Anna Massoglia, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Open Secrets
Stephan:
Another tale of Congressional corruption, only this time two of the rare Congressional members who actually do their jobs and promote wellbeing, Katie Porter and Elizabeth Warren, are trying to put a stop to this tax preparation profit pig.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA, center) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA, right) have pressed tax prep special interests for additional information about their lobbying activities and revenue. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty
Leading tax prep companies have poured $90 million into lobbying on the Free File Program and other issues since the program’s inception in 2003, a new OpenSecrets analysis found.
Now the lobbying juggernauts are facing mounting scrutiny from members of Congress over their deployment of “revolving door” lobbyists in alleged attempts to undermine the federal government’s adoption of a government-run system that would allow taxpayers to file for free.
After years of lobbying and negotiations, a coalition of tax prep companies called the Free File Alliance reached a deal with the IRS to offer free tax prep services to a larger portion of taxpayers starting in 2003. The agreement, spearheaded by Intuit lobbyists, required companies to provide some tax filing services at no cost to certain individuals, those same companies could still charge for ancillary services and other tax-filing products.
Here is some very interesting news, good news in my opinion. The United States is finally beginning to upgrade its seriously out of date passenger rail. Now if we could just get cities to upgrade their mass transportation systems we could finally catch up with the rest of the developed world.
ORLANDO — Amtrak’s decades-old monopoly on intercity passenger rail travel will fall in the coming weeks when Florida becomes home to the fastest American trains outside the Northeast Corridor.
Brightline, the only private passenger railroad in the country, is slated to open its newest station here later this year, providing a train connection between Orlando International Airport and South Florida in three hours. Meanwhile, work is progressing on high-speed projects in Western states and Texas, and Amtrak is eyeing its biggest expansion in 52 years.The 5 higher-speed rail projects taking shape in the U.S.
Two years after the infrastructure law began pumping $66 billion into the nation’s aging rail network, domestic passenger railroads are showing their greatest signs of strength in generations. Amtrak’s singular grip on transporting U.S. rail passengers is slipping as private companies, states and the federal government look to fast trains as environmentally friendly alternatives to traffic-clogged highways, while developers promise speeds rivaling those in Europe and Asia.
Amtrak says it views other rail providers as complementary to its offerings, coming as the nation’s longtime passenger rail — newly flush with billions of federal […]
, - University of Colorado at Boulder / Tech Xplore
Stephan:
I have never been impressed with arguments for making hydrogen a major factor in transitioning out of the carbon era. But here is a just published research report on a new approach, a new technology, that might change the game a bit.
Researchers at the University of Colorado have developed a new and efficient way to produce green hydrogen or green syngas, a precursor to liquid fuels. The findings could open the door for more sustainable energy use in industries like transportation, steelmaking and ammonia production.
The new study, published Aug. 16 in the journal Joule, focuses on the production of hydrogen or syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into fuels like gasoline, diesel and kerosene. The CU Boulder team lays the groundwork for what could be the first commercially viable method for producing this fuel, entirely using solar energy. That might help engineers to generate syngas in a more sustainable way.
The group was led by Al Weimer, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
“The way I like to think about it is some day when you go to the pump you’ll have, for example, unleaded, super unleaded and ethanol options, and then an additional option being solar fuel, where the fuel is derived from sunlight, water and […]
Isabelle Dumé, Contributing Editor - physics world
Stephan:
I think this technological development is a very big deal for a number of reasons but particularly because, as described, one of the uses will be its adaption to roadways that could charge the EVs that travelled on them. This would resolve the major issue of the conversion into electric vehicles — charging. Let me say again. The conversion is going to be in two stages. Phase One: recreating the gas station model of charging stations, Phase Two: The certain high traffic roads will be altered so the roadway charges the vehicle.
Since the new “supercapacitor” concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills, and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed. Credit: Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic and Yang-Shao Horn
A new cost-effective and efficient supercapacitor made from carbon black and cement could store a day’s worth of energy in the concrete foundation of a building or provide contactless recharging for electric cars as they travel across it. The device could also facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and tidal power, according to the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Wyss Institute, both in the US, who developed it.
Supercapacitors are technically known as electric double-layer or electrochemical capacitors, and their capabilities fall somewhere between those of batteries and conventional (dielectric) capacitors. Though less good at storing charge than batteries, supercapacitors are better than conventional capacitors in this respect thanks to their porous electrodes, which have surface areas […]
This is the kind of thinking that needs to become the norm. Each sector of our economy should ask itself these kinds of questions.
Credit: Axios
The ICT (Information and Communications Technology) industry has an important role to play in rapidly decarbonizing as a sector and enabling the decarbonization of other industries.
Why it’s important: Across the world, companies, governments and individuals must work together to reach Net Zero emission targets by no later than 2050.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that reaching Net Zero is key to limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels — and the window to act is rapidly closing.
Get up to date: In broad terms, Net Zero means the point at which human-caused greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are balanced with emission removals.
Net Zero is not a target, it’s a way of working. Action now is crucial. Global emissions must be reduced now, halved by 2030 and reaching Net Zero by the latest 2050.
And while there has been an increase in Net Zero pledges, the commitments made to date are insufficient to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The positive news: Although the total life cycle carbon footprint of the ICT sector is approximately 1.4% […]
ORLANDO — Amtrak’s decades-old monopoly on intercity passenger rail travel will fall in the coming weeks when Florida becomes home to the fastest American trains outside the Northeast Corridor.
