Tag Archives: green

How to smash solar power records: Harness a heat wave

by LydaMcCorkindal Posted on July 25, 2016

Beat the Heat

How to smash solar power records: Harness a heat wave

By on Jul 25, 2016 3:24 pmShare

California just crushed a solar energy record — thanks to the heat wave currently smothering the state.

At 1:06pm on July 12 — as the Golden State was burning in temps hitting the high 90s — its solar power plants generated an unheard-of 8,030 megawatts of electricity, according to the California Independent System Operator.

That’s enough to power 6 million homes, SFGate reports. Just two years ago, the statewide system could produce only half that amount of electricity. These record-breaking numbers don’t even take into account the 500,000-plus solar arrays installed on California’s private homes and offices, which can produce an estimated 4,000 megawatts of electricity altogether.

On July 12, renewable energy met almost 29 percent of electricity demand when it peaked at 5:54pm. That’s good news for the state’s goal of sourcing 33 percent of its power from renewables by 2020.

When life gives you heat domes, make megawatts of renewable energy, as they say.

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How to smash solar power records: Harness a heat wave

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Al Gore is voting Clinton, for the climate

by MalloryMcRae Posted on July 25, 2016

Al Gore is voting Clinton, for the climate

By on Jul 25, 2016 3:12 pmShare

Al Gore — climate change activist, one-time VP, and former next president of the United States — has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. He made the announcement Monday on Twitter.

Gore joins a long list of environmentalists in endorsing Clinton, a woman who both believes that climate change exists and has promised to do something about it. Republican nominee Donald Trump, on the other hand, has varyingly referred to climate change as a “hoax,” “mythical,” “nonexistent,” a “con job,” and — a personal favorite — “bullshit.”

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Al Gore is voting Clinton, for the climate

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Sorry, Trump: Scottish wind farm is going ahead despite you

by SamMickey557244 Posted on July 22, 2016

Blow it out your ass

Sorry, Trump: Scottish wind farm is going ahead despite you

By on Jul 22, 2016Share

Donald Trump may have gotten the Republican nomination for president, but he isn’t getting his way when it comes to his Scottish golf course.

Swedish company Vattenfall has announced a nearly $350 million investment in an offshore wind farm that Trump tried to prevent from being built, afraid it would mar the view from his luxury golf course. Now the wind farm is expected to go online in 2018.

Trump once compared the project to the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people. “Wind farms are a disaster for Scotland, like Pan Am 103,” Trump said. “They make people sick with the continuous noise. They’re an abomination and are only sustained with government subsidy. Scotland is in the middle of a revolution against wind farms. People don’t want them near their homes ruining property values.”

The Scottish people, however, have more love for wind farms than for Donald Trump. A 2013 newspaper poll found two-thirds of respondents disagreed with Trump about the wind project, and he hasn’t gained fans since.

“He’s not a popular person in Scotland,” Alex Salmond, a Scottish member of parliament, said last month, “but the way Trump talks you’d think he owned the country.” We know how he feels.

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Sorry, Trump: Scottish wind farm is going ahead despite you

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The GOP has a plagiarism problem and it’s not Melania Trump

by MOLMatthias Posted on July 22, 2016

The GOP has a plagiarism problem and it’s not Melania Trump

By on Jul 22, 2016Share

One of the biggest headlines out of the Republican National Convention this week was that Melania Trump’s speech plagiarized Michelle Obama’s words from 2008.

Though not as puzzling, or high-profile, as her unexplained gaffe, there’s much more insidious plagiarism that we see every day in politics. Like, for example, Republicans stealing near-exact language from the dirty energy industry. The 2016 Republican platform calls coal “an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.” The language is remarkably similar to that of the lobbying group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which describes coal as “an affordable, abundant and increasingly clean domestic energy resource.”

Even when the language isn’t lifted directly, the party often copies ideas from industry and  big donors.

The GOP platform includes a proposal “to shift responsibility for environmental regulation from the federal bureaucracy to the states and to transform the EPA into an independent bipartisan commission, similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with structural safeguards against politicized science.” Politico notes that the idea comes from Pepperdine University Professor Stephen Hayward, who happens to be a fellow at the Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute and treasurer of the Koch’s money-machine Donors Capital Fund.

You also see the same kind of borrowed language when politicians are trying to dodge the issue of climate change.

Last year, Arch Coal handily supplied members of Congress with a memo about how to respond to Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change, including noting that the encyclical “does not appear to address the tragedy of global energy poverty” and that billions “around the globe are living without electrification and suffering though untold poverty and disease as a result.” Republican politicians echoed these points everywhere. “I think on the whole that much of the effort to reduce global warming actually hurts the poor,” House Science chair Lamar Smith said last year. The idea that coal is the only good way to lift the world’s poor out of energy poverty originally traces back to Peabody Energy, one of the world’s largest coal companies.

Copying ideas is not the same as copying language. But in a way, it’s even more insidious, because it’s so tough to catch politicians in the act — and because pro-coal policies are much more damaging to Americans than encouraging words about hard work and integrity. And to be clear, Democrats lift ideas from special interests and wealthy donors, too. Among Republicans dealing with energy, climate change, and the environment, though, the problem is especially pervasive given the powerful lobbying arm pushing to protect industry profits.

