hide details

Climate Bill Underlines Obstacles to Capping Greenhouse Gases. By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, WashPost, June 1, 2008. "When the Senate takes up landmark climate legislation this week, its backers can be sure of just one thing: The obstacles they face show how hard it will be to enact a meaningful cap on greenhouse gases -- probably under the next administration. The next administration, not this one, because even supporters of the complex, extensively negotiated 494-page bill say that there is little chance that it will win Senate approval, less chance that the House will agree on a similar measure and perhaps no chance that President Bust will sign it if it reaches his desk."

Barbara Boxer Asks the Nation for Help in Passing a Strong Climate Bill. BabaraBoxer.com, May 31, 2006, text and audio. "On Saturday, May 31st, Senator Boxer gave the Democratic Radio Address. She spoke about the urgent need for our nation to act on global warming before it's too late... 'Next week, the Senate will begin debate on one of the most important issues of our time -- global warming. Senators have come together across party lines to write a law that will not only enable us to avoid the ravages of unchecked global warming, but will create millions of new jobs and put us on the path to energy independence. Other benefits of our legislation will be cleaner air, energy efficiency, relief for consumers and the alternative energy choices that American families deserve. And, by acting wisely, America will regain the leadership we have lost these past seven years... I truly hope that you will support our efforts on the Senate floor. Please join our fight, and thanks for listening.'"

Drafters of House Climate Bill Contend with Republican Climate Skeptic: Joe Barton. By Dave Michaels, Dallas Morning News, May 31, 2008. "U.S. Rep. Joe Barton [R. Texas, former Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and now] the committee's ranking Republican... remains one of the most outspoken skeptics of global warming... [He] could help shape a global warming bill to the liking of Texas' major industries, especially since he enjoys good relations with leading Democrats on the committee, Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia [who leads a subcommittee drafting the bill] and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan... offers a litany of reasons why the science of global warming is flawed. At several recent hearings, including one last month, Mr. Barton said the models don't account for the role of water vapor, which forms clouds, in controlling temperatures. 'I don't believe the planet is going to be noticeably warmer 100 years from now because of man-made carbon dioxide emissions,' he said. 'So I'm not going to be part of some program that has as a premise that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and we have to do major things to reduce it.' Mr. Barton acknowledges that worldwide average temperatures have increased but has said that isn't worrisome because higher temperatures mean a longer crop-growing season and more rainfall. The planet could safely absorb more carbon dioxide and might even benefit from it, he said."

Conservative Group Hits Senators on Climate Bill. By Jim Kuhnhemn AP, May 27, 2008. "A conservative, free-market advocacy group will begin airing ads this week pressing Senate Republicans and Democrats to vote against [the Lieberman-Warner climate bill]. With $250,000 in radio and television spots, The Club For Growth is targeting Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana. Dole, a co-sponsor of the bill, as well as Alexander, Baucus and Rockefeller face re-election this year."

Climate Change Bills Proliferate in Congress. ENS, May 30, 2007. "Congress will consider climate change legislation in a variety of forms next week when legislators return to Washington. Both House and Senate have bills to work with and changes to measures previously introduced... Congressman Edward Markey's [D, Mass.] bill caps pollution at 85 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. It then establishes an auction system that sets a price on carbon dioxide, CO2, emissions, and allows companies to compete for reductions, or buy or trade credits within the system. The measure takes $8 trillion in revenues that Markey expects polluters will pay to emit greenhouse gases over the length of the bill, and reinvests that money back to American families and workers and into promoting a clean energy economy... The Boxer Substitute Amendment to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act allows a declining amount of greenhouse gas emissions between 2012 and 2050, reducing them by about two percent per year from 2005 levels. The amendment would reduce emissions from covered facilities 19 percent below current levels by 2020, and 71 percent by 2050... The amendment sets aside a nearly $800 billion tax relief fund through 2050, which will help consumers in need of assistance related to energy costs."

The Senate's Chance on Warming. Editorial, NYTimes, May 28, 2008. "Next week, the Senate is scheduled to take up [the Lieberman-Warner climate bill]. Mr. Bush, predictably, opposes the bill. Add that to the slim Democratic majority and the complexity of the bill itself, and the chances of getting 60 filibuster-proof votes are modest at best. Even so, a majority vote would create positive momentum for the next Congress and send a strong signal to the country and [to] the world that help on this issue is on the way. For that reason, it is crucial for John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to show up and vote for this bill. All are on record as supporting mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases. A pressing campaign schedule is no excuse for not being counted on an issue this important to the nation's future. The Senate last addressed climate change in 2003 when it cast 43 votes in favor of a bill sponsored by Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman. This bill is even more ambitious. It calls for a 70% reduction in emissions by 2050 -- requiring, in turn, a huge change in the way the country creates, delivers and uses energy."

hide details

Under Court Orders, White House Releases Report Backing Climate Change Warnings. By Margot Roosevelt and Kenneth R. Weiss, LATimes, May 30, 2008. "President Bush's top science advisors issued a comprehensive report [Summary and Findings, PDF 4 pp] Thursday that for the first time endorses what most scientific experts have long asserted: that greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion 'are very likely the single largest cause' of Earth's warming. The 271-page report [Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States, PDF] could undercut opposition to the more aggressive provisions of climate legislation, which is to be debated in the Senate next week. The Bush administration had long resisted a congressional mandate, the 1990 Global Change Research Act, requiring the White House to report every four years on the science and impact of global warming and other environmental forces. A U.S. District Court in August ordered Bush to comply with a 2004 deadline for an updated report, after the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversityand other environmental groups filed suit... The report by the National Science and Technology Council and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program asserts that natural causes alone cannot explain recent extremes of heat and cold, warming seas and an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes... The warming climate also will accelerate the spread of diseases carried by water, food and insects. Among the most vulnerable people are the young, elderly, frail and poor, the administration's scientists concluded."

New Climate Report Foresees Big Changes. By Andrew C. Revkin, NYTimes, May 28, 2008. "The rise in concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the U.S. and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new federal report, [released on May 27,] says. The changes are unfolding in ways that are likely to produce an uneven national map of harms and benefits... The authors... and some independent experts said the main value of its projections was the level of detail and the high confidence in some conclusions [which] comes in part from... emphasis on the next 25 to 50 years, when shifts in emissions are unlikely to make much of a difference in climate trends... The 203-page report [PDF], The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources and Biodiversity in the United States, is a review of existing studies, including last year's... from the IPCC. It is part of a continuing assessment of lingering questions related to global warming that was initiated in 2003 by Mr. Bush... The West will not only face a dearth of water, but also large shifts in when it is available. Water supplies there will be transformed by mid-century, with mountain snows that provided a steady flow of runoff for irrigation and reservoirs dwindling. That flow will be replaced by rainfall that comes at times and in amounts that make it hard to manage."

hide details

U.N. Conference Adopts Moratorium on 'Ocean Fertilization'. By Madeline Chambers, Reuters, May 31, 2008. "Nearly 200 countries agreed yesterday to a moratorium on projects to fight climate change by adding nutrients to the seas to spur growth of carbon-absorbing algae. The surprise deal followed 12 days of haggling at the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity conference where Australia, Brazil and China opposed until the last minute, halting the controversial plans for 'ocean fertilization.' Opponents argue the little-tested process has unknown risks which could threaten marine life, for instance by making the oceans more acidic. Those in favor say it could be a new weapon to fight global warming. German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, hosting the talks, announced the accord on the final day of the conference at which some 5,000 delegates from 191 countries tried to agree on ways of protecting animal and plant life on earth."

Control of Genetically Engineered Trees a Hot Issue at Bonn U.N. Conference. By Stephen Leahy, IPS, May 29, 2009. "An intense North-South debate over genetically engineered trees has sidetracked delegates at a U.N. conference on biodiversity in Bonn: African nations want a global moratorium, while a few rich countries led by Canada say it should be up to individual countries to regulate.While 168 nations that are part of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) debate the issue, a new two-year U.N.-funded study warns that developing countries simply don't have the capacity to manage or monitor biotechnology... Meanwhile, the biofuels boom has sparked concern that research on genetically engineering trees for use as biofuels is ramping up, with field trials in the U.S., Canada, China, New Zealand and elsewhere. Before the Bonn conference began, 46 environmental groups from two dozen countries called on the government delegates to accept a proposal to suspend all releases of GE trees into the environment 'due to their extreme ecological and social threats'... The risk of interbreeding between GE trees and normal trees is high... Faster growing... trees resistant to common pests could easily become an invasive species and dominate natural forests."

Japan and 51 African Countries, Sign Climate Cooperation Deal. AFP, May 30, 2008. "African leaders at a development summit with Japan pledged Friday to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the fight against global warming... A joint declaration signed by leaders of 51 African nations and Japan said that climate change was an 'urgent challenge' for Africa, considering its vulnerability to droughts and floods... The declaration, which did not mention any more specific reduction target, was reached at a three-day summit in Yokohama at which Japan pledged to double aid an investment to Africa. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said African leaders he met voiced support for Tokyo's Cool Earth Partnership unveiled earlier this year to help developing countries tackle climate change. The initiative promises to provide 10 billion dollars, largely in low-interest loans, over the next five years to help developing countries address global warming."

G8 Ministers Fail to Provide Hoped-For Breakthrough on 2020 Target. By Joseph Coleman, AP, May 26, 2008. "Under pressure to boost talks on a new global warming pact, [the] Group of Eight environment ministers on Monday endorsed slashing greenhouse gas emissions in half by mid-century, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets. The three-day meeting in Kobe was dominated by calls from the U.N., European countries and developing nations to move forward on setting [2020 emissions] targets... But the ministers from the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Italy and Russia, in a carefully worded statement, mentioned only the need to set such targets eventually. That frustrated environmentalists and some European ministers. 'From a scientific point of view, we need a clear reduction target, because the next 20 years are very vital, very important for climate change and the decisions we make in this process,' said Matthias Machnig, Germany's state minister for environment. The Kobe meeting was meant to set the stage for the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, in July... 'Kobe gave ministers the opportunity to accelerate the slow progress of G8 climate negotiations, but they failed to send a signal of hope for a breakthrough' at the July summit, said Naoyuki Yamagishi, head of the Climate Change Program at WWF Japan."

hide details

Countries Bordering Arctic Say They Will Obey U.N. Rules. By Kim McLaughlin, Reuters, May 29, 2008. "Five Arctic coastal nations agreed on Wednesday to let the U.N. rule on conflicting territorial claims on the region's seabed, which may hold up to one fourth of the world's undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves. 'We affirmed our commitment to the orderly settlement of any possible overlapping claims,' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a news conference. Ministers from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States met in Greenland for a two-day summit to discuss sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean seabed. Under the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200-nautical mile (370-km) zones if it is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters. The rules aim to fix shelves' outer limits on a clear geological basis, but have created a tangle of overlapping Arctic claims. The United States has not yet ratified the convention, but Negroponte urged Congress to do so as soon as possible... 'It is insane to view the crisis of the melting of the Arctic ice simply as an opportunity to carve up the resources that are currently protected under the ice,' Greenpeace Nordic campaigner, Lindsay Keenan, told Reuters... 'They are going to use the law of the sea to carve up the raw materials, but they are ignoring the law of common sense. These are the same fossil fuels that are driving climate change in the first place,' Keenan said."

Large Methane Release Could Cause Abrupt Climate Change As Happened 635 Million Years Ago. Science Daily, May 29, 2008. "An abrupt release of methane about 635 million years ago from ice sheets caused a dramatic shift in climate, triggering a series of events that effectively ended the last 'snowball' ice age. Methane clathrate destabilization acted as a runaway feedback to increased warming, and was the tipping point that ended the last snowball Earth."

Modern Eskimos Not Related to Ancient Artic Inhabitants. NPR, June 1, 2008. "A 3,000-year-old clump of human hair found frozen in Greenland may have solved a scientific mystery: Where did all the ancient Eskimos come from?... By studying that DNA, researchers say they've been able to answer a longstanding question: Are modern Eskimos descended from ancient Native Americans, or did they come from somewhere else? The answer, according to a new study published in the current issue of the journal Science, is somewhere else -- probably eastern Asia... Some current residents of the southern Aleutian Islands and the Chutchi Peninsula of Siberia carry similar DNA... Since they aren't ancestors of Greenland's current Eskimos, Gilbert speculates, these ancient people may have later migrated from the Arctic due to climate changes that made survival difficult."

hide details

Poll Indicates Gaining Support for Carbon Tax Across Canada. CanWest, May 26, 2008. "Canadians are warming up to the prospect of paying an environmental tax on activities that cause climate change, but they don't necessarily expect to get the money back in the form of income tax cuts, a new poll has revealed... When told that the government of British Columbia had recently introduced 'a carbon tax on fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,' 72% of those surveyed... said that it was a positive step... The strongest support for a carbon tax appears to come from Quebec and the Atlantic provinces where 81% and 77% of respondents, respectively, said that the B.C. tax was a positive step. The findings come as political parties in Ottawa are publicly feuding over whether an environmental tax would be the best way to fight global warming and protect the earth's ecosystems."

The Big Chill on Carbon Offsets. Editorial, CSMonitor, May 30, 2008. "Before Congress attacks global warming with a cap on greenhouse gases - and then allows firms to pollute if they buy 'carbon offsets' elsewhere -- lawmakers should consult the UN's abysmal record in this slippery type of trading. The UN set up its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to help companies in industrialized countries invest in projects in poorer nations that cut greenhouse-gas emissions as part of their countries' commitment under the Kyoto Protocol or the European Union's emissions plan... As many as two-thirds of the programs funded contribute nothing new to reducing emissions... As a British investigative journalist put it: 'Offsets are an imaginary commodity created by deducting what you hope happens from what you guess would have happened'... Next week, the US Senate takes up a bill that would impose a cap-and-trade system that includes the buying and selling of licenses to emit carbon... As in Europe, a final bill from Congress will likely allow US companies to buy carbon offsets through CDM or similar groups that claim an expertise in identifying projects that reduce greenhouse gases... No doubt some CDM projects do make real cuts in emissions. But as a whole, the CDM is clearly flawed and needs, at the very least, significant reform. It's one more sign that a cap-and-trade system is a complex and highly suspect way to make emissions cuts. A more honest, reliable course is a simple tax on carbon emissions. The dodges are easier to spot."

Why Not a Carbon Tax? Commentary by George F. Will, WashPost, June 1, 2008. "If carbon emissions are the planetary menace that the political class suddenly says they are, why not a straightforward tax on fossil fuels based on each fuel's carbon content? This would have none of the enormous administrative costs of the baroque cap-and-trade regime. And a carbon tax would avoid the uncertainties inseparable from cap-and-trade's government allocation of emission permits sector by sector, industry by industry. So a carbon tax would be a clear and candid incentive to adopt energy-saving and carbon-minimizing technologies... It would clearly be what cap-and-trade deviously is, a tax, but one with a known cost. Therefore, taxpayers would demand a commensurate reduction of other taxes. Cap-and-trade -- government auctioning permits for businesses to continue to do business -- is a huge tax hidden in a bureaucratic labyrinth of opaque permit transactions."

hide details

Case Against Climate Change Discredited by Study. By Steve Connor, London Independent, May 29, 2008. "A difference in the way British and American ships measured the temperature of the ocean during the 1940s may explain why the world appeared to undergo a period of sudden cooling immediately after the Second World War. Scientists believe they can now explain an anomaly in the global temperature record for the twentieth century, which has been used by climate change sceptics to undermine the link between rising temperatures and increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide... Sceptics have argued it supports the idea that rising temperatures have more to do with increased solar activity -- sunspots -- than increasing levels of man-made carbon dioxide exacerbating the greenhouse effect... Taking into account the difference in the way of measuring sea-surface temperatures, and the sudden increase in the proportion of British ships taking the measurements after the war, the result was an artificial lowering of the global average temperature by about 0.2C... The study, published in the journal Nature, found that the global average temperatures in the late 1940s stayed roughly the same rather than falling... A similar problem could be occurring now with the move from ship-borne measurements to those from unmanned buoys, which tend to produce slightly lower records. This could explain why global average temperatures in recent years have levelled off."

Climate Skeptics Claim that Most Americans Oppose Lieberman-Warner Bill. Press Release, The National Center for Public Policy Research, May 28, 2008. "Just as the U.S. Senate is poised to vote on the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act, a new poll finds an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the higher energy costs that [the bill] would impose. The poll, conducted by the Public Opinion and Policy Center of the National Center for Public Policy Research, found that 65% of Americans reject spending even a penny more for gasoline in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The number rejecting raising gas prices in an effort to combat global warming has increased by 17 percentage points -- or 35% -- in just over two months. The National Center conducted a similar survey in late February. An additional 13% oppose spending more than 5% more for gasoline to attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Lieberman-Warner plan would increase petroleum prices by 5.9% by 2015, according to Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Other studies indicate the plan would push prices even higher." [Editors Note: The National Center for Public Policy Research, "A Conservative Think Tank" has received significant funding from Exxon Mobile, and argues again climate measures as skeptics of anthropogenic global warming. CCC believes that their "scientific" poll [PDF 4 pp] was slanted and therefore worthless. It asks people how much more they would be willing to pay more for fuel in the context legislation that would "slow the economy and cost jobs." Arguably effective climate change legislation would create millions of green jobs and have a long-range positive effect on the economy.]

Warming of Earth's Troposphere Confirmed. AFP, May 27, 2008. "Climate change models predicting a dangerous warming of the world's atmosphere got a confirming boost Sunday from a study showing parallel trends at altitudes nearly twice as high as Mount Everest... Over the last two decades, temperature readings from the upper troposphere -- 12 to 16 kilometers (7.5 to 10 miles) above Earth's surface -- based on data gathered by satellites and high-flying weather balloons, showed little or no increase. Oft-cited by climate change skeptics, these findings were known to be flawed but still challenged the validity of computer models predicting warming trends at these altitudes, especially over the tropics. In the new study, climate scientists Robert Allen and Steven Sherwood of Yale University use a more accurate method to show that temperature changes in the upper troposphere since 1970 -- about 0.65 degrees C per decade -- are in fact clearly in sync with most climate change models. Rather than measuring temperature directly, which had yielded inconsistent results, they used wind variations as a proxy."

The Question of Global Warming. By Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books, June 12, 2008. "The average lifetime of a molecule of CO2 in the atmosphere, before it is captured by vegetation and... released, is about 12 years. [The] fact... that the exchange of carbon between atmosphere and vegetation is rapid, is of fundamental importance to the long-range future of global warming... Carbon-eating trees could convert most of the carbon that they absorb... into some chemically stable form and bury it underground. Or they could convert the carbon into liquid fuels and other useful chemicals. Biotechnology is enormously powerful, capable of burying or transforming any molecule of carbon dioxide that comes into its grasp. [The wiggles in Keeling's Curve] prove that a big fraction of the CO2 in the atmosphere comes within the grasp of biotechnology every decade. If one quarter of the world's forests were replanted with carbon-eating varieties of the same species, [they] would be preserved as ecological resources and as habitats for wildlife, and the CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by half in about fifty years... Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. And the ethics of environmentalism are fundamentally sound... Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is... a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful... Unfortunately, some members of the environmental movement have also adopted as an article of faith the belief that global warming is the greatest threat to the ecology of our planet... Many of the skeptics are passionate environmentalists. They are horrified to see the obsession with global warming distracting public attention from what they see as more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet, including... nuclear weaponry, environmental degradation, and social injustice. Whether they turn out to be right or wrong, their arguments on these issues deserve to be heard." Freeman Dyson is a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

hide details

ExxonMobile Chief Vows to Stay the Course. By Claudia Cattaneo,  Financial Post, May 29, 2008. "Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil-and-gas company, came out swinging Wednesday against the environmental movement, arguing the science of climate change is far from settled and that his company views it as its "corporate social responsibility" to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels. Speaking to reporters after the annual meeting of shareholders, at which much-publicized proposals by the Rockefeller family calling for new investment in renewable energy [failed to pass], Mr. Tillerson also said he expects little delay in the $8-billion Kearl oilsands project in Alberta, after a court challenge by environmental organizations this month resulted in the withdrawal of a key federal permit, halting important work."

ExxonMobil CEO Prevails at Annual Meeting Over Green Resolutions. By Joe Carroll, Bloomberg, May 28, 2008. "Exxon Mobil Corp. shareholders rejected resolutions calling on the world's largest company to bar its chief executive officer from serving as chairman and adopt greenhouse-gas reduction targets. A proposal to split the CEO and chairman's roles received 39.5 percent at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas, less than the 50 percent required to force directors to reconsider their opposition. Initiatives to set pollution-reduction goals for Exxon Mobil refineries and hold non-binding shareholder votes on executive pay also failed. CEO Rex Tillerson prevailed over efforts by descendants of company founder John D. Rockefeller, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and New York City Comptroller William Thompson to curb his influence and speed action by the Irving, Texas-based company to combat global warming... Tillerson, 56, led the company to a $40.6 billion profit in 2007, surpassing its own previous record for annual net income by a U.S. corporation set a year earlier... About 20 activists from Greenpeace and other groups gathered in front of the symphony hall... holding a banner that said 'Oil: The New Black Death.'"

Has Russian Oil Output Peaked? By Fred Weir, CSM, May 28, 2008. "The Kremlin often touts Russia's image as an 'energy superpower,' but now the country's oil production is declining. Some say Russia may have already reached peak oil output... As the world's second-largest oil exporter, Russia joins a growing number of top oil suppliers wrestling with how to address declining or peaking production. Like Venezuela and Mexico, Russia is heavily dependant on oil, which accounts for more than two-thirds of government revenue and 30% of the country's gross domestic product. Now, Moscow is trying to remedy a situation caused in part by outdated technology, heavy taxation of oil profits, and lack of investment in oil infrastructure... After rising steadily for several years to a post-Soviet high of 9.9 million barrels per day in October, Russian oil production fell by 0.3% in the first four months of this year, while exports fell 3.3% -- the first Putin-era drop. Russia's proven oil reserves are a state secret, but Oil & Gas Journal, a U.S.-based industry publication, estimates it has about 60 billion barrels -- the world's eighth largest -- which would last for 17 years at current production rates. Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko recently admitted the decline, but suggested it might be overcome by fresh discoveries in under-explored eastern Siberia or in new Arctic territories recently claimed by Russia."

Black Gold Rush: Boom and Bust and Boom Again in Pennsylvania. By Rupert Cornwell, London Independent, May 27, 2008."The big energy companies are back in Pennsylvania, seeking oil and, more importantly, gas. Already Pennsylvania has more stripper natural gas wells than any other state, and its proven gas reserves are half the U.S. total. In the woods new wells are being drilled. Farmers who own the 'OMG' (oil, mineral and gas) rights are leasing land to the companies for $2,500/acre/year, compared with $25 a decade ago, and get production royalties on top of that. In five years, production of the waxy, paraffin-rich crude from Pennsylvania's Appalachian basin field has shot up 50% to 3.8 million barrels. But experts reckon that two-thirds of the oil that was there when Drake drilled his way into history is still in the ground. Once it wasn't worth bothering with, but no longer. Rock Well Petroleum, a Canadian company, has plans not only to drill scores of new wells, but to dig huge underground caverns to collect the oil and pump it to the surface. There's just one problem, however: what to do with the brine that comes with the oil, especially from older wells. McClintock No 1, for instance, now delivers 300 barrels of brine for every barrel of oil."

Time Magazine Gushes over Tar Sands. Posted by Bill Becker, Grist, May 28, 2008. "I consider Time to be one of the more forward-looking periodicals when it comes to the environment. But the editors messed up in this week's... June 2 [edition, which] carries a breathless feature about the potential petroleum bonanza in Canada's tar sands. The article's authors are so giddy with the testosterone rush of big-ass earth-moving machines that they forgot what a multifaceted disaster this 'bonanza' would be... 'The mega-projects across Alberta's oil sands rival some of humankind's greatest engineering achievements, including the pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China,' [the magazine] gushes... 'Canada may become the new Saudi Arabia, the last great oil kingdom, right on the U.S. border.' Let's pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and think about this... The 'stark' landscape Time describes is Canada's boreal forest... As Exxon pushes for the biggest oil boom in North American history -- and as the melting Arctic ice opens access to vast new oil and gas fields -- it's hard to imagine a more dramatic and critical fork in the road of human progress. One path offers dazzling new riches for oil companies and... tantalizing new frontiers for wildcatters... The other... takes us to a future in which our energy is inexhaustible, our economy is secure, drilling and digging have been phased out in favor of green industries and jobs, and global warming is stabilized. We have very little time to choose. Unfortunately, the allure of black gold and big trucks appears to be taking us down the wrong path." Bill Becker is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

Indonesia Raises Fuel Costs 30% Amid Protests.Reuters, May 26, 2008. "Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday his government had no choice but to raise fuel prices to avoid a crisis similar to the 1997 economic meltdown that crippled the southeast Asian country. Indonesia raised fuel prices by almost 30% on Saturday, sparking angry protests in a country where millions are already feeling the brunt of the rising cost of food... The issue has proved a tricky one for the government ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections because of the risk of widespread social unrest if fuel and food prices rise sharply. Indonesia witnessed almost daily protests from students and workers in the run-up to the price hike, although there was no rioting... 'Compared to the [100% fuel price hike in October] 2005, the latest increase is moderate,' said political analyst Fachry Ali... 'Nothing happened then, so it will be alright now.' Price increases have always been a sensitive issue in Indonesia. A fuel price increase was one of the reasons for massive protests that led to the downfall of former President Suharto in 1998. Even after the average 28.7 percent increase, Indonesia has some of the lowest fuel prices in Asia."

hide details

In Vermont, Conflict Around an Aging Nuclear Plant. By Kate Galbraith, NYTimes, May 28, 2008. "After part of a cooling tower collapsed last August at Vermont's only nuclear power plant, the company that runs it blamed rotting wooden timbers that it had failed to inspect properly. The uproar that followed rekindled environmental groups' hopes of shutting down the aging plant... The discussion here is bringing into sharp relief a conflict between two objectives long held by environmental advocates: combating nuclear power and stopping global warming... Vermont's 36-year-old plant, which feeds into the regional power grid, represents a third of the state's electrical generation... Some environmental advocates have reluctantly acknowledged that no combination of renewable power and improved efficiency can replace the plant, Vermont Yankee, at least in the near term. Instead, the state would probably have to tap the Northeastern grid -- which derives more than half its energy from fossil fuels -- for extra power... Andrew Perchlik, director of Renewable Energy Vermont, a group that promotes clean power, speaking about the prospect of the plant's closing. He faulted the state government and utilities for not focusing earlier on renewable energy, saying if they had done so, 'we wouldn't be in this predicament.'"

Mounting Costs Slow the Push for Clean Coal. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, May 30, 2008. "Plans to combat global warming generally assume that continued use of coal for power plants is unavoidable for at least several decades. Therefore, starting as early as 2020, forecasters assume that carbon dioxide emitted by new power plants will have to be captured and stored underground, to cut down on the amount of global-warming gases in the atmosphere. Yet, simple as the idea may sound, considerable research is still needed to be certain the technique would be safe, effective and affordable... It has become clear in recent months that the nation's effort to develop the technique is lagging badly. In January, the government canceled its support for what was supposed to be a showcase project, a plant at a carefully chosen site in Illinois where there was coal, access to the power grid, and soil underfoot that backers said could hold the carbon dioxide for eons. Perhaps worse, in the last few months, utility projects in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and Washington State that would have made it easier to capture carbon dioxide have all been canceled or thrown into regulatory limbo... The Electric Power Research Institute, a utility consortium, estimated that it would take as long as 15 years to go from starting a pilot plant to proving the technology will work. The institute has set a goal of having large-scale tests completed by 2020. 'A year ago, that was an aggressive target,' said Steven R. Specker, the president of the institute. 'A year has gone by, and now it's a very aggressive target.'"

Sweden Certifying Sustainable Sugar-Based Ethanol. Grist, May 27, 2008. "Swedish biofuel company SEKAB says it will become the first company to vend ethanol verified to be environmentally and socially sustainable. The company is partnering with Brazilian producers to develop criteria for the full lifecycle of fuel-bound sugarcane, verifying that the fuel was not produced through child or slave labor, was processed in fair working conditions for fair wages, and did not contribute to rainforest destruction. 'This initiative is the first of its kind in the world and a major step for speeding up the replacement of gasoline and diesel,' says Anders Fredriksson of SEKAB. 'The criteria will gradually be developed over the coming years and synchronized with international regulations when these are in place.' In the meantime, flex-fuel vehicle drivers in Sweden should be able to fill up on SEKAB's sustainable ethanol by August."

hide details

Norway's Think to Produce, Sell Small Electric Cars in U.S.By Norihiko Shirouzu, WSJ, May 29, 2008, subscription. "Norway's Think Global AS, with backing from U.S. venture capital investors, plans to produce and sell a small all-electric car in the U.S. that could go as far as 110 miles when fully charged... with an aim to launch the car -- the Think City - in 2009... Think plans to sell the City, to be priced less than $25,000, in densely populated cities because of the car's limited range... In Norway, Think is rushing to boost production to 10,000 a year this year to meet demand in Europe.

Hybrids: The High Cost of Replacing Batteries. By Keith Naughton, Newsweek, May 27, 2008. "What happens if the battery on your hybrid goes dead? These cars, after all, have been on the road in America for eight years, racking up hundreds of thousands of miles... Toyota, Honda, and Ford all say that hybrid battery failures are extremely rare. [The warranties for each cover the first 100,000 miles in most states - 150 miles for California, and Toyota and Honda have announced plans to cut battery replacement cost now at $3,000 and $3,400 respectively. However, they will remain expensive and when shopping for used hybrids,] there aren't many mechanics who know how to tell is a hybrid battery is running out of juice."

hide details

Warming Seen Depleting Great Lakes Even More. By Andrew Stern, Reuters, May 29, 2008. "Global warming will likely drain more water from the Great Lakes and pose added pollution threats to the region's vulnerable ecosystem, environmental groups said in a report issued on Wednesday. Climate change could further reduce scant ice cover observed in recent winters, increasing evaporation rates and dropping water levels in the five lakes that collectively make up 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water. Last year, Lake Superior water levels receded to their lowest in 77 years before rebounding, and the report [PDF, 36 pp] by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition predicted global warming could lower lake levels by up to 3 feet (1 meter) over the next century."

Great Lakes States Act to Restrict Access to Lakes' Water. By Tim Jones, Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2008. "Piece by piece, a 5,500-mile wall around the Great Lakes is going up. You can't see it, but construction is progressing nicely, along with an implied neon sign that flashes, 'Hands off -- it's our water.' The legal pilings for a 1,000-mile segment of the wall are scheduled to be sunk Tuesday when Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle finalizes his state's approval of the so-called Great Lakes Compact, a multi-state agreement designed to protect and restrict access to nearly 20% of the world's supply of fresh water, contained in the five Great Lakes. After that will come Ohio, where later this week the legislature is expected to make it the sixth state to endorse the water agreement and advance a strong regional warning to chronically dry regions of the South and West that Great Lakes water is staying here. 'The Great Lakes are our Grand Canyon. It's our resource to protect, it's the backbone of the region,' said Joel Brammeier... [of] the Alliance for the Great Lakes. States, cities and countries have been arguing over water rights for decades, but the fights -- often called water wars -- have taken on a heightened sense of urgency in light of prolonged droughts, mounting evidence of climate change and, closer to home, declining lake levels."

hide details

China to Ban Free Plastic Bags in Shops. By Henry Sanderson, AP, May 30, 2008. "China will become the latest country to ban free plastic bags this weekend, part of a government-led campaign to cut down on waste and help the environment. The nationwide measure that goes into effect Sunday eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for others... The China Plastics Processing Industry Association estimates the measure will reduce the amount of plastic bags used by a third from 1.6 million tons a year. The Chinese now use 3 billion bags every day, according to the group, and they are virtually indestructible, taking years to break down and commonly ending up in China's clogged landfills.

China's Silver Lining. By James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly, June, 2008. "Here is what I learned by visiting [a coal-cement complex in Zibo, a modest city of 4 or 5 million people in Shandong province, 230 miles southeast of Beijing], and by seeing and asking about many similar 'green' projects in China: China's environmental situation is disastrous. And it is improving. Everyone knows about the first part. The second part is important too. Outside recognition of where and why China has made progress increases the prospects that it will make further advances. Recognition also clarifies the most important obstacles, political and economic, to such progress. And it is simply fair to the many people within China, including within the Chinese Communist Party, who are trying their best to make a difference -- and who are having more success than most Westerners who rely on media accounts would suspect." 

hide details

Touting Green-Collar Jobs. By Bryan Walsh, Time, May 27, 2008. "They all love green-collar jobs. Obama promises to spend $150 billion over 10 years to create 5 million new green collar jobs. Clinton references the term repeatedly on the trail, and says her energy plan will create millions of new green-collar jobs as well. McCain is less willing to cite numbers, but he too assures campaign audiences that action to decarbonize America's economy will produce 'thousands, millions of new jobs in America.'... Phil Angelides... chair of the Apollo Alliance, defines a green job [as follows]: 'It has to pay decent wages and benefits that can support a family. It has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility. And it needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment'… Angelides notes that between now and 2030, 75% of the buildings in the U.S. will either be new or substantially rehabilitated. Our inefficient, dangerously unstable electrical grid will need to be overhauled. The jobs that will go into that kind of work can be green collar -- provided that the government adopts the kind of policies that incentivize environmentally friendly choices... Environmentalism has usually been the reserve of the elite -- but we'll never have the power to tackle global warming unless we create a coalition that extends well beyond traditional white-collar greens. Touting green-collar jobs can convince skeptical, blue-collar Americans that they have an economic stake in curbing climate change."

