Clipmarks | Water policy Clips

Energy Alternatives Made In Damp Germany

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:21:45 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: One can only imagine what if America actually would do something like that. With all the heat and hot air we have in Washington, we could supply the entire East Coast

Clip Source: features.csmonitor.com

Germany’s key to green energy

Despite its damp climate, the country has become the global leader in wind and solar power through a pioneering law. Now, Congress is weighing a similar bill.

Freiburg, Germany

While other nations hunt for ways to wean themselves from fossil fuels, Germany is in the throes of a green revolution that has made it the global leader in solar- and wind-power generation.

The reason? A pioneering law that requires utilities to buy electricity from renewable sources at premium rates. This means anyone with a rooftop solar generator or a small water turbine can sell the energy they produce at a healthy profit.

The goal behind feed-in tariffs is to foster a growing network of small and medium-size energy producers. In Germany, at least a dozen communities now produce much or all of their own energy

Supporters of the policy argue that such a grass-roots movement is the only way renewable energy will ever be deployed on a large scale

What the new taxes cost Seattle

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:35:37 GMT

clipped by: iulawboy
clipper's remarks: They do have a point - there is a growing riff between the social policy liberal Democratic Party and the Labor Union Democratic Party. It is hard to see why the two joined the same party except that the other major party was totally inhospitable to either of their agendas.

Clip Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

In addition to that 46 percent more money for garbage, City Hall wants 40 percent more for water over three years. It has already levied a 49 percent increase over two years for storm drainage (that's total — your fee depends on the size of your lot).

Then there's the parks, Pike Place Market and light-rail programs, all on the ballot this fall. And don't forget that grocery-bag "green fee."

I added up the annual bill for all this for the average Seattle homeowner. It came to a $525 increase.

Wasserman is about the only person in the city questioning this.

He's no anti-government nut, either. He was a typical " '60s baby boomer" who did anti-war demonstrations in college and has been a Democrat ever since.

"But I'm an old-line Democrat," he says. "I'm not into all this fancy upper-class suburban stuff.

"These guys running Seattle now are basically Dan Evans-style Republicans.

Tags: democrats, grocery-bag tax, election 2008

About That Pelosi, Pickens Plan To Pick Our Pocket

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:28:56 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: but the then necessary development of the infrastructure and conversion to such energy will take even longer. We are not going to abandon gas and oil any time soon, no matter what the loudest advocates of renewable energy sources insist. As a writer noted at Fosters.com, a sane energy policy will require tuning in to a program of multiple sources. Fossil fuels -- developed and yet to be developed -- wind power nearing a scope envisioned by T. Boone Pickens, solar power, nuclear power, biomass, geothermal power and sources we haven't thought of yet are in our future - as in waaay in our future.

Pickens' plan is bold — too bad it won't work

The Pickens Plan isn't the boon for energy independence that it purports to be.

Dallas billionaire investor and oilman-turned-wind-farmer Boone Pickens unveiled an audacious plan that he hopes will prod policymakers into a more realistic discussion of energy issues.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5882292.html

Clip Source: www.hyscience.com

Apparently there's a financial reason to Nancy's madness over the drilling issue and her being a proponent of the Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens' "Pickens Plan" to move our nation from foreign oil dependence to domestically produced wind power and natural gas fuel for automobiles. The plan that's touted as a cleaner, more eco-friendly alternative to our current reliance on coal power and gasoline., is a big time money maker for its investors. It's quite an interesting and profitable scheme. Madam Speaker is clearly a sleaze bag.

While Pickens deserves credit for coming up with a creative plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil (and Pelosi deserves condemnation for letting her personal agenda get in the way of what's right for America), America can't let itself be fooled into thinking that drilling here and drilling now isn't desperately needed for the foreseeable future. Developing alternative energy is going to not only take a long time,

Tags: nancy pelosi, t.bonne pickens', texas oil billionaire, eminent domain, transmission lines, water pipes

official climate change technical paper

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:53:09 GMT

clipped by: kroqben
clipper's remarks: learn!

Clip Source: www.ipcc.ch

IPCC Reports

Climate Change and Water

IPCC Technical Paper VI

Cover (Front & Back)
Front Matter

Executive Summary

Chapter 1 Introduction to climate change and water

Chapter 2 Observed and projected changes in climate as they relate to water

Chapter 3 Linking climate change and water resources: impacts and responses

Chapter 4 Climate change and water resources in systems and sectors

Chapter 5 Analyzing regional aspects of climate change and water resources

Chapter 6 Climate change mitigation measures and water

Chapter 7 Implications for policy and sustainable development

Chapter 8 Gaps in knowledge and suggestions for further work

References

Feds now arrest your laptops at border

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:36:40 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Not content with taking your shoes and confiscating your water, now the Department of Homeland Security is gunning for your laptops.

As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Border Patrol and Customs agents can now "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information."

They don't need probable cause under the new policy. Doesn't matter if you're a U.S. citizen or foreign visitor. Officials can hold the laptops indefinitely. Or hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, video and audio tapes. Ditto papers, documents, books, pamphlets, even litter.

