By Mike Robbins
Hydrogen -- Star Gas, Everywhere, Yet Unseen. Sunlight is its Child.
(Haiku by Stephen Wetlesen)
February 28, 2014
Droughts have long
been a part of California’s
history, and the Winnemem
Wintu have songs about the
water trails drying up and
our need to pray for them to
fill up again. For the
Winnemem, it wasn’t
necessarily a “drought” if
there were long periods
without rain because, more
often than not, the rivers
would still be full to keep
the trees, the beavers, the
mountain meadows and
everything healthy in the
watershed.
Recently, a reader emailed
RenewableEnergyWorld.com to
ask us a about a GHP
(geothermal heat pump) that
he installed in 2008. Two
years after the GHP
installation, he installed
an electric water heater. Up
until 2008, he had used
propane to heat his Ohio
home and hot water. The GHP
took over the heating and
cooling and then the
electric water heater
disengaged him completely
from propane.
At least 31 killed by blast
in market selling used bikes
in Shia area, in worst of
latest attacks in Iraqi
capital.
Several countries have
announced ambitious goals to
be powered completely by
renewable energy, while
other nations set smaller,
incremental goals. These
high aspirations have
sparked quite a debate
amongst industry experts,
and we here at Renewable
Energy World are curious to
hear what you, our readers,
have to say.
So we aksed you to
add your own voices to
this imporant
discussion:
One unintended consequence
of China's spectacular
economic growth is a growing
water shortage, reports
Joshua Bateman. As rivers
run dry, aquifers sink,
climate harshens and
pollution spreads, he asks:
can China solve its water
crisis?
China's environment ministry
has vowed to 'harshly
punish' factories and power
plants that contributed to a
hazardous smog which
enveloped much of Northern
China, official state media
reported on Wednesday.
Sugarcane grows like crazy,
so if it could be used as a
source of biofuel, well ...
not only might it produce
higher yields than other
crops, but it could
conceivably do so using less
land. With that in mind,
scientists from the
University of Illinois are
creating a strain of the
plant that produces more
oil, gets more energy from
the sun, and can be grown in
colder climates.
Is electrodialysis the
next great desalination
technology?
Possibly, according to
the MIT Technology
Review. Electrodialysis
"works by allowing sodium
and chlorine ions to pass
through a membrane in the
presence of an electric
field, leaving purified
water on the other side,"
the report said.
But for this method to
become viable, certain
hurdles must be
cleared. "Electrodialysis
has the potential to
desalinate seawater quickly
and cheaply but does not
remove other contaminants
such as dirt and bacteria,"
the report said.
The Environmental
Protection Agency will
review its decades-old
methods for estimating
emissions from refiners and
chemical makers, a move that
could reveal higher
pollution levels in Houston
and across the country.
The federal agency on
Wednesday said it has agreed
to the review as part of a
settlement with Air Alliance
Houston and three other
advocacy groups.
Africa and Asia are set to
grab a significant share of
the global renewables market
in the next year at the
expense of European markets,
according to research
released today.
On February 18th-20th
confrontation with the
police saw Ukraine's
long-running anti-government
protests transformed into an
insurrection. As support for
the president, Victor
Yanukovych, fractured, a
compromise deal with
opposition politicians was
brokered by the EU. As it
did not include the
immediate removal of
Mr Yanukovych, however, it
was always likely to be
unacceptable to the more
radical "Euromaidan"
protesters. That night, the
president and most of his
cabinet fled the capital,
Kiev. The collapse of the
Yanukovych government is the
most significant political
event in Ukraine since
independence in 1991.
Nonetheless, acute political
and economic challenges for
the new authorities lay
ahead.
A judge recently expanded
the scope of a groundwater
pollution lawsuit against a
group of dairies so that it
now includes drugs and other
substances as potential
contaminants.
A Cape Coral, Florida woman
living “off the grid” was
ordered last week by a
magistrate to hook up to
utilities to comply with
city codes or risk eviction
from her home.
Recovering from natural
disasters usually means
rebuilding infrastructure
and reassembling human
lives. Yet ecologically
sensitive areas need to
heal, too, and scientists
are pioneering new methods
to assess nature's recovery
and guide human
intervention.
Renewable energy
advocates struck back Monday
at Duke Energy's hope to cut
the rate it pays for
electricity from rooftop
solar panels.
Duke pays solar
"net-metering" customers the
average residential retail
cost of electricity, about
11 cents a kilowatt-hour. It
wants to cut the payments to
5 to 7 cents, about what it
pays for electricity from
large solar farms.
Radiation from the Fukushima
nuclear disaster has not yet
reached ocean waters along
the Pacific coast, but low
levels of radioactive cesium
from the stricken Japanese
power plant could arrive by
April, scientists reported
Monday.
[Ed: Yet it has
already touched Canada!!]
With the March 31 deadline
to apply for health
insurance fast approaching,
governors are offering mixed
reviews on the progress of
signing up residents in
their states under the
Affordable Care Act.
The Environmental Working
Group (EWG) released a list
Thursday of all the foods
that have listed ADA as an
ingredient. Large companies
like Ball Park, Country
Hearth, Jimmy Dean, Kroger,
Little Debbie, Marie
Callendar's, Nature's Own,
Pillsbury, White Castle and
Wonder are just a fraction
of the 130 brands that used
the chemical in their
products. Most of the items
are bread, croutons,
pre-made sandwiches and
snacks.
A leading cause of ADHD
(attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder) and
autism in children could be
the hidden chemicals lurking
in the foods we eat, the
water we drink and the
products we consume, says a
new study recently published
in The Lancet. Researchers
from the Harvard School of
Public Health (HSPH) and the
Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai (ISMMS) found
that, among other things,
the fluoride chemicals added
to many public water systems
in North America directly
contribute to both mental
and behavioral disorders in
children.
A hotly debated power
plant may be violating its
pollution limits and needs
to fix the problem as soon
as possible, air quality
regulators say.
Russell City Energy
Center's cooling tower is
putting out almost 10 times
the allowed amount of water
droplets that could contain
particulate matter, its
operator's own tests show,
according to a complaint
filed by the staff of the
Bay Area Air Quality
Management District.
Hot weather extremes have
increased around the world
in the past 15 years despite
a slowdown in the overall
pace of global warming, a
study showed on Wednesday.
Heat extremes are among
the damaging impacts of
climate change as they can
raise death rates,
especially among the
elderly, damage food crops
and strain everything from
water to energy supplies.
House Bill 5282, introduced
by state Rep. Al Pscholka ,
R- Stevensville , authorizes
security officers at nuclear
plants to use physical force
- and, if necessary, deadly
force - to deter intruders
who seek to do damage to the
facilities.
Now that Karen Willmus can
get health insurance through
Obamacare, she plans to quit
teaching 9th grade English
at the end of the school
year. The 51-year-old found
policies on the Colorado
state exchange for about
$300 a month. That's less
than what she's paying now
for employer-sponsored
coverage and less than half
what she paid on the
individual market in 2007.
Environmental Defense Fund
(EDF) praised the Colorado
Air Quality Control
Commission (AQCC) recently
for its leadership in voting
to adopt landmark
regulations that will
substantially reduce air and
climate pollution from the
state’s oil and gas
industry. The regulations
include the first
requirements anywhere in the
U.S. to directly control
emissions of methane, a
highly potent greenhouse gas
known to intensify the rate
of global warming.
After tens of thousands of
defiant gun owners in
Connecticut chose not to
register their
semi-automatic rifles to
comply with a hastily-passed
gun control law, the state
is now taking some action.
Officials are reportedly
notifying gun owners who
submitted late applications
that they have one last
chance to get rid of their
“illegal” weapons.
Japan is likely to see
average weather this summer,
the official forecaster said
on Tuesday, reducing the
risk of a potential spike in
demand for electricity from
customers cranking up their
air conditioning.
Japan is currently
nuclear free for just the
third time in more than four
decades, following the
reactor meltdowns and
radiation leaks at Tokyo
Electric Power Co's
Fukushima Daiichi facility,
requiring the country to
rely heavily on fossil
fuel-fired power plants.
Your right to go solar and
get full credit for the
electricity you send back to
the grid is threatened. Not
just in California and
Arizona and Hawaii — but
also at virtually every
single investor owned
utility (the aptly named
IOUs) in the country. Net
metering is the simplest and
(arguably) the fairest way
to compensate solar
customers for the energy
they send back to the grid
during the day. But from an
IOU's perspective, net
metering carves away at the
foundation of their profits
by reducing their need for
new assets and reducing
their revenues. It's a war
between the Guaranteed
Profit Utilities and
millions of potential solar
homeowners.
Borrowers with low credit
scores are having an easier
time getting approved for a
mortgage.
According to the January
2014 Ellie Mae Origination
Insight Report, the average
FICO of an approved mortgage
fell to 724 -- the lowest
average credit score for
approved loans since the
mortgage origination
software company first
launched its monthly
analysis more than two years
ago.
Singapore and Malaysia are
grappling with some of the
driest weather they have
ever seen, forcing the tiny
city-state to ramp up
supplies of recycled water
while its neighbor rations
reserves amid disruptions to
farming and fisheries.
Many of the most profitable
U.S. corporations paid
little or no federal income
tax from 2008 to 2012,
according to a five-year
study issued on Tuesday by a
left-leaning tax activist
group.
Citizens for Tax Justice
looked at 288 profitable
Fortune 500 companies and
said that 26 of them -
including Boeing Co, General
Electric Co and Verizon
Communications Inc - paid no
federal income tax in the
five-year period.
Last week President Obama
and Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper visited
Mexico for what’s
traditionally called the
“Three Amigos” meeting. In
the daylong rendezvous,
energy issues were slated to
play a major role, with
Obama and Harper jockeying
for room when it comes to
the impending decision on
the controversial Keystone
XL pipeline that would bring
dirty crude oil down from
Canada to refineries on the
Gulf Coast.
Mt. Gox, the troubled
exchange for the virtual
currency Bitcoin, filed for
bankruptcy protection on
Friday and said that it
might have lost 750,000 of
its customers’ coins,
essentially all of them, in
a hacking attack.
The Tokyo-based exchange,
which warned this month of a
software flaw that may have
allowed hackers to defraud
it of Bitcoins, had halted
all trading this week.
Tesla Motors Inc.’s plan to
build what co-founder Elon
Musk bills as the world’s
largest battery factory
could shake up the power
industry and trigger a
bidding contest between
states eager for the 6,500
jobs the $5 billion
investment could create.
This Date in Native
History: On February 27,
1973, about 250 Sioux
Indians led by members of
the American Indian Movement
converged on South Dakota’s
Pine Ridge Reservation,
launching the famous 71-day
occupation of Wounded Knee.
The California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC)
recently released a Proposed
Decision on the closure of
the San Onofre Nuclear
Generating Station (SONGS),
The decision allows San
Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)
and Southern California
Edison (SCE) to invest in
hundreds of megawatts of
natural gas, and the
California Environmental
Justice Alliance (CEJA) is
fit to be tied.
Despite the benefits of
low-temperature fuel cell
technologies, they cannot
directly use biomass as a
fuel because of the lack of
an effective catalyst
system. However, Georgia
Institute of Technology
researchers have developed a
low-temperature fuel cell
that directly converts a
wide variety of biomass
sources -- including starch,
cellulose, lignin, and even
switchgrass, powdered wood,
algae and waste from poultry
processing -- to electricity
with a catalyst activated by
solar or thermal energy.
President Obama and his
newest counsel, John
Podesta, are using the same
executive action strategy we
saw during the 1995-96
Clinton campaign to gain
traction in public opinion
even with a hostile
Congress.
But Republicans and
conservatives do not
understand exactly what his
moves are all about and are
at a loss to counter them.
Britain's surveillance
agency GCHQ, with aid from
the US National Security
Agency, intercepted and
stored the webcam images of
millions of internet users
not suspected of wrongdoing,
secret documents reveal.
A bill designed to shield
Oregon's renewable energy
mandates from a potentially
game-changing ballot measure
sailed through the Senate's
Business and Transportation
Committee Tuesday, even as
opponents called it a
back-room deal hatched to
benefit industry insiders
and ignore average citizens.
Russia has agreed to
ensure the personal safety
of Ukraine's ousted
President Viktor Yanukovich,
Russian news agencies quoted
an official source as saying
on Thursday.
"In connection with the
appeal by president
Yanukovich for his personal
security to be guaranteed, I
report that the request has
been granted on the
territory of the Russian
Federation," the source was
quoted as saying by Interfax
news agency.
The provincial government
in Pakistan's northwest
state of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
has said it has ended a more
than three-month blockade of
a NATO supply route to
Afghanistan over contentious
US drone strikes in the
country, citing change in
policy, Aljazeera reported.
Until Thursday, the
Tehreek-e-Insaf party, led
by cricketer turned
politician Imran Khan, had
been blocking the route to
pressure Washington to end
drone attacks targeting
armed groups in the region
bordering Afghanistan.
As part of on-going research
nearly four years after the
Deepwater Horizon
oil spill, scientists from
the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) will team
up with a group of high
school students in Florida
to collect remnants of oil
from Gulf Coast beaches this
week. Marine chemist Chris
Reddy studies how the many
compounds that compose
petroleum hydrocarbon, or
oil, behave and change over
time after an oil spill. He
and his researchers have
collected and analyzed about
1,000 oil samples from the
Gulf Coast since the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The City of San Bruno has
reached the next step in
their campaign against
Pacific Gas & Electric
(PG&E), having launched an
online petition last week
that automatically sends an
e-mail to California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC)
Executive Director Paul
Clanon, California Governor
Jerry Brown and PG&E CEO
Tony Earley. So far, the
petition has nearly 7,000
signatures.
Small fragments of plastic
waste are damaging the
health of lugworms, putting
a key cog in marine
ecosystems at risk.
Published in Current
Biology, a new study by
scientists at the University
of Exeter and the University
of Plymouth shows the impact
of microplastics on the
marine worms' health and
behavior. By exposing
specimens to contaminated
sediment in a laboratory,
the researchers were able to
observe a 50 percent
reduction in energy reserves
and other signs of physical
harm.
The U.S. Department of
Energy's Sandia National
Laboratories issued the
following news release:
Clean hydrogen power
that's expected to lower
emissions and reduce energy
consumption will be coming
to the Port of Honolulu in
2015 after the completion of
a new fuel cell technology
demonstration, one that
could lead to a commercial
technology for ports
worldwide.
What does it take to convert
a city, a state, a nation,
to 100 percent renewable
energy? Many countries are
giving it a go with very
ambitious goals to be
100-percent powered by
renewable energy (islands
seem to have a leg up). But
what about right here in the
U.S., how could that be
achieved for this nation?
And since all politics is
local (and most especially
true for renewable energy
policies), how could it be
done by individual states?
Dozens of protesters
chanting "Shame!" outside
the Duke Energy Center
Tuesday afternoon demanded
that Duke remove the ash
stored at its coal-fired
power plants.
Leaders of several
environmental groups
attempted to deliver
anti-ash petitions they said
were signed by 9,000 people.
The petitions asked that
Duke pay cleanup costs of
its Feb. 2 ash spill on the
Dan River without billing
customers.
Researchers say
radioactive cesium isotopes
from Japan's severely
damaged Fukushima nuclear
power plant have made their
way to the waters just off
the coast of Canada.
Scientists confirmed the
arrival of radioactive
Fukushima water at the
annual American Geophysical
Union's Ocean Sciences
Meeting in Honolulu today,
but pointed out that the
concentrations of the two
isotopes were still well
below safe drinking levels.
On Dec. 22, 2008, about 5.4
million cubic yards of coal
ash were released at
Tennessee Valley Authority's
Kingston Fossil Plant. The
spilled ash covered nearly
300 acres, closed the rail
line that supplies coal to
the power plant, damaged a
portion of a public road,
and blocked the Emory River.
The Kingston incident made
news around the world.
C6 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a chance
for X-class flares on days
one, two, and three (28 Feb,
01 Mar, 02 Mar). The
geomagnetic field has been
at quiet to major storm
levels for the past 24
hours. rotons are
expected to cross threshold
on day one (28 Feb), are
likely to cross threshold on
day two (01 Mar) and have a
chance of crossing threshold
on day three (02 Mar).
New Study Indicates
that Liquid Fertilizing
Techniques through Drip
Irrigation Result in
Comparatively Lower
Groundwater Pollution Rates
Researchers from
Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev (BGU), using
specialized monitoring
technology, have determined
that intensive organic
agriculture can cause
significant pollution from
nitrate leaching into
groundwater.
