to see in print, then an article questioning the commercial
basis of US shale gas production was certainly news.
U.S. consumers have 37 percent more credit card and other
revolving debt than they did 10 years ago, The Wall Street
Journal reports, citing Federal Reserve data.
Granted,
that’s 6 percent less than the consumer debt peak of $2.6
trillion hit in September 2008. However, most of the debt
decline had occurred by September 2009. Over the past year,
consumers' credit has been essentially flat at around $2.4
trillion
July 1, 2011
“The third angel sounded his trumpet, and
a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third
of the rivers and on the springs of water—the name of the star
is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many
people died from the waters that had become bitter.”
(Revelation 8:10-11)
American Electric Power customers who were charged for
planning a power plant that was never built should get their
money back, consumer advocates said yesterday.
Willie Soon, a U.S. climate change skeptic who has also
discounted the health risks of mercury emissions from coal, has
received more than $1 million in funding in recent years from
large energy companies and an oil industry group, according to
Greenpeace.
US crude stocks fell a larger-than-expected 2.699 million
barrels the week ended June 24 despite a jump in import levels,
an analysis of the oil data released late Tuesday showed.
According to the 1981-2010 normals to be released by NOAA's
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on July 1, temperatures
across the United States were on average, approximately 0.5
degree F warmer than the 1971-2000 time period.
The Philippine inventor Ismael Aviso has started utilizing
his ambient energy collecting technology to crack water, and
produce large quantities of hydroxy or HHO gas. Meanwhile,
mechanical engineers are working to solve a vibration issue in
his "Universal Motor."
After the government has racked up a deficit of $1.5 trillion
and over $14 trillion in debt, it's obvious to most Americans
that some fundamental reworking of the system that permitted
such extravagance is desperately needed and quite overdue. To
raise the debt limit in exchange for dollar-for-dollar cuts is
one key element of an emerging deal. If Congress is to approve a
$2.3 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, it must be matched
by an equivalent amount of cuts in the 10-year budget. But what
one Congress does, another can undo. And 10 years is a long
time.
The photos, taken on April 22 by officials from Brazil’s
Indian affairs agency, Funai, and released earlier this week,
show various thatched structures called malocas surrounded by
corn and other crops. The malocas were located in three small
clearings deep in the jungle of the Javari Valley, in western
Brazil.
An extract found in cinnamon bark, called CEppt, contains
properties that can inhibit the development of the disease,
according to Prof. Michael Ovadia of the Department of Zoology
at Tel Aviv University.
The whooping cough epidemic is receiving a big “ahem” in the
media but we’re not hearing the whole story. There is probable
reason to believe that the new virulent strain is a result of
the pertussis vaccine, yet the blame for the spread is directed
at those who won’t vaccinate.
DRILLING FOR MARCELLUS SHALE yields vast
resources of natural gas in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio
and West Virginia, providing an economic and environmental
bonanza.
However, new evidence hydrofracking creates
millions of gallons of wastewater laced with carcinogens,
corrosive salt and radioactive elements like radium that are
polluting water systems from Pittsburgh to Baltimore. Articles
in the New York Times and Pro Publica raised questions about the
integrity of water systems in Pennsylvania. How are regulators
reacting to this new information?
According to a major international study which analyzed
global data on diabetes since 1980, the prevalence of diabetes
has gone up or at best remained unchanged in every part of the
world for the last 30 years. The number of people with the
disease has more than doubled during that period to 347 million
adults. The increase can be attributed to population growth,
aging, and to an overall higher prevalence.
The bacteria behind food poisoning worldwide, the mighty
e.coli, could be turned into a commercially available biofuel in
five years, a U.S. scientist told technology industry and
government leaders on Tuesday.
Products worth considering.
After years of delays and false starts under both Democratic
and Republican administrations, the Environmental Protection
Agency is close to finishing two measures to reduce pollution
from coal-fired power plants.
