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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"
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“ Each of us is put here
in this time and this place to personally decide the
future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would
create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible
danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this
world. ”
—Chief Arvol Looking Horse
April 27, 2012
The defeat of two conservative
House Democrats by more liberal opponents in Tuesday’s
Pennsylvania primary illustrates the strong hold the new health
care law still has over committed Democratic voters and
foreshadows an even more polarized Congress next year in the
aftermath of the latest round of redistricting.
We all know that using a stainless
steel or polycarbonate water bottle is much more eco than using
(and tossing) a disposable water bottle. It's kind of the trendy
thing right now. But do you really know just how much garbage
and energy that you're saving the Earth from? With the
999Bottle, it's easy to find out.
A study in the journal Cancer
shows that people who have had dental X-rays are more
likely to develop a type of brain tumor called meningioma than
those who have not.
A new biotech corn developed by Dow AgroSciences could answer
the prayers of U.S. farmers plagued by a fierce epidemic of
super-weeds. Or it could trigger a flood of dangerous chemicals
that may make weeds even more resistant and damage other
important U.S. crops.
Or, it could do both.
Just as Appalachian Power Co. customers are adjusting to an
average 7.4 increase in their electricity bills, another hike
could be on the way. Appalachian announced today that it is
seeking to increase the assessment it charges customers to
recover higher costs of coal and other fuel. If approved, the
increase would mean another 7 percent increase in monthly bills
for residential customers.
The Obama Administration took the outrageous step of suing
one of the 50 states for trying to enforce federal law. Arizona
has been hit disproportionately hard by illegal immigration and
the state had no choice but to pass SB 1070 to protect our own
citizens.
The return of a bumblebee species
extinct in the UK for nearly a quarter of a century has moved a
big step forward.
Canadian Solar, ESA Renewables and
Zep Solar, Inc. ("Zep Solar"), today announced the successful
completion of a 1.26MW commercial rooftop solar project in New
Bern, N.C., that provides clean, renewable solar energy to
approximately 100 homes.
For years experts have discussed the ecological impact of the
extended cultivation of energy crops. Scientists have now
developed a computer model that allows assessing the impacts and
comparing the effectiveness of strategies for the reduction of
risks for biological diversity. Conclusion: The extension of
bioenergy leads to problems to biological diversity in agrarian
regions. With different accompanying measures, such as the
conservation of near-nature areas...
China's apparent* oil demand in
March rose 3.3% year on year to 40.23 million metric tons (mt),
or an average 9.5 million barrels per day (b/d), a Platts
analysis of recent statistics released by the Chinese government
showed.
The March month figure means that
Chinese electricity demand in the first quarter of 2012 was 6.8%
higher on year at 1,165.5 TWh.
Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) is a
powerful and selective biocide which will help remedy oral
conditions. You may also benefit from the selective oxidative
properties of ClO2.
Apart from cyber and national
security purposes, the bill would now allow the government to
use private information obtained through CISPA for the
investigation and prosecution of “cybersecurity crime,”
protection of individuals and the protection of children. The
new clauses define “cybersecurity crime” as any crime involving
network disruption or hacking.
Officials with the World Food
Programme plan to target 250,000 hungry people per month inside
the country until December 2012, based on a request by Syrian
Arab Red Crescent to increase emergency food distribution. This
would more than double the number of beneficiaries from the
100,000 Syrians now served each month, and the WFP plans to
reach 500,000 people in the next few weeks.
Google is already facing spasms of
suspicion and confusion as it tries to persuade people to
entrust their personal documents, photos and other digital
content to the company's new online storage service.
The letter from the chairman of the
Colorado River Indian Tribes was pleading and tough. It asked
President Obama to slow the federal government's "frantic
pursuit" of massive solar energy projects in the Mojave Desert
because of possible damage to Native American cultural
resources.
statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more
dangerous than gun owners.
Installing photovoltaic panels is
certainly the most common method of generating solar power on a
rooftop, and in fact many people might think it’s the only
method. There is, however, an alternative – photovoltaic
shingles. It makes sense, when you think about it ... why
install weatherproof shingles and solar panels
separately, if you could get one thing that combined both?
Eagles are sacrosanct for many tribes, and Wiist and his
colleagues at the National Eagle Repository provide them with
feathers, wings and talons - and in some cases whole carcasses -
for religious rituals. But the Indians' demand outstrips the
repository's supply.
Each year the repository receives about 2,300 dead bald and
golden eagles, gathered by wildlife agents and others. But it
gets more than 3,000 requests a year for whole birds or parts.
There are some 6,000 entries on the waiting list.
An active geological fault lies
directly beneath one of two reactors at a nuclear power plant in
western Japan, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
Their latest report says there might be safety concerns but
admits to being basically clueless about what, if anything, to
do.
U.S. companies build some of the
best-operating waste-to-energy plants in the world, an expert in
the industry said Monday, but they will have to cut construction
costs drastically to rival the growth that's happening in other
countries.
“I’m Chris Lewicki, and I’m an
asteroid miner!” These were the opening words spoken by the
President and Chief Engineer of Planetary Resources Inc., as the
asteroid mining company emerged from three years of silent
running to outline its plans to begin mining Near-Earth
Asteroids (NEAs) within the decade.
"Coal exports are rising as U.S.
electricity producers move away from coal in favor of natural
gas and renewable energy," Markey wrote in the letter to
Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. "With such rapid market changes
taking place, American taxpayers must be assured they are
receiving the full value for energy resources held in the public
trust, especially when mining companies are seeking to export
hundreds of millions of tons of coal for premium prices."
There's probably no other crop
that's so easy to grow productively in so many different
climates and conditions. History reveals just how vital the
potato has been to humankind - and how important it is to our
future.
A new study released at this week’s
International Polar Year Conference finds the energy dynamics of
the Arctic Ocean changing drastically, and in ways not foreseen
by previous climate change predictions....Inuit knowledge,
ranging from traditional ceremonies, to technologies, to
cultural expression and language, provides resources upon which
scientific investigators can draw to enhance their understanding
of the Arctic
The Michigan Supreme
Court says people can resist police officers who unlawfully
enter their homes.
In a 5-2 decision, the court ordered
that charges be dropped against Angel Moreno Junior, a western
Michigan man who was accused of obstructing officers at his home
in Holland. The officers were looking for someone and tried to
enter the home without a warrant.
Lower courts had upheld
charges of resisting police, based on a 2004 Supreme Court
decision, but justices on Friday said that case was wrongly
decided.
Renewable energy development on farmland is not easy money,
and there are many examples where farmers have got it horribly
wrong - leading to hugely inflated construction costs - because
they did not do their homework.
Continuing in this tradition,
we owe it to ourselves to pursue better energy — not just
cleaner, but cheaper, more stable and secure, and increasingly
more American. Nothing less than our nation’s status as an
innovation powerhouse hangs in the balance.
Water is used in many industrial processes for a wide
variety of applications including washing, diluting, cooling,
heating, transporting, sanitizing and processing. So much
water is required for these processes that the cost of the
water as a raw material for the plant is becoming an
increasing concern especially with growing water scarcity
around the world.
Researchers at Purdue University in
the U.S. have developed a new method of harvesting vast amounts
of energy from waste heat. Using glass fibers dipped in a
solution containing nanocrystals of lead telluride, the team led
by Dr. Yue Wu is engineering a highly flexible thermoelectric
system that generates electricity by gathering heat from water
pipes and engine components.
The ongoing fiscal austerity debate
in the eurozone claimed another victim this week when Dutch
Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned over his government’s failure
to come up with a budget plan for next year. Budget talks
collapsed when the parties that make up the ruling coalition
failed to agree on committing to policies set by Brussels.
Researchers find car exhaust causes more premature deaths
than car accidents
While solar power harnesses energy
produced by the Sun, fusion power seeks to harness the very
process used by the Sun to generate a practically limitless
supply of clean electricity. Despite decades of research and
numerous breakthroughs, “net-gain” nuclear fusion is yet to
appear. One of the hurdles is the so-called density, or
Greenwald, limit that sees the plasmas within experimental
fusion reactors (called tokamaks) spiraling apart and disrupting
the fusion process. Now scientists have come up with a new
theory as to why this occurs that, if proven, could provide a
way to clear the density limit hurdle.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
charged in an exclusive interview with Newsmax today that Mitt
Romney’s “Etch-A-Sketch” campaign strategy will only alienate
the conservative base he needs to defeat President Barack Obama
in November should he go on to capture the GOP nomination.
Of the world's nearly 45,000 cargo
ships, many burn a low-grade bunker fuel in their engines and
produce pollution equivalent to millions of automobiles. To help
reduce that toxic load and keep the price of shipping freight
reasonable, engineers at the University of Tokyo (UT) and a
group of collaborators have designed a system of large,
retractable sails...
Permafrost zones extend over 50% of
Canada's land area. Warming or thawing of permafrost due to
climate change could significantly impact existing
infrastructure and future development in Canada's north....
"This important research gives strategic assistance in
projecting how permafrost may change with the climate, as it
pinpoints important characteristics, and demonstrates how these
vary from place to place," says Burn. "The response of
permafrost to climate change is a critical factor Canadians must
anticipate if our northern infrastructure is to be adapted to
thawing ground."
Offshore wind technology is striving to reach new depths while
the solar industry is facing a challenge to make rooftop
installation easier than ever. Both announcements this week are
structured to clear some of the fundamental hurdles facing the
wind and the solar industries.
Apostasy is usually thought of as a
renunciation of religious faith. However, apostasy can take many
forms, which includes a total turning away from principles once
professed. We can still claim to be people of faith but deny the
inherent power of that faith. Even if we have no religious
faith, we can still claim to have principles, but use every
means of deception to wiggle around those principles.
A civil court recently sentenced
the widows and two grown-up daughters to 45 days in prison for
entering and living in Pakistan illegally. The judge ordered
their deportation on completion of the prison term, which began
on March 3 when the family was formally arrested.
Newmont Mining has shown its
"willingness" to improve the environmental mitigation plan for
its proposed gold mine known as Conga, Peru's government said on
Monday, as it seeks to overcome opposition to the mine.
The country’s two largest private
water utility companies are participants in a massive lobbying
effort to expand controversial shale gas drilling — a heavy
industrial activity that promises to enrich the water companies
but may also put drinking water resources at risk.
The American public is divided
about whether to eliminate federal subsidies for any form of
energy and is giving less support to nuclear power and U.S.
funding of renewable energy, a new poll has found.
Not only are doctors being advised
to reject chelation therapy—they’re being asked to report on
their colleagues who practice it.
Duluth was one of five municipal
areas named in the national report as a "cleanest city" for both
ozone and year-round particle pollution.
Solar activity was at low levels.
C1 x-ray events at 25/2242Z and 26/1723Z respectively. Both
had associated CMEs but neither are expected to be
geoeffective. Three consecutive CMEs appeared Solar activity is
expected to remain low with a slight chance for M-class activity
for the next three days (27 - 29 April). Solar wind speeds
have steadily decreased from approximately 730 km/s to
approximately 560 km/s. The geomagnetic field is expected to be
at quiet to unsettled levels with isolated active..
CONTINUED ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
"Throughout his administration, but
particularly in recent weeks, President Obama has been passing
off campaign travel as "official events," thereby allowing
taxpayers, rather than his campaign, to pay for his reelection
efforts," the complaint letter by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
read.
The extended closure of the San
Onofre nuclear plant due to safety concerns has led some to
speculate -- or hope -- that the plant will be shuttered for
good, but the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Southern
California Edison said he doesn't believe the problems signal
the plant's demise.
Congress moved one step closer
Wednesday to overhauling the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service
by approving sweeping reforms to rebalance the mail agency’s
finances and help cut the size of its delivery network.
The nation would start looking for
one or more temporary storage sites to consolidate its high
level nuclear waste under a provision approved by the Senate
Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday.
Stopping oil and gas companies from
fracking shale rocks within 600 meters of aquifers could
virtually eliminate any risk of drilling operations leading to
contamination of drinking water, according to a new study led by
scientists from the UK's Durham University.
Single-stream recycling is making a
difference in Westport, Conn.
Since the town began a
single-stream system in July, recyclable collections jumped 167%
and will save the town $220,000, according to WestportNow.com.
While some utilities are still
pursuing full-scale plants, there is a parallel push for smaller
reactors that could be easier for utilities to finance and
minimize sticker shock for regulators and consumers. But despite
a lower total cost, there's no evidence yet that tiny fission
factories would be able to produce electricity at a competitive
cost in an era of abundant, cheap natural gas.
The former head of Charanka village
in Gujarat no longer seems to mind the harsh sun. His was a
nondescript village until it was identified as a solar hot
spot--a region with high "direct normal irradiance levels",
according to a 2010 feasibility report prepared by the Clinton
Climate Initiative. Charanka has seen a rush of activity since
then.
"Europe is similar to the Soviet
Union in the way that the euro crisis has the potential of
destroying, undermining the European Union," Soros said at a
debate on public policy in Budapest, according to The Wall
Street Journal.
Southern Company's natural
gas-fired combined-cycle power plants ran at a 70% capacity
factor in the first quarter, reflecting the Atlanta-based
utility company's shift toward natural gas.
Sorted recycling systems win out
over single-stream recycling in a head-to-head competition when
the municipal playing fields are even, according to a research
report that tracked outcomes in United Kingdom markets over a
four-year period
Changes in social status can alter the immune system,
according to a new study of monkeys that researchers say has
significant implications for how low socioeconomic status
affects human health.
What would a world leader do whose country possessed the
world's most abundant energy source: 15 times more abundant than
any other nation and fully onethird of the global supply; a
source directly linked to gross domestic product and economic
growth, with production growing steadily cleaner and safer?
Would the leader promote it, ignore it or shut it down?
Straining a shaky cease-fire even
further, Syrian government troops were accused Tuesday of
executing nine activists who met with UN military observers to
the central city of Hama.
The City Council majority went from
opposing the Surry County coal-fired power plant to possible
opposition in a meeting in which tensions ran high.
The worldwide problem of attracting
and retaining talent in the energy industry isn't any less acute
in Canada, and in particular, Alberta. In fact, Sean McBurney
thinks it is worse.
Independent analysis from investment banks and independent
market consultants has indicated a major drop in both physical
and financial market liquidity.
This drop was as high as 50% in 2011 year-on-year and may
indicate that confidence in the current benchmark has
considerably weakened.
This is an entire episode from
Jessie Ventura's TV publication. It runs about 43 minutes.
The Solar Bike is one of the most
versatile modes of transportation you will ever encounter. First
and foremost, the Solar Bike is just that - a bicycle. But
that's just the beginning. The electric motor (powered by free
sunlight) turns an ordinary bike into a versatile, utilitarian
means of short-range transportation. It's specially designed to
work with our most popular solar generator, the PowerSource 1800
(more about that in a moment).
"Energy literacy" and "peak oil
literacy" should be requirements for pundits -- and for citizens
more generally. I've followed these issues for many years now
and it still amazes me how poor the knowledge of energy issues
is among even the chattering classes and punditry.
Whether early U.F.O. (Unidentified
Flying Object) accounts are accurate is open to speculation.
However, no one should make the mistake of assuming that U.F.O.
sightings over Indian country ended hundreds of years ago.
Natives still witness strange, unidentified flying objects in
the sky every year.