Worldwide markets are poised
to achieve significant
growth as the stationary
fuel cells used to provide
distributed power for campus
environments achieve better
technology and economies of
scale. This is according to
WinterGreen Research, who
also says that stationary
fuel cells have achieved
grid parity, in many cases;
improve and lower energy
costs; and are on the cusp
of becoming commercially
viable.
The Obama administration on
Thursday moved a step closer
to allowing the first
seismic exploration in
decades for oil and gas off
the US Atlantic coast,
outlining a range of
environmental mitigation
measures that surveyors
would have to follow to
avoid negatively impacting
wildlife and habitats.
Offshore wind farms with
thousands of turbines could
lessen hurricane winds and
storm surges and possibly
prevent billions in damages,
a U.S. researcher says.
Mark Z. Jacobson, a
professor of civil and
environmental engineering at
Stanford University who has
been developing a complex
computer model to study air
pollution, energy, weather
and climate, said he
wondered what would happen
if a hurricane encountered a
large array of offshore wind
turbines.
The hot new cause in
Silicon Valley is drinking
water infrastructure.
That's because Charity:
Water, a growing nonprofit
with the goal of
bringing clean water to
developing nations, has
attracted the attention of
tech entrepreneurs.
A constitutional law
expert warned Congress
during a hearing Wednesday
that America has reached a
“constitutional tipping
point” under the watch of
President Barack Obama.
Jonathan Turley,
professor of public interest
law at George Washington
University in Washington,
D.C., said the legislative
branch of the U.S.
government is in danger of
becoming irrelevant in the
face of continued executive
overreach.
The U.K. and U.S.
government's ability to tap
into webcams — and directly
into your living rooms and
offices — shows the biggest
and most blatant lack of
respect for people's privacy
by Western governments in
living memory.
On Friday, February 28th,
the comment period will
expire to fight the IRS
proposed rule virtually
prohibiting political
activity by conservative
groups.
If you have not already
submitted your comment
opposing this rule, please
do so right away!
US fuel oil demand fell to a
seven-month low of 218,000
b/d in December, while 2013
demand overall was the
lowest on record, US Energy
Information Administration
data published Thursday
showed.
For the first time in
4 years the overall debt of
US households rose on a
year-over-year basis.
Consumer deleveraging seems
to be finally slowing.
New home sales in the US
jumped 9.6% to 468,000
annualized units in January
2014 following upwardly
revised sales of 427,000 in
December 2013 (previously
reported as 414,000).
Today’s reading, which
marked the highest level of
sales since July 2008, was
well above market
expectations for a decline
to 400,000 annualized units
in the month.
-
Deaths caused by
overdosing on
painkillers now surpass
murders and fatal car
accidents in the US
-
US officials now
acknowledge that
prescription narcotics
are a driving force in
the rise of substance
abuse and lethal
overdoses
-
Over the past five
years, heroin deaths
have increased by 45
percent--an increase
that officials blame on
the rise of addictive
prescription drugs such
as Vicodin and OxyContin
which, like heroin, are
opioids
-
The reason for the
resurgence of heroin is
in large part due to it
being less expensive
than its prescription
counterparts
-
According to one recent
study, more than 14
percent of pregnant
women were prescribed
opioid drugs during
their pregnancy. The
most common reason for
the prescription was
back pain
Water bills are on the
rise in Texas, even as
ratepayers attempt to
conserve more water.
For instance, the 100,000
residents of Wichita
Falls, a northwest Texas
city, "have substantially
cut their water use," the Texas
Tribune recently reported.
The bump in natural gas
prices caused by this
winter's extreme weather
appears to have pushed
expectations for March,
April and May wholesale
power prices sharply higher
since the first of the year,
an analysis of Platts price
data shows.
Among ten geographically
dispersed hubs across the
US, average on-peak forward
prices for March, April and
May so far this year are
between 8.4% and 29.7%
higher than the 2013 average
on-peak forward prices for
those months.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet
Yellen told senators
Thursday that the central
bank can't regulate troubled
digital currency Bitcoin
because it operates outside
the banking system.
February 25, 2014
The thesis of China
facing weaker nearterm
economic growth is widely
accepted at this point.
Moreover, the slowdown in
the nation's manufacturing
sector this month has
provided some support for
this view. But as we have
seen in recent years, it
could be a temporary
correction related to some
seasonal patterns. Given the
difficulty in obtaining
reliable data out of China,
what other evidence do we
have that the nation's
economy is actually slowing?
Here are four signs that
seem to support the
"slowdown" thesis.
Amaranthus was once a
staple of the Aztec diet.
The wild pigweed can grow
six feet in height, its
foliage varying from green
to shades of purple, red and
gold, and occasionally
bearing flowers.
Apple’s security protocol
breach is nearly as bad as
handing your credit card
straight to a hacker rather
than making them steal the
information through the
magnetic stripe readers.
The flaw in Apple’s iOs
and OS X platforms
essentially allows a hacker
to get in between the
initial verification
“handshake” connection
between the user and the
destination server, enabling
the adversary to masquerade
as a trusted endpoint. This
means the connection which
is supposed to be encrypted
between you and your bank,
email server, healthcare
provider and more is open to
attack.
Asian elephants reassure
other elephants in distress
with physical touches and
vocalizations, finds a study
that provides the first
evidence of consolation in
elephants.
“Humans are unique in
many ways, but not in as
many ways as we once
thought,..
BP has started up its US
Gulf deepwater Na Kika Phase
3 oil project, the company
said Monday.
The
first Na Kika well began
producing oil February 19,
with another expected to
start in the second quarter.
At least 96 people were
killed across Iraq
today, while another 95
were wounded. The
military broke its
self-imposed truce in
Falluja.
North Carolina's massive
coal ash spill into the Dan
River this month was decades
in the making. But for much
of that period, the lagoons
where ash is stored
attracted little attention
or regulatory oversight.
In the past five years,
that attitude slowly started
to change, as it became
increasingly clear that Duke
Energy's coal ash pits
across the state were
leaching toxins into the
environment.
The blowout at a Duke
lagoon near Eden on Feb. 2
has refocused attention on
the power company's 14 ash
storage sites and raised a
host of questions about how
Duke and state regulators
have dealt with an issue
that was known to pose
serious risks to the
environment.
Natural disasters
including droughts, floods
and earthquakes cost China
421 billion yuan ($69 bln)
in 2013, official data
showed on Monday, nearly
double the total in the
previous year.
China has always been
prone to natural disasters
but a changing climate is
causing more extreme
weather, which hits food
production, threatens scarce
water resources and damages
energy security, according
to the government.
Did you know that
dentist offices are the
largest source of mercury in
wastewater entering
publicly-owned treatment
works?
Once there, dental
mercury converts to
methylmercury, a highly
toxic form of mercury known
to be hazardous to brain and
nervous system function,
particularly in fetuses and
young children.
As humans we are drawn to
bright colours and have
found ways to make our food
any colour of the rainbow.
Children especially,
delight in brightly coloured
beverages, candy, popsicles,
jello, fruit snacks,
breakfast cereal, and other
food products. Notice, I
didn’t say food! Artificial
colours are also found in
products from salad
dressing, to nacho chips, to
cheese and yogurt for a more
pleasant appearance. We use
them to make our icing
colourful and our cookies
pretty!
A strong El Nino can
wither crops in Australia,
Southeast Asia, India and
Africa when other parts of
the globe such as the U.S.
Midwest and Brazil are
drenched in rains.
While scientists are
still debating the intensity
of a potential El Nino,
Australia's Bureau of
Meteorology and the U.S.
Climate Prediction Center
have warned of increased
chances one will strike this
year.
Lower corn prices, more
driving and strong exports
get credit for the
turnaround.
Swedish firm Midsummer, a
leading supplier of
production lines for cost
effective manufacturing of
flexible thin film CIGS
solar cells, has developed a
unique process to recover
leftover rare metals such as
indium and gallium when
manufacturing thin film CIGS
solar cells. The unique
process will extensively
reduce thin film CIGS
manufacturing material
costs.
New research finds exposure
to fluoride in drinking
water and several other
common chemicals in early
life diminishes brain
function in children. Study
lead author, Philippe
Grandjean, tells host Steve
Curwood fluoride, flame
retardants, pesticides and
and fuel additives may be
affecting children's
intelligence.
he says, the Second
Amendment should be altered
to add five key words:
A well regulated
Militia, being necessary
to the security of a
free State, the right of
the people to keep and
bear Arms when
serving in the militia
shall not be infringed.
Despite evolving public
awareness and alarm over
climate change, subsidies
for the production and
consumption of fossil fuels
remain a stubborn impediment
to shifting the world’s
energy matrix towards
renewable sources.
Collectively, fossil fuel
subsidies amount to a nearly
two-trillion-dollar oar left
dragging in the water.
“The economic story
around renewables has
shifted." -- Dr. Daniel
M. Kammen
Fossil fuels have been the
main source of the energy
all over the world. They
increase the amount of CO2
emissions, and the emission
of CO2 is a great
cause of global warming in
the atmosphere, destroying
the atmospheric layers. What
can we do to lower the
demand of fossil fuels and
become more eco friendly
with renewable energy
resources?
The FCC announced on Friday
that it would back off its
planned study of U.S.
newsrooms in which monitors
would be dispatched to
gather information on how
they operate. Even so, Greta
Van Susteren on Friday
decided to answer the
questionnaire that would
have been included in the
study as honestly as she
could.
Prepare for
late-Febrary into March
period of the pop-weighted
Historic ilk experienced in
2013/2005/1996/1984/1978.......
Some of the coldest
temperatures of all Winter,
could take place deep into
March....
Is wind a fuel?
That question consumed
much of the arguments Friday
at the Connecticut Supreme
Court during its
consideration of a challenge
to the controversial
construction of two wind
farms in Colebrook by BNE
Energy.
A warmer Arctic could
permanently affect the
pattern of the high-altitude
polar jet stream, resulting
in longer and colder winters
over North America and
northern Europe, US
scientists say. ..
According to Jennifer
Francis, a climate expert at
Rutgers University, the
Arctic air has warmed in
recent years as a result of
warming oceans in part
caused by a weakening
magnetic field and increase
in outer core convection.
Vulnerability of the U.S.
power grid.
An electro-magnetic pulse
attack could destroy
America’s defenses, leaving
the U.S. in a technology
world equivalent to the
1800s. We wouldn’t even be
able to figure out who
attacked us.
The U.S. Supreme Court
appeared closely divided on
Monday as it weighed whether
the administration of
President Barack Obama
exceeded its authority when
crafting the nation's first
greenhouse gas emissions
regulations.
Justice Anthony Kennedy
could hold the swing vote on
the nine-member high court,
with conservative justices
skeptical of the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA) approach and
liberal justices generally
supportive.
Kentucky regulators are
trying to get ahead of the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA)
Clean Air Act, limiting
carbon dioxide produced by
existing coal-fired power
plants, with House Bill 388.
Study after study confirms
that fluoride is a
dangerous, toxic poison that
bioaccumulates in your body
while being ineffective at
preventing dental decay… yet
it continues to be added to
many municipal water
supplies in the US...
More Americans are wising up
to the risks of water
fluoridation, and they’re
using their votes to keep
this fertilizer-industry
byproduct out of
their drinking water (the
fluoride added to municipal
water supplies is a toxic
byproduct from the
fertilizer industry—a rarely
discussed fact!).
Mt. Gox, the
Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange
that halted withdrawals this
month, went offline as an
internal document surfaced
alleging long-term theft of
about $365 million in
Bitcoins.
A document posted online
that appeared to be an
internal strategy document
said that unidentified
thieves stole 744,408
Bitcoins from the exchange
-- about $365 million at
current rates -- and that
the theft “went unnoticed
for several years.”
The troubled Bitcoin
exchange withdraws amid a
dispute with the
crypto-currency's managing
organization over an alleged
Bitcoin bug.
Officials investigating a
leak from federal
government's only
underground nuclear waste
dump are telling skeptical
southeastern New Mexico
residents that their health
is safe.
More than 250 people
attended a mostly calm
two-hour meeting Monday
night to discuss recent
events at the Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant near
Carlsbad.
Risks posed by rail
shipments of coal and oil
drew increased attention
last week with a series of
announcements involving
expansion of energy markets
in the region.
Environmentalists issued
a report estimating that
fossil fuels could bring 82
trains a day through Spokane
and Sandpoint a decade from
now. BNSF Railway officials
said those estimates are
unsubstantiated.
The Petrified National
Forest will be expanding by
roughly 100 percent.
Forest Superintendent
Brad Traver told the Navajo
County Board of Supervisors
at their Feb. 11 meeting
that the forest, which was
largely north/south in
scope, will be expanding
both east and west.
Part of the expansion
depends on negotiation for
state lands.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(25 Feb, 26 Feb, 27 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (25 Feb, 27 Feb)
and quiet levels on day two
(26 Feb).
A new study from the U.S.
Geological Survey, accepted
for publication online ahead
of print in the journal
Enviromental Toxicology and
Chemistry, titled,
"Pesticides in Mississippi
air and rain: A comparison
between 1995 and 2007,"
reveals that Roundup
herbicide (aka glyphosate)
and its still-toxic
degradation byproduct
AMPA were
found in over 75% of the air
and rain samples tested from
Mississippi in 2007.
"The U.S. Supreme rejected
three appeals from
gun-rights advocates,
leaving intact federal and
state laws that place
special restrictions on
young adults. The justices
refused to question a
federal law that prohibits
licensed dealers from
selling handguns to people
under age 21
American Olympians are
leaving Sochi, Russia, with
28 medals -- nine gold,
seven silver and 12 bronze
-- second only to host
nation Russia.
But unless Congress takes
action, U.S. Olympic and
Paralympic winners are going
to get hammered by the tax
man for the medals and
prizes they received.
In a last-ditch bid to
address that, South Dakota
Republican Sen. John Thune
has proposed legislation
that would let Olympians off
the hook with the IRS.
Reforming the bloated
steel sector in northern
China's Hebei province is a
key part of Beijing's
efforts to cut air pollution
- but it is the market, not
the government, that is
doing most of the work.
That undermines state
media claims that the
government is going the
extra mile to clean up
Hebei, China's biggest steel
producer and home to seven
of the 10 most polluted
cities in the country,
environmentalists and
industry experts said.
Eruptions of at least 17
volcanoes since 2000,
including Nabro in Eritrea,
Kasatochi in Alaska and
Merapi in Indonesia, ejected
sulfur whose sun-blocking
effect had been largely
ignored until now by climate
scientists, it said.
The pace of rising world
surface temperatures has
slowed since an
exceptionally warm 1998,
heartening those who doubt
that an urgent,
trillion-dollar shift to
renewable energies from
fossil fuels is needed to
counter global warming.
The H1N1 virus responsible
for the 2009 global pandemic
is back. State health
officials from across the
country say the resurgence
is resulting in a dramatic
rise in flu deaths in young
and middle-aged adults and
in children this season...
There may in fact be a virus
for the swine flu… there are
millions if not trillions of
viruses…It is not the
virus…never has been. Its
about immune systems that
are shot. We as a public no
longer take care of
ourselves and work within a
system that wants us to be
sick.
(Secure High-voltage
Infrastructure for
Electricity from Lethal
Damage Act)
The summary below was
written by Congressman Trent
Franks.
Why We Need it:
In 2008, the bipartisan
Electromagnetic Pulse
Commission testified before
Congress that: Contemporary
U.S. society is not
structured, nor does it have
the means, to provide for
the needs of nearly 300
million Americans without
electricity
Many communities around the
world have been successful
in removing fluoride from
their water supply, but
that’s not the only concern.
Although fluoride is still a
controversial topic within
the mainstream, the other
chemicals found in drinking
water are not. A new study
done by United States
federal scientists found
traces of 18 unregulated
contaminants in the drinking
water utilities in a
nation-wide sampling, the
study is expected to be
published this year. It was
conducted by the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) and
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
In a decision that could
help boost renewable energy
projects, the US Supreme
Court on Monday refused to
hear a challenge to a
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission decision that
allowed an independent
system operator to spread
among its members the cost
of building long-line
electric transmission
projects.
The high
court's decision leaves in
place a lower court's ruling
that held the commission
properly considered and
approved a tariff scheme
devised by Midcontinent
Independent System Operator.