Massachusetts' Officials Unite on Push to Go Green. By Maite Jullian, Metro West Daily News [Mass.], May 27, 2008. "Gov. Deval Patrick and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi... are part of a unified effort to decrease Massachusetts' dependence on foreign oil and to capitalize on the economic and environmental benefits that the clean energy industry represents. 'The House speaker, Senate president and the governor are all very much on board with the notion of Massachusetts becoming a leader in clean energy,' said Paul D'Arbeloff... of the New England Clean Energy Council. Patrick filed an executive order in April 2007 setting standards for reduction of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by state agencies. DiMasi filed the Green Communities Act... [which] passed the Senate and the House and is currently in a conference committee... Last March, the Senate also passed the Global Warming Solution Act, which would require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80% below the 1990 level by 2050. Ten other states have similar... targets... So far, California is the state's chief rival, according to a 2007 report from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative... [which also states that]... the industry is on track to generate 75,000 jobs in Massachusetts over the next 10 years. The Biofuels Task Force created last November by the state's three top officials also released promising numbers."

How Much Do You Really Want to Save on Gas? By Kimberly Palmer, USN&WReport, May 28, 2008. "With the price of gas approaching, and in several regions exceeding, $4 a gallon, some drivers are getting creative to reduce their bill... Here are some of the best tips, collected from around the Web, on how to reduce your bill: Lighten up... According to [DOE], carrying an extra 100 lbs. reduces a vehicle's fuel economy by up to 2%... Carpool... RideSearch and eRideShare can get you started... Comparison shop... GasBuddy [and] GasPriceWatch let you look up the stations near you and find the one offering the cheapest fuel. Get sleeker. Roll up your windows and remove that luggage rack and you'll improve your aerodynamics, suggests a blogger at Open Travel Info... Reward yourself... Money$martLife compares the various [rebate] offers and recommends Discover's Open Road card and American Express's Blue Cash, which offer up to 5% cash-back rewards on gas purchases. Reduce horsepower... Visit the mechanic. Replacing a clogged air filter for around $20 increases fuel efficiency by up to 10%... An engine tune-up can increase a car's mileage by up to 4%... Just coast. Here's a real sign of desperation... The Money Kings recommend turning your engine completely off [when going downhill]. That way, you can take advantage of the car's momentum... But [AAA] warns against the dangers of this technique."

hide details

Public Trust Doctrine Could Spur Government Climate Action. By Bennett Hall, Corvallis Gazette-Times, May 31, 2008. "University of Oregon law professor Mary Wood is tired of waiting for government officials to take action on global warming. So she's devised a new legal tool to hurry them up. Drawing on her background in both natural resources and property law, Wood has developed a theory that claims the atmosphere is an asset that belongs to all but is held in trust by the government. The government has a legal obligation to protect that trust from harm, she argues, just as financial managers have a legal obligation to protect the monetary assets in their care... Wood, 45, has worked tirelessly for more than a year to promote the idea, writing articles for legal journals, presenting at conferences, speaking on college campuses and radio programs and co-authoring a [forthcoming] book titled The Dawn of Planetary Patriotism. Her theory began to get some traction among public interest attorneys [in December, 2007] after she [delivered this keynote address, PDF 19 pp] at an environmental law conference in Eugene. Afterward, a group of 30 attorneys formed a task force to explore ways to take Wood's atmospheric trust doctrine from the classroom to the courtroom... Greg Costello is one of the public interest attorneys evaluating Wood's proposal as the basis for potential lawsuits. He thinks it could be a successful legal strategy because it's grounded in a widely accepted principle of common law. 'Public trust doctrine is a doctrine everybody learns in law school. It goes back to Roman times,' said Costello, executive director of the Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center... Although her atmospheric trust doctrine provides a basis for litigation, she'd rather see government at all levels -- local, state and federal -- begin acting to halt global warming. The greatest contribution she can make to that effort, Wood said, is to create a conceptual framework that helps people understand government has an obligation to act."

1700 Scientists and Economists Call for Swift Climate Action in Washington. Press Release, Union of Concerned Scientists, May 29, 2008. "More than 1,700 of the nation's most prominent scientists and economists released a joint statement [just days before the Senate begins debate on the Lieberman-Warner climate bill] calling on policymakers to require immediate, deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming... The statement [letter, endorsers and personal quotes, PDF, 68 pp] concludes that the United States should reduce global warming pollution 'on the order of 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050' and that the first step should be reductions of 15 to 20 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. The statement calls on the United States to set an example and bring nations together to meet the climate challenge."

Dark Sky Advocates Speak Up.By Dean Fosdick, AP, May 27, 2008. "Light pollution may not rank up there with climate change as cause for alarm, but a vocal community of stargazers believes it to be an important lifestyle and energy issue that must and can be resolved... Two-thirds of American cities are places where people can't see the Milky Way from their backyards, says Chris Luginbuhl... with the U.S. Naval Observatory... in Flagstaff, Ariz... 'There are few places [across the U.S.] the size of a county that have unpolluted dark skies. Here in the West, there are only a couple of good areas... but they're hard to get to.' Light pollution also confuses nocturnal animals and migrating birds, scientists say... As important as darkness is to astronomers, it's even more important for the human spirit, the Navy's Luginbuhl says. 'Light pollution is like having thick air pollution that would only let you see a quarter of the way across the Grand Canyon, or it would be like driving to the Tetons and not being able to see the peaks. People wouldn't stand for that.'" [For more information, go to Midwest Citizens for Responsible Outdoor Lighting and the International Dark-Sky Association.]

hide details

Bush Contemplates Additional Huge Ocean Reserves. By John Neilson and David Malakoff, NPR, May 25, 2008. "The Bush administration is considering launching one of the biggest conservation programs in U.S. history. If implemented, President George W. Bush could, with the stroke of a pen, protect vast stretches of U.S. territorial waters from fishing, oil exploration and other forms of commercial development. The initiative could also create some of the largest marine reserves in the world -- far larger than national parks like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon... The idea is drawing strong support from conservationists who typically have been harshly critical of the Bush administration's overall environmental record. But some of the possible reserves are already attracting opposition from local leaders and industry groups and from some members of Congress... The list [of chosen sites] hasn't been released to the public... But conservation groups have identified some of the leading nominees. By far the most ambitious proposal is to protect more than 600,000 square miles around a number of small, mostly uninhabited islands in the Central Pacific. The islands -- including Palmyra, Howland and Baker -- are surrounded by biologically rich coral reefs and are home to huge seabird colonies. If implemented, the reserve would be among the largest in the world and about three times as large as the Hawaiian monument. Another proposal calls for protecting more than 100,000 square miles of notoriously rough waters around the Northern Mariana Islands, in the Western Pacific. The area includes the 36,000-foot-deep Marianas Trench... The Antiquities Act of 1906... gives the president broad powers to protect areas of 'historic or scientific interest' without congressional approval... Bush, in 2006, used the Antiquities Act to create one of the world's largest marine reserves, around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands."

Oceans Turning Acidic Decades Earlier. By Roger Highfield, London Telegraph, May 23, 2008. "Greenhouse gases are turning the oceans acidic enough to dissolve the shells of sea creatures decades earlier than scientists had expected, with potentially catastrophic consequences for marine life. Many marine organisms produce calcium carbonate (chalk) shells but, when the acidity of the water is increased, a point is reached at which that calcium carbonate starts to dissolve. On Thursday an American team published evidence [gathered from Oregon State University research vessel] that this acidic 'tipping point' has been reached on the continental shelf along the west coast of North America, where many delicate organisms live."

hide details

At G8 Meeting U.S, and Japan Pressured to Step Up to the Plate. By Joseph Coleman, AP, May 25, 2008. "European and developing countries urged the United States and Japan on Sunday to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 -- a step they say is needed to defuse a coming ecological disaster caused by global warming. The calls at a meeting of environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan coincided with rising concern that momentum is draining from U.N.-led efforts to force a new climate change agreement by a December 2009 deadline. The G8 nations -- the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and France -- are largely on board with a proposal to attempt to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases responsible for global warming by 50 percent by 2050. But a major focus of the meeting in Kobe is midterm targets for 2020, which scientists say are needed to avoid a potentially disastrous rise in world temperatures of more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over levels prior to the industrial age."

Emerging Nations Seek G8 Help for Clean Technology. By Chisa Fujioka, Reuters, May 24, 2008. "Big emerging economies called on rich countries to help finance clean energy technologies on Saturday as a meeting of environment ministers sought to add momentum to the fight against climate change. Ministers and their representatives said on Saturday that action was urgently needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, but advanced and developing countries are split on how to share the burden. The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly growing economies such as China and India comes as poor countries balk at global targets to cut emissions, demanding that rich nations cut their own and pay for costly clean energy projects. Brazil's top delegate said it was vital for developed countries to pass on know-how and help fund research for new technologies."

hide details

Spain's Drought: A Glimpse of Our Future? By Elizabeth Nash, London Independent, May 24, 2008. "Barcelona is a dry city. It is dry in a way that two days of showers can do nothing to alleviate. The Catalan capital's weather can change from one day to the next, but its climate, like that of the whole Mediterranean region, is inexorably warming up and drying out. And in the process this most modern of cities is living through a crisis that offers a disturbing glimpse of metropolitan futures everywhere. Its fountains and beach showers are dry, its ornamental lakes and private swimming pools drained and hosepipes banned. Children are now being taught how to save water as part of their school day. This iconic, avant-garde city is in the grip of the worst drought since records began and is bringing the climate crisis that has blighted cities in Australia and throughout the Third World to Europe. A resource that most Europeans have grown up taking for granted now dominates conversation. Nearly half of Catalans say water is the region's main problem, more worrying than terrorism, economic slowdown or even the populists' favorite -- immigration."

Vast Cracks Appear in Arctic Ice. By David Shukman, BBC, May 23, 2008. "Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military. Scientists traveling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change... The rapid changes in the Arctic have reignited disputes over territory. The Canadian military's expedition was billed as a "sovereignty patrol", the lines of snowmobiles flying Canadian flags in a display of control. After the record Arctic melting last year, all eyes are now on what happens to the sea ice this summer. Although its maximum extent last winter was slightly greater than the year before, it was still below the long-term average."

Climate Change Threat to Alpine Ski Resorts Further Documented. By Graham Tibbetts, Telegraph (UK), May 21, 2008. "A study of snowfall spanning 60 years has indicated that the Alps' entire winter sports industry could grind to a halt through lack of snow. It found a dramatic 'step-like' drop in snowfall at the end of the 1980s, which has never recovered, New Scientist magazine reported. The average number of snow days over the last 20 winters is lower than at any time since records began more than 100 years ago... The warning comes four years after a study for the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that more than half of resorts in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria could be forced out of business over the next five decades as the snow line rises."

hide details

San Francisco Bay Area Pollution Board Approves Greenhouse-Gas Tax. By Denis Cuff, San Jose Mercury News, May 22, 2008. "The Bay Area's air pollution board on Wednesday became the first in the country to levy fees on businesses for the global-warming gases they emit. Declaring that local governments have a role in helping solve a global problem that Congress and the Bush administration have been slow to tackle, the nine-county pollution board decided to collect a total of $1.1 million in annual fees from 2,500 businesses. The charges are based on the tons of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases released by a business... The 15-1 vote in favor of the new fees followed a heated debate. Representatives of oil refineries and business groups argued that the fee will duplicate or interfere with state efforts to rein in global warming. Environmentalists called the fee a modest first step at holding businesses responsible for their global-warming gases, which often result from burning large amounts of fuel."

Canadian PM Harper Slams Liberal Party's Carbon Tax Idea. By Louise Egan, Reuters, May 21, 2008. "Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper [on Tuesday] slammed... [Liberal leader Stephane Dion's] proposal for a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, calling it a 'foolish' move at a time of soaring energy prices. Harper, a Conservative, told reporters that he sees gasoline and other energy prices continuing to rise over the next few years due to demand from emerging economies such as China and India... Dion, who won the leadership of the Liberal Party 17 months ago on a green platform, is considering imposing a carbon tax on energy costs and then returning some of the money through income tax cuts. Last week, Dion rejected the idea of a new tax on gasoline but said he was considering either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system."

Environmentalist Slams Canada's New Democratic Party, Backs Dion's Carbon Tax. Toronto CTV, May 20, 2008. "Famed environmentalist David Suzuki has strongly backed Liberal leader Stephane Dion's emerging carbon tax plan... After hearing the [New Democratic Party's] criticism of Dion's plan, Suzuki said: 'I'm really shocked with the NDP with this. I thought that they had a very progressive environmental outlook... While Dion has not fully revealed his plan, this week he said that he is proposing a revenue-neutral carbon tax, where the carbon tax is paired with a reduction in other taxes... Most environmental groups have slammed the Conservatives' environmental plan as ineffectual and say even if it works, it would still result in emissions that are 8% above Canada's 2012 Kyoto target... 'Thank goodness for the United States or we'd be dead last (in the environment),' he said. 'Let's get on with hard targets and thinking more about what we are leaving our children and grandchildren.' Suzuki mentioned that Swedes pay about carbon tax of $150/ton, while British Columbians are 'yelling and screaming over a $10 tax.' B.C introduced a carbon tax in February."

Carbon Credits: 'the Environmental Version of Sub-Prime Mortgages'. Commentary by Spencer Reiss, Wired, May 20, 2008.  "Carbon offsets -- and emissions-trading schemes, their industrial-scale siblings -- are the environmental version of sub-prime mortgages... They both started from some admirable premises... But when those big ideas collide with the real world, the result is hand-waving at best, outright scams at worst... A few fun facts: All the so-called clean development mechanisms authorized by the Kyoto Protocol, designed to keep 175 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere by 2012, will slow the rise of carbon emissions by... 6.5 days. [That's according to a post by Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado's Center for Science and Technology Policy Research.]... Depressed yet? Kyoto also forces companies in developed countries to pay China for destroying HFC-23 gas, even though Western manufacturers have been scrubbing [it] for years without compensation. And where's the guarantee that the tree planted in Bolivia to offset $10 worth of air travel, for instance, won't be chopped down long before it absorbs the requisite carbon? Nationally managed emissions-trading schemes could do a better job than Kyoto's we-are-the-world approach by adding legal enforcement and serious oversight. But many economists favor a simpler way [see this recent Washington Post article]: a tax on fossil fuels. A carbon tax would eliminate three classes of parasites that have evolved to fill niches created by the global climate protocol: cynical marketers intent on greenwashing, blinkered bureaucrats shoveling indulgences... and deal-happy Wall Streeters looking for a shiny new billion-dollar trading toy. Back to the drawing board, please."

hide details

Norwegians to Build Floating Wind Turbine. AFP, May 23, 2008. "Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro will build the world's first deepwater floating wind turbine next year off Norway's coast, it said on Thursday. Offshore wind turbines already exist in numerous places around the world but they have all been stationary turbines planted on the bottom of the seabed. StatoilHydro plans to attach the floating turbine to the top of a buoy, using technology similar to that of offshore oil and gas platforms. It has several advantages over a stationary turbine -- it can be placed in far deeper waters, where winds are often stronger, and it can be moved. StatoilHydro is investing 400 million kroner (50.9 million euros, 80 million dollars) in the test project, dubbed Hywind, and will begin in the second half of 2009 in the North Sea, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Karmoey island off the southwestern coast. The turbine will have a capacity of 2.3 megawatts and will be fixed to a so-called "spar" buoy. It will tower some 65 meters (213 feet) above the waves."

Wind Turbines Spread Across the U.S. By Carey Gillam, Reuters, May 19, 2008. "Last year, a record 3,100 turbines were installed across 34 U.S. states and another 2,000 turbines are now under construction from California to Massachusetts. In all, there are more than 25,000... in operation, an investment of $15 billion. On May 12, the U.S. DOE said wind power could provide 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030, or 304 gigawatts, up from the current 16.8 gigawatts. Achieving that will require that wind turbine installations rise to almost 7,000 a year by 2017... The industry appears poised to comply... Sen. Barack Obama has proposed investing $150 billion over the next decade for investments in alternative energy, including wind, solar and biodiesel... [and] Sen. Hillary Clinton [has said the same]... Sen. John McCain... has also said he supports wind energy... But the greatest concern currently for the wind energy industry is that for all the public support, the Production Tax Credit is set to expire in December." [Editors Note: Some have questioned McCain's commitment to wind energy. See article below under "Elections" heading.]

Spanish Power Company Seeks Investment in U.S. Wind. AFP, May 18, 2008. "Spanish power company Iberdrola, the world's largest renewable energy operator... plans to invest $8 billion in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010. The Bilbao-based firm is aiming to have a 15% share of the wind power market in the U.S. by 2010... [upping its U.S.]... production capacity [from] 2,400 megawatts... at the end of March... [to] 3,600 megawatts by the end of the year... Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Sanchez Galan has said he considers the U.S. [to be] the company's most exciting growth market."

Queen Elizabeth's Crown Estate to Buy Prototype of World's Largest Wind Generator. Press Release, Clipper Windpower, May 17, 2008. "Clipper Windpower Plc ("Clipper") and The Crown Estate are pleased to announce that The Crown Estate has signed an agreement to purchase Clipper's prototype of the world's largest offshore wind turbine, Clipper's 7.5MW MBE turbine, also referred to as the Britannia project... In addition to a unique and diverse property portfolio, encompassing urban and rural estates, the marine interests of The Crown Estate include almost the entire UK territorial seabed out to 12 nautical miles and around 55 per cent of the UK's coastal foreshore. In addition, The Crown Estate has the rights to lease seabed for the generation of renewable energy on the continental shelf within the Renewable Energy Zone which extends out to approximately 200 nautical miles... The MBE prototype turbine will be assembled and tested... in Blyth in the North East of England, strategically located to serve the offshore turbine development zones."

hide details

New Farm Bill Ups Cellulosic Ethanol Ante. By Tom Philpott, Grist, May 24, 2008. "Under previous policy, biofuel makers -- both conventional and cellulosic -- benefits from a 51 cent a gallon tax credit conferred on gasoline blenders. Not any more. According to a recent Environmental Law & Policy Center memorandum [PDF, 6 pp] summing up the farm bill's energy title, legislation creates 'new cellulosic biofuels production tax credit for up to $1.01 per gallon, available through 2012.' Meanwhile, it also shaves down the old blenders' credit, known as the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit ('VEETC' or 'blender's credit'), from 51 cents to 45 cents per gallon."

New Trend in Biofuels Has New Risks. By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYTimes, May 21, 2008. "In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so-called second-generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy. These, made from non-food crops like reeds and wild grasses, would offer fuel without the risk of taking food off the table, they said. But now, biologists and botanists are warning that they, too, may bring serious unintended consequences. Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species -- that is, weeds -- that have an extraordinarily high potential to escape biofuel plantations, overrun adjacent farms and natural land, and create economic and ecological havoc in the process, they now say."

Kansas Coal Plant Bill Dead for This Legislative Session. By Jim Sullinger, Wichita Eagle, May 22, 2008. "The Kansas Legislature's debate on coal and electric power is over for this year, but the controversy will linger for months -- on the campaign trail and in the courts. After failing twice to override vetoes by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, House Speaker Melvin Neufeld finally threw in the towel Wednesday, calling off a third effort May 29 to clear the way for two coal-fired power plants in western Kansas. He was unable to round up enough lawmakers to return to Topeka for another attempt at overriding a third veto. Officials of Sunflower Electric Power Corp. vowed to continue their push to build two 700-megawatt coal-burning plants in Holcomb in southwest Kansas. They plan to meet with their utility partners early next month to chart their next move."

hide details

EU Trending Toward Nuclear Energy. By Zoltan Dujisin, IPS, May 24, 2008. "EU seems to be backing nuclear energy as the response to global warming and gas dependency, but civic groups warn that safety and waste processing should be preconditions for the industry's growth. These issues were debated in Prague May 22-23 at the second European Nuclear Energy Forum, a European Union initiative to discuss opportunities and risks of nuclear energy. Civic groups criticised their extremely low representation at the event, seen by them as a gathering of nuclear energy supporters lobbying the EU... 'We all share the (EU) objective of reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 percent by 2020,' Nicole Fontaine, a European Parliamentarian, told participants. 'Although there are many solutions such as renewable energy, reality dictates we use nuclear energy, which covers 32 percent of European energy needs'... But the whole of the EU is not going nuclear, said Patricia Lorenz from Friends of the Earth. EU members such as Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Austria all have doubts about nuclear power."

Italy Plans to Resume Building Atomic Plants. By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYTimes, May 23, 2008. "Italy announced Thursday that within five years it planned to resume building nuclear energy plants, two decades after a public referendum resoundingly banned nuclear power and deactivated all its reactors... The change is a striking sign of the times, reflecting growing concern in many European countries over the skyrocketing price of oil and energy security, and the warming effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All have combined to make this once-scorned form of energy far more palatable... Emma Bonino, an opposition politician and vice president of the Italian Senate, said building nuclear plants made no economic sense because they would not be ready for at least 20 years. 'We should be investing more in solar and wind,' she said. 'We should be moving much more quickly to improve energy efficiency, of buildings, for example. That's something Italy has never done anything with.'"

Uranium Producer's Leaks into Lake Ontario Are Assumed. By Ian Austen, NYTimes, May 22, 2008. "Cameco, the world's largest uranium producer, has told the Canadian nuclear regulator that its refinery might have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario. The plant at Port Hope, Ontario, across the lake from Rochester and down the shore from Toronto... has been temporarily closed since July... Cameco in general and the aging Port Hope refinery, which transforms mined uranium into forms suitable for electrical power reactors, have long been targets of environmental groups and the [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission]. After a flood last year closed one of the company's mines, which produces about 10% of the world's uranium, Linda J. Keen, then the head of the [CNSC], said her commissioners and staff had a 'lack of confidence' in Cameco and its management. Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility… said that contamination of the lake had been assumed, given the plant's age, history and location."

Father of Yucca Mountain Changes His Tune. By Lisa Mascaro, Las Vegas Sun, May 22, 2008. "The lawmaker perhaps most responsible for turning Yucca Mountain into the nation's proposed nuclear waste dump said Tuesday the politically opposed project should never have been billed as a place to hold waste indefinitely. Former Sen. J. Bennett Johnston says the waste repository might have won more public support in Nevada had it been designed as a temporary facility rather than the one now being planned to hold waste for up to 1 million years... Johnston's comments come just weeks before the Energy Department is expected to deliver its long-awaited application to license the site. The Energy Department will try to convince federal regulators, and the public, that the site can safely hold nuclear waste for the unforeseeable future. The former Louisiana senator's renewed interest in a temporary holding facility mirrors increased efforts in the nuclear industry to seek alternatives to Yucca Mountain."

hide details

World Bank Consultant Says that Iraq War is Primary Cause of Rise in Oil Prices. By Archie Bland, London Independent, May 25, 2008. "The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone. The oil economist Dr Mamdouh Salameh, who advises both the World Bank and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), told The Independent on Sunday that the price of oil would now be no more than $40 a barrel, less than a third of the record $135 a barrel reached last week, if it had not been for the Iraq war... Dr Salameh, director of the UK-based Oil Market Consultancy Service, and an authority on Iraq's oil, said it is the only one of the world's biggest producing countries with enough reserves substantially to increase its flow. Production in eight of the others - the US, Canada, Iran, Indonesia, Russia, Britain, Norway and Mexico - has peaked, he says, while China and Saudia Arabia, the remaining two, are nearing the point at of decline. Before the war, Saddam Hussein's regime pumped some 3.5 million barrels of oil a day, but this had now fallen to just two million barrels."

Big Oil Follows Big Tobacco as Legal Target. By Stephan Farris, Atlantic, June 2008 issue. "The Eskimo village of Kivalina sits on the tip of an eight-mile barrier reef on the west coast of Alaska. Fierce storms are ripping apart the shores... In 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that Kivalina would be uninhabitable in as little as 10 years, and that relocating its approximately 400 residents would cost at least $95 million. Global climate change, the Corps report said, had shortened the season during which the sea was frozen, leaving the community more vulnerable to winter storms... In February [a group of lawyers, some veterans of the tobacco litigation battles] filed suit in federal court against 24 oil, coal, and electric companies, claiming that their emissions are partially responsible for the coastal destruction in Kivalina. More important, the suit also accuses eight of the firms (American Electric Power, BP America, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Southern Company) of conspiring to cover up the threat of man-made climate change, in much the same way the tobacco industry tried to conceal the risks of smoking -- by using a series of think tanks and other organizations to falsely sow public doubt in an emerging scientific consensus... The first tobacco suits were filed in the 1950s, but it wasn't until 1988 that lawyers were able to find chinks in the industry's armor. The first lawsuit to succeed was also the first to accuse the industry of conspiracy. It's anyone's guess whether climate-change litigation, when mapped to that time line, is closer to the 1950s or to 1988. Indeed, it's not clear whether warming-related monetary damages will ever be won from energy companies -- much less whether they should be. But if the charges do stick in the Kivalina case, the defendants can expect many more in short order, as island nations, ski resorts, drought-stricken communities, and hurricane victims line up for their share. Regulation and litigation are two sides of the same coin. By working aggressively to prevent one, the energy companies may have left themselves open to the other."

Heavyweight Investors Join Rockefeller Rebellion at ExxonMobil. By Andrew Clark, London Guardian, May 22, 2008. "A campaign to persuade ExxonMobil to take climate change more seriously has won support from 19 institutional investors before a potentially explosive showdown at the annual meeting next week. A coalition of disaffected shareholders stepped forward yesterday, including public investment funds from California, New York, Illinois, Maine and Vermont plus the United Methodist Church and the AFSCME public employees' union. They intend to back resolutions calling for Exxon to appoint an independent chairman and to set up a task force tackling global warming... The institutions that came forward yesterday hold... Exxon shares worth $8.6 billion... small in the context of the company's $505 billion market capitalisation, [but the group is] hoping to harness a groundswell of support from fellow investors... 'It is time for Exxon to heed the call of its shareholders,' said Mindy Lubber, president of the environmentally conscious investors' network Ceres. 'Exxon has taken a go-slow approach, failing to prepare for a leadership position in what we know will be a carbon-controlled world.'"

hide details

Senate Environment Committee Approves Bill to Allow for California's Tailpipe Emissions Waiver. By Kate Sheppard, Gristmill, May 21, 2008. "The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved legislation Tuesday that would call on George W. Bush to sign off on California's request for waiver -- the very same waiver he likely encouraged EPA administrator Stephen Johnson to deny. 'The Reducing Global Warming Pollution from Vehicles Act of 2008' would require the president to approve the waiver so that California and the 18 other states that have set or plan to set higher limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks can proceed. The Committee voted 10-9 to approve the legislation, largely along party lines. But Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) crossed over to vote against it, and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) voted in favor. According to reports, EPA officials widely agreed that the waiver should be granted. New evidence revealed this week shows that Johnson was initially 'very interested in a full grant of the waiver,' then considered granting a partial waiver, but decided to deny it flat-out after talking to the White House."

House Overrides Veto of Farm Bill. WashPost, May 22, 2008. "The House easily overrode President Bush's veto of a $307 billion farm bill last night in what appeared to be the most significant legislative rebuff of Bush's presidency. But a legislative glitch is likely to force embarrassed Democratic leaders to pass the bill all over again today -- and prompt a second showdown with Bush next month. The problem came when a House clerk mistakenly dropped a whole section dealing with trade policy from the 673-page bill before it was sent to the White House... The five-year measure continues and in some cases expands traditional farm subsidies, and it is stuffed with billions of dollars of new money for anti-hunger programs, conservation programs, fruit and vegetable growers, and the biofuels industry. Dairy farmers will get as much as $410 million more over 10 years to cover higher feed costs. House and Senate negotiators tucked in an annual authorization of $15 million to help 'geographically disadvantaged farmers' in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico."

The Much-Derided Farm Bill Attracts Overwhelming Bipartisan Support. By David Herszenhorn, NYTimes, May 20, 2008. "Few pieces of legislation generate the level of public scorn consistently heaped upon the farm bill... But as Congress proved again last week, few pieces of major legislation also get such overwhelming bipartisan support -- enough, in the case of the current farm bill, to override the veto expected by President Bush any day now. The Senate vote on Thursday, 81 to 15, was the widest margin for a farm bill since 1973, when food stamps were added. While most of the complaints are directed at Congress for squandering an opportunity to revamp farm subsidies when crops are at record-high prices, the sweeping 673-page bill touches on so many other issues of enormous importance to lawmakers and their constituents, rural and urban alike, that many say it is no longer accurate to call it the 'farm bill'... It increases spending on food stamps and other nutrition programs, sealing the support of urban lawmakers. It aids fruit and vegetable growers for the first time, attracting votes from California, Florida and Michigan... The bill's creation of a subsidy for ethanol made from prairie grass and other plant matter with strong backing from Minnesota lawmakers who see economic opportunity for parts of the state that do not grow corn... The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, emphasized the abundance of reasons for lawmakers to vote for the bill, even as critics derided its subsidies as an unconscionable giveaway of taxpayer money at a time of booming profits for many farmers."

Lieberman-Warner Scheduled for Floor Debate First Week of June. By Frank Davies, San Jose Mercury News, May 19, 2008. "Boosted by all three presidential candidates, an ambitious plan to combat global warming is about to take center stage for the first time in Congress... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has scheduled the bill for the first week in June. Republicans are unlikely to block it because they don't want to undercut their presidential nominee, John McCain, who has distanced himself from President Bush by recognizing that climate change is a serious problem. Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton also support the bill... Tucker Eskew, a Republican strategist who worked in the Bush White House, sees a shift among Republicans on the issue: 'A number of Republican senators are now looking very hard at this legislation, and there's latent opportunity for doing something'... The bill is a major test for Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee. Boxer and the bill's sponsors, Lieberman and Warner, have spent weeks in one-on-one meetings with senators on the bill... [But] Congress has lagged in taking action. This year Congress is struggling just to extend tax credits to boost solar, wind and other renewable energy industries."

hide details

McCain Campaign Co-Chairman Received $380k to Stop Cape Wind. ThinkProgress.org, May 19, 2008. "On Monday, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) unveiled a... global warming plan at the North American headquarters of the Danish wind turbine company Vestas. McCain has justified his long and active opposition to federal support for the domestic wind industry by claiming it 'is doing fine.' In his speech Monday, McCain praised wind power for 'changing our economy for the better'... His top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, disagrees with McCain's rosy assessment of the wind industry, saying that it needs federal support... In fact, two of McCain's top advisers have been directly involved in stopping the wind industry from progressing, by lobbying against... Cape Wind... Senate lobbying disclosure documents reveal that lobbying firm BKSH & Associates was retained in January 2008 by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound to 'defeat the proposal for 130 wind turbines' and 'promote alternative means to meet energy needs without sacrificing Nantucket Sound.' Charlie Black [Senior Political Adviser to McCain] was the chairman of BKSH until March... The Loeffler Group received $380,000 from the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound from 2003 to 2005 to lobby against Cape Wind. The Loeffler Group was founded by former Republican congressman Tom Loeffler, who remains its chairman [and is the McCain campaign's co-chair]." See McCain Endorses Cape Wind CapeCodToday.com, October 13, 2007.

Obama, Clinton Don't Dare Challenge King Coal's Unspeakable Environmental Violence. London Independent, May 20, 2008. "The road slicing through the thickly forested hills of eastern Kentucky used to be called the Daniel Boone Parkway... named for the controversial American folk hero... That was before the coal industry began blowing up the Appalachian Mountains as a cheap way of getting at the black stuff below, behaviour decried by the environmental group Appalachian Voices as 'one of the greatest human rights and environmental tragedies in America's recent history'. Daniel Boone's road is now the Hal Rogers Parkway, named after one of the Kentucky coal industry's closest friends in Washington... It passes through a mountain range older than the Himalayas and is blanketed in broadleaf forests rivalled only by the Amazon basin in its biodiversity. But the canopy of trees which lines the parkway as it rises from the bluegrass horse country to the mountains is a trompe l'oeil... Behind those trees is evidence of unspeakable ecological violence. In a process known as mountaintop removal an upland moonscape is being created, which is incapable of regenerating trees. As far as the eye can see, the land is grey and pockmarked with huge black lakes, filled with toxic coal slurry. This has come about because of America's insatiable appetite for cheap coal to generate electricity, a process enthusiastically backed by the Bush administration as it tries to displace the consumption of imported oil. And the Democrats are little better. They control Kentucky and neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have dared to challenge 'King Coal' while campaigning."

