Local

Davos Climate Project Uncovers Carbon Accounting Flaws

By


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 →

 /  Published January 30, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Can The East River Power New York City?

By


Could New York City’s rivers power its famous lights?

A new tidal energy project located in New York City’s East River has the potential to create electricity that would be one of the first commercial installations of “hydrokinetic” projects in the US. The wave and tidal energy business, which is still in early stages of development, has been divided between large-scale installations and a focus on cheaply-deployed units that could be more easily installed to take advantage of the natural movement of waves and tides. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 30, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Does the DOS Environmental Impact Statement Dismantle Obama’s Reason for Rejecting Keystone?

By


In President Obama’s statement denying TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, he said, “The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment.”

The President referred to a five-page Department of State (DOS) report that echoed why he decided in November 2011 to postpone the decision until after the 2012 election. Despite a rigorous, three-year environmental review with multiple comment periods, the Department of State recommended that the current route was not satisfactory and additional review was necessary to study and reroute the pipeline around Nebraska’s Sand Hills region. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 30, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Obama Takes To Nevada And Colorado To Talk Energy, Expanding Drilling In The Gulf

By


President Barack Obama will double down on his “all-of-the-above” energy strategy on Thursday when he announces the Interior Department’s new lease sale to make roughly 38 million acres available for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement comes as part of the president’s post-State of the Union trip through Las Vegas and Denver, where he’ll expand on the energy blueprint he laid out in his address on Tuesday night. In his State of the Union speech, he vowed “responsible development” of domestic oil and natural gas. Speaking at a UPS refueling facility in Las Vegas, the president will detail the terms of the June 20 lease from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which could yield up to 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 2:20 PM

Cellulosic Ethanol Partnership Eyes Massive Potential Market

By


Commercially viable cellulosic ethanol has held revolutionary promise as a fuel source for years, and now life and materials sciences giant Royal DSM and ethanol producer POET LLC are joining up to demonstrate and license “the next step in the development of biofuels.”

The new joint venture, called POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2013 at a facility called Project Liberty. The facility is currently under construction adjacent to POET’s existing corn ethanol facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa and will produce 20 million gallons of fuel in its first year before hitting an anticipated pace of 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 10:00 AM

IBM Partners Up To Build First Statewide Smart Grid

By


Vermont’s electricity grid is learning to talk back, thanks to a partnership between technology giant IBM and the state’s VELCO transmission company that the firms say is a model for smart grid efforts across the US.

A new communications and control network will be stung along more than 1000 miles connecting transmission substations to Vermont’s distribution utilities as part of efforts to improve power grid reliability and security, the companies said in announcing their partnership at the DistribuTECH conference this week. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 6:00 AM

New England Transmission Debated As Generation Additions Continue

By


New England’s policies supporting building increased renewable generation is underpinning pressure to invest in new transmission infrastructure in the region, with advocates for new power lines saying the projects will boost employment and alleviate existing high regional electricity costs.

Each of the six states in the New England region has “some form” of renewable energy portfolio standard, the organizers of the New England Clean Energy Transmission Summit held this week in Boston, said. Those state policies align with federal policies that enable strategic planning and cost-allocation of new transmission ensuring renewable generation access to power markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 25, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Colorado Solar Industry Faces Transition

By


Is the sun setting on Colorado’s renewable energy sector? Has the wind left our sails? Can we conjure more stale metaphors for renewable energy that relate to the industry’s possible contraction? The answers are maybe, perhaps, and one emphatic yes. The last decade in Colorado has seen a trio of legislative efforts increasing renewable energy production in the state. Amendment 37, passed in 2004, originally set a quota of 10 percent green energy supply in the state by 2020. This quota was upped to 20 percent in 2007 with HB 1281, and then 30 percent with HB 1001 in 2010 (This brief history neglects finer points of the legislation, including rebate amounts and quota distinctions between Xcel and smaller energy cooperatives).

 /  Published January 24, 2012 at 9:50 AM

Geothermal Could Become California’s Baseload Power: Commissioner

By


Geothermal resources could become California’s “bread and butter” baseload power as nuclear and gas-fired plants are retired, a state commissioner said this week.

The licence for the San Onofre nuclear power plant is due to expire in 2022, and the Diablo Canyon plant will not be permitted to continue generating after 2024, unless it applies for a 20-year extension. The facilities have a combined nameplate capacity of around 4,300 MW. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 23, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Chesapeake updates its 2012 operating plan in response to low #naturalgas prices http://stks.co/22hB

By

Chesapeake updates its 2012 operating plan in response to low #naturalgas prices http://stks.co/22hB CHKhaynesville

 /  Published January 23, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Page 11 of 291...789101112131415...29