The emerging crisis of water
shortage is now getting more
headlines, and it is
noticeable that the
political debate now must
include measures to cope
with the pending emergency.
Across the nation, from
northern California to
southern Florida,
communities are at risk of
simply running out of water.
“When you go to dig your
fields, or make a pot from
clay, you are disturbing the
balance of things. When you
walk, you are moving the
air, breathing it in and
out. Therefore you must make
payments.”
Glenn Beck said
“it’s time to take the power
from them and the right way
to do it is through a
Convention of States.”
David Barton
called the Convention of
States the “proper
solution.”
Thankfully, we have a
solution as big as the
problem.
Emissions regulations, at
both the federal and state
levels, are expected to
increasingly challenge the
energy industry.
Calculating emissions to
comply with regulations from
the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality and
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency will be
the topic of a one-day
workshop...
February 21, 2014
As the years begin to
pass us by and it seems
there are more and more
young ones running around at
pow wows, how is it we know
when we are becoming a
Native Elder?
In reality, the Rice protest
underscored ridiculously lax
security at Y-12, where the
US keeps its weapons-grade
enriched uranium. That an
82-year-old snuck in totally
undetected with spray paint
and food (which she offered
to the guard that finally
caught her) was no small
embarrassment to the
administration, and likely
the real source of the stiff
sentence.
U.S. scientists working in
Antarctica continue to feel
the negative effects of last
fall's government shutdown.
The shutdown created a
logistical backlog that
curtailed this season's
activities, jeopardizes many
projects scheduled for next
season, and raises the bar
for new applicants.
Three states—Arizona, Hawaii
and Maryland—continue to
move the GMO labeling ball
forward. If you live in one
of these states and want to
get involved, we’ve provided
contacts. If you live
outside these states, you’ll
be encouraged—and maybe
inspired—by how activists
are refusing to back down
from industry bullies.
Arizona lawmakers gave
final approval on Thursday
to a bill that would allow
businesses to refuse service
to customers when such work
would violate their
religious beliefs, in a move
critics describe as a
license to discriminate
against gays and others.
Under the bill, a
business owner would have a
defense against a
discrimination lawsuit,
provided a decision to deny
service was motivated by a
"sincerely held" religious
belief and that giving such
service would have
substantially burdened the
exercise of their religious
beliefs.
The last time the planet had
a breather between ice ages,
the supposedly reliable flow
of deep water southward down
the Atlantic slowed or even
stopped, only to recover
centuries later. That's
according to new isotopic
analyses of tiny seafloor
fossils. If the Atlantic
were to respond in the same
way to global warming, it
could alter climate near and
far and dramatically raise
sea level along the North
American coast.
As the death toll in
Kiev's violent political
confrontation rose
dramatically to at least 25
Wednesday, embattled
Ukrainian President Victor
Yanukovich laid blame for
the violence on protest
leaders and threatened a
tough response.
Pointing to continued
clashes in Kiev's
Independence Square
Wednesday morning,
Yanukovich accused the
opposition of a coup
attempt.
A thawing Antarctic
glacier that is the biggest
contributor to rising sea
levels is likely to continue
shrinking for decades, even
without an extra spur from
global warming, a study
showed on Thursday.
Scientists said the Pine
Island Glacier, which
carries more water to the
sea than the Rhine River,
also thinned 8,000 years ago
at rates comparable to the
present, in a melt that
lasted for decades, perhaps
for centuries.
Latin America has become one
of the hottest growth
markets for wind energy.
Globalization is driving
sustainable economic growth
in most Latin American
countries, resulting in
greater energy demand. Wind
is increasingly viewed as a
valuable and essential
answer to increasing
electricity generation
across most markets in Latin
America. Strong wind
resources and sophisticated
wind turbines are providing
cost-effective generation
competitive with fossil fuel
generation. If most wind
plants under construction
with planned commissioning
go online as scheduled,
Navigant Research predicts
annual wind power
installations in Latin
America will grow from
nearly 2.2 GW in 2013 to 4.3
GW by 2022.
The European Commission
is taking legal action
accusing Britain of
exceeding limits on air
pollution from traffic,
forcing the UK to introduce
tougher curbs or face fines
over what is known to cause
tens of thousands of
premature deaths each year.
The case, introduced on
Thursday, says Britain
breached EU limits for
nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
emissions, which cause
breathing and other health
problems, and gives it two
months to respond.
Nutrient rich water has
become a defining topic in
the Florida gubernatorial
race.
Water with a high
nutrient content was
deliberately funneled out of
Florida's Lake Okeechobee
last summer, resulting in
pollution in nearby rivers.
The question of who's to
blame is now at the center
of a high-profile game of
finger pointing.
Federal officials say
toxic coal ash has coated
the bottom of a North
Carolina river up to 70
miles downstream of Duke
Energy’s Dan River Steam
Station, where a coal ash
spill occurred two weeks
ago.
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said that a
massive bar of coal ash
about 75 feet long and as
much as 5 feet deep has been
detected on the bottom of
the Dan River, according to
the Associated Press.
Deposits have been found
up to 5 inches deep,
crossing state lines into
Virginia and to Kerr Lake.
In an historic decision that
will serve as a nationwide
model, the New York State
Public Service Commission
today unanimously approved
an Order requiring Con
Edison to implement
state-of-the-art measures to
plan for and protect its
electric, gas, and steam
systems from the effects of
climate change. Today's
decision, which was issued
in the context of Con
Edison's petition for
changes to its rates, also
orders the continuation of
the Storm Hardening and
Resiliency Collaborative.
It is our sincere prayer
that through the
Save Our Healthcare call
to action, we can recruit
every American concerned
about the future of
healthcare, and convince
them that a new and better
direction is possible.
Duke Energy customers
won't pay the bill for
cleaning up the coal
ash-contaminated Dan River,
CEO Lynn Good said Tuesday.
As Duke released its 2013
earnings, Good was asked
about costs to remedy the
Feb. 2 spill that dumped up
to 39,000 tons of ash into
the Dan.
Duke Energy said Tuesday
the company hits its 2013
earnings target on the
strength of its merger with
Progress Energy and higher
customer rates.
Profits of $2.6 billion
for the year, on $24.6
billion in revenue, were 50
percent higher than the
compared to $1.7 billion a
year earlier.
New research from N.C.
State professors suggests
that the increased
production and use of
electric cars might not
actually reduce harmful
emissions.
In fact, the N.C. State
professors argue that the
use of hybrid vehicles,
electric vehicles and
battery electric vehicles
won't significantly reduce
levels of carbon dioxide,
sulfur dioxide or nitrogen
oxides.
Energy companies must
embrace advances in
technology in order to
become leaders -- that is
one of the messages TXU
Energy's director of
products and innovation,
Jennifer Pulliam, delivered
at Parks Associates' Smart
Energy Summit in Austin,
Texas.
High-energy price volatility
has, for the first time,
replaced global climate
framework as the number one
critical uncertainty driving
the world energy agenda,
according to the World
Energy Council's (WEC)
six-month study on the views
of more than 800 energy
leaders in 84 countries.
It's getting easier for
home buyers to get approved
for an FHA-backed home loan.
At least one major lender
has announced that it will
approve FHA mortgage
applications for borrowers
with credit scores of 600 or
better, a 40-point buffer as
compared to FHA market
standards, which call for
credit scores of at least
640.
While the government says
prices are up 6.4 percent
since 2011, chicken is up
18.4 percent, ground beef is
up 16.8 percent and bacon
has skyrocketed up 22.8
percent, making it a holiday
when it's on sale.
As fracking amongst
Marcellus Shale in the
northeastern part of the
United States increases so
does the concern over its
process. Fracking is done
utilizing a hydraulic
fracturing process, which
pumps a high-pressure
mixture of water, chemicals
and sand deep into the
sedimentary formations to
extract naturally occurring
gas. The resultant
wastewater is then stored in
large impoundment ponds and
closed container tanks until
it can be piped to
wastewater treatment plants.
Once cleaned it is
discharged into local
streams or trucked to Ohio
to be pumped deep down into
another injection well or
into another fracking
operation.
While the US continues to
suffer from political
gridlock, the geothermal
market continues its shift
to that vast potential of
developing nations.
Colorado's legal marijuana
market is far exceeding tax
expectations, according to a
budget proposal released
Wednesday by Gov. John
Hickenlooper that gives the
first official estimate of
how much the state expects
to make from pot taxes.
Energy storage is a
rapidly evolving market and
offers significant potential
for future growth, as
microgrids require higher
degrees of reliability and
power quality --
sophisticated
generation-load balancing.
"With the significant
cost reduction in clean
energy generation over the
years, some consider lower
cost energy storage to be
the 'missing link' and one
of the most challenging
elements in the design and
function of a clean energy
microgrid," said NELHA
Executive Director Gregory
Barbour.
ow many people don't read
Natural News or research
organic food and are falling
for scams, right and left,
thinking they are eating
somewhat healthy food and
avoiding cancer? We're not
talking thousands or
hundreds of thousands or
even a million people;
instead, we are talking
about hundreds of millions
of people who eat a
little bit of cancer every
day yet still say
"everything in moderation."
Little do they know!
As unprecedented levels of
pollution choked the
nation's largest cities in
the early 1970's, a group of
automobile engineers
secretly toiled to develop
an engine technology that
would significantly reduce
pollution from automobiles.
Honda's new environmental
short film, "Never Ending
Race," tells the story of
Honda's industry-leading
efforts to reduce vehicle
emissions, and how its
successful technology
demonstration for the state
of California led to more
stringent exhaust emissions
standards, eventually
transforming the automobile
industry's approach to
automobile emissions
controls. Today, as a
result, smog-forming
emissions from new vehicles
are one one-thousandth of
1970 levels
During a recent trip
to Virginia Beach President
Barack Obama “allegedly”
said, “let’s honor those
treaties!! The crowd’s
response was lukewarm, but
the President is staying
steadfast!”
Considering all of the
news Native American people
see on a daily basis that is
tough to stomach—why not
have a bit of fun? We all
know those news stories we
would like to see happen, so
we thought we would take
some time to construct a
few.
Here are 10 headlines
Natives would love to see:
Wind and solar power are
well established and, as
their commercialisation
continues apace, there is a
degree of technology
convergence in each case.
This is not the case with
wave and tidal power, where
the field for fundamental
innovation is still wide
open. Ideas range from the
straightforward to the
fanciful and, although
several concepts are in
pilot and demonstration
phases, commercialisation is
still some way off for most.
Wave power, in particular,
is still characterised by
diversity and
experimentation.
At least 70 people were
killed and 93 more were
wounded today. The worst
attack occurred in Mussayab.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi
government is now offering a
bounty of $17,200 for every
militant killed and $25,800
for each one captured.
In a nutshell, they
discovered that the natural
gas system is extremely
leaky. Since natural gas is
basically methane, the
production, transport and
storage of natural gas is a
giant contributor to
greenhouse gases in the
environment, which is bad
news.
At a time when Iran is on
the verge of building a
nuclear weapon, Ukraine is
erupting into violence,
Syria has collapsed into
civil war, Venezuela is
falling apart, Iraq and
Afghanistan continue to
devolve, and China is
asserting itself all over
the world, the American
Secretary of State stated
that the most urgent threat
we face is a small rise in
sea level by the end of the
21st century – a threat even
greater than nuclear war,
terrorism, or catastrophic
attacks on critical
infrastructure.
"The draft rule, which is
due out in proposed form
this year, seeks to clarify
the definition of 'waters of
the United States' subject
to Clean Water Act
protections and would
include most natural and
artificial tributaries as
well as wetlands that are
adjacent to or neighboring
to larger downstream
waters," the report said.
Some stakeholders contend
that the draft proposal is a
cause for concern.
"The farm bureau is among
the groups charging that the
language in the draft
proposal amounts to an
overreach by the federal
government into the
regulation of water bodies
that should be left up to
the states," the report
said.
The electricity distribution
grid is one of the most
complex networks in the
modern economy, and one of
the only advanced networks
to not have any storage
capabilities, according to
Navigant Research. Batteries
have not traditionally been
an integral part of the
utility grid, primarily due
to concerns about cost,
safety, durability, and
efficiency; however,
technological advances in
electrochemistry have
enabled a new generation of
advanced batteries to start
playing an important role in
grid management.
-
Testosterone plays many
roles in men’s health.
Besides affecting your
sex drive, it also helps
maintain muscle mass,
bone density, red blood
cells, and a general
sense of well-being
-
Direct-to-consumer drug
advertising is driving
men to use testosterone
when they’re really not
good candidates for it
-
Testosterone
prescriptions have
tripled since 2001, and
men in their 40s
represent the
fastest-growing group of
users. Half of them do
not qualify for a
diagnosis warranting the
prescription of
testosterone
-
Recent research found
that men aged 65 and
older who took
testosterone DOUBLED
their risk of having a
heart attack within the
first three months of
use
-
Chronic stress can
result in
hypercortisolemia, which
inhibits testosterone
production. Stress
relief, diet, and high
intensity exercise are
three potent lifestyle
strategies that can
reverse low testosterone
Mexico is on track to
replace the Asian automotive
giant, Japan, as the
second-largest exporter of
cars to the United States by
the end of the year.
The Great Lakes State has
a surface water problem on
its hands.
"Pathogen pollution in
Michigan’s lakes and rivers
– caused by human and animal
waste draining into surface
waters – is far more
widespread than previously
documented, according to new
state data," Bridge
Magazine, the
publication of the Center
for Michigan, recently
reported.
Like a bee to the clover . .
. last week’s “Show Bees
Some Love” actions in seven
metropolitan areas attracted
local and national media,
drawing much-needed
attention to the critical
role pesticides play in
decimating the world’s
honeybee population.
The operator of Japan's
Fukushima nuclear plant said
on Thursday that 100 metric
tons of highly contaminated
water had leaked out of a
tank, the worst incident
since last August, when a
series of radioactive water
leaks sparked international
alarm.
Prosecutors have issued more
subpoenas in a felony
investigation of North
Carolina regulators after
coal ash at a Duke Energy
plant spilled into the Dan
River.
A plan by the Federal
Communications Commission to
study how news organizations
select stories has prompted
about 10,000 people to sign
a petition demanding: “no
government monitors in
newsrooms.”
3D Systems, in collaboration
with Ekso Bionics, has
created a 3D-printed robotic
exoskeleton that has
restored the ability to walk
in a woman paralyzed from
the waist down. The
Ekso-Suit was trialled and
demonstrated by Amanda
Boxtel, who was told by her
doctor that she'd never walk
again after a skiing
accident in 1992.
The mining industry uses
tremendous amounts of energy
in its operations every
year, but that is changing
due to concern over the
volatility of diesel prices,
increased pressure from
government policies, and a
greater need to reduce
energy costs and carbon
footprint.
M3 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (21 Feb, 22
Feb, 23 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (21 Feb) and quiet to
active levels on days two
and three (22 Feb, 23 Feb).
Someone is installing a
solar power system in the
U.S. every four minutes.
Generous state and federal
tax credits for hooking up
solar panels on roofs or in
fields make solar energy
attractive to homeowners and
businesses.
A year ago, chemical
engineering student, Arslan
Abbas walked into a
University of Nevada, Reno
laboratory to "check it
out."
Since we have come to
appreciate the power of
genetic expression as more
than simply the 20,000 genes
you're born with, we can now
harness tools that optimize
the "good" and suppress the
"bad."
It turns out that our
in-born DNA interfaces with
an "exposome" or elements in
our environment, and our
conscious behavior,
dictating exactly how the
book of you will actually be
written. With one fell
swoop, things like spices,
exercise, and relaxation can
accomplish what
pharmaceuticals could only
fantasize about.
This winter's weather has
produced some of the highest
electricity demands in the
70-plus years Tennessee
Valley Authority has been
producing energy.
We generally consider
climate changes as taking
place on the scale of
hundreds or even thousands
of years. However, since the
early 1990s, a radical shift
in the scientific
understanding of Earth's
climate history has
occurred. We now know that
that major regional and
global climate shifts have
occurred in just a few
decades or even a single
year. The most recent of
these shifts occurred just
8200 years ago. If an abrupt
climate change of similar
magnitude happened today, it
would have severe
consequences for humans and
natural ecosystems. Although
scientists consider an
abrupt climate change
unlikely in the next 100
years, their understanding
of the phenomena is still a
work-in-progress, and such a
change could be triggered
instantly by natural
processes or by human-caused
global warming with little
warning.