The UK has seen announcements worth £4.7 billion into
renewables, supporting 15,000, in the period April 2011 to
February 2012, and more is underway.
According to PwC U.S., North American power and utilities
mergers and acquisitions (M&A) declined in the first quarter of
2012 due to uncertainty over the economy.
Slow economic growth; natural gas prices at a 10-year low;
ongoing changes to environmental proposals; and the regulatory
process of recently announced transactions all contributed to
the downturn. Major deals continue to work through the approval
process today.
According to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), there are approximately 490,000 sites
and almost 15 million acres of potentially contaminated
properties nationwide. A new tool from the EPA and the U.S.
Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) tests these underutilized, contaminated lands for solar
and wind energy potential.
The US House Appropriations
Committee on Wednesday passed on to the full chamber a
Department of Energy spending bill that would cut $345 million
from the agency's fiscal 2013 budget, providing it with $26.1
billion, and would shift emphasis from renewable energy and
energy efficiency to fossil fuels and nuclear power.
The U.S. solar market's centre of gravity is shifting from
the southwest towards the east coast and Florida, in particular.
While traditional solar markets have relied on
distributed PV for most new capacity, these days it is the
centralised large-scale projects that are gaining traction
Venezuela imposed electrical power rationing nationwide this
week, government officials said.
The Ministry of Electricity said "rotating power outages of
20 minutes each" were implemented Monday and Tuesday afternoons,
Merco Press reported.
Warm ocean currents flowing beneath
ice shelves are the main cause of recent ice loss from
Antarctica, concludes a study by an international research team
published today. The finding brings scientists closer to
providing reliable projections of future sea level rise.
Strength training may help to
reverse memory loss in elderly women in early stages of
dementia, according to a new study.
Newt Gingrich, Lou Dobbs, Larry Kudlow, John Bolton, Dick
Morris, and other champions of freedom have united together to
reveal the truth about what happened behind closed doors on
Sept. 18, 2008 . . . and how we are in for at least 15 more
years of financial reckoning.
The wind power industry says that
uncertainty due to Congressional inaction on the extension of a
key tax credit set to expire at the end of the year is beginning
to cause layoffs.
More than 60 residents were evacuated from their homes near a
Chesapeake Energy-operated well that leaked natural gas and
drilling mud in Wyoming, the company said on Wednesday.
Chesapeake lost control of the well late on Tuesday while
installing a casing, which triggered the leak, the company said
in a statement. It wasn't clear how much gas or fluid escaped
the well. Local TV reports said the sound of natural gas rushing
from the ground could be heard miles away.
April 24, 2012
Six Collingswood, N.J., restaurants
are adding food composting to their to-do lists.
A new report released by the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
written with support from Oliver Wyman, finds that countries
need to invest $53 trillion in infrastructure over the next 20
years – the equivalent of three times the European Union’s $18
trillion GDP. Over $11 trillion alone will be required for
ports, airports, and key rail routes.
The Supervalu store chain is
stepping up its sustainability efforts.
Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University
College London have for the first time mapped the aquifers, or
groundwater, across the continent and the amount they hold.
"The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large
sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya,
Algeria, Egypt and Sudan," the scientists said in their paper.
Alaska-based independent Brooks
Range Petroleum has made a discovery at its Mustang oil prospect
west of the Kuparuk River field on Alaska's North Slope, a
company official said Friday.
Brooks believes Mustang
will produce about 13,000 b/d at peak and that more than 40
million barrels of oil will be recovered, company chief
operating officer Bart Armfield said in an interview.
By an overwhelming majority,
American voters are supportive of the key federal policy driving
renewable fuel innovation in America today – the Renewable Fuel
Standard (RFS). In a poll commissioned by the Renewable Fuels
Association (RFA) and conducted by American Viewpoint, 61%
percent of adults polled said they supported the RFS.
Getting rid of Maine's garbage was easy in 1970, when the
first Earth Day was celebrated. Trash was shoved into piles at
the town dump and set afire.
The pollution caused by open dumps was one of the driving
forces behind Earth Day, and the landmark clean air and clean
water laws that followed.
Appraiser Michael Crowley has
argued for years that wind farms don't hurt nearby property
values. He stuck to that position this week.
Argentina has a history of seizing
foreign property. In the early 1980s it invaded the Falkland
Islands, triggering a war with Britain. Now, it has taken
control of YPF, the nation’s largest oil and gas company, which
is (or at least was) owned by Repsol, a Spanish energy
conglomerate. While blood is not likely to be spilled this time
around, LIGNET sees trouble on the horizon for the rapacious,
buccaneer Buenos Aires government that shamelessly breaks
contracts.
The second anniversary of the April 20, 2010, Macondo oil
spill has generated some look-backs and thoughts about lessons
learned. But one thing generally not mentioned is that Macondo
had a past -- albeit one that was more routine -- before
its glaring jump into the history books.
So, of the 6,000 leasing stories in the Gulf of Mexico, this
is one of them. The information is culled from records supplied
by US offshore leasing agency Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM), oil companies and other documents.
Not only are polystyrene fast food
containers usually not recyclable, but they also take eons to
break down in a landfill, can emit harmful compounds, and
require petroleum to create. Using paper is one alternative, but
Hong Kong-based company Innovasians is now offering another
– 100% biodegradable containers made from waste straw left over
after wheat harvesting.
Boulder scientists have developed a method to determine
whether carbon dioxide in the air came from the burning of
fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, or from a natural process,
such as plant or animal respiration.
The results may help scientists better measure the emission
rates of carbon dioxide derived from fossil fuels and help
policymakers understand how any future regulation of greenhouse
gases is working.
California's Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) has determined the state doesn't need to
invest in any new fossil fuel plants through 2020, and even
beyond that.
Emissions from cars, lorries, planes and power stations
causes 13,000 premature deaths in the UK each year, according to
a new study by MIT researchers.
The research team analyzed data from 2005, the most recent
year for which information is available. They found that among
the various sources of emissions in the country, car and truck
exhaust was the single greatest contributor to premature death,
affecting some 3,300 people per year.
CHINA and Russia yesterday launched their first joint naval
exercises, raising strange new dynamics in the balance of power
in the region that has seen the US and India rattling sabres and
tensions rise between China and its neighbours over territorial
claims.
Taxpayers who've filed with the IRS
can take a well-deserved breather. But if this year was hard,
next year will be a confusing nightmare, as taxpayers,
accountants and even the government itself will run into a
thicket of confusion on expiring tax cuts in an election season.
The so-called Bush tax cuts are due to expire at the end of
the year, just after November's election.
Enzymes are catalysts that boost
chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy required
for the reactions to occur. Added to detergents, they help break
down the dirt into smaller pieces that can be more easily
removed with water. While enzymatic detergents do work better
than non-enzymatic ones, they are also more expensive. But what
if the enzymes could be reused?
The Environmental Protection Agency’s apparent change of
heart on plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions at existing
power plants came during a White House review of the agency’s
proposed greenhouse gas rule for new plants, according to
documents obtained by POLITICO.
A draft version of the proposed rule for new plants’
emissions repeatedly references the agency’s controversial plans
to eventually regulate greenhouse gases from existing plants.
But now agency officials say no such plans
exist.
The U.S. may retire up to 50 GW of
coal-fired generation without harming system reliability,
according to a report from ICF International.
The spiritual leader and Nobel
Laureate lamented the short-sightedness that has thus far
prevented effective global action to reduce greenhouse gas
pollution. He noted personal or national interests too often
overshadow the bigger threats to our shared interest and shared
future.
Award-winning journalist Arnaud de
Borchgrave tells Newsmax that French President Nicolas Sarkozy
will “squeak through” his upcoming election and remain in
office, but a Sarkozy loss would lead to a decline of the
European Union that could render it “irrelevant.”
The worst may be yet to come in the
global financial crisis as the central bank spending that kept
defaults low runs out, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
Meat consumption in the developed
world needs to be cut by 50 per cent per person by 2050 if we
are to meet the most aggressive strategy, set out by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reduce one
of the most important greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O).
The U.S. Department of Energy has released a renewable energy
resource assessment detailing the potential to develop electric
power generation at existing dams across the United States that
aren't currently equipped to produce power. The report estimates
that without building a single new dam, these available
hydropower resources, if fully developed, could provide an
electrical generating capacity of more than 12 gigawatts,
equivalent to roughly 15% of current U.S. hydropower capacity.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the
17th annual U.S. greenhouse gas inventory. The final report
shows overall emissions in 2010 increased by 3.2 percent from
the previous year. The trend is attributed to an increase in
energy consumption across all economic sectors, due to
increasing energy demand associated with an expanding economy,
and increased demand for electricity for air conditioning due to
warmer summer weather during 2010.
Lawyers for al-Qaida terrorist Abu
Hamza and five other men indicted on terror charges argued
before a European court that they would face “inhumane or
degrading treatment or punishment” if extradited to the United
States and jailed at the Supermax prison in Colorado.
New regulations for U.S. coal-burning plants can't hold a
candle to the "shale-gas revolution" for slowing down the coal
industry, an industry expert said.
Industry leaders and a few state officials are saying
stricter regulations are choking off the coal industry,
stateline.org reported Friday.
A
four-decade tidal wave of Mexican immigration to the United
States has receded, causing a historic shift in migration
patterns as more Mexicans appear to be leaving the United States
for Mexico than the other way around, according to a report from
the Pew Hispanic Center.
French far-right leader and
National Front Party candidate for the presidential elections
Marine Le Pen delivers a speech after the first round of
presidential elections, Paris, Sunday, April 22, 2012. French
voters defied expectations and handed a surprisingly strong
third-place showing to Le Pen, who has run on an anti-immigrant
platform aimed largely at Muslims, partial results indicated
Occasionally it's good to step back
from the details of global warming science and offer
non-technical visitors a "Global Warming 101" perspective, sort
of like The Big Picture, but starting from the very beginning
and touching on many aspects of this broad topic. This article
was revised and re-posted from Larry's website. The figures
supplement the main text with key data, but they are mostly
independent and reading the figures is not necessary for
understanding the text, and vice versa.
Today marks the second anniversary
of the blowout of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of
Mexico that claimed the lives of 11 workers and unleashed the
largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the
petroleum industry.
Several US spot natural gas prices
fell to record low averages Friday as a 10-year-low settlement
Thursday on the NYMEX May contract combined with a massive
storage overhang and lackluster weekend utility demand to yank
prices lower at several hubs.
Sales taxes in major American
cities range from 10 percent down to zero and can have a
significant impact on a locality’s economic competitiveness,
according to a new Tax Foundation report.
The House Appropriations Committee has released its first bill
of the 2013 spending cycle - the Energy and Water bill funding
the Department of Energy and related agencies. It totals $32.1
billion and contains a 0.3 percent increase from 2012 of $88
million. This represents a cut of $965 million below President
Obama's budget request. Funding for DOE alone totals $26.3
billion – a cut of $365 million bbelow last year’s level and
$1.8 billion below the President's request.
The separation was made possible by
the fact that CO2 released from the burning of fossil
fuels like coal, oil and gas has no carbon-14, since the
half-life of that carbon radio isotope is about 5,700 years -
far less than the age of fossil fuels, which are millions of
years old.
Bianco said that the U.S.
government does have an incentive to favor lower reported
inflation because then it saves money on cost of living
adjustments, union contracts and inflation-adjusted bonds that
are benchmarked to the index.
Scientists may hesitate to
link some of the weather extremes of recent years to global
warming — but the public, it seems, is already there.
Iran's military regularly announces
defense and engineering developments, but some analysts are
skeptical as to how reliable those reports are.
A voracious virus attack has hit
computers running key parts of Iran's oil sector, forcing
authorities to unplug its main oil export terminal from the
Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team, according to reports
on Monday.
Iraq's prime minister traveled to
Tehran Sunday for top level talks, underlining the close ties
between governments of the two countries.
A pilot trial of the membrane
distillation process demonstrated treatment of industry
wastewater producing high quality water using minimal
electricity.
The Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]
are prepared and ready to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities,
Chief of Staff Benny Gantz told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper
in an interview published Sunday.
“In principle, we are
ready to act,” the army chief revealed just ahead of Israel’s
upcoming Independence Day, reports Ynet.com.
Failure to reduce methane leaks has
the potential to eliminate much, if not all, of the greenhouse
gas advantage of natural gas over coal, according to research
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
The authors concluded: “These results
support previous reports of associations between phthalates —
and possibly BPA — and altered thyroid hormone levels.”
Phthalates and BPA are found in plastic
bottles and other food packaging; these chemicals affect the
majority of Americans. Studies have correlated exposure to
thyroid dysfunction, abnormal brain development, and weight
gain.
Are you still overweight regardless
of constant dieting and daily trips to the gym? And if your
doctor repeats the same advice about diet and exercise while
shaking his head, subtly suggesting you secretly keep a stash of
Twinkies in your gym bag, perhaps you should take a look at a
diet that's not really a diet at all — the anti-estrogenic diet.
Your problem could be that you have a condition called "estrogen
dominance." It is caused by your diet, but by a diet high in
estrogen, not one high in calories.
APS announced plans in 2010 to
purchase the majority ownership in the two units and close down
units 1, 2 and 3, in which APS has a 100 percent interest.
Standing in my own garden is a joy
like none other. It's planted with the best heirloom seeds in
the world, and I love to see the rows of sprouts bursting out of
the ground. The fruits of my own labor... I can't even tell you
how happy I am to inspect my budding plants and dream of what I
will do with them when they're full grown.
Concordia Associate Professor
László Kálmán — along with his colleagues in the Department of
Physics, graduate students Sasmit Deshmukh and Kai Tang — has
been working with an enzyme found in bacteria that is crucial
for capturing solar energy. Light induces a charge separation in
the enzyme, causing one end to become negatively charged and the
other positively charged, much like in a battery.
Japan's Hitachi Ltd. says it's
developed an industrial motor without using rare earth metals to
reduce dependence on imports of the scarce minerals from China.
Communities looking for the most
cost-effective options for managing polluted runoff and
protecting clean water should choose green infrastructure
solutions, according to a report released today by American
Rivers, the Water Environment Federation
When the brain receives a traumatic
injury, irreversible damage occurs as the cells at the point of
impact die. Injured cells surrounding the area then release
toxic substances, which cause the brain to swell. This decreases
blood flow within the brain, leading to lower oxygen levels,
which in turn leads to more cell deaths. Recently, however,
scientists from North Carolina’s Wake Forest Baptist Medical
Center have developed a new technique, that has greatly reduced
the secondary cell deaths in brain-injured lab rats.
New York City has long been known as a place of grit and
grime.
But Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the Big Apple to be known
for its "green" values and its increasing reliance on clean
forms of energy, such as solar power.
A new report by Environment New
York Research and Policy Center released today highlights how
clean energy and environmental policies have helped states
reduce global warming emissions while challenging claims that
these actions undermine economic growth.
Natural gas producers are finding themselves the victims of
their own success as natural gas prices continue to slide as the
market is flooded with gas. Some cash prices reached more than
10-year lows on Friday.
The abundant amounts of gas -- as seen in the record US
storage levels -- and resulting low gas prices also don't appear
to be going away any time soon, and many in the industry seem
befuddled as to what to do in the short-term to use more gas.
There are plenty of plans for the future of the industry, but
what about the here and now?
