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| Trusting science on climate change |
| CNNMoney.com |
Do climate change scientists really know what they're talking about? CNNMoney went beyond the climate scientists and put the question to a broader swath of scientific opinion. Read More...
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| Executive departures at clean energy firms |
| New York Times |
A worrisome spate of executive departures has hit renewable energy startups this week, with the president of SolarReserve, and the chief executives of Clipper Windpower and Aurora Biofuels stepping down. Read More...
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| Natural-gas group comes out against EPA rules |
| NASDAQ |
Natural-gas providers are lining up against planned Environmental Protection Agency rules to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, citing concerns that the regulations could make it harder to obtain permits needed to boost supplies.
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| Wyo., neighboring states bear burden of grouse 'candidate' listing |
| New York Times/Greenwire |
The Interior Department's decision last week to place the greater sage grouse on its "candidate list" for Endangered Species Act protection sent a shock wave through the Interior West, where resource-strapped state governments now must try to preempt a final ESA listing by adopting even tougher conservation policies. Read More...
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| Carbon Capture and Storage Coalition launched in California |
| PennEnergy |
Prompted by a study highlighting the importance of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to meet California's long-term target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, a group of energy companies with an interest in advancing CCS announced the launch of the California CCS Coalition. Read More...
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| Backlash on biofuels: Ethanol’s cost challenged |
| Yale Environment 360 |
Economics prof says growing food crops to produce ethanol is harmful to the environment and the world’s poor. notes that the Obama administration backs subsidies that put half the U.S.’s corn crop into biofuel production. Read More...
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| Group challenges sage grouse finding |
| Casper Star-Tribune/AP |
An environmental group is challenging plans by the Interior Department to classify sage grouse as merely a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act and not list the bird as threatened or endangered. Read More...
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| First Solar signs 300-MW PPA with PG&E |
| RenewableEnergyWorld |
First Solar has signed a 300-megawatt (MW) power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) with electricity from a utility-scale solar photovoltaic power facility that First Solar is developing in Southern California. Read More...
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| U.S. appeals court rejects wilderness groups |
| LocalNews8,.com |
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Sierra Club, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society cannot intervene in a lawsuit filed by Utah's Kane County seeking ownership of 2 dirt roads crossing federal lands. Read More...
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| SRI wins $4.5M carbon capture study contract |
| San Francisco Business Times |
SRI wins $4.5 million grant to study carbon dioxide capture using an ammonium carbonate-ammonium bicarbonate, or AC-ABC, method. It’s meant to be used at gasification plants, which use new technology to convert coal to gasses before burning. Read More...
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| National Monument issue heats up in Congress |
| New York Times |
Efforts to strip the Obama administration's authority to create new national monuments are gaining momentum in Congress as lawmakers continue to roll out bills aimed at protecting their states from what they view as a White House agenda to tie up large tracts of land. Read More...
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| Algae-based biofuels could get attention from Congress |
| ThomasNet News |
The Biotechnology Industry Organization has urged Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to extend tax code parity to algae-based biofuels as soon as possible. Algae producers are at a disadvantage in attracting investment because these biofuels are not currently recognized in the tax code as advanced biofuels. Read More...
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| Grid battle threatens wind development |
| Forbes.com (blog) |
That nationwide transmission backbone people like to dream about, the one that is meant to improve reliability while connecting the country's vast renewable energy resources with its power-hungry population? A group of utilities has gotten together to try to break that backbone before it even gets planned, never mind built. Read More...
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| Senate proposal could hurt U.S. wind industry |
| RenewableEnergyWorld |
This week, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced legislation that, if passed, would restrict any renewable energy project that uses less than 100% U.S. made components from receiving tax payer subsidies and grants. Read More...
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| EPA asked to study gas-drilling technique |
| Reuters |
Dozens of environmental groups have asked urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the hydraulic fracturing technique of extracting natural gas, amid concern that it contaminates drinking water with toxic chemicals. Read More...
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| In Utah, a move to seize federal land |
| Los Angeles Times |
The state House passes a bill allowing the use of eminent domain to take protected land from the federal government. Utah wants to develop a stretch outside Arches National Park and other areas.
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| Kyocera to manufacture solar modules in the U.S. |
| RenewableEnergyWorld |
Kyocera Solar announced plans to begin manufacturing solar modules in San Diego to serve the U.S. market's growing demand for clean energy. The U.S. module manufacturing will support a new milestone for Kyocera's solar energy business — global production capacity targeting 1,000 megawatts of solar cells per year by March 2013. Read More...