"It's not our intent to subject legitimate travelers to undue scrutiny, but to ensure the safety of the American public," wrote Jayson Ahern, U.S. Customs deputy commissioner, in a recent policy paper.

"Truly alarming," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.). Added sci-fi blogger Annalee Newit, "Who will defend the rights of the detained laptops?"

Wall Street Likes The Bailout Plus Drill, Drill, Drill

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:22:46 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But my thought is that a Senate victory might just blow Pelosi out of the water and open the floodgates to Democratic defections in the House.

If a drilling bill ever passes Congress, oil prices will keep on plunging — perhaps all the way to $75 a barrel, which is the profitable break-even point for lifting the extra barrel of oil. That would drive the Dow to somewhere between 15,000 and 16,000, and it would have a huge tax-cut effect on the economy. And, of course, it could completely change the November election outlook in a highly favorable way for the GOP.

The conventional wisdom says Republicans are gonna get clobbered again this fall. But drill, drill, drill would overturn that wisdom. More drilling today would have the potency of the Reagan tax cuts 28 years ago in the 1980 landslide race. But the GOP has got to make the case. And deregulating oil, which is great policy, would offset much of the bad policy pain coming out of the Fannie-Freddie housing bailout.

Clip Source: corner.nationalreview.com

The drilling issue in Congress is a huge election-year debate. It could well be the Republican’s last hope for November. The Democrats don’t want to drill, even while the public does. This could be a Democratic waterloo and could actually help elect Republicans, narrowing anticipated GOP losses in the election. But the Republicans have to launch an all-out fight nationalizing this issue, taking it to the public with a large media ad-buy, lots of speeches, and daily presser sound bites from Washington. Mitch McConnell is the right leader in the Senate — he’s one of the best tacticians ever. The votes are there for a drill, drill, drill compromise, with probably a dozen Democrats coming along.

As Michael Franc writes today on NRO, the House version of drill, drill, drill is a tougher uphill climb against Nancy Pelosi, who may be putting her speakership on the line against the drillers. Using a discharge petition is a tough road to hoe, though not impossible.

Tags: pelosi, deregulating oil, senate victory

Hot Air

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:32:58 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: And the back-up coal or natural gas power generators can not be started and stopped on a whim.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

One of the big challenges with using wind to replace natural gas is that, unlike the steady flame from natural gas, the wind doesn't blow all the time.

To make sure enough power is available when the wind isn't blowing, backup generators would be needed, said Paul Fremont, an electric-utility analyst at the investment bank Jefferies & Co.

That could mean maintaining those natural gas plants in case of emergency, or implementing even more novel ideas like systems in Europe that use excess wind electricity to pump water uphill when the wind is blowing, then release it through hydro dams when the wind stops.

Either way, any type of backup system comes with a price.

"It's very costly, and very inefficient for society as a whole," said Fremont. "Policy makers will have to decide if the benefits are worth it."

The utility industry also has reservations about using wind on a large scale, again pointing to the fact that it doesn't blow all the time.

The cost of saving the planet: $190 Billion

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:12:22 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Make no mistake about it...

Clip Source: weirdandinteresting.blogspot.com

What would it cost to wipe out world poverty, guarantee universal health care, stabilise population growth and roll back the ravages of global warming?

About $190 billion a year, or the equivalent of a third of U.S. annual military expenditure, a prominent environmental economist says in a new book.

"Once you accept that climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages, rising food prices etcetera are threats to our security, it changes your whole way of thinking about how you use public resources," Lester Brown told Reuters in an interview.

From eradicating adult illiteracy to restoring fisheries and stabilising water tables, the head of the Earth Policy Institute think tank in Washington calculates the cost of saving civilisation in a new edition of his best-selling "Plan B".

The $190 billion price tag compares with $1.2 trillion that world governments spent on military budgets in 2006. The United States splurged the most with $560 billion.

Tags: planet, humanity, budget

US contractor (KBR) in Iraq accused of electrocution deaths ("burnt and smoldering body" of soldier)

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:45:25 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Knew of the problems but didn't fix them would be criminal negligence, by my reckoning.

Clip Source: www.democraticunderground.com

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The biggest US military contractor in Iraq, KBR, was steeped in another scandal Friday as lawmakers, families and experts accused it of recklessly causing the electrocution deaths of US soldiers.

"While I had always been prepared to hear that one of my sons died by way of a firefight or a roadside bomb, I was dumbstruck to hear that my son was electrocuted while taking a shower in his living quarters," said Cheryl Harris, mother of army Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, who died in January.

Maseth's "burnt and smoldering" body was found under still-running, electrically charged water by a fellow soldier who kicked down the door of the bathroom at an army base in Baghdad, Harris told a hearing of the Senate Democratic policy committee.

KBR, a former subsidiary of the Halliburton energy firm which was once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, was contracted to maintain facilities at the base and had been informed of electrical problems in the building where Maseth died.

Tags: who, will, be, the, scapegoat?

