Wednesday, January 18th, 2017
John Walsh, - International Business Times
Stephan: In the U.S. we apparently are going to create policies -- if the incoming administration is to be believed -- to support and protect the coal industry. In China something rather different is happening. Which country do you think will lead the world in a non-carbon age?
The Chinese are now reversing previous policy and cancelling coal power plants, replacing them with non-carbon power.
Credit: Greenpeace
The Chinese government ordered the suspension of 104 new coal power plants from being built, signifying the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gasses commitment to curbing air pollution in the country, the Reuters reported Tuesday. (emphasis added)
The country’s National Energy Administration said it would invest $365 billion into renewable energy alternatives.
Government officials said the alternatives energy generators would be made up of hydro, solar and nuclear plants. They predicted these sources would eventually comprise 50 percent of the country’s energy by 2020. The fuel from the burning of coal currently accounts for the majority of China’s power supply.
This shift in energy sources would reportedly create 13 million jobs for people living in the 13 regions where the construction of these factories was halted.
The Chinese government had tried to curb its air pollution problems since April 2016 when it announced a “traffic light” set of regulations on the construction of new […]
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Wednesday, January 18th, 2017
John Rogers, - EcoWatch/Union of Concerned Scientists
Stephan: In the U.S., even if you have a small corporation and want to use non-carbon energy you may find it is not easy to do so -- just think about the recent legislation proposed in Wyoming.
A solar windfarm
Credit: Shutterstock
If you’re a company looking to get your hands on some renewable energy, to power your operations with sources like wind and solar, turns out some states make that a lot easier than others. Here’s what a new study says about different options for businesses interested in going clean, energy-wise.
The new study, Corporate clean energy procurement index: State leadership and rankings, offers an array of useful perspectives. It comes from the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and Clean Edge, the research and advisory firm behind various useful rankings of clean energy progress.
The analysis is aimed at assessing states “based upon the ease with which companies can procure [renewable energy] for their operations located within each state.” The index has 15 metrics in three categories: purchasing from utilities, purchasing from third parties (someone other than your electric utility) and using “Onsite/Direct Deployment Options”—putting solar or wind right on your stores, factories and warehouses.
And here’s what they found:
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2017
Laurence Frost, - Reuters
Stephan: SR readers know that my evaluation of what is happening in non-petroleum powered vehicles and the infrastructure necessary to support them is that the United States is falling further and further behind the transition out of the carbon era. And that China and Europe have become the leaders. Why? Because the Congress and now the Presidency and the new administration constitute a cabal of people who deny climate change and are committed to protecting corporate carbon interests.
Others now also see this trend, as this article describes, because the facts are so clear they cannot be denied by anyone who bases their assessments on actual data and not ideology, theology or bribery -- Oh, excuse me, I mean political contributions.
Norway and the Netherlands have both announced plans to completely phase out vehicles with diesel engines by 2025.
Credit: Pawel Libera/LightRocke
DETROIT — Electric cars will pick up critical momentum in 2017, many in the auto industry believe – just not in North America.
Tighter emissions rules in China and Europe leave global carmakers and some consumers with little choice but to embrace plug-in vehicles, fuelling an investment surge, said industry executives gathered in Detroit this past week for the city’s annual auto show.
“Car electrification is an irreversible trend,” said Jacques Aschenbroich, chief executive of auto supplier Valeo (VLOF.PA), which has expanded sales by 50 percent in five years with a focus on electric, hybrid, connected and self-driving cars.
In Europe, green cars benefit increasingly from subsidies, tax breaks and other perks, while combustion engines face mounting penalties including driving and parking restrictions.
China, struggling with catastrophic pollution levels in major cities, is aggressively pushing plug-in vehicles. Its carrot-and-stick approach combines tens of billions in investment and research funding with subsidies, and regulations […]
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2017
Robert Faturechi, - ProPublica
Stephan: If you live in a Red value state, one of those in which voters have put in power Republican dominated legislatures, particularly those that also have Republican governors, I do not envy you your poor judgment. Those states have notably inferior social outcome data, and I don't mean slight differences, I mean big gaping differences. And for those who live in one of those states it is going to get much worse. Just look at Kansas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, as a partial list, and compare them to say California, Vermont, Washington.
Shortly after the November election, with the nation’s political attention focused on the Trump transition, an influential advocacy group met outside Washington to discuss how to leverage the extraordinary shift of power to Republicans in the rest of the country.
The American Legislative Exchange Council — a nonprofit better known as ALEC — briefed its members and allied groups on the bright future for its agenda now that Republicans will effectively control 68 of the nation’s 99 state legislative bodies, as well as 33 governor’s mansions. Among other things, group members said they would push bills to reduce corporate taxes, weaken unions, privatize schooling and influence the ideological debate on college campuses.
“We can pretty much do whatever we want to right now,” said Rep. Jim DeCesare, a Republican state legislator in Kentucky, where the party gained the state House for the first time in nearly a century.
DeCesare, who had been minority whip, described plans for “a pretty intense agenda” including a so-called right-to-work law allowing employees who are covered by collective bargaining agreements to opt out of joining labor unions. Another, he said, would be repealing rules […]
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2017
Stephan: Low Energy Nuclear Reaction technology has always held the promise of being a gamechanger, but time and again promises have not become realities. But with this report, from a credible institution we may be seeing a new chapter begin.
Billouin IPR HHT LENR System
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — Researchers at SRI International are reporting that they have successfully replicated “over unity” amounts of thermal energy (heat) for Brillouin Energy Corporation’s most advanced Isoperibolic (“IPB”) Hydrogen Hot Tube™ (HHT™) reactor test systems based on controlled low energy nuclear reactions (“LENR”). Researchers at SRI conducted a series of third-party tests of Brillouin Energy’s IPB HHT™ LENR reactor test systems from March to December 2016. Dr. Francis Tanzella, principal investigator and Manager of the Low Energy Nuclear Reactions Program, was assigned to SRI’s testing of Brillouin Energy’s LENR systems and conducted all of the third-party validation work.
In its Interim Progress Report, SRI summarizes its extensive testing of five identical Brillouin Energy metallic reactor cores, which produced the same over-unity controlled heat outputs, turning the reaction heat on and off repeatedly. “Brillouin Energy appears to have achieved its most groundbreaking test results to-date,” the Report states.
Data from the SRI International test runs show LENR heat outputs up to several watts were repeatedly produced from positive coefficients of performance (COPs) in the range of 1.2X to […]
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