The US wind industry, seeking to prolong its decade-long construction boom, wants renewable energy subsidies added to any deal between Congress and the White House that extends a payroll tax cut through the rest of this year.
“This is our best chance to get this done,” says John Purcell, a vice president at Leeco Steel, a Chicago-area company that makes the steel used in wind-turbine towers. “It’s today, it’s this payroll tax cut bill.” Keep reading →
A project to measure the carbon footprint of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, may lead to tougher greenhouse-gas reporting standards for “mega cities” such as London and Rio de Janeiro.
A research team, led by Silicon Valley technology firm Picarro, installed monitors in Davos and on a nearby mountainside to measure the carbon emissions tied to the annual gathering of high-powered government and corporate officials. But weeks before the WEF began Jan. 25, emissions were already 35% higher than expected, Picarro says. Keep reading →
A major European bank closed its US carbon trading business this week in a sign that 2012 is a “make-or-break” year for cap-and-trade programs designed to fight climate change.
London-based Barclays determined the US carbon market, currently comprised of a handful of states, is too small to justify the expense of a dedicated trading desk in New York, according to sources familiar with the decision. Barclays was a major player in US greenhouse-gas trading programs on the East and West coasts and remains active in Europe’s carbon market, the largest in the world. Seth Martin, a Barclays spokesman, declined to comment. Keep reading →
