Renewable Energy Update

Down under they are taking the largest step possible when it comes to renewable energy for their nations citizens. Big steps like this are needed to slow the progression of global warming according to many scientists around the world from CO2 spewing power plants.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia plans to build the world's largest solar power station with an output of 1000 megawatts in a A$1.4 billion (US$1.05 billion) investment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday.

The plant would have three times the generating capacity of the current biggest solar-powered electricity plant, which is in California, Rudd said during a tour of a power station.

Tender details will be announced later in the year, and successful bidders will be named in the first half of 2010. Rudd said the project was aimed at exploiting the country's ample sunshine, which he called "Australia's biggest natural resource."

Good for the Aussies! So what is in the works here in the United States? New York state is installing 100 megawatts of solar power generating units on its public buildings to advance towards its 45-15 goal. (45% renewable energy by 2015)

GE Energy is providing 74 of its 1.5 megawatt wind turbines for a project in LaSalle County, IL.with funds made available by President Obama and his stimulus plan. That will power 30,000 homes.

So. Cal. Edison announced a deal back in February with BrightSource Energy for the eventual construction of seven solar thermal power generating plants adding 1.3 GW of power to its portfolio. - ARS Technica

The Port of LA is working on its impressive 1.15 million square feet of solar power panels on many of its rooftops and structures. Enough solar panels to power 2,500 homes. - Press Telegram

Exelon and SunPower Corp announced the construction of an urban solar field on leased property on the south side of Chicago. 32,800 solar panels are going up to power 1,200 to 1,500 homes or the equivalent of taking 2,500 cars off the road. - Exelon

I think it would be fair to say that the renewable energy industry is smoking hot!

Papamoka

Carbon Dioxide is Good for You

According to Michele Bachmann, Republican of MN, CO2 is not a problem in the world and she literally makes up her argument about the main contributing factor to global warming. Carbon Dioxide, according to the distinguished shock jock Republican member of the House, is a naturally occurring gas from the Earth. That isn’t a complete lie onto itself but her thought process is a gross and negligent tweaking of scientific facts. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to…

Video Link



Republican’s like Michele Bachmann are why we on the left have nothing to worry about for a couple of elections to come. Give her a microphone and she will literally convert moderates by the millions every single time she opens her mouth to the Democrat side of the aisle vote. All in favor of putting a coal or oil fired electric generating plant on Michele Bachmann’s front lawn raise your hands! Then we can ask her if it is okay to pump all that harmless CO2 into her living room from the smokestacks.

Yes Michele, CO2 is a natural product but nature can not absorb the excessive amounts produced by the activity of mankind burning and releasing billions if not trillions of tons of this cute and cuddly gas (her thoughts and not mine) into the atmosphere.

Unbelievable!

Papamoka

Thanks to Think Progress for their report on this topic…

Wake Up People! Climate Change Is Real, and It's Deadly!

Good Morning Papamoka Bloggers! I had a very interesting chat over the weekend with a friend who is deeply involved in climate science here in Southern California. Unfortunately, the conversation was striking in how much it unnerved me. I often consider myself a futurist in that I enjoy contemplating what's ahead, but the news isn't very good from what I hear.

I know we've all been exposed to the occasional History Channel docu-drama spelling out the 50 ways to the end of days, but if my friend is right, our odds have gotten much worse over the past few years. Climatologists are extremely worried today, and despite having collected a massive amount of evidence worldwide, are STILL having a very tough time getting America's corporate media to pay attention to their forecasts.

It appears that a LOT has changed over the past eight - dark - years. There has been a measurable sea rise (over 3 feet), as well as increased glacial meltdown leading to the disappearance of critical continental ice sheets - to name just a few. Have you heard about the Antarctic ice sheet slightly smaller than Scotland due to break off and melt soon? It seems a lot has happened since An Inconvenient Truth hit theaters, and yet few still talk about it. Yes, in other words, it's all happening faster than expected.