With Congress unable to move
much legislation, the
Administration's energy and
environment agenda is the
most likely to move in 2014.
And with the Congress unable
to get together on
oversight, that is advantage
Obama regarding the climate
agenda.
China's scary NYC purchase.
In October, a
Chinese group bought the
Chase Manhattan Plaza in
lower Manhattan – a 60-story
tower built by banking
legend David Rockefeller.
The disposable diaper
industry sells products
containing endocrine
disruptors, carcinogens, and
sometimes even heavy metals.
Ukraine's presidency said
Friday that it has
negotiated an international
deal intended to end battles
between police and
protesters that have killed
scores and injured hundreds.
It was unclear whether the
deal would appease
protesters, and shots rang
out Friday morning in
central Kiev.
At least 20 protesters
were killed Thursday morning
as gunfire rang out in
central Kiev, breaking the
shaky truce reached between
President Victor Yanukovich
and opposition leaders the
previous night.
If you’re like most
Americans, you probably
don’t know that there are
massive concrete arrows
scattered all across the
country — from California to
New York...
So what’s the story?
As it turns out, the
arrows are leftovers from
the Transcontinental Air
Mail Route, which was
founded in the early days of
aviation and airmail
delivery.
Capital One reserves the
right to contact its
customers “in any manner we
choose,” including via
phone, text, email, fax or
even a “personal visit.” The
personal visits can be “at
your home and at your place
of employment.”
New wind farms have a
longer economic lifespan
than gas-turbine power
stations, according to fresh
research that also dismisses
claims that ageing wind
installations are a bad
investment.
The UK has a target of
generating 15 per cent of
the nation's energy from
renewable resources such as
wind farms by 2020. There
are currently 4,246
individual wind turbines in
the UK across 531 wind
farms, generating 7.5 per
cent of the nation's
electricity.
The world's largest
concentrating solar power
(CSP) plant, the Ivanpah
Solar Energy Generating
System, went online last
week, bringing the U.S.
closer to its goal of
becoming a global leader in
solar energy. As the first
commercial deployment of
innovative power tower CSP
technology in the United
States, the Ivanpah project
was the recipient of a $1.6
billion loan guarantee from
the Department's Loan
Programs Office (LPO).
February 18, 2014
Afghan President Hamid
Karzai on Monday ordered
changes to a draft of new
criminal legislation in
response to an international
outcry warning it would
severely limit justice for
victims of domestic abuse,
his spokesman said.
Afghanistan's parliament had
passed a new criminal
procedure code that would
ban relatives from
testifying against alleged
abusers.
A new technology developed
for the military has the
potenial to save soldiers
from fatal gunshot wounds
The full moon has long been
associated with any number
of superstitions. While
links with lunacy, violence,
fertility, disasters, and
the stock market have been
thoroughly debunked, the
possibility of a causative
role in some arenas still
remains a possibility. A
lunar ranging study carried
out using reflectors has
long contended with the "Full-Moon
Curse", a near-total
fading of reflected signals
during the full Moon. This
Curse is real, and has now
be
"I've used the Square Reader
(the little square dongle)
for close to two years, and
their e-commerce site almost
literally since they day
they launched it last
summer," Shvartsman tells
WebProNews.
He was a
happy customer until late
last year when someone used
stolen credit card numbers
to place several large
orders on his site, and
ultimately got him "screwed
by Square," as he put it in
a blog post.
The Chinese government's
failure to take emergency
steps over the weekend to
rein in pollution was
"indefensible," state media
said on Monday, in a rare
show of defiance after
several days of thick smog
once again blanketed the
capital, Beijing.
The criticism will be a
concern for the
stability-obsessed
government, which is keen to
be seen as tough on
pollution as affluent city
dwellers weary of a
growth-at-all-costs economic
model that has tainted much
of China's air, water and
soil.
Despite a drop in coal
exports off the Mississippi
River in 2013, several New
Orleans-area terminals say
they are increasing capacity
as they eye improved markets
in the long-term.
Foresight Energy's Convent
Marine Terminal in Convent,
Louisiana, is installing two
stacker-reclaimers, roughly
doubling its annual capacity
to 25 million st, according
to a review of state
permits.
Most people entering
crocodile territory keep a
wary eye out on water and
land, but research suggests
they need to look up.
Though the reptiles lack
obvious physical features to
suggest this is possible,
crocodiles in fact climb
trees all the way to the
crowns, according to
University of Tennessee
researcher Vladimir Dinets.
Even with the extreme
weather the region has seen
this winter, some Kentucky
Utilities customers are sure
their high electric bills
must be wrong.
They're not.
The dollar slipped to its
lowest level since the turn
of the year against a basket
of major currencies on
Monday as soft U.S. economic
data stood in contrast to
better figures out of the
euro zone and China.
The dollar index .DXY
fell as low as 80.065, its
lowest since January 1, and
was last down marginally at
80.134. The euro touched a
three-week high of $1.37245
and was last up 0.1 percent
at $1.3700.
Duke Energy says there is
a second pipe that is
leaking under a coal ash
dump at the Dan River Steam
Station in North Carolina.
The company says there is
no immediate danger of
collapse, despite concerns
from state regulators that
the pipe could fail and
trigger another toxic spill
into the Dan River,
according to the Associated
Press.
A total of 60 GW of
coal-fired generation is
expected to retire by 2020,
a number beyond that
previously reported to the
U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA).
According to EIA’s Annual
Energy Outlook 2014
Reference Case, 90 percent
of those retirements will
happen by 2016 due to the
implementation of the
Mercury and Air Toxics
Standards (MATS). The
standard is scheduled to
take effect in April 2015,
with a conditional extension
of up to one year by state
environmental permitting
agencies.
Flying
in the face of recent
science demonstrating that
pollinator populations are
declining, the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has made the
decision to unconditionally
register another pesticide
that is known to be highly
toxic to bees—almost one
year after the EPA
registered sulfoxaflor,
disregarding concerns from
beekeepers and environmental
groups.
France published a decree
on Monday to prevent the
planting of genetically
modified maize as a stopgap
measure, while the
government works on changes
to domestic and European
laws to ensure a longer-term
ban.
The French government,
which maintains that GM
crops present environmental
risks, has been trying to
institute a new ban on GM
maize (corn) after a senior
court twice struck down
similar measures.
But in a surprise move,
the French Senate late on
Monday rejected a proposed
domestic law banning GM
maize crops with a majority
of voters adopting a motion
of inadmissibility claiming
the attempt as
unconstitutional.
Ignition, the process of
releasing fusion energy
equal to or greater than the
amount of energy used to
confine the fuel, has long
been considered the "holy
grail" of inertial
confinement fusion science.
A key step along the path to
ignition is to have "fuel
gains" greater than unity,
where the energy generated
through fusion reactions
exceeds the amount of energy
deposited into the fusion
fuel. Though ignition
remains the ultimate goal,
the milestone of achieving
fuel gains greater than 1
has been reached for the
first time ever on any
facility. In a paper
published in the Feb. 12
online issue of the journal
Nature,
scientists at Lawrence
Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) detail
a series of experiments on
the National Ignition
Facility (NIF), which
show an order of magnitude
improvement in yield
performance over past
experiments.
Google Inc. has invested
more than $1 billion in
renewable energy projects to
help fuel the electricity
demands of the company's
data centers and related
infrastructure.
The California-based
company invested in 15
renewable energy projects in
its most recent financial
quarter, including wind
farms and solar arrays
primarily in the U.S., with
a generation capacity of
about 2-GW.
The chief executive officer
of a trade group
representing the nuclear
power industry warned Wall
Street analysts Thursday
that more power plants in
the sector may be headed for
shutdown.
A new study, published in
Geophysical Research
Letters, shows that if
global temperatures were to
rise over geologic
timescales, trees at higher
elevations could play an
important role in
encouraging more carbon
dioxide to be removed from
the atmosphere.
There are plenty of
indications suggesting that
the evidence-based paradigm
across sciences is built on
quicksand, having been
largely bought and paid for
by many major multinational
corporations.
Nowhere is this more
evident than in the chemical
industry, where pesticide
companies posing as
"biotechnology" firms
specializing in genetics
have peddled their wares
based on seriously flawed
science from the very
beginning.
Although electric and
plug-in hybrid vehicles have
been considered the only
plausible alternatives to
conventional cars for a long
time, and practically all of
the world’s biggest car
makers have been investing
heavily in these
technologies, and
governments around the world
have been trying to promote
the use of such vehicles by
offering generous incentives
and financial benefits to
those who choose to buy an
alternative fuel vehicle
instead of a
gasoline-powered car,
adoption has been lagging
and sales have not been as
strong as the auto industry
had expected.
Stanford University
scientists have created a
silicon-based water splitter
that is both low-cost and
corrosion-free. The novel
device -- a silicon
semiconductor coated in an
ultrathin layer of nickel --
could help pave the way for
large-scale production of
clean hydrogen fuel from
sunlight, according to the
scientists.
Unlike the
statement in Indian Country
Today Media Network’s “Best
Presidents for Indian
country” story, it’s a bit
easier identifying the
“worst” presidents for
Indian country. Five tend to
stand out with the majority
of the rest huddled together
after that. Here are our
nods to the presidents who
did more harm than good for
Native Americans while in
office.
$1 TRILLION MORE IN TAXPAYER
DOLLARS!!!!
Tuesday
February 4th, 2014, the
non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office released a
report indicating that not
only will ObamaCare cost
more than what the President
told America it would cost,
but that enrollments will be
less than expected, and that
jobs will be lost because of
the law.
Lawmakers in both chambers
are raising alarms about a
January cold snap that
brought parts of the
Mid-Atlantic perilously
close to a major blackout.
HyperSolar, Inc.
today announced that its
artificial photosynthesis
technology is now capable of
producing 1.2-Volt open
circuit voltage (OCV) for
use in direct solar hydrogen
production. This achievement
represents another 10%
increase over the previous
1.1-Volt reached late last
year, a significant step
towards renewable low-cost
hydrogen.
Last week we posted a
feature page about their
generator which allegedly
produces up to 2.5
kilowatts, without any
solar, wind, or fuel
required, producing no
pollution. And they said the
systems are available for
$6500 USD.
Then, the
next day, they announced
that their electrical
technician, Dustin, had
found a component on their
circuit board that was
getting too hot and could
effect the longevity of the
system; so they were going
to order parts to get that
addressed before opening
their product for sale.
The "jelly doughnut,"
also known as Pinnacle
Island, made its appearance
when it showed up in an
image sent by Opportunity
where nothing was present
four days earlier. It looked
a bit as if a fungus had
suddenly grown from the
Martian soil and prompted a
law suit in a California
court by science writer
Rhawn Joseph, who claimed
that the rock was a living
organism that NASA refused
to investigate properly.
However, far from being
dramatic proof of life on
the Red Planet, new images
indicate that Pinnacle
Island is a fragment of a
rock that one of
Opportunity's wheels struck
which broke off and rolled
downhill.
Various institutes around
the world have long touted
the potential of breath
testing as a form of early
and non-invasive disease
detection. Now a research
team from Australia's
University of Adelaide has
developed a new kind of
laser with the ability to
detect low concentrations of
gases, opening up even more
possibilities for disease
diagnosis and other
applications such us
measuring the concentration
of particular greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
Theoretically, New York City
could become largely
self-sufficient.
Rooftop farms like this
one do a number of jobs:
they help keep buildings
cool in summer and warm in
winter, they help prevent
flooding, and they provide a
local source of fresh
food. The big question is
what role rooftop farms and
other forms of urban
agriculture can have in
feeding cities of the
future. Are urban
gardens little more than fun
projects, or are they a key
to a sustainable city?
Norovirus is the leading
cause of food-borne
outbreaks in the US, with
fresh produce (especially
leafy vegetables and fruits)
among the most common
culprits.
While you can be infected
with norovirus through
direct contact with someone
who's infected, this virus
is often spread through the
fecal-oral route, when you
consume food or water that's
contaminated.
According to the US
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), sick
food handlers are the main
source of food-borne
norovirus outbreaks and
caused about half of such
cases from 2001 to 2008.
A large part of Mexico's
agricultural export is
honey. They are ranked fifth
worldwide for exporting the
bees' food, but recently
Germany rejected a batch of
honey from Mexico. Pollen
from genetically modified
(GM) soybean plants was
found in the honey being
imported.
The deep ocean, the largest
domain for life on earth, is
also its least explored
environment. Humans are now
encroaching more vigorously
than ever into the ocean's
deep regions, exploiting the
deep's resources and placing
its wealth of vibrant
habitats and natural
services for the planet at
risk...
As the human population
has more than doubled in the
past 50 years, demand for
food, energy, and raw
materials from the sea has
risen with it.
"At the same time, human
society has undergone
tremendous changes and we
rarely, if ever, think about
these affecting our ocean,
let alone the deep ocean...
Today could be the first key
hurdle to eventually having
Southeastern New Mexico
become a "nuclear corridor"
as some officials have long
hoped...aims to require the
state's Energy, Minerals and
Natural Resources Department
to fund a feasibility and
economic viability study of
small module nuclear
reactors as part of its
ongoing state energy plan.
C6 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate on day one (18
Feb) and expected to be low
with a chance for M-class
flares on days two and three
(19 Feb, 20 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (18 Feb, 19 Feb, 20
Feb).
Six years after it pulled
the plug on plans for a
multimillion-dollar
automobile assembly plant in
Albuquerque, Tesla Motors
Inc. once again may be
casting an eye toward the
state -- this time as the
future home of a $2 billion
"mega" battery factory to
supply its electric cars.
Republicans are launching
investigations into three
state-run ObamaCare
exchanges that are failing
disastrously.
Lawmakers are setting
their sites on exchanges in
Oregon, Maryland and
Massachusetts, where
Democratic governors
embraced the healthcare law,
and are demanding to know
why their expensive online
portals remain useless more
than four months after
launch.
Glenn Greenwald and The
Washington Post's Barton
Gellman are among those who
will receive George Polk
Awards for their reporting
on the Edward Snowden
documents, Long Island
University announced
Sunday.
The Guardian’s Laura
Poitras and Ewen MacAskill
will also be honored for
their reporting on Snowden's
National Security Agency
leaks.
Texas and New Mexico are
among states taking a second
look at ways to improve
their water infrastructures,
with smart water technology
falling within their sights.
As states begin to worry
about the sustainability of
current water systems, it's
important to reconsider how
innovative smart water
technology can help regions
better understand and manage
their supplies.
The Constitution provides
that the president “shall
nominate, and by and with
the Advice and Consent of
the Senate, shall appoint
Ambassadors.” In other
words, no ambassador can
take up his or her post
without first winning the
approval of the Senate.
The corruption of the
nomination of ambassadors
under President Obama is now
so bad that the Senate must
act. No Senator from either
party can in good conscience
consent to appointing
ambassadors who are ignorant
and unqualified.
Toyota Motor Corporation
(TMC) announced that it will
begin verification testing
of its newly developed
wireless battery charging
system for vehicles with an
electrified powertrain, such
as plug-in hybrids and
electric vehicles, in late
February in Aichi
Prefecture, Japan. The
system can charge a vehicle
parked in alignment over a
coil on the surface of the
ground, making the charging
process simpler and more
convenient. The charging
system uses
magnetic-resonance
technology, which transmits
electricity by utilizing the
magnetic resonance resulting
from changes in magnetic
field intensity between a
coil on the ground that
transmits and a coil on the
vehicle that receives.
"Climate change is a fact,"
President Obama said in his
State of the Union address
on January 28, 2014, "and
when our children's children
look us in the eye and ask
if we did all we could to
leave them a safer, more
stable world, with new
sources of energy, I want us
to be able to say, 'Yes, we
did.'" In the speech, he
also talked about using his
authority "to protect more
of our pristine federal
lands for future
generations."
The Tennessee Valley
Authority will increase its
wholesale fuel cost by
23.25% in March, a TVA
spokesman said Friday...
"The increase from February
is due mainly to higher
demand from a record cold
January," Brooks said.
Protesters have ended their
occupation of Kiev's city
hall and other buildings in
the Ukrainian capital.
Protesters unhappy with
President Yanukoych's
ditching of an agreement
with the EU have held the
building for more than two
months.
Officials promised to
drop charges against
demonstrators if they left
all government buildings by
Monday.
Protest leaders say they
have now fulfilled the
government's conditions for
an amnesty.