Ethanol subsidies won’t
exactly run out of gas. But they will have less octane. While
the Senate has failed to repeal billions in subsidies, general
agreement does exist that the value of those hand-outs will get
reduced
Imported fenugreek seeds from Egypt may be the source of highly
toxic E. coli outbreaks in Germany and France that have killed
at least 48 people, according to initial investigations by
European scientists.
For
people fighting Missouri River floodwaters for weeks now from
Montana through South Dakota, the fear of rainstorms that could
pressure already strained levees were the biggest concern on
Wednesday.
France's upper house, the Senate, passed late Thursday a law
banning exploration for shale oil and gas.
The draft law
bans all unconventional exploration of hydrocarbons using
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, techniques, and is now set to
become law following presidential signoff.
The solar power industry is facing a double threat from a
Congress that may turn off the flow of federal subsidies and
take a pass on mandating renewable-energy standards that would
increase demand.
As the debate about hydro-fracking (also known as hydraulic
fracturing) continues to rage in states like New York and the
Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, it may be time
to shine the spotlight on a less controversial way to harvest a
natural resource from the ground -- geothermal heat pumps.
While geothermal technology itself is not new, only in the
past few years has the industry seen explosive growth in Canada,
with smaller yet still distinct growth in the United States.
German lawmakers overwhelmingly approved on Thursday plans to
shut the country's nuclear plants by 2022, putting Europe's
biggest economy on the road to an ambitious build-up of
renewable energy.
For the planet as a whole, 2010 was one of the two warmest
years on record, according to three independent datasets
detailed in the latest State of the Climate report, released
today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and
the American Meteorological Society.
According to Outram, harmonic distortion is becoming a
significant problem due to the number of mains-connected devices
using high efficiency switching power supplies or inverter-type
power sources, where power is supplied from renewable sources
that require DC to AC conversion.
The demise of OPEC has been a long time coming and it may
still be a long way off.
But, looking back to the
disastrous June 8 meeting in Vienna, was secretary general
Abdalla el-Badri effectively sounding the death knell for the
oil cartel with the words "unfortunately we were unable to reach
a consensus on whether to reduce or raise production"?
Over the past few years, renewable costs have been on the
decline, particularly solar and wind. According to industry
experts, we are getting closer and closer to grid parity. So why
is there still such financial uncertainty?
Electronics companies with operations near the epicenter of
the quake that suffered building and equipment damage are
expected to restore full shipments by early September, six
months after the quake, IHS said. The restoration will coincide
with the peak season for electronics and semiconductor sales in
the third quarter, according to the firm.
The coal supply crisis facing Indian power generators is
worsening. A group of ministers set up earlier this year to
resolve the problems reached no decisions at its third meeting
on June 9, underlining the gravity of current and future coal
shortages, particularly for projects due to be commissioned in
the five-year period to March 2017.
Nearly a week after Defkalion Green Technologies S.A. held
its press conference in Palaio Faliro, there appears to be no
mention of the event in the mainstream media, perhaps the
nearest thing being mentions of Andrea Rossi and the E-Cat in
the comments to a CNET article on high-energy plasma fusion at
MIT.
I will admit it. I've never been much of a fan of beans. Yes,
they're cheap. Yes, they keep. Yes, they're nutritious. But
taste wise? Meh. Sure, I have a few bags of dried beans in my
survival stash, but they'd be the last thing I'd go for.
An invasion of jellyfish into a cooling water pool at a
Scottish nuclear power plant kept its nuclear reactors offline
on Wednesday, a phenomenon which may grow more common in future,
scientists said.
With 96% of its energy needs dependent on external sources,
Jordan must take a now or never approach to its future energy
security. It looks like solar energy could be its biggest ally
in meeting its objective to becoming self-suffient.
The 53-nation African Union opened on Thursday a summit
in Equatorial Guinea dominated by finding a way out of the
conflict in Libya amid calls for its leader Muammar Gaddafi to
step down.