The US Department of Energy does
not have a spent fuel disposal program and should suspend its
collection of a nuclear waste fee until there is a program to
spend that money, attorney Jay Silberg told a federal appeals
court Friday.
What would happen if an earthquake
took place near the Seabrook nuclear power plant? How would
personnel there and emergency management officials from the 23
communities in two states within the emergency planning district
respond to such a threat?
The report also said the waste
program could be implemented using the Nuclear Waste Fund and
the fee that every nuclear power plant operator pays into it
every year.
Methane can be released to the
atmosphere from a variety of natural and and made sources. The
fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large
reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth's
climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in
Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being
released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global
warming.
An audit of the $20 billion fund
for paying victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill found
"significant errors" that led to about 7,300 claimants who were
underpaid receiving an extra $64 million, the U.S. Justice
Department said on Thursday.
Thousands of Peruvians protesting
in the streets of Cajamarca against a proposed gold and copper
mine say they will contine their demonstrations every day until
the government rejects the development. They fear the surface
open pit mine would pollute their water supplies and destroy the
region's environment.
While the overall efficiency of
conventional silicon solar cells has continued to improve in
recent years, the technology faces a natural theoretical limit
at around 33%. This is because the laws of physics prevent the
cells from absorbing photons below a certain energy level,
meaning that this low-energy light cannot be converted into
electricity and is simply lost. Now researchers have found a way
join two energy-poor red photons to form a single energy-rich
yellow photon, allowing the harvesting of this part of the
spectrum currently unused by single p-n junction crystalline
silicon solar cells, and potentially enabling a record-breaking
efficiency of 40%.
Satellite imagery company GeoEye
has teamed up with Geostellar in a partnership that aims to map
and catalog the photovoltaic solar potential of every commercial
and residential property in the United States.
The [NY] governor has made
expanding the state's solar electric market a major part of his
policy agenda this year, calling it the NY-Sun Initiative. Cuomo
wants to double the rate of solar installations in the state,
which totaled 15 megawatts this year, and then double the rate
again in 2013.
Solar activity has been at low
levels...two C-class events were observed today with associated
Earth directed CME's. chance for M-class x-ray events for
the next three days (24 - 26 April). The geomagnetic field
has been at quiet to minor storm levels for the past 24 hoursAn
increase to quiet to minor storm levels are expected on day
three (26 April) as the two CMEs, observed earlier in the
period, are expected to become geoeffective.
Have you noticed, your Social
Security check is now referred to as a “federal benefit
payment"? ...
The folks in Washington have pulled
off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.
Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for
my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the
money from the fund - which was promised never to happen - and
never paid it back, doesn't make my benefits some kind of
charity or handout!!
Renewable Energy Standards Deliver Affordable, Clean Power;
Right-Wing Attacks Are Misguided
Climate change doomsayers have for years claimed that
declining polar bear populations in the Arctic are a consequence
of manmade global warming.
But a new study has found that the bear population in part of
Canada is larger than many scientists thought and might actually
be growing.
The amount of gas leaking from
Total's North Sea Elgin platform has shrunk to one third of the
volume it started spewing in late March, after the company
started drilling a relief well to control the escaping gas,
Total said on Friday.
California orange and lemon growers are bracing for a deadly
bacterial disease that could ravage the state's $2 billion
citrus industry after the first infected tree in the state was
identified in a suburban Los Angeles yard.
The tree ailment, called Huanglongbing, citrus greening or
yellow dragon disease, is usually spread by the Asian citrus
psyllid, a tiny, aphid-like winged insect that feeds on the
leaves of citrus trees.
Many of the country’s estimated 2.7 million Native Americans
live in federally recognised tribal areas which are plagued with
unemployment, alcoholism, high suicide rates, incest and other
social problems.
The UN mission is potentially contentious, with some
conservatives almost certain to object to international
interference in US domestic matters.
The United States could boost U.S.
exports, create good jobs, improve livelihoods globally, enhance
energy security and reduce the risk of catastrophic climate
change by helping to ensure poor people in developing nations
have access to clean energy, according to a new report from the
Center for Global Development, released Friday at an event that
featured keynote remarks by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
A simmering trade dispute is highlighting a debate about the
kinds of jobs America can sustain in a greening economy.
The Obama administration's recent decision to slap import
tariffs on Chinese solar cells was hailed by some domestic solar
manufacturers as a victory for job creation, leveling the field
while also sending a powerful message to Beijing about
monopolistic behavior in crucial industries.
The ferromagnetic material threads at least one conductive
wire or wire coil, and couples to at least one source of
magnetic induction, and provides an electrical power output
driven by the magnetic induction.
"It's a balance between individual rights and our obligations to
each other in society," the Democratic speaker said.
For much of the legislative session, Vermont has been embroiled
in a debate over whether to end the "philosophical exemption" —
essentially a right of refusal for parents who want to enroll
their children in school or child care without immunizations.
In 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on
poverty” in America, the poverty rate stood at around 19
percent.
Since then, total federal, state, and local spending on
anti-poverty programs has amounted to $15 trillion, yet the
poverty rate now stands at 15.1 percent, the highest level in
nearly a decade.
April 20, 2012
How much would a power plant that generates electricity from
gasified coal cost consumers and businesses?
That's the question Illinois legislators are asking as they
decide whether to commit electricity users to an agreement that
would have them purchasing electricity from the plant -- to be
built near Springfield by Omaha-based Tenaska Inc. -- for the
next 30 year
Global oil demand growth has slowed to a crawl. For
March, US consumption is down 5% or about 1 million b/d compared
to the same month in 2011. China's demand is up a measly 0.2
mbpd (2%). So, overall, the global economy visibly can't
afford oil at the $125/b Brent prices we've seen recently.
In fact, the statistics show that the OECD economies can't even
afford $95 oil. Consumers around the globe are giving up.
Far from being addicted to oil, Americans are fleeing the stuff.
That's why prices have been easing on the demand side.
Retail prices are declining more
slowly than the NYMEX contract. The EIA average national retail
price for gasoline published April 9 was $3.99/gal; a week
later, it was $3.98. The AAA daily average on April 18 stood at
$3.89.
The Bonneville Power Administration turns 75 this year.
It's an influential though little-known agency that markets
power from 31 federal hydropower dams on the Columbia-Snake
River system.
US crude oil stocks rose 3.856
million barrels during the week that ended April 13 as imports
to the U.S. rose, data Wednesday from the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) showed.
The previously unknown strains of
bacteria, which have never before been exposed to humans, were
found to possess a naturally occurring resistance to multiple
types of antibiotics that doctors currently use to treat
patients. This means that these forms of bacteria may have been
exposed to naturally occurring antibiotics which, in turn could
be used against currently untreatable infections.
With approximately 145 megawatts of
solar energy added to its system in 2011, APS beat out more than
240 other utilities for the third place ranking.
One town smack in the middle of
North Dakota's historic oil boom has a plan for getting rid of
the "man camps" that have sprung up as laborers pour in: Ban
their campers.
Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed
into law a bill that allows schools to offer a course on the
Bible's influence on American history and culture.
Gov. Jan Brewer rebuffed gun-rights advocates by vetoing for
a second time a bill to allow guns on public property, and sent
a strong message that such a proposal would need wider support
from police, cities and the public before she would sign it.
Brewer's veto of the bill, which could have let guns into
city halls, police stations, county courts, senior centers,
swimming pools, libraries and the state Capitol, was the latest
setback for a push to expand the right to carry guns in public
places in Arizona.
Robert Godes, inventor of the controlled electron capture
reaction (CECR) being commercialized by Brillion Energy
Corporation of Berkeley, CA, says that understanding how "cold
fusion" works gives them a strong advantage to move ahead of the
other players to make it first to market with affordable, clean,
distributed nuclear power.
Conservation advocates across
Canada are warning today that more environmentally-destructive
development will be approved now that the Conservative Harper
Government has slashed environmental reviews. In the next 10
years, more than 500 projects representing over C$500 billion in
new investments are proposed across Canada.
China and the Philippines have
agreed to settle the dispute diplomatically but have insisted on
their ownership of the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
Two Chinese surveillance ships have been facing off with a
Philippine coast guard vessel in the area since last week.
All CFLs contain mercury, typically
about 4 mg. Is 4 mg a "small" amount? ...that
doesn’t discount the fact that mercury is harmful. So, does the
amount of mercury getting into the environment. Bottom
line: The use of CFLs emits far fewer mercury emissions than the
use of incandescent bulbs — even when accounting for the rise of
renewable-energy generated electricity.
MIT Professor, Donald Sadowy, has
been pursuing a dream of creating a cost-effective liquid
battery for grid-level storage. Rather than tap the expertise of
professionals in the field, his approach has been to train new
students with the task. And they have formed a new company,
Liquid Metal Battery Corporation (LMBC) to expedite bringing
their successful formula to market. The idea is to be able to
make the batteries larger to bring their cost down, rather than
making many small batteries and combining them.
Antigovernment activists in
the Syrian conflict accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces
on Tuesday of the most widespread violations of an already
fractured five-day-old cease-fire, including the tank shelling
of neighborhoods in at least two cities and the use of
helicopters to attack suspected rebels in mountainside villages.
States and utilities invested over
$811 million in industrial energy efficiency programs in 2010,
far exceeding the spending by the federal government and other
national-level programs. Nationwide, all industrial energy
efficiency programs spent well over $1.1 billion in 2010,
according to a new report...
The disqualification of the three
diminishes the chances that an Islamist candidate will win the
presidency, but there are worries over the fallout from the
decision, particularly from the supporters of one of the barred
candidates, ultraconservative Islamist Hazem Abu Ismail.
Sales of Fossil Fuel Production on
Federal and Indian Lands (graphic)
Walgreens plans to install charging
stations at about 800 locations nationwide this year, aiming to
become the largest retail host of the chargers nationwide. It
wants to offer convenient sites for customers, especially in
urban areas where residents may lack a home garage for a
plug-in.
A bill introduced this month by U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan
(R-S.C.) calls for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
in Nevada to remain open.
The bill, H.R. 4301, aims to address the United States'
energy demands through a free market "all-the-above" energy
strategy that the nation so desperately needs, according to the
congressman.
The European Commission, the EU's
executive branch of government, has undertaken to support
sustainable energy services to 500 million people in poorer
countries by 2030.
Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it
into the top ranks of global producers, energy experts now
believe, and while production costs are still very high, new
U.S. technology should eventually make reserves commercially
viable.
UK offshore reserves of shale gas could exceed one thousand
trillion cubic feet (tcf), compared to current rates of UK gas
consumption of 3.5 tcf a year, or five times the latest estimate
of onshore shale gas of 200 trillion cubic feet.
A much-used herbicide, which for years
has helped farmers throughout the United States increase
profits, is losing its effectiveness and forcing producers to
spend more and use more chemicals to control the weeds that
threaten yields.
"I've gone from budgeting $45 an acre
just two years ago to spending more than $100 an acre now to
control weeds," said Mississippi farmer John McKee, who grows
corn, cotton and soybeans on his 3,300-acre farm in the Delta.
A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S.
farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal
action to force government regulators to analyze potential
problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing
chemicals to be sprayed over them.
Public health advocates have been
stressing for years that a reduction in the consumption of fast
food in developed countries is necessary. Many fast foods are
processed and contain high amounts of sodium that are unhealthy
if consumed in excess. A new study has found that public health
advocates have been more successful in some developed countries
than others. A team of researchers has found that major fast
food companies have adjusted the salt content of their products
to be in line with the host country's salt reduction
initiatives.
A report to be released Wednesday by scholars at the
Brookings Institution and Oakland's Breakthrough Institute warns
that federal spending on clean technologies is drying up, with
little sign of additional help coming from Congress.
As a result, more cleantech companies are likely to go
bankrupt or be consolidated, the study warns.
Just 100 years ago, the obesity rate in
the United States was less than 5 percent. Now, about two-thirds
of adults — more than 190 million Americans — are overweight or
obese. What's the difference? Many experts believe it's the
amount of sugar in our diets, especially the huge amounts of
sugar Americans consume each day in the form of soft drinks —
often called liquid candy.
Here's a breakdown of five main ways
soda is killing you:
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common,
with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.
Have you priced fresh produce
lately? A 3-pound bag of citrus will set you back $7 or $8.
You'll pay two bucks for a small head of broccoli... over $3 a
pound for grapes... a whopping $4 for a skimpy little package of
organic romaine... alfalfa sprouts, $4 for a few ounces.
Americans bought fewer previously
owned homes in March, a sober reminder that the housing market
remains weak despite mortgage rates that continue to hover near
record lows.
There was no immediate criticism from world powers over
the launch, which was flagged well in advance, but China noted
the launch with disapproval. "The West chooses to overlook
India's disregard of nuclear and missile control treaties,"
China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial published
before the launch, which was delayed by a day because of bad
weather.
Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi
said Thursday that Tehran had communicated to OPEC its objection
to overproduction by some members, including Saudi Arabia, and
warned that relations with the OPEC kingpin would be affected if
Riyadh does not comply.
The latest effort from James Cameron has all the earmarks of
a science fiction movie -- but in real life.
The movie director has joined Google executives Larry Page
and Eric Schmidt in backing Planetary Resources, a mysterious
company that promises to "create a new industry and a new
definition of 'natural resources.'"
Tepco's scrapping of the No. 1 460
MW as well as the Nos. 2, 3, 4 reactors at the Fukushima-1 power
plant in the northeast, each with a capacity of 784 MW, follows
the formal filing of a request under the Electricity Enterprises
Law on March 30.
As a result, Japan's installed nuclear
power generation capacity now represents 20% of the country's
total installed power generation capacity of 225.667 GW.
Previously, Japan had total installed nuclear capacity of 48.96
GW over 54 reactors, represented 21% of the the country's
previous total installed power generation capacity of 228.479
GW.
Arizona lawmakers are proposing millions of dollars in tax
cuts even as they say the state doesn't have any spare cash and
as the biggest tax cut in state history looms in just one year.
Already, Gov. Jan Brewer has signed into law tax cuts worth
at least $9.8 million a year -- a figure that could grow to
$34.8 million depending on how popular a beefed-up tuition tax
credit is with Arizona taxpayers.
Once again, we bring you a
compilation of various news items about the various LENR
companies since our April 12...
The dollar has lost 85 percent of
its purchasing power since the government scrapped the gold
standard in the early 1970s, and it's up to Congress to obey the
Constitution and bring the system back, says historian and
investor Lewis E. Lehrman, author of the book "The True Gold
Standard."
Under the current monetary system, where
currencies are valued against other currencies under the
guidance of central banks, inflation is creating wealth and
income disparities.
The gold standard sets the value of a
currency against a measure of gold, and supporters say it would
prevent governments from spending and borrowing out of their
means and bring back a return to stable growth.
More and more Pennsylvanians are
shopping for the best deal on electricity, and surprisingly, in
some areas the cheapest electricity on the market is a 100% wind
product. Last year, the Pittsburgh based non-profit organization
Citizen Power joined up with TriEagle Energy to offer a 100%
renewable wind electricity plan ...
First Solar closing a German plant
and idling 4 production lines in Malyasia. SunPower also
shutting down part of its overseas operations.
Two American solar heavyweights built on overseas manufacturing
are scaling back operations in an effort to keep up with a
shifting landscape.