The US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has
been repeatedly (and
rightfully) accused of
ignoring the elephant in the
room when it comes to
antibiotic-resistant
disease, namely factory
farming practices where
antibiotics are routinely
fed to animals to promote
growth.
According to the landmark
“Antibiotic Resistance
Threat Report” published by
the CDC1
in October 2013, two
million American adults
and children become infected
with antibiotic-resistant
bacteria each year, and at
least 23,000 of them die as
a direct result of those
infections. Even more die
from complications.
Michael
Kirby: "Testimony which
tells the stories of the
prison camps... of the
babies who are born
stunted... of the
abductions, of the public
executions"
The international community
must act on evidence that
crimes against humanity are
being committed in North
Korea, says a long-awaited
UN report.
After three years of
construction, the Ivanpah
Solar Electric Generating
System (ISEGS) is now
operational. The 392 MW
plant, funded by NRG,
Google, and BrightSource
Energy, is expected to
generate enough electricity
to power 140,000 homes, each
year. NRG announced last
week that each of the
plant's three units is now
supplying electricity to
California’s grid.
February 14, 2014
Clean water advocates are
challenging weak pollution
permits awarded to the
Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District of
Greater Chicago (MWRD) that
allow three sewage treatment
plants to dump phosphorous
at 10 times the level USEPA
studies say should be
allowed into area waterways.
The permit doesn’t do enough
to limit fertilizing
chemicals that contribute to
aquatic plant and algae
choking waterways from
Evanston to the Gulf of
Mexico. The petition filed
today with the Illinois
Pollution Control Board
calls for a review of
permits that allow the
Calumet, O’Brien and
Stickney sewage treatment
plants to discharge massive
amounts of harmful pollution
into local waterways.
A whopping 360 scientists
from Canada, Poland,
Australia, the contiguous
United States and elsewhere
in the world are pleading
with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) en
masse not to approve the
Pebble Mine development in
Bristol Bay, Alaska.
On February 3 they
collectively signed a letter
to EPA Administrator Gina
McCarthy outlining the
reasons they feel the plan
for the massive gold and
copper mine in the pristine
region should not go
forward.
Researchers sequenced
the complete nuclear genome
of an infant found on land
owned by the Anzick family
back in 1968. The so-called
Anzick child, represented by
a skull and a few other
bones, was closely
associated with
sophisticated tools from the
Clovis culture, thought to
be the first
well-established presence of
the earliest Americans. The
genome is especially closely
related to that of today's
native populations from
Central and South America,
establishing a direct link
between ancient Paleoindians
and Native Americans
Scientists are reporting
a world-first landmark
discovery in the quest to
unlock the secrets of
triggering and harnessing
the energy from fusion
science.
Ignition - the process of
releasing fusion energy
equal to or greater than the
amount of energy used to
confine the fuel - has long
been considered the "holy
grail" of inertial
confinement fusion science.
Living in rural Fresno
County these days means
reading about the drought in
the local newspaper every
day, seeing reports about it
on the local news and
praying for rain. The Fresno
area is smack dab in the
middle of California’s
fertile San Joaquin Valley.
It is considered to be the
"agriculture center of the
world." Valley farmers
supply many of the nation’s
fruit and vegetables. The
Valley is also home to
cotton, dairy and cattle
ranches. As California
enters its third year of
drought, farmers are hit
particularly hard. Lack of
water means making tough
decisions, and some farmers
have to idle acres of land.
Some ranchers have to sell
off livestock. That will
affect the economy of the
Valley because farming is
the area’s economy.
One-third of all
Americans who work in solar
power live in California,
according to an annual
survey released Tuesday.
And their numbers are
growing fast.
Sprawling across 3,500 acres
in the Mojave desert near
the California-Nevada
border, the $2.2 billion
Ivanpah solar thermal power
plant has more than 300,000
mirrors that reflect
sunlight onto boilers housed
in the top of three towers,
each of which is 150 feet
taller than the Statue of
Liberty...
Though Ivanpah is an
engineering marvel, experts
doubt more plants like it
will be built in California.
Other solar technologies are
now far cheaper than solar
thermal, federal guarantees
for renewable energy
projects have dried up, and
natural gas-fired plants are
much cheaper to build.
The Arizona bill
cites the Tenth
Amendment, which
holds that powers
not delegated to the
federal government
are reserved to the
States respectively,
or to the people.
Arizona is getting in the
ring with the EPA.
Conservative lawmakers
from the Grand Canyon State
have introduced a bill in
their state legislature that
would nullify all EPA
regulations in Arizona.
A recent study by University
of Manchester scientists has
strongly suggested that ...
cancer is a modern, man-made
disease caused by
environmental factors such
as pollution and diet.
Chick-fil-A said Tuesday
it plans to serve only
chicken raised without
antibiotics within the next
five years.
The Atlanta-based chain
said it's working with
suppliers to build up an
adequate supply for its
nearly 1,800 restaurants. It
is asking suppliers to work
with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture to verify that
no antibiotics are
administered on the chickens
at any point.
About 108,000 gallons of
coal slurry blackened six
miles of Fields Creek in
Eastern Kanawha County
Tuesday after a coal
processing plant line
carrying the substance
ruptured.
"This has significant
adverse environmental
impacts," said Randy
Huffman, secretary of the
state Department of
Environmental Protection.
"This is a significant
slurry spill."
Huffman said a valve seal
broke on the coal slurry
line at the Kanawha Eagle
Prep Plant, a subsidiary of
Patriot Coal.
Tap water recently had an
important anniversary.
That's according to James
Salzman, author of the book Drinking
Water: A History, who
illuminated tap water's
backstory and discussed the
West Virginia chemical spill
in a recent interview with
NPR.
"It's the 100th
anniversary of the first
public health service
standards for drinking
water," he explained.
Drinking water first
became regulated in the U.S.
in a sort of roundabout,
tricky way, according to
Salzman. The federal
government did not want to
legally require that states,
towns, or municipalities
treat their water, but they
did want it to meet certain
standards.
An earthquake of 6.8
magnitude struck China's far
western region of Xinjiang
on Wednesday, the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS)
said, but in a very remote
and sparsely populated area.
There were no immediate
reports of casualties or
damage. The USGS had
previously put the magnitude
at 6.9, but later downgraded
it.
The large nuclear fuel
storage casks at the North
Anna Power Station that
shifted during the 2011
central Virginia earthquake
can stay where they are.
The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission staff does not
currently plan to require
Dominion Virginia Power to
move the casks back..
Two opposing but
related forces are driving
the outlook for the global
economy in 2014. On the one
hand, the rich world's
recovery continues (with
intermittent setbacks) to be
consolidated. Stronger
performances in the US and
the euro zone, in
particular, will boost
global GDP growth this year.
On the other hand,
volatility in financial
markets—ironically triggered
in part by the US policy
response to improved
conditions—is casting a pall
on an otherwise promising
outlook. Turbulence in
emerging markets has
increased. Nonetheless, The
Economist Intelligence Unit
continues to expect global
GDP growth to accelerate to
a four-year high in 2014.
-
According to latest
World Cancer Report,
cancer is typically a
preventable disease, and
more resources must be
dedicated to preventive
lifestyle changes
-
The report predicts
worldwide cancer rates
to rise by 57 percent in
the next two decades
-
Cancer rates can be
addressed by promoting
preventive lifestyle
strategies such as diet,
exercise, quitting
smoking, and reducing
alcohol consumption
-
Research shows those who
consume 21 percent or
more of daily calories
in the form of sugar are
TWICE as likely to die
from heart disease
compared to those who
get seven percent or
less from added sugar
-
The risk was nearly
TRIPLED among those who
consumed 25 percent of
their daily calories
from added sugar
MathWorks released
research that identifies a
skills gap among UK
graduates entering the
financial services industry.
Financial services
professionals stressed the
need for graduates with a
strong combination of maths
and IT skills and experience
solving real-world problems.
62% of those surveyed
confirmed there is a skills
gap - the difference between
the skills required of
graduates by industry and
those that they actually
possess - affecting the
industry, and 34% felt it
has worsened over the last
three years.
Currently, many
horizontally drilled oil
wells use up to 120,000
barrels (5 million gallon)
of water to perform a
hydraulic fracture in
completing the oil or gas
well, a frac operation. Of
the water used, 20 to 30
percent is estimated to come
back as flow back water
within the first thirty days
after the fracing operation.
Today, in many cases these
large quantities of flow
back and produced water
typically are transported by
truck to an off-site
facility for disposal. The
transportation and disposal
of flow back and produced
water is a large expense
item for exploration and
production (E&P) companies
and many local communities
find the truck traffic
unpopular.
AES is introducing
its Frac Water Recycling
System™ to address the need
of onsite water reclamation
for its E&P clients. This
recycling system consists of
a mobile unit that cleans up
to 20,000 barrels-a-day of
frac flow back water to
acceptable reuse standards.
Overall demand for hydrogen
as a fuel are projected to
grow, largely due to
increased energy demand,
requirements to use
curtailed renewable energy,
growth in the cleantech
backup power market, and
deployment of a growing
number of fuel cell-powered
vehicles in the transport
sector.
HyperSolar, Inc. the
developer of a breakthrough
technology to produce
renewable hydrogen using
sunlight and any source of
water, today announced that
its artificial
photosynthesis technology is
now capable of producing 1.2
volt open circuit voltage
for use in direct solar
hydrogen production. This
achievement represents
another 10% increase over
the previous 1.1 volt
reached late last year, a
significant step towards
truly renewable low cost
hydrogen.
The first publicly-available
interactive map and
geo-dataset has been
released, showing more than
47,000 onshore wind turbine
locations and related
information across the
entire United States. The
new tool is consistent with
the goals of Secretary of
the Interior Sally Jewell's
Order (No. 3330) released in
October 2013 to incorporate
a landscape-level approach
to development on public
lands.
The recent death of
Debbie Dogskin, found
unresponsive inside her own
frozen home on the Standing
Rock Sioux reservation, hit
hard across Indian Country.
Many of us face similar
circumstances or have
relatives who do. Dependent
on murderously expensive
propane and living in
sub-standard housing makes
tribal living an act of
survival in harsh winter
conditions that see
temperatures well below
zero. Yet very little seems
to be happening at the
tribal, state, or federal
levels to stop our most
vulnerable Native citizens
from dying in their own
homes.
A group of legislators in
Maryland has introduced
legislation that would deny
state support to federal
agencies engaged in
warrantless electronic
surveillance in a move aimed
at curtailing the National
Security Agency's power to
monitor and track citizens.
Eight Republicans in the
Maryland House of Delegates
last week introduced the
"Fourth Amendment Protection
Act," which would deny the
NSA "material support,
participation or assistance
in any form” from the state,
its political subdivisions
or companies with state
contracts, US News reported.
In state capitals
throughout America, a drama
will play out this coming
year and in every subsequent
year for at least a decade.
Legislators and governors
will find themselves unable
to provide decently for
education without cutting
back on the ambitious
Medicaid expansion built
into ObamaCare. Even in
those states that opted not
to participate in raising
the eligibility levels for
Medicaid — and took the out
Chief Justice John Roberts
gave them — the Medicaid
rolls will rise as more of
those previously eligible
sign up through the
well-publicized federal
exchanges.
Today’s attacks left 40
dead and 59 wounded,
including several foreign
medical workers. Also,
ISIS/DAASH militants took
over a northern Iraq town in
Salah ad Din province.
Militants have tried to take
over the town as recently as
last year, but considering
the events in Anbar, this
attempt could be more
serious.
On February 11, just one
month after a chemical spill
tainted drinking water for
300,000 people in and around
the state's capital of
Charleston, West Virginia
experienced another
environmental disaster:
100,000 gallons of coal
slurry pour into stream.
To combat a global epidemic
of criminal wildlife
poaching and trafficking,
the leaders of 50 countries
are meeting this week at the
London Conference on the
Illegal Wildlife Trade,
convened by the British
Government.
Last year, lithium-ion
battery fires became a hot
topic, pardon the
inescapable pun, with both a
Tesla automobile and the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
succumbing to fires. In
cross-disciplinary research
at the University of North
Carolina (UNC), a compound
being studied to prevent
marine life from sticking to
ships may also be the
solvent (and the solution)
to keep lithium ion
batteries from catching
alight when they overheat.
Congress should consider
passing legislation that
would give one agency "clear
and direct authority" to
respond to imminent threats
to the US power system,
Cheryl LaFleur, acting
chairman of the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
has told lawmakers.
One man was killed and
thousands left without power
as storms and high winds
battered Britain, bringing
more misery to already
flooded areas and causing
widespread travel chaos on
Thursday.
Gusts of more than 100
miles per hour (160 km per
hour) lashed western England
and Wales overnight,
Britain's Met Office said,
while severe flood warnings
remained in place for much
of the south and west of
Britain.
Just as hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles – big and small –
start heading to the road,
researchers at RMIT
University in Melbourne,
Australia, have come up with
the concept of a proton flow
battery that could expand
the reach of hydrogen-based
electrical energy systems as
well as provide a potential
alternative to lithium ion
batteries.
Cave homes, pit houses and
other part or
fully-underground dwellings
all offer benefits in energy
efficiency when compared to
typical above-ground homes,
thanks to natural insulating
properties that help to
maintain a near-constant
interior temperature.
Architectural firm Vasho
made use of the same
principle to keep RD House
cool by partially burying it
within a steep Dominican
Republic hillside.
After years of slogging
along, the industry has
matured enough start really
making an impact in the
world's energy mix.
M1 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(14 Feb, 15 Feb, 16 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (14 Feb), unsettled to
major storm levels on day
two (15 Feb) and unsettled
to active levels on day
three (16 Feb). The
increased activity is
associated with the
anticipated arrival of the
CMEs observed on 11 and 12
Feb.
The researchers from the
Illinois Sustainable
Technology Center (ISTC) at
the University of Illinois
used a process known as
pyrolysis, which involves
heating the plastic bags in
an oxygen-free chamber.
Although this technique has
been used by other research
teams to convert plastic
bags back into crude oil
(which they are originally
produced from) the U of I
team went the next step and
fractionated the crude oil
into different petroleum
products.
Despite ongoing market
uncertainty, retail chief
financial officers are
feeling more confident about
the state of the consumer.
According to a new BDO USA,
LLP survey, retail CFOs
forecast a 5.1 percent
increase in total sales and
a 4.8 percent increase in
comparable store sales this
year, marking a significant
increase from the number
expressing similar
sentiments last year. A
majority of CFOs (63
percent) indicate that they
include online sales in
their comparable sales
projections, suggesting that
some of this expected growth
and optimism may be linked
to the exploding popularity
of e-commerce.
The science doesn't support
a claim that gray wolves
(Canis lupus) didn't live in
the eastern United States
before they were hunted
nearly to extinction almost
a century ago, a four-member
independent panel review
concluded in a report
released 7 February. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has argued that a
different species of eastern
wolf historically lived in
22 eastern states. If true,
that scenario would support
the agency's proposal to
remove gray wolves from the
endangered species list...
In a perfect example of
beating swords into
plowshares, a team of
scientists at the Lawrence
Livermore National
Laboratory's (LLNL) National
Ignition Facility (NIF) in
California reached a
milestone in the quest for
practical fusion power using
a process designed for the
development and testing of
nuclear weapons. The
announcement in the February
12 issue of Nature
claims that the team used
the world’s most powerful
laser barrage to produce a
controlled fusion reaction
where more energy was
extracted from the fuel than
was put into it.
California and Arizona
continued to hold the top
two spots for solar
employment, with 47,223 and
8,558 jobs, respectively.
The New England region
boasts more than 25,000
solar jobs -- representing
nearly 20 percent of the
total U.S. solar workforce
despite not being among the
sunniest regions. Southern
states now employ more than
22,000 solar workers, and 18
Southern, Midwestern and
Mountain states doubled
their solar jobs since TSF
last reported these figures.
North Carolina's
environmental agency said
Tuesday that it will create
a task force to review coal
ash ponds in the aftermath
of last week's spill by Duke
Energy on the Dan River .
The announcement came a
day after the agency asked a
judge to delay consideration
of a settlement between the
state and Duke over ash
contamination at the
Riverbend power plant, west
of Charlotte , and its
Asheville plant.
Over Thanksgiving last year,
the IRS quietly announced
new rules to govern
political speech by
conservative groups like the
Tea Party. The rules had
been formulated in secret
since 2012 by Lois Lerner,
the aide in charge of
harassing Tea Party
organizations (who took the
Fifth Amendment before
Congress).