Many scientists are trying to talk about the potential for disaster, yet my friend tells me they are still fighting on-air battles with a small group of bought-and-paid-for fossil fuel industry scientists hired to confuse the facts - and the public. Sadly, the mainstream media refuses to spend time presenting the real, deadly facts pointing to disaster. If they did, the public would see that debate has ended. The public would also be more concerned about the future.

My friend compares it to the way Americans took so long to give up smoking. They knew it was killing them for decades, but nobody wanted to talk about it in polite company. The tobacco companies got away with clouding the facts for years. It appears the same thing is happening now.

Unfortunately, we're talking about a similar death toll. I know we've all heard it before, but hearing it from a scientist - over drinks - is even scarier. What are the scariest points? How about the fact that a third of the planet's population is expected to be displaced over the next 50 to 100 years, that over two-thirds of all species will probably die in a mass extinction, that many of the world's most impressive cities will be underwater, and that drought and famine will probably kill billions worldwide. Is that enough for you?

Yes, it will effect you too! Its a fact that dead oceans and dust bowls will prevent you from living the good life you've grown accustomed to. I suggest pulling your head out of the sand to see if there's anything you can do to help!

The really upsetting part is how that is expected to be just the beginning. That describes the "global warming," early phase of what is really planetary "climate change." The real damage will occur over a few centuries and is expected to be much more violent. It will effect ocean currents, global weather systems, and the planet's overall ability to cool and/or heat itself.

In other words, we should expect a massive greenhouse effect followed by more violent changes, such as a destructive ice age, or volcanic activity that could lead to our extinction. The long-term picture makes that movie The Day After Tomorrow look downright harmless.

It's obvious that once again WE THE PEOPLE are not getting all the information we need to make an informed decision. There is overwhelming agreement in the scientific community that climate change is a reality, and that it's COMING FASTER than expected. Despite that agreement, the American corporate media gets away with putting on a few rogue scientists that give the illusion there is still a debate. It's not that different from giving holocaust deniers a platform. It gives the impression of offering both sides, but it's clear that one side is BS!

It's obviously another media cover-up about a critical issue. Again, like smoking, it affects millions of Americans. The debate is over, the evidence is out there, yet very little is happening. Well people, it's up to us. WE need to act if they don't. Coastal cities like New Orleans should be considering options, not just rebuilding. Large percentages of Florida are at risk, yet few seem to care. We need to talk about it all more, and stop acting like nothing's happening.

Stop listening to the evil con artists of FOX "News" and the like. They are the worst of the worst. They have created the illusion that climate change isn't a reality. Large portions of America and the world are at risk over the next few years/decades, especially the American South, East Coast coastal cities, Northern Europe, Southern India and China, and vulnerable third world island nations worldwide. Those areas are do for massive flooding very soon.

Each of us can act to make a difference. I try to. Turn off your lights and appliances. Drive only when it's critical. Walk and bike more. Try to do whatever you can to help. It's important for all of us to try.

The EPA decision to classify CO2 as a pollutant is a great first step, but that is only the beginning. President Obama and his Administration need to do everything they can to change the way Americans - as well as China, India and the third world - treat the planet. It's also past time for most Republicans to stop fighting what is a scientific reality. It's time for them to make lifestyle changes too. We're all in this together.

You think I'm just an alarmist? Then ask yourself if you're willing to gamble away mankind's future? I suggest trusting in science. I also agree with the boyscouts. Be prepared!

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

Cow Flatulence Tax

Not long ago I promised a friend that I would do a post on turds just for the hell of it. We were talking about traffic to our respective websites and how the strangest stories get the most traffic. So here I go with yet another post on another topic that I could never dream up. Cow poop tax!

In order to save us from global warming the government is going to tax cows that have gas. Damn you cows for eating all that grass. Somebody call Richard Simmons and put all bovines on a diet. More vegetables and less… umm, no that won’t work.

