11 states lead green movement

 

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued the following news release, today: 

Massachusetts and 10 other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have committed to developing a regional Low Carbon Fuel Standard in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuels for vehicles and other uses, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles announced today. These 11 states – which include all the member states of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) plus Pennsylvania – will work together to create a common fuel standard that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a technology-neutral basis.

This all started when Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, sent a letter requesting that other states in the area work together to develop the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).  The sentiment shared was that since there is an interconnectedness in those states for fuel distribution, working to together would ensure and easier and more effective implementation.  As a result, last week, the heads of environmental protection agencies and, in some cases, energy agencies in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont signed a Letter of Intent to tackle the challenge of reducing greenhouse gases from fuels in a joint effort.

In the Letter of Intent, the 11 states commit participating in research set to analyze low carbon alternatives and set up a framework that supports the use of sustainable energy in the area.  They also commit to share all of their information with other governors. They will also work with the federal government in ensuring success of the LCFS.

The news was first released through the Environment News Network.

another country going wind

Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. That is why it is so astounding that they are about to finish a $90 million project that helps them switch over to wind energy and end their dependence on oil.

When oil prices were at their peak, Nicaragua had to start a system of rolling blackouts that left many with out power for hours and, in some cases, days.

Wind is part of Nicaragua’s efforts to reduce its dependence on oil-based energy to just 3 percent by 2013. The country has also turned to geothermal power from volcanoes, hydroelectric power generated by rivers and sugarcane based ethanol. Those sources provide 34 percent of Nicaragua’s energy.

This really is something to be commended. When other nations are trying to find ways for not having to comply with energy efficient alternative, Nicaragua is making steps to be one of the few that are completely independent.

The article can be found HERE, via Huffington Post

do you like clean water? then, you better pay attention…

The Colorado River is the water (and power) source for millions of people; it provides power to 3 million homes, waters 15% of our agriculture in the West, and gives one in 12 people something to drink. That is why many are concerned about its sustainability and longevity as a provider. In fact, many do not know this, but one environmental group has called listed it as the “most endangered” waterway.

The reason: the region could contain more oil than Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge and people want to get at it. And, now.

Rulings under the Bush Administration have not helped, either.

In the eight years George W. Bush has been in office, the Colorado River watershed has seen more oil and gas drilling than at any time in the past 25 years. Uranium claims have reached a 10-year high. Last week the departing administration auctioned off an additional 359,000 acres of federal land for gas drilling projects outside Moab, Utah.

As still more land is leased for drilling and a last-minute change in federal rules has paved the way for water-intensive oil shale mining, politicians and water managers are now being forced to ask which is more valuable: energy or water.

 

“The decisions we are making today will be dictating how we will be living the rest of our lives,” said Jim Pokrandt, a spokesman with the Colorado River Conservation District, a state-run policy agency. “We may have reached mutually exclusive demands on our water supply.”

It is estimated that if all the oil and natural gas drilling that has been requested to be done, were in fact, done, the annual demand would be the equivalent of shutting off the water to all of Southern California for five days. Oil shale drilling is the equivalent of 79 days.

And then there is a question of contamination. The major mining companies claim that they adhere to the EPA guidelines, but those guidelines are getting less strict every day. Add on top of that, Uranium mining, and there is the potential of radioactive material infecting our water supply.

Scientists say some degree of pollution is inevitable, because mining sometimes uses toxic chemicals like cyanide. It also exposes naturally toxic metals that would otherwise remain deep underground.

Drilling for uranium creates pathways where raw, radioactive material can migrate into underground aquifers that drain into the river. Surface water can seep into the drill holes and mine shafts, picking up traces of uranium and then percolating into underground water sources. The milling process itself creates six pounds of radioactive and toxic waste — including ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury — for every ounce of uranium production.

So, this has become a question of competition: food and water for the citizenry or lack of dependency on foreign oil. Not to put too much pressure on the Obama Adminsistration, but many are looking to them to undo the leniency allowed by his predecessor and to come up with a happy medium between the two.

The full article can be found at ProPublica.

top 10 list

Ten Technologies to Save the Planet, by Chris Goodall… this is top ten list I can really get behind.

1.) Wind Power
2.) Solar Energy
3.) Power from the oceans
4.) Combined heat and power
5.) Super efficient homes
6.) electric cars
7.) Second-generation biofuels
8.) Carbon capture
9.) Biochar
10.) Biogas stoves

To read more you can go HERE, to see the article via The New Scientist… or buy the book using the link to Amazon, above.

good research, bad news

I read an very interesting article today that doesn’t bode well for our future, necessarily, unless we make some conscious choices today.

In “Heat we emit could warm the Earth”, found in The New Scientist, the authors have shown that even if we control our energy usage today, there could be long lasting effects in the future heating of the planet.

Their calculations show that if global energy use increases at about 1 per cent per year – slower than in the recent past – then by 2100, the heat dissipated could become significant enough to cancel out the benefits of cuts in emissions.

However, they even take it a step further and have researched which of the alternative energies could do the most harm. Finding that nuclear is the worst, and wind and tidal power being the best.
Also, much of their research is factoring population growth and subsequent energy demands.

the power of the ocean

I have posted about this before, which you can find HERE, but I felt it was worth repeating since so many periodicals have been talking about it this week.

There has been a release of more data that shows harnessing the flow of rivers and the ocean, we can generate electricity on a level that could power the homes of many billions of people.

Systems could be sited on river beds or suspended in the ocean. The scientists behind the technology, which has been developed in research funded by the US government, say that generating power in this way would potentially cost only around 3.5p per kilowatt hour, compared to about 4.5p for wind energy and between 10p and 31p for solar power. They say the technology would require up to 50 times less ocean acreage than wave power generation.

I think that this news continues to be very promising. But, I am also at the point where I am tired of the talk and want more action. So, let’s start seeing these revolutionary devices built and creating electricity and the levels they are expecting.

You can find the latest article, HERE, via The Telegraph