The
rules virtually prohibit any
political speech by these
groups, threatening to make
them pay corporate tax rates
on their donations if they
speak out.
Tanzanian President Jakaya
Kikwete said his country's
elephant herds faced
extinction following a
wildlife poaching boom in
east Africa's second-largest
economy.
House Republican leaders
sought to shield themselves
from blame for another round
of U.S. fiscal uncertainty
by advancing a debt-limit
increase without strings.
Small-government groups are
blaming them anyway for
yesterday’s vote. They’re
accusing them of abandoning
Republican principles and
are vowing to extract a
political price in this
year’s
congressional elections.
The operator of Japan's
wrecked Fukushima nuclear
plant knew about record high
measurements of a dangerous
isotope in groundwater at
the plant for five months
before telling the country's
nuclear watchdog, a
regulatory official told
Reuters.
Tokyo Electric Power Co
(Tepco) said late on
Wednesday it detected 5
million becquerels per liter
of radioactive strontium-90
in a sample from a
groundwater well about 25
meters from the ocean last
September. That reading was
more than five times the
broader all-beta radiation
reading taken at the same
well two months earlier.
Every year waste treatment
facilities in the United
States process more than
eight million tons of
semi-solid sewage called
biosolids -- about half of
which is recycled into
fertilizer and spread on
crop land. The practice
helps solve storage issues
and produces revenue to
support the treatment
plants, but what else is
being spread in that sludge?
Mr. Jackson is part of a
small but eager cadre of
corn farmers who are
starting to switch sides, as
it were, lured by a
little-appreciated fact of
farm economics: There is
vastly more money to be made
in growing other vegetables
and fruits. While an acre of
corn is projected to net
average farmers $284 this
year after expenses, and
just $34 if they rent the
land, as is common, an apple
orchard on that same acre
will make $2,000 or more,
according to crop analysts.
A sophisticated vegetable
operation using the popular
plastic covers called high
tunnels, which increase
yields and extend the
growing season, can push
that figure as high as
$100,000.
Scotland has been warned.
If
it votes to leave the United
Kingdom later this year,
then it walks away from the
pound.
That’s the hard-line message
presented Thursday by U.K.
Treasury chief George
Osborne, who ruled out a
currency union in a speech
in the Scottish capital of
Edinburgh.
The pound, he insisted,
would not be an asset
divided up after a “messy
divorce.” The other major
U.K. parties have supported
that view.
The basic idea is to
preserve the conventional
medicine monopoly by all
means possible, including
the use of state medical
boards and physician
credentialing groups.
There’s a close-knit
confederacy of three
powerful conventional
medical organizations in the
United States. These groups
work closely together and
are allied with both federal
and state government. One
of their prime objectives
appears to be to eliminate
competition from natural
health practitioners,
especially integrative MDs
and DOs, whom they seem to
regard as traitors.
Why are the attacks on
supplements becoming so
loud?
By now anyone not living
in a cave has heard the
message loud and clear:
don’t use supplements.
Either they are a harmless
waste of money, or they’re a
harmful threat to your
health (note that these
points are contradictory).
This message has been
repeated over and over both
in journals and in
conventional media outlets.
It is, with very few
exceptions, junk science.
Even in the few instances
when it is right, it is
wrong.
It’s not surprising that
“leading” medical journals
and doctors continue to
argue against natural
alternatives to
pharmaceutical drugs—they’re
even more drug and drug
money-dependent than even
the average American. For
example, doctors frequently
rely on drug companies to
pay for mandatory Continuing
Medical Education (CME)
classes, while journals like
the Annals of Internal
Medicine are utterly
beholden to the advertising
dollars of drug companies.
The transition of world
populations to urban centers
means more black,
heat-absorbing roads, trees
being replaced by buildings,
and the use of large amounts
of concrete in concentrated
areas. This reality, known
as megapolitan expansion, is
a significant driver of
global warming.
But a new study by a team
of three scientists with the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency suggests
adaptive measures like
painting roofs white or
installing rooftop gardens
can offset atmospheric
warming from urban
expansion.
The major chemical spill
in West Virginia is entering
a contentious new arena: the
courts.
"Freedom Industries, the
company responsible for a
chemical leak that ruined
300,000 West Virginians'
drinking water, is facing
several local and federal
lawsuits for their
screw-up," PolicyMic
reported.
But there's a twist: The
company may not be held
accountable anytime
soon. That's because Freedom
Industries just went
bankrupt.
The fridge is the most
common of common household
appliances. Despite
improvements in efficiency
over the years, they remain
one of the biggest users of
electricity in the home,
relying on chemical
refrigerant and a compressor
to transfer heat from the
inside to the outside of the
fridge. GE researchers have
now developed a new type of
refrigeration technology
using magnets that is more
environmentally friendly and
is predicted to be 20 to 30
percent more efficient that
current technology ... and
it could be in household
fridges by the end of the
decade.
February 11, 2014
These projects, which are
funded through ARPA-E's
Full-Spectrum Optimized
Conversion and Utilization
of Sunlight (FOCUS) program
will help advance solar
energy beyond current
photovoltaic (PV) and
concentrated solar power
(CSP) technologies to drive
lower-cost, reliable solar
energy deployment.
Robert Charles Onco, a
member of the Kiowa Tribe of
Oklahoma and an American
Indian Movement activist,
passed into the spirit world
on January 31 after a long
battle with lung cancer. He
was 63 years old.
Bobby Onco, as he was
known, was immortalized in a
photo that became a symbol
the 1973 uprising at Wounded
Knee
...
Water scarcity affects 2.7
billion people worldwide for
at least a month each year
and in the same way that
each of us has a carbon
footprint, Professor Arjen
Hoekstra of the University
of Twente in the Netherlands
posits that every person
also has a "water
footprint". Our water
footprint is calculated by
counting the amount of fresh
water that we each use daily
and the amount of water
required to produce the
goods and services that we
consume. Due in large part
to our monthly water bill,
we recognize our daily fresh
water use more than we do
the amount of water that it
takes to produce other foods
and products that we
consume. We more commonly
think about water
consumption in terms daily
showers dishwasher and
sprinkler usage or dripping
spigots.
While the sky writing videos
circulating presently are
most likely just classical
methodology, using smoke,
what would happen if a
jetliner wrote a message
using a tool, that is denied
to exist: chemtrails. It
would present a Snowden
level whistle blowing the
world could not ignore.
The Washington Post reports
that the U.S. Postal Service
Inspector General's Office
recommended this past June
that the agency consider
terminating more than $200
million in contracts with
Accenture. The
recommendation cited an
"absence of business ethics"
by the firm, including a
2011 settlement with the
Justice Department to
resolve allegations of
"kickbacks" and
"bid-rigging" in federal
contracts. Accenture, which
paid $63 million to resolve
the claims, denied the
allegations.
Could a patch of West
Texas desert be the next
Yucca Mountain, the Nevada
site once designated to be
home to millions of pounds
of socked-away highly
radioactive waste?
Texas lawmakers will
consider in coming months
whether the state should
open its borders to the
disposal of spent used
nuclear reactor fuel, also
known as high-level
radioactive waste.
Last week (Sunday, February
2), Duke Energy's Dan River
Steam Station spilled an
estimated 50,000 to 82,000
tons of coal ash, mixed with
27 million gallons of water,
into the Dan River near
Eden, North Carolina. The
results of water samples
from what could be the
third-largest coal ash spill
in U.S. history are now in.
EDF will have to carry out
maintenance to fix excess
corrosion on fuel rods in 25
of its 58 French nuclear
reactors, a spokeswoman for
ASN, the nuclear watchdog,
said Monday.
Tests
have shown that
"unacceptable" levels of
corrosion have been found on
the fuel rods, which hang
into reactor pools and power
the nuclear reaction, the
spokeswoman said.
Reduced water supply in
the Pacific Northwest this
year will impact hydropower
outlook in the area,
according to a report from
the U.S. Energy Information
Administration.
The Northwest River
Forecast Center released its
first water supply
projection of 2014 for the
Pacific Northwest and
indicated a below-normal
runoff for a majority of the
observation stations in the
region compared to the 30
year average.
In a sharp rebuke to
Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych, the European
Union on Monday called for
the formation of a new,
inclusive government and
constitutional reforms that
would pave the way to "free
and fair presidential
elections."
The North American cold wave
has wreaked havoc on energy
systems this winter, plagued
by natural gas shortages,
rising peak power demand and
power plants going offline
due to extreme weather
conditions. The displaced
polar vortex, with its
frigid temperatures and
strong winds, has caused
energy use to soar—creating
supply shortages and rising
energy costs. But wind power
has performed well overall.
Hydraulic fracturing,
a process to release natural
gas and oil from the ground,
is the focal point of
several controversies
involving environmental law
and policy, economic growth,
and public health. Advocates
see the process, known
popularly as fracking, as a
vast source of natural gas
that can provide energy
independence for the United
States while potentially
offsetting some of the many
environmental downsides of
coal, most notably high
carbon dioxide emissions
that contribute to climate
change. Advocates also argue
that fracking has the
potential to spark a
renaissance in U.S.
manufacturing by boosting
jobs based on lower-cost
industrial inputs.
A coalition of investors
concerned about the lack of
reported progress in
mitigating the risks
associated with hydraulic
fracturing operations have
submitted shareholder
resolutions targeting
organizations that received
failing scores in a
recently-released report.
The report scored oil and
gas companies on their
disclosed efforts to measure
and mitigate the impacts of
their hydraulic fracturing
operations on communities
and the environment. The
proponents of the
shareholder resolutions
represent environmental and
social investors, as well as
a leading public pension
fund.
Fraud
in
the
Factum is a type of
fraud where
misrepresentation causes one
to enter a transaction
without accurately realizing
the risks, ...
This chapter, Government
Misrepresentation, addresses
the consequences of
government misrepresentation
in contracting.
The chapter
begins with definitions,
including distinguishing a
mistake of fact as opposed
to a misrepresentation of
law. The chapter considers
the applicability of the
common law rule to
government contracts.
Hackers have penetrated
the computer networks of the
country's top medical device
makers, The Chronicle
has learned.
The attacks struck
Medtronic, the world's
largest medical device
maker, Boston Scientific and
St. Jude Medical sometime
during the first half of
2013 and might have lasted
as long as several months,
according to a source close
to the companies.
As of late last year, the
new start date for
HARP-eligible loans must be
on, or before, May 31, 2009
where "start date" is
defined as the date on the
mortgage. Previously, HARP
was only available to
homeowners whose mortgages
were sold and securitized
on, or before, May 31, 2009.
It's a small change, but
one that puts the "Obama
Refi" within reach of
additional U.S. households.
It’s easy to forget about
other places in the world,
or even in your own country,
when you’re out shoveling
snow, or people who are
homeless suffer the worst of
urban cold snaps, or harbor
seals on the Hudson River
ride ice floes, or your city
shuts down due to a
mismanaged winter storm.
Human waste is being
turned into money and power
in Ontario.
It's a scenario that fuel
cell industry researchers
and supporters hope will
continue to expand
throughout the state as the
government and industry
continue the bid for more
sustainable energy.
About 400 demonstrators
from across the state turned
out today to protest plans
to build a natural gas power
plant on the Salem
waterfront.
Carrying banners,
home-made signs and even
small wind turbines made of
PVC pipe, the protesters
marched from Salem Common to
Salem Harbor Station, the
coal and oil-fired power
plant slated to close at the
end of May.
Indigenous Tupinamba
people blockaded a road and
ended up in a firefight with
Brazilian Federal Police in
late January as part of a
protest over the placement
of a federal police station
on land that had been
designated as indigenous;
this latest conflict has
inspired calls for a ruling
from Brazil’s highest court.
The short answer is no
and yes. Not all palm oil
contributes to
deforestation, and it can be
produced sustainably.
Palm oil, which comes
from the fruit of oil palm
trees, is a great crop for a
number of reasons. The trees
are perennial, so farmers
don’t have to clear their
land every year. The trees
store a lot more carbon than
crops that have to be
replanted annually. And
their fruit, which contains
50 percent oil, has much
higher yields than other
vegetable oils. Farmers can
produce five to eight times
more palm oil for a given
area of land than its
vegetable oil competition.
But, as you point out,
too often the land used for
palm oil trees comes at the
expense of tropical forests.
Kosovo started rationing
water in and around its
capital Pristina on Monday
as it struggled with its
worst shortages in at least
three decades, officials
said.
Unusually low levels of
snowfall and rain had left
reservoirs at worrying
levels, said state water
company Prishtina.
Looming in the world’s sewer
system are contaminants of
emerging concern. They’re
not the endocrine
disruptors, antibiotics or
painkillers we’ve been
reading about for the past
several years (though those
are indeed a challenge).
These contaminants are
bigger, and like the
legendary alligators rumored
to lurk in the New York City
sewer system when I was a
kid, they are growing
steadily, day by day, to
pose a catastrophic
threat...At the heart of the
problem were wipes —
nonwoven fabric impregnated
with cleansers.
An Israeli
government-appointed
committee recommended
setting up gas
infrastructure on an
artificial island in the
Mediterranean, a report by
the body said Monday, as the
country seeks to tap the
resources of the giant
Leviathan field.
The
main recommendation was for
building an artificial
island 7.5 km off Israel's
central Mediterranean coast
opposite the city of Hadera,
with the main advantage
being savings in land in
Israel's heavily populated
coastal plain.
Met Office forecasters warn
that strong winds and big
waves will bring risk of
flooding and damaging winds
along Britain’s southern and
southwestern coasts into the
weekend, intensifying storm
conditions that have
persisted all week.
Globally, coastal regions
face “massive increases in
damages from storm surge
flooding during the 21st
century,” new research
predicts
This week, over 27,000
people coast-to-coast are
swarming Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW)
and Home Depot (NYSE:HD)
stores to support the bees
that pollinate our flowers
for Valentine’s Day. In a
coalition effort called the
Bee Week of Action, Friends
of the Earth and allies are
delivering more than half a
million petition signatures
and Valentines asking these
retailers to “show bees some
love” by taking pesticides
shown to harm and kill bees
-- and garden plants treated
with these pesticides -- off
their shelves.
Just days following an
explanation that withdrawal
delays were only affecting
some customers, all users of
the Japan-based bitcoin
exchange Mt. Gox will be
unable to withdraw their
money, according to a
statement released today.
It’s still a
major greenhouse gas.
Sure, natural gas is cleaner
than coal, but that’s
setting a pretty low bar.
Natural gas powered
electricity still pours 1.22
lbs of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere for every
kilowatt-hour of electricity
it produces. That’s 6 tons
of CO2 per year from every
household in America if its
electricity were completely
generated with natural gas.
It’s easy to forget how
completely our view and
understanding of the world
is based on things that are
in actuality always changing
— and in the case of
climate, changing rather
rapidly.
Today, President Barack
Obama signed into law the
nearly $1 trillion farm
bill, H.R. 2642, the
Agriculture Act of 2014,
which extends, expands, or
modifies federal agriculture
and nutrition programs,
including farm income
support, crop insurance,
conservation, credit
assistance, trade, research,
international food
assistance, rural
development, and other
programs through the fiscal
year 2018 crop year.
A team of astronomers at The
Australian National
University (ANU) working on
a five-year project to
produce the first
comprehensive digital survey
of the southern sky has
discovered the oldest known
star in the Universe. Just a
6,000 light year
astronomical hop, skip and
jump from Earth, the ancient
star formed shortly after
the Big Bang 13.7 billion
years ago.
The most powerful winter
storm to hit California in
more than a year dumped
several feet of snow in the
high Sierras and soaked
lower elevations with rain
over the weekend, easing
drought conditions but
leaving the state thirsting
for more, officials said on
Monday.
The Pacific storm doubled
the moisture content of the
snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada mountain range, a key
gauge of the state's
principal source of surface
water, said Dave Rizzardo,
the chief of snow surveys
for the state Department of
Water Resources.
The state's utilities
regulator has asked Puget
Sound Energy to reconsider
the way it looks at the
economics of its aging
Colstrip coal-fired power
plants in Montana, which
provide 17 percent of the
utility's electricity.
The relatively high price
Hawaiian Electric Co. and
its subsidiaries pay
customers for surplus solar
energy produced by their
rooftop photovoltaic systems
is proving costly for the
utility, according to a
report prepared for the
state Public Utilities
Commission.
C5 event observed.