Obama and the Farm Bill. Commentary by David Brooks, NYTimes, May 20, 2008. "My colleagues on The Times's editorial page called the [farm] bill 'disgraceful.' My former colleagues at The Wall Street Journal's editorial page ripped it as a 'scam.' Yet... the bill is certain to become law. It passed with 81 votes in the Senate and 318 in the House -- enough to override President Bush's coming veto. Nearly everyone in Congress got something. The question amid this supposed change election is: Who is going to end this sort of thing? Barack Obama talks about taking on the special interests. This farm bill would have been a perfect opportunity to do so. But [he] supported the bill, just as he supported the 2005 energy bill that was a Christmas tree for the oil and gas industries. Obama's vote may help him win Iowa, but it will lead to higher global food prices and more hunger in Africa. Moreover, it raises questions about how exactly he expects to bring about the change that he promises."

hide details

Brazil Rainforest Analysis Sets Off Political Debate. By Alexei Barrionuevo, NYTimes, May 25, 2008. "Gilberto Camara, a scientist who leads Brazil's national space agency, is more at ease poring over satellite data of the Amazon than being thrust into the spotlight. But since January, Dr. Camara has been at the center of a political tug-of-war between scientists and Brazil's powerful business interests. It started when he and his fellow engineers released a report showing that deforestation of Brazil's portion of the rainforest seemed to have shot up again after two years of decline. Since then, Dr. Camara, who leads the National Institute for Space Research here, has found himself having to defend his agency's findings against one of Brazil's richest and most powerful men: Blairo Maggi, who is governor of the country's largest agricultural state, Mato Grosso, and a business owner known as the 'Soybean King.' Governor Maggi was exercised enough by the report -- which led to harsh measures stifling business in his state - that he asked for, and was granted, a meeting with the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The stakes could not be higher for Mr. da Silva. Stewardship of the Amazon has always been a touchy subject, with many Brazilians fearful that world powers would try to impose their standards on the rainforest."

Amazonian Indians Fight Belo Monte Dam. By Patrick Cunningham, London Independent, May 23, 2008. "The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon. At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high. For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials. For the 10,000 tribal indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow."

Amazon Deforestation on the Upswing Again. By Michael Astor, AP, May 21, 2008. "Destruction of the Amazon is again on the upswing despite a recent crackdown on illegal logging, Brazil's new environment minister said Wednesday. Carlos Minc said official calculations of how much rain forest has been cut down would be released Monday... 'It will be bad news. It will be data showing an increase in deforestation,' Minc said in an interview... [He] took his post last week after veteran rain forest defender Marina Silva surprised the nation by stepping down, citing 'stagnation' in the fight to preserve the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness. Deforestation in the Amazon had declined for three consecutive years until earlier this year when preliminary satellite data detected a spike. In response to the increase, the government sent environmental agents and elite federal police units to crack down on illegal logging in the jungle region. The crackdown was met with violent protests as it shut down dozens of illegal sawmills and led to seizure of 15,500 tons of illegally logged wood... The Brazilian Amazon covers about 1.6 million square miles or nearly 60% of the country. About 20% of the forest has already been razed."

hide details

Burying Carbon at Norwegian Offshore Rig Stirs Hope and Controversy. By Pierre-Henry Deshayes, AFP, May 25, 2008. "Norwegian oil and gas group StatoilHydro, has injected some 10 million tonnes of CO2 into a deep saline aquifer one kilometre [under the seabed for the past 12 years in a pioneering project from its Sleipner platform in the North Sea]... The natural gas extracted by Sleipner has a carbon dioxide content of nine percent, almost four times the commercial quality target of 2.5 percent, requiring the company to reduce the level by filtering it with amines on a platform adjacent to the main structure. Since it was already being filtered, the question was then whether to release the CO2 into the atmosphere or to capture it. A carbon tax imposed as of 1991 on Norway's offshore sector led the group to opt for the second solution... 'We bury every year the same amount of CO2 as emitted by 300,000 to 400,000 cars,' said Helge Smaamo, the manager of the Sleipner rig, a structure so large that the 240 employees ride three-wheeled scooters to get around... There are no figures available on how much StatoilHydro has saved, but with the carbon tax at its current level of 66 dollars per tonne, StatoilHydro would have to pay 66 million dollars a year to release one million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere... But all this does not make Sleipner a 'green platform.' The enormous gas and diesel powered generator that provides electricity and compresses the gas, and the flare that burns off the impurities, together release a total of 900,000 tonnes of CO2 per year -- as much as the volume of gas buried under the seabed each year. The CCS technology could one day be expanded to other industries. The main markets for carbon capture storage are the large stationary sources of CO2 such as coal-power plants, natural gas refining, fertilisers and petrochemical plants, and iron, steel and cement plants. The idea of CCS is however a hotly debated idea, even among environmentalists. Greenpeace, which published a report in early May entitled False Hope: Why Carbon Capture and Storage Won't Save the Climate [PDF, 44 pp], is spearheading the opposition."

Colleges Try Composting Waste to Lower Carbon Footprints. By Kim Martineau, Hartford Courant, May 24, 2008. "As environmental activism grows on college campuses, institutions are working to reduce their carbon footprints. Landfills, where most garbage ends up, release carbon dioxide and methane gas as waste decomposes. That goal has sent schools digging deep into their dumpsters. Yale estimates that as much as 40 percent of its trash is organic. By composting those peels and rinds, instead of burning them or burying them, Yale hopes to cut greenhouse emissions, meet new sewer requirements and possibly save some money. Composting has already taken hold at Wesleyan University and Connecticut College, where students have designed a system for collecting food scraps in their dining halls. The waste is poured into giant bins, where it's mixed with leaves and turned, over several weeks, to add oxygen. At the end of the composting process, students have free topsoil for their organic gardens... Yale will start trucking its 2 tons of cafeteria waste each day, such as coffee grinds, eggshells, broccoli stalks and moldy bread, to a composting plant in Litchfield County to be transformed into potting soil."

Toyota To Ramp Up Battery Production. By Yury Kageyama, AP, May 23, 2008. "Toyota is building a $192 million plant in Japan to produce batteries for gas-electric hybrid vehicles, as it seeks to keep its lead in an intensifying race for green cars among the world's automakers. Toyota's joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, is building the plant in Shizuoka prefecture, in central Japan, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Friday. He declined to give more details. The plant will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, now in the company's hit Prius hybrid. The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, reported Friday that Toyota was building another plant in Japan to make lithium-ion batteries, set to be running by 2010, for future ecological cars... Lithium-ion batteries, now common in laptops, produce more power and are smaller than nickel-metal hydride batteries. Toyota has said the lithium-ion batteries may be used in plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet."

World Science Festival in New York City This Week A collection of 40-plus events billed as the first annual World Science Festival will take place at various locations in New York City from May 28 to June 1. A news release says the festival 'will bring together over a dozen Nobel Laureates, leading researchers, top-level technologists, dedicated educators, and high-level policymakers with creative artists, filmmakers, and performers to create more than 40 unique events that will shine a spotlight on science and explore the many ways in which scientific discovery and innovation are shaping modern life.' Detailed information is available at www.worldsciencefestival.com.

Google Earth Brings Global Climate Change to Life. Posted by Josh Hill, DailyGalaxy.com, May 20, 2008. "Together with Britain's environment ministry and the country's Meteorological Office, Google has created a new animated map that... illustrates the potential impact of global climate change over the next century. The project is called Climate Change in Our World [and it] allows viewers to run a series of time lapse sequences to watch earth warm under a medium case scenario up to the year 2100. Another animation, developed in conjunction with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), shows the retreat of Antarctica's ice caps since the 1950's, with numerous factoids about climate change science, and its specific impact on the Antarctic... 'This project shows people the reality of climate change using estimates of both the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people's lives all over the world, including here in Britain. By helping people to understand what climate change means for them and for the world we can mobilize the commitment we need to avoid the worst effects by taking action now,' [said British environment secretary Hilary Benn]."

Condoms and Climate Change. By Bryan Walsh, Time Magazine, May 20, 2008. "Though simple arithmetic will tell you that the bigger the global population becomes, the harder it will be to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you rarely see the population connection made explicit in major environmental reports... It's becoming increasingly clear that if we can't curb carbon emissions in a world of 6.8 billion, it may be impossible to do when there are 9 billion of us. And while population growth has slowed drastically in... Western Europe and in Japan... it's still rising in much of the developed world -- and for that matter, in the U.S.. 'You really can't talk about the supply and demand imbalance that is sending energy and food prices up without acknowledging that we are adding 78 million people each year, the equivalent of a new Idaho every week,' says [Robert] Engleman, [vice-president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute, and the author of the new book More: Population, Nature and What Women Want]... Engleman makes the argument that... the key to limiting population growth... is to give control over procreation to women. In society after society, even in countries where large families have always been the norm, when women take control over family size, birth rates shrink. 'They don't have to be coerced,' says Engleman. 'This will happen as long as women are in charge... It's not just feminism to support population control -- it's environmentalism.'"

hide details

NRDC and Tufts Release Cost of Climate Change Study. Press Release, NRDC, May 22, 2008. "A report [The Cost of Climate Change, PDF, 42 pp]released on Thursday by researchers at Tufts University, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), presents two ways of estimating the costs of inaction on climate change, both leading to staggering bottom lines. A comprehensive estimate, based on state-of-the-art computer modeling, finds that doing nothing on global warming will cost the United States economy more than 3.6 percent of GDP - or $3.8 trillion annually (in today's dollars) - by 2100. On the other hand, a detailed, bottom-up analysis finds that just four categories of global warming impacts -- hurricane damage, real estate losses, increased energy costs and water costs -- will add up to a price tag of 1.8 percent of U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today's dollars) by 2100. 'The longer we wait, the more painful and expensive the consequences will be. This report's findings are undeniable -- we must act now,' said Dan Lashof, director of NRDC's Climate Center. 'The Climate Security Act currently in the U.S. Senate is our best opportunity to set a concrete limit on global warming pollution and provide an accompanying market that rewards companies for making real reductions.' In the future, global warming will cause drastic changes to the planet's climate, with average temperature increases of 13 degrees Fahrenheit in most of the United States and 18 degrees Fahrenheit in Alaska over the next 100 years." [Editors Note: Not all environmentalist would agree that the Climate Security Act 'is our best opportunity' to fight global warming. Friends of the Earth argues, "Legislation to cap global warming pollution may soon come to the Senate floor. While it's good that the Senate wants to address this growing problem, the Lieberman-Warner bill [the Climate Security Act] is not the answer. It would enrich polluters while failing to do what scientists say is necessary to avoid global warming catastrophe. The bill must be dramatically improved or replaced. Friends of the Earth opposes passage of the bill in its current form." CCC agrees with FoE.]

The Climate Crisis and Capitalism's Future. By Ted Glick, Grist, May 20, 2008. "Gus Speth's career has been as a co-founder and senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, with President Jimmy Carter's Council on Environmental Quality, as founder and president of the World Resources Institute, as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and, since 1999, as Dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The late Tony Mazzocchi, on the other hand, following service in the army during World War II, was completely immersed in the world of the U.S. labor movement. He rose from the ranks to become a national leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, and he was the founder and leader of the Labor Party. But as two fascinating [new] books make clear, their distinct life experiences led them both to believe that the capitalist system which now dominates most of the world is the ultimate problem humanity must face up to and deal with if we are to survive... The Bridge at the Edge of the World, By James Gustave Speth, Yale, 2008, 320 pp... The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor. By Les Leopold, Chelsea Green, 2008, 544 pp... Thanks to Les Leopold, many people who did not know Tony Mazzocchi will have their spirit rekindled when they read about this 20th century hero of our history. And we are fortunate that 'ultimate insider' Gus Speth will continue to help lead us as we build towards the Environmental Revolution which must occur." Ted Glick is Coordinator for the Climate Emergency Council and cofounder of CCC.

The Endgame for the Climate Policy Paradigm. By Ken Ward, Grist, May 20, 2008. "When the U.S. does act decisively on climate, our government will tell the private sector to stop burning coal and start getting power from renewables within one year, and they will do it, because it feasible. The U.S. can't solve the climate crisis unilaterally, so we will pay for China to go solar in exchange for shutting down its coal mines (the two nations control 40% of the worlds coal reserves), just as we couldn't win the war alone, and paid the Soviet Union to keep the second front open. Our agenda must aim for that level of action. Nothing short of it is sufficient, and the details will not be worked out beforehand. Our present agenda, focused on U.S. domestic emissions and anything-is-better-than-nothing, has more in common with the pre-war policies of isolationism and appeasement... The people sitting on folding chairs in low-carbon-footprint workshops are much more sophisticated than they were a few years back... What we have going for us is truth and righteousness. What we need is a disciplined, committed climate core. Both are compromised if we keep flogging flimsy policy that cannot solve the problem."

hide details

McCain Delivers Global Warming Speech Today in Oregon. By Glen Johnson, AP, May 12, 2008. "In remarks prepared for delivery [today] at a Portland, Oregon, wind turbine manufacturer, [John McCain] says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also [advocates a carbon dioxide emissions reduction target of 60% below 1990 levels by 2050]... The Arizona senator promised to challenge China and India [on their use of]... heavily polluting fuels such as coal, gas and oil... [and] took a swipe at President Bush... 'I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto. The United States will lead and will lead with a different approach -- an approach that speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation.' The language highlighted the political stakes for McCain... [who visited Oregon] just days after... Sens. Barack Obama… and Hillary Rodham Clinton... campaigned in the state. Oregon is among the expected general election battlegrounds."

McCain's Balancing Act on the Environment. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, May 12, 2008. "McCain has made the environment one of the key elements of his presidential bid. He speaks passionately about... climate change... But an examination of McCain's voting record shows an inconsistent approach... He champions some 'green' causes while casting sometimes contradictory votes on others. The senator from Arizona has been resolute in his quest to impose a federal limit on greenhouse gas emissions, even when it means challenging his own party. But he has also cast votes against tightening fuel-efficiency standards and resisted requiring public utilities to offer a specific amount of electricity from renewable sources. He has worked to protect public lands in his home state... But he has also pushed to set aside Endangered Species Act protections when they conflict with other priorities, such as the construction of a University of Arizona observatory on Mount Graham... 'Look, he always balances what are the environmental implications of these enterprises and what are the economic benefits that could come from them,' [McCain's senior policy adviser Doug] Holtz-Eakin said. 'That is, in general, an approach which may be harder to read than a flat ideological X or Y, but it's how he reads these things.'"

Democratic Presidential Candidates and Nuclear 'Nuance'. By Jeff Mason, Reuters, May 7, 2008. "Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach [to nuclear power]... McCain... is by far the most enthusiastic... 'Sen. McCain would eliminate the political obstacles that hinder nuclear power, allow it to compete more effectively, and likely increase its share of the U.S. energy portfolio,' [McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin] said... Obama... shares McCain's belief that nuclear energy is part of the solution to climate change. But he opposes new federal subsidies and would work to address concerns about safety and waste storage, senior adviser Jason Grumet said... Clinton... prefers using renewable fuels to fight climate change because of nuclear energy's risks. 'Hillary has real concerns about nuclear power because of the issues around safety, waste disposal and proliferation,' policy director Neera Tandem said. 'She opposes new subsidies for nuclear power, but would continue research focused on lowering costs and improving safety'... Jim Riccio [of Greenpeace]... described the Democrats' positions as nuanced. Clinton's energy platform was 'better than the others' because of its focus on non-nuclear sources, though she appeared to change her stances in different states... Both Democrats had received money from nuclear energy companies: Exelon... to Obama and Entergy to Clinton."

Obama and 'Clean' Kentucky Coal. Posted by Kate Sheppard, Grist, May 6, 2008. "'Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal.' So reads a direct mailer being distributed in Kentucky ahead of the state's May 20 primary... Clark Stevens [of] the Obama campaign in Kentucky confirmed that the mailer came from the campaign... Does Obama really believe in 'clean Kentucky coal?'... There are no plants [with carbon capture and storage technology] in Kentucky... Technically, there is no 'clean Kentucky coal'... [and] most experts predict that wide-scale carbon sequestration is still a decade away... The Obama campaign has made it clear that they want no new coal plants in the meantime... Given that CCS is a decade away, it follows that Obama's policies would amount to a suspension of commercial coal plant construction for the duration of his term... excluding publicly-funded demonstration projects like FutureGen. That would allow for little growth in Kentucky coal, unless it started shipping its coal overseas (as of 2006, 80 percent -- $2 billion worth - was exported)... Meanwhile, Obama may believe in clean Kentucky coal, but many residents of the state are more familiar with the dirty kind... There's a difficult conversation to be had with voters in coal states like Kentucky about the fate of coal and the steps political leaders can take to help coal communities through the coming transition. For the moment, at least, Obama seems unwilling to have that conversation."

Green Group Endorses Obama after He Opposes Gas Tax 'Holiday'. Grist, May 3, 2008. "Friends of the Earth Action endorsed Barack Obama for president on Saturday, citing his principled stand against a temporary suspension of the gasoline tax. 'The gas tax holiday debate is a defining moment in the presidential race,' said [FOEA] President Brent Blackwelder. 'The two other candidates responded with sham solutions that won't ease pain at the pump, but Sen. Obama refused to play that typical Washington game. Instead, Obama called for real solutions that would make transportation more affordable and curb global warming'... Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are preparing to release a plan to counter rising gas prices, but it's unlikely to include a gas-tax holiday, Grist's Kate Sheppard reports. A Republican plan unveiled last week also omits a tax holiday [though] it does include a plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling."

Canadian Candidate Considers Adding Carbon Tax to Platform. By Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service, May 12, 2008. "Liberal leader Stephane Dion... is publicly musing about introducing a carbon tax as a key plank of his platform to address both environmental and economic issues at the same time. Stealing pages from the B. C. government and the federal Green party, Mr. Dion's Liberals have indicated that they are considering the new tax... But in order to be successful at the ballot box, Mr. Dion would have to fend off federal Conservatives who are already circling with criticism that the Liberals merely want to gouge Canadian taxpayers for more money, without any concrete benefits."

hide details

New England 'Energy Raisers' Make Light Work of Going Solar. By Sarah Schweitzer, BGlobe, May 8, 2008. "Last weekend, some 30 men and women arrived at a neighbor's home in [Sandwich, New Hampshire], prepared for a day of hard labor. Their pay would be a pot of coffee, slabs of cornbread, and a spread of roast turkey sandwiches. In days past, the end result might have been a barn. But in a twist on the traditional... the neighbors put up a solar-heated water system [instead of a barn]... Neighbors in this and other New England communities are coming together for daylong 'energy raisers,' installing solar collectors that can reduce a home's hot water bill by as much as 80%... The energy raisers so far have been concentrated in New Hampshire, where neighbors in Sandwich, Plymouth, where a handful of surrounding towns have equipped 23 homes with solar and other alternative energy systems in the past three years; the group has scheduled 12... for this summer. Another group held Massachusetts' first energy raiser last month in Buckland, and a Cambridge group is hoping to begin…soon."

Ohio Farmer Pioneers Green Energy Practices. By James Hannah, AP, May 7, 2008. "79-year-old Ralph Dull has become an Ohio pioneer in green farming and renewable energy, jumping into it in hopes of increasing energy efficiency, cutting costs and protecting the environment. There are six wind generators on his 2,800-acre farm in western Ohio. In one building sits a machine that produces hydrogen, made from electricity and water. Dull hopes it will soon replace the gas in his forklifts and supplant the propane that heats his pig barn. Dull's office is geothermal heated and cooled. He dries his seed corn by burning rejected corn instead of propane, and he grinds corn cobs to sell as horse bedding and mulch... while Dull is still the exception, more farmers are expressing interest in green farming and in using renewable energy sources. Beyond environmental concerns, cost-conscious farmers are seeing economic benefits as fuel and fuel-based fertilizer prices soar."

Eggs and the City. By Leslie Scrivener, Toronto Star, May 4, 2008. "Heidi and Clucky... are plump, vigorous, egg-laying hens that, despite their beauty and utility, are illegal in Toronto. Nonetheless, their owner has kept them quietly in her backyard coop through the winter and now lets them range freely... 'It makes total sense to me, rather than getting in the car, driving to the grocery store and buying eggs trucked in from a far away farm, to go to the back yard and get eggs,' says [the hens' owner]... who... [describes] herself... as a 'renegade' chicken owner... Increasingly, urbanites concerned about about food miles and safety are pushing their local governments to be more flexible about backyard livestock. Websites, including backyardchickens.com and TheCityChicken.com, offer direction and inspiration to city farmers. When Elaine Belanger launched the first issue of her magazine Backyard Poultry in 2006, she had 15,000 copies printed, which proved to be not nearly enough."

Looking into the Future, Cheerfully. By Harriet Green, Guardian, May 2, 2008. "For three years, my husband has talked about taking to the hills. About buying a small holding... where, with our four-year-old daughter, we can safely survive the coming storm -- famine, pestilence and a total breakdown of society. I would wait for his lectures to finish, then return to my own interests. I had no time for the end of civilization... But recently, I've wavered... This week, the details got scarier. The UN warned of a global food crisis, like a 'silent tsunami', while OPEC predicts that oil, which broke through $100 a barrel for the first time a few weeks ago, may soon top $200. In the course of an idle conversation at work last week, a colleague casually revealed that he keeps a supply of tinned food in his bedroom 'just in case'... [But 'Transition town' movement founder Rob] Hopkins recently published a manual, The Transition Handbook, a startlingly cheerful book that gives some idea as to how transition initiatives work - from the very early stages, in which groups raise awareness through film screenings and talks, to the later development of local food networks and even the launch of local currencies. The movement uses 12 steps, rather like Alcoholics Anonymous, to wean us off our dangerous addiction to oil."

Japan Will Announce Voluntary Emissions Goals. AFP, May 12, 2008. "Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to announce [that Japan will strive to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% by 2050] as early as June... Japanese officials [do not] want to make the goal... legally binding, [relying on hope that] the announcement will encourage technological and business innovations... The government is also expected to announce plans to establish a carbon credit exchange... Japan had joined the U.S. in saying it was too early to set numbers for future emissions cuts... Tokyo, under serious criticism from environmentalists, said earlier this year that it would set its own national target for reductions after 2012, when [Kyoto] expires. [Japan is hosting the Group of Eight summit in July.]"

Green Investments

VW, Sanyo to Collaborate on Lithium-Ion Auto Battery. By Chisa Fujioka, Reuters, May 11, 2008. "German carmaker Volkswagen and Japan's Sanyo Electric Co will jointly develop a lithium-ion battery to be used in hybrid and electric cars, the Nikkei financial daily reported on Sunday. Volkswagen will aim to start importing and using the battery in its hybrid and electric cars by 2012... The move comes after plans by Nissan Motor Co and NEC Corp to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries... [which will] be smaller and lighter than nickel-hydrogen batteries [in current use], enabling the car's weight to be cut by 200-300 kilograms... Sanyo, which has the biggest global share of lithium-ion batteries used in personal computers and mobile phones, plans to invest nearly 100 billion yen ($973 million) to make and develop them over the next three years."

After Blogger Blast, Dell Changes Its Packaging Ways. Greenbiz.com, May 9, 2008. "Under criticism from bloggers during Earth Week over the use of oversized boxes to ship tiny products, Dell sought the advice of its customers this week to help the company improve its packaging. The Consumerist and other blogs showed photos of a Kingston 2gb USB flash drive that was sent to a customer in huge box. After the company read the posts, it sent a team to meet with the vendor in Dallas to figure out how to improve shipping processes. On its corporate blog, Dell said it had developed several immediate and short term actions... Dell isn't alone when it comes to publicly acknowledging issues that draw calls for action or criticism. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, published its list of suppliers after investors, NGOs and other stakeholders consistently asked for more transparency in its supply chain." 

Start-Ups Race to Produce Green Cars. By Edward Taylor, WSJ, May 6, 2008, subscription. "Spurred by the belief that the market for fuel-efficient vehicles is about to take off, a slew of tiny car companies is springing up in Europe and the U.S... racing to produce the next 'green' car [and] betting that soaring demand will allow them to survive alongside the giants of Detroit, Stuttgart and Tokyo. Most... were founded in the last 12 months and have financial backing from venture-capital firms. They are headed by former top engineers and designers from the likes of Germany's Volkswagen and storied U.K. racecar builder McLaren. Responding to soaring gasoline prices and a tightening noose of emissions regulations in Europe and the U.S., the companies are working on a new generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. Many of the green start-ups are hoping to ride the coattails of California-based Tesla Motors. Founded in 2003, Tesla unveiled an electrically powered sports car in 2006. The Tesla roadster went into production last month and has pre-sold the first year's output. One problem: Competition from the industry giants is real. Daimler, Toyota, G.M., Renault SA and Mitsubishi are all developing new-generation electric vehicles."

New Investment Needed to Power Critical Climate Modeling. By Roger Harrabin, BBC, May 6, 2008. "Last week, about 150 of the world's top climate modelers converged on [Reading University's Walker Institute in the UK] for a four-day meeting to plan a revolution in climate prediction... So far modelers have failed to narrow the total bands of uncertainties since the first report of the [IPCC] in 1990. And [Professor] Julia Slingo from Reading University admitted it would not get much better until they had supercomputers 1,000 times more powerful than at present... 'We know how to [improve climate models to provide much more information at the local level], but we don't have the computing power to deliver it,' [she said]. Slingo said several hundred million pounds of investment were needed... 'It would allow us to tell the policymakers that they need to build the [Thames] barrier [for example] in the next 30 years, or maybe that they don't need to.' Some modelers are now warning that feedback mechanisms in the natural environment, which either accelerate or mitigate warming, may be even more difficult to predict than previously assumed. Research suggests the feedbacks may be very different on different timescales and in response to different drivers of climate change."

hide details

Gov. Jon Corzine Wants New Jersey to Build Nations First Major Offshore Wind Farm. By Terrence Dopp, Bloomberg News, May 9, 2008. "New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine wants his state to be the first in the U.S. Northeast to build an electricity-generating wind farm off the Atlantic coast. Five companies are vying for $19 million in grants and the right to put as many as 200 windmills within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the Jersey Shore."

Oil Powered Norway Gradually Turns Into the Wind. By Nina Larson, AFP, May 11, 2008. "As Norway prepares for a future after oil, the gale-force potential of harvesting wind power off its long coastline has become an increasingly attractive proposition. 'Wind-mapping shows that... Norway is among the (world's) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore,' said Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Liv Monica Stubholdt. Yet the Scandinavian country, one of the world's leading oil and gas exporters, today lags far behind others in taking advantage of this natural resource. Norway has 15 wind parks, producing a little less than one percent of its electricity, and environmentalists and industry players complain Oslo has done little [so far] to encourage what is considered one of the greenest energy sources."

hide details

Ethanol Under the Kliegs Last Week. By Jeff Johnson, Chemical & Engineering News, May 12, 2008. "Pointing toa global food crisis, international relief organizations [in Congressional hearings] last week joined the oil industry, U.S. grocers, and beef, pork, and chicken farmers in seeking elimination of government programs to encourage biofuels, particularly corn-kernel-based ethanol. Over the past month, the momentum for a rollback... has grown, sparked by an upsurge in prices of human food and animal feed. It has led the governors of Texas and Connecticut and 24 Republican senators to request that EPA waive or limit the renewable fuel standard [RFS]... Among those calling for restraint was Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee [who] noted that 'the ink had hardly dried on the 2007 Energy Act when the clamoring began to alter [it].' Instead, he said, Congress should wait until EPA finalizes [RFS] regulations... which are required by December."

McCain and Fellow Republicans Call for Rollback of Ethanol Subsidies.AP, May 6, 2008. "Senate Republicans on Monday asked environmental regulators to use their power to halt the country's ethanol output expansion plans amid rising food prices. Twenty-four Republican senators, including... John McCain... sent a letter to the EPA suggesting it waive, or restructure, rules that require a five-fold increase in ethanol production over the next 15 years... 'This subsidized (ethanol) program -- paid for by taxpayer dollars -- has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table, and a devastating food crisis throughout the world,' said McCain, in a statement. Despite tough rhetoric from lawmakers, analysts say Congress is unlikely to roll back such a popular program during an election year."

hide details

Big Oil's Big-Time Friends.Editorial, NYT, May 5, 2008. "Listen to almost any politician... and you'll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies... Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital [renewable energy] tax credits to expire... These credits are necessary... When [they] disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, so action now is important... Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy [part of the blame]. The House approved, as part of last year's energy bill, a multiyear extension... while insisting -- under its pay-as-you-go rules -- that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies... screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along. Senator John McCain... missed that crucial vote."

Rockefeller's Descendants Tell Exxon to Step up Search for Alternative Fuels. By Stephen Foley, London Independent, May 1, 2008. "Descendants of John D Rockefeller, America's first and biggest oil industry magnate, say that ExxonMobil, a company spawned from his 19th-century monopoly Standard Oil, faces becoming obsolete if it does not step up the search for alternative fuels. Fifteen family members... went public [Wednesday before last] in an attempt to get Exxon to face up to the realities of climate change, and they promised to join a shareholder rebellion to shake up the board to alter company's strategy... The Rockefellers... are backing resolutions at the Exxon's shareholder meeting next month which call on the company to fund research into how climate change will affect developing nations. They believe a push into alternative fuels by Exxon and other major oil companies could improve the situation, and demand a new policy on funding alternative fuels. They also want the company to set public goals for reducing carbon emissions from their output -- targets which, if tough enough, would force the company to offer less-polluting products than oil and gas. They are also demanding that [the company's current chairman, Rex Tillerson] split the roles of chairman and chief executive, a resolution which last year won 40% of the vote."

hide details

Sierra Club Threatens to Sue Coal Plants. By Bernard Woodall, Reuters, May 7, 2008. "The Sierra Club sent letters on Tuesday threatening to file suit to stop construction of eight coal-fired power plants in six states... 'This is the first major ramification on the ground from the... D.C. circuit kicking out the Bush administration's rules in February,' said Bruce Nilles... of the Sierra Club... In February, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in not setting mandatory cuts for mercury emissions... The suits would seek to require the plants to [be newly permitted to] meet the tougher emission standards... Owners of three plants under construction have already been notified of the intent to sue by the Sierra Club -- Entergy... Peabody... and Louisiana Generating, a unit of NRG Energy... Another eight letters were sent on Tuesday... Among the plants involved are Duke Energy's... Cliffside plant in North Carolina and Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp, for its proposed Oak Grove plant in Texas. The Sierra Club said it is considering whether to send intent to sue letters to owners of a dozen more plants."

Bill Gates Still Supports Big Stone II Coal Project. Posted by Ted Nace, Grist, May 4, 2008. "Unlike his bridge buddy Warren Buffett, who recently cancelled six planned coal projects, Bill is still pushing coal.Cascade Investment Management, his personal investment company, is the largest stakeholder (9%) in Otter Tail Corporation, the lead sponsor of the controversial Big Stone II coal project... This is not the first time Gates investments have come under the ethical spotlight. In [January] 2007, an L.A. Times article critiqued Gates Foundation investments... Following the... expose, the Gates Foundation promised [to] 'formalize the process by which Bill and Melinda Gates analyze and review these issues.' There are some indications that such reviews may indeed be starting to happen, at least within the Gates family's own personal portfolio... Cascade Investment Management recently unloaded its stake in Pacific Ethanol. So far, however, Gates has shown no sign of yielding to critics on Big Stone II."

hide details

Groups Cite New Greenpeace Report in Opposing Carbon Capture and Sequestration. By Larisa Brass, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 6, 2008. "Calling carbon storage technology too expensive and a hollow answer to the environmental issues surrounding coal as an energy source, two local environmental groups [Save Our Cumberland Mountains and Students Promoting Environmental Action at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville] on Monday protested federal legislation they say encourages development of coal-based power production. [The two groups]... cited a [Greenpeace] study, False Hope, released Monday... criticizing measures included in [the Senate's Lieberman-Warner climate change bill] that would provide incentives for development of clean-coal technologies such as carbon sequestration... According to the... report, carbon storage technology would require 10% to 40% of the power produced by a station to operate, will not be viable until at least 2030, cannot be guaranteed as a safe and permanent storage solution and is expensive, potentially leading to a 21% to 91% increase in the price of power for consumers."

Environmentalists Divided on Sequestration. By Alister Doyle, Reuters, May 5, 2008. "Greenpeace and more than 100 other environmental groups denounced projects for burying industrial greenhouse gases on Monday, exposing splits in the green movement about whether such schemes can slow global warming... 'Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal industry pipe dream,' said Emily Rochon [of] Greenpeace International and author of [its newly released report entitled False Hope]... In a statement linked to the report, Greenpeace and allies including Friends of the Earth International said... carbon capture and storage (CCS) 'risks locking the world into an energy future that fails to save the climate'. But some other environmental groups accept carbon capture as a way to slow rising temperatures and avert more powerful storms, heat-waves, droughts, disrupted monsoon rains and raised world ocean levels. 'Carbon capture and storage is not an ideal solution, but it buys us time,' said Stephan Singer, head of the WWF's European Climate and Energy Program in Brussels. 'We believe it is part of the solution -- an emergency exit.' The U.N. Climate Panel has said CCS could be one of the main ways for slowing climate change by 2100 -- contributing a bigger share of greenhouse gas cuts than energy efficiency, a shift to renewable energy or a push for nuclear power... 'We believe that CCS will be an important tool to reduce emissions from existing coal and gas-fired power plants,' said Lars Haltbrekken [of] Friends of the Earth Norway. 'We don't support new coal-fired power plants, even with CCS.'"