I wish I made this whole thing up but I didn’t…

EPA 'Cow Tax' Could Charge $175 per Dairy Cow to Curb Greenhouse Gases
Farm Bureau warns just this one rule may increase milk production costs up to 8 cents a gallon.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
1/5/2009 3:55:30 PM

Call this one of the newest and innovative ways your government has come up with to battle greenhouse gas emissions.

Indirectly it could be considered a cheeseburger tax, but one of the suggestions offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act is to levy a tax on livestock.

Snip… poop

The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.” - Business and Media Institute

Stop laughing! We have to stop these cows from causing global warming. I would propose Beano or some other kind of product added to the feed for the cows to stop excess pooping aka farts.

Next up… old Uncle Ernie gets a hefty EPA fine for his gaseous byproduct and inconsiderate adding of methane gas to the environment. Check back with us soon as we also cover Auntie Girt’s baked bean recipe that kills Polar Bears.

Papamoka

The Short-Sightedness Of Al Gore's Crusade

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

I'm very happy for former Vice President Al Gore. Being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is an honor no matter the circumstances. Beyond that, however, I have a hard time jumping on Gore's bandwagon to "save the world."

From THE NATION I read this speech by Al Gore, A Precious and Painful Vision of the Future . I'm not saying that Gore's climate change crusade is all bad; quite the contrary. But, in his zeal to address the issue his approach and solution bank leave me rather skeptical.

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.

Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now, we and the earth's climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: "Mutually assured destruction."

SNIP,

More than two decades ago,scientists calculated that nuclear war could throw so much debris and smoke into the air that it would block life-giving sunlight from our atmosphere, causing a "nuclear winter." Their eloquent warnings here in Oslo helped galvanize the world's resolve to halt the nuclear arms race.

Now science is warning us that if we do not quickly reduce the global warming pollution that is trapping so much of the heat our planet normally radiates back out of the atmosphere, we are in danger of creating a permanent "carbon summer."

As the American poet Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice." Either, he notes, "would suffice."

But neither need be our fate. It is time to make peace with the planet.

SNIP,

We also need a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store carbon dioxide.

And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon--with a CO2 tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.

The world needs an alliance--especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where earth is in the balance. I salute Europe and Japan for the steps they've taken in recent years to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia, which has made solving the climate crisis its first priority.

Matthew O'Keefe of Papamoka Straight Talk recently wrote a piece, CLOCK TICKING ON BIG OIL. The title itself addresses the main fear put forth by Mr. Gore. Environmentally the party is over. Yet economically it is also. When it reaches the point that a temper tantrum by some Mid-East tyrant, or South American tyrant drives the price of oil up overnight, then it's time to take serious stock of where we are and where we're going.

Where we are is stretched over an oil barrel. I have not heard it yet put forth by anyone that there might be a cheaper, more abundant, and cleaner form of energy for daily use. There MIGHT be, but that political will mentioned by Mr. Gore is missing. While it is believed by many (including me) that the current administration is more than happy to let the chips fall where they may....this sacred "free market solution" fantasy....it is also fair to ask why Mr. Gore did not use his influence to have then-President Clinton get the ball rolling while oil was stable and relatively cheap.

Re-reading Gore's entire speech, I get this weird feeling like I'm listening to Noah demand that someone build an Ark; that the world is on the edge of total life-ending disaster. But Noah in this case is shouting from his private yacht.

To say that we are at war with our planet and must make peace with it goes beyond a rational warning to an incitement of irrational fear. Pushing for "carbon credits" is to me a nice hypothetical high school solution, but not much else.

And despite Mr. Gore's strong belief in the collective action of treaties and laws, there is NOTHING in economic terms that does the trick like individuality. Americans drive millions of cars dumping millions of tons of pollutants every year. Yet those vehicles give people individual freedom that is not going to be forsaken in favor of trolleys and light rail.

