Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Stephan: This is generally good news, and I am glad to see it. However, I am concerned about the situation described in the section on the turbines pulling winds down from higher elevations. That sounds like an alarm bell, to me, going off. Disrupting natural cycles is rarely a good idea.
I hope we are not going to recreate the ethanol debacle, where our biomass fuel got locked to corn. Not only is it a much less effective way to create ethanol, it sets up a competition between food and energy, and we can already see what that is doing to food prices.
The wind power system that looks the best, in my view, is the one with the non-mechanical wands that can be used either on land or under the sea, and that have no moving parts, just the flex of the wand creates the energy (see SR archive for the story).
The Green Transition is not a sure thing, and it is going to take a while to work out how to do it. Science moves from the mechanical to the electro-mechanical-to the electrical-and then, I think, to the biological.
Some of the news buzzing around this week concerns China’s progress in the clean energy marketplace, but a couple of new developments in the U.S. shows that the race for clean energy is just starting to heat up. First, the Department of Energy has just announced that a massive solar array is moving forward in Arizona with a $976 million federal loan guarantee. And second, a new wind power study suggests that a way to boost the cost-effectiveness of America’s wind resources in the near term.
A New Boost for Wind Power Efficiency
Let’s get to that wind power study first, because it demonstrates that there is an enormous potential for significant improvements in the cost effectiveness of renewable energy over the short run, while next-generation technology develops over the long run. The study indicates that the efficiency of wind farms can be increased significantly simply by siting the turbines farther apart than is the current norm. The research team found that wind farms depend more on strong winds pulled down from higher altitudes, than on winds closer to the surface. When spaced farther apart, the turbines create additional turbulence that helps draw more wind from higher up.
Green Jobs and Wind […]
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Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Stephan:
Flu season is in full swing, so it’s more important than ever to protect yourself against illness. We dug deep to identify the major germ zones on planes (and tips to avoid them). No, you’re not likely to contract meningitis, but better safe than sorry, right?
GERM ZONE: Water
FOR: E. coli, a common culprit behind stomach cramps
Your plane reaches 30,000 feet, the fasten-seat-belt sign switches off, and the flight attendant comes by to take your drink order: Coffee or tea? Ice water? They seem like innocent offers — until you consider that airplane water has been under review by the EPA for traces of E. coli for six years.
A random sampling of 327 unnamed domestic and international aircraft caused a stir in 2004 when some water samples tested positive for E. coli, one strain of which is the leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S. Coffee and tea are brewed on board with such water and don’t typically reach hot enough temperatures to kill E. coli. When bottled water runs out, some planes have been known to fill fliers’ glasses from the tank.
One British Airways crew member confessed to the London-based Times that, in those cases, the crew first […]
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Friday, January 21st, 2011
ANDREW MICHLER, - inhabitat
Stephan: More positive news. Click through to look at the pictures.
If you don’t believe that we can kick our dependency on fossil fuels to the curb, think again. A newly released study says we can do it by 2030. Authored by Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobsona, the eye-opening report recently appeared in the journal Energy Policy, detailing how renewable technologies that are available now can completely power our electric grid system in a relatively short 20 years time frame. While the hurtles are massive and the numbers are staggering the report is a hopeful look at how we can eliminate our very bad habit of pumping vast amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.
While the concept of climate change may be controversial for some, there is a near scientific consensus that this is a dire reality. The new study takes a hard look at the sheer scale of implementing renewable energy by focusing on only the current technology available, including wind, solar, geothermal and tidal power in its projections. The authors did not consider nuclear as a renewable resource, so while it is a viable alternative to many, it did not fit the studies criteria.
The numbers for a 100% renewable civilization are staggering – 90,000 300 MW […]
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Friday, January 21st, 2011
Stephan: Business as usual as you can see.
Dick Cheney must be rolling over in his new bunker. He apparently is the only one who didn’t get an invitation to the party for polluters hosted on the Hil by Congressional Republicans. That’s OK, I guess, since Senate and House Republicans stand ready to pick up where Cheney’s secret energy task force left off.
POLITICO broke the news that top staffers of Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works Comittee, met behind closed doors with the energy industry earlier this week ‘to lay the groundwork for a sweeping Republican-led effort to undercut Obama’s climate agenda.’ Reportedly their plan is to enlist ‘unwavering support from a host of industries for an all-out push to block federal and state climate rules’ in addition to rolling back EPA’s new clean air standards.
‘The feedback we got was ‘hey, great, go for it guys,” one Republican aide told POLITICO. ‘And we pretty strongly told them we do need your help to get this done. And when we walked away from the meeting the feeling was we got that.’
Although the meeting […]
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Friday, January 21st, 2011
NICK MCCANN, - Courthouse News Service
Stephan: At least a few people seem to be being held accountable. But none of the really big players, of course. They're all in government.
Danielle Chiesi pleaded guilty Wednesday in what prosecutors call the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history. Chiesi, a consultant for the hedge fund New Castle Funds, traded on tips from a former IBM executive.
Chiesi made at least $1.7 million by trading on secrets that former IBM executive Robert Moffat admitted he leaked to her. Moffat was sentenced in September to 6 months in prison.
Chiesi pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court.
‘By sharing and conspiring to trade on inside information, Chiesi compromised the companies she sold out and distorted the market for their stocks,’ U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. ‘Today’s plea should send yet another strong message that we have zero tolerance for privileged professionals who game the system and who think the rules apply only to everyone else.’
This case is the first investigation in which federal agents admitted using wiretaps to investigate Wall Street inside trading.
Transcripts show that Chiesi had expressed concern to her co-conspirators about being caught in the scheme.
[…]
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