Exxon Mobil Plans Wyoming Plant to Develop Carbon Capture and Storage. Jackson Hole Star Tribune, May 6, 2008. "Exxon Mobil plans to spend more than $100 million to build a plant in Wyoming to continue developing and testing technology that could make capturing and storing carbon dioxide more affordable and open up vast new sources of natural gas. The... company said Monday it will build the plant near LaBarge, [Wyoming] beginning this summer. Startup is scheduled for late 2009, and testing is expected to take place over a couple of years... The CO2 capture technology comes to Wyoming at a time when the oil industry here is scraping for every bit of CO2 available. CO2 can be injected into old oil fields to sweep remaining oil to production wells. CO2 flooding accounted for 5.7 million barrels of oil in Wyoming in 2007, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission."

hide details

Groups Urge Senate to Uphold Ban on Tar Sands. By Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 8, 2008. "A who's who of major U.S. and Canadian environmental organizations is urging the U.S. Senate to keep in place a rule banning the U.S. government from buying fuel from Alberta's tar sands on the grounds that it is too environmentally tainted. Yesterday, the groups released a letter sent to all members of the U.S. Congress, urging them to reject efforts to revoke the fuel measure through amendments to other legislation, arguing that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be spent 'to develop alternative fuel sources that make global warming worse'... The letter was written by the Natural Resources Defense Council... and endorsed by 26 other organizations, including Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club."

Colorado Republicans Push for Oil Shale Development. AP, May 4, 2008. "Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has joined other Republican members of Congress [to push] for more domestic energy production by removing barriers to oil shale leasing in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. A bill introduced Thursday by [Republican] Sen. Pete Domenici, N.M., would repeal a one-year moratorium on approval of final regulations for commercial oil shale leases on federal land. It would also allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Colorado's other senator, Democrat Ken Salazar, pushed the one-year ban that prevents the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from using federal funds to draft final regulations for commercial leases. [Republican] Allard voted... against the $555 billion spending bill that included the ban last year... Salazar is among the Colorado officials who've urged the federal government to move cautiously on oil shale because of the potential impacts. Water providers along Colorado's Front Range have warned that commercial-scale development could drain up to 15% of western Colorado's water supply."

hide details

Tragedy in Myanmar. By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters, May 12, 2008. "Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis headed out of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta in search of food, water and medicine, but aid workers said on Sunday that thousands will die if emergency supplies don't get through soon."

Another Bad Year for Fires Predicted. By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters, May 12, 2008. "U.S. fire managers are forecasting a grim year for blazes in drought-plagued Western states, just weeks after a premature start to the Southwest's wildfire season. This comes even as the U.S. Forest Service, the lead agency for fighting fires on vast swaths of public and private lands, is reassessing a years-old model that sought to contain all blazes at all times. Environmental and financial strains paired with demographic changes have made that strategy ineffective in an era of record-size fires sweeping across the West, experts say. 'We can't do things like we did in the 1970s and 1980s,' said George Weldon... [of] a regional Forest Service office in Montana. 'The fire environment in a lot of situations is exceeding our capabilities to control large fires that burn the entire summer.' Climate models show a warming West where snowmelt from the mountains occurs earlier and dry conditions persist longer, setting the stage for blazes that reset measures for scale and intensity."

Scorching Heat and Water Shortages Loom in Turkey. Istanbul Today's Zaman, May 12, 2008. "Experts warn many regions in Turkey will be hit by a drought at least as severe as last year's... Turkey experienced abnormally hot and dry days last summer, with water levels dropping to alarmingly low levels and several cities experiencing frequent water cuts... Murat Türke?, a professor at Onsekiz Mart University... [said,] 'There has been significant decrease in the amount of rain that falls in winter months. On the other hand, there has been a considerable increase in rainfall received throughout spring. But spring rains do not improve levels of water reservoirs because they are generally in the form of showers. Showers do not feed water sources. Rather, they lead to erosion and floods,' he said... According to the Human Development Report (HDR) published by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) last December, Turkey is among the five regions at great[est] risk… of global warming [impacts]."

Amphibians Face Grave Peril With 165 Species Already Gone. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, May 12, 2008. "The 300 Kihansi spray toads residing in a small room at the Bronx Zoo chirp cheerily as they bask in a light sprinkling of water 14 times a day. Until a few years ago, the tiny, mustard-colored toads existed only in a river gorge in Tanzania. Now the survivors are confined to the Bronx and Toledo zoos, having gone extinct in the wild. With thousands of amphibian species facing unprecedented threats to their survival, scientists have launched a global effort to collect them in zoos in an attempt to save them from disappearing altogether. The program, called Amphibian Ark, aims to keep 500 species in captivity and breed enough to eventually reintroduce them into the wild... Scientists have been tracking the rapid disappearance of amphibians for two decades, but new evidence suggests [they] face increasingly grave peril. A third to a half of all amphibians are now threatened with extinction; 165 species have already vanished. In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, three of every four amphibian species are critically endangered."

hide details

Americans Grow Up. Posted by Charles Komanoff, Grist, May 4, 2008. "A CBS-NYT poll released on May 4th just might signal the moment when Americans began to grasp the intertwined realities of climate, energy and national security. The poll [PDF, 19 pp] found that 49 percent of Americans think suspending the gasoline tax this summer is a bad idea, while 45 percent approve of the plan (see Question 49). If memory serves, this is the first time in at least a generation that the American public expressed a willingness to be taxed more rather than less for energy."

Alaskan Taxpayers Fund 'Skeptic' Polar Bear Conference. By Tom Kizzia, Anchorage Daily News, May 4, 2008. "A $2 million program funded with little debate by the [Alaskan] Legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an 'academic based' conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming [in hopes of undermining] public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten [their] survival. Republican legislative leaders say a federal decision to declare the polar bears 'threatened' by climate change [under the Endangered Species Act] would have troubling effects on Arctic oil development and the state's economic future. Last week a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to release [by May 15] its already-tardy decision [on polar bears] under the... Act... By law, such a decision must be based strictly on science, not on possible economic consequences."

The Elusive Negawatt. Economist, May 12, 2008. "In wonkish circles, energy efficiency used to be known as 'the fifth fuel'… No wonder that wonks now tend to prefer 'negawatts' to megawatts as the best method of slaking the world's growing thirst for energy... The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the research arm of the consultancy, thinks that energy efficiency could get the world halfway towards the goal... of keeping the concentration of greenhouse gases... below 550 ppm. MGI is particularly enthusiastic because it believes that unlike most other schemes to reduce emissions, a global energy-efficiency drive would be profitable. The measures it has in mind, all of which rely on existing technology, would earn an average return of 17% and a minimum of 10%... In other words, big investments in energy efficiency would more than pay for themselves, and fairly fast. Although a lot of money would have to be spent -- $170 billion a year until 2020 -- by MGI's reckoning that is only 1.6% of today's global annual investment in fixed capital. Moreover, with ample profits to be made, financing should be easy to attract. Yet if there are so many lucrative opportunities... why are investors not already taking advantage of them?" [Amory Lovins coined the word 'negawatt' in The Negawatt Revolution, a speech given to the Montreal Green Energy Conference in 1989.]

Driving Our Hybrid SUVs Down the Highway to Collapse. Commentary Alex Steffan, Worldchanging.com, April 21, 2008. "With every passing day, we are discovering that things are worse than we thought. Our climate is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that's surprising even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are collapsing. The ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic tipping points. Economic inequity is producing a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people. Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis of legitimacy, while insane fundamentalists, violent criminals and two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything they can get their hands on... In the face of this reality, recycling a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares? In the developed world, few of us, essentially none of us, currently live a 'one-planet life.' The vast majority of us, even of those of us who have committed ourselves to change, consume more resources and energy than our sustainable share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live an individually sustainable life, because the very systems in which we are enmeshed -- which enfold and make possible our lifestyles -- are themselves insanely unsustainable. We're driving our hybrid SUVs down the highway to the Collapse."

Put A Tyrant in Your Tank. By Joshua Kurlantzick, Mother Jones, May/June, 2008. "Anyone inclined to celebrate Big Oil's recent misfortunes had better hold off... For however badly the Western firms may have behaved, the new global oil barons could one day leave environmental and social activists nostalgic for the bad old days of ExxonMobil... State-run oil companies make Shell and ExxonMobil look like Greenpeace. The multinational firms may cozy up to nasty regimes, but they are at least obligated to respond to public criticism. Shell releases detailed annual reports about its sustainability efforts, and most of its peers have signed on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary compact designed to reduce corruption in countries with oil and gas investments. Embracing some environmental issues helps the firms win favor from shareholders and the public, which is why BP, for one, has put a huge PR push behind its modest initiatives to combat global warming... The national concerns, by contrast, behave with near impunity."

The World at 350: A Last Chance for Civilization. By Bill McKibben, TomDispatch.com, May 11, 2008. "All of a sudden it isn't morning in America, it's dusk on planet Earth. There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA's Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- 'if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.' Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points -- massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them -- that we'll pass if we don't get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us. So it's a tough diagnosis. It's like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you don't bring it down right away, you're going to have a stroke... In this case, though, it's worse than that because we're not taking the pill and we are stomping on the gas -- hard... Here's the Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the IPCC last year (and, by the way, got his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his predecessor): 'If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment... A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality."

hide details

Auto Industry Leaders Speak Out Against Gas Tax 'Holiday'. By Sarah A. Webster, Detroit Free Press, May 2, 2008. "Automotive industry leaders have begun to speak out firmly against... [the McCain-Clinton gas tax 'holiday' idea]... [Chrysler CEO] Bob Nardelli, AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson and others say that the nation needs the high gas prices to encourage consumers to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles -- which the federal government has mandated automakers build... 'You have to have alignment,' [said] Jim Press, the former Toyota... executive who [is now] a president and vice chairman [at Chrysler]... A day earlier, Jackson... told the Free Press that suspending the gas tax demonstrated 'zero intellectual honesty' and gave Americans 'confusing signals' about energy consumption. 'I've never heard of a plan that says, I want you to use less of something but I'm going to reduce the price,' said Jackson... 'It's like telling a heroin addict: You've got to deal with this heroin thing, but don't worry, I'm going to do everything I can to reduce the price of heroin. But, you really should do something about it.'"

Obama's Tightrope Walk on Gas Taxes. By Nick Timiraos, WSJ, May 2, 2008, subscription. "Sen. Barack Obama's argument that a gas-tax holiday makes no sense -- a stand that is winning plaudits from editorial boards and economists -- isn't always getting through to voters worried about rising gas prices. The presidential candidate has staked out a politically treacherous position by opposing the three-month suspension of the federal gas tax proposed last month by Sen. John McCain... and embraced by Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton... 'I'm here to tell you the truth,' Sen. Obama says in a new 60-second ad running in North Carolina and Indiana ahead of Tuesday's primaries. 'You're going to save about $25, $30, or half a tank of gas.'"

The McCain-Clinton Gas-Tax Holiday is Shameful Pandering. Commentary by Thomas L Friedman, NYTimes, April 30, 2008. "It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer's travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country... Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering... The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious -- the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout."

Obama Plays It Straight. Posted by Charles Komanoff, Grist, April 27, 2008. "Campaigning in Indiana, Obama distanced himself from the gas tax 'holiday' proposed by Sen. John McCain... 'The only way we're going to lower gas prices over the long term is if we start using less oil,' Obama said in Anderson. McCain pounced, saying... that 'Americans need strong leadership that can deliver lower gas prices and a healthier economy, not Barack Obama's inexperience and indecision'... Sen. Hillary Clinton did likewise, unveiling a new ad calling for suspension of the gasoline tax -- a proposal first advanced by McCain on April 15. As U.S. political campaigns go, the contrast between McCain-Clinton's playing the gas-tax card and Obama's brave clarity couldn't be clearer... McCain has no clue. Clinton surely does, but can't pass up a chance to pander. 'Hillary Clinton knows it's time to act, take some of the windfall profits of big oil to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer, investigate the oil giants for price gouging and collusion,' her ad says. Right. Shadow-box at Big Oil while taxpayers and the climate absorb the punch." [Editor's note: Clinton's ad is included in the Grist link.]

Democrats Prepare Election-Year Fuel Relief Package. By Ian Talley, Stephen Power and Sarah Lueck, WSJ, May 2, 2008, subscription. "Top congressional Democrats are moving to unveil as early as next week a package of measures intended to mitigate high gas prices and present a sharper contrast to President Bush in the struggle to redefine energy policy. The proposals are expected to include temporarily halting the build-up of the nation's emergency oil stockpile, giving regulators greater authority to investigate and penalize oil companies that engage in price gouging, and seeking to discourage speculative trading in oil and gas markets, possibly by raising the collateral traders must provide. Democrats are likely to propose a temporary 'windfall-profits tax,' possibly of 25%, on major oil companies [who] would be exempt... if they invested profits in domestically produced renewable fuels or expanded refinery capacity or renewable electricity production. Democrats were discussing Thursday how the additional tax revenues might be used, with some advocating rebates for consumers and others backing additional investment in research and incentives for renewable energy."

hide details

Small Car Sales Surge in U.S. By Bill Vlasic, NYTimes, May 2, 2008. "Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede. In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the U.S. was a compact or subcompact car during April... The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles... has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large [SUVs] have dropped sharply. In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April. 'It's easily the most dramatic segment shift I have witnessed in the market in my 31 years here,' said George Pipas, chief sales analyst for [Ford]."

Bloomberg Gives Bicycles A Try. Posted by Andrew Posner, TreeHugger.com, April 29, 2008. "Perhaps because Mayor Bloomberg's plan for congestion pricing in New York City has failed, the Big Apple is now trying to make up for it by becoming more bicycle-friendly. As it is, 112,000 New Yorkers bicycle on an average day, an increase of 10% over the last decade. The proposal, which is part of a new Department of Transportation strategic plan [called Sustainable Streets], hopes to double that number by 2015, as well as 1) add 200 miles worth of new bicycle lanes between 2007 and 2009, 2) install 37 bicycle shelters and 5,000 bike parking racks by 2011, 3) install 15 additional miles of protected on-street bike lanes by 2010 and 30 miles from 2011 to 2015. Finally, 'to raise bike-consciousness in the city, the [DOT] and the nonprofit group Transportation Alternatives, are holding a competition to find the most bicycling-friendly employers in the city.'"

After Initial Promise, Commercial Hybrid Trucks Stall.By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, April 27, 2008. "Once upon a time, hybrids were going to rule commercial vehicles. In May 2003, when gasoline was $1.50 a gallon, FedEx was predicting that it would have 30,000 hybrids on the road in a few years. But today, all companies together have only about 300. On paper, commercial vehicles, not private cars, should be the 'killer app' for hybrid technology. Delivery trucks operate in stop-and-go traffic, where hybrids excel. Commercial vehicles drive many more hours a day than family cars do, going many more miles in a year and using more fuel for each mile, thus multiplying the opportunities for saving fuel. And with gasoline at about $3.50 a gallon, and diesel around $4, the shift to hybrids should go faster."

hide details

British Supermarket Tesco Trials Carbon Labels. BBC, April 29, 2008. "Supermarket chain Tesco has announced that a range of its own brand products will carry labels showing the size of the goods' carbon footprints. Tesco said it would label 20 items, including light bulbs and potatoes, during a two-year trial of the scheme, which is operated by the Carbon Trust. Shoppers will be able to see how much carbon is emitted over the life of a product -- from manufacture to disposal. The store said it was introducing the labels in response to consumer demand... In order for products to carry the carbon reduction label, companies have to undertake a comprehensive carbon audit of the supply chains, and commit to further CO2 reductions over a two-year period."

Utahns Get Right with Polycarbonate Plastic. By Heather May, Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 2008. "Utahns are making a run on stainless steel water bottles, glass baby bottles and BPA-free plastic bottles, sippy cups and pacifiers. Nationally, sales of BPA-free baby products are up five-fold over last year at Toys 'R' Us stores. [Bisphenol A or BPA is a chemical used in the production of the hard plastic, called polycarbonates, used for water and infant bottles and other food containers.] The concern... [was] prompted by recent news that... BPA could affect neural and behavioral development in fetuses, infants and children based on animal studies. Then Canada announced it would ban the import and sale of polycarbonate baby bottles. Then Wal-Mart and Toys 'R' Us announced they would phase out baby bottles made with BPA... Nalgene said it would do the same with its water bottles... Todd Schultz [of Kirkham's Outdoor Products in South Salt Lake] said sales of Nalgene bottles have dropped off while sales of [slightly more expensive] stainless steel bottles... have doubled over last year."

Going Blue-Green. Commentary by Adam Werbach, SFChron, April 10, 2008. "After spending most of my life as a full-time environmentalist, I declared in 2004 that environmentalism was dead, unable to effectively work at the scale of the problems we faced. Since that time, I've been on a journey... to find the next stage of ideas that can help catalyze a new movement... I've come to see that you can eat locally, co-op grown, organic heirloom tomatoes and still be a bad person. Eating those tomatoes is only one small way to take care of yourself, your community and the planet. [They] are an entrance point, not an end. While I'll always be someone with green ideals, it's clear that we need a new mass movement... When you travel to countries that have been green for decades, such as Switzerland, there's already a color for this movement -- it's blue. I propose that we begin to adopt this blue movement here... [using] a platform that is a daily practice for most of us - shopping... Shopping is a regular activity for most people on the planet, and if trends continue, for virtually everyone... Engaging people as consumers, as people who shop, allows us the possibility of building a billion-person movement... Every product you buy should be a gateway to a personal sustainability practice." [Click here for a full text of this speech, which was made to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.]  Adam Werbach is the global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S and formerly served as the national president of the Sierra Club.

hide details

New Government Website Provides Fuel Economy Information. Posted by Daniel Hall, CommonTragedies.com, April 29, 2008. "A new website, www.fueleconomy.gov, maintained by EPA and the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is probably of interest... An entire section is devoted to gas prices. Besides gas mileage tips, it gives fuel economy information for new and used cars and light trucks back to 1985. It also provides links to sites showing the cheapest gas in your area. It has historical gas price information and helps you compare gas prices in your area with other areas.  It also has information on tax incentives for purchasing hybrid, alternative fuel and electric vehicles. There's also an interactive component: you can report your the mileage for your own vehicle and see how it compares to the mileage others are getting. And you can get a detailed Energy Impact Score for a vehicle showing average mileage, petroleum consumption, pollution tally and safety information. You can also compare data on up to four vehicles."

Hearings Today in Senate on Administration Meddling in EPA Science. By H. Josef Hebert, AP, April 29, 2008. "[After 18 months of research, the General Accounting Office has issued a report which states that] the Bush administration is undermining the EPA's ability to determine health dangers of toxic chemicals by letting nonscientists have a bigger -- often secret -- role [in decision-making]. The administration's decision to give the Defense Department and other agencies an early role in the process adds to years of delay in acting on harmful chemicals and jeopardizes the program's credibility, the GAO concluded. At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses. A new review process begun by the White House in 2004 is adding more speed bumps for EPA scientists, the GAO said in its report, which will be the subject of a Senate Environment Committee hearing Tuesday. A formal policy effectively doubling the number of steps was adopted two weeks ago... GAO investigators said extensive involvement by EPA managers, White House budget officials and other agencies has eroded the independence of EPA scientists charged with determining the health risks posed by chemicals."

Criticism From the Heart of Bush Country. Editorial, Houston Chronicle, April 27, 2008. "The Bush administration's hostility to the findings of government scientists manifested itself most visibly on the subject of climate change... [But] climate change, it turns out, is not the only issue on which the administration has tried, with great success, to elevate pro-business politics above scientific data supportive of alternative policies... Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona complained to Congress that when he tried to place important health information before the public, he was thwarted at every hand: Reports on stem cell research, secondhand smoke and the need for U.S. leadership in fighting widespread diseases abroad were all trashed for political reasons. Now the Union of Concerned Scientists reports that more than half of nearly 1,600 scientists with the EPA complained that political appointees opposed to effective environmental protection had interfered with their scientific work... Students in the U.S. routinely lag behind those in other developed nations on science and math tests. Is it any wonder, given the poor quality of science education in most schools and the lack of leadership in Washington?"

Regional EPA Administrator Ousted While Fighting Dow Chemical. Grist, May 2, 2008. "The Bush administration forced out the U.S. EPA's top Midwest regulator on Thursday, after months of contention over a pollution case involving Dow Chemical, the Chicago Tribune reports. Mary Gade, who was appointed by President Bush in 2006, had been tussling with Dow over plans to get the company to clean up extensive dioxin pollution that it dumped into Michigan waterways for decades. Dow asked EPA headquarters to intervene in the dispute, and top deputies to EPA chief Stephen Johnson repeatedly questioned Gade about the case. Then she was stripped of her authority and told to quit or be fired. 'There is no question this is about Dow,' Gade said. 'I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I'm proud of what we did.'"

Tougher Pollution Rules Issued for Ships, Locomotives. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, March 15, 2008. "Diesel-powered locomotives, ships, ferries and tugboats will have to eliminate 90 percent of the soot and 80 percent of the nitrogen oxides in their exhaust by 2030 under tougher air-pollution standards issued by the EPA on Friday... Environmental groups, which had criticized the EPA this week for setting new limits on smog-causing ozone at a level higher than recommended by the agency's independent scientific advisers, applauded yesterday's action."

EPA Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush's Behest. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, March 14, 2008. "The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA. EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents. 'It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA's expert scientific judgment,' said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council."

Waxman Subpoenas EPA for Greenhouse Gas Waiver Documents. By Erica Werner, AP, March 14, 2008. "A House committee chairman issued a subpoena Thursday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over 196 internal documents about its decision to deny California permission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. At least 16 other states were also blocked by the EPA denial from adopting California's tailpipe controls. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, announced the subpoena after negotiating unsuccessfully to get EPA to turn over unredacted versions of the documents on the waiver decision. 'These documents must be provided to the committee because they are relevant to the examination of the administration's decision to reject California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles,' Waxman said. 'The desire to conceal embarrassing facts is not a valid legal basis for withholding these documents from the committee.'"

EPA Closure of Libraries Faulted for Curbing Access to Key Data. By Christopher Lee, WashPost, March 14, 2008. "A plan by the EPA to close several of its 26 research libraries did not fully account for the impact on government staffers and the public, who rely on the libraries for hard-to-find environmental data, congressional investigators reported yesterday. The report by the Government Accountability Office found that the EPA effort, begun in 2006 to comply with a $2 million funding cut sought by the White House, may have hurt access to materials and services in the 37-year-old library network. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said the report reveals a 'gim picture' of mismanagement at the EPA. The panel's oversight and investigations subcommittees held a hearing on the reorganization yesterday. The libraries provide technical information and documentation for enforcement cases and help EPA staff members track new environmental technologies and the health risks associated with dangerous chemicals. They also are repositories of scientific information that is used to back up the agency's positions on new regulations and environmental reports and data that are tapped by people such as developers and state and local officials."

A Glacial Pace on Warming. Editorial, The New York Times, April 28, 2007. "Weeks after the Supreme Court's momentous ruling that the federal government could and probably should regulate greenhouse gases, pressure for decisive action continues to build... A leaked draft of the next report from the world's leading scientists says that the window for action is shrinking — that what governments do over the next 20 to 30 years will determine whether the world can avoid the worst consequences of climate change... Even so, Washington continues to move as slowly as a melting glacier. This week, Stephen Johnson, the E.P.A. administrator, told a Senate committee that he was still mulling the ramifications of the court's decision, and he would not say when or even whether he would regulate carbon dioxide... Mr. Johnson's stalling is a symptom of a larger problem, the administration's reluctance to take seriously the science of global warming, which in turn explains its reluctance to take meaningful action. Yet the walls continue to close in, with the scientists' warnings, the Supreme Court decision, the escalating pressure from the states and the general public. If President Bush will not lead, Congress must."

California to Sue EPA If It Fails to Act Quickly on Greenhouse Gas Standards. By Samantha Young, The Associated Press, April 25, 2007. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday said his administration will sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it fails to act more quickly on California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Schwarzenegger said he called EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday and told him his agency was moving too slowly on California's 2005 request for a waiver to the federal Clean Air Act. The waiver, if granted by the EPA, would allow California to more aggressively regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants. 'If we don't see quick action from the government, we will sue the U.S. EPA'... The administration's letter announcing the intent to sue, a procedural step that is required six months before a lawsuit would be filed, was sent to the EPA on Wednesday, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said. In the letter, Schwarzenegger demands that the EPA act on California's waiver request within 180 days."

EPA Won't Specify Global Warming Plans. By H. Josef Herbert, The Associated Press, April 25, 2007. "The head of the Environmental Protection Agency repeatedly refused to say Tuesday how soon he will comply with a Supreme Court ruling and decide whether to regulate carbon dioxide, the leading gas linked to global warming. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, appearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was asked repeatedly to provide a timetable for responding to the April 2 Supreme Court decisions. The court said the Clean Air Act makes clear the agency must regulate carbon dioxide if it's found that it endangers public health. The legal argument has been settled and 'there's is an unmistakable green light to take action now,' Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the committee's chairman, told Johnson: 'There is no excuse for delay.' But Johnson called the court's ruling complex and said he did not want to be tied to a specific timetable... When Boxer said EPA staff had indicated the agency could make a decision on regulating carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles in three or four months, Johnson said he would 'not commit to a specific four-month schedule'... 'We will move expeditiously, but we are going to be moving responsibly,' said Johnson, a variation of a phrase he used again and again when pressed by senators on a timetable. 'I don't hear in your voice a sense of urgency,' Boxer told Johnson."

EPA Relaxes Air Pollution Rules for Oil Industry. Press Release, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), April 25, 2007. "In a major victory for the oil industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted looser air pollution limits for sprawling petroleum production and exploration operations, according to an agency order released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result, petroleum facilities will be allowed to emit additional tons of hydrocarbons each day. At issue is a regulatory rule called 'aggregation' which prevents polluters from avoiding air pollution permit limits by breaking their operations down into smaller units, each with its own pollution cap."

hide details

In Dramatic Showdown, Kansas Governor Prevails on Veto of Kansas Coal Plants. By Scott Rothschild, Lawrence Journal, May 2, 2008. "[Kansas] Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of two coal-fired power plants survived a furious charge from legislative leaders on Thursday. In a dramatic showdown, the Kansas House voted 80-45, falling four votes short of the required two-thirds majority needed in the 125-member chamber to override the veto... Sebelius has rejected the two 700-megawatt coal-burning plants in southwest Kansas because of concerns over climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions, [among other things]… [House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls] said supporters of the plants weren't giving up. 'We have other options,' he said, but declined to say what they were... But State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, who supports the project, said the speaker's options were limited because he lacks the two-thirds majority to overturn Sebelius."

Corn Ethanol Losing Its Sheen in Washington... By Amanda Paulson, CSM, May 1, 2008. "America's love affair with corn-based ethanol is cooling -- at least in Washington... 'The solution to the issue of corn-fed ethanol is cellulosic ethanol,' President Bush told reporters Tuesday. But no large-scale, cost-effective cellulosic ethanol operations exist [though] research is under way and many scientists expect it to be available in commercial form within the next several years... Last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) asked the federal government to halve the amount of [corn] ethanol that his state is supposed to use... Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) introduced legislation freezing the [that] mandate at current levels... The tax package that is reportedly a part of the farm bill... would cut the current 51-cent a gallon ethanol tax credit by 4 to 6 cents and would create a $1.01 a gallon tax credit for cellulosic ethanol [in] a signal of shifting support from key lawmakers, though critics note that the effect will largely be symbolic, especially since commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol doesn't yet exist. 'They're shifting the credit, but the [corn ethanol] mandate is still there,' says Sandra Schubert... [of] the Environmental Working Group."

...But Gets Green Light in Ottawa. By Mike De Souza, CanWest News, May 1, 2008. "The House of Commons [in Ottawa] is expected to give the green light in coming days to legislation that could boost Canadian production of [agriculture-based] ethanol. [The bill] would allow the government to [set] requirements to ensure all gasoline has an average renewable fuel content of 5% by 2010, and [all] diesel and heating oil [has] an average renewable fuel content of 2% by 2012... Despite [warnings], Canada's two largest political parties believe that ethanol should still be part of the solution... The Conservatives and the Liberals both pledged to introduce the 5% renewable fuel target in their campaign platforms from 2005 as part of their proposed environmental policies. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion even went further last year, calling for a 10% renewable fuel content target by 2010."

Republican Governor of Texas Rebuffs Bush on Corn-Based Ethanol. Editorial, HoustonChron, April 29, 2008. "Texas Gov. Rick Perry bit the bullet this week, calling for the EPA to reduce ethanol requirements by half for at least a year. He was hailed by such groups as the National Chicken Council and the [CEOs] of... Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson. His proposal was attacked by the American Farm Bureau and National Corn Growers Association. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas welcomed Perry's stand, while U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, criticized it for undermining the fight against air pollution. Perry's choice of sides is political: Unlike the Midwest bastion of corn farming and ethanol production, beef and chicken producers and the consumers of their products have a larger voice in Texas. In this case, Perry chose correctly. Diverting foodstuffs such as corn to make gasoline is pinning the public in an untenable position between soaring costs at the gas pump and the grocery store. Environmental writer Bill McKibben told the Chronicle editorial board Monday that, 'Corn ethanol is going to prove to be one of those historically bad ideas that we're still writing about 50 years from now -- a perfect example of why legislators may not be the best people to choose technologies'... In retrospect, it was folly to divert large quantities of a grain that feeds people and livestock and not anticipate rising prices and adverse effects throughout the economy, both at home and abroad."

'Sustainable' Palm Oil Just 'Snake Oil in Clever Disguise'. By Keithf, The Sietch Blog, April 28, 2008. "Ever get the feeling you've been had? It's an iconic quote from a punk legend, but as with all great sayings, it can be applied in many different places. This is one example: the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an industry talking shop if ever there was one and, like the ineffectual light-green environmental groups who 'fight' for changes to government policy and send out gleeful press releases whenever a corporation promises to behave itself, the RSPO are actually making things far worse than if the public were left to their own devices. Sustainable palm oil is simply snake oil in a clever disguise: it doesn't exist and it never will do. Here's how it works..."

hide details

Amazon Deforestation Closely Tracks Food Prices. By Stuart Grudgings, Reuters, April 30, 2008. "Experts say deforestation in the Amazon closely tracks moves on global food markets... 'At the very edge of the agricultural frontier, it's very dynamic and that's why you get statistics for deforestation that swing wildly from one year to the next,' said Roberto Cavalcanti of Conservation International. 'A small shift in food prices can have a big impact on whether it's economical or not to move into the forest.' The governor of Mato Grosso, one of Brazil's biggest farming states, last week advocated more deforestation as a solution to the sharp rises in staples... 'There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking down more trees,' [said] Blairo Maggi... Brazil's largest soybean producer... [But] Cavalcanti said the fact that fuel prices were also rising meant the food crisis was an opportunity for governments in Brazil and elsewhere to encourage farming in areas away from forests, where productivity is often low and costs high. 'By providing incentives for the use of these degraded areas, you could redirect the pressure,' he said."

Short-Term Pause in Warming Predicted for Europe and North America. By Andrew C. Revkin, NYTimes, May 1, 2008. "After decades of research that sought, and found, evidence of a human influence on the earth's climate, climatologists are beginning to shift [their focus]: creating decade-long forecasts for climate... One of the first attempts to look ahead a decade... predicts a slight cooling of Europe and North America, probably related to shifting currents and patterns in the oceans... In a short paper published in the May 1 issue of the journal Nature, [the team that generated the forecast]... stressed that the pause in warming represented only a temporary blunting of the centuries of rising temperatures that scientists have projected if... heat-trapping gases continue accumulating in the atmosphere... It should... help the public and policy makers understand that a cool phase does not mean the overall theory of human-driven warming is flawed, [Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder] said. 'Too many think global warming means monotonic relentless warming everywhere year after year,' Dr. Trenberth said. 'It does not happen that way.'"

hide details

Federal Court Ruling Forces Action on Polar Bear. By Andrew C. Revkin, NYTimes, April 29, 2008. "Environmental groups just cheered a federal court ruling today that forces the Bush administration to decide by mid-May whether polar bears deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act because of Arctic impacts from the warming climate... 'Today's decision is a huge victory for the polar bear,' said Kassie Siegel... [of] the Center for Biological Diversity and lead author of the 2005 petition... seeking protection under the endangered species law. 'By May 15th the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves.' According to a news release from the Natural Resources Defense Council, which joined in the suit, the court rejected a request by the Interior Department for more time, saying: 'Defendants offer no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay. To allow Defendants more time would violate the mandated listing deadlines under the ESA and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing threatened species.' This is classic American environmental action, seeking leverage in existing laws to force governments to move on newly identified problems... Do you think this approach can work in the long run on an issue like climate change?"

