U.S. Clean Energy Policies Risk Losing Lead Over China

Alex Morales, Bloomberg News  – The U.S. government is creating a “boom and bust” in renewable energy investment that threatens to undermine its lead over China, the Pew Charitable Trusts said in a report.

U.S. investment reached $48.1 billion in 2011, largely in wind and solar power, the Washington-based research group said last night in a report based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data. Those funds trumped the $45.5 billion China allocated to renewables, for lead for the U.S. since 2008. … Continue Reading

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

Most Energy Efficient Place on Earth?

A biodiesel tractor on Samso

Denmark’s Samso Island is a sort of paradise for renewable energy enthusiasts. The residents have created, in just over a decade, a 100 percent carbon neutral, self-sufficient community.The local Samso Energy Academy is an example for other areas around the globe who might want to create an economic environment that is good for the ecological environment. … 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

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

Far Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India Than Previously Estimated

More than 95 percent of the wind potential is concentrated in five states in southern and western India. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

A new assessment of wind energy in India has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates — about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India’s renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity. … 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

Congressional Republicans and Media Debate Contraception Issue

GOP leaders from left to right, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor

With so many major items before the U.S. and the rest of the world, the main topic during the past few weeks in the U.S. has been about contraception and birth control. One would think Women’s Rights and related issues have long been settled.

Aren’t there more pressing and immediate concerns Congress and therefore, the Media should be discussing. For example; What about Energy? How about an Energy Policy which includes renewable energy standards; and as an extension, what about Gas Prices – how high is it going and why? What about our Importing Oil  – how do we eventually become independent of foreign oil? Are we simply suppose to “drill baby drill” or as others decry, immediately and totally cease all oil and coal exploration and its’ use, or as President Obama requested, have an “all-of-the-above” strategy?

The issues of expanding drilling capacities, the expansive inclusion of solar power, wind power, biomass/biofuels, hydropower, geothermal power, natural gas, and nuclear power are far more pressing to the nation and the world at large, both immediately and also to our future. Instead we’re left to hear talk and argument about old and long settled matters, and of impossible ways to “fix” the past.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Agree or Not, Leave Your Comment…