‘BETHESDA, Md. — A competition between nuclear waste dumps has pulled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission into an unusual reconsideration of its rules to allow moderately radioactive materials to be diluted into a milder category that is easier to bury.’
via Nuclear Dumps Argue Over Diluting Waste for Burial – NYTimes.com.
‘(Reuters) – An Argentine company opened Friday the country’s first factory to make biodiesel from algae, hoping to use pond scum as a replacement for soy in making biodiesel as part of a push for renewable energy.’
via Pond scum seen lucrative in Argentine biofuels push | Reuters.
‘(Reuters) – China’s $736-billion push to harness nuclear, wind, solar and biomass energy hinges on making the cleaner fuels competitive with cheap and CO2-intensive coal without derailing surging industrial growth.’
via Analysis: China clean energy plan hinges on coal price | Reuters.
‘(Reuters) – Aid promises from rich nations to help poor countries slow global warming are reaching the $30 billion goal agreed in Copenhagen but analysts say much of that is old funding dressed up as new pledges.’
via Analysis: Climate aid reaches $30 billion goal, but is it new? | Reuters.
‘(Reuters) – Australia could accelerate action on climate change, possibly resurrecting an emissions trading scheme, after independent and Greens MPs won the balance of power in elections that left a hung parliament.’
via Analysis: Australia’s green poll may accelerate climate action | Reuters.
San Francisco, Aug 13, 2010
Congressman Ed Markey, Democrat from Mass., Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and co-author of the Waxman-Markey bill which passed in the House but never made it through the Senate, spoke at the Commonwealth Club’s Climate One in San Francisco. He remains optimistic about the eventual passage of a comprehensive climate change bill, anticipating a growing wave of support coming from the emerging ‘green generation’.
Markey strongly urged Californians to defeat the upcoming proposition 23, placed on the ballot by two Texas oil companies aimed at turning back SB32, California’s clean energy law.
“You cannot lose this issue out here. It’s an imperative for you to beat back these two Texas oil companies. They are only interested in the short term profitability of their shareholders. They are not interested in the creation of renewable energy jobs here in California, of saving the planet, of backing out of imported oil.”
Excerpts: “And I think, in the end, we have a responsibility to the rest of the world. Most of the CO2 is red white and blue which is up there. You cannot preach temperance form a bar stool. You cannot tell China and India that you should stop, if the countries, along with the EU, that are most responsible for the creation of the problem, continue with the very same activities. So we need to have the moral and political platform from which to provide the leadership to the rest of the world, and the alternative technologies that can be developed in those countries, deployed in those countries, which would substitute for the pathway which the United States went down.”
“I think the rest of the world would respond if we did take that leadership role. I think that the whole world wants the US and China to partner in the twenty first century, but until we begin to lead we should have no expectations that China is going to follow. ”
“In the same way that the young people, the freedom riders went South, in the same way that the young women, the suffragettes rose up, so to the green generation is arriving, as voters and as powerful forces inside the community who are going to demand this change.”
“And while we might start later and at a lower level than you like, we can intensify in the later years in a way that avoids the worst consequences if we haven’t already reached a tipping point, which is my hope, then we still have time to save the planet.”
The first half hour of the Markey talk can be seen on the video posted by climate one.
Report by James George
‘(Reuters) – Green investment in China will forge ahead even without a United Nations carbon offset scheme, eventually shriveling the country’s dominant role in a program that has underpinned billions of dollars in investment.’
via China renewables to power ahead without CDM: report | Reuters.
‘OSLO, August 18 (Reuters) – Afghanistan and nations in sub-Saharan Africa are most at risk from shocks to food supplies such as droughts or floods while Nordic countries are least vulnerable, according to an index released on Thursday.’
via Food supplies most at risk in Afghanistan and Africa.
‘New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has signed into law on Thursday a bill that would spur economic growth through the development of the state’s renewable energy resources, particularly offshore wind.’
via New Jersey sets sail with new offshore wind policy.
‘(Reuters) – Waves crashing on to Australia’s southern shores each year contain enough energy to power the country three times over, scientists said on Tuesday in a study that underscores the scale of Australia’s green energy.’
via Ocean waves can power Australia’s future, scientists say | Reuters.
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