Coalition seeks to protect public lands, launches “Energy Democracy” sign-up

 By Ariele Johannson – (San Diego’s East County)–Driving through the southwestern deserts, I’ve long been impressed by the ocotillo, a cactus-like tree with straight branches angling upwards to the sun, ablaze with red blooms. This thorny desert tree is an apt metaphor for the ways different people view energy issues– especially proposed industrial solar and wind power projects in remote wilderness areas. Like the ocotillo, these programs and policies have a wide array of angles from which to be viewed. … Continue Reading

Clean energy becoming a needed reality for the Great Lakes

If the U.S. wants wind power, The Great Lakes are definitely windy.

Illinois and four other states came a step closer to offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes (New, April 1), and that is welcome news. Wind farms, once mocked by climate skeptics and opponents of renewable energy, are now a profitable way to generate clean electricity for our homes and businesses. … Continue Reading

Hydrogen Storage Could Be Key to Germany’s Energy Plans

Hydrogen storage tanks presently used in hydrogen-powered vehicles

If Germany is to meet its ambitious goals of getting a third of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, it must find a way to store huge quantities of electricity in order to make up for the intermittency of renewable energy. … Continue Reading

Obama announces new limits on carbon pollution from power plants

The EPA seal (Pic via sentryjournal.com)

The EPA today proposed new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. Environmentalists say the move will be a boon to Floridians, who get about 25 percent of their electricity from coal, but utility reps say the rules will “crush jobs” and arrest America’s economic recovery. … Continue Reading

EBay And GOP Lawmaker Score Clean Energy Win In Utah

Ebay's Utah data center

by Mindy Lubber, reposted from Forbes

When eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, built its first-ever data center in South Jordan, Utah, it wanted to not only design and build the site to LEED Gold standards, it wanted to use clean energy to power much of the sprawling facility. This wasn’t simply part of eBay’s company-wide commitment to sustainable operations, it was a bottom-line business decision: sourcing renewable energy would stabilize and reduce long-term energy costs and minimize environmental impacts in a state that gets 94 percent of its electricity from coal. … Continue Reading

Obama Carbon Pollution Rules Boost Cleaner Power

By Daniel J. Weiss

The Washington Post reported this evening that the Obama administration plans to propose the first nationwide standard to reduce carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants:

“The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.” … Continue Reading

Denmark aims to get 50% of all electricity from wind power

Denmark could obtain an unprecedented 50% of its electricity from wind energy by 2025

The Danish government has stepped up its green energy and carbon reduction targets for 2020, hailing the plan as the “broadest, greenest, and most long-term energy agreement” it has ever reached.

Danish minister for climate, energy and building, Martin Lidegaard, confirmed on Friday that parliament had agreed a new set of goals designed to wean the country off oil and gas. … Continue Reading

Winds of change blow through China as spending on renewable energy soars

China's Gobi Desert is becoming a home for its massive renewable energy transformation.

Jonathan Watts (guardian.co.uk) in Jiuquan – World’s biggest polluter spends £4bn a year on wind and solar power generation in single region as it aims to cut fossil fuel use

The remote, wind-blasted desert of northwestern Gansu could be the most unloved, environmentally abused corner of China. It is home to the country’s first oilfield and several of the coalmines and steel factories that have contributed to China’s notoriety as the planet’s biggest polluter and carbon dioxide emitter.

But in the past few years, the landscape has started to undergo a transformation as Gansu has moved to the frontline of government efforts to reinvent China’s economy with a massive investment in renewable energy. … Continue Reading