Recycling plastics have become much
more popular around the world, but large amounts are still
thrown away. Through the power of wind, gravity, and moving
water, much of the globally produced plastics find their way
into the oceans. But the plastic bottles we see washing up along
the shoreline only tell a small fraction of the marine plastics
story. Most plastic debris in the ocean are nearly invisible to
the naked eye. These are known as microplastics, and they are
far more dangerous to oceanic wildlife than larger plastic
debris. After previous studies on this subject have failed to
estimate the extent of microplastic pollution in the ocean, a
team of researchers has proposed a new set up guidelines for
their recording and characterization.
"There's likely to be millions of
more families evicted from their homes because of nonpayment on
their mortgages," Shiller tells CNBC.
The economy is
still lagging and jobs demand weak.
"Our sweaty palms is
the symptom we have right now and it's not encouraging. The
employment population ratio is kind of stuck at a bottom at 58.5
percent. That's a sign that while the unemployment rate is down,
jobs aren't there and that is a chronic, smoldering problem that
is weighing on people's psyches," Shiller adds.
In Los Angeles, city engineers and
policy makers are taking an innovative approach to treating
waste and protecting water. In the past, the city relied
exclusively on trucking waste to Kern County for treatment.
Groundbreaking technology has moved Los Angeles away from
traditional methods of waste storage and treatment. New methods
are lowering green house gas emissions and reducing the risk of
water contamination.
Noting the record amounts of gas in
storage and still being produced at prolific rates in various
parts of the US, speakers at the LDC Gas Forum Southeast in
Atlanta said most of the expected increase in gas demand will
not be online for several years.
In 2010, Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
issued an Invasive Species Order (ISO), ostensibly to “help stop
the spread of feral swine and the disease risk they pose to
humans, domestic pigs, and wildlife as well as their potential
for extensive agricultural and ecosystem damage.” So far, it
sounds OK. But the swine in question are identified by such
ubiquitous characteristics (mainly hair color) that most any
open-range pigs, especially heritage or “old world” breeds—often
being raised on small family farms—will now be defined as
illegal “invasive species” and thus unjustly threatened with
eradication. The order went into effect April 1, 2012.
According to the most recent issue
of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA), with data through December 31, 2011,
renewable energy sources expanded rapidly during the last three
years while outpacing the growth rates of fossil fuels and
nuclear power. Between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011,
renewable energy sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal,
solar, water, wind) grew by 27.12%.
Solar activity was low. The largest
event of the period was a C7 x-ray flare at 19/1126Z associated
with Types II and IV radio sweeps and a non-Earth-directed CME.
Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day 1 (20 April) with a chance for brief
active levels due to a recurrent solar sector boundary crossing.
Quiet levels are expected during days 2- 3 (21 - 22 April).
...the United States invested the
most in Clean Energy of any country in 2011, retaking the lead
from China, which had held the top sport for the last two
years. But the US’s resurgence is more likely to be a blip than
a trend.
A new kind of generator could supply electricity for more
than a half billion people using energy from rivers flowing into
oceans, U.S. researchers say.
The process, called pressure-retarded osmosis, requires no
fuel, is sustainable and releases no carbon dioxide, researchers
from Yale University reported in the journal Environmental
Science & Technology.
Solar shakeout deepens with layoffs of 2,000
The U.S.-based maker of panels is the latest victim of an
oversupply that has bankrupted companies.
That’s what genetic engineering advocates claim. But science
(and a shocking number of developing-world suicides) debunk this
myth.
A new survey commissioned by
Call2Recycle shows that 29% of respondents suffer from "green
guilt" -- knowing they could and should do more to help preserve
the environment, the company said.
That´s more than
double the percentage of folks who felt guilt in 2009...
Specifically, dumpster diving for
clothes, food and other times was listed by 68% of the
respondents as being "too green." Another biggie listed by 53%
of the respondents was reusing plastic bags, even when dirty, to
avoid waste.
While a majority of folks say green can go
too far, 71% of those responding also said they embrace green
living and make an effort everyday to live greener.
It's a daunting reality, yet one that's been years in the
making. And it's a scenario that's shaping up from the
wind-swept coasts of California to the solar rooftops of New
Jersey. The renewables industries — all of them — are not only
approaching a subsidy cliff. They already have one foot dangling
over the edge.
French oil major Total has begun
drilling the first of two relief wells as part of operations to
halt its three-week old blowout and gas leak at its Elgin
platform in the UK North Sea, the company said Wednesday.
In a brief update, Total said drilling rig Sedco 714 has
spudded the first relief well but did not say when the drilling
began.
Total has said the relief wells are expected to
take up to six months to intercept and plug the leaking G4 well
if a planned well kill operation from the platform is
unsuccessful.
For a while now, we’ve been hearing
that the key to energy independence lies in increased funding
for renewable energy and clean energy technology. There have
certainly been plenty of lofty promises and ambitious proposals
at local, state, and federal levels. And there have been
setbacks too, with Solyndra and the Fukushima power plant
perhaps the most high-profile examples of clean energy mishaps.
But as gas prices escalate and emerging economies in India and
China push up demand for fossil fuels, it seems logical that
there’s a place for renewable energy and clean tech at the power
table. So shouldn’t the money follow?
The rule is the first
federal effort to address serious air pollution associated with
the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking, which releases toxic and cancer-causing chemicals
like benzene and hexane, as well as methane, a powerful
greenhouse gas.
According to a new report from Pew Environment Group, the
United States has reclaimed first place in the global clean
energy race. The U.S. has trailed China since 2009.
The U.S. invested $48 billion in clean energy in 2011, a 42
percent increase over 2010. Total U.S. installed renewable
energy capacity in the U.S. at the end of 2011 was 93 GW --
second to China.
In a letter to the Japanese
ambassador to the US, Ichiro Fujisaki, the Oregon Democrat said
that a plan by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) to remove the
fuel rods from storage pools at the coastal reactor site over
the next 10 years could prove disastrous.
The U.S. windindustry’s 2011 Annual
Market Report indicates that American wind power ended another
strong year of double-digit growth. The market report also
indicates that wind power has become one of America's fastest
growing sources of Made-in-the-USA manufacturing jobs, and that
the cost of wind has droped.
Many of you in our free energy
audience likely fit that description, and you might find hanging
out there to be a good experience in cross pollinating with
others of similar ilk. Help spread the news of emerging free
energy technologies poised to change the landscape for good,
empowering the individual while rendering the corrupt powers
that be obsolete.
Only months after Coconino County's first major wind energy
farm got up and running this winter, the utility buying its
power says more wind farms here are unlikely -- at least for
now.
Cost is the bottom line, with the sun beating the wind on
both equipment prices and time-of-day power production.
Eolewater's WMS1000 wind-driven
water-harvesting system uses on-board cooling units to chill the
air until its moisture condenses
April 17, 2012
We love our sweet treats, yet we’re also told sugar is bad
for us. In fact, CBS News recently had Dr. Sanjay Gupta
investigate this issue and interview some of America’s most
respected scientists.
The Goldman Environmental
Foundation today announced the six winners of the 2012 Goldman
Environmental Prize, people who protect the environment and
their communities, often at risk of their lives.
It has been said that oil and gas
companies follow a bible of sorts here in the jungles of Peru, a
universal playbook of their most effective methods for
convincing locals that a project will bring them development
or—if the locals can’t be convinced of that—to get their way
through less benign tactics.
-
In 2010, Americans spent just over 9 percent of their
disposable income on food (5.5 percent at home and 3.9
percent eating out); this is less than half or more of most
any other country on the planet
-
The “faster, bigger, cheaper” approach to food production
that the United States has mastered is unsustainable and is
contributing to the destruction of our planet and your
health
-
Easy access to cheap, poor-quality food is contributing to
the rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease
and other chronic disease
-
Nearly all cheap processed foods in the United States
contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients and come from
confined animal feeding operations, which contribute to
environmental destruction, animal cruelty and the spread of
antibiotic-resistant super-germs
-
To protect your health and the environment, strive to make
90 percent of your diet non-processed, whole organic foods;
it may cost more to eat this way initially, but the amount
it will save you in the long run is immeasurable
An historic, world-changing event is about to crush the U.S.
economy and stock market. It will destroy the income,
savings, investments and retirements of millions of Americans.
It will plunge vast numbers of families into the nightmare
of poverty ... hunger ... and homelessness.
Three years after Obama launched a
push to build a job-creating "green" economy, the White House
can say that more than 1 million drafty homes have been
retrofitted to lower heating and cooling costs, while energy
generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar has
nearly doubled since 2008.
Yes, your bumblebees ARE good
pollinators! There are many vegetable and fruit plants where the
pollen is down deeper, and the honeybee’s proboscis (a long,
slender, hairy tongue that acts as a straw to bring food and
water to the mouth) is not as long as a bumblebee’s. The pollen
is further down in the flower than his proboscis can reach.
That’s where your bumblebees come in. They can reach the
pollen-containing interiors of deep flowering fruits and
vegetables, such as blueberries. In addition, your hummingbirds
are pollinators as well, especially of red flowering plants.
Coal will fuel about 38% of US power supply this year, the
Energy Information Administration says this week -- a somewhat
dramatic drop of about 10% from last year and double the decline
EIA had projected earlier. Natural gas-fired generation, in bold
contrast, will rise a whopping 17% or so this year, almost
double the increase the agency had estimated.
It goes without saying that the reason is natural gas.
The Union for Concerned Scientists said in a new study that a
gasoline-powered hybrid car would have less harmful global
warming emissions than a similar-sized electrically powered car
if that car was charged with electricity created at a heavily
polluting power plant.
The study said 45 percent of the country has electricity
generated by a mix of sources that would tip the scales toward
an electrically powered car.
“The widespread use of personal computers and advancements in
digital printing technology has provided more individuals the
opportunity to manufacture a passable counterfeit note with
relative ease,” Government Security News reports.
The magazine refers to a “tidal wave” of counterfeiters
making bills with a computer and digital printing.
There are plenty of reasons to
worry about fracking—groundwater contamination, methane leaks,
that flaming tap water thing. But can it really cause
earthquakes? That's the question the US Geological Survey set
out to answer after a spate of tremors in the Midwest—an area
not usually known for earthquakes—alerted scientists to the
possibility that some of them might be man-made.
Dole Food Co.'s fresh vegetables division is recalling 756
cases of bagged salad, because they could be contaminated with
salmonella.
The bags of Seven Lettuces salads were distributed in
Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
At issue is the production of ethanol, which is added to
gasoline purportedly to reduce pollution and reduce America’s
reliance on foreign oil.
This year Americans will use 14 billion gallons of ethanol,
made from 5 billion bushels of corn — one third of the total
U.S. crop — grown on 33 million acres of farmland. And since
2005, when Congress required that ethanol be added to gasoline,
U.S. corn prices have tripled, according to Forbes, contributing
to higher food prices across the board.
It’s a notable consequence of the slow economic recovery in
the aftermath of the recession: Americans are increasingly
staying put.
“Domestic migration” — the movement of Americans from one
county to another within the United States — was down sharply
last year, according to new figures from the Census Bureau.
Electric vehicles in general are a
great step in reducing emissions that cause global warming. The
emissions from a gasoline-powered car are always greater than
the emissions created to charge an electric vehicle. However, a
new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) suggests
that the "greenness" of electric vehicles is not uniform across
the country. They break down the country into regions that are
good, better, and best for electric vehicles. Note there is no
"bad" region in the country because electric vehicles outperform
gasoline vehicles everywhere.
Like snow sliding off a roof on a
sunny day, the Greenland Ice Sheet may be sliding faster into
the ocean due to massive releases of meltwater from surface
lakes, according to a new study by the University of Colorado
Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences.
Trash collections were cut in half
at the Hilton Garden Inn in Devens, Mass., thanks to a food
composting program launched by its kitchen staff.
The
kitchen went from four trash collections per month to two and
now uses an on-call trash removal service...
For those of you not familiar with
this technology, it is an engine that runs on what John calls a
"plasmic transition" process using noble gases to create the
plasma, with a coil around the cylinder to control the plasma,
and a high voltage spark (actuator) to initiate the process. The
fuel is essentially free, both because so little is consumed
over time, and because the fuel is inexpensive. Also, because it
has fewer moving parts and its power density is greater, the
engine itself is much less expensive to build than the engine it
would be replacing.
The tsunami touched off by the 9.0
magnitude earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011 swept about five
million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, according to the
Japanese government. About 70 percent sank off shore, leaving
1.5 million tons floating, Japanese officials say, but there is
no estimate of how much debris is still floating today.
Famous HHO researcher points out that the function of fuel
injectors in relation to their function when hydroxy in the gas
state is run through them needs to be appreciated and understood
for successful operation.
Protests on the Navajo Nation have been in high gear ever
since last week, when tribal members and activists got wind of a
proposed settlement that aims to help quantify Navajo water
rights on the Little Colorado River.
Trouble is, many Navajo citizens believe the settlement may
actually erode the tribe’s sovereignty when it comes to
maintaining a safe and sufficient future water supply.
An oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico
last week came from a natural sea floor seep and not from Royal
Dutch Shell offshore production platforms, the U.S. Bureau of
Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Monday.
Northwest bases, already dominating
Navy energy-saving awards, have pulled out the big
anti-consumption gun.
If you happen to need even more
evidence that President Obama has gutted his campaign promises
and betrayed not only the left but also African Americans
who enthusiastically supported his election, he has just gone
public with his support for the continued war on drugs.
Keeping marijuana criminalized, it seems -- and keeping more
African Americans in prison -- is a top priority for the Obama
administration.
President Barack Obama streamlined oversight of the natural
gas drilling boom on Friday as his administration faced
increasing pressure to allow exports of the fuel as supplies
swell.
Obama issued an executive order creating an interagency group
to oversee development of natural gas, building on a pledge he
made in his State of the Union address in January to support the
industry while increasing safety.
Energy has become a touchstone
issue in the presidential race, and groups backed by oil and
coal dollars have spent far more money on ads bashing the
president's record than the Obama campaign and its allies have
spent defending it, according to a new analysis by the Center
for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think tank.
Puberty, Once the Norm at Age 15, Now Occurring in 7-, 8- and
9-Year-Olds
...when two esteemed Republican
Senators take time out of their busy schedules to visit the
Navajo Nation in order to persuade tribal leadership with
millions of dollars worth of development aide and other goodies,
one has to assume something else is happening. In fact, a lot is
happening here, and it is important that the Navajo people
understand some of the larger issues influencing this
settlement.
The federal government regulates coal ash ponds only through
their permits to release wastewater into public rivers or
streams. Any further regulation is left up to states.
Georgia requires nothing additional until the ponds are
closed. Only then is groundwater testing required.
Solar activity was moderate during
the past 24 hours. An M1 flare was observed. A filament
erupted...The associated CME is not expected to be geoeffective.
The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet for the next three
days (17-19 April).
Signature gatherers hoping to
qualify an initiative that would require the labeling of food
containing genetically modified organisms have reported
confrontations with the managers of local Safeway supermarkets.
The good news was that the team found the Antarctic emperor
penguin population numbered about 595,000, nearly double
previous estimates.
But the bad news was that some colonies have disappeared
altogether due to changing weather patterns and the long-term
future of the birds is far from assured.
Fifty top scientists, astronauts,
and engineers who have worked for NASA are attacking the space
agency’s stance that manmade carbon dioxide is responsible for
global climate change.