Solar Activity Forecast:
Solar activity is expected
to be low with a chance for
M-class flares on days one,
two, and three (11 Feb, 12
Feb, 13 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(11 Feb) and quiet levels on
days two and three (12 Feb,
13 Feb).
The City of San Bruno is
seeking an order from the
Superior Court to force the
California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) to comply
with the Public Records Act
and fulfill four separate
public record requests
dating back more than 10
months, relating to the
ongoing process of
determining Pacific Gas and
Electric's (PG&E) penalty
and fine for the 2010 gas
pipeline explosion in San
Bruno.
While all power plants have
health and safety "issues,"
environmental problems
related to natural gas
plants like the one planned
to be built in Middletown
are less likely, according
to a Miami University
Middletown engineering
professor.
The Obama administration
used flawed research in
devising a plan to strip
gray wolves across the
continental United States of
Endangered Species Act
protections, and discounted
evidence that failed to
support it, a scientific
panel said in a report
released on Friday.
The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said last
June said wolves in the
lower 48 states no longer
faced extinction after
decades of recovery efforts
and proposed removing them
from the U.S. threatened and
endangered species list
The EPA failed to issue a
single "finding of failure
to submit" to states that
have not submitted required
plans for dealing with clean
air standards for sulfur
dioxide pollution. The
deadline to submit plans was
June 2013, however 30 states
have not submitted
implementation plans to
comply with the 2010
National Ambient Air Quality
Standards for sulfur dioxide
As tax credits and other
benefits help increasing
numbers of residents and
businesses install
energy-efficient solar
electricity systems,
firefighters and public
safety officials are looking
to get regulations in place
that will make doing their
jobs around solar panels
safer.
The problem is that the
panels -- even on a moonlit
night -- could be charged
with as much as 600 volts of
electricity, and if a
firefighter stumbles into
one or catches some
equipment on them, the
firefighter could be
electrocuted.
Despite an overwhelming
consensus among climate
scientists that warming
trends over the past century
are most likely the result
of human activities, some
claim that a plateau in
global surface air
temperatures since 2001 is
evidence to the contrary.
However, a new study
suggests the recent
stabilization of air
temperatures is a result of
abnormally strong east to
west trade winds, causing
warmth to be stored
temporarily beneath the
western Pacific ocean.
Almost 40 years ago, I
began researching to
discover for myself what
laws lie at the foundation
of the federal income taxes.
Little did I realize that
I would be spending the rest
of my life in this endeavor,
clouded, as it is, by old,
arcane and obfuscated
language, laws, processes
and procedures long out of
the memory of the average
lawyer, not to mention the
average American.
A possible terrorist assault
on a California power
station last April, which
got little publicity, was a
very serious breach that
reveals how vulnerable the
nation is, counterterrorism
experts say.
"This is
very serious . . . This was
a trial run for a terrorist
attack," said Fred Fleitz, a
former CIA analyst and FBI
agent who is now chief
analyst for the global
intelligence forecaster
LIGNET.
The
National Security Agency is
using complex analysis of
electronic surveillance,
rather than human
intelligence, as the primary
method to locate targets for
lethal drone strikes – an
unreliable tactic that
results in the deaths of
innocent or unidentified
people.
People who love the
oceans and people who love
fashion have joined forces
in The Vortex Project, a new
initiative to clear the
oceans of plastic debris and
transform it into
fashionable denim garments.
The Vortex Project will
take plastic waste from
oceans and shorelines, and
recycle, enhance, and reuse
it for yarn, fabric, and
other elements in consumer
products.
Along with reaffirming his
commitment to double down on
America’s energy efficiency
to help counter the worst
effects of climate change,
President Obama used last
month’s State of the Union
address to challenge
Congress to act to ensure
that our national policies
fully support the nation’s
transition to a clean energy
economy.
Researchers at Penn State
University explore the
insides of our cells with
nano-sized, rocket-shaped
metal projectiles powered by
sound.
It's a scene worthy of the
modern reboot of "Fantastic
Voyage." A tiny
rocket-shaped projectile
breaches the border of a
cell wall and begins to
work, like an egg beater, to
whip up the cell's innards,
or puncture its membranous
wall with a battering-ram
motion.
But there are now 3
revolutions underway in the
Islamic world
Makers of children’s
products report that they
are using toxic chemicals in
children’s toys, clothing,
safety products and bedding.
The reports were filed with
the State of Washington in
2013 under the state’s new
disclosure law, the
Children’s Safe Products
Act, the country’s only such
law.
Trickster was on his way
to the National Gathering of
Tricksters when he came upon
the Red Whisker Prairie Dog
Village.
At the gathering each
trickster there would be
bragging about their
accomplishments and trying
to outdo one another.
By the end of the year, the
US could be exporting as
much as 500,000 b/d of crude
and possibly more, even if
current restrictions on US
exports remain in place,
several prominent analysts
said Monday.
But
beyond that, US drillers
would seriously struggle to
find a market for their
surging crude production, as
exports remain constrained
and US refiners lack optimal
processing capacity for
domestic oil, the analysts
said on a panel discussion
hosted by the Center for
Strategic and International
Studies.
Clean energy technology
is important to ensuring the
environmental security of
Earth's future, she said.
The United States has
created policies to reduce
carbon levels in the
atmosphere by lowering
carbon emissions and
capturing carbon.
To meet these policies,
society must create
technology that can
efficiently extract carbon
dioxide from the air, she
said, using a surplus of
renewable energy.
Each year, tons of oil can
be spilled into the ocean.
Whether it comes from an oil
tank spill, a leak that
occurs during offshore
drilling, or even natural
seeps that occur within the
ocean, oil spills can cause
grave environmental and
economic damage to marine
and coastal ecosystems.
U.S. oil production has
increased by 3 million
barrels per day (mmbd) since
its low point of
approximately 5 mmbd in
2008. Projections have
future production continuing
to increase through 2019,
perhaps to as much as 9.6
mmbd according to EIA
estimates. The increase to
date is equal to about 3% of
total world consumption,
which is enough to have a
significant impact on world
oil prices by preserving the
Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting
Countries' (OPEC) spare
capacity.
It is only a matter of time
before the stock market
plunges by 50% or more,
according to several
reputable experts.
“We have no right to be
surprised by a severe and
imminent stock market
crash,” explains Mark
Spitznagel, a hedge fund
manager who is notorious for
his hugely profitable
billion-dollar bet on the
2008 crisis. “In fact, we
must absolutely expect it."
Crude MCHM, one of two
chemicals that leaked into
West Virginia’s Elk River
last month, was detected in
the water supply of George
Washington High School this
morning, according to
Kanawha-Charleston Health
Department officials, weeks
after the water was declared
safe to use.
Horror stories abound
about hospitals charging
people ridiculous sums of
money in America for
something as cheap and
plentiful as an aspirin.
This is nothing new, and
it’s something that’s sadly
just an accepted fact.
Just last month, this guy
posted a bill for his
appendectomy on Reddit and
it went viral. Why?
Because he was charged a
stomach-turning $55,000 for
the relatively simple
procedure — an amount that
would’ve likely induced
appendicitis if the guy
hadn’t already had his
appendix taken out.
From California to the
Middle East, huge areas of
the world are drying up and
a billion people have no
access to safe drinking
water. US intelligence is
warning of the dangers of
shrinking resources and
experts say the world is
'standing on a precipice'
Syria’s chemical weapons
are being moved to a U.S.
Navy ship for destruction in
the world’s first mission of
its kind. The United States
and other countries have
years of experience
destroying chemical weapons
on land, but this is the
first time anyone has
attempted to perform the
destruction on a seagoing
vessel.
A third shipment of
chemical weapons material
was removed from Syria
today,..
Global food prices fell
in January, led by declines
in the costs of sugar,
vegetable oils, and cereals,
the United Nations food
agency said on Thursday,
adding that robust
inventories should contain
prices in coming months.
The Food and Agriculture
Organization's (FAO) price
index, which measures
monthly price changes for a
basket of cereals, oilseeds,
dairy, meat and sugar,
averaged 203.4 points in
January.
That was down from a
revised 206.2 in December,
originally reported as
206.7.
February 7, 2014
The winter ice season is now
24 days shorter than it was
in 1950 as Arctic lakes are
freezing up later in the
year and thawing earlier,
according to a new study.
The University of Waterloo
research, sponsored by the
European Space Agency (ESA),
also reveals that climate
change has dramatically
affected the thickness of
lake ice at the coldest
point in the season. In
2011, Arctic lake ice was up
to 38 centimeters thinner
than it was in 1950.
The US economy grew by
a brisk 3.2% in the fourth
quarter at an annual rate,
supported by the fastest
increase in consumer
spending in three years.
Healthy levels of job
creation, reductions in
household debt, and low
interest rates have
encouraged American
consumers to open their
wallets.
The 2014 Identity
Fraud Study released today
by Javelin Strategy &
Research, reports an
increase of more than
500,000 fraud victims to
13.1 million people in 2013,
the second highest number
since the study began.
Account takeover fraud hit a
new record in incidence for
the second year in a row and
accounted for 28 percent of
all identity fraud.
The Blockchain app,
downloaded 120,000 times
during its two years in
Apple's iTunes App Store,
was the most popular way for
people and companies to
transfer bitcoins from one
another. Apple removed it
from the store on Wednesday.
Blockchain immediately
shot back with a statement,
accusing Apple
of getting overly aggressive
with future competitors.
Apple is rumored to be
developing its own mobile
payment system.
The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) estimates that
the U.S. population has
doubled over the last 30
years, and the demand for
drinking water has tripled
during this time. Aqua
America, Inc., one of the
largest publicly-traded
water utilities in the
nation, has launched
WaterSmart, an interactive
program to help consumers
conserve water in their
homes and learn about the
water treatment process.
…more than half of our
country is facing water
shortages," said Aqua
Chairman and CEO Nicholas
DeBenedictis.
Everyone knows about
horrific bombings that took
place at the finish line of
the Boston Marathon on April
15 of last year, in which
two young Chechen immigrants
laid the explosives that
killed three Americans and
injured dozens of others.
Relatively few people,
however, are aware that the
Boston bombings may have
been only the second most
ominous attacks on our
national security in that
24-hour period. I wasn’t
aware myself until I read
the Wall Street
Journal’s cover story
this morning.
Stanwell Corp, the largest
electricity generator in the
eastern Australian state of
Queensland, has taken the
unprecedented step of
closing its major gas-fired
power plant so it can cash
in on higher prices in the
domestic gas market.
What happens when a changing
climate exceeds the
operating parameters of the
stuff we own? While we in
the northern hemisphere make
jokes about indestructible
snow forts, it is getting
hot in Australia. How hot?
So hot that Australia’s
Bureau of Meteorology had to
add new colors to its
weather map. Now, those
unfortunate parts of
Australia that achieve
temperatures above 122ºF
(50ºC) — temperatures that
were, until recently,
literally off the scale —
will be marked in deep
purple and terrifying hot
pink.
Biomass offers a multitude
of advantages in a world
increasingly focused on both
renewable heat and grid
stability. For the market to
really catch alight more
needs to be done to foster a
liquid international trading
market, but how far can bio
go?
Traditional biomass
accounts for some 9 percent
of the world’s total energy
requirements, still more
than is provided by modern
renewables collectively.
Crews continued Wednesday
to try to stop the flow from
a leaking Duke Energy ash
pond in Eden, but have made
a surprising discovery.
The stormwater pipe that
broke Sunday under the
27-acre pond was made of
corrugated metal, not the
stronger, reinforced
concrete that Duke had
believed it to be.
Cancer is now the world’s
biggest killer, and the
number of cases will explode
over the next 20 years,
warns a new global report
compiled by the
International Agency for
Research on Cancer, an
agency of the World Health
Organization.
The “World Cancer
Report,” released on World
Cancer Day, finds that there
were 8.2 million deaths from
cancer in 2012. It predicts
that cancer cases worldwide
will rise by 75 percent and
reach close to 25 million
over next two decades.
A new study commissioned by
the American Coalition for
Clean Coal Electricity
(ACCCE) fueled the
alliance's call for
legislative hearings on why
costs are increasing. The
alliance is also questioning
why PJM Interconnect, the
regional power grid
operator, did not have
access to reasonably priced
wholesale power during
recent cold weather.
Recently, we learned
about two Native
voting-rights wins in one
day in Montana. Today, we
turn to the neighboring
state of South Dakota for
the third breakthrough that
same day.
Despite ever-shifting
political winds, the
inherent business case for
efficient and sustainable
energy sources has become
even stronger over the past
year. The 2014 Sustainable
Energy in America Factbook
-- produced for the Business
Council for Sustainable
Energy by Bloomberg New
Energy Finance -- documents
the upward trajectory of
energy efficiency, natural
gas and renewable energy.
The U.S. installs a solar
system every four minutes,
according to GTM, which
creates widespread
opportunity for the
deployment of distributed
energy. More than 720 MW of
distributed energy storage
will be deployed in the U.S.
between 2014 and 2020, GTM
forecasts, representing a 34
percent cumulative annual
growth rate.
Nearly all
model forecasts indicate the
persistence of ENSO-neutral
(Niño-3.4 index between -0.5oC
and 0.5oC)
through the Northern
Hemisphere spring 2014, but
afterwards, an increasing
number of models suggest the
possible onset of El Niño
Chicago-based Exelon
Corp. said Thursday on a
conference call following
its quarterly earnings
results that it will shut
down nuclear plants to save
money if it doesn't see a
path to steady profits this
year.
The company's large fleet
of nuclear plants have
struggled to remain
profitable as they attempt
to compete with subsidized
renewable generation and
stubbornly low natural gas
prices, which have driven
down the price Exelon
receives for power.
The standoff lasted nearly
six hours, but after the
scene was cleared by law
enforcement, Franz was able
to return to her home and
was under the impression
everything was back to
normal.
The best way to move
immigration reform through
the House and to get it
passed is to involve the
governors of the border
states — California,
Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas — in the enforcement
of the process.
Searing temperatures in
Melbourne have disrupted
play at the Australian Open,
where tennis players have
been struggling in the heat
in recent days.
Organizers of the grand slam
event said Thursday that
they had introduced an
"extreme heat policy" after
temperatures rose above 40
degrees Celsius (104 degrees
Fahrenheit).
Most of us have our guard
up when it comes to
direct-to-consumer drug
advertising. We know the
butterflies, sunsets and
puppies in the TV ads are
designed to distract us from
terms like "blood clot,"
"heart attack," "stroke,"
"seizure," "life-threatening
allergic reaction" and
"death." We are aware that
more than half the ads tell
us why we don't actually want
to ask our doctor about the
new wonder drug.
Unbranded advertising,
however, is much more
insidious. Instead of
selling a drug, it sells the
disease driving the drug
sales and sometimes doesn't
mention the drug at all.
At least 71 people were
killed and 141 more were
wounded in attacks
across Iraq. A series of
bombs, several in critical
areas downtown, terrorized
Baghdad. The government also
reported the deaths of 35
ISIS/DAASH militants in
Anbar province.
Recently, we told you about
newly proposed IRS rules
that would say what we are
allowed to tell you and what
not. To give just one
example, we would be forced
to remove every single
reference to a candidate’s
connection to any
legislation from our website
sixty days before an
election—giving incumbents a
free pass to introduce
legislation with almost no
public scrutiny.
Cars stand entombed in a
crystal-like casing near the
deserted railway station in
Postojna. Trees and
electricity pylons lie
felled in the snow by the
sheer weight of ice
enveloping them.
The damage wrought in
western Slovenia by a freak
ice storm and blizzards
could take weeks or months
to repair in a tiny EU
member-state already going
through its worst economic
crisis in two decades as an
independent state.
Although high-capacity
lithium batteries make many
of today's mobile
electronics possible, they
do have one flaw – they
occasionally catch fire.
This can happen when they
overheat, and their liquid
acid electrolyte ignites and
leaks out. Now, however,
scientists at Washington
State University have
created a gummy electrolyte
material that could make
such fires a thing of the
past.
Of the almost 40,000 oil and
natural gas wells
hydraulically fractured in
the US over a a nearly
two-and-a-half years, more
than half were in areas
experiencing drought,
according to a study
released this week by
non-profit group Ceres.
The study, which looks
at 39,294 wells fracked
between January 2011 through
May 2013, found that 97
billion gallons of water
were used, nearly half of it
in semi-arid Texas. Ceres
describes itself as a
non-profit organization that
advocates for sustainable
business practices.