The push should be in the direction of what form of energy is used in the future. Let me pose this question: how far do most people drive their cars to and from work each day? Mat O'Keefe and I discussed this, and it is plainly clear that battery-powered vehicles would suit the needs of the vast majority of commuters.

New battery technology would have to be developed. In two areas..nuclear power and computer technology....private enterprise has done well AFTER the government gave things a shove.

Taxes of any kind affect economic affairs; that is easily understood. Carbon taxes as proposed are one-dimensional...they would make some people feel good (like tossing money into the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas) but would impact those at the lower end of the scale the most. Anyone who says that taxes can be imposed on businesses and not be passed on to consumers is either a fool or a liar.

Tax incentives on the other hand can always lure someone to take a chance. We desperately need leadership on this, no doubt. But scaring the hell out of people without offering hope through a clear and concise policy change is not helping matters.

I know; I know...Al Gore offers some but most of his message is that dire warning harangue. What opponents of Mr. Gore's climate change warnings must not lose sight of is that the debate about whether there IS global warming or not is quickly becoming irrelevant.

What counts most is that ticking clock on oil. Those with the power and influence are betraying national security by not giving us that clear and concise lead.

Towards a stable tomorrow, free of oil speculators and oil tyrants.
***********************
Cross-posted at Michaellinnjones.com

*****The Gore Hub has linked to this post...

How is Coal to Diesel Fuel Bad?

Picture courtesy of the DOE

Somebody slap me upside the head as I pump the $3.00 dollar a gallon gas courtesy of our so called good friends in the Middle East and so called market driven supply and demand into the tank of my car. Is it a bad thing that we might think of looking at another source of fuel for the American Go Go machines we call cars?

When the price of gasoline is over the price of bread then there is a serious problem with the market and Wall Street and the CEO’s will reap the benefits of market based thievery. Start the egg timer because the first Billion dollar CEO benefit is just over the horizon and that is not a joke to laugh about.

Where some folks see the market as pure capitalism others see the market taking the bread off of our families tables to fuel the car that would have bought the bread.

Senate Democrats Propose Loans for Coal-Based Fuel Plants

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: June 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 12 — As the Senate began debate Tuesday on a sprawling bill to reduce oil consumption, top Democrats were circulating a proposal to provide $10 billion in loans for plants that make diesel fuel from coal.

The proposal highlights the horse-trading involving powerful industry groups as Democratic leaders push for legislation that would require higher mileage in cars and a huge increase in the production of renewable fuels made from plants like switch grass.
But many environmental groups are flatly opposed. “We don’t think the federal government should be subsidizing liquid coal,” said Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth. “From a global warming and an environmental position, liquid coal is an unacceptable source of energy.”

The bill is being circulated by Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee and the energy bill’s lead author. Until this week, Mr. Bingaman had opposed big subsidies for coal-based fuels, saying that each new production plant would cost billions of dollars and that the economic uncertainties posed risks for taxpayers.

But in what could be an effort to fend off demands from coal-state lawmakers for bigger subsidies, Mr. Bingaman’s draft proposal would offer up to $10 billion in direct government loans for coal-to-liquid plants. - New York Times

I’m going to set the record straight here and now. As long as there is a Presidency that is hi-jacked by big oil in this nation then the rape of the people at the pump will continue. At this point in time the record breaking profits by all of the oil companies is not letting the so called leader of the free world walk away from the table that they have bought and paid for.

What I find truly and think that is ironic is that any Republican wanting to be considered for re-election thinks that this idea of Coal to Diesel is wrong. If the President claimed that we are addicted to oil then what is the problem with converting one of our nations largest resources to get away from oil dependence?

America will only be free when we find the sources for our energy needs from multiple sources that never have a knife at our throats. That requirement calls for alternative sources and research to make it happen.

Our nation is making progress on our energy needs despite the negligence of a President in the good old boys club. Wind energy is exploding, solar energy is exploding and the newest and latest moves away from oil dependence are happening regardless of the good old boy club.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring It On!

*****This post linked to on the Wall Street Journal