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The GOP has a plagiarism problem and it’s not Melania Trump

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You call it methane, we call it “nature’s bouncy house”

by TaniaGooge4 Posted on July 22, 2016

Imperma-frost

You call it methane, we call it “nature’s bouncy house”

By on Jul 22, 2016Share

Bouncy houses are pretty cool — but not necessarily something we’d want to find in nature.

Siberia’s melting permafrost has led to some puzzling geological marvels: first giant sinkholes, and now, grassy methane trampolines. After a particularly warm summer, hitherto frozen tundra has begun to thaw, releasing greenhouse gases that were held captive beneath the ground for millennia.

The Siberian Times reports that methane and CO2 spew out of these waterbed-like bubbles when popped. Researchers found 15 of them on an island off Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula — and judging from this clip, we expect they gleefully stomped on every last one of them. I mean, we would.

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You call it methane, we call it “nature’s bouncy house”

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Hey, someone mentioned climate change on stage at the Republican convention

by SusanneStansfie Posted on July 21, 2016

Hey, someone mentioned climate change on stage at the Republican convention

By on Jul 21, 2016Share

Harold Hamm, a fracking mogul and GOP donor, ventured where few Republicans are willing to go on Wednesday night: He mentioned climate change on stage at the Republican National Convention. “Climate change isn’t our biggest problem,” he said. “It’s Islamic terrorism.” OK, not a rousing call to action, but at least there’s the implication that climate is a problem.

But, of course, the real focus of the speech was the need for more oil and gas drilling — and how it could save us from the bad guys. “We can double U.S. oil production again and put America in a global league of its own,” Hamm said. “Every time we can’t drill a well in America, terrorism is being funded. Every onerous regulation puts American lives at risk.”

Currently an energy advisor to Trump, Hamm is reportedly being considered for energy secretary, a cabinet position that oversees nuclear safety and funding for energy research and technology. During President Obama’s two terms, the spot has been filled by first a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and second a nuclear physicist.

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Hey, someone mentioned climate change on stage at the Republican convention

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Republicans are trying to scare you about crime, but cities have been getting safer

by MazieHibbs Posted on July 19, 2016

Republicans are trying to scare you about crime, but cities have been getting safer

By on Jul 19, 2016Share

The first night of the Republican National Convention had a clear theme: be afraid, be very afraid. Officially, the theme was “Make America Safe Again.” There was a lot of discussion of terrorism and Benghazi, but many speakers also invoked rising crime as a reason to elect Donald Trump.

“The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. “They fear for their children. They fear for themselves. They fear for our police officers, who are being targeted.”

Fortunately for America, but unfortunately for Trump, our cities are in fact safer than they have been in decades. Violent crime rates have dropped by about half since 1991. Murders have fallen 13 percent since Obama took office. Murders of police officers have been at a lower annual average under President Obama than under George W. Bush.

While the United States still has a high crime rate for a developed country, as Matt Yglesias points out in Vox, neither Trump nor his surrogates have presented substantive proposals to address it. Rather, the GOP raises racially tinged fears of crime, insecure borders, and terrorism. Meanwhile, they ignore the biggest gathering threat to humanity: climate change.

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Republicans are trying to scare you about crime, but cities have been getting safer

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On Climate Change, Pence and Trump Are a Perfect Match

by AngelWeidner87 Posted on July 15, 2016

green4us

 “Global warming is a myth.” Donald Trump calls global warming a “hoax.” He claims climate science is “bullshit,” and he’s even described it (supposedly as a joke) as a Chinese conspiracy. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that Mike Pence—who Trump just named as his running mate—has similar views. “Global warming is a myth,” Pence wrote nearly two decades ago in an op-ed unearthed by BuzzFeed. “Environmentalists,” the Indiana Republican explained, “claim that certain ‘greenhouse gases’ like carbon dioxide are mucking up the atmosphere and causing the earth to gradually warm. Despite the fact that CO2 is a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature, the greenpeace folks want to blame it all on coal (another natural mineral) and certain (evil) coal burning power plants.” He added (inaccurately) that “the earth is actually cooler today than it was about 50 years ago.” Mike Pence has a long history of rejecting climate science. You can read the full op-ed, preserved by the Internet Archive, by clicking here. Pence didn’t change his tune much after winning election to Congress. “The theory of global warming is just that—a theory,” he told the Star Press, a Muncie, Ind., newspaper, in 2002. Seven years later, he continued to express doubt. Pence told Hardball’s Chris Matthews in May 2009 that “the science is very mixed on the subject of global warming,” though he added, “I’m sure reducing CO2 emissions would be a positive thing.” He also insisted that there is “growing skepticism in the scientific community about global warming.” You can watch Pence’s comments above. As governor of Indiana, Pence doubled down. In a 2014 interview with Chuck Todd, Pence said he doesn’t know if man-made climate change “is a resolved issue in science today” and later added, “We’ll leave the scientific debates for the future.” Pence has also been an outspoken opponent of policies that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He told the Star Press that a cap and trade proposal passed by the US House of Representatives in 2009 would raise energy prices and harm the economy. The legislation would have put a limit and a price on the carbon emissions that cause climate change. “I really believe Democratic climate change legislation will cap growth and trade jobs,” he said. As governor of Indiana, Pence has continued to fight against policies intended to combat global warming. His latest battle? An effort to block President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Last year, Pence called Indiana a “proud pro-coal state” on a press call, according to the Indianapolis Star. He vowed to resist the new regulations. In June 2015, Pence sent a letter to Obama stating that Indiana would refuse to comply with the plan unless there was “significant improvement” to it. As in 2009, he warned of higher electricity prices if the proposal was implemented. He called the rules “a vast overreach of federal power.” “Your approach to energy policy places environmental concerns above all others,” he wrote to Obama. Despite Pence’s objections to federal efforts to combat climate change, he apparently has no problem asking the federal government to fund green jobs in his state. As Think Progress reported, in 2009 Pence wrote a letter to then-US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu supporting a grant application submitted by an Indiana company that wanted to use algae to produce fuels. “Algae production directly addresses all of the significant challenges being faced by the US,” wrote Pence, “namely domestic energy security, greenhouse gas emissions, scientific leadership in a variety of industries, and broad-based green job creation.” Master image: AJ Mast/AP