ScottishPower is testing a 100ft
tidal turbine on the seabed off Orkney. The one megawatt device
is capable of powering 500 homes. When the trials are completed
by the end of this year, it will be transferred to a deep
channel between Islay and Jura off the west of Scotland. It will
then be part of a pounds sterling 40 million group of ten
turbines capable of powering all the 2,500 homes and five
distilleries on Islay.
The 51-45 vote today in Washington
fell short of the 60 needed to advance the measure. President
Barack Obama has been campaigning for the legislation across the
country, maintaining it's unfair that some high-income taxpayers
can use deductions and preferential tax treatment of investment
income to pay lower tax rates than some middle-income wage
earners do.
Major League baseball is a game of
hallowed traditions. For the Cleveland Indians, the traditional
throwing out of the first pitch every season is accompanied by a
few other time-honored rituals, which include throwing out
insults to Native Americans, some of whom come to the team’s
stadium each spring to protest the team’s name and its
cartoonish logo and mascot, Chief Wahoo.
The stand-your-ground doctrine, which has vaulted into
national prominence with the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon
Martin, isn't limited to the two dozen states that have passed
laws since 2005 expanding the right to use deadly force in
confrontations.
It's also the rule in California, by court decree.
Hassan Abdul-Azim, head of the opposition National
Coordination Body, said their meeting with Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and other Russian diplomats
was "impressive and positive."
Abdul-Azim said the talks confirmed that "Russia, China and
international community represent the strong basis to stop
violence and death of civilians and solve the crisis
peacefully."
You might not know this, but Canada
has oil reserves of 170 billion barrels, more than Iran and
Nigeria combined. This fact is not widely known since much of
that oil has been considered "not economically recoverable,"
lying deep underground in a mixture of bitumen, a thick, tarry
substance, sand and water known as oil sands or tar sands.
Development of these tar sands, located near the Athabasca
River, by Suncor Energy, began in the 1960s but has been
conducted at a relatively small scale because of the costs
involved. Only recently, with declining supplies and increasing
prices have attempts begun to try and ramp up production,
especially after PetroChina acquired a 60 percent interest in
two major wells in Alberta in 2009. This was followed in 2010 by
Sinopec paying $4.65 billion for a 9 percent stake in Syncrude
Canada Ltd.
Death and destruction don't necessarily come about by an
asteroid colliding with the Earth, an extra-terrestrial
invasion, or all-out nuclear war.
Sometimes, the death of a civilization is much less dramatic.
According to the UN, the attitude
towards meat consumption has to change, and people must cut
back. This is a necessary step in reducing one of the most
potent greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O). A recent study by
the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests
that the developed world needs to cut its meat consumption by 50
percent per person by the year 2050.
With US and Canadian gas stockpiles
entering injection season at record highs, there is little
storage operators can do to prevent levels from testing facility
limits, except to hope for production cuts or significant summer
utility demand, sources said.
The U.S. Forest Service is
investing $40.6 million to acquire 27 pieces of land in 15
states that the agency says will help safeguard clean water,
provide recreational access, preserve wildlife habitat, enhance
scenic vistas and protect historic and wilderness areas.
In short, Hutchison appears to be
making it seem as if innocent Americans will wrongly suffer in
tribal courts under the legislation. But what the senator
doesn’t note is that the ‘any American’ she is referring to
would have to commit serious crimes against Indians in order to
be prosecuted in tribal court—and even then, would have
protections under the proposed legislation.
The 50-megawatt Tayakadin project
supports the Turkish government's plans to increase the
country's wind energy production to 20,000 megawatts by the year
2023. Turkey has one of the most favorable locations in Europe
for wind energy development, with a potential wind generation
capacity of about 48,000 megawatts. Much of that potential
remains untapped, as the country's existing wind farms produce
about 1,800 megawatts.
He looks at the issue in terms of
the labor force participation rate. That measures the percentage
of working-age Americans, excluding those who are in jail or the
military, who are “participating” in the work force. That
includes both people who have a job and those looking for a job.
America's soil no longer delivers
the nutrients plants need. Blame modern farming, backyard
overplanting, or even your local soil conditions: The fact of
the matter is that each crop season offers your plants - and by
extension, your family - less nutrition than the year before.
April 13, 2012
True story:
People waited in line for over an hour at a Burger King…
every day. Just for a chance at a sandwich. It was after
Hurricane Charley hit Orlando, FL. Power was out for two weeks
or more.
And when Hurricane Ike hit Louisiana? One man wrote he was
shocked at what he saw at his local Wal-Mart:
In the battle over Americas
expanding waistline, much of the emphasis is on diet and
exercise. A study suggests other potential causes, including too
much air conditioning, should be studied as well.
The term dysbiosis refers to a
condition in which the body has an imbalance of microorganisms.
It occurs most commonly in the gastrointestinal tract, which
contains a host of different microorganisms including bacteria,
yeast, fungi, and even parasites.
How many children must be
sacrificed before we get honest answers? The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new report that says
1 in 88 American children has some form of autism spectrum
disorder—a 78% increase compared to a decade ago. Boys are five
times more likely to have autism than girls.
The DEA is enabling—even
encouraging—a generation of opiate addicts, while the FDA tries
to quash safe and helpful supplements like DHEA.
A proposed $100 million settlement
with the California Public Utilities Commission that requires
NRG Energy to build a network of electric vehicle charging
stations has caused an uproar within the electric vehicle
community over concerns that NRG will become the default
provider of charging stations throughout the state.
China is gearing up for war against the United States and
their top weapon is a super electromagnetic pulse bomb that can
blanket the U.S. and send America back to the dark ages in less
than one second.
Past reports from Chinese military websites and Asian
newspapers have outlined a several attacks that China could
launch to win a war against the more technologically and
militarily advanced United States.
These strategical attacks, as a MITRE research report
reveals, are part of an arsenal known as shashoujian
or the assassin's mace.
Climate change around the world is
not predicted to be uniform. Most places will get warmer, some
will get more rain and others will get less. For areas of
Arizona, warmer temperatures are expected to provide a boost in
plant growth caused by a longer growing season and more carbon
dioxide in the air. However, a new study from Northern Arizona
University suggests the contrary. Warming temperatures will
cause an initial boost in plant growth, but will quickly
diminish over the years. This may lead to significant
deterioration in future plant growth.
Piceatannol results from the
conversion of resveratrol – a compound found in red wine, grapes
and peanuts that is also thought to combat cancer, heart disease
and neurodegenerative diseases. When resveratrol is converted
into the piceatannol compound, which naturally occurs after
consumption, the compound has the ability to delay fat cell
growth.
Connecticut's public works
regulator plans to distribute $720 million to zero-emissions,
renewable-energy generation and $300 million to low-emissions
generation over the next several years, detailing for the first
time how the state will spend more than $1 billion of required
investments in commercially generated renewable power.
Conservative activists on Tuesday
urged Gov. Rick Scott to veto an energy bill pushed by a fellow
top Republican, saying the measure violates free market
principles by providing tax incentives to solar, wind and
biofuel companies.
People who received frequent dental
X-rays in the past, especially "bitewing" exams, more than
double their odds of developing the most common type of brain
tumor, says the results of a new study published in Cancer, a
journal of the American Cancer Society.
Denmark has long been a renewables pioneer, and it furthered its
reputation with the announcement of a bold plan: It will produce
one third of its power from renewable sources by the end of the
decade and 100 percent by 2050. With full government support,
Denmark hopes to avoid future energy price fluctuations.
Do you ever shake your head, roll your eyes, and
ask yourself, "What has happened to this country?"
Our government has run up the credit cards to
the tune of $15,000,000,000,000 with no way to pay it back.
Foreclosures this year will again hit record numbers. Higher
education costs have spiraled out of control, but despite the
high price tag, millions of Americans with college degrees are
unemployed or underemployed.
The Food and Drug Administration
called on drug companies Wednesday to help limit the use of
antibiotics in farm animals, a decades-old practice that
scientists say has contributed to a surge in dangerous,
drug-resistant bacteria.
The government wants meat and poultry producers to stop
giving antibiotics to their animals to make them grow faster.
The reason: Dangerous bacteria that can kill people have been
growing resistant to the drugs, which can leave humans at risk
of getting infections that can't be controlled.
The health of our forests directly
impacts the health of the planet. The importance of forests to
the Earth’s ecosystems cannot be overstated. Research shows that
forest die-offs are on the increase and this troubling trend is
being linked to global warming. Heat and water stress associated
with climate change are making forests vulnerable to insect
attacks, fires and other problems.
Navajo Nation tribal member Kelvin
Long, 36, chuckles at the memory: He’d taken a year off from
work, and a would-be co-worker lured him back by inviting him to
a meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona—with the promise that there
would be lots of beautiful women. “I went, and I fell in love.
There were all these brilliant, beautiful, determined women.
Unfortunately, it turned out they were all related to me through
clan.”
While effective at killing cancer
cells, chemotherapy is currently a shotgun approach that can
also harm healthy cells and cause serious side effects in
patients. The ability to deliver drugs directly into cancer
cells would provide a more targeted approach to more effectively
treat the disease with lower doses of drugs and less side
effects. Researchers at Northwestern University are claiming to
be the first to develop gold nanostars that provide a much more
precise approach by delivering a drug directly to a cancer
cell’s nucleus.
For plains Tribes, the preservation
of grasslands is crucial to the survival of our culture. Its
unique configuration of Native plants and grasses provide us
with medicine, tools, shelter, and food.
In places like Africa and India, solar energy has long been
hailed for its ability to raise standards of living and boost
developing economies. For two established members of the
European Union, it may have the power to restore international
confidence.
Disguised as an “International Arms
Control Treaty” to fight against “terrorism,” “insurgency” and
“international crime syndicates,” the UN Small Arms Treaty is in
fact a massive, GLOBAL gun control scheme.
This 2012 edition has been expanded from previous editions to
include major power producing countries and global energy
consumers set in the context of key infrastructure such as LNG
terminals, oil refineries, oil & LNG ports, oil pipelines, and
coal export terminals.
As I was watering the garden this
morning, and carefully inspecting the plants, I noticed the
first signs of aphids in the peppers! Given the mild winter, I
fear that we may have trouble with pests this year — and that’s
just the reality of growing your own. While there are many, many
commercially-prepared products that sit on the shelves of my
local nursery…I am committed to natural gardening (and saving
money); therefore, I have learned how to make my own organic
insecticides using the contents of my kitchen!
Give
these simple recipes a go if you find an unwanted insects
crawlin’ around your precious plants.
Before officials announced the
threat had passed without major incident, two powerful
earthquakes and their subsequent tsunami alerts sparked a few
hours of panic and concern in countries across the Indian Ocean
Wednesday.
New claims for unemployment
benefits rose last week to their highest level since January, a
development that could raise fears the labor market recovery was
stalling after job creation slowed in March.
Edison Mission Group will install
noise abatement equipment at its Pinnacle Wind Farm at NewPage
located on Green Mountain, according to a news release.
It’s Friday and just like these
bald eagle chicks we’re ready to leap out from behind our desks
and soar into the weekend! Watch this live feed of a beautiful
bald eagle mother take care of her adorable, newly born chicks:
Across the Northern Hemisphere,
populations of moose, deer, and other large herbivores now far
exceed their historic levels and are disrupting ecosystems,
finds a new survey on the loss of large predators, particularly
wolves.
Malthus was a gloomy 18th century economist who
put forth the idea that the planet was overpopulated. He
believed that population growth would always outpace the earth's
ability to produce food. Robert L. Heilbroner summarizes
Malthus's view:
Instead of being headed for Utopia, the human lot was
forever condemned to a losing struggle between ravenous and
multiplying mouths and the eternally insufficient stock of
Nature's cupboard, however diligently that cupboard might be
searched. (The Worldly Philosophers, p. 78)
North Korea hopes to achieve
multiple aims with its planned missile test, which it claims is
the launch of a satellite, says Mark Groombridge, deputy editor
of LIGNET.com and an expert on nonproliferation. Not only does
the test commemorate the 100th birthday of the “great leader,”
Kim Il Sung, but it also is meant to demonstrate to the world
that his grandson, 28-year-old Kim Jong Un, is firmly in control
of the military. And it is also to keep up appearances — to
maintain North Korea’s threatening posture and policy of global
extortion to extract food aid and other assistance from the
international community.
North Korea acknowledged in an
announcement broadcast on state TV that a satellite launched
hours earlier from the west coast failed to enter into orbit.
The U.S. and South Korea also declared the launch a failure.
Seed packet displays seem to have popped up
everywhere, but you need to give them a wide berth. Most of
those seeds are going to give you more disappointment than
anything else.
After all, what is a seed packet? It's a
promise. A promise of a great garden.
The bright blossoms and plump vegetables on most
seed packets are little more than marketing lies.
About 300 people gathered in a
Portland State University ballroom Tuesday night to hear three
Oregon climate scientists make their case that increases in
manmade greenhouse gases are driving climate change.
The United States is bleeding
allies in Pakistan and nothing, it seems, can stop this ominous
development – not even a $10 million award offered for the
capture of terrorist Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. The bounty the United
States placed on Saeed, in fact, has evoked a hostile response
from Islamists across Pakistan, revealing the depth of
anti-Americanism in the country and perhaps the eclipse of
Washington’s influence in Pakistan.
Symptoms of a mysterious disease
that has killed scores of seals off Alaska and infected walruses
are now showing up in polar bears, the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) said on Friday.
Politicians on all sides of the
nation's energy debate can find things to ponder in a new poll
that suggests Americans are inclined to develop natural gas
resources and build a disputed oil pipeline from Canada, but
also want the government to support renewable energy.
New federal regulations won't close plants that burn coal to
generate electricity, but they will make building new plants
impractical after 2030, local power companies believe.
The regulations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced on March 27 limit emissions from new plants of carbon
dioxide, a gas that is building up in the atmosphere and linked
to global warming and other climate changes.
Maritime New Zealand has charged
the owner of the cargo vessel Rena after the ship ran aground on
Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga last October. The grounding
unleashed New Zealand's biggest maritime environmental disaster
as least 350 tonnes of oil and hundreds of containers spilled
into coastal waters.
Helen Caldicott's eyes flashed as
she explained why she thinks the U.S. -- and South Carolina --
should stop using nuclear power. ..Power plants at Fukushima
began leaking radiation after an earthquake and tsunami, but the
plants remain disabled today and leaks are a major threat, said
Caldicott, a physician who is convinced the radiation will make
the Japanese sick over time.
Solar activity has been at very low
levels for the past 24 hours, multiple B-class x-ray events.
Multiple CMEs were observed during the period but none appear to
be Earth directed. The geomagnetic field has been at quiet
to active levels over the past 24 hours. Characteristics
of an anticipated high speed solar wind stream from a coronal
hole were observed by the ACE spacecraft, with subsequent
elevated geomagnetic levels here at Earth.
Saudi Arabia, the world's energy
powerhouse, took a concrete step this week to try to reduce the
amount of fuel it burns to generate electricity and desalinate
sea water. It completed a pilot project to use solar power
instead of fuel for water desalination and plans to expand the
use of solar-powered generators in an effort to curb domestic
consumption of oil that could otherwise be exported.
"We are seeing a prolonged period
of high oil prices," Naimi said in a statement issued by the
Saudi Arabian embassy during his private visit to the South
Korean capital Seoul. "We are not happy about it. [Saudi Arabia]
is determined to see a lower price and is working towards that
goal," he said.
