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POPSPickens Gives New Meaning To Self-Government
At Pickens’ behest, the Texas legislature changed state law to allow the two residents of an 8-acre parcel of land in Roberts County to vote to create a municipal water district, a government agency with eminent domain powers. Who were the voters? They were Pickens’ wife and the manager of Pickens’ nearby ranch. And who sits on the board of directors of this water district? They are the parcel’s three other non-resident landowners, all Pickens’ employees. What’s this got to do with Pickens’ wind-power plan? Just as he needs pipelines to sell his water, he also needs transmission lines to sell his wind-generated power. Rights of way for transmission lines are also acquired through eminent domain -- and, once again, the Texas legislature has come to Pickens’ aid. Earlier this year, Texas changed its law to allow renewable energy projects (like Pickens’ wind farm) to obtain rights-of-way by piggybacking on a water district’s eminent domain power.
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POPSOffsetting carbon offsets Aren't you pissed off? I have an idea. This would be a company that receives payments to support the usage of fossil fuels to offset the ridiculous carbon offset scams that are fraudulently bilking morons out of their money. Here is how it would work. If your carbon footprint is lower than Al Gore's, then you pay carbon offset offsets to projects that increase the use of fossil fuels for the purpose of increasing your carbon footprint to equal that of Al Gore's. Is this NOT BRILLIANT? And get this, it is not a scam. It is helping to defeat a scam and render the practice of scammers useless.
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POPSMajor solar initiative in California This is a huge deal - highlighting the opportunity for utilities to embrace alternative sources of energy (such as solar and wind) to meet their customer's energy needs. “By harnessing the clean, renewable energy of the sun that is abundant in California, these innovative solar projects are helping to meet our long-term energy and climate change goals,” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said. “These projects are evidence that California’s ingenuity is spurring a clean tech boom that will bring companies and investment dollars to California while reducing the state's carbon footprint.” Why in the world don't words like that come from our President??? All he wants to talk about is drilling for more oil!
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POPSFrance the the beneficiary of nuclear growth... even though their construction projects aren't going so well. That great sucking sound you hear is proposed or in-the-works nuclear plants blowing their budgets everywhere. French company Areva's first EPR project, in Finland, is two years behind schedule and at least $1.5-billion over budget. Its second, in France's Normandy region, is headed in the same direction, after construction stalled for several weeks recently. It's not just the skyrocketing price of basic materials, such as concrete and steel, that's driving costs upward. So-called third generation reactors - such Areva's EPR and Atomic Energy's ACR-1000 - are still works in progress. And the two decades during which nuclear power faced desert-like prospects has left the industry grappling with a severe shortage of skilled workers.
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POPSSmaller and Smarter Wind Energy "This lumpy investment problem is being repeated in the wind industry based on a false economic argument for “bigger is better”. This is a myth, he said, with smaller turbines actually being cheaper than larger turbines on an installed megawatt basis. "
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POPSSenate votes to extend tax credits for renewable energy So the Senate and House have now decided to extend the tax credits. The big difference is that the House want to subsidize them by increasing taxes on oil companies, whereas the Senate just wants to eat the cost. Let's hope that Congress and the President can agree on a solution, because this would be great for the country and the world for many reasons!
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POPSHillary Clinton Gushes Over Oregon's Green Leadership Clinton praised Portland for cutting its greenhouse emissions from 1990 levels. And she said she wants to get 25 percent of the nation's electricity from renewable energy such as solar and wind by 2025 -- which is called for in Oregon law. "Oregon is already doing it," she said. Michael Grainey, director of the state Department of Energy, said the 2005 federal law "clearly pre-empts" Oregon's authority to decide on an LNG project. But the state does have some ability under the coastal law to challenge the projects, such as the one proposed near Astoria.
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POPSKennedy Dumped Diesel Fuel Into Nantucket Sound CCToday writes: The top photo is grainy because it was taken from a quarter-mile away and blown up. The lower one of the diesel fuel in the water at the stern of Mya is a close-up. When told that he was moored in coastal waters near shellfish beds and people swimming, the man replied, "whatever." F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Gatsby was right when he said, "the rich are different than you and I."
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POPSEcovillages everywhere This community is about 50 miles south of me outside Fairfield Iowa. Home of Maharishi International University. Fairfield hosts an Eco-Fair every year, and has the most homes with solar energy or other green building features in Iowa. Happy to say that my own house will be off the grid by mid July. Yahoo.
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