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On Climate Change, Pence and Trump Are a Perfect Match

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On Climate Change, Pence and Trump Are a Perfect Match

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, Monterey, ONA, organic, OXO, PUR, solar, solar power, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on On Climate Change, Pence and Trump Are a Perfect Match

Why California Needs to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

by LakeishLeHunte Posted on July 14, 2016

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with 1 in every 111 adults in prison or jail as of 2014. And of the 2,224,400 Americans who were behind bars that year, 700,993 were arrested on marijuana law violations. With California spending nearly $50,000 per year on each inmate annually, increasing the California Wall of Debt even further, the legalization of recreational marijuana becomes not just a social issue, but a fiscal one in the Golden State.

The War on Drugs was started in 1971 by President Richard Nixon and its estimated that the United States is now spending approximately $51,000,000,000 on it annually. Its largely considered to be a failing program, but one way Americans can start to get a handle on this situation is by continuing to decriminalize, and even legalize, marijuana.

As of 2016, 25 states have some form of marijuana legalization. Four states as well as Washington D.C. have legalized recreational use of marijuana, and eight more states have marijuana legislation on the November ballot, including California. Voters in California will decide whether or not to legalize marijuana for recreational use and potentially collect over $1 billion in state and local taxes on its sales.

The combined savings of enforcing marijuana laws along with increased tax revenue could be a big step in the right direction for the California budget. In 2010, Proposition 19 was rejected by California voters, but the 2016 measure is said to have a better chance at passing with more regulation at the state level and multiple states that have already passed recreational use.

California legalized medical marijuana in 2003 with State Bill 420 which made it possible for people suffering from certain conditions to have legal access to medical marijuana. A few of the qualifying conditions include:

AIDS
Arthritis
Cachexia
Cancer
Chronic Pain
Glaucoma
Migraine
Seizures

According to Santa Rosa criminal lawyers Li & Lozada, who regularly represent individuals charged with marijuana related crimes in California, the confusion about the legality of medical marijuana use, sale, and cultivation is still a major issue across the country and until the federal law is changed, there will continue to be controversy regarding the legality of marijuana.

As President Obama stated to Vice News in March 2015, if enough states end up decriminalizing, then congress may then reschedule marijuana. California is widely considered an influencing state when it comes to marijuana legalization as it was the first state to legalize medical marijuana 20 years ago. There is no doubt that if the Golden State legalizes recreational marijuana this November, other states will follow suit.

Readers interested in supporting recreational marijuana legalization in California can sign the Care2 petition Support Marijuana Legalization in California!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Why California Needs to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

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The “largest, dirtiest coal plant west of the Mississippi” announces major closures

by MarcellaEstell Posted on July 13, 2016

Steam from the cooling towers of a coal power plant. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

The “largest, dirtiest coal plant west of the Mississippi” announces major closures

By on Jul 13, 2016Share

Two coal-burning units that the Sierra Club calls “the largest, dirtiest coal plant west of the Mississippi” will close by 2022, according to a settlement reached between the coal plant’s operators and environmental groups. These closures, reports the Sierra Club, will reduce carbon emissions to the tune of 5 million tons per year, the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

The plant in Colstrip, Mont., has supplied energy across the state and the Pacific Northwest since the 1970s. While the soon-to-be-shuttered units were only intended to be used for 30 years, they’ve been in operation for closer to 40, even though older coal plants tend to lack modern air-pollution controls. In 2013, the Sierra Club and the Montana Environmental Information Center sued the plant’s owners, Talen Energy and Puget Sound Energy, for violating the Clean Air Act.

The Colstrip unit closures are the most recent in a rapid spate of coal plant closures fueled by environmental lawsuits against major polluters to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Green groups are finding creative ways to speed up the U.S.’s transition away from coal even before the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan kicks into gear.

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The “largest, dirtiest coal plant west of the Mississippi” announces major closures

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