Federal regulators have
placed Pilgrim Nuclear Power
Station among the nation's
nine worst performers based
on its recent number of
unplanned shutdowns, a move
that will mean much closer
scrutiny by federal
inspection teams in the
coming months.
NRC spokesman Neil
Sheehan said Pilgrim had
four unplanned shutdowns in
7,000 operating hours.
(There are about 8,200
operating hours in a year.)
Anti-nuclear groups say the
waste should be stored on
site and "properly looked
after" rather than driven
around the country in
lorries.
According to the Organic
Trade Association, U.S.
sales of organic food and
beverages went from $1
billion in 1990 to $26.7
billion in 2010. The Organic
Monitor estimates that
organic sales (globally)
reached $54.9 billion in
2009. But, unfortunately,
many small organic farms are
selling out to bigger food
corporations. We must ask -
who can we trust?
C7 event observed.
Solar activity is likely to
be moderate with a slight
chance for an X-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(07 Feb, 08 Feb, 09 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(07 Feb), quiet to minor
storm levels on day two (08
Feb) and quiet to active
levels on day three (09
Feb). Protons have a slight
chance of crossing threshold
on days one, two, and three
(07 Feb, 08 Feb, 09 Feb).
Talking about the weather is
a pastime as old as
language, but climate
researchers from the
University of East Anglia
(UEA) in the UK have just
given people a whole lot
more to talk about. As part
of an ongoing effort to
increase the accessibility
and transparency of data on
past climate and climate
change, they've made one of
the most widely used records
of Earth's climate
accessible through Google
Earth.
The owner of a
solar-panel installation
company has been accused of
scamming customers out of
hundreds of thousands of
dollars in a multi-count
indictment filed in Pima
County Superior Court.
Michael Allen Fricker,
owner of Phoenix-based Salt
River Solar and Wind, is
accused of keeping
customers' rebates and not
paying manufacturers and
dealers for solar panels.
Two divers hauled a mesh
bag full of common brown
kelp out of a Mendocino
County cove Tuesday, kicking
off a scientific search for
evidence that radiation from
the crippled Fukushima
nuclear reactors has
traveled 5,000 miles across
the Pacific Ocean to
California.
If cesium isotopes from
the reactors ravaged by an
earthquake and tsunami
nearly three years ago in
Japan have reached the
state, they will be
concentrated in kelp that
flourishes along the West
Coast, experts say.
New research predicts
that coastal regions face
massive increases in damages
from storm surge flooding
over the 21st century - to
$100 trillion annually, more
than the world's entire
economic product today.
According to a study
published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of
Sciences, global average
storm surge damages could
increase from about $10-$40
billion per year today to up
to $100,000 billion per year
by the end of century, if no
adaptation action is taken.
Over the past two decades,
ice loss from the Greenland
Ice Sheet increased
four-fold contributing to
one-quarter of global sea
level rise. However, the
chain of events and physical
processes that contributed
to it has remained elusive.
One likely trigger for the
speed up and retreat of
glaciers that contributed to
this ice loss is ocean
warming.
A stormwater pipe under
an unlined coal ash pond at
a shuttered plant in Eden,
N.C., burst Sunday afternoon
— draining tens of thousands
of tons of coal ash into the
Dan River.
Duke Energy, which owns
the Dan River Steam Station,
retired since 2012,
estimates that 50,000 to
82,000 tons of coal ash and
up to 27 million gallons of
water were released from the
27-acre storage pond. The
leak has at least
temporarily been stopped,
while Duke works on a more
permanent solution. Coal ash
is a toxic waste byproduct
from burning coal, usually
stored with water in large
ponds.
30-year fixed-rate mortgage
(FRM) averaged 4.23 percent
with an average 0.7 point
for the week ending February
6, 2014, down from last week
when it averaged 4.32
percent. A year ago at this
time, the 30-year FRM
averaged 3.53 percent.
The Republican-led House
of Representatives on
Wednesday passed a bill that
would roll back federal
rules to provide more water
for farmers and
municipalities in
California's Central Valley
as the state copes with its
worst drought in decades.
Backers said the
legislation would provide
drought relief by permitting
federal and state
authorities to pump more
water out the San
Joaquin-Sacramento River
Delta.
After years of
oversupply driven weakness,
US natural gas
prices are finally
rebounding...
What's different this time?
Most of the rally is due to
the cold winter in
eastern/central US (chart
below), with significantly
higher than average demand
for heating.
A Seattle energy company
received initial regulatory
approval Wednesday to build
five massive wind turbines
floating 16 miles off the
Oregon coast.
The pilot project off
Coos Bay would be the first
offshore wind facility on
the West Coast. It also
would be the biggest
demonstration of technology
that places floating
turbines on platforms in
deep water, according to
federal officials and
executives at Principle
Power, the developer.
February 4, 2014
At least 49 people were
killed, and another 94 were
wounded in attacks
around Iraq, but mostly in
the greater Baghdad region.
The Iraqi government also
reported the deaths of 57
militants in Anbar
province.
The National Park
Service's Lake Mead National
Recreation Area issued the
following news release:
Lake Mead National
Recreation Area continues to
" Go Green " with the
addition of photovoltaic
systems that not only ensure
conservative energy, but
also provide shade to
government vehicles.
The Dow went down more than
300 points and put the
blue-chip stock gauge on a
collision course with a 10%
correction.
A study of groundwater
near Ameren Missouri's
Labadie power plant found no
threats to drinking-water
supplies from coal ash, the
utility says.
The study, to be released
Tuesday, concludes that the
plant's coal ash practices
"are not adversely impacting
human health" through
current drinking water use
from groundwater or the
Missouri River.
Videos have been popping up
with people taking a lighter
to a snowball, which instead
of melting glazes with burn
marks and smells terrible.
They don't take into
consideration the insulating
properties of air, the
impregnated smell of butane,
etc. A higher level of
scientific rigor is
required.
A government official
appears at a man’s door.
The man has been breaking
the law: He has sold bread
baked at home...
In January 2013, just a few
days after the law went into
effect, Stambler became the
first person in Los Angeles
County to sell homemade food
legally. Since he’s
re-started his business, he
hasn’t received a single
complaint from consumers.
Most electric vehicles can
be plugged into standard
outlets, so electric vehicle
users can recharge just
about anywhere with
permission. However,
charging stations offer the
advantage of higher voltage
so car batteries fill up
more quickly. The plugs are
also conveniently located
near parking spaces.
According to the department,
one of the keys to tapping
geothermal power is reducing
the cost and risk of
locating it. The U.S.
Geological Survey estimates
that 30 GW of undiscovered
hydrothermal potential exist
globally – nearly 10 times
the current installed
capacity of geothermal
energy in the U.S.
Total releases of toxic
chemicals decreased 12
percent from 2011-2012,
according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) annual Toxics
Release Inventory (TRI)
report released today. The
decrease includes an eight
percent decline in total
toxic air releases,
primarily due to reductions
in hazardous air pollutant
(HAP) emissions.
“People deserve to know what
toxic chemicals are being
used and released in their
backyards, and what
companies are doing to
prevent pollution,” said EPA
Administrator Gina McCarthy.
“By making that information
easily accessible through
online tools, maps, and
reports, TRI is helping
protect our health and the
environment.”
The company's recent report
to New York state officials
failed to mention harm done
to fish, waterfowl and
groundwater, the Federal
Hudson River Natural
Resource Trustees said in a
letter to the company that
the trustees made public...
GE dumped toxic chemicals,
in particular
polychlorinated biphenyls or
PCBs, some 150 miles north
of New York City for three
decades prior to
discontinuing their use in
1977. The U.S. manufacturing
conglomerate has spent more
than $1 billion to clean it
up.
to fund two more employees
to carefully track utility
spending and construction
efforts associated with the
$14 billion project to build
Plant Vogtle, a
first-of-its-kind nuclear
plant.
The
companies said the
government's demands under
the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act involved
59,000 or more Internet
accounts in the first half
of last year. Company
officials said those numbers
represent a small fraction
of their hundreds of
millions of users, and
include many cases in which
a single individual holds
multiple accounts.
Hawaiian Electric Co.'s
push to reduce its reliance
on fossil fuel for power
generation took a major step
forward Friday with the
deactivation of its
oil-fired Honolulu Power
Plant.
HECO was able to take the
115-megawatt power plant
offline as the result of an
increase in the amount of
renewable energy it
generates or purchases from
third parties, according to
utility officials.
Natural gas utilities are
getting ready to challenge
their power counterparts for
business. That is the view
of Gregg Kantor, NW
Natural’s president and CEO.
He expressed his buoyant
views of the future of the
gas side of the industry in
a recent roundtable
EnergyBiz
conducted with gas utility
chief executive officers.
Kantor addresses microgrids,
hailed as a potential tool
to achieve grid security
New data from grid operator
ERCOT showed that wind
power’s share of electricity
generation in Texas rose to
9.9 percent in 2013, up from
9.2 percent in 2012, and
more than double what it was
five years ago. In 2008,
wind was at 4.9 percent.
Kamakura Corporation
reported Monday that the
Kamakura troubled company
index ended the month of
January at 5.77%, a decrease
of 0.30% from the prior
month. The index reflects
the percentage of the
Kamakura 35,000 public firm
universe that has a default
probability over 1.00%. An
increase in the index
reflects declining credit
quality while a decrease
reflects improving credit
quality.
Q. One thing that is
not clear in your email is
whether you achieved a
functioning prototype (that
produced continuous,
accelerated rotation beyond
just 365 degrees of
rotation).
A. -Yes full continuous
rotation, controlled rpm and
torque through gear ratio.
The Navy is committed to a
goal set in 2009 to power
aircraft and ships with
biofuel blends as soon as
2016 and says it is ready to
buy hundreds of millions of
gallons of biofuels as soon
as they are price
competitive with petroleum.
House and Senate
negotiators yesterday
evening released a
long-awaited farm bill
agreement that would extend
agriculture programs for the
next five years.
The bill significantly
modifies the federal
agricultural subsidy system
and cuts food stamp
spending, in addition to
including a number of
environmental and energy
provisions. In a major win
for conservationists, the
bill would tie conservation
requirements to federal crop
insurance subsidies, while
also limiting subsidies on
newly tilled land.
Radiocarbon dating of
human remains from one of
the deepest prehistoric
sites in the Near East
throws into question
widely-held ideas about how
the first modern people
spread across the world
during the Palaeolithic era.
The traditional view is
that the first humans with
anatomy like ours evolved in
Africa, then from about
50,000 years ago started to
spread into the Near East
before continuing into Asia
and Europe.
But the new study
suggests they may have
settled the Near East a lot
later than previously
thought...
The ash basin dam along the
river has not been affected
and remains secure. Some
erosion has occurred on the
interior side of the berm
farthest from the river, and
plant personnel and
engineers are working today
on a plan to stabilize that
area.
A quarter of households
in Slovenia were left
without electricity on
Monday after a weekend of
blizzards and very low
temperatures wreaked havoc
on power lines and roads,
the national STA news agency
reported.
Leading daily newspaper
Delo described it as the
worst devastation in living
memory.
According to FERC's latest
"Energy Infrastructure
Update" report, renewable
energy sources accounted for
37.16% of all new domestic
electrical generating
capacity installed during
2013 for a total of 5,279
MW. That is more than
three-times that provided
for the year by coal (1,543
MW - 10.86%), oil (38 MW -
0.27%), and nuclear power (0
MW - 0.00%) combined.
M1 event, M4/1b event
observed. Solar
activity is expected to be
moderate with a chance for
X-class flares on days one,
two, and three (04 Feb, 05
Feb, 06 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (04
Feb), quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (05 Feb)
and quiet levels on day
three (06 Feb). Protons have
a slight chance of crossing
threshold on days one, two,
and three (04 Feb, 05 Feb,
06 Feb).
The Journal of the American
Medical Association
published the results of a
study of 3,681 subjects for
a median of 7.9 years that
found death rates actually
increased as the subjects
ate less salt.
SOLON Corporation has
completed 1.92 MW of solar
systems for three Arizona
school districts - Liberty
Unified School District, Ft.
Huachuca School District and
Pima County Joint Technical
Education District. The
systems are comprised of
solar canopies and rooftop
systems covering nine
campuses and were all
commissioned at the end of
2013.
Teams of workers, aided
by ships and aircraft, will
complete on Monday the sea
cleanup of 164,000 liters of
oil that leaked off South
Korea's southern coast, the
coast guard said, after a
pipeline run by GS Caltex
Corp cracked at the weekend.
A cleanup of shore areas
will take up to two weeks.
In its final environmental
review of TransCanada’s
proposed Keystone XL
pipeline, the U.S. State
Department today
acknowledges for the first
time that the pipeline could
“significantly impact”
climate change.
-
A new scientific study
shows that eating more
slowly can decrease your
food consumption and
prevent overeating
-
Prior studies have found
that eating more slowly
and chewing your food
more completely lead to
decreased intake, better
absorption of nutrients,
better appetite
regulation, and improved
satiety
-
When you eat too
quickly, your body
doesn’t have time to go
through its natural
appetite signaling
process or proper
digestion
-
Most people do not chew
their food sufficiently;
you should chew each
bite until it liquefies,
or loses all of its
texture, before
swallowing
-
Consciously chewing food
longer and eating
mindfully are ways to
slow down your eating,
enrich your food
experience, and improve
your overall health and
nutrition
The original volumetric
target of 14.4 billion
gallons of ethanol for the
2014 Renewable Fuel Standard
is attainable via increased
consumption of E15 and E85,
according to a new study by
Informa Economics. The study
takes a closer look at
likely consumption, finding
that ethanol consumption in
2014 could be at least 13.7
billion gallons, compared to
the EPA’s assumption of 13.0
billion gallons.
Could too much sugar be
deadly? The biggest study of
its kind suggests the answer
is yes, at least when it
comes to fatal
heart problems.
It doesn't take all that
much extra sugar, hidden in
many processed foods, to
substantially raise the
risk, the researchers found,
and most Americans eat more
than the safest amount.
As you prepare to file your
taxes this year, perhaps you
can take joy in knowing you
don’t live in one of the 10
worst states for taxes. For
those that do live in one of
these 10 states, tough luck.
These are two
fundamental, and
essential emotions
which allow us to live well.
I could say function in
society, but that seems too
clinical. Remorse—to feel
sorry, to express regret; (minjinawezid-
he is regretful). And, gratitude,
migwechiwendam, to be
thankful. We need these
feelings and emotions, and
we need to be able to
express them.
When one says
American Indian, what
comes to mind? Is it the
fierce-looking warrior on
horseback or perhaps the
individual in war paint
holding a repeating rifle,
ever ready for battle? We
have so many political and
societal issues being
discussed regarding 21st century
American citizens, yet it is
truly rare to hear any
issues relating to
present-day American
Indians—present day
being the key phrase. Isn’t
it unfortunate that a people
who were forced to accept a
European-based society are
today left to be their own
advocates in the U.S.,
typically having little
voice at all? If asked to
picture a person of
indigenous ancestry, I would
argue a much more realistic
depiction would be one
living a modern American
life, much like you and me.
But many also continue to
see the negative effects of
the past that have yet to be
corrected.
Whether the powers that
be liked it or not, nuclear
power took center stage in a
debate involving four major
candidates for the Tokyo
gubernatorial election that
was streamed live on the
Internet Saturday.
Three of the candidates
came out firmly against
atomic power.
Hoping to curb the growth of
drug-resistant bacteria in
the U.S., the Food and Drug
Administration is making a
new push to steer how
antibiotics are given to
livestock...
The FDA hopes that, at least
in the beginning, farmers
and drug companies will
adopt this strategy
voluntarily.
The purpose of the Farm Bill
is to balance the immediate
needs of feeding the country
with the long term goal of
ensuring a sustained food
supply. ..
On the other hand, the
damage caused by industrial
agriculture united a diverse
coalition demanding
safeguards and policies that
promote more integrative
agricultural practices like
organic farming. And all the
while, Republican
negotiators were bent on
draconian cuts to food
assistance programs...
Experts say the fast-food
chain's plans to go
sustainable are a big
nothing burger unless it
commits to antibiotic-free
beef.
This month, McDonald's
announced that it plans to
start transitioning to
sustainable beef by 2016,
with the goal of
eventually making all of its
burgers from sustainable
meat. But the fast-food
chain has yet to
specify what, exactly, it
means by "sustainable."