Global Warming Adds to Seal Cull Debate. By Daina Lawrence, FT, April 29, 2008. "The fierce debate surrounding Canada's annual seal 'harvest' intensified last month when the E.U.  proposed a ban on importing seal products from [Canada], a move that would severely damage the cull. But the seal hunters face another obstacle... global warming... Recently, more attention has turned to what impact weather conditions are having on the seal population. Those against the hunt say it is not sustainable because volatile ice conditions are causing seals to die in greater numbers. Global Action Network claims the Canadian government's 'agenda to exterminate seals' comes at a time when climate change is 'causing the very habitat of the ice-breeding seals to disappear'. But the sealers [are of a different mind]. 'There is a huge difference between climate and weather,' says Jim Winter... of the Canadian Sealers' Association [who] describes claims that climate change is creating an unsustainable hunt as 'disingenuous at best and manipulative at the worst.'"

Salmon Decline Is a Wake-up Call. Commentary by Doug Howell, SeattleP-I, April 29, 2008. "It is hard to find the silver lining in a situation as dire as the collapse of wild salmon off the Oregon and California coasts... From the fishermen and suppliers to the restaurants and individuals who buy salmon at the market, it is another blow to our struggling economy. As families, communities and local businesses try to deal with the consequences of this year's fishery collapse, scientists are working to understand the causes. Rising to the top of that list -- the 800-pound gorilla in the room -- is global warming. As ocean temperatures rise, snow pack declines and rain patterns shift, global warming will continue to disrupt the delicate balance of aquatic ecosystems. The plight of wild salmon is an indication of global warming's increasing and over-arching threat. The sooner we take action the better the outcome for people and salmon." Doug Howell is regional executive director of National Wildlife Federation, Western Natural Resource Center, Seattle.

Preserving Arctic Fisheries Before Harvesting Them. By David Biello, SciAmerican, April 29, 2008. "In the wake of dramatically dwindling populations of salmon and other fish, U.S. officials are grappling with ways to cut their losses -- and stave off future damage. Over-fishing and environmental damage have decimated ocean inhabitants -- and climate change threatens to hurt them even more. Just this month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council in Portland, Ore., closed the coasts of California and Oregon to salmon fishing after observing an alarming drop in the species population there, which plummeted in just one river -- the Sacramento -- from hundreds of thousands in the 1990s to just about 58,000 this past fall. 'Historically, in many places in the world, what humankind has done is rushed into the ocean and harvested, trawled and discarded ocean fish until a fishery collapsed,' says Jim Ayers... of... Oceana. 'That is managing based on collapse'... Meanwhile, there is a new fishery of sorts opening in the Arctic, thanks to sea ice receding from the north coast of Alaska that is making way for new fish hangouts. Salmon, among other fish, are beginning to show up north of the Bering Strait as they migrate in search of cooler waters that are disappearing in the more southern parts of the ocean. The catch: commercial fishing boats will follow, unless all fishing north of the Bering Strait is banned as proposed by scientists, environmentalists and even the fishing industry itself."

hide details

Report Warns That Weakest Will Suffer Most. By Paul Eccleston, London Daily Telegraph, April 29, 2008. "The world's poorest and most vulnerable children are being hit hardest by climate change, according to UNICEF, [and will] face a world in which disasters, violence and disease will become more intense. A new report from UNICEF UK [Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility, PDF 40 pp]... says access to clean water and food supplies will become harder, particularly in African and Asia. It calls on the government to make children a priority and says UK companies must play their part by cutting CO2 emissions and contributing more to the costs of adapting to climate change. The report claims the effects of climate change is already having an adverse impact on children's lives and is hampering many of the targets agreed at a UN Millennium Development Summit in 2000 -- on poverty, disease, health and education -- being achieved... Its publication is timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol."

London Gathering Hears Dire News on Warming Impacts. By Nigel Morris, London Independent, April 29, 2008. "As many as one billion people could lose their homes by 2050 because of the devastating impact of global warming, scientists and political leaders will be warned today [at a conference here organized by the Institute for Public Policy Research]. They will hear that the steady rise in temperatures across the planet could trigger mass migration on unprecedented levels. Hundreds of millions could be forced... on the move because of water shortages and crop failures in most of Africa, as well as in central and southern Asia and South America... There could also be an effect on levels of starvation and on food prices as agriculture struggles to cope with growing demand in increasingly arid conditions. Rising sea levels could also cause havoc with coastal communities in southern Asia, the Far East, the south Pacific islands and the Caribbean... North and west Africans could head towards Europe, while the southern border of the U.S. could come under renewed pressure from Central America. The conference will hear a warning from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that the developed world should start preparing for a huge movement of people caused by climate change."

Green Investing

Sweden's Carbon-Tax Solution Propelled it to Top-Ranking Green Country. By Gwladys Fouche, London Guardian, April 29, 2008. "In 2007 Sweden topped the list of countries that did the most to save the planet -- for the second year running -- according to... environmental group Germanwatch. Between 1990 and 2006 Sweden cut its CO2 by 9%, largely exceeding [its Kyoto Protocol] target... while enjoying economic growth of 44% in fixed prices... But 'this was not considered ambitious enough,' explains Emma Lindberg, a climate change expert at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. 'So parliament decided to cut emissions by another 4% [below 1990 levels]'... The main reason for this success, say experts, is the introduction of a carbon tax in 1991…'Our carbon emissions would have been 20% higher without the carbon tax,' says the Swedish environment minister, Andreas Carlgren."   

Private Equity Firm KKR Teams with Green Group in First Such Union. By Marc Gunther, Fortune, May 1, 2008. "Private equity firms are renowned -- and occasionally denounced -- for squeezing costs out of companies they buy... their critics allege [by often]... exploiting workers, avoiding taxes and polluting the planet... [That background] provides a useful context for Thursday's announcement of a partnership between Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, one of the world's leading buyout firms, and the Environmental Defense Fund. Their 'green portfolio' partnership -- the first between a big private equity fund and an environmental group -- is intended to measure and improve the environmental performance of KKR's U.S. companies... If even a handful of [KKR's many] companies adopt greener practices, that will matter."

Gore's Investment Company Creates a New $683 Million New 'Green' Fund. By Fiona Harvey, FT, April 30, 2008. "[Generation Investment Management], headed by Al Gore [and managed by David Blood, former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management], has closed a new $683 million fund to invest in early-stage environmental companies and has mounted a robust defence of green investing. The Climate Solutions Fund will be one of the biggest in the growing market for investment funds with an environmental slant. The fund will be focused on equity investments in small companies in four sectors: renewable energy; energy efficiency technologies; energy from biofuels and biomass; and the carbon trading markets. This is the second fund from Generation... The first, the Global Equity Strategy Fund, has $2.2 billion invested in large companies the company judges have 'sustainable' businesses, from an environmental, social and economic viewpoint. Mr Blood said he expected that fund to be worth $5 billion within two years, based on commitments from interested investors... 'The fact we were able to raise $683 million was extraordinary, so our experience is that it has not really been a problem [raising funds despite what is] generally a difficult environment,' he [added]."

hide details

Our Last Chance to Snap into Action for the Climate. By Mike Tidwell, Orion, May/June, 2008 issue. "What the scientists have been wrong about -- and I mean really, really wrong -- is the speed at which it's all occurring. Our climate system isn't just 'changing.' It's not just 'warming.' It's snapping, violently, into a whole new regime right before our eyes. A fantastic spasm of altered weather patterns is crashing down upon our heads right now. The only question left for America is this: can we snap along with the climate? Can we, as the world's biggest polluter, create a grassroots political uprising that emerges as abruptly as a snap of the fingers?... Amid the sudden need to rethink everything a.s.a.p. comes another piece of good news: the clean-energy solutions to global warming grow more economically feasible and closer at hand with each passing year... Getting off carbon fuels-though vital and mandatory-won't steer us clear of climate chaos. We've delayed action far too long... But the answer to the question Can human beings artificially cool the planet? is almost certainly yes. That answer, I realize, poses a terrible conundrum for conservationists like me who understand it's precisely this sort of anthropocentrism and technological arrogance that got us into the mess we're in. But like it or not, we are where we are. And I, for one, can't look my ten-year-old son in the eye and, using a different sort of ideological arrogance, say, No, don't even try atmospheric engineering. We've learned our lesson. Just let catastrophic global warming run its course... Although there are surely dark times ahead, I can see him living through them, living deep into the twenty-first century, when most of the lingering greenhouse gases will have finally dissipated from our atmosphere, allowing an orderly end to the geo-engineering process." Mike Tidwell is the author of The Ravaging Tideand is the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Running on Empty. By Mark Hertsgaard, Nation, April 24, 2008. "It used to be that only environmentalists and paranoids warned about running out of oil. Not anymore. As climate change did over the past few years, peak oil seems poised to become the next big idea commanding the attention of governments, businesses and citizens the world over. The arrival of $119-a-barrel crude and $4-a-gallon gasoline this spring are but the most obvious signs that global oil production has or soon will peak... Though largely unnoticed by the world media, a decisive moment in the peak oil debate came last September, when James Schlesinger declared that the 'peakists' were right. You don't get closer to the American establishment and energy business than Schlesinger, who has served as chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, head of the CIA, Defense Secretary, Energy Secretary and adviser to countless oil companies... Schlesinger said, 'It's no longer the case that we have a few voices crying in the wilderness. The battle is over. The peakists have won.' Schlesinger added that many oil company CEOs privately agree that peak oil is imminent but don't say so publicly... At first glance, one might think that peak oil would help the fight against climate change. After all, less available oil should translate into less oil consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. But modern civilization, to borrow George W. Bush's term, is addicted to oil. If peak oil arrives before the addiction is treated, the junkie will seek even more dangerous ways to get his fix... Activists in scores of towns and cities around the world are trying to prepare their communities for the transition to a post-oil economy. Rather than wait for national governments and multinational corporations to save them, these ordinary citizens are examining how their communities can produce their own energy, food, buildings and other essentials using local resources rather than materials that arrive from afar via oil-based transport... In Britain... Rob Hopkins...drawing on the experience of his hometown of Totnes, in Devon, has just published The Transition Handbook, which explains how other towns can also begin preparing for the post-oil future."

Climate Change Could Spark More Islamic Extremism, Report Warns. By Lisa Freidman, EENews, April 25, 2008, subscription. "Climate change could spawn the next Osama bin Laden unless industrialized nations aggressively reduce emissions and help those suffering the brunt of weather catastrophes, a new international security report[PDF 141 pp] warns. From Bangladesh to Indonesia, sub-Saharan Africa to the Maldives, Muslim countries are in some of the most water-stressed regions of the world. As sea levels rise, the study from a top U.K. think tank predicts, so will tensions with the West. 'Climate change will be used by extremist groups to bolster existing resentment against developed countries,' author Nick Mabey wrote in Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate Changed World. Noting that bin Laden already has used the decades of emissions-spewing in the West to stoke resentment, Mabey implored industrialized countries to act quickly on global warming. Failing to do so, he said, could unravel confidence in the international system."

U.S. Scrambles to Address International Food Crisis. By Dan Eggen, WashPost, April 26, 2008. "The Bush administration and Congress have been caught flat-footed by rapidly escalating global food prices and are scrambling to respond to a crisis that they increasingly view as a threat to U.S. national security, according to government officials, congressional staffers and human rights experts. The White House released $200 million in emergency wheat stores for developing countries last week... Top Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are pressing the White House to devote more money to emergency food aid -- up from $350 million to $550 million -- as part of a supplemental Iraq war budget package. But administration officials and legislative aides acknowledge that they have only recently begun to focus on the severity of the problem, and humanitarian groups fear that assistance from the United States, which already supplies about half of the world's total food aid, may come too late to provide much benefit in the near term... The escalating prices have sparked riots in more than a dozen nations, from Cameroon to Bangladesh to the Philippines. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick warns that more than 30 nations are at risk of social unrest from the crisis and that at least 100 million additional people could be pushed into poverty in coming months... The World Food Program, which is the single largest recipient of U.S. food aid, provides a stark example of food-price inflation: On March 3, the group's purchase price for rice in Bangkok was $460 per metric ton; five weeks later, it was $780."

hide details

Chronicling Climate-Challenged Communities Around the World. By Dan Charles, NPR, April 26, 2008. "Juan Hoffmaister is 24 years old, a citizen of Costa Rica and a recent graduate of College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Since last summer, he has been on a voyage of discovery, a year-long tour of places that may bear the brunt of changes in Earth's climate... 'I started the journey thinking that I was going to go out there and collect success stories,' he says. 'Within a couple of months, I realized that what I was collecting was survival stories.'"

Costa Rican University Cultivating World's 'Green' Leaders. By Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News, April 22, 2008. "At Earth University in eastern Costa Rica, the quest for green extends far beyond campus life -- it's the main focus of study. 'We're forming leaders to go out and influence their communities and their countries to take greater care of the Earth and change the world,' said Jose Zaglul, the university's president. That may seem like a lofty mission for a small agricultural college of 417 students tucked into the remote tropics. But the university has earned a reputation for its hands-on, can-do academic approach to agricultural science and natural-resources management. And many of its graduates have taken up significant positions in governments in Central and South America... The university has its own 2,400-acre rain forest preserve and organic farm, so students can learn how their planet works while on campus."

Jane Goodall Passes Torch to World's Youth on Earth Day. By Barbara Liston, Reuters, April 23, 2008. "Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, 74, symbolically passed the torch on Tuesday to a new generation of hand-picked environmental and peace activists whom she gathered this week for the first Jane Goodall Global Youth Summit. 'The 100 (young people) who are here represent hundreds of thousands of others,' Goodall said on the 38th annual Earth Day. 'You hear them debate some of the problems of the world, and you know there is hope for the future.' Goodall, who rose to fame in the 1960s through her ground-breaking study of chimpanzees in East Africa, now spends 300 days a year on the road using her personal story and rock star status among young people to inspire them to act on critical issues in their communities. She said her goal has been to build a critical mass of young activists to carry on her life's work for a more humane world, acting through youth organizations such as her own Roots & Shoots which started on her front porch in Tanzania in 1991. 'I was determined not to die until Roots & Shoots could survive. Now I know it will. It's got its own life without me, Goodall said. The 100 young people at the summit in Orlando, Florida, came from 28 countries, and all were selected personally by Goodall based on their work in their communities."

hide details

Congressional Leaders Issue 'Principles for Global Warming Legislation'. Press Release, House Oversight Committee, April 22, 2008. "Today on Earth Day, three Congressional leaders on climate and energy issues laid out principles for any effective legislative solution to the challenge of global warming. Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman Ed Markey and Rep. Jay Inslee released Principles for Global Warming Legislation [PDF 5 pp], which are designed to provide a framework for Congress as it produces legislation to establish an economy-wide mandatory program to cut global warming emissions... The principles recognize four key goals for global warming legislation: 1) Reduce emissions to avoid dangerous global warming; 2) Transition America to a clean energy economy; 3) Recognize and minimize any economic impacts from global warming legislation; and 4) Aid communities and ecosystems vulnerable to harm from global warming... The principles include the following elements: strong science-based targets for near-term and long-term emissions reductions; auctioning emissions allowances rather than giving them to polluting industries; investing auction revenues in clean energy technologies; returning auction proceeds to consumers, workers, and communities to offset any economic impacts; and dedicating a portion of auction proceeds to help states, communities, vulnerable developing countries, and ecosystems address harm from the degree of global warming that is now unavoidable... Chairman Waxman [D, CA] is the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Chairman Markey [D, MA] is the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Inslee [D, WA] is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a senior member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming."

Congress Cuts Key Ethanol Tax Credit in Farm Bill. By James Politi, FT, April 26, 2008. "Congressional negotiators on Friday reached a tentative agreement on the farm bill, potentially ending months of deadlock over U.S. agricultural policy amid record profits by farmers and mounting concerns over rising food prices. The proposed legislation, whose final details will be unveiled next week and still face the possibility of a White House veto, will cost $280 billion over five years and largely preserves an extensive programme of subsidies to U.S. farmers. Under the terms of the deal reached by House and Senate negotiators, a key ethanol tax credit is expected to be reduced from 51 cents per gallon to 45 and the tariff on ethanol imports from outside the US is also expected to be scaled back. In addition, negotiators broadly agreed on an additional $10 billion in funding for national food aid programmes, designed to tackle the threat posed by rising food prices in the US and address fears that millions of poor Americans risk going hungry."

Waxman to Pursue EPA Scientists Complaint About Political Pressure. By H. Josef Hebert, AP, April 23, 2008. "Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists say they have been pressured by superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists... Francesca Grifo, director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program, said the survey results revealed 'an agency in crisis' and 'under siege from political pressures' especially among scientists involved in risk assessment and crafting regulations. 'The investigation shows researchers are generally continuing to do their work, but their scientific findings are tossed aside when it comes time to write regulations,' said Grifo... Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif... said he planned to pursue the issue at an upcoming hearing by his Oversight and Government Reform Committee where [EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson] is scheduled to testify. UCF sent an online questionnaire to 5,500 EPA scientists and received 1,586 responses, a majority of them senior scientists who have worked for the agency for 10 years or more. The survey included chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in the life and environmental sciences."

Senate Votes to Extend 'Green' Energy Tax Breaks. By Sara Spivey, Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 11, 2008. "The Senate on Thursday voted to extend a suite of tax breaks for renewable-energy industries, a move to bolster investments and encourage job growth in forward-looking technologies. Despite the broad support of an 88-8 vote, the tax incentives face an uncertain future in Congress. They were attached to a major mortgage-relief bill that is expected to undergo significant changes in the coming weeks. The tax credits available on wind, solar, geothermal and other clean energy technologies will expire at the end of the year. The bill approved Thursday would extend for one year a 2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production credit for wind, biomass, geothermal, small irrigation power, landfill gas, trash combustion and hydropower. A 30 percent tax credit for the manufacture of solar and fuel cells was extended to 2016. People who purchase solar panels to generate power also would qualify for a 30 percent write-off. Tax credits for makers of energy-efficient dishwashers, washing machines and refrigerators also would be extended, as would credits for home purchases of solar hot water heaters."

Wild Sky Wilderness Bill Passed by Senate. By Jennifer A. Dloughy, SeattlePI, April 11, 2008. "A long-stalled plan to wall off more than 106,000 acres of Washington state wilderness from motorists and loggers moved one step closer to becoming law Thursday when the Senate passed a bill authorizing the project. The measure, which would create the Wild Sky Wilderness Area, now heads to the House, which is expected to pass it quickly and send it to President Bush. The president has not indicated whether he would sign the legislation... If the legislation passes the House, the Wild Sky bill will confer the highest level of protection afforded federal property on 106,577 acres in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, about 90 minutes by car from downtown Seattle. Wild Sky would become the first new wilderness area in Washington state in 23 years... The area would be off limits to vehicles, including bicycles and snowmobiles... Logging, mining and other commercial uses would be banned... Over the course of nine years, Wild Sky ran into roadblocks... The bill passed the Senate several times, only to run into strong opposition in the House. Rancher and former Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., staunchly opposed the Wild Sky project and used his chairmanship of the House Natural Resources Committee to keep it from passing the House. Pombo lost his bid for re-election in November 2006, when Democrats recaptured control of the House."

hide details

Bicycle-Sharing Program to Be Launched in Washington D.C. By Bernie Becker, NYTimes, April 27, 2008. "Starting next month, people in D.C. will be able to rent a bicycle day and night with the swipe of a membership card. A new public-private venture called SmartBike DC will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in central locations in the city. The automated program, which district officials say is the first of its kind in the nation, will operate in a similar fashion to car-sharing programs like Zipcar. The district has teamed up with an advertiser, Clear Channel Outdoor, to put the bikes on the streets... In the deal, Clear Channel will have exclusive advertising rights in the city's bus shelters. The company has reached a similar deal with San Francisco. Chicago and Portland, Ore., are also considering proposals from advertisers. For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets but does encourage their use.

Similar programs have proved successful in Europe. The Velib program in Paris and Bicing in Barcelona, Spain, both started around a year ago and already offer thousands of bicycles.

Buying Green Power with Community Choice Aggregation. By Peter Asmus, CSM, April 22, 2008. "There are new ways for you to fight climate change in your own backyard. One of the most promising models is called 'Community Choice Aggregation.' CCA is the legal term for an innovative way for cities and counties to purchase electricity by votes of local governments. Previously, the only way for a local government to have a say in where the community's power came from was to establish a municipally owned utility. The CCA process provides an easier way to switch to an earth-friendlier power supply without taking on the burden of managing the power lines, collecting bills, and the divisive politics involved with the expensive process of bringing energy under municipal control. This type of community energy planning is happening in a big way in California's Marin County." Peter Asmus is a board member of the Marin Conservation League.

hide details

Texas Governor Calls For 50% Reduction in Ethanol Mandate. By David Ivanovich, HoustonChron, April 26, 2008. "Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked federal regulators to relax rules requiring use of corn-based ethanol in the nation's fuel supply, arguing the mandate is driving up world food prices and harming the Texas economy. In a letter sent Friday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Perry asked the Bush administration to waive 50 percent of the federal mandate for production of ethanol derived from grain. In pushing for the waiver, Perry injected himself into an ongoing debate over corn-based ethanol, an argument that touches on energy and environmental policy and affects numerous special interests. Federal law requires that the nation use 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels this year and 11 billion gallons in 2009. Ethanol is blended into more than half the gasoline sold in the United States, including in Houston and other cities struggling with the worst air-quality problems. While the push for greater use of renewable sources may have been 'well intentioned policy,' the measure has 'had the unintentional consequence of harming segments of our agriculture industry and contributing to higher food prices,' Perry wrote in his letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson."

Georgia Gov. Launches Green Initiative. By Stacy Shelton, AtlantaJ-C, April 24, 2008. "On Thursday, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a new 'culture of conservation' in a fast-growing state where every day the net loss of trees totals more than 100 acres, electric usage is among the top in the nation, and -- until recently -- water is generously lavished on lawns. On a three-stop state tour to launch Conserve Georgia, a marketing and public relations campaign aimed at rallying residents and businesses to conserve water, energy and land, Perdue ordered state government to reduce energy use 15 percent by 2020. 'I like to conserve money, but the way we do that is by conserving all over,' said Perdue [known as a business-friendly Republican], wearing jeans and work boots at his first stop at the Pratt Industries recycling plant in East Point. 'We want to make 'conservation' not a sacrificial word but a badge of honor.'"

Governors Convene At Yale To Fight Global Warming. By David Funkhouser, Hartford Courant, April 19, 2008. "In what was intended as a historic replay of a landmark meeting on conservation called by President Theodore Roosevelt 100 years ago, Yale brought together governors and officials from several states April 18th to sign a declaration calling on the federal government to get moving on climate change. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to sign the declaration and to deliver his own brand of eco-politics: As a fiercely independent Republican governor of California... he makes no bones about his differences with Congress and the Bush administration. 'In California, we say don't wait for Washington, because Washington is asleep at the wheel,' he said. Like many who spoke at the conference, he is looking to the next administration for decisive action: 'Things will begin to pick up speed after Inauguration Day.' That sentiment matched the central theme of the conference, which was that states have moved far out in front on the issue, and the federal government needs to work with them when developing climate policy. 'Today, we recommit ourselves to the effort to stop global warming and we call on congressional leaders and the presidential candidates to work with us'  -- in partnership -- to establish a comprehensive national climate policy, states the declaration, signed so far by 18 governors... Yale also brought in Nobel Prize-winner R.K. Pachauri, head of the U.N.'s IPCC, to speak at the signing... He warned that without action now, irreversible changes in climate could lead to melting of the massive Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. Such events would send sea levels up several meters 'and put at risk several hundreds of millions of people,' he said." See video of event, 2:30 min.

Lacking Clear Direction from Washington, States Battle Fiercely over Energy Policy. By Felicity Barringer, NYTimes, March 20, 2008. "'There are certainly battles happening all over the nation,' said Steve Clemmer, the Clean Energy Program research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In Kansas and Washington State, the battles are over individual plants. Other fights, as in California, are over... who will have to pay, and how much. Some, as in Minnesota, are over how much renewable energy must be created and what forms are appropriate. And that list does not take into account major battles between the states and the federal government [as in] EPA's refusal to let California control greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles. What to do about the greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels -- particularly the coal that fuels the lion's share of electricity in 25 states -- is a question Washington has largely dodged. But politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The national gridlock over climate-change policy has led to an ever-increasing number of state initiatives. Currently 18 states seek to cap carbon dioxide emissions for industry and 25 support mandates for renewable energy; renewable-mandate legislative battles are under way in Ohio and Michigan. There are three multi-state compacts intended to limit emissions and allow trading of carbon allowances; governors of 10 Midwestern states, including [Kansas Gov.] Sebelius, joined such a pact last fall. The trend has not been slowed by the Bush administration's approval of new gas-mileage standards for new trucks and cars, or its nearly simultaneous refusal to give California and 17 other states the waiver needed to control emissions from cars. For example, Washington State last year passed a law limiting the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions that any new power plant could produce. After the law was passed, regulators blocked a power plant that would be partly coal-fired, saying it would emit an illegal amount of carbon dioxide."

U.S.'s First Carbon Auction Set for September 10. By David Funkhouser, Hartford Courant, March 18, 2008. "For the first time in the U.S., carbon dioxide goes on sale in September -- and the bidding will start at $1.86 a ton. A consortium of 10 states, including Connecticut, said Monday it will hold the first auction of carbon emissions 'allowances' on Sept. 10... Subsequent auctions will be held quarterly, and power plant operators -- who until now have been able to emit without paying -- will have until the end of 2011 to acquire enough credits to account for all of their CO2 emissions... The states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative have agreed to auction off nearly all of the allotment of carbon allowances, totaling about 188 million tons of CO2 in the first year. The consortium includes all of New England, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York."

N.H. House Joins Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. By Norma Love, AP, March 20, 2008. "New Hampshire's House… voted 214-107 to send a bill to the Senate that implements the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative... 'This is a very small step. It is almost a token step. I would agree with that 100 percent. But we have to start somewhere,' said Lee Democrat Naid Kaen, the bill's prime sponsor... The bill adds New Hampshire to the other New England states, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland in a market-based, 'cap and trade' program to reduce CO2 emissions from the region's power plants... beginning in 2009... New Hampshire's cap would be 8.6 million tons per year out of 188 million tons emitted by the 10 states... Other types of allowances also are part of the plan. For example, capturing methane gas at a landfill also reduces carbon emissions. Also under consideration is using forestry management to reduce carbon emissions through techniques as simple as planting trees." [Gov. John Lynch supports the bill.]

Vermont Governor Signs Bill Promoting Energy Efficiency. By Dave Gram, AP, March 20, 2008. "Gov. Jim Douglas on Wednesday signed into law a bill aimed at promoting renewable energy like solar and wind power, as well as new efficiency measures devoted to reducing Vermonters' use of oil and other heating fuels.more stories like thiThe bill... will 'help Vermonters better manage their heating resources, protect our environment and save money,' Douglas [said]... The bill calls for the Department of Public Service to hold a series of 'stakeholder workshops' beginning this spring to come up with a request for proposals, basically a work order for a contractor or contractors who would administer the new efficiency programs. By next year, those programs should be up and running, providing Vermonters with grants and other financing to add new insulation, tighter windows and the like to their homes... In addition, the bill allows for new [renewable energy] tax credits... which advocates said would be timely given the uncertainty over whether federal [solar] tax credits... will be renewed this year. And among a broad range of other measures, [the bill] allows an expansion of 'net metering,' in which people who make their own power can ship any extra onto their utility grid, lowering their electric bills in the process."

San Francisco One Step Closer to Nation's Greenest Building Code. By Cecilia Vega, San Francisco Chronicle, March 20, 2008. "San Francisco moved a step closer Wednesday to imposing the country's most stringent green building codes, regulations that would require new large commercial buildings and residential high-rises to contain such environmentally friendly features as solar power, nontoxic paints and plumbing fixtures that decrease water usage. City officials estimate that by 2012, the new green building codes could reduce CO2 emissions by 60,000 tons and save 220,000 megawatt-hours of power and 100 million gallons of drinking water. The Building Inspection Commission... voted unanimously Wednesday to send the green building standards to the Board of Supervisors. If the supervisors approve the regulations, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who last year convened a task force to study and develop the proposals, has promised to sign them into law... While local builders initially would see the overall cost of their projects increase by as much as 5 percent as a result... they nonetheless applauded the stricter codes."

Revisiting a 2007 Energy Policy Speech by New York's David Paterson. By David A. Paterson, Speech to the Energy Association of New York, January 17, 2007. "We propose to increase renewable energy's complementary role in New York's power grid. Solar and wind power will be an important part... [as will] installing solar panels on large commercial ventures, in public housing, and in schools. Streamlining the state approval process and [making] it easier for new wind farms to connect to the electricity grid will be an essential part of our efforts. We propose to strengthen energy efficiency standards for buildings and promote green buildings statewide. Buildings consume nearly a third of America's energy nationwide, so reducing this demand in the construction or renovation stage could bring real rewards. We should consider requiring the school construction authority to use the best available technologies for energy-efficient buildings. We will also expand net metering laws, which allow ratepayers to sell back to the utilities excess power they generate from renewable energy... It's time for some vision in our energy policy. It's like looking at a child and seeing the adult she will become. That's why you send kids to school and that's why you put money in the bank." [David A. Paterson, Lt-Gov. under Gov. Eliot Spitzer, has just been sworn in as the new Governor of New York.]

Governors Seek Action on Global Warming. By H. Josef Hebert, The Associated Press, September 12, 2007. "Governors want to expand state regulation of greenhouse gases in hopes of increasing pressure for federal action on global warming, the chairman of the National Governors Association said Wednesday. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., said in an Associated Press interview that getting more states to limit greenhouse gases is a priority among clean energy issues for the group. Others include spurring energy conservation and broadening use of renewable fuels such as ethanol. 'We have a federal government that doesn't seem to want to move as fast or as bold as many would like' on these issues, Pawlenty said. If enough states act to curtail greenhouse gases, 'it becomes a de facto national policy,' he said. A dozen states have adopted plans to require a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles and three other states are considering similar action. Auto companies complain that the limits would require increases in average mile-per-gallon standards that may not be achievable... At a news conference with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Pawlenty discussed how states can promote conservation and alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, and accelerate development of clean energy technologies. The association announced a task force, headed by eight governors, to advance clean energy development at the state level and potentially 'alter the landscape of clean energy policy in the United States.' The Energy Department said it will provide $610,000 to support the association's effort." NGA Officially Launches Clean Energy Initiative. Press Release, NGA, September 12, 2007. "NGA is committed to promoting clean energy policies across the country. NGA Chair Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius officially launched the Securing a Clean Energy Futureinitiative."

Conoco to Spend 10 million on California Offset Deal. By Leonard Anderson, Reuters, September 11, 2007. "California Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Tuesday that U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips agreed to pay $10 million to offset greenhouse gas emissions caused by an expansion of its San Francisco-area oil refinery in Rodeo, California. Conoco will spend $7 million for environmental projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, $2.8 million for reforestation in the state, and $200,000 to restore local wetlands. The accord is believed to be the first time a U.S. oil company agreed to offset emissions of heat-trapping gases from a refinery expansion, Brown said at a news conference. Conoco has proposed a refinery expansion including a hydrogen plant to produce steam and electricity to make cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel fuels. Under the accord, the hydrogen plant initially will emit about 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, and Conoco agreed to offset any CO2 emissions beyond that level if it raises its use of hydrogen…The agreement helps California to meet greenhouse gas reduction coals in the state's landmark law adopted last year to fight global warming, Brown said."

California Attorney General Jerry Brown Vows 'To Do Everything in My Power' to Enforce State's Greenhouse Gas Policy. By Josh Richman, The Oakland Tribune, February 2, 2007. “California Attorney General Jerry Brown extended an olive branch to the nation's largest automakers this week, even as he tries to beat back their attempt to kill a state greenhouse-gas lawsuit against them. Brown's office filed a response in federal court Thursday to automakers' claim that California's lawsuit -- the first ever to seek monetary damages from the industry for past and future harm by greenhouse-gas emissions -- should be dismissed… Brown, at his first news conference since taking office last month, gave reporters a letter he sent Wednesday to the automakers' attorney in which he said he was 'struck by the need' for the state to work with them 'to address the profound environmental challenges posed by global warming'... 'Accordingly, I am requesting a meeting with each of the CEOs of General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan to discuss resolution of our pending litigation and moving forward cooperatively,' he wrote. 'I am willing to meet at any suitable time or location.' Brown told reporters Thursday he will 'do everything in my power, political and legal, to get the job done' — the job in question being comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions policy. He said a Chrysler lawyer had called him earlier Thursday, and the company seemed 'amenable' to talks. He also noted that this lawsuit was filed by his predecessor, Bill Lockyer"

California Legislator to Introduce Bill to Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs by 2012. By Bernie Woodall, Reuters, January 30, 2007. "A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent light bulbs as part of California's groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The 'How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb Act' would ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs. 'Incandescent light bulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications,' California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said on Tuesday. 'Meanwhile, they remain incredibly inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the energy they receive into light.' Levine is expected to introduce the legislation this week, his office said."