Royal Dutch Shell said an oil sheen near two of its offshore
Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas platforms was dissipating
Thursday, and it was "very confident" its installations were not
to blame.
The Hague-based company said the "orphan spill," estimated to
be about six barrels of oil, was breaking up. Shell said it
would continue to monitor the sea floor with a pair of
underwater robots.
For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has publicly
identified facilities that create traditional pollution in
cities across the nation.
This is different.
Greenhouse gas emissions do not immediately threaten the
health of people living nearby. But they do contribute to
climate change, a less direct but more widespread health problem
that could, for example, increase the risk of heat-related
illness and death, EPA says.
“Far from abating, the euro crisis
has recently taken a turn for the worse. The European Central
Bank relieved an incipient credit crunch through its longer-term
refinancing operations. The resulting rally in financial markets
hid an underlying deterioration; but that is unlikely to last
much longer,” he wrote.
An historic, world-changing event is about to crush the U.S.
economy and stock market. It will destroy the income,
savings, investments and retirements of millions of Americans.
It will plunge vast numbers of families into the nightmare
of poverty ... hunger ... and homelessness.
Consumer rebates among areas delayed by concerns over cost
There will be no new energy-efficiency programs for Tucson
Electric Power Co. customers - at least for the time being.
State regulators delayed action Friday on a year-old proposal
that would have greatly expanded things like rebates for energy-
efficient lighting, amid concerns over the cost of the state-
mandated programs.
Several states are experimenting with an "on-bill" financing
program that aims to spur investment in energy efficiency for
homes and businesses, including owners who lack capital.
Millions of New Yorkers are stuck on an energy-finance
treadmill. They manage to meet their monthly expenses, but they
can't afford home upgrades that would save energy and lower
costs.
Salmon spend most of their lives in
the ocean, but return to their birthplaces in freshwater streams
to spawn the next generation. These annual migrations up and
down the inland rivers are well known and play a significant
role in the ecosystem, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
However, there is a concern that humans are harvesting too many
salmon, not allowing enough to return upstream to reproduce.
This leaves little for the species which depend on the salmon
runs such as grizzly bears. A new research study suggests that
more Pacific salmon should be allowed to spawn in coastal
streams, which would create a win-win for humans and the natural
environment.
As the second anniversary of the
Deepwater Horizon disaster approaches, an industry
representative Wednesday touted gains made since the oil spill,
while a former federal regulator cautioned that more needs to be
done to make exploration safe, especially in frontier areas.
Electricity generated from Iceland’s huge resource of
volcanic geothermal energy could be imported into the UK,
helping it reach its renewable energy targets, ministers said
yesterday.
The East Bay Municipal Utility
District unveiled its newest green technology recently. A
state-of-the-art turbine nearly doubles the utility's capacity
to produce clean energy from waste previously thought to be too
gross, too toxic and too difficult to manage. Now, communities
across the nation are following EBMUD's lead and developing
similar programs to convert wastes into renewable energy.
Xtreme Power, which has shown considerable success in selling
its energy storage systems and services to utilities, is now
eyeing the electric car market and developing not just a battery
system for it but the entire drivetrain.
April 10, 2012
After five years in quarantine
captivity, 62 Yellowstone bison, one of the most important
biological and cultural species in North America, will live on
the tribal lands of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. The Fort
Peck Reservation is home to two separate American Indian
nations, each composed of numerous bands and divisions.
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran had enough foreign currency
reserves that it could survive without selling a single barrel
of oil for three years.
Barack Obama, George Soros, “La Raza” and the entire liberal
political establishment has launched a multi-million dollar
campaign to destroy “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” They are
spending millions of your tax dollars in an effort to place
federal bureaucrats as “monitors” in his Maricopa County office
-- to stop him from doing the job voters elected him to do!
The activist hacker group Anonymous plans to launch further
attacks on Chinese government websites in a bid to uncover
corruption and lobby for human rights, a member of the group
said on Monday.
Anonymous, a loosely knit group that has attacked financial
and government websites around the world, hacked into Chinese
government websites last week, defacing several, media reports
said.
Arizona
continued to fall well short of national averages on a range of
health indicators, from the prevalence of fast-food restaurants
to the availability of primary care physicians and the teen
birth rate, according to a national health report Tuesday.
A solar tower nearly twice the
height of the Empire State building. Hundreds of spinning
200-foot-tall wind turbines. A 500-mile high-voltage power line
from central New Mexico to southern Arizona.
...as participants in modern
society we are all now exposed to over 83,000 chemicals from the
food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and the
consumer products we use. Pregnant women and their children
have 100 times more chemical exposures today than 50 years ago.
The average newborn has over 200 different chemicals and heavy
metals contaminating its blood when it takes its first breath.
158 of them are toxic to the brain. Little wonder that rates of
autism, attention deficit and behavioral disorders are all on
the rise.
This BBC documentary does an excellent job of reviewing the
fascinating history of electricity and its many key players of
the past two centuries. It's astonishing how rapidly the
technology unfolded and how radically it changed how we live. So
will it be with Free Energy.
The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season will be "below average"
with 10 tropical storms, four of which will strengthen into
hurricanes, Colorado State University forecasters predicted on
Wednesday.
Two of those will become major hurricanes with winds of at
least 111 miles per hour, the team founded by forecasting
pioneer William Gray said.
Debates over wind turbines can be passionate.
Neighbors often don't want turbines nearby. Others make money
for leasing their land to wind companies.
The agency said Community Recycling
neglected to set up safety procedures that could have saved
16-year-old Armando Ramirez and his 22-year-old brother Eladio
Ramirez, after the two were overcome on Oct. 12 by lethal gases
including hydrogen sulfide inside a drainage pipe on the
company´s property.
As you may have seen, California
Governor Jerry Brown announced a $120 million settlement last
week with utility company NRG. The funds will be used to develop
a large scale infrastructure effort for electric vehicles. This
statewide charging network will include at least 200
fast-charging stations and another 10,000 plug-in units at 1,000
locations across the state.
Planet-warming carbon dioxide
emissions - similar to those caused by burning fossil fuels and
other human activities now - helped heat the planet and end the
last ice age some 11,700 years ago, scientists reported on
Wednesday.
This week's highlights include: Brillouin Energy Corporation
looking to begin licensing LENR boiler technology within a year;
discussion of Rossi's interview on OilPrice.com; Dr. Miley's
March 23 lecture, "A Game-Changing Power Source Based on Low
Energy Nuclear Reactions" and it's lack of coverage.
The conservancy intended that the
land be protected forever. Instead, 12 years after accepting the
largest land gift in American history, the federal government is
on the verge of opening 50,000 acres of that bequest to solar
development.
Eleven environmental organizations
are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it
to better regulate toxic coal ash and citing recent groundwater
contamination at 29 coal ash dump sites in 16 states, including
two in Western Pennsylvania.
As the Envisat satellite marks 10
years in orbit, the European Space Agency says the instruments
onboard continue to observe the rapid retreat of one of
Antarctica's ice shelves due to climate change.
The hacking group Anonymous says it
will launch online attacks every weekend, following claims it
disrupted access to the Home Office website.
For decades, Daryl Guentzel has used the sun to produce his
harvest. Soon he'll be harvesting the sun itself.
"I don't have a lot of great intelligence," the Eagle Lake
farmer says, "but I can add."
Paul Brace turned from a blooming plum tree, took a few steps
and pinched an emerging bud on a nectarine branch.
“Everything is a month early,” said Brace, whose family has
operated a 140-acre orchard about 6 miles northeast of Dallas
since 1828. “Nothing compares with this. It is, like, once in a
hundred years.”
The Environmental Protection Agency, in another retreat in
its oversight of hydraulic fracturing, dropped allegations that
Range Resources Corp polluted drinking water in Texas while
drilling for natural gas.
The EPA on Friday said it would no longer pursue a lawsuit
that alleged Range's drilling had polluted drinking water Parker
County, Texas. The suit would have made Range fix wells it
claimed were polluting the water.
If, as many scientists predict,
currently inaccessible sea lanes across the top of the world
become navigable in the coming decades, they could redraw global
trading routes -- and perhaps geopolitics -- forever.
According to a new study, the
melting glaciers are causing large chunks of rock to be
dislodged and tumble down the mountain. The deluge of water is
penetrating cracks and fissures high up the mountain. The yearly
freeze-thaw cycle causes these fissures to expand until entire
boulders come loose of the Matterhorn and fall down its rocky
slopes.
Despite overwhelming public support
and support from a clear majority of Vermont's Agriculture
Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a
proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened
to sue the state if the bill passes.
Nearly 1,150 more megawatts of
nuclear capacity will be taken out of service in refueling
outages in 2012 than in 2011, according to Platts data.
But much less capacity will be missing in the first half of the
year, and much more in the second half, than during the same
periods of 2011.
Solar energy companies may be able
to receive additional funds from the Department of Energy after
the department announced last week that eligible companies could
apply for new funding.
Only nine states have taken
comprehensive steps to address their vulnerabilities to the
water-related impacts of climate change, while 29 states are
unprepared for growing water threats to their economies and
public health, according to a first ever detailed state-by-state
analysis of water readiness released today by the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
About $500 million is being
diverted — outside the normal appropriations process — to the
Internal Revenue Service to help implement President Barack
Obama's healthcare law, The Hill reports.
The IRS is
responsible for several key provisions of the new law, including
the unpopular individual mandate, which calls for the IRS to
administer subsidies to help low-income people pay for
insurance, which are set up as tax credits. The healthcare law
also includes a slew of new taxes and fees, some of which are
already in effect, including fees on drug companies and
insurance policies, The Hill reports.
Barack Hussien Obama is no fool.
He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He
knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the
U.S. Economy to create systemic failure. Economic crisis and
social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and Our country
from within.
An Ohio man accused of running an
illegal landfill and not cleaning up the site after being
ordered to do so was sentenced to three years in prison, the
Environment Crime Task Force of Central Ohio announced.
For the devout, there never has
been any question — prayer has the power to heal. Now, more and
more medical research from leading hospitals and universities
across the United States has shown conclusively that a belief in
God really is good for you, and can make you healthier, happier,
and induce you to live longer to boot.
For thousands of years, Winnemem
Wintu once lived at their village of Kaibai along the flats of
the then powerful McCloud River outside Redding in Northern
California.
Just before the highly publicized
hearing on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s
healthcare law, ratings for the U.S. Supreme Court had fallen to
the lowest level ever measured by Rasmussen Reports. Now,
following the hearings, approval of the court is way up.
Solar activity has been at low
levels for the past 24 hours with two C-class events observed.
Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels with a
slight chance for C-class flares for the next three days...The
geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet levels on day one
(10 April)and at quiet to unsettled levels on days two and three
(11-12 April), as possible CME effects and the arrival of
elevated solar wind from a favorable positioned coronal hole
arrive.
Nebraskans who sell raw milk may see a boost in out-of-state
business.
A federal judge in Sioux City, Iowa, has thrown out a lawsuit
against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s ban on bringing
unpasteurized raw milk across state lines.
As bunker fuel prices remain close
to all time highs achieved in mid-March, shipping companies are
struggling to stay afloat amid rising fuel costs and an
oversupply of ships.
Kerr, who died April 2 in Taylor, a
few miles north of Show Low, is being remembered today as one of
the pioneers of the current solar-cooking movement. She was 86.
The design Kerr came to improve has been used by solar
enthusiasts across the country and by refugees across the world,
including Kenya and New Zealand.
The operator of a proposed
Riverside County solar energy plant filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy last week, citing financial difficulties from
its German parent company.
Three years ago, the solar power
industry in Pennsylvania took off. Residential and small
business customers tapped into the growing number of incentive
programs that made it more affordable to install solar panel
arrays, eliminating their monthly electric bills.
Across the country, more than 7,700
daily temperature records were broken last month, on the heels
of the fourth warmest winter on record.
Contrary to widespread belief, high
school seniors and incoming college freshmen care less about
conserving energy or taking personal action to help the planet
than previous generations, according to a recent study that
analyzed 40 years of research.
"Syrian forces opened fire across two tense borders Monday,
killing a
TV journalist in Lebanon and at least two people in a
refugee camp in
Turkey on the eve of a deadline for a cease-fire plan that
seems all
but certain to fail. Across Syria, activists reported
particularly
heavy violence with more than 125 people killed in the past
two
days."
Observers said that divisions within the opposition will make
it hard to secure the guarantees requested by the government.
Many rebel groups are homegrown, with no command and control,
making it nearly impossible to implement an across-the-board
commitment to lay down arms.
Norwegian and Russian energy
relations might be put at risk when it comes to the exploration
and acquisition of untapped energy resources in the Arctic with
both countries increasing their militarisation in the area,
according toStratfor an Austin, Texas-based global intelligence
company providing geopolitical analysis and commentary.
With the presidential election
paring down to two candidates, the subject of environmental
regulations and economic implications is building up. A new
report by a non-partisan think tank is now forewarning the
electorate to disregard the political rhetoric and to ask more
critical questions.
The warning has had Colorado's two
senators -- Michael Bennet and Mark Udall -- scrambling to find
some legislation they could attach the wind-power amendment to,
but the results have been uniformly dismal. Four major pieces of
legislation have been passed or debated in the Senate since
January and the wind-power credit was either ignored or
rejected.
For too long we have been too
complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no
idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay
after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves
from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt
from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while
ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to
exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its
forms.
Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) last
week released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey
(PMMS), showing average mortgage rates changing little from the
previous week with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage
remaining just below 4.00 percent for the second consecutive
week. News Facts
Radical environmentalism has been pushed by the corrupt
establishment as a reason to promote global enslavement to
better control the masses. By supporting the emergence of free
energy technologies because they resolve environmental and
energy problems, humanity can simultaneously be freed from the
conspirators.
B-vitamins are vitally important
for brain function. Vitamin B12, in particular, has been shown
to have many positive effects on brain function. I have
personally found that vitamin B12 therapy helps patients
suffering from fatigue, memory decline, Alzheimer’s, and
depression.
Last month was the warmest March on
record across half of the United States with summer-like
temperatures providing some welcome news to the country's
farmers and clothing retailers, a weather expert said.
Who is Managing Whom?
Let me start with the relationship
between government employee unions and our elected officials. On
paper, it is true, mayors and governors sit across the table
from city and state workers collectively bargaining for wages
and benefits. On paper, this makes them management—representing
us, the taxpayers. But in practice, these people often serve
more as the employees of unions than as their managers. New
Jersey has been telling here. Look at our former governor, Jon
Corzine.
April 6, 2012
The Arizona state Senate has passed a bill that would end
government funding for energy efficiency and sent it to the
House.
The bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Judy Burges,
would bar the state and its counties and cities from accepting
funds to be used for implementation of the U.N. Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development
President Barack Obama’s attack on
the Supreme Court appeared to backfire Tuesday, when the 5th
Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order giving the Justice
Department until noon Thursday to state whether the
administration truly believes courts lack the authority to
strike down mandates that they determine are unconstitutional.
By tinkering with the US renewable
fuel mandate before it runs its course, Congress would squander
the global competitive edge in advanced biofuels that the law
has helped the country quickly and unexpectedly acquire, the
chief executive of BP Biofuels said Wednesday.