The United Nations (UN) Climate Change Talks just wrapped up
in Bonn, Germany and the deadline for the Kyoto Protocol is
right around the corner in 2012. The question facing many
nations, both industrialized and developing, is “What should we
do next?”
New Jersey's Salem 2 nuclear power plant remained offline
Tuesday following a problem with a reactor coolant pump, a
spokesman for the plant's operator said.
The nuclear plant's problems here couldn't have come at a
worse time for Progress Energy.
A nuclear energy watchdog said Tuesday the public is paying
the price to advance an under-regulated industry that impedes
other, more efficient, energy sources.
Ordinarily I would not use those two words in the same
sentence. A little over ten years ago I awoke in my pickup along
a dirt road that served as a common driveway to my home and
neighboring homes. Sometime during the night I had driven off
the road and smashed several feet of a neighbor’s fence. A pole
was sticking clean though the grill, the radiator, knocking off
the air filter. Six inches higher and that pole would have been
though my chest. I knew that was the last warning. Someone up
there wanted me to live.
If you’re looking to grab a consumer’s attention then put
“100 percent natural” or “Organic” or “Grown in the USA” on a
food label. Or so it would seem.
It took farmer Ghulam Hussain almost a year to start
re-building his house, destroyed last year in floods that left
vast swathes of Pakistan underwater, and disrupted the lives of
more than 18 million people.
Tons of radioactive water were discovered on Tuesday to have
leaked into the ground from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the
latest in a series of leaks at the plant damaged in a March
earthquake and tsunami, the country's nuclear watchdog said.
Two US state-level regulators of water use and environmental
issues on Tuesday suggested that concerns about the impact of
hydraulic fracturing on water quality and supplies are
overblown.
slight chance for an isolated C-class flare. The
geomagnetic field was quiet. The greater than 2 MeV electron
flux at geosynchronous orbit reached high levels during the
period, increase in activity is forecast due to a favorably
positioned coronal hole.
On Friday, a new California state law goes into effect that
will tax Internet sales through affiliate advertising. Rather
than pay such taxes, online retailers like Amazon will instead
shut down their affiliate programs in the state. For Amazon,
that is said to come to 25,000 sites in California alone.
The average daily calorie intake in the US has increased by
almost a third in 30 years, reaching 2,374 kilocalories.
The influence of bigger portion sizes and excessive snacking
outweighs the shift towards high-calorie foods, say experts.
Solar photovoltaic is among the fastest growing segments of
the energy market. Globally, grid-connected solar capacity
increased at an average annual rate of 60 percent from 2004 to
2009, faster than any other energy source.
Six astronauts were forced to take refuge aboard the
International Space Station's "lifeboat" crafts on Tuesday,
bracing for the threat of a collision with floating space
debris, the Russian space agency said.
More violent and frequent storms, once merely a prediction of
climate models, are now a matter of observation.
It seems that some Americans look for such claims as
"natural," "organic" and "grown in the USA" on food labels.
Syrian troops shot dead 11 villagers on Wednesday, residents
said, as authorities pressed on with a tank-led assault that has
driven thousands of refugees across the northwest border with
Turkey.
A proposed commercial highway that would have bisected the
Serengeti National Park, jeopardizing the world's last great
migration of mammals, has been put on hold, the Tanzanian
government has told the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting
in Paris.
U.N. world heritage body UNESCO says Tanzania will reconsider
plans for a major road across its Serengeti National Park that
critics said would upset one of Africa's top wildlife spectacles
-- the annual migration of some two million wildebeest.
On June 23 Defkalion Green Technologies S.A. updated their
website, replacing their placeholder page with a new, more
professionally-designed site. Two items of interest on the new
website are a description of DGT’s product line and a brief
explanation of the science behind the E-Cat.
The newest rage in survival food is a somewhat rare, but
easily storable ... natural food. You're very smart if you own
AND STORE UP some of this food as just-in-case measure. And if
you're not storing this stuff like most Americans used to,
you're at a serious disadvantage!