Mass. Gov. Patrick Signs Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. By Steve LeBlanc, The Associated Press, January 18, 2007. "Gov. Deval Patrick, making good on a campaign pledge, signed an agreement Thursday committing Massachusetts to the nation's first multistate program to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Patrick also announced a new program intended to create energy savings for households and industry by auctioning off so-called 'mission allowances' that electricity generators will need for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit under the pact. 'Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time,' Patrick said. 'On this day, we want everyone to know that Massachusetts will not stand on the sidelines.' The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 10 percent by 2019. It has already been signed by governors from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. Former Gov. Mitt Romney opted out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in 2005, saying it could drive up energy costs for consumers. Patrick acknowledged that joining the pact could drive up electricity bills by $3 to $16 on the average household with an annual energy bill of $950. 'What's most important is that we be careful not to use short-term factors to defeat long-term objectives,' he said." Patrick Re-Joins RGGI, Press Release, MassPIRG, January 18, 2007.

Vermont Legislators Debate Higher Fuel Taxes. By Candace Page, The Burlington Free Press, January 19, 2007. "Over the objections of four members, the Governor's Commission on Climate Change agreed Thursday to keep higher fuel taxes on the menu of anti-global-warming strategies it will analyze for possible recommendation to Gov. Jim Douglas and the Vermont Legislature. The debate offered a first taste of the fights certain to break out as the commission -- and lawmakers -- move from studying the perils of climate change to considering specific steps to reduce Vermont's greenhouse gas emissions. 'A higher fuel tax can be an effective way to fund other steps that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions,' argued Richard Cowart of the Regulatory Assistance Project. 'I would oppose raising the gasoline tax for any reason,' countered Bill Sayre of Associated Industries of Vermont, a manufacturers' group."

Schwarzenegger Signs Executive Order to Establish Alternative Fuels Plan. Commentary by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The San Francisco Chronicle, January 18, 2007. "The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to debate legislation today aimed at reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and I am glad to see Washington finally focus on this vital issue. But in California, we're not waiting for Washington to act. We are moving forward on our own because the issue is too important to wait for someone else to lead. Under an executive order I am signing today, California will establish the world's first carbon standard for transportation fuels. This is a follow-up to the historic global warming legislation I signed last September, and it has the benefit of being great for the environment and great for the economy and national security. Our global warming act set the most ambitious targets in the world for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. It commits California to reduce climate change emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 -- a 25 percent reduction. By 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels. The plan goes farther than the Kyoto Protocol, as those targets only extend to 2012. And the Kyoto target is to reduce green-house gas emissions 12.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. We will do this while creating jobs and raising incomes. But to achieve these goals, we must reduce our dependence on oil for meeting our enormous transportation needs. That's where my new executive order comes in."

California Lawmakers Just Got Greener. By Nancy Vogel, The Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2007. "If you are what you drive, California lawmakers are a newly green bunch. They're swapping gas-sucking sport utility vehicles for gas-sipping hybrids as their official state cars. Now that the lease on his Ford Explorer has expired, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) is driving a Toyota Prius. At least 38 of his fellow members also have chosen hybrids; only 10 have requested nonhybrid SUVs as their taxpayer-subsidized wheels. That's a transformation since 2002, when a single member drove a hybrid and 33 had SUVs. Some senators are converts too, though not nearly as many. And it was Nuñez who largely orchestrated the turnaround: He used his discretionary budget to slice $6,000 off the price of a leased hybrid for any member who chose one."

An Interview with California Environmental Adviser Terry Tamminen. By David Roberts, Grist Magazine, January 4, 2007. "With his bluntness and lack of pretense, it's easy to see why Arnold Schwarzenegger trusted him. The California governor brought Tamminen on as his environmental adviser in 2003, elevated him to secretary of the state EPA, and then appointed him a senior cabinet adviser in 2004. In part due to Tamminen's behind-the-scenes influence and tireless work, Schwarzenegger's first term saw the state pass numerous groundbreaking environmental laws. Now, with Schwarzenegger's blessing, Tamminen has left the administration to "Johnny Appleseed" California's climate plan. He wants to help other states experiment and share best practices, with the ultimate goal of creating a de facto national greenhouse-gas policy, forcing the feds' hand on the issue... The latest addition to Tamminen's almost comically varied resume -- sheep farmer, licensed ship captain, real-estate mogul, environmental campaigner -- is author. His new book Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction is a scathing indictment of big oil companies, a careful accounting of the subsidies they receive and the costs they impose, and a consideration of legal strategies to hold them responsible... Q. 'Do you have any words of wisdom on what environmental groups could do better?'... A. 'On the climate-change issue in particular, the mistake most environmental groups are making is going to Washington and looking for the national solution first. In the United States, we're so big -- the way we use energy and emit greenhouse gases is so different from one part of the country to another -- to come up with a national solution right out of the box is going to be very hard and very complex. If you let some of these state and regional solutions percolate up and get some success, you can build on them and allow for some flexibility and adaptation.'"

 

Vermont Lawmakers Hear from Amory Lovins. By Ross Sneyd, The Associated Press, January 11, 2007. "Leading lawmakers through a computerized presentation Thursday, an international expert on global climate change said state government can take a number of steps to reduce Vermont's greenhouse gas emissions this winter and spring. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute said the state could build on its existing reputation as an environmental leader in a number of ways, including: -- Reducing or eliminating sales taxes on the most fuel efficient vehicles. -- Promoting vehicle fleets that consume less fuel through other incentives. -- Altering land-use regulations so they take into account a project's energy use before it wins a permit... Gov. Jim Douglas has proposed some steps, such as reducing the purchase and use tax on new vehicles from 6 percent to 5 percent for hybrids and others getting 30 miles per gallon or better. The governor said he was not enthusiastic about reducing that further -- or increasing the tax for the least fuel-efficient, as Lovins suggested -- because he does not want to tell consumers what kind of vehicles they should drive. Those kinds of policies might make it more expensive to live in Vermont, he said... Lovins said his proposed initiatives... can ultimately cost a lot less because efficiency measures save more than the alternative costs... His presentation, complete with a computer presentation on big screens set up in the House chamber, was part of three weeks of education about global climate change that legislative leaders have organized."

Bill McKibben Testifies before the Vermont Legislature. By Candace Page, The Burlington Free Press, January 11, 2007. "Two leading voices on climate change kicked off a rare, three-week Statehouse tutorial on global warming Wednesday, urging Vermont action to help avert the dire consequences of rising greenhouse gas emissions... Bill McKibben was the lead-off witness in a series of hearings called by Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Gaye Symington to advance their plans for significant anti-warming legislation. The hearings are unusual because so many lawmakers -- members of eight committees -- are devoting so much time to a single subject. 'Climate change is the single greatest challenge -- the single greatest catastrophe -- our children and grandchildren will face,' Shumlin said as the session began. He and Symington also emphasized that they see the climate-change challenge as an economic opportunity for Vermont to build a thriving sector of alternative-energy, energy-efficiency businesses... McKibben, author of essays and books on global warming, and Pittsford climate scientist Alan Betts outlined the scale of changes needed in human behavior to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Vermont needs more wind power, more hydro-electric power, more incentives for solar power, they said. The state needs more high-mileage vehicles -- but even more needs its residents to become less automobile-dependent. 'Sprawl, the Circ Highway -- they are global warming machines,' McKibben said, because they encourage or require more driving in autos that emit carbon dioxide as they burn gasoline."

Al Gore Documentary Gets Air Time at Maryland Assembly. By Kristen Wyatt, The Associated Press, January 12, 2007. "It was popcorn time at the Maryland legislature today as House members settled in to watch a global warming documentary to prepare them for bills about the problem this session. An Inconvenient Truth... was screened at the first meeting of the House Environmental Matters Committee. Del. Maggie McIntosh, chairwoman of the committee, said the documentary made such an impression on her that she decided to bring in a popcorn machine and show the film to her committee. The film will also be screened twice next week. 'For us as policy-makers, there's a moral imperative to do something,' said McIntosh... The movie is getting attention from policy-makers nationwide... Public officials from upstate New York to Oregon have watched it, including Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer, who went to Nashville, Tenn., last fall to learn to present the movie. In Arlington County, Va., officials credited the movie in part for deciding to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions earlier this month."

New Jersey Legislature Passes Bill to Reduce Emissions 80% by 2050. By Anthony DePalma, The New York Times, June 22, 2007. "The New Jersey Legislature passed a bill yesterday that set ambitious goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants, refineries, motor vehicles and other sources that contribute to global warming. Business leaders expressed concerns about the bill's effect on energy costs and the state's competitiveness, but environmental advocates hailed it as pathbreaking, and Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he was ready to sign it into law. Under the new law, greenhouse gas emissions generated by every aspect of the state's economy, not just electricity-generating stations, will have to drop about 13 percent, to 1990 levels, by 2020. The bill further requires that emissions be capped at 80 percent of 2006's levels by 2050. A few other states have set emissions reduction goals, but none go as far into the future as New Jersey's. California, which passed a similar law earlier this year that was widely considered the toughest in the country, extends only to 2020." [This story should have said "capped at 80 percent REDUCTION of 2006's levels by 2050." The text of the NJ Global Warming Response Act is: here (PDF 10 pages) Section 3 reads: "2050 limit" means the level of greenhouse gas emissions equal to 80 percent less than the 2006 level of Statewide greenhouse gas emissions.]

Maine Governor Signs on to Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. By Glenn Adams, The Associated Press, June 18, 2007. "Gov. John Baldacci signed legislation Monday that includes Maine in the nation's first regional effort to control greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system. Maine joins nine other states... that have already joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is intended to reduce pollution from northeastern power plants by 10 percent over a decade through 2018. The law signed by Baldacci requires Maine's six largest power plants to pay for the right to release carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas most blamed for global warming. Baldacci said industries that will be affected by the law worked collaboratively with environmentalists and state regulatory officials to write the complex legislation. Baldacci said the regional effort will trigger green energy development, which will be benefit the economy... The RGGI bill establishes a new energy conservation board and directs up to $25 million in new energy conservation investments, said Michael Stoddard, deputy director of Environment Northeast, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports RGGI. Other RGGI states include Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont."

hide details

Poll Finds Hispanic Voters Highly Concerned about Climate Change. By Jim Lobe, IPS, April 23, 2008. "Hispanic voters in the United States show a high degree of awareness and concern about environmental issues, particularly global warming, according to an unprecedented national survey on Latino opinion and the environment released here Wednesday by the Sierra Club. The poll, which was conducted by Bendixen & Associates, found a strong willingness by the largest and fastest-growing ethnic community to take measures to curb energy use and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say contribute to climate change. More than 80 percent of the 1,000 Hispannic voters interviewed in the poll said they recognized that energy usage had a substantial impact on their environment."

Candidates Not Focused on the Climate Crisis. Commentary by Nicholas D. Kristof, NYTimes, April 20, 2008. "Three respected climate experts made that troubling argument in an important essay in Nature this month, offering a sobering warning that the climate problem is much bigger than anticipated. That's largely because of increased use of coal in booming Asian economies. For example, imagine that we instituted a brutally high gas tax that reduced emissions from American vehicles by 25 percent. That would be a stunning achievement -- and in just nine months, China's increased emissions would have more than made up the difference. China and the United States each produces more than one-fifth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. China's emissions are much smaller per capita but are soaring: its annual increase in emissions is greater than Germany's total annual emissions... The next president should start a $20 billion-a-year program (financed by a pullout from Iraq) to develop new energy technologies, backed by a carbon tax and cap-and-trade system. Each of the presidential candidates favors some form of a cap-and-trade and would mark a step forward from President Bush's passivity -- although John McCain's recent proposal for a summer holiday from the gas tax would be a deplorable step in exactly the wrong direction, unless he hopes to turn his land in Arizona into coastal property. The bottom line is that none of the candidates focus adequately on climate change, for this will be one of humanity's great tests in the coming decades -- and so far we're failing."

All Atmosphere, No Climate. Commentary by Charles M. Blow, NYTimes, April 19, 2008. "The questioning at Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate has been roundly panned, and rightfully so... When they finally got around to the issues, they were the same ones that we've heard before... One was missing: the environment. The League of Conservation Voters… reports that in the debates in which five Sunday-morning television anchors -- George Stephanopoulos, Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Wallace and Bob Schieffer -- have participated (17 in total) and in their major interviews with the candidates (176 in total) only eight of the 2,372 questions [0.3%] asked have mentioned global warming or climate change...  Better to have tied patriotism to the environment [than to U.S.-flag lapel pins] and ask whose global warming plan will best ensure that no one will ever have to go to Lower Manhattan and point to the spot in the water where ground zero used to be."

Environmentalists Target 3 Senate Races. Press Release, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, April 17, 2008. "Building on the success of 2006, particularly the defeat of Richard Pombo [the implacable anti-environment Chairman of the House Resources Committee, whose lifetime LCV score was 7%], a coalition of leading environmental organizations led by the League of Conservation Voters [LCV], the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Environment America, and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today announced its top collaborative election targets in 2008. These organizations will work together to elect pro-environment champions in the Senate races in New Mexico, Colorado, and New Hampshire... Mark Udall has been a leader on renewable energy since his time in the Colorado State House, and as Co-Chair of the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, he fights to expand America's commitment to renewable energy every day. His lifetime LCV score is 99%. [He is seeking to replace retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard.] Tom Udall [of New Mexico] has fought to defend America's wild spaces and led the first successful effort to pass meaningful renewable electricity standards in the House in 2007. His lifetime LCV score is 96%. [He is seeking to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pete Domenici.]... Former Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire worked with members of both parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants and has pledged to fight for clean energy as a US Senator. [She is seeking the seat held by Republican John E. Sununu.]"

North Carolina Gubernatorial Candidates Split on Coal-Fired Power Plants. AP, April 22, 2008. "While the next governor of North Carolina is likely to face a host of environmental issues, none is likely to be more immediately contentious than the ongoing construction of Duke Energy Corp.'s new power generator at its Cliffside Steam Station. Work began in late January on the new 800-megwatt unit in western North Carolina, one day after the state Division of Air Quality approved a final permit... 'I was against the permitting of Cliffside and I've been public about that,' said Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, one of the two Democratic candidates for governor. 'I believe I may be the only candidate in the race who's said as governor there will never be another coal plant licensed on my watch.' A coalition of more than two dozen environmental groups -- including the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club - have appealed the state's decision to grant the air quality permit and want a judge to halt construction... 'I still don't think it's too late for the Division of Air Quality to go back in and deny the permit,' said State Treasurer Richard Moore, Perdue's rival for the party's nomination. 'We have got to put an end to burning dirty coal'... All the leading candidates seeking the Republican nomination argue that North Carolina needs more electric capacity to meet the demand of a booming population expected to grow by 35 percent in the next two decades. Sen. Fred Smith said the new generator at Cliffside would be one of the cleanest coal-fired units in the nation... Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who worked for 29 years at Duke until leaving the company last year to run for governor, bristled at the idea the state doesn't need the power the new generator will provide."

Cynthia McKinney Poised for Green Party Run. By Matthew Cardinale, IPS, April 23, 2008. "With media attention focused almost exclusively on the dramatic contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, millions of U.S. voters probably have no inkling that there is a ballot option beyond the Democratic and Republican Parties. 'There needs to be room for a lot of policy threads in American discourse. But the corporate media is not informing the people,' Cynthia McKinney, the front-runner for the Green Party presidential nomination, told IPS... McKinney, a former congressional representative from Georgia, abandoned the Democratic Party last year in disgust at its failure to end the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, and is now poised for a presidential run on the Green Party ticket. She has won Green Party primaries in Arkansas, Illinois, and Washington, DC. Ralph Nader, who gave the party national stature as its candidate in 2000, won in California and Massachusetts, prior to announcing he is running as an Independent instead. McKinney also won the Green state caucuses in Wisconsin and Rhode Island, and has a total of 71 delegates... The likelihood of McKinney winning the nomination at the party's national convention in Chicago this summer is 'very high', Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, told IPS, although he added that the Green Party will have a 'one in a million' chance of winning the presidency this November.'"

Jeb Bush Skeptical On Global Warming. By David Keonig, AP, April 24, 2008. "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is 'light green' on the environment and is skeptical that humans are causing global warming. more stories like thisBush, whose two terms ended in 2007, also said Wednesday he 'can't imagine' running for national office and isn't interested in being Sen. John McCain's running mate... As governor, Bush, a Republican, was largely silent on global warming. His successor, Charlie Crist... has said Florida should become a leader in addressing climate change because its low elevation makes it vulnerable if ocean levels rise. Bush said those who advocate action to limit climate change are acting out of something like religious zeal. 'I don't think our policies should be based on emotion; they should be based on sound science,' he said. Rather than reducing oil consumption, Bush said the United States should focus on 'energy security'... by encouraging alternative fuels. Bush said he isn't thinking of running for national office and said he only wanted to be governor... Bush also... took a swipe at Florida's alligators... Bush told the Texas audience how he repeatedly vetoed spending state money to market alligator meat. 'Alligators proliferate in Florida. They eat small dogs,' Bush said. 'We don't need to market them, we need to kill them.' After a slight pause, he added, 'Is this open to the press?'"

hide details

Massive Wind Energy Plan Rejected by Scottish Government. BBC News, April 21, 2008. "Plans to construct one of Europe's largest onshore wind farms has been refused by the Scottish Government. It said Lewis Wind Power's 181-turbines for Lewis on the Western Isles did not comply with European law protecting sensitive environments. The scheme had the backing of the local authority and business, but attracted almost 11,000 objections. LWP said it was 'bitterly disappointed' with the decision and said the farm would have created hundreds of jobs. Scottish ministers decided the project would have a serious impact on the Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area."

Texas Billionaire Oilman Makes Big Bets on Wind. By Chris Baltimore, Reuters, April 18, 2008. "Legendary Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens has gone green with a plan to spend $10 billion to build the world's biggest wind farm. But he's not doing it out of generosity -- he expects to turn a buck... Next month, Pickens' company, Mesa Power, will begin buying land and ordering 2,700 wind turbines that will eventually generate 4,000 megawatts of electricity -- the equivalent of building two commercial scale nuclear power plants -- enough power for about 1 million homes... Pickens' wind farm is part of his wider vision for replacing natural gas with wind and solar for power generation, and using the natural gas instead to power vehicles. To picture Pickens' energy strategy, imagine a compass. Stretching from north to south from Saskatchewan to Texas would be thousands of wind turbines, which could take advantage of some of the best U.S. wind production conditions. On the east-west axis from Texas to California would be large arrays of solar generation, which could send electricity into growing Southern California cities like Los Angeles. The end result would be to free up more clean-burning natural gas - primarily a power-generation fuel now -- to power automobiles."

SkySail Ship Midway Through Atlantic Maiden Voyage. By Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters, February 3, 2008. "The world's first commercial ship powered in part by a giant kite is recording fuel savings of between 10 and 15 per cent midway into its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, the shipping company told Reuters on Friday. The 10,000-tonne MS Beluga SkySails left Germany on Jan. 22 for Venezuela, but its computer-guided kite system was fully deployed only after it reached the trade winds near the Azores, said Verena Frank, Beluga Shipping's SkySails project manager. The 10-to-15-per-cent reduction in bunker oil consumption, which amounts to about $1,000 to $1,500 a day savings, is in line with projections made by the shipping company and SkySails. The SkySail system, which is also designed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, had never before been used on a ship as large."

Surge in Wind Turbines Creating Critical Shortage of Technicians. By David Twiddy, AP, February 3, 2008. "Last year, wind farms installed almost 3,200 turbines, boosting the nation's wind energy capacity by 45 percent and cranking out an additional 5,200 megawatts, or enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes for a year. The industry, which now accounts for a little more than 1 percent of the U.S. electric supply, expects to repeat that surge in 2008. Critics of wind power have called the mammoth turbines eyesores and environmentalists have fought against them, warning the giant rotors could pose a hazard to migratory birds and other wildlife. But wind power officials see a much larger obstacle coming in the form of its own work force, a highly specialized group of technicians that combine working knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, computers and meteorology with the willingness to climb 200 feet in the air in all kinds of weather. That work force isn't keeping up with the future demand, partly because the industry is so new that the oldest independent training programs are less than five years old. The American Wind Energy Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, estimates the industry employs about 20,000 people, not including those making turbines or other equipment. Future need is harder to quantify, given the uncertainties of the industry's growth. But with two-man teams generally responsible for seven to 10 turbines, the industry would need up to 800 technicians to serve the turbines expected to be installed this year alone."

Long Island Considers More Offshore Wind. By Tom Incantalupo, New York Newsday, January 30, 2008. "A Hauppauge company [called Winergy Power] is proposing its second wind energy project south of Long Island... to serve Nassau and Suffolk electricity customers... The plan is for 86 wind turbines with a peak output of 300 megawatts. 'As well as New York City, Long Island needs clean reliable energy,' [said Winergy president Dennis Quaranta]... The project also needs government approval and an arrangement made with the Long Island Power Authority to handle the electricity it produces... The proposed location, Quaranta said, is about 15 miles east of [another, 167-turbine project] Winergy proposed in November... Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone said Winergy's projects seem to make more sense economically [than a 40-turbine field proposed jointly by LIPA and FPL Energy, ultimately rejected last year] and probably will have less environmental impact so far out to sea, but he was still concerned about effects on the Great South Bay ecosystem."

Wind Farm in Maryland Hits Gale Force Opposition. By Tom Pelton, Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2009. "Business and political leaders in Western Maryland's Garrett County are lining up against a proposal to allow the clearing of up to 400 mountaintop acres of state forest for the construction of 40-story wind turbines. With a pair of public hearings scheduled this week, Garrett's Chamber of Commerce, Board of Realtors, Democratic Central Committee and Republican state delegate and senator have come out against the proposal to use two state forests in the county for wind farms... But David F. McAnally, chairman of Pennsylvania-based U.S. Wind Force, said he believes people will support his company's proposal to build a total of 100 turbines on two state forest tracts once they hear all the facts. McAnally said it's worth using a fraction of 1 percent of the public land in western Maryland to increase the supply of clean electricity to the state, which faces a power shortage in future years... Author and climate change activist Mike Tidwell... said he thinks Maryland should ban logging in state forests if it's going to prohibit wind farms. He said logging is more environmentally harmful than windmills. 'I appeal to the governor to make a fair and balanced decision that does not favor one industry that has obvious harmful impacts versus a new industry that brings clear benefits to the state, while being admittedly imperfect,' Tidwell said."

Despite Efforts, California's Altamont Bird Toll Rising. By Charles Burress, SFChronicle, February 3, 2008. "The Altamont wind farms saw an apparent increase in bird deaths last year in spite of efforts to reduce the bird kills, according to a new report. Bird-carcass surveys at about half of the nearly 5,000 Altamont wind turbines found a striking jump in deaths among many species in the year ending last September over the previous year... The windmills are shut down for two months during the low-wind season each winter as part of the effort to curb bird kills. Nearly 100 of the most dangerous turbines have been shut down or removed, and the parties are negotiating over recommendations by a county-appointed scientists' panel to remove more than 300 additional ones. A small blade-painting test was conducted in the past on some turbines, and one wind company has proposed a larger test. The Golden Gate Audubon Society contends the companies have failed to meet conditions of the settlement and invoked a mediation clause to resolve several issues. The first mediation session was held Jan. 18, and a second is scheduled for Feb. 8."

Kite-Powered Ship Sets Sail For Greener Future. By Ben Martin and Tony Paterson, London Telegraph, January 20, 2008. "A cargo ship pulled by a giant, parachute-shaped kite will leave Germany on Tuesday on a voyage that could herald a new 'green' age of commercial sailing on the high seas... The owners of the MS Beluga, a 462ft cargo vessel, will try to prove that modern steel ships can harness wind power and reduce their reliance on diesel engines. During the journey from Bremen to Venezuela, the crew will deploy a SkySails, a 160 square metre kite which will fly more than 600ft above the vessel, where winds are stronger and more consistent than at sea level. Its inventor, Stephan Wrage, a 34-year-old German engineer, claims the kite will significantly reduce carbon emissions, cutting diesel consumption by up to 20 per cent and saving £800 a day in fuel costs. He believes an even bigger kite, up to 5,000 square metres, could result in fuel savings of up to 35 per cent."

Cape Wind Blows Through Regulatory Obstacle. By Beth Daley, Boston Globe, January 15, 2008. "The nation's first proposed offshore wind-energy project cleared its most formidable hurdle yesterday as the U.S. Minerals Management Service declared that the wind farm off Cape Cod would have little lasting impact on wildlife, navigation, and tourism.The agency's nearly 2,000-page draft environmental impact statement makes clear that the federal government is inclined to approve construction of the 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, 5 miles from the nearest coastline, unless major new concerns arise during a public comment period. Federal approval would probably come late this year or early next year, and remaining state permits are not expected to be a major obstacle, given that Governor Deval Patrick is in favor of the project... Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind, expressed glee... saying, 'Any rational observer will understand that this project is not going to produce a negative environmental impact... This report validates that this is the right project in the right place at the right time'... A spokeswoman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the lead opposition group... said the federal agency's report 'missed the mark' and the group was assembling a team of specialists to review the project... Jack Clarke [of] Massachusetts Audubon said the federal report appears to satisfy his group's concerns. 'They have done an adequate and thorough job of reviewing the potential environmental impacts with regard to avian life,' he said."

Despite Nod From Feds, Obstacles Remain for Cape Wind. By Patrick Cassidy, Cape Cod Times, January 16, 2008. "Caution: Wind turbines on Nantucket Sound may appear closer than they are. The U.S. Minerals Management Service found little to complain about in a draft environmental report released Monday on Cape Wind's plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. But a host of government agencies, opponents of the project and the general public are now delving into the federal agency's environmental review and its implications. And Cape Wind must still secure at least 19 assorted approvals and permits before construction can begin. From a cautionary letter written by the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to strict conditions imposed by the Coast Guard, the project faces many more hurdles... The FAA 'issued a presumed hazard determination for the Cape Wind project,' according to a Jan. 11 letter written by Robert Sturgell, acting administrator of the agency... The FAA, Sturgell wrote, would require further investigation that should be complete this spring. Cape Wind had changed the proposed height of its turbines from 426 feet to 440 feet, and a company spokesman said it's likely the change led to the 'presumed hazard' designation and the further review... The Coast Guards [will likely] require the Minerals Management Service and Coast Guard to determine whether 'identified impacts, if any, allow for an acceptable risk to navigation safety'... Wayne Kurker, owner of Hyannis Marina and a co-founder of the anti-Cape Wind group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said it would be impossible for the project to meet the Coast Guard requirements... [Mark Rodgers, spokesman for Cape Wind, said] 'We are going to comply with the conditions from the Coast Guard,' he said. 'It's something we can do'... As long as Cape Wind meets those conditions the Coast Guard should be satisfied, said Edward LeBlanc, chief of the Coast Guard Waterways Management Division."

Offshore Wind Power Resolution Introduced in Delaware Legislature. By Aaron Nathans, Wilmington News Journal, January 18, 2008. "Twenty-eight [Delaware] lawmakers have co-sponsored a resolution that recommends passage of an offshore wind power contract. It was filed Thursday by Rep. Robert Valihura (R-Talleyville); half of the Republican-controlled House, including Speaker Terry Spence, had signed on as co-sponsors. The resolution says Controller General Russ Larson should approve a 25-year contract for Delmarva Power to buy offshore wind power from Bluewater Wind. At a meeting with three other state agencies last month, [the controller] declined to sign the contract because of division among the legislative leadership… One co-sponsor, Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach), said he hoped the measure would pass in the House and move to the Senate… But it faces an uncertain future there. While seven of 21 senators co-sponsored the resolution, including three Democrats, none of the Democratic majority leadership had signed on. Senate Majority Leader Anthony DeLuca could not be reached for comment Thursday. Sen. Harris McDowell III, D-Wilmington, chairman of the Senate Energy and Transit Committee, said he will first hold hearings on a broad range of renewable energy sources [which] could hold up consideration."

U.S. Wind Industry Breezed Along at 45 Percent Growth Last Year. By Rebecca Smith, WSJournal, January 18, 2008. Subscription required. "Two forms of renewable energy -- wind and solar power -- enjoyed substantial growth last year, spurred by federal and state energy policies and incentives that support green energy sources. The U.S. wind-power industry grew in size by 45% last year, adding a record 5,244 megawatts of capacity that amounted to a third of all new generating capacity built in the U.S. in 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. General Electric led the pack as the nation's largest supplier. The solar industry grew at a similar clip, though from a much smaller base, adding more than 300 megawatts of capacity last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Additions are expected to roughly double this year. Large commercial solar installations now exceed home installations in California, reversing a long-term pattern and likely a bellwether for other states… One worry for the sector is the expiration, at the end of 2008, of certain federal tax credits that have spurred development."

Study Finds Strong Winds Off Lake Erie for Turbine Project. By Tom Breckenridge, Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 11, 2008. "Lake Erie winds are the strongest recorded anywhere in Ohio, good news for city leaders exploring whether Cleveland could be an international hub for offshore wind power. A two-year study of wind off downtown Cleveland's shoreline found average speeds markedly stronger than those already turning wind turbines in Bowling Green, the nonprofit Green Energy Ohio reported Thursday... On Tuesday, Cuyahoga County commissioners approved a $1 million study that will look at the costs and challenges of erecting a small wind farm on Lake Erie... There are few wind turbines operating on the world's waters, and none in fresh water, officials say. As a demonstration project, the task force has proposed building up to 10 wind turbines in Lake Erie, generating power for up to 6,000 homes."

Wind-Power Industry 'Exploding,' Says Report. By Nathan Isaacs, Salem Statesman Journal, January 10, 2008. "An explosion of new wind farms is happening throughout the U.S. and particularly in the Pacific Northwest with the region's existing power system anticipating the addition of as much as 6,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2024 or sooner. Carried on those winds is an expected boost in jobs -- as many as 15,000 in Oregon and Washington during the construction of new wind farms, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report... The study found that U.S. wind power capacity jumped 27 percent in 2006, the largest incremental jump on record and the highest incremental capacity in the world. 'The wind power industry has entered an era of substantial growth, both globally and in the United States,' said Ryan Wiser, the co-author of the report. 'The market is just exploding.'"

Leader of Group Fighting Cape Wind Becomes Wind Advocate. By Patrick Cassidy, Cape Cod Times, January 10, 2008. "[Charles Vinick, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which has led a seven-year fight over the wind farm proposed for the Sound] will 'transition' out of that position within a month... The Alliance was formed to combat...130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in the sound, [a project of Boston-based Cape Wind Associates]… Vinick [who has called the project] an 'industrial blight on the horizon'... made $203,099 as president of the Alliance... 'We're glad to hear that Charles Vinick has decided to stop blocking wind power and to champion it instead,' Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers wrote in an e-mail to the Times. 'Cape Wind will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make America more energy independent and we hope that Mr. Vinick's wind projects will too.' [Vinick] said his consulting work for Clipper Windpower, which assembles 2.5-megawatt turbines at its Iowa plant, was in no way ironic. 'I am very much committed to all of these technologies being used in the right ways,' he said."

Germany's Green Shipbuilders Hark Back to the Age of Sail. By Roger Boyes, The London Times, December 15, 2007. "The age of sail could be staging something of a comeback as part of an imaginative attempt to cut greenhouse gases on the high seas. German engineers have devised a way of tugging merchant vessels along with huge, computer-steered kites, known as SkySails, that catch the ocean winds. Today the first new cargo ship to harness wind power in well over a century will be launched in Hamburg, with the maiden journey taking the 10,000-tonne MS Beluga Skysails across the Atlantic to Houston. If the Beluga performs well on wind power and if the high-flying kites dramatically cut its fuel consumption, then the age of sail will be back. 'It marks the beginning of a revolution in the way that ships are powered,' said Stephan Wrage, the inventor of the SkySails idea. 'We calculate that the sails can reduce fuel consumption by between 30 and 50 per cent, depending on the wind conditions.'"

Tethered Turbines: Picture a Spinning Goodyear Blimp. By David Gelles, The New York Times, December 9, 2007. "Traditional wind turbines can be unreliable sources of energy because, well, the wind blows where it will. Not the case 1,000 feet up. 'At a thousand feet, there is steady wind anywhere in the world,' says Mac Brown... of Ottawa-based Magenn Power. To take advantage of this constant breeze, Brown has developed a lighter-than-air wind turbine capable of powering a rural village. 'Picture a spinning Goodyear blimp,' Brown says. Filled with helium, outfitted with electrical generators and tethered to the ground by a conductive copper cable, the 100-foot-wide Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS) will produce 10 kilowatts of energy anywhere on earth. As the turbine spins around a horizontal axis, the generators convert the mechanical energy of the wind into electrical energy, then send it down for immediate use or battery storage. Planning for the MARS has been under way for a few years, but this fall Magenn got the $5 million it needed to build prototypes from a California investor. In October, the MARS received its U.S. patent. Already, larger models -- ones that might light a skyscraper -- are in the works. Brown says he hopes his floating wind turbines will power off-the-grid villages in the developing world. He says the governments of India and Pakistan have expressed interest."