The coming famine

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:27:23 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: "In light of all these hurdles, as I see it, the challenge is to double world food output by 2050 using less land, far less water and fewer nutrients – all in the teeth of increasing rates of drought. And we need to do it sustainably."

"I believe we are quite capable of solving these issues through good science and good policy. In the first instance, we need to massively increase global public investment in agricultural research and development. Then we need to make sure the fruits of that research reach farmers everywhere. I also think that commercial wild harvests, such as fishing and forestry, should be phased out in favour of sustainable farming that dovetails with the local environment."

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

What's even scarier than global warming?

feeding the global appetite in an overpopulated, affluent and resource-scarce world could be the scientific challenge of the era

BARRING NUCLEAR WARS, pandemics and cosmic accidents, there will be about 9.1 billion people living in the world in 2050

Yet they will eat as much food as 13 billion people at today's nutritional levels.

The problem is that humanity is consuming more food, year-on-year, than it produces, especially as demand for high-protein food increases in high population developing countries like China and India.

cities are now taking up to half of the water that was once used to grow food

We're also losing land; we are building on it, eroding and degrading it

we lose

n estimated 1.1 billion tonnes of nutrients – through soil erosion and leaching

And if you thought those figures weren't alarming enough, then there's the issue thrown up by climate change

Tags: food crisis, sustainable resources

Pentagon to EPA: You and What Army? Refuse to clean up

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:27:34 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: If it were a private polluter and not the Pentagon, the EPA would most likely go to court to force compliance, but an executive branch policy prevents federal agencies from suing one another.

Other agencies, including NASA and the Department of Energy, have complied with the EPA’s Superfund cleanup orders without protest.

This is the second time in a week that it’s been revealed that the EPA’s authority has been ignored by others in the government. The New York Times reported last Wednesday that, when the EPA sent an e-mail to the White House concluding that greenhouse gasses can be regulated by the Clean Air Act, the White House simply refused to open it, successfully getting the EPA to backtrack.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The Washington Post is reporting that the Pentagon is refusing orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up three sites where it dumped chemicals that the EPA says have contaminated soil and drinking water and pose “imminent and substantial” dangers to public health.

The sites are at military bases at Fort Meade in Maryland, Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

The Post also reports that the EPA has identified 12 Superfund sites contaminated by the Pentagon that the Pentagon refuses to acknowledge, even though it is required to do so by law. Of the 1,255 Superfund sites on the EPA’s list, the Department of Defense owns 129 - making it the single biggest polluter in the country.

“This is stunning,” said Rena Steinzor, who helped write the Superfund laws as a congressional staffer

“The idea that they would refuse to sign a final order - that is the height of amazing nerve.”

Bottled water debate hits a boiling point

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:36:05 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.terradaily.com

Bottled water debate hits a boiling point

A debate over water is boiling over in the United States and elsewhere amid growing environmental concerns about bottled water and questions about safety of tap water.

The US Conference of Mayors in June passed a resolution calling for a phasing out of bottled water by municipalities and promotion of the importance of public water supplies.

While largely symbolic, the vote highlighted a growing movement opposing regular use of bottled water because of its plastic waste and energy costs to transport drinking supplies.

Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, cites a "backlash against bottled water as more people are realizing what they get out of the bottles is not any better than what they get out of the faucet."

Support Oceans 21 for Healthy Marine Ecosystems

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:06:45 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Sign it or yer a Willie!

Clip Source: www.thepetitionsite.com

Sponsored by:

Pew Environment Group

From hazards like roadway oil that makes its way to the water and development that eats away at coastal habitats, our world's oceans are in trouble. But Congress has a chance to act now. Oceans 21, legislation introduced in the House of Representatives, establishes a national policy to protect, maintain and restore marine ecosystem health.

Oceans 21 provides common-sense solutions to help marine ecosystems in crisis. The bill will be voted on in the House Natural Resources Committee before the end of July. Please write your congressional representative urging them to support Oceans 21, to oppose weakening amendments to the bill, and, ultimately, to work for enactment of this critical legislation.

Witnesses Link Chemical to Ill US Soldiers

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:03:29 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: yet another atrocity...

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill.

“These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood,” said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. “They were sick.”

Langford and his former colleagues have said KBR supervisors initially told them the chemical was a “mild irritant.” The company, however, eventually acknowledged that sodium dichromate was a potentially deadly substance and moved to clean up the site.

KBR has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. The company has insisted the safety of its workers and the troops they work with are its “highest priority.”

“The chromium of Iraq is going to be the same thing as Agent Orange of Vietnam,” Langford said after the hearing. “I want something done for them.”

Everything You Know About Water Conservation Is Wrong

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:13:33 GMT

clipped by: egsnyder
clipper's remarks: "Virtual" water sounds so unreal. I prefer "embedded" water, or "embodied" water. Whatever you call it, it is the hidden water used to produce / grow things.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Environment / Environmental Policy

Everything You Know About Water Conservation Is Wrong

Forget short showers. Worry about the 6,340 gallons of "virtual water" in your leather bag.

Tags: water, conservation, sustainability, environment