Home > transmission grid >
Posted on July 31, 2008 by Dennis Pfaff
- Drill offshore to produce more gasoline -- and, by the way, cut greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution -- says a majority of Californians in a new poll, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
- California utilities are expected to save more than 4,500 megawatts of energy between 2012 and 2020, the equivalent of nine new power plants, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, which established new electric and natural gas savings goals Thursday. The commission also required Northern California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company to propose new "dynamic pricing" rates, that will be useful with new advanced meters, for all customers by 2011.
- The "fractured" ownership of the nation's transmission grid complicates planning, investment and operation, says Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher in testimony to a congressional panel.
- Plans for building more than a dozen new Southern California power plants have been thrown into question by a judge's ruling that more environmental analysis -- including calculating the amount of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants the plants would spew, says an article in the Los Angeles Times. Environmentalists welcomed the decision.
- But a big new coal-fired plant in New Mexico gets a green light from the Environmental Protection Agency, says this statement from the EPA. The agency also made available additional information on the permit it issued for the plant, the Desert Rock Energy Facility to be located on the Navajo Nation, which the EPA said would establish a new level of performance for coal-fired plants in the United States.
- The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $36 million for a variety of projects around the country to research and develop means of capturing carbon dioxide from existing coal-fired plants, according to a statement from the department. Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have also announced plans to put $10 million into research on the development of cellulosic biofuels.
- Melting permafrost is causing strange things to happen to Alaskans' natural freezers, ice cellars, reports the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
- How well do computer models perform in predicting climate change? A new study from the federal government's Climate Change Science Program attempts to answer that question, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Energy. A copy of the full report is also available, as is a more simplified brochure.
Posted on June 18, 2008 by Dennis Pfaff
- Environmentalists have won a round in their challenge to the federal government's actions in listing the polar bear as a threatened species because of melting sea ice. A federal judge in Oakland, California, rejected a move by the government to toss out claims by three groups that contend the government is attempting to reduce Endangered Species Act protections for the animal through special provisions that, among other things, ignore consideration of the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the creatures. Climate Law Update has reported previously on the continuing controversy over the decision.
- New York and New Jersey, which account for nearly half of the carbon emissions in the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, might not be ready for the auction of carbon allowances scheduled for September, possibly jeopardizing its success, says a report from the UK's Carbon Finance.
- President Bush's advocacy of an end to a moratorium on offshore oil drilling puts him squarely in the middle of the presidential campaign, reports The New York Times. Meanwhile, California's Republican govenor takes a dim view of ending the ban, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Ditto both the state's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein and her junior colleague, Barbara Boxer, according to statements the Democrats separately released.
- T. Boone Pickens, the new guru of renewable energy, tells lawmakers looking at ways to improve the transmission grid that America can become more energy independent by making wind power a bigger part of the electricity mix, reports the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog.
- Developing biofuels from sources such as algae and switchgrass drew a lot of attention this week at a big biotechnology conference in San Diego, according to this story in the Union-Tribune.
- Insurers are coming up with ways to help commercial customers contend with risks from climate change, according to a panel of experts cited in this Reuters report.
- Climate change-induced damage to the food chain could help wipe out entire species of whales, Australian government researchers warn, according to news.com.au.
- French fries help can save the planet, or at least the grease from their cooking is becoming a popular source of biodiesel, an alternative fuel that doesn't threaten the food supply, suggests this story in the Globe and Mail.