UK Business Secretary Proposes 7,000 Offshore Wind Turbines by 2020. BBC News, December 10, 2007. "All UK homes could be powered by offshore wind farms by 2020 as part of the fight against climate change, under plans unveiled by John Hutton. Up to 7,000 turbines could be installed to boost wind produced energy 60-fold by 2020. The business secretary admitted it would change Britain's coastline, and mean higher electricity bills... 'This could be a major contribution towards meeting the EU's target of 20% energy from renewable sources by 2020, he told a European energy industry conference in Berlin. 'The challenge for the government and for industry is to turn this potential - for our energy and economy - into a cost-effective reality. Next year we will overtake Denmark as the country with the most offshore wind capacity.'"

Homespun Electricity, From the Wind, Grows in Popularity. By Kristina Shevory, The New York Times, December 13, 2007. "Last summer, [Rena Wilson Jones and her husband Drew] installed a 56-foot wind turbine in their yard [near the edge of Urbana, Ill.] to draw electrical power from the wind, which sometimes gets up to 40 miles per hour. They did the work themselves over a weekend, digging a four-foot-deep hole for the foundation and raising the $13,000 turbine with a winch on their Jeep. It was spinning by early September, and their electricity bills dropped... from $90 to $10 for November, one of the windier months. 'Now, the faster the wind goes, the happier I am,' said Ms. Wilson Jones... Reductions in [the] size and cost [of wind turbines], along with improvements in their efficiency, are allowing suburban homeowners... to install them in growing numbers... Last year, about 7,000 small wind turbines -- defined as those that have a capacity of up to 100 kilowatts, roughly enough to power a large school -- were purchased in the U.S., according to [the American Wind Energy Association], which said it expects sales to reach about 10,000 this year. Residential turbines, which account for half those sales, are typically 33 to 100 feet tall, with outputs of two to 10 kilowatts. They cost between $12,000 and $55,000, but in recent years, 19 states, including California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, have begun offering incentives and rebates that can cut [that cost in half]."

Bush Sr. Uses Wind to Power Maine Home. The Associated Press, November 22, 2007. "A 33-foot-tall windmill that can produce 400 kilowatts a month at a wind speed of 12 mph was installed last week at the [summer] home of Bush and his wife, Barbara. An average household uses about 600 kilowatts a month, said Bob Greig, president of All Season Home Improvement Co. in Augusta, which installed the windmill. The Bushes had the windmill installed after being approached by Southwest Windpower, a nationwide company that manufactures wind turbines, said Jim Appleby, personal aide to the former president. The turbine is connected to the electric power grid... Because of the high visibility of Walker's Point, which is a popular stop for tourists, wind power's popularity should get a boost, said Bruce MacDonald, a member of Gov. John Baldacci's wind power task force."

Cape Wind Seeks to Get State to Overturn Cape Cod Commission Rejection. By Stephanie Ebbert, The Boston Globe, November 22, 2007. "Cape Wind Associates launched an effort on Wednesday to make an end run around local permit battles, asking a state energy panel to overrule a recent permit denial and to consolidate and approve the remaining eight state and local permits needed to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The bold maneuver comes six years after Cape Wind first proposed the 130-turbine project, which is awaiting a long-delayed federal environmental review. While Cape Wind's new strategy could expedite the pace of development, it further alienated wind farm opponents, whose leader called the effort 'underhanded'... In a sweeping, 32-page initial petition, Cape Wind asked the state Energy Facilities Siting Board to overturn last month's decision by the Cape Cod Commission denying a permit for local transmission lines for the project, because of what the commission said was a lack of information and cooperation from the developer... The Siting Board has broad author ity to overturn the decisions of local agencies if it believes an energy project is in the public's interest... The Siting Board comprises six state officials and three appointees of the governor. While many fear political influence over its rulings, the board is charged with acting as an independent, adjudicatory panel."

Foreign Firms Envision Wind Farms Dotting America. By Peter Mahoney, The New York Times, November 7, 2007. "The European Union has taken the lead on many climate change issues -- from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to passing laws to require and encourage the development of renewable sources of energy. Why, then, are so many European energy companies looking to the United States for investment opportunities? For António Mexia, the chief executive of Energías de Portugal, the answer is short and simple. 'The United States is the fastest-growing market in the world for wind power,' he said. 'If we want to be a leader, we have to be here'... All the biggest players in wind power are focused on the United States... 'In America you can put up a 200- or 300-megawatt wind park,' Mr. Mexia said. 'You can't do that in Europe,' because there is not as much open space. There is also greater potential for growth in the United States, where wind farms account for about only 1 percent of installed generating capacity. In some European countries, that figure is as high as 10 percent."

Are Alaska's Riches Blowing in the Wind? By Barbara Maynard, Inter Press Service, November 7, 2007. "Alaska has tried before to tap the wind. In the early 1980s, when the state was awash in oil money, over 140 wind projects sprung up across the state, but little power was generated, thanks to poor planning and immature technology... Today, better-organised projects are demonstrating that the power of Alaska's strong and steady coastal winds can be economically tapped."

Australia in Giant Wind Farm Plan. By Phil Mercer, BBC News, October 8, 2007. "Plans to build Australia's largest wind farm have been announced by the German company Conergy. The project would involve installing about 500 turbines near the outback town of Broken Hill in New South Wales. The Australian government wants renewable sources to generate 15% of the country's energy needs by 2020. The giant wind farm could generate enough electricity for 400,000 homes and put quite a dent in Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Research has shown that the sparsely populated site is particularly blustery. Scientists have said it has some of Australia's best wind resources. The $1.8bn project is the idea of Conergy - one of Germany's largest solar power companies. A spokesman for the firm said construction of the facility was expected to begin in 2009 and would take about three to four years to complete... The region was the back-drop for the post-apocalyptic movie Mad Max 2, released in the early 1980s. Conergy has said there is overwhelming support for the project -- both in the local community and from environmentalists."

Energy Farms Gaining a Foothold in Kansas. By Tim Carpenter, The Topeka Capital Journal, October 8, 2007. "Capturing the zephyr streaming across the state is doing more than brighten light bulbs -- it is energizing Kansas' green revolution... Indians who long ago inhabited this prairie were known as the People of the South Wind. Kansas homesteaders who followed made use of domestic windmills to pull water from wells. Larry Flowers, a 25-year veteran of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., said this natural phenomenon ranks Kansas as the nation's third-best state in terms of wind energy potential. Kansas has more than 16,000 square miles of Class 5, or excellent, terrain for production of wind power. The problem is about 10 states have done a better job than Kansas developing this indigenous resource. Flowers said wind generation in Kansas could reduce reliance on increasingly expensive Wyoming coal shipped hundreds of miles to power plants making 70 percent of the state's electricity."

Wind Energy May Lead to Competition to Build Texas Transmission Lines. By Elizabeth Souder, The Dallas Morning News, October 7, 2007. "Texas regulators are contemplating a plan to require power line monopolies to compete for the right to build hundreds of miles of transmission lines to bring wind power from West Texas to North Texas. The plan, which would cost billions of dollars, might spawn a form of competition in the last remaining regulated monopoly in the electricity industry - the business of operating power lines. 'I've stirred up a whole host of bees,' said Public Utility Commission Chairman Paul Hudson."

Quebec Hopes to Take World Lead in Wind Power. By Lynn Moore, CanWest News Service, October 2, 2007. "Quebec intends to become a world leader in wind-power expertise and wind-turbine manufacturing, the province's natural resources minister told Canada's largest-ever gathering of industry professionals on Monday. About 1,500 delegates from North America and Europe are attending the Canadian Wind Energy Association's annual conference and trade show [Quebec City, Sept. 30th to Oct. 3rd]. Most are seeking a piece of the green-energy bonanza... Hydro-Quebec -- North America's largest hydroelectric power producer -- recently held the largest-ever single solicitation for wind power. More than 25 developers have made 66 bids for wind farms, proposals that total 7,724 megawatts of wind power, which is almost four times the 2,000 megawatts that Hydro-Quebec is seeking to add to its network. Wining bids are expected to be announced by Hydro-Quebec in the spring. The Quebec government sees wind-power as a natural complement to hydro power and an opportunity to develop and eventually export expertise and wind turbines within North America."

Wind Power Industry Soars to New Heights. By Lee Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service, October 2, 2007. "Wind farming is a reality, or soon will be, in all but about 10 states, offering a 'double-cropping' benefit to landowners who can reap thousands of dollars a year for each turbine on their property, along with most of whatever revenue the land was already producing, including agricultural subsidies. Stretching several hundred feet above the landscape with blades extending the length of a 747's wingspan, today's most advanced windmills typically take up only about 5 percent or 10 percent of the acreage they sit on, mostly in access roads for maintenance crews. The rest can stay as is. Elwood Gillis, mayor of the southeast Colorado farming town of Lamar, host to 108 industrial-grade windmills, said, 'If you stand right under one, there's a little swishing sound,' but that neither farmers nor cattle seem to mind them. 'They are clean, they use no water, and they have turned what used to be a curse -- the wind -- into a blessing, he said. According to the American Wind Energy Association, a national trade association for the wind energy industry, wind power is expected to generate more than 31 billion kilowatt-hours this year - enough to power some 3 million homes. That's still less than 1 percent of the nation's electrical production capacity... With wind-generating capacity increasing at nearly 30 percent a year, [foreign] companies that make the turbines and generators are starting to invest in American plants to make the equipment, a move more practical because shipping the giant components long distances can add tens of thousands to their costs. Production facilities for towers, turbines and blades, many of them set in steel and other manufacturing plants abandoned over the past two decades, are open or planned in Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Louisiana, Colorado and Texas, among others."

Indian Railways Exploring Wind Energy for Electric Trains. Economic Times [India], September 29, 2007. "Indian Railways have now found a new business avenue. With its public private partnership (PPP) model, the government utility is planning to foray into wind power generation. The Railways has identified large tracts of land lying unused on its coastal network for setting up wind farms for captive use... Across the country, state electricity boards sell power to the Railways at much higher rates as compared to any other industry. The Railways has had a series of talks with Indian Wind Energy Association."

New Jersey Governor Pushing For Offshore Wind Projects. By Tom Hester, The Newark Star-Ledger, August 26, 2007. "As part of its plan to combat global warming, the Corzine administration is quietly taking the first steps toward creating an array of giant windmills off the South Jersey coast to turn ocean breezes into electricity. Environmentalists who were briefed on the plan by an adviser to the governor say it could involve as many as 80 wind-powered turbines towering 30 stories high over the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between southern Ocean County and Cape May... Corzine's energy policy calls for 20 percent of the state's electricity to be wind- or solar-generated by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050, to reduce the use of power from fuel-burning plants that emit greenhouse gases."

Long Island Power Authority Chief Kills Major Wind Farm Project. By Mark Harrington, Long Island Newsday, August 23, 2007. "Long Island Power Authority Chairman Kevin Law said, on Wednesday, he will 'terminate' a controversial project to install 40 wind turbines off the coast of Jones Beach [New York], dealing a fatal blow to a plan alternately portrayed as an environmental necessity and an economic boondoggle. The decision follows Law's review of a recently completed independent report on the economics of the $700 million project that he said showed its costs to be 'significantly' higher than traditional forms of energy generation or even a new energy-efficient plant? Law emphasized that the decision, which he will discuss with trustees at a Sept. 22 LIPA board meeting, doesn't mean an end to wind power proposals for Long Island. He will continue to pursue that source of alternative energy, he said, including possibly land-based windmills, at other locations. The Jones Beach location, he said, is off the table."

Australian Wind Power Firm Shuts Down. By Matthew Franklin, The Australian, August 23, 2007. "Vestas Australia Wind Technology announced yesterday it would close its Portland turbine blade factory at the end of the year after concluding that Australia's green energy market was unviable. Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the Howard Government's refusal to lift the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target beyond 2 per cent was responsible. The Vestas operation was the fourth to shut in the past year."

Profits Surge for World's Biggest Windmill Maker. By Bunny Nooryani, Bloomberg News, August 23, 2007. "Vestas Wind Systems, the world's biggest windmill maker, rose 5.3 percent on the Copenhagen exchange after profit surged on increasing demand for alternatives to fossil fuel. Second-quarter net income climbed to 51 million euros ($69 million), or 28 cents a share, from 10 million euros, or 5 cents, a year earlier, Randers, Denmark-based Vestas said today in a statement. Sales rose 19 percent to 1.07 billion euros. Higher oil and gas prices, as well as state subsidies and incentives worldwide, have encouraged investment in energy from renewable sources such as wind. Vestas reiterated a forecast for sales to climb about 17 percent this year as it boosts production capacity in China and the U.S., two of the company's biggest growth markets."

Wind in Schools. By Kristyn Ecochard, United Press International, June 24, 2007. "Schools across the United States are taking renwable energy education to a whole new level as they build wind turbines to generate their own power... The wind turbine projects range from several hundred watts to a couple of megawatts. Student movements like the Energy Action Coalition are pushing renewables such as wind power on campuses and in local communities. Through the Campus Climate Challenge, more than 200 colleges and universities in theUnited States and Canada have taken steps to reduce their environmental footprint, some by supporting wind power. In Europe, particularly England, as well as Canada, there are a number of schools adopting wind power... Not only are schools implementing the projects -- they are doing a lot of the research and development. More than a dozen have degree programs to prepare the next generation for the wind industry."

New Wind Farm Opens in Pennsylvania. By Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press, June 19, 2007. "Under the whirling blades of 13 towering turbines, Gov. Ed Rendell dedicated Pennsylvania's latest wind farm on Tuesday, showcasing a technology that is expected to power hundreds of thousands of homes over the next decade. The Locust Ridge project in Schuylkill County is the seventh wind farm in Pennsylvania, a state that is aggressively pushing wind power as an alternative to electricity produced by fossil fuels. At present, the state's wind farms generate enough electricity to serve about 45,000 homes, or less than 1 percent of the Pennsylvania market. But the state expects another four wind farms to begin operating within the next year, more than doubling capacity... Under a 2004 state law, 18 percent of the electricity sold to retail customers in Pennsylvania must come from renewable sources of energy, including wind, by 2021. By then, the state expects wind power to serve between 785,000 and 1 million homes. Locust Ridge, which began operating in March, will produce enough electricity to power 6,300 homes. It is owned by Iberdrola SA, Spain's second-largest power company and the biggest operator of wind farms worldwide. Brent Alderfer, executive vice president of Iberdrola's U.S. subsidiary, said advances in technology have made wind a more cost-effective means of producing electricity. He said the turbines at Locust Ridge start generating electricity at a wind speed of 8 mph -- little more than a gentle breeze -- compared to older turbine technology that required wind speeds of 15 mph."

Eastern Europe Gears Up to Reap More Power From Wind By Kimberly Conniff Taber, The International Herald Tribune, June 19, 2007. "While Germany, Spain and Denmark are still by far the biggest wind-producing countries on the Continent, Eastern Europe is fast becoming a new frontier in wind power development as Europe tries to find environmentally friendly ways to satisfy growing energy demand and to meet ambitious targets for renewable energy. When the European Union committed in March to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020, it also agreed that a fifth of its energy would come from renewable sources like wind and solar power. According to the European Wind Energy Association, wind - which now satisfies about 3 percent of total European energy consumption - is likely to cover as much as 16 percent by 2020. The European Commission reports that the amount of electricity produced from wind has grown by an average of 26 percent a year since 2001. But markets in the major wind-producing countries, while still expanding, are nearing capacity... Turning to their neighbors may be the answer... Emerging Energy Research projects a 13-fold growth in Eastern European wind power capacity by 2015, to 7,552 megawatts from 569 megawatts in 2006, with most of the increase in Poland, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Some of the largest players in the global wind market, including Iberdrola of Spain; Acciona of Spain; EuroTrust of Denmark; and Good Energies, based in London, are getting a foothold in the region, often in partnership with local firms. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was established after the fall of Communism to help rebuild the economies of central and Eastern European countries, is also investing in wind projects throughout the area."

Major Texas Wind Farm Moving Forward Despite Fierce Objections from Neighboring King Ranch. John MacCormack, Express News, June 17, 2007. "In the 19th century, meat and hides brought wealth to the owners of the vast South Texas ranches that covered most of what would later become Kenedy County. Midway through the 20th century, the discovery of oil and gas on these coastal flatlands south of Corpus Christi dramatically changed the economic model. And now, in a new century, it's changing again... If all goes as planned ? despite objections from some environmentalists and others worried about the area's ecotourism industry ? miles of 400-foot tall, three-bladed Mitsubishi turbines will be generating power sufficient for about 180,000 Texas homes within two years. They also will provide royalties to the two nonprofit organizations that own the Kenedy Ranch and have seen a recent decline in oil and gas income. 'It will generate a couple of million (dollars) a year for charity,' said Marc Cisneros, chief executive officer of the Kenedy Memorial Foundation, which controls the northern half of the ranch. One of the largest philanthropic entities in South Texas, the foundation gives away about $12 million a year, primarily to causes associated with the Catholic Church, he said... The two projects ? if successful ? will dramatically boost the $488 million tax base of a county that is home to only about 400 people. And although critics of the two projects are few, they are not insignificant. Chief among them is Jack Hunt, CEO of the adjacent King Ranch... Hunt's objections range from purely aesthetic to potential dangers for migratory birds... to what he sees as a questionable energy policy." Wind Power Puts Famed Ranches at Odds. John Porretto, The Associated Press, June 22, 2007. "After a century and a half as cordial neighbors, two of the nation's biggest ranches find themselves feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys over wind energy and wildlife and whether the two can coexist."

West Virginia Wind Farm Permit Denied. By Pam Ramsey, The Associated Press, June 22, 2007. "The state Public Service Commission says a developer can't build a wind farm in Pendleton County because its application lacks information on several key issues, including the project's impact on cultural resources and noise. In an order released Friday, the PSC rejected Liberty Gap Wind Force LLC's application for a permit... The 50-turbine Pendleton County wind farm, estimated to cost between $175 million and $190 million, would produce up to 125 megawatts of electricity that would be sold on the wholesale market. It would be located along an approximately 7-mile stretch of a ridgetop on Jack Mountain near Franklin."

Maryland Wind-Power Project Challenges Nixed. The Associated Press, June 22, 2007. "The state's highest court again struck down attempts to block a wind-power project in Garrett County, ruling against two challenges brought by opponents of the project... The proposal from Clipper Windpower, based in Carpinteria, Calif., could produce up to 100 megawatts of power -- enough to provide electricity to 100,000 homes. Critics say the turbines will spoil the landscape, cause noise pollution and kill birds. If built as planned, the project would extend about 10.8 miles along the Allegheny Front, an Appalachian mountain ridge, at an elevation of about 3,200 feet. Strong, relatively steady winds make the ridge attractive to wind-power developers."

Hoosac Wind Obtains Permit in Western Massachusetts. By Scott Stafford, The Berkshire Eagle, June 21, 2007. "The Hoosac Wind project's wetlands permit, mired in procedural appeals for about two years, was reissued late yesterday by the acting commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The permit had been issued by the DEP, only to be withdrawn later when a group of citizens and an organization known as Green Berkshires appealed it to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals in February 2005... The project would construct 20 340-foot wind turbines ? 11 on Bakke Mountain in Florida and nine on Crum Hill in Monroe. Originally scheduled for completion in 2007, the 1.5-megawatt GE turbines would generate enough electricity to power 10,000 households... Concerned citizens who appealed the wetlands permit have said in the past that if the permit were reissued, they would appeal it."

An Old Steel Mill Retools to Produce Clean Energy. By David Staba, The New York Times, May 22, 2007. "Empty grain elevators and dormant railroad tracks line the Buffalo River to the east and Lake Erie... The road from Buffalo to [Lackawanna] to the south offers a stark reminder of the region's faded past as a hub of industry and shipping. Yet in the past few months, a different sight has emerged on the 2.2-mile shoreline above a labyrinth of pipes, blackened buildings and crumbling coke ovens that was once home to a behemoth Bethlehem Steel plant: eight gleaming white windmills with 153-foot blades slowly turning in the wind off Lake Erie, on a former Superfund site where iron and steel slag and other industrial waste were dumped during 80 years of production... 'It's changing the image of the city of Lackawanna,' said Norman L. Polanski Jr., the city's mayor and a former Bethlehem worker who lost his job when the company stopped making steel here in 1983."

New Legislation Would Bring Wind Power to 'Grinding Halt'. By Carl Levesque, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), May 21, 2007. "Legislation just introduced and slated to move quickly in the U.S. House of Representatives would bring new wind energy development in the U.S. to a grinding halt, AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher warned on May 18. Introduced this week by Congressman Nick Rahall (D. WV), and scheduled for action in early June at the House Resources Committee which he chairs, H.R. 2337 would burden wind power with sweeping new requirements that have never applied to other energy sectors, Swisher said, noting: The bill would direct the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to review every existing and planned wind project, a mandate far beyond the agency's resources and capabilities, and criminalize operation of wind energy facilities not formally certified by USFWS... Under the legislation, landowners and farmers with wind turbines on their property would be subject to invasive inspection requirements... Landowners and farmers could face jail time or a $50,000 penalty for putting a wind turbine, regardless of whether it is for personal use or of a commercial scale, on their property without certification by the USFWS director... A National Academy of Sciences report released earlier this month concludes that wind turbines caused less than 0.003% of human-cause bird mortality -- one thousand times lower than bird mortality associated with house cats. Last November the National Audubon Society, pointing to the link between global warming and the birds and other wildlife that scientists assert it will kill, said it 'strongly supports' properly sited wind power as a clean energy source... AWEA is asking its members to contact their respective Representative and urge him or her to oppose the anti-wind provisions of H.R. 2337 [use these links: Action Alert; AWEA].

Wind and Hydro: a Synergy in the Pacific Northwest. By Blaine Harden, The Washington Post, March 21, 2007. "The Pacific Northwest is hardly alone as it chases the wind for clean power. Anxiety about climate change and surging demand for electricity have triggered a wind-power frenzy in much of the United States, making it the fastest growing wind-energy market in the world. Power-generating capacity from wind jumped 27 percent last year and is expected to do the same this year. But it is in the Northwest where wind power, an often capricious source of electricity, meshes most seamlessly with the existing electricity grid, which relies heavily on hydroelectric dams, power managers say. This meshing of power sources is done in a way that maximizes power reliability while minimizing the grid's need for energy from fossil fuels, which release the greenhouses gases that cause global warming. 'It is synergy on a scale that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world,' said Ken Dragoon, research director at the Renewable Northwest Project, a coalition of public-interest groups and energy companies. For this synergy, thank concrete monstrosities such as Grand Coulee Dam, a federal barrier that has been squatting on the Columbia River since 1942 and is still the largest electrical generating machine in North America. Grand Coulee and other huge dams in the region are proving to be extraordinarily nimble mates for the graceful but fickle wind turbines." See Video based on article.

Spain Wind Energy Achieves All-Time High Mark: 27%, Exceeding All Other Power Sources. The Associated Press, March 20, 2007. "Taking advantage of a particularly gusty period, Spain's wind energy generators this week reached an all-time high in electricity production, exceeding power generated by all other means, the nation's electricity network authority said Tuesday in a statement. At 17.40 (1640 GMT) on Monday wind power generation rose to contribute 27 percent of the country's total power requirement, Red Electrica said. At that moment wind power contributed 8,375 mega watts to the nation's power consumption of 31,033. Nuclear power, the second largest contributor, added 6,797 mega watts, while coal-fired electric generation came third with 5,081, the statement said. National broadcaster TVE said it believed this may have been the first time wind power exceeded nuclear power's contribution to the power grid. Over the course of last year wind power contributed nine percent of the nation's requirement while coal-fired power stations put in 24 percent and nuclear power 22 percent."

Wind Power Doubles In Canada. By Adrienne Selko, Industry Week, March 20, 2007. "Canada's installed wind power had a 1,468 megawatt (MW) capacity in 2006, double the previous year, and is expected to grow nearly tenfold to 14,100 MW by 2015, according to a new study by Emerging Energy Research (EER), a Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm. 'In the past two years the Canadian wind power market has evolved from relative obscurity -- an occasional diversion for wind turbine vendors struggling for market share in the U.S. -- to become one of the world's largest and fastest growing wind power markets,' said EER senior analyst Joshua Magee. Canada will contribute at least 25% of North America's yearly growth through 2015, and 5% of total annual global growth. Quebec and Ontario will account for approximately 60% of the total market with strong growth in British Columbia expected in later years, according to EER's study."

Controversial Wind Farm Approved in Scotland. By Auslan Cramb, The Telegraph (UK), February 18, 2007. "Plans for the largest onshore wind farm in Europe have been approved on the Western Isles. If the £500 million project is given the go-ahead by the Scottish Executive, it will result in the construction of up to 181 giant turbines on the windswept Isle of Lewis. The scheme has attracted more than 3,000 objections, but was approved by councillors by 18 votes to eight... The local council backed the controversial development subject to 50 conditions, and the understanding that the number of turbines was cut by five."

In Virginia's Allegheny Ridges, a Division Over a Planned Wind Farm. By Pamela J. Podger, The New York Times, February 13, 2007. "Highland, known for its rustic heights as Virginia's Switzerland... could soon become home to the state's first wind farm: 19 wind turbines, each taller than the Statue of Liberty, its pedestal included... Much as disputes over the aesthetics, economics and environmental impact of wind farms have arisen in Vermont, Massachusetts, North Carolina and elsewhere, the proposed project here, first put forth eight years ago, has divided the 2,500 residents of Highland County, one of the least populated counties east of the Mississippi. Where some see unwelcome industrialization of the wilderness, others see green energy and an estimated $200,000 a year in tax revenue for the financially needy county. Though the farm would sit on only 50 acres of the county's 416 square miles, many fear it would be just the vanguard of similar local projects providing electricity for the regional grid."

Tax Breaks Approved by Governor for Western Massachusetts Wind Power Project. By John J. Monahan, Worcester Telegram, February 10, 2007. "That chilly arctic wind that has people cringing and shivering this week could be warming homes and delivering hot water in Western Massachusetts in future years, with the help of Gov. Deval L. Patrick, who approved local tax breaks for what would be the state's largest wind project. The legislation will allow the small towns of Florida and Monroe to exempt the project developer, PPM Energy, from local property taxes on the 1,500 acres that will be used for 20 large wind turbines planned along the ridge lines of Bakke Mountain and Crum Hill near the Vermont border. The bill will allow the towns to negotiate payments in lieu of taxes with the developer... Mr. Patrick, who promised to try to make Massachusetts a leader in alternative energy technology during his campaign and was the first candidate for governor to back the controversial Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, signed the bill for the Berkshire project with little ceremony and no public announcement. While both host communities endorsed the Hoosac Wind farm, it has struggled getting to the construction phase, with financing plans and environmental hurdles... Warren Leon, director of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, said... ' One of the important things about getting a project like this up sooner than later is giving people an opportunity to see what a significant wind project looks like, so they can make informed decisions in the future,' he said. 'After a couple of projects like this go up, it is going to make a difference in peoples attitudes. People, I think, when they see them they will think this is a good idea,' Mr. Leon said."

Researchers Find Mid-Atlantic Coast Potential Wind Source. By Tracey Bryant, North American Windpower, February 5, 2007. "According to researchers at the University of Delaware (UD) and Stanford University, the wind resource off the Mid-Atlantic coast could supply the energy needs of nine states - from Massachusetts to North Carolina, plus the District of Columbia - with enough left over to support a 50% increase in future energy demand... The scientists' estimate of the full-resource, average wind power output of 330 GW over the Middle Atlantic Bight is based on the installation of 166,720 wind turbines, each generating up to 5 MW of power. The wind turbines would be located at varying distances from shore, out to 100 meters of water depth, over an ocean area spanning more than 50,000 square miles. The study also defined exclusion zones where wind turbines could not be installed, such as major bird flyways, shipping lanes, chemical disposal sites, military restricted areas, borrow sites where sediments are removed for beach renourishment projects, and visual space from major tourist beaches."

Texas Wind Farms Generate Energy and Opposition. By Thomas Korosec, The Houston Chronicle, February 6, 2007. "I'm not interested in having blinking red lights causing the Milky Way not to be as bright or to hear them when now I hear nothing up here except the sounds of nature,' said ranch manager Dan Stephenson, explaining why the ranch declined to lease land for the project and objects to its neighbors leasing as well. 'Wind farm, that's a spin term,' Stephenson said as he took in a vista of tree-covered ridgelines. 'I call them wind turbine industrial zones.' Though embraced by state political leaders as a clean, renewable electricity source and welcomed by many rural landowners as newfound income, wind farms are gathering fresh opposition from Texas ranchers who say they are an ugly, noisy blight on the wide-open landscape. Opponents say the turbines, which extend up 400 feet to the tips of their blades, not only threaten birds and wildlife but devalue property in areas such as the distant outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth, where ranchland is increasingly being used for recreation and second homes... In December, five Jack County landowners... sued in state court to enjoin several subunits of the Spanish wind giant Gamesa Corp. from erecting 'monster wind turbines.' It was the third such suit filed in the state... Jack County Judge Mitchell Davenport characterized opposition to the wind project as 'small but vocal' and said he expects most landowners will lease their land for the project if they have not already... Texas ranches, including many of those of the plaintiffs, have hosted pump jacks and other energy industry equipment. Jack Hunt, president of the legendary King Ranch in South Texas, scoffs at comparisons between wind turbines and power lines or pump jacks. 'They're not 400 feet tall and moving,' he said. The King Ranch, owned by descendants of Capt. Richard King, has taken issue with a proposal to locate 267 turbines on a neighboring ranch near the coast in Kenedy County. County commissioners last spring denied the project a tax abatement, but it could go forward without one. 'The Kenedy and King ranches go back more than 150 years, and we're at each other's throats over this deal,' Hunt said, referring to property owned by the John G. Kenedy Jr. Charitable Trust... Hunt and other critics say the wind power hardly merits the major tax subsidies it receives."

UK Wind Power Reaches Milestone. BBC News, February 9, 2007. "The UK has become only the seventh nation in the world to have more than two gigawatts (GW) of operational wind power capacity. The milestone was passed on Friday when the Braes O'Doune wind farm, near Stirling, began producing electricity. Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling described it as a 'major landmark' for the UK wind industry. The government has set a target for 10% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2010. The 36-turbine Braes O'Doune wind farm, built and operated by Airtricity, has a generating capacity of 72 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to 45,000 homes in the area, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA)." The top eight:
1. Germany - 20,622MW
2. Spain - 11,615MW
3. USA - 11,273MW
4. India - 6,053MW
5. Denmark - 3,136MW
6. Italy - 2,123MW
7. UK - 2,016MW
8. Netherlands - 1,564MW

Massachusetts Gov -Elect Appoints a Supporter of Cape Wind as Secretary of Energy and Environment. By Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe, December 16, 2008. "Governor-elect Deval Patrick appointed Ian Bowles [who worked in the Clinton administration as associate director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality] as secretary of energy and the environment. In an interview Friday, Bowles said he wants to use his new position to promote clean energy... 'There's an enormous opportunity in front of us -- with renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy technology -- to make Massachusetts a global leader, and I think the specific policies and incentives we'll be working on in the weeks and months to come,' said Bowles... Bowles said he, like Patrick, supports Cape Wind, the controversial project to build wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. He called the project 'an important symbol of our commitment to renewable energy.' The appointment of Bowles drew praise from business leaders and environmentalists."

Controversial Australian Wind Farm Gets Go-Ahead. By Jewell Topfield, The Age, December 22, 2006. "The long-running saga of the orange-bellied parrot and the Bald Hills wind farm has ended with Environment Minister Ian Campbell overturning his controversial decision to block the $220 million project. The reversal was variously hailed as a 'humiliating backdown' by the Federal Opposition, a victory by the Victorian Government, a vindication by the developer, regrettable by the anti-wind farm Coastal Guardians... 'Having thoroughly considered all information presented to me in relation to the proposal, I am satisfied that the strict conditions attached to this approval will address the risk to threatened species that may use the area,' Senator Campbell said. Wind Power director Andrew Newbold was relieved that the project had finally been approved after 4½ years. He said the project would reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 435,000 tonnes a year, the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road."

Cape Wind Survives Another Legal Challenge: Permitting for Transmission Lines. The Associated Press, December 18, 2006. "The state’s highest court on Monday upheld a decision permitting construction of transmission lines to bring electricity from the Cape Wind project to shore. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a May 2005 decision by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board that was challenged by [the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound] a group opposing the Cape Wind project. If it receives needed federal approval, Cape Wind would become the nation’s first offshore wind farm - a unique status that has presented local, state and federal jurisdictional questions during five years of government reviews. The SJC found the state board acted within its discretion."
World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm Gets Government Approval in the UK. BBC News, December 18, 2006. "The green light has been given for two offshore wind farms in the Thames Estuary, one of which will be the world's biggest when it is completed. The government said the schemes would produce enough renewable electricity to power about one million households... The larger London Array project...will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 12 miles (20km) off the Kent and Essex coasts... The smaller Thanet project will be located seven miles (11km) out from North Foreland, Kent, and will have 100 turbines... The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds backed the London Array scheme after plans were amended to prevent harm to red-throated divers - a bird rarely seen in UK waters."