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| Top scientists admit Climategate seriously damaged public trust |
| New York Times |
A number of top scientists say the unauthorized release last fall of hundreds of e-mail messages from a major climate research center in England caused a major breach of faith in their research. They say the uproar threatens to undermine decades of work and has badly damaged public trust in the scientific enterprise. Read More...
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| Campaign rises against 'subsidies' for environmental lawsuits |
| Arizona Daily Star |
A campaign is growing against the many lawsuits filed by groups such as Tucson's own Center for Biological Diversity. The complaint: A federal law is allowing the center and others to unfairly collect millions in attorneys' fees, which then go to subsidize more lawsuits. Read More...
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| White House land grab plan exposed |
| Washington Times |
A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres of Western lands from Montana to New Mexico, halting job-creating activities like ranching, forestry, mining and energy development. State governments are outraged that this land grab would dry up their essential tax revenues for funding schools, firehouses and community centers.
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| Scientists taking steps to defend work on climate |
| New York Times |
For months, climate scientists have taken a vicious beating in the media and on the Internet, accused of hiding data, covering up errors and suppressing alternate views. Their response until now has been largely to assert the legitimacy of the vast body of climate science and to mock their critics as cranks and know-nothings. Read More...
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| Transparency blacked out -- time to get the truth |
| Salt Lake Tribune (U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis) |
Our nation's governing document grants every American the right to petition their government for a redress of grievances. Over the course of our history, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that every person has the same access to that right regardless of race, creed or class. In fact, the law dictates that citizens should be reimbursed for their legal expenses should they sue the federal government and win. No American should have to risk their livelihood or savings in order to seek justice. That is why, in 1980, Congress passed the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA).
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| Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy launched |
| The Earth Times |
A diverse group of electric utilities launched the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy. The group will support legislative and regulatory policies within comprehensive energy legislation that will lead to the most efficient development of the nation's electric transmission systems and clean generation resources. Read More...
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| Defections shake up climate coalition |
| Wall Street Journal |
Three big companies quit an influential lobbying group that had focused on shaping climate-change legislation, in the latest sign that support for an ambitious bill is melting away. Read More...
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| Wyoming: Debate swirls on taxing wind industry |
| New York Times |
With currents of powerful wind gusts whipping across its plains and plateaus, Wyoming has become a new frontier for the wind industry — the latest energy development for a state that only recently experienced a natural gas boom. Read More...
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| New Mexico: Carbon capture, storage bill runs out of time |
| BusinessWeek/AP |
The bill would have established ownership rights for empty spaces deep underground. Supporters of the measure say the so-called pore space will be valuable as technology advances to capture and store emissions from fossil-fuel power plants and other industries. Read More...
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| Bloom Box generates buzz, skepticism |
| Christian Science Monitor |
K.R. Sridhar, founder of the Silicon Valley clean tech start-up Bloom Energy, says he’d like to see his company’s Bloom Box fuel cell technology lighting up most American households within the next 10 years. Read More...
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| Yates raps BLM for slowdown |
| Casper Star-Tribune |
Federal regulations have become so onerous that several coal-bed methane operators in the Powder River Basin have appealed their own drilling permits -- an action usually taken by environmental groups seeking more stringent drilling stipulations. Read More...
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| Ariz. lawmaker pulls solar-industry reg bill |
| BusinessWeek/AP |
Industry groups, conservative think tanks, lawmakers and three states filed 16 court challenges to U.S. EPA's "endangerment" finding for greenhouse gases before the deadline, setting the stage for a legal battle over federal climate policies. Read More...
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| Blinded by science |
| Real Clear Politics |
Science, many scientists say, has been restored to her rightful throne because progressives have regained power. Progressives, say progressives, emulate the cool detachment of scientific discourse. So hear now the calm, collected voice of a scientist lavishly honored by progressives, Rajendra Pachauri. Read More...
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| Green energy jobs? Not from Obama's big government meddling |
| U.S. News & World Report |
The Obama administration and its congressional allies have been promising to usher in a green economy that will create millions of new green jobs. There's only one problem with all of the feel-good talk of creating green jobs: It makes no economic sense whatsoever, and where it has been tried most extensively, evidence shows that it's a job-destroying, economy-weakening fiasco. Read More...
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