On Monday June 2nd, President Obama struck a decisive blow for the environment and against coal power. The plan aims to reduce CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 30%. The EPA has been given the authority to enforce this reduction limiting power plant activities through the Clean Air Act of 1970. States are required to submit a plan by 2016 to achieve this goal by 2030. This new legislation highlights the importance of renewable energy use in the creation of electricity, making alternatives such as solar photovoltaic more vital than ever.
The State of Hawaii

Hawaii leads the nation in electricity costs. Costs range from 33.36 cents per kWh on Oahu to 44.64 cents per kWh on Lanai. The US National average is 11-12 cents per kWh. That means electric bills are over $175 per month or higher for the average Hawaii resident. Of this energy, 14% is generated by coal and the vast majority is generated by burning other fossil fuels, such as petroleum.

In order to combat these high costs and reduce environmental emissions, the state and federal governments have created a number of tax breaks to encourage the installation of solar energy on the islands. With a number of […]

No Comments

MISSOULA, Mont. — President Obama announced a series of climate change initiatives on Wednesday aimed at guarding the electricity supply; improving local planning for flooding, coastal erosion and storm surges; and better predicting landslide risks as sea levels rise and storms and droughts intensify.

The actions, involving a variety of federal agencies, were among the recommendations of the president’s State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness, a group of 26 officials who have worked since November to develop the proposals.

One of the projects involves shoring up the power supply during climate catastrophes, and the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday awarded $236.3 million to improve electricity infrastructure in the rural areas of eight states. A government study released in May concluded that climate change will strain utility companies’ ability to deliver power as extreme weather damages power lines and hotter temperatures drive surges in demand.

The Agriculture Department also announced new funds to help rural areas that are struggling with drought, although the White House has not said how much money would be allocated.

Tackling another of the recommendations, the United States Geological Survey and other federal agencies said it would spend $13.1 million to develop advanced three-dimensional mapping data that […]

No Comments

Almost a decade ago, in the Spring 2005 issue [2] of The Public Eye magazine, Jérôme Jamin examined the role of the Extreme Right in European politics (It’s worth noting that PRA no longer uses the term ‘Extreme Right,” as it has become so casually applied in the political discourse. We now generally use ‘Far Right” or ‘Ultra Right”). Jamin observed, that ‘as yesterday’s fascists [had] entered government,” it had become more difficult to identify them as such. With many of these parties participating in ruling coalitions, their public actions did not necessarily reflect their political rhetoric, restricted by coalition partners and, more broadly, by the European Union.

From May 22nd to the 25th this year, European parliamentary elections were held across Europe, and the same troubling questions came back to the fore. Parties of the Right with strong anti-immigrant and anti-Europe policies have flourished across Europe. Some of these parties have direct ties to the Nazi party, and many more use the same imagery. The Front National and the Danish People’s Party won the largest share of the vote in France and Denmark, respectively, by seeking to present themselves as mainstream. This mainstreaming has parallels in the U.S., with individuals […]

No Comments

Just days before its international debut at an airshow in the United Kingdom, the entire fleet of the Pentagon’s next generation fighter plane – known as the F-35 II Lightning, or the Joint Strike Fighter – has been grounded, highlighting just what a boondoggle the project has been. With the vast amounts spent so far on the aircraft, the United States could have worked wonders, including providing every homeless person in the U.S. a $600,000 home.

It’s hard to argue against the need to modernize aircraft used to defend the country and counter enemies overseas, especially if you’re a politician. But the Joint Strike Fighter program has been a mess almost since its inception, with massive cost overruns leading to its current acquisition price-tag of $398.6 billion – an increase of $7.4 billion since last year. That breaks down to costing about $49 billion per year since work began in 2006 and the project is seven years behind schedule. Over its life-cycle, estimated at about 55 years, operating and maintaining the F-35 fleet will cost the U.S. a little over $1 trillion. By contrast, the entirety of the Manhattan Project – which created the nuclear bomb from scratch – cost about […]

No Comments

The 4,400 acres Dustin Spears farms with his father-in-law stretch for 50 miles across northern Illinois in an archipelago of disconnected, mostly rented plots. Even in the best of circumstances, it’s a race to get the corn in the ground in time to take advantage of the full growing season. When spring is unusually cold and rainy, as it was this year, the window narrows even more.

Which is why Spears is in his tractor at two in the morning the first Monday in May, moving at 8 miles per hour through a halogen-lit haze of stirred-up topsoil. On the 60-foot planter behind him, a $47,000 sensor array helps deposit each corn kernel at a depth of 2 inches, no matter how hard or soft the soil. A computer in the cab calculates the fertility of different parts of the field and adjusts the planter accordingly. The seeds themselves are a new hybrid with a candy-green coating containing insecticides and fungicides. DNA inserted into the seeds produces a protein that kills pests such as corn borers, earworms, and rootworms. Other spliced-in genes confer immunity to the weed killers Spears uses, greatly simplifying his spraying schedule.

Photo Illustration by 731; Corn, People: Getty […]

No Comments