Alberta Policy Kills Investment in Wind Power Production. Commentary by Time Weis, The Edmonton Journal, December 12, 2006. "The cap of 900 megawatts of wind power imposed by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) makes us the only province to limit one of the fastest growing energy industries in the world and forfeits our lead in developing this renewable resource. Alberta is endowed with a vast supply of energy that includes not only non-renewable fossil fuels, but also wind resource. Alberta has 284 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, more than any other province. But this Alberta advantage is about to be eclipsed -- possibly for good. Instead of promoting Alberta's leadership in wind power, a recently announced arbitrary cap on wind power projects threatens to pull the plug on billions of dollars of investment here... no other province is in better position to not only take advantage of its natural resource, but to use some of the revenue from its non-renewable energy resources to create a sustainable energy supply than Alberta. Yet, instead of creating or allowing for a long-term industry in the province, Alberta is doing the opposite."

Revised Plans for UK's Largest Wind Farm Unveiled. BBC News, December 13, 2006. "The company behind the UK's largest onshore wind farm project - proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis - has unveiled revised plans for the scheme. The reworked proposal comprises 181 [larger] wind turbines compared with the 234 that were originally planned. As a result, the wind farm's generating capacity would also have to be reduced from 702 megawatts (MW) to 652MW. The £500m proposed development has been vigorously opposed by conservation groups and anti-wind farm campaigners."

Huge Kites to Help Propel Ocean-Going Ships. CNN.com, November 1, 2006. "Whenever there is a hike in oil prices, the idea of a return to wind-powered shipping catches favor, but sail ship designs have often fallen short on a number of points, not least that they have to rely on unpredictable weather. However, the future of shipping could feature wind power, but with kites, not sails... Kites have the advantage of not needing masts, do not need a large area to store them and can be retrofitted to existing ships. 'Kites hold the potential to change the way we move goods across oceans. They are eco-friendly and sufficiently cost effective to herald a return to sail that the Earth's finite petroleum supplies mandate,' says Dave Culp, President of California based company KiteShip. Another company that is throwing itself into towing kite technology is SkySails, based in Hamburg, Germany... Neither company is proposing that engines will be made redundant with the use of a kite, rather that the added propulsion will save a considerable amount in fuel costs. Earlier this year SkySails trailed a kite on an 800-ton former buoy tender in the Baltic Sea. Using a towing kite of only 80-square-meters the Beufort reached five knots in low winds. While this doesn't sound very impressive, add to it engine propulsion and... a saving of between ten and 35 percent could be made on fuel costs and in better wind conditions, perhaps even 50 percent."

Wind Power's Payoff in Denmark. By Mark Harrington, New York Newsday, October 30, 2006. "As new initiatives in offshore wind power gain momentum around the globe, including the first in U.S. waters proposed off the coast of Long Island and in Asia, the situation in Denmark provides an insightful window into the potential as well as the challenges of powering up with wind... General acceptance of wind farms, and a thriving market for wind-energy equipment around the world, has pushed Denmark to forerunner status in the global market. Indeed, some days Denmark is choking on an abundance of wind power, so much so that it is forced to unload it at cost, or even at a loss, to neighboring countries... Today, it has 5,300 onshore wind turbines, with about 210 offshore... The wind-power industry wields vast political sway here, employing about 30,000 people and supplying about 40 percent of the world's wind turbines... The ability to export excess energy, or draw from other countries to stabilize the grid, is critical to maintaining stability in Denmark...  From a baseline study begun with the first large-scale offshore wind farm in 1999, Denmark has reached certain conclusions about the collective impact of the turbines over seven years. In Horns Rev, feeding activity of harbor porpoises, after initially declining, has now returned to pre-wind farm levels, Nielsen said. Seals in every location, he said, 'we can almost definitely say seem not to be affected at all.' Investigators found that migrating birds 'seem to avoid collision' with turbines, Nielsen said, though they have not been able yet to document whether habitat for the common scooter, a sea duck, has declined."

Cape Wind on the Horizon? By Beth Daley, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2006. "The company that wants to build the nation's first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound is building the turbines 5 percent taller, re opening the emotionally charged debate over whether the 130 windmills will spoil the view from some of the state's best-loved vacation spots. The developer, Cape Wind Associates, has prepared a new set of computer simulations of the proposed wind farm from various vantage points on Cape Cod and the Islands. For many Massachusetts residents, it is their first glimpse of what the turbines will look like." Pictures of how Cape Wind might look from vantage points on the Cape and Islands

Testing the Winds in Indiana. By Stacey Stumpf, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, October 15, 2006.  "Although wind farms have been more often associated with California and the East Coast, better technology and demand for alternative energy are making them more practical for other areas. Indiana has no wind farms, but Orion Energy LLC, based in California, plans to build Indiana’s first one in Benton County, on the Illinois border northwest of Lafayette. The farm is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2007 and will have a maximum of 135 turbines that will be capable of producing about 200 megawatts of electricity each year – enough electricity to serve at least 50,000 homes."

Turbines Rise on the Rural Ridges of Idaho. By Tim Woodward, The Idaho Statesman, October 14, 2006. "Compared with the mass of a hydroelectric dam or the stacks of a coal-fired plant, the Wolverine Creek Wind Farm looks benign, almost low-tech. But the pale gray turbine blades spinning almost silently in the green hills around Bone provide enough electricity to power 12,000 homes. Idaho's largest wind farm could be a harbinger of the state's energy future. A smaller commercial wind farm, Fossil Gulch, is operating near Hagerman in south-central Idaho, and a project three times the size of Wolverine Creek called the Cotterel Mountain Wind Farm is projected to be operating in 2008, also in south-central Idaho, near Albion. Its turbines would dot ridgelines for 18 miles and provide enough power for 40,000 homes. More than 40 other projects large and small are in various stages of planning."

Home Wind Turbines Turn Fashionable in Britain. By Oliver Bullough, Reuters, October 12, 2006. “The [British] government is so far showing no signs of making turbines compulsory, but earlier this year it launched an initiative that will devote 80 million pounds ($150 million) over the next three years to develop and promote microgeneration…. About 80,000 homes in Britain are producing electricity with small renewable power generation units such as turbines… Small turbine producers have sprung up in Britain. One manufacturer, Futurenergy, sells domestic wind turbines for 695 pounds ($1,200) on its Web site (www.futurenergy.co.uk) and began shipping them four months ago. They now sell about 100 a week to customers all over the world.”

Work Begins in Scotland on Europe’s Largest Onshore Wind Farm. BBC News, October 9, 2006. “Work is set to begin on constructing what will become the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. The £300m Whitelee project will see 140 turbines built on the Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow. It is claimed that they will generate 322 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 200,000 homes… The wind farm, which is being constructed by Scottish Power, will take three years to complete."

Defense Dept. Report: Wind Turbines Van Interfere With Radar, But Some Can Proceed. Grist Magazine, September 29, 2006. "The Defense Department has finally completed a long-awaited study on how wind farms impact military radar, which clears the way for some stalled wind projects to continue. At least a dozen projects in Illinois, North Dakota, and Wisconsin had been put on hold pending the DOD study. In its report, submitted this week to the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the DOD declared that turbines in radar line of sight can interfere with detecting and tracking aerial objects, but the Pentagon also showed willingness to allow wind projects to proceed anyway if they pass a case-by-case review process."

The Ascent of Wind Power in India and China. By Keith Bradsher, The New York Times, September 28, 2006. "Wind power may still have an image as something of a plaything of environmentalists more concerned with clean energy than saving money. But it is quickly emerging as a serious alternative not just in affluent areas of the world but also in fast-growing countries like India and China that are avidly seeking new energy sources. And leading the charge here in west-central India and elsewhere is an unlikely champion, Suzlon Energy, a homegrown Indian company.  Suzlon already dominates the Indian market and is now expanding rapidly abroad, having erected factories in locations as far away as Pipestone, Minn., and Tianjin, China. Four-fifths of the orders in Suzlon’s packed book now come from outside India... Suzlon’s past shows how a company can prosper by tackling the special needs of a developing country. Its present suggests a way of serving expanding energy needs without relying quite so much on coal... And Suzlon’s future is likely to be a case study of how a manufacturer copes with China, both in capturing sales there and in confronting competition from Chinese companies... The demand for wind turbines has particularly accelerated in India, where installations rose nearly 48 percent last year, and in China, where they rose 65 percent, although from a lower base. Wind farms are starting to dot the coastline of east-central China and the southern tip of India, as well as scattered mesas and hills across central India and even Inner Mongolia."

Dutch Moving Wind Turbines Offshore. By Toby Sterling, The Associated Press, September 18, 2006. “In the face of a large and growing lobby against the windmill's modern electricity-generating counterpart -- the wind turbine -- the country has started moving them offshore and out of sight. The Egmond aan Zee wind farm, the first major offshore Dutch project, is nearing completion 8 miles from Haarlem and is scheduled to go on line this fall. It has 36 turbines, each with arms reaching higher than a football field, capable of producing a combined 108 megawatts an hour -- enough to power roughly 100,000 households.”

Manitoba to Quadruple Its Wind Power. CBC New (Canada), September 7, 2006. “The Manitoba government plans to build enough wind towers over the next two years to quadruple its wind-generated power, Energy Minister Dave Chomiak announced Thursday. The province, along with Manitoba Hydro, hopes to add 300 megawatts of wind power to the province's energy grid — enough power for 100,000 homes. That could mean up to 160 more windmills, although newer and evolving wind turbine technology could make that number smaller… The strategy is expected to generate $2 billion in investments, $100 million in wind-rights payments to landowners and $150 million in property taxes to local municipalities, according to the province.”

Largest Wind Farm in the U.S. Proposed in Iowa. The Associated Press, September 1, 2006. “Northern Iowa could have one of the nation's largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres in Franklin County. A county zoning board will consider approving permits for the $200 million project next month… Iowa ranks third in the nation in wind energy behind Texas and California, according to the American Wind Energy Association… The Franklin County Wind Farm would … involve 193 landowners in the townships of Grant, Hamilton, Ingham, Lee, Morgan, Oakland and Reeves.”

Whither Wind?  By Charles Komanoff, Orion Magazine, September/October Issue. A veteran energy analyst, who is also a committed environmental activist, takes us on a personal “journey through the heated debate of wind power.” This in-depth essay explores wind power’s potential and the dilemmas it poses for conservationists.  

“Although automobiles … may seem like the main culprit, the number one climate change agent in the U.S. is actually electricity…  responsible for a whopping 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the electricity sector may also be the least complicated to make carbon free… I want to be clear that the turbines I'm talking about are huge, with blades up to 165 feet long mounted on towers rising several hundred feet… just six square miles of land—less than the area of a single big Wyoming strip mine—could house the bases for all of the windmills [400,000] needed [together with conservation and efficiency measures] to banish coal, oil, and gas from the U.S. electricity sector … Some of the bad press is warranted… however, there is an apocalyptic quality to much anti-wind advocacy that seems wildly disproportionate to the actual harm … With very few exceptions… wind output can be counted on to displace fossil fuel burning one for one. No less than other nonpolluting technologies like bicycles or photovoltaic solar cells, wind power is truly an anti–fossil fuel.

“Depending on … how the question is understood… divergences of opinion are heard about every …aspect of wind power… Wind power developers are skimming millions via subsidies, state-mandated quotas, and ‘green power’ scams...or are boldly risking their own capital to strike a blow for clean energy against the fossil fuel Goliath… Unlike a ski run, say, or a power line cutting through the countryside, the windmills [at a site Komanoff visits] didn't seem like a violation of the landscape. The turning vanes called to mind a natural force—the wind—in a way that a cell phone or microwave tower, for example, most certainly does not.

“Part of the problem with wind power, I suspect, is that it's … much easier to comprehend the immediate impact of wind farm development than the less tangible losses from a warming Earth. And so the sacrifice is difficult, and it becomes progressively harder as rising affluence brings ever more profligate uses of energy…Throughout his illustrious career, wilderness champion David Brower called upon Americans ‘to determine that an untrammeled wildness shall remain here to testify that this generation had love for the next.’ Now that all wild things and all places are threatened by global warming, that task is more complex…  Could acceptance of wind farms be our generation's way of avowing our love for the next?  I believe so. Or want to.”

News related to wind power:

Largest Wind Farm in the U.S. Proposed in Iowa. The Associated Press, September 1, 2006.  “Northern Iowa could have one of the nation's largest wind farms by 2008. Iowa Winds LLC wants to build a 200- to 300-megawatt farm covering about 40,000 acres in Franklin County. A county zoning board will consider approving permits for the $200 million project next month… Iowa ranks third in the nation in wind energy behind Texas and California, according to the American Wind Energy Association… The Franklin County Wind Farm would … involve 193 landowners in the townships of Grant, Hamilton, Ingham, Lee, Morgan, Oakland and Reeves.”

Wind Power to Run Village's Water Plant. By Ken Goze, the Northbrook Star, August 31, 2006. “Starting next September, Northbrook residents will end up doing a little something for renewable energy development every time they turn on a faucet or a garden hose.  [Northbrook is a Chicago bedroom community of 33,000.] Last week [the town] authorized a new electricity contract that will buy enough wind-generated power to drive the massive pumps and other equipment at Northbrook's water plant…  Board members said the additional cost -- $4 or $5 on an average residential water bill each year -- is a worthwhile investment in a technology that will help the environment and eventually offer some freedom from volatile petroleum prices.”

Portland Going 100% Renewable. By Mitchell Hartman, Marketplace, America Public Media, audio and text, August 30, 2006.“Starting next year, the juice that runs City Hall will be 100 percent renewable. In a complex deal between power broker Sempra Energy Solutions, local landowners, and a regional wind developer, all city operations will run from wind power… instead of paying [$14 million a year] for coal from Montana, or natural gas from Canada and the Far East, Portland taxpayers will be buying a thoroughly domestic resource: Eastern Oregon wind.”

World’s Largest Wind Turbines Ready for Installation off Scottish Coast. BBC News, August 21, 2006. “The first of two of the world's biggest offshore wind turbines has arrived at the Beatrice Field in the Moray Firth…  A Scottish-based consortium led by oil firm Talisman and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will test the deepwater turbines in a £35m pilot. If successful, a full 200-turbine wind farm will be built 12 miles offshore…  It is hoped the site will be capable of generating one Gigawatt of electricity, enough renewable energy to power the city of Aberdeen.”

Cornwall's Battle of the 'Breaks'. By Brenden O’Neill, The Christian Science Monitor, August 21,2006. “The Surfers in the quaint English county are fighting a plan to generate electricity from the ocean. Who owns the waves?… The good news is that the ‘Wave Hub’ is predicted to generate 20 megawatts a year - enough to power 7,500 homes, or 3 percent of Cornwall's overall demand, says Matthew Taylor, one of this region's parliamentary backers of the plan. The bad news is developers believe it will reduce the height of waves by more than 10 percent, affecting a 20-mile stretch of beaches from St. Ives to Newquay, a larger Cornwall town considered to be the ‘surfing capital’ of England.”

Massachusetts Report: Wind Farm Would Violate Law. By Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe (free registration), August 20, 2006. “A Romney administration report has concluded that a proposal by a prominent Boston developer to build up to 120 wind turbines off Buzzards Bay would violate state law and could threaten an endangered species of bird. The report is a setback for the developer, Jay M. Cashman , who unveiled plans for the wind farm in May and said he had hoped to see the turbines anchored to the ocean floor and generating clean energy by 2011.”

Wind Power Proves Divisive, Even for Environmentalists. By Susan Sharon, audio, All Things Considered, NPR, August 24, 2006. “Tapping into wind power's clean energy isn't as simple as it sounds. Even the environmental groups that tout sustainable energy are divided when it comes to the massive turbines. In Maine, a key environmental group opposes plans to put turbines on a high-visibility ridgeline

US Wind Power Capacity Tops 10,000MW. Environmental Finance (UK), August 17, 2006. “Wind energy capacity in the U.S. now exceeds 10,000MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The growth has been driven partly by concerns about fuel price volatility, according to the Washington-based AWEA. ‘Utilities welcome the price stability of wind, as do regulators,’ said AWEA spokeswoman Kathy Belyeu. ‘Another driver is the proliferation of state renewable portfolio standards (RPS), requiring utilities to source certain percentages of energy from renewables... At the same time, the cost of wind energy has become attractive, she said, noting that power from wind costs 4-7 cents/kWh, after applying the 1.9 cents/kWh federal production tax credit (PTC). That is higher than coal power, at 3 cents/kWh, but competitive with gas-fired plants, whose fuel costs have risen steeply in recent years.’”

Residential Wind Systems Gain Popularity. Grist Magazine, August 16, 2006. “It's somewhat ironic, considering all the NIMBY opposition to wind farms, that more and more consumers are seeking out wind power for, well, their back yards. Three-bladed turbines are popping up at personal abodes across the country, with the potential to save consumers 30 to 90 percent on their electric bills.”  For details: U.S. Department of Energy Web site at www.eere.energy.gov.

Foes of Cape Wind Form a New Lobbying Organization. By Bill Farley, Cape Cod Today, August 8, 2006. "The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a tax-exempt… organization established in 2001 to block development of Cape Wind … has created a new lobbying arm…Coal, oil and gas magnate William I. Koch, of West Palm Beach, FL and Hyannisport, is … listed on the incorporation papers."

Wind Farm Fight Moves Forward After Key Battle on Capitol Hill. By Andrew Miga, The Associated Press, July 3, 2006. "With a key battle in Congress behind them, the developers of a proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm are pressing ahead with two other key aspects to getting the project off the ground: raising money and seeking to convince the government it's worth building."

Texas Tops in Wind Energy Production. The Associated Press , July 25, 2006. "Long known as a top oil- and natural gas-producing state, Texas has gained new energy acclaim by becoming the nation's top producer of wind energy. Texas capacity stands at 2,370 megawatts, enough to power 600,000 average-sized homes a year, according to a midyear report released Tuesday."

Vail Ski Area and Associated Businesses to Become Second Biggest U.S. Corporate Buyer of Wind Power. By Joanne Kelley, The Rocky Mountain News, August 2, 2006. "Vail Resorts Inc. will buy enough renewable energy to cover electricity use for all of its ski areas, hotels and headquarters, making it the nation's second-largest corporate user of wind power behind Whole Foods. The 'green' energy will cover power use at its five ski resorts, its lodging properties, including RockResorts and Grand Teton Lodge Co., all 125 retail locations operated through Specialty Sports Venture and its new corporate headquarters."

In Upstate Maine, a Wind-Power Project Gathers Momentum. By Glenn Adams, The Associated Press, August 7, 2006. "At the crest of a mountain ridge that hugs northern Maine's border with Canada and shares names with the potato-growing town below, what will become New England's biggest wind-power development so far is quietly taking shape... the 42-megawatt Mars Hill project will provide enough power to supply about 45,000 average Maine homes at full capacity, in effect all of northern Maine's Aroostook County."

Controversy Over Wind Power Maine. By Alan Crowell, Kennebec Journal, July 23, 2006. "High atop some of the tallest mountains in Maine, a wind farm proposal has set the stage for a clash of environmental values that could define the future of wind power in Maine… The Redington project would produce roughly 90 megawatts of power -- enough to power about 40,000 Maine homes. But it is only one of a several projects in various phases of development in Maine… If [all the proposed] projects live up to their potential, they would theoretically create roughly 800 megawatts of generation capacity or about 40 percent of the energy Maine residents use during peak periods."

Industrial Wind Developers Blocked in Vermont. By Jeanne Miles, The Caledonian-Record, August 10, 2006. "The future of harnessing the wind to produce electricity in Vermont does not look bright. To some, the future looks downright grim. 'Wind power in Vermont is dead.' … [said Mathew Rubin, of] East Haven Wind, which was denied a certificate of public good to erect four wind turbines at the site of an old military radar base in East Haven by the Public Service Board in July… Gov. Jim Douglas has stated a number of times that industrial wind turbines have no place in Vermont. 'No developer will be able to succeed,' Rubin said. 'You can't go where you are not wanted. There are insurmountable obstacles.'"

Adirondack Panel Shoots the Breeze About Wind Power. By Erin DeMuth, Post Star, July 21, 2006. "The focused, contemplating eyes of more than 100 Adirondack residents never left the Tannery Pond Community Center stage Wednesday evening during a public forum on wind power… [with] four panel members expressing opinions both for and against the proposed Barton Mines project to build 10 wind turbines on the northern side of Gore Mountain… [one of the panelists, Jim McAndrew, said the site] which hasn't been used to mine garnet for 20 years, already has roads, power lines and windy weather. It's also already zoned for industrial use, which is rare in the park. 'This project would be built with very little additional disturbance,' he added." Others argued that the project would mar the scenery of the Adirondack Mountains.

Staples Ponders Tapping Wind Power. By Alexandra Perloe, The Boston Globe, July 6, 2006. "A wind turbine whose blades would reach 230 feet into the air may one day rise on a site along the Massachusetts Turnpike at the Framingham headquarters of Staples Inc… Staples has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 7 percent by 2010... The turbine at the headquarters would produce enough power for 90 homes; it would also mean that the production of 700 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually could be avoided."

US Energy Giant Acquires UK Wind Power Developer. RenewableEnergyAccess.com, July 7, 2006. "The AES Corporation has acquired majority control of the Wind Energy Ltd. (WEL) group companies, a UK-based wind development company, with 640 megawatt (MW) of wind generation projects under development throughout Scotland… Ned Hall, AES Vice President of Wind Generation said 'The UK has one of the fastest growing and most attractive wind energy markets in Europe, where installed capacity is expected to increase fivefold over the next four years. In addition, Scotland enjoys some of the highest wind resources in the world, which allows for particularly efficient wind power generation.'… AES, one of the world's largest global power companies with 2005 revenues of $11.1 billion, said it is currently evaluating wind power projects in continental Europe, China, India and Central and South America, with an emphasis on countries with existing AES businesses. It is based in Arlington, Virginia."

Wind Power Snag in Japan. By Kazunori Mori, Japan Today, August 12, 2006. "Increases in the generation of wind power, introduced nationwide as an environment-friendly energy, are hitting a snag as enterprises are reluctant to do the business because electric power companies are negative to buy such power."

Plans for World's Biggest Wind Farm Divide Citizens of the Hebrides. By John Vidal, The Guardian Unlimited (UK), July 20, 2006. "A visitor to Lewis, the northernmost Hebridean island, might think it the slowest, softest and calmest place in Britain… But the island is in social, political and environmental turmoil, with communities and families divided over developments that will change fundamentally the landscape - and their lives...  In the next few weeks, plans will be submitted for an already approved wind farm of several hundred of the world's largest turbines, generating 702MW of electricity. Meanwhile, the Scottish executive will shortly rule on whether a 150MW scheme of 53 turbines should go ahead, and a third farm of about 375MW is being planned. If these three farms alone are approved, Lewis will generate as much electricity as two large nuclear power stations from the largest concentration of wind power in the world. It could have as many as 500 turbines, each 140 metres (448 feet) tall… Opposition is intense."

China Scrambles for Wind Power as Market Heats Up. Shenzhen Daily/Agencies, July 20, 2006. "Only 14 months after agreeing to work together, China's State-owned rocket maker and its Spanish partner are churning out wind turbines from this plant north of Shanghai…The lure of China's huge but underexploited market, the government's drive for renewable energy and low production costs for exports to fast-growing bigger markets in the United States and Europe have foreign and domestic firms rushing to set up wind farms or build production plants across the country."

Spain's Acciona Wind Power Expands into Chinese Market. RenewableEnergyAccess.com, July 6, 2006. "Spain-based Acciona Group's rise as a large and diversified player in the global renewable energy field was evident at the recent inauguration of a wind turbine manufacturing facility in China. Acciona's plant is expected to produce between 400 and 600 megawatt (MW) of turbines, all 1.5 MW 'AW-1500' turbines, designed by the company's wind power division. Acciona says the facility is the largest wind turbine manufacturing facility to be built in China and first yet from a Spanish company."

Kennedy Faces Fight on Cape Wind; Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project.  By Rick Klein, The Boston Globe, April 27, 2006.
 “As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy's bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound.”

Riverkeeper Joins National and Regional Environmental Groups in Supporting the Long Island Offshore Wind Park.  Check  Riverkeeper website, April 26, 2006.

Cape Wind and Congress: True Test on Energy. Editorial, The New York Times, April 24, 2006.
“Congress will soon face a test of its professed new interest in energy independence and legislative transparency. It comes in the form of a flawed amendment, hatched in secret, that would prevent the construction of a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. … the amendment would create a terrible precedent by giving a single governor absolute veto power over energy projects in federal waters…The Senate's two most influential members on energy policy, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, will try to strip this amendment on the floor. Any senator who cares about this country's energy future — and who cares, too, for the idea of open debate — should join them.”

Wind Farm Supporters Target Congress. By Andrew Miga, The Associated Press, April 21, 2006.
“Backers of the proposed wind farm off Cape Cod are trying to generate some energy of their own on Capitol Hill, scrambling to lobby lawmakers to kill an amendment that could doom the project. An alliance of 55 energy, labor and environmental groups is sending a joint letter urging members of Congress to oppose the measure… Cape Wind has complained that the amendment was tucked into the Coast Guard bill without any public hearings or public debate.” (See press release about the news conference.)

Alaskan Senator and Congressman Work to Block Cape Wind.  By Sam Bishop, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, April 16, 2006. 
“Rep. Don Young's effort to block a wind farm off Massachusetts didn't succeed, but Sen. Ted Stevens has secured language that project supporters say is equally threatening. Young and Stevens, Alaska Republicans, both served on a conference committee created to write a final version of the U.S. Coast Guard's authorizing bill for the current year. The committee approved the bill April 7. It could go to the floor of each house for a final vote soon after Congress returns April 24.”

Nantucket Voters Reject Wind Farm Project. By Jason Kolnos, Cape Cod Times, April 12, 2006.
Some 66 percent of voters on Nantucket island participating in a nonbonding referendum Tuesday on the 180-turbine offshore wind farm proposed by Cape Wind Associates opposed its construction. Preliminary results showed that 2,156 people voted no of 3,409 ballots cast. The question was whether to ''support the generation of electricity by wind power as proposed for a site in Nantucket Sound.''

Cape Wind Proponents Fight Back.  By Ian Fein, The Vineyard Gazette, April 14, 2006. 
“When news broke last Friday that a Congressional committee on Capitol Hill attached language to a federal bill that would grant the governor of Massachusetts veto power over any offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, some called it a death knell for the Cape Wind project.  At a time when the need for clean energy and the influence of special interests are at the forefront of the public consciousness, the legislative maneuver may have turned the developers of the $900 million project into popular underdogs.  ‘This is not over,’ Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said this week. ‘We have been deluged with emails and phone calls from the local area and around the country. People - including some important members of Congress - are outraged about what happened, and the way in which it was done.’”

 Get Balance Right with Cape Wind. By Laura Johnson, The Boston Globe, April 9, 2006.
In an op-ed column in the Globe, the president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society writes that the organization wants a federal review of the proposed 180-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, to “set the standard for future offshore wind projects in the United States. … The benefits and detriments of Cape Wind must be balanced against the threats to Nantucket Sound posed by fossil-fuel use and rapid climate warming. We must act boldly and quickly; uncertainty should not slow our response to this threat. Let's … judge this project based on its merits for improving our environment, and not on politics.”

Anti-Cape Wind Clause OK’d by Congressional Panel. By Kevin Dennehy and David Schoetz, Cape Cod Times, April 7, 2006.
“Cape Wind Associates' five-year bid to build the nation's first offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound was dealt a potentially crippling blow Thursday when a congressional panel endorsed a policy that would allow the Bay State governor to veto the project. After weeks of debate, a closed-door conference committee approved language that targets the Cape Wind proposal specifically, sources said. … Gov. Mitt Romney opposes the proposal, as do most of the gubernatorial candidates vying to succeed him in the fall.”

An Ill Wind from Congress. Editorial, The Boston Globe, April 7, 2006.
The Globe urges rejection of a broad bill funding the Coast Guard because of an amendment attached to it Thursday granting Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney veto power over the proposed Cape Wind project. “Congress should reject this bill and stop playing games with the nation's hopes of weaning itself from fossil fuels and the greenhouse gases they emit.”

 Audubon Preliminary Review Supports Wind Farm. By Beth Daley, The Boston Globe, March 29, 2006.
“The Massachusetts Audubon Society gave its preliminary blessing yesterday to a large-scale wind power project off Cape Cod, saying its studies show that turbine blades are not likely to cause significant harm to birds, as the group had once feared. Support from the environmental group, one of the most respected in the state, is important because the threat to birds has emerged as a controversial aspect of the five-year-old proposal to turn stiff sea breezes into a source of electricity.”

Mass Audubon Issues Cape Wind Statement.  March 28, 2006
“The environmental review of Cape Wind will set the precedent for all future offshore wind projects in the nation, and it is important that we get it right. For that reason, Mass Audubon has taken a leadership role for the last five years in analyzing the potential environmental impact of this project, with particular attention to the birds that live in Horseshoe Shoal or fly through the area….

“Mass Audubon challenged Cape Wind and its permitting agencies to accept comprehensive and rigorous monitoring and mitigation conditions that will reduce the risk to birds and other wildlife. If these conditions are adopted, and remaining significant data gaps are filled with a finding of no significant threat to living resources, Mass Audubon will support this Cape Wind project, the largest, clean, renewable-energy project in the Northeast…

“The consequences of climate warming compel us to increase energy conservation as a first priority. And, to continue to supply our energy needs, wind should be tapped as the most successful and readily available of all renewable energy technologies. The benefits and detriments of Cape Wind must be balanced against the significant threats to Nantucket Sound posed by fossil-fuel use and rapid climate change.”

Foes Raise at Least $8.5 Million in 2 Years to Defeat Cape Wind. By Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe, April 1, 2006.
Twenty-eight of the gifts to a group which would block construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound were in amounts of $100,000 or more in a campaign whose solicitors are advised to regard $5,000 donations as token.

As wind power becomes an increasingly viable alternative for generating electricity, it is also increasingly controversial, often among environmentalists. To the consternation of many climate activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr., senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, has been an outspoken opponent of the proposed Nantucket Cape Wind Project project.

Please read the following:

New York Times OpEd piece by R.F. Kennedy

San Francisco Chronicle OpEd response by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger

Kennedy response to Nordhaus and Shellenberger

Nordhaus and Shellenberger response to Kennedy

Climate activists open letter to Kennedy

Other news sources:
The Cape Cod Times

Cape Wind

The Daily Grist

Turbine Shortage Knocks Wind Out of Projects. By Keith Johnson, The Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2007. "The race to build new sources of alternative energy from the wind is running into a formidable obstacle: not enough windmills. In recent years, improved technology has made it possible to build bigger, more efficient windmills. That, combined with surging political support for renewable energy, has driven up demand. Now, makers can't keep up, mostly because they can't get the parts they need fast enough. Numerous wind-power projects from Virginia to California have been stalled due to the shortage. But for some renewable-energy companies in Europe, where wind power has been in vogue for almost two decades, the logjam is a lucrative opportunity. These firms anticipated a shortage of turbines and locked in orders with makers. They're now using their considerable buying power to gobble up smaller utilities in the U.S. that couldn't otherwise get their hands on turbines... Community Energy, a firm in Wayne [with permits and funding in hand, in 2005], faced a multiyear delay [getting wind generators]... Iberdrola SA, a Madrid-based utility... purchased Community Energy for $40 million. Two months after that... gleaming white turbines started churning out enough clean electricity for about 6,500 homes."

Massachusetts Ski Area Installs Wind Turbine. By Scott Stafford, The Berkshire Eagle, July 13, 2007. "The culmination of a three-year, $3.9 million effort to save energy was reached yesterday when the 75,000-pound blade and cone assembly was hoisted more than 300 feet to the nacelle of Zephyr, the wind turbine at Jiminy Peak. More than 200 people took a chairlift to the peak and walked about a half-mile to the site. The Jiminy Peak wind turbine is breaking ground in a number of ways: 1) It is the first modern wind turbine to be used at a ski resort in the United States. 2) It is the first modern wind turbine in Berkshire County. 3) Jiminy Peak is the first privately owned company to invest in a wind turbine... 'When we got going on this, we had no idea how pioneering it would be,' [Jiminy Peak President] Brian Fairbank said. 'Now I'm hoping we can carry the flag and say, 'We did it, and so can others.'"

hide details

Kansas Supreme Court Puts Coal-Plant Cases on Hold. By John Hanna, AP, April 24, 2008. "The state's highest court has put on hold indefinitely its review of a regulator's decision blocking two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas... Sunflower Electric Power Corp. wants to build the two plants outside Holcomb, in Finney County. It applied for an air-quality permit from KDHE, but Secretary Rod Bremby rejected it in October. Bremby's decision led to six separate legal challenges, three of which are before the Supreme Court. Legislators also have passed two bills to clear the way for the plants' construction, but Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has vetoed them. Overriding her latest veto last week will be a key issue for legislators when they return Wednesday from their annual