In the case of myths about ethanol, one might think so.
Pervasive ethanol myths like “ethanol isn’t energy efficient,”
and “ethanol raises food prices” – keep coming back to life even
though they have been debunked over and over again.
“Treasury raps banks on home affordable modification program
failings” – Wall Street Journal, June 8th, 2011
“Second-mortgage misery: nearly 40% who borrowed against
homes are underwater” – Wall Street Journal, June 7th, 2011
“Don’t expect a housing market recovery until 2014” – Forbes,
June 19th, 2011
...the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB)—a five-member agency created in 1935 by the Wagner Act
(about which I will speak momentarily)—has taken exception to
this decision, ultimately based on the fact that South Carolina
is a right-to-work state. That is, South Carolina, like 21 other
states today, protects a worker’s right not only to join a
union, but also to make the choice not to join or financially
support a union. Washington State does not...
Research is being conducted on degrading a toxic compound
found in groundwater systems around the world
Tehran, at loggerheads with West over nuclear program, is
carrying out 10-day military exercise in show of strength
American Water Works Association Annual Conference &
Exposition - UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.), a global
leader in water quality and safety, announced recently that the
company has become the first laboratory approved to conduct
water testing services in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
If you just heard a loud noise, it was the simultaneous
gag of unborn babies everywhere.
Most are aware that BPA toxicity is linked to chronic
problems like diabetes, cancer, infertility, and endocrine
disruption. New information suggests that babies receive
BPA in utero right through mother’s food supply!
The Conference Board’s measure of U.S. consumer confidence
unexpectedly fell 3.2 points to 58.5 in June, the second
straight downward surprise following the unexpected 4.3 point
decrease to 61.7 (initially reported as 60.8) seen in the
previous month and its lowest level since last November. Market
expectations were for a 0.2 point increase in the index.
When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring
troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price
tag for America's wars.
Initial unemployment insurance claims slipped 1,000 to
428,000 for the week ending June 25, 2011, thereby retracing
little of the previous week’s disappointing 9,000 rise to an
unrevised 429,000 level. The level of claims came in above
market expectations for a 420,000 reading.
30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.51 percent with
an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 30, 2011, upfrom
last week when it averaged 4.50 percent. Last year at this time,
the 30-year FRM averaged 4.58 percent.
Polluted stormwater runoff and sewage overflows carrying oil,
and human and animal waste fouled beaches around the country in
2010, causing the second-highest number of closing and advisory
days in more than two decades, finds the Natural Resources
Defense Council in its annual beachwater quality report issued
today.
The tragic natural disasters that unfolded in Japan in March,
and in particular their impact on cooling systems at the
Fukushima-Diiachi nuclear installation, have prompted
considerable soul-searching by the world's energy policy makers
as they wrestle with the challenges of security of energy supply
and climate change.
What has been much less widely publicized is the
potential impact of a major earthquake bringing about
the failure of an embankment dam. Indeed, at least one
Japanese dam reportedly did fail in the aftermath of the
magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11.
In light of the increasing worries about power safety, more
and more politicians lobby for the urgent embrace of renewable
sources of energy to lower CO2 emission levels. But
while talks are on-going, concrete commitments are outstanding.
Meanwhile regulations are waiting to be put in place that will
enable investment into the building of the necessary
infrastructures. The question then arises: how do we cope with
the increasing need for energy in the meantime? One option is to
use less energy, which for some is not an option at all. How
about using energy more efficiently then? Not much can be said
against that and a lot is in the pipeline and ready to use.
California is not a big fan of wildfires; that’s why millions
are spent there to eradicate eucalyptus trees! So why did the
USDA allow ArborGen to plant over a quarter million genetically
engineered eucalyptus trees across the US last year? ArborGen is
anticipating approval for mass commercial release of these gene
spliced imposters that grow faster, contain less lignin, and are
more economical.
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