A federal judge has suspended the
construction license of the Teles Pires hydroelectric dam in the
Brazilian Amazon, saying the permitting process violated the
rights of indigenous people protected under the Brazilian
Constitution.
More than 130 large dams built, under construction, or proposed
in western China's seismic hazard zones could trigger
disasterous environmental consequences such as earthquakes and
giant waves, finds a new report from the Canadian watchdog group
Probe International.
The report shows that 98.6 percent of the dams being
constructed in western China are located in high to moderate
seismic hazard zones.
The Coal Mining Industry faces
another struggle as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
imposes limits on carbon emissions on all new U.S. power
stations. The new limits would effectively bar the building of
any new coal plants.
Coral off Tahiti has linked the collapse of massive ice
sheets 14,600 years ago to a dramatic and rapid rise in global
sea-levels of around 14 metres.
Previous research could not accurately date the sea-level
rise but now an Aix-Marseille University-led team, including
Oxford University scientists Alex Thomas and Gideon Henderson,
has confirmed that the event occurred 14,650-14,310 years ago at
the same time as a period of rapid climate change known as the
Bølling warming.
A growing trend of drug misuse is alarming medical experts,
policymakers, and patient advocates.
In recent years, there has been a massive increase in
off-label use of a class of drugs called "atypical
niacantipsychotics."
Both the weekly Energy Information
Administration and American Petroleum Institute inventory report
this week reported significant jumps in US crude oil inventories
US crude oil stocks climbed 9
million barrels for the week that ended March 30 on a surge in
imports, mainly from Iraq, and an uptick in refinery run rates,
data Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) showed.
Republicans have taken sharp issue
with President Barack Obama’s warning to the Supreme Court on
the Obamacare case, charging that the president is seeking to
“intimidate” the high court.
Obama warned on Monday that
a rejection of his healthcare reform law would be an act of
“judicial activism” that Republicans claim to oppose.
GHG Must Be Reined in to Protect
Human Health, Cohen States
Health Care Without Harm praised
the Environmental Protection Agency for its first-ever first
Clean Air Act standard for carbon pollution from new power
plants.
Since 1970, nitrous oxide
concentrations have increased by 20 percent, from below 270
parts per billion to more than 320 ppb. After carbon dioxide and
methane, nitrous oxide (N2O) is the most potent
greenhouse gas, trapping heat and contributing to global
warming. It also destroys stratospheric ozone, which protects
the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays.
Given that Russia has today decided
to approve UN and Red Cross-led efforts to control the violence
in Syria, this story confused us — Russia seemed to be sending
mixed messages.
Activists have imposed a de facto
moratorium on new coal—and beat the Obama EPA to the punch...
Stopping new coal plants may be
"the most significant achievement of American environmentalists
since the passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act,"
says one activist.
One of the most quoted lines from Eric Schlosser’s now famous
book, Fast Food Nation, comes from the chapter about
pathogens in ground beef. Without mincing words, he wrote:
“There is shit in the meat.”
Well, that phrase may be relevant again if the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) moves forward with plans to
privatize part of its meat and poultry inspection program.
The study estimates an arbitrage-free term structure model
that explicitly includes the quantity impact of the Federal
Reserve’s trades on Treasury market prices. This allows
the authors to estimate both the magnitude and duration of the
quantitative easing price effects. The authors conclude
that the short to medium term forward rates in the U.S. Treasury
market were reduced but that the quantitative easing program had
little if any impact on long term forward rates, contrary to the
Fed’s stated intentions of the quantitative easy program.
A pilot program that would pay residents and businesses to
sell solar-generated power back to the city received City
Council approval on Tuesday.
The long-debated feed-in tariff program would generate 10
megawatts of power for the Department of Water and Power --
enough to supply about 10,000 households -- and take effect in
the coming months. The $3 million a year program will help the
utility develop a pricing plan for how much residents would be
reimbursed for creating solar energy.
All of the Niño indices have warmed
considerably during the last two months, Significant anomalous
low-level westerly winds developed in the western tropical
Pacific in late March.
The moon is at it again, this time
cuddling in a brilliant triangle with two other bright lights,
Mars and the star Regulus at about 9 p.m. on April 3.
Countries of the Far North are set
to be the new players in the emerging Arctic frontier. The polar
ice cap is melting at much faster rates than previously
predicted, and may be completely ice free by the summer of 2040
or sooner. There are vast untapped resources in the Arctic Ocean
such as new shipping lanes, fishing grounds, tourism, and it is
believed to contain the largest of the world's remaining energy
reserves. This year has brought about a frenzy of oil and gas
exploration which will only increase as the ice recedes. The
coming summer will bring an even more intense search for
resources. Cooperation will be required among the northern
nations to avert territorial disputes and conflicts at the top
of the world.
Nuclear-powered unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) that would increase operational flight durations
from days to months are a technological possibility today,
according to a feasibility study undertaken last year by Sandia
National Laboratories and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation.
A nuclear power supply would additionally double the
availability of electrical power to onboard systems, including
weaponry, the study found.
The commission’s Draft Report to
the Secretary of Energy suggested seven key elements in
approaching nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities,
including forming a single-purpose organization to develop and
implement a nuclear waste program; long-term support for
research, development and demonstration on advanced reactor and
fuel cycle technologies that may offer substantial benefits to
available technologies and related workforce; and international
leadership in addressing global non-proliferation concerns and
to improve the safety and security of nuclear facilities and
materials worldwide.
Pickens will connect the farm to a
transmission line that is expected to be completed in early
2013. In 2007, Mesa announced plans for a 4 GW Pampa wind farm
in the Texas panhandle. Two years later, the company put the
project on hold due to a lack of adequate power lines.
At least seven bald eagles have died from encounters with
power lines in East Texas, an alarming increase for the
rebounding species, wildlife officials say.
Collisions or electrocutions involving power lines killed
birds in six Texas counties, they said.
Solar activity is expected to be
low with C-class flares likely for the next three days (06-08
April). The geomagnetic field has been at quiet to active
levels for the past 24 hours with minor to severe storm periods
at high latitudes. The geomagnetic field is expected to be
quiet to unsettled on day one (6 April) due to the weak CME that
was associated with the filament eruption
According to ABC News, Russian news reports claim that an
Iman tanker carrying an "anti-terror squad" from the Russian
Marines has arrived in Syria.
Al Arabiya writes that DEBKAfile, an open-source military
intelligence website based in Israel, has reported that two
Russian ships have arrived in Syria's port of Tartus.
However, ABC also points out that Russia's Defense Minister
Anatoly Serdyukov has denied the reports.
The last big ice age ended about 11,000 years ago, and not a
moment too soon — it made a lot more of the world livable, at
least for humans.
But exactly what caused the big thaw isn't clear, and new
research suggests that a wobble in the Earth kicked off a
complicated process that changed the whole planet.
The sun is shining on homeowners in less affluent
neighborhoods who are discovering they can afford solar energy
after all - by leasing rather than buying the panels on their
roofs.
The new business model lets homeowners save money the very
first month, rather than breaking even a decade after an initial
investment of $5,000 to $10,000.
The solar industry is headed south, and for concentrating
photovoltaics (CPV), this is a good thing.
While northern climes like Germany and
Japan have traditionally soaked up the majority of the
traditional flat plate PV installations, the intense
solar areas to their south have made little headway in
project development. But there’s a shift underway as the
solar industry begins to branch out from its political
strongholds to the north and into the areas where the
sun shines the strongest.
Solar remains a virtually
untapped source in India, Africa and the Middle East.
Just as lucrative is the potential in Latin America,
where energy needs are surging and the renewable
resources are becoming too obvious to pass up.
A site in the Yuma area will become
home to the first solar plant on state trust land in Arizona.
When completed, the 35-megawatt Foothills Solar Plant will
serve Yuma-area customers, generating enough power for
approximately 8,750 homes.
Did you know that U.S. energy
security is as easy as weatherstripping your house?
It’s time to update how we think
about national energy issues. And better architecture is the
key.
Obesity in the United States may be even
worse than initially believed, according to a new study in PLoS
One journal.
According to the study's findings, the
widely used body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based
on height and weight, has allowed the United States to
underestimate its obesity crisis. A BMI between 25 and 30 is
classified as overweight, and 30 or more as obese.
"Decarbonization of the electric
power sector is critical to achieving greenhouse gas reductions
that are needed for a sustainable future," Daniel Kammen, a
researcher in UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group, said.
"To meet these carbon goals, coal has to go away from the
region."
Microbiologists at New York University have published a new
study that says the overprescribing of antibiotics could be
making us fat! Researchers fed infant mice low doses of
penicillin; after 30 weeks, penicillin-fed mice were between 10
and 15 per cent bigger and twice as fat as drug-free mice.
Maybe you have heard that eating
beef is one of the biggest contributors to your carbon
footprint, much more so than driving. However, if you are like
many of us, you may not have thought about how eating seafood
affects the environment. Whether you live by the coast or
thousands of miles from the nearest shoreline, the biggest
impact you have on the oceans is through your diet. Beyond its
health benefits and its cultural significance, there is no
denying how delicious lobster with freshly-squeezed lemon tastes
on a hot summer day. With a seemingly (and deceptively) abundant
supply of inexpensive seafood, it can be hard to say no to that
double order of fish tacos. But can the seas really provide an
endless bounty of food?
Syrian forces pressed a crackdown
on rebel bastions on Thursday despite a truce pledge, with more
than 40 people reported killed, as Russia said the opposition
would never defeat President Bashar al-Assad's army even if
"armed to the teeth."
Earth Hour 2012 organizers are jubilant today after a
satisfyingly successful global event on March 31. Lights went
out at 8:30 pm local time as Earth Hour circled the world
through a record 150 countries and territories, with 6,494 towns
and cities participating.
Organized by the global conservation organization WWF, Earth
Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million
people and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off
for one hour to take a stand against climate change.
The US House of Representatives
Natural Resources Committee subpoenaed the Obama administration
Tuesday for documents related to the temporary ban on deepwater
oil and natural gas drilling the White House instituted
following the 2010 Macondo blowout.
Economies normally snap back when
recovering from recessions, but that hasn't been the case this
time around.
From 1947 to 2007, the average annual growth
rate for the U.S. was 3.4 percent, Lazear writes in a Wall
Street Journal opinion piece.
The latest statistics on autism
prevalence are scary: according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the disorder now affects, with varying
degrees of severity, one in 88 children, and one in 54 boys.
That represents an estimated 78 percent increase since 2002, the
government agency reported last week. The CDC was quick to
downplay the most dramatic possible interpretations of these
findings, even as Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy
group Autism Speaks, rushed to label them evidence of “a
national emergency in need of a national plan.”
Despite the triple meltdown at
Fukushima—which has driven tens of thousands of Japanese from
their homes, cast radioactive fallout across the U.S., and will
likely cost the Japanese economy ¥50 trillion, or $623
billion—many desperate Greens now embrace nukes. They include
Stewart Brand and George Monbiot. What drives these men is
panic—a very legitimate fear that we will trigger self-fueling
runaway climate change.
Most of the recent discussion is about whether all or part of
the Healthcare Act will get through the Supreme Court. But let’s
assume for a moment that it does. What then? Will the newly
insured actually get coverage? It would seem that they would:
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) proposes
to spell out in considerable detail exactly what coverage
private insurance companies must provide. There won’t be any
difference in anybody’s coverage—right? Wrong!
A new picture is emerging in the
U.S. power sector. In 2007, electricity generation from coal
peaked, dropping by close to 4 percent annually between 2007 and
2011. Over the same time period, nuclear generation fell
slightly, while natural gas-fired electricity grew by some 3
percent annually and hydropower by 7 percent. Meanwhile,
wind-generated electricity grew by a whopping 36 percent each
year. Multiple factors underlie this nascent shift in U.S.
electricity production, including the global recession,
increasing energy efficiency, and more economically recoverable
domestic natural gas. But ultimately it is the increasing
attractiveness of wind as an energy source that will drive it
into prominence.
No, we’re
not going to be cutting down trees for batteries now. What
researchers have discovered is that the biological waste
products from making paper can actually be used to produce
cathodes in rechargeable batteries.
The Federal Reserve is propping up
the entire U.S. economy by buying 61 percent of the government
debt issued by the Treasury Department, a trend that cannot
last, Lawrence Goodman, a former Treasury official and current
president of the Center for Financial Stability, writes in a
Wall Street Journal opinion article published Wednesday.
"Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61 percent of the total
net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the
2008 financial crisis," Goodman writes.
April 3, 2012
A new study released by the National Science Board (NSB) of
the National Science Foundation (NSF) raises concerns about the
global leadership of the U.S. in Science and Technology
investments. The report also highlights massive job losses in
high-tech.
Eight years ago, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger drove a
hydrogen-powered Toyota Highlander to UC Davis and, with TV
cameras running, promised to build a "hydrogen highway" to help
usher in a green revolution in California.
Schwarzenegger signed a plan to build 50 to 100 hydrogen
fueling stations by 2010 with state funds and money from oil
companies. The plan was mostly hype: Schwarzenegger had
announced it without having any binding agreements from oil
companies -- and they backed out. Today, only six hydrogen
fueling stations statewide are open to the public.
But now...
Applying new technologies is
admirable. But sticking businesses with huge bills to pay that
progress is not. That’s what Exelon and other critics are saying
about a proposed plant to convert coal to a synthetic natural
gas.
Scientists, environmentalists and
farm advocates are pressing the question about whether rewards
of the trend toward using more and more crop chemicals are worth
the risks, as the agricultural industry strives to ramp up
production to feed the world's growing population.
President Barack Obama says the
United States is committed to developing new technologies to
produce peaceful nuclear energy. He made these remarks on Monday
at the start of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea.
But one year after the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi
reactor complex, concerns about the safety of nuclear power
linger on. Some activists, though, say there is no form of safe
nuclear power.
Arizona ranks third in the nation
in terms of solar system installation, according to the 2011
U.S. Solar Market Insight Report from the Solar Energy
Industries Association (SEIA), Governor Jan Brewer announced
March 22. More impressive, Arizona’s energy production from
photovoltaic systems jumped from 63 to 273 megawatts between
2010 and 2011: a tremendous 333 percent rate of growth. Arizona
now trails only California and New Jersey in terms of solar
megawatt production...
Researchers at Queen's University
Belfast (QUB) are developing a novel biological process to
remove extracted phosphate from wastewater – where it ultimately
ends up after manufacturing. Dr John McGrath who is leading the
project explained, "Phosphate in wastewater is a pollutant that
causes increased growth of algae and plants, reducing the oxygen
available for aquatic organisms. This is known as eutrophication
and poses the single biggest threat to water quality in Northern
Ireland and indeed globally."
Tensions between the Kurdish
Regional Government and Baghdad were heightened today after the
Kurds halted foreign oil exports and allowed the fugitive vice
president to leave the country. At least five Iraqis were killed
and four more were wounded in unrelated violence.
A bill that would protect Arizona State Parks’ revenue from
any further legislative sweeps was on its way to Gov. Jan
Brewer’s desk Monday after winning approval from the Senate.
HB 2362 would allow the agency to keep all revenue raised
through gate and concession fees at its 29 parks that are open
to the public. The bill was introduced by Rep. Karen Fann,
R-Prescott, whose district is home to five state parks.
Brazilian criminal charges against energy industry employees
over an oil spill have made foreign workers leery of new legal
risks, but so far concerns seem to be outweighed by the lure of
good-paying jobs and a famously laid-back lifestyle.
The big question among expatriates is whether last week's
charges against Chevron Corp, Transocean and 17 of their staff
are political grandstanding in a country actively seeking
foreign expertise to help develop its newfound oil riches, or a
real risk of doing hard time.
California’s ban on using race or
gender as a factor in college admissions survived another legal
challenge Monday when a federal appeals court upheld the law
passed by state voters more than 15 years ago.
Even nuclear energy pros are
divided. While none of them doubt either the safety or the
reliability of the current plants, they are split as to whether
future facilities will figure prominently into this country’s
generation portfolio.
While synthetic fabrics are washed they shed bits of plastic
that can end up in the oceans. Manufacturers are not
required to test fabrics for their environmental impact.
More than 65 percent of plastic in the ocean is in bits that are
less than a millimeter thick.
Scientists have found an
unexpected source for the rising load of tiny plastic bits in
the oceans: Washing machines.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
suspended prescribed burns used to mitigate fire danger on
Wednesday after a controlled blaze apparently ignited a wildfire
west of Denver that killed an elderly couple and destroyed some
two dozen homes.
If the movie 2001: A Space
Odyssey taught us anything, it’s that computers know when
we’re telling a lie. While that may not actually be the case for
most computers in real life, it could be if they’re
running a program created by scientists from the University at
Buffalo. Building on a previous psychological study, the team
produced software that allowed a computer to assess a speaker’s
eye movements, to determine whether or not they were telling the
truth in a prerecorded conversation. It turns out that the
computer was able to correctly able to spot their lies with
82.5% accuracy
Between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31,
2011, renewable energy sources – biofuels, biomass, geothermal,
solar, water, wind – grew by 27.12 percent. By comparison,
during the same three-year period, total domestic energy
production increased by just 6.72 percent with natural gas and
crude oil production growing by 13.66 percent and 14.27 percent
respectively. During the same period, nuclear power declined by
1.99 percent and coal dropped by 7.16 percent.
The bridges are right here in the
U.S. and yet Obama has approved for Chinese contractors to come
in and do the work. What about jobs for Americans??? Watch
this video. It doesn't take long to view. This one should be
tough for the supporters of the current regime to swallow....AND
it comes from ABC NEWS...no Snopes or Wikileaks on this one!!
The number of unemployed persons,
at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged in February. The
unemployment rate held at 8.3 percent, 0.8 percentage point
below the August 2011 rate.
On March 27 the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft standards
that will limit carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act.
Carbon pollution from power plants contributes to
global warming, endangering our health, our environment, and
drastically altering our climate. By placing the first ever
nationwide limits on carbon pollution from new power plants,
these historic standards are a critical step to reducing the
effects of global warming and protecting public health.
Europe's wave and tidal power
technology is likely to disappoint EU expectations for 2020 and
take over a decade to contribute to energy supply in a
significant way, even though it is chalking up rapid growth and
drawing in big industrial investors.
Bloomberg: “There’s a moral hazard
element to this,” Ken Wattret, chief European economist at BNP
Paribas SA in London, said in a telephone interview. “The ECB is
clearly worried that in some countries the lower the risk
premium on sovereign debt, the less urgency there will be to
make some changes.” The ECB should be concerned. The Eurozone
periphery governments are effectively telling their banks: don't
worry about your customers for now. We ARE your main customer.
Get your 1% 3-year ECB loans and buy our government debt - keep
the rates low.
Concern over the safety of the San Onofre nuclear power plant
is growing among Orange County cities closest to the facility,
which has been shut down since January because of system
failures.
Officials in nearby San Clemente and Laguna Beach -- both
within 20 miles of the San Onofre facility -- have registered
their fears after significant wear was found on hundreds of
tubes carrying radioactive water inside the plant's generators.
While Total had dismissed the risk of a blast, one
engineering consultant warned that Elgin could become "an
explosion waiting to happen".
Options to extinguish the flare had included dropping water
from a helicopter or spraying nitrogen overhead to starve the
flame of oxygen. In the end, the flare went out by itself.
After a year of planning and
construction, Fort Hood and Universal Services Fort Hood Inc.
activated a solar field of nearly 3,000 photovoltaic panels.
An empty Japanese fishing boat
drifting off the coast of western Canada could be the first wave
of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from
Japan's tsunami last March.
Global Payments, a third-party
payments processor to Visa and MasterCard credit and debit
cards, reiterated that while customer data may be at risk, the
data breach has been “contained to the best of our ability.”
Overall, 1.5 million accounts may have been affected.
Look to General Motors' March sales numbers to see how
Americans are adjusting to higher gas prices.
The once truck-centric Detroit automaker says that combined
sales of its 12 vehicles that achieve an Environmental
Protection Agency estimated 30 mpg or better on the highway
topped 100,000 last month, the highest total in company history.
Governor Pat Quinn and
representatives from the Illinois Tollway, 350Green LLC and
7-Eleven, Inc. announced yesterday the availability of the
nation’s largest network of fast-charging electric vehicle (EV)
stations. As part of Governor Quinn’s commitment to increasing
sustainability across Illinois, the initiative will support the
use of electric vehicles and create jobs in sustainable
transportation. Motorists can charge an electric vehicle in
under 30 minutes using the current fast-chargers at 7-Eleven
sites at four Tollway Oasis locations, and will soon be able to
charge vehicles at all seven Tollway Oases.
Environmental groups are asking a
state court to force Wyoming to provide a more complete list of
chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a drilling
technique vital to natural gas and oil production in the state.
The world likes to call free
thinkers crazy. Dare to act on your thoughts by preparing
yourself for a world where governments don’t function and
societies break down, and you’re well and truly nuts. You must
be one of those freaks who sees a conspiracy around every corner
or a kook living in some alternative reality. Can’t you just act
normal?
With EMFT, salt can be controlled
and extracted from water and soils to enhance desalination,
agricultural, and irrigation processes. The EMFT would allow
plants to absorb nutrients more effectively, providing
agricultural industries an advantage in crop production.
And, for those keeping score, the
revised data show that crude oil production on federally
administered lands rose in the first three years of the Obama
administration: from 575 million barrels in 2008, the last of
the George W Bush years, to 646 million barrels in 2011.
Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older
ones) didn't know this. It's easy to check out, if you don't
believe it. Be sure and show it to your family and friends. They
need a little history lesson on what's what and it doesn't
matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are Facts.
Have you seen this $450 billion?
That’s not exactly the kind of statement you’re going to see
on the side of a milk carton anytime soon. And yet, for retirees
and Baby Boomers nearing retirement, it’s important to know
about this missing money.
This missing money isn’t from
losses in the stock market. It isn’t from some financial fraud
at a Wall Street bank. It’s the annual income lost by
bondholders courtesy of today’s ultra-low interest rates. And,
as we know, the Federal Reserve is looking to keep those rates
low for another year and a half.
Human activity kept global temperatures close to a record
high in 2011 despite the cooling influence of a powerful La Nina
weather pattern, the World Meteorological Organization said on
Friday.
On average, global temperatures in 2011 were lower than the
record level hit the previous year but were still 0.40 degrees
Centigrade above the 1961-1990 average and the 11th highest on
record, the report said.
Defector tells how US officials
'sexed up' his fictions to make the case for 2003 invasion
The Mediterranean Solar Plan’s
objective of generating 20GW of renewable energy by 2020 looks
remote as North Africa rebels and Southern Europe collapses. But
it is not dead yet.
A federal judge in Mississippi has ended a long-running suit
that attempted to hold a selection of U.S. utilities and coal
and oil companies responsible for flooding damage caused by
Hurricane Katrina.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., in a decision released
yesterday, dismissed Comer vs. Murphy Oil with
prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled or reconstituted. The
decision should serve to preclude, other similar lawsuits
accusing companies of emitting global-warming gases that cause
damaging weather patterns.
After much preparation to prove its
capability, Oncor is launching a new interactive outage map in
order to give customers what they've asked for - more
information about power outages during storms. The new, enhanced
outage map pinpoints the loss of power down to a customer's
neighborhood. Interactive real-time outage information is
available through this map either online or on your mobile
device 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We wouldn't allow this plant to continue to operate if we
did not think they were operating safely," Pilgrim's senior
resident inspector for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Max Schneider said during an open house held by the agency
Thursday night at Plymouth Town Hall.
But residents of Plymouth and Cape Cod weren't buying that
assessment.
Federal inspectors have confirmed a
concrete condition found in an underground tunnel at Seabrook
Station poses no immediate safety threat, but the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission is calling for more information about how
the issue will be managed in the future.
The first study conducted in a
natural environment has shown that systemic pesticides damage
bees' ability to navigate. Common crop pesticides have been
shown for the first time to seriously harm bees by damaging
their renowned ability to navigate home. The new research
strongly links the pesticides to the serious decline in honey
bee numbers in the US and UK — a drop of around 50 per cent in
the last 25 years. The losses pose a threat to food supplies as
bees pollinate a third of the food we eat such as tomatoes,
beans, apples and strawberries.
A future on Earth of more extreme
weather and rising seas will require better planning for natural
disasters to save lives and limit deepening economic losses, the
United Nations said on Wednesday in a major report on the
effects of climate change.
A new poll finds that President
Obama’s approval ratings on energy policy are much worse than
the marks he receives on environmental protection.
The 2012 presidential election will
determine whether the country continues to travel its current
route or whether it takes a different direction. No issue is
more notable than the future of coal-fired electric generation
that now comprises about 45 percent of the market
With a belch of acrid, greasy smoke
and a jolt that shakes its moorings, the pump on Yemeni water
farmer Jad al-Adhrani's plot of land roars to life, and the race
to squeeze the last drop of water out of Yemen's parched earth
resumes.
Between January 1, 2009 and
December 31, 2011, renewable energy sources (i.e., biofuels,
biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) grew by 27.12%. By
comparison, during the same three-year period, total domestic
energy production increased by just 6.72% with natural gas and
crude oil production growing by 13.66% and 14.27% respectively.
Moreover, during the same period, nuclear power declined by
1.99% and coal dropped by 7.16%
Earth-directed CME, associated with
a filament eruption near N26E14, became visible. Solar
activity is expected to be very low with a chance for C-class
activity for the next three days (03-05 April). The
geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet on day one (03
April). Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected on days two
and three (04-05 April) due to a coronal hole high speed stream
becoming geoeffective early on 04 April followed the next day by
the arrival of the weak CME associated with this morning's
filament eruption.
In the beginning, there was the
thermonuclear bomb - mankind had harnessed the energy of the
Sun. Confident predictions abounded that fusion reactors would
be providing power "too cheap to meter" within ten years. Sixty
years later many observers are beginning to wonder if billions
of dollars of effort has been lost in digging out dry wells. Now
a new simulation study carried out at Sandia National
Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, suggests that
magnetized inertial fusion (MIF) experiments could be
retrofitted to existing pulsed-power facilities to obtain fusion
break-even.
Dwindling supplies of metals, water
and biomass could slow the deployment of clean energy
technologies by 2035, a study by research organization the
Stockholm Environment Institute and by business initiative 3C
showed on Tuesday.
"This research has the potential to
bring back the beloved American elm population to North
America," said Prof. Praveen Saxena, a plant scientist who
worked on the project with Prof. Alan Sullivan, both with
Guelph's Department of Plant Agriculture. "It may also serve as
a model to help propagate and preserve thousands of other
endangered plant species at risk of extinction across the
globe."
Sea levels have increased on average about 18 centimetres (7
inches) since 1900 and rapid global warming will accelerate the
pace of the increase, experts say, putting coastlines at risk
and forcing low-lying cities to build costly sea defenses.
Scientists last month said that thinning glaciers and ice
caps were pushing up sea levels by 1.5 millimetres a year, and
experts forecast an increase of as much as two metres by 2100.
In an stunning reversal, Senate
Republicans have accepted President Obama's call to end tax
breaks for the oil and gas industry, reversing a procedural vote
on Thursday that had killed the Mendendez Bill (S. 2204 - Repeal
Subsidies and Tax Breaks for the Big 5 Oil Companies),
introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). On Thursday, the bill
was defeated by a vote of 51-47, nine votes short of the 60
required to pass.
Congressional hearings often earn
their reputation as forums for political posturing. Lawmakers
read mini-speeches veiled as questions and then give witnesses
little or no time to respond.
...if the Supreme Court doesn't
resoundingly strike Obamacare down and toss it into the dung
heap where it belongs. It's going to be a long wait until they
offer their decision on whether or not a government bureaucrat
has the right to tell you what, where, and how much health care
you can obtain. Now is not the time to sit back and say nothing.
These nine justices need to know what the American people think
about this draconian law that steals essential freedom from each
and every one of us.
The first sprites of summer are
starting to appear in the skies of North America. The strange
thing is, summer is almost three months away. "Sprite season is
beginning early this year," says Thomas Ashcraft, who
photographed these specimens on March 30th from his observatory
in New Mexico:
The 5th
U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals has handed
Texas
a victory over the
Environmental Protection Agency over the agency's
disapproval of Texas' pollution rules related to power plants.
Too many tribal governments lack
any sense of nationhood because their own people do not buy in.
The reason is corruption, sometimes real and sometimes
perceived, but which it is does not matter. If your own people
are not willing to risk everything from their property to their
lives—exactly as the founders of the U.S. did—in defense of
nationhood, then tribal government becomes like the proverbial
car-chasing dog. If you catch the car, then what?
We want to buy seeds and have a garden that will produce
plenty of food for us to eat, can, and store. The problem is we
live in a mostly wooded area and finding a place to put the
garden where there will be enough sunlight is an exercise in
futility. We have cut down a few trees but don’t want to cut
down any more than we have to.
Scientists recently described a new
and more efficient version of an innovative device the size of a
home washing machine that uses bacteria growing in municipal
sewage to make electricity and clean up the sewage at the same
time.
My message has been and will
continue to be that American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native
Corporations, in the interest of unity and just plain good
economic sense, must pass and enforce Indian and Native
Preference in procurement, contracting and hiring.
The US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Friday approved licenses for South Carolina Electric
& Gas and partner Santee Cooper to build and operate two new
nuclear generating units at their Summer station.
Even with an extension of a tax
credit for wind development, installations will fall
precipitously in 2013, a renewable energy investment expert told
a Senate committee.
The outcome was expected, but it marks the fourth time this
year that wind-power supporters failed to get the tax credit
passed in the Senate.
The wind turbines scattered across
southwest Minnesota have made a tremendous economic impact on
the region, from construction crews settling in our communities
to payments made to landowners for easements. Perhaps the
greatest economic impact, however, is now being seen in counties
where turbines harness the wind and convert it into kilowatt
hours.
Oil sands, shale gas,
pipelines, and gasoline prices are clearly dominating the
headlines as we enter the second quarter of 2012. But with the
energy spotlight mostly elsewhere, clean tech is showing signs
of market momentum – and signs of emergence from the dark shadow
cast, mostly unfairly, by the Solyndra bankruptcy last fall.
Come to think of it, maybe having the spotlight elsewhere isn’t
such a bad thing.
It is true that you need to rotate
crops in order to keep pests and fungi under control. However,
you don’t have to skip two or three years and go without your
tomatoes! You don’t say whether you’ve been experiencing any
particular types of problems or not, or if you’re mainly looking
at it from a good stewardship perspective.
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