August 3 News: Wind Leads Green Energy Race in China; Dems Vow Energy Focus in Hypothetical Jobs Agenda

Wind energy leads green energy race in China

The number of wind turbines in China, excluding Chinese Taiwan, reached nearly 34,500 at the end of 2010, more than 85 percent of which were produced by Chinese companies.

Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of the Chinese Wind Energy Association under the China Renewable Energy Society, said that China is fully capable of producing wind turbines, and the percentage of domestic parts is rising fast. In addition, the country’s wind power equipment supply chain is being gradually improved.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period from 2006 to 2010, China’s wind power industry made great improvements on imported wind turbines to adapt them to certain particular national conditions, such as low wind speed, low temperature and high altitude. Meanwhile, China also caught up with developed countries in the development of large-scale wind turbines. At present, four Chinese wind turbine makers are listed among the world’s top 10, and Chinese wind power equipment is becoming increasingly popular abroad.

China’s newly installed wind power capacity reached 18.9 gigawatts in 2010, and the total capacity jumped to 44.7 gigawatts, both ranking first in the world.

Dems vow energy focus in jobs agenda

Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill say that clean energy will find a spot in the jobs agenda they’re vowing to push now that the debt ceiling deal has been inked.

But its not clear if there’s a Capitol Hill appetite for bipartisan energy deals, so the effort may instead become grist for political messaging over the economy that will intensify as the 2012 elections draw closer.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that energy will be part of the agenda but declined to offer specifics, and his office did not respond to an inquiry on the matter.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has cleared some bills this year with bipartisan support, including bills to spur development of carbon capture and marine renewable energy technologies, and legislation on building and industrial energy efficiency.

Across the Capitol, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said green energy is a key part of the “Make it in America” agenda, which Democrats rolled out months ago and now call a central focus.

DOE to invest $50M to advance domestic solar manufacturing market

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $50 million over two years for the SUNPATH (Scaling Up Nascent PV At Home) program, aimed to help the US reclaim its competitive edge in solar manufacturing. SUNPATH represents the second solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative (PVMI) supporting the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative.

As recently as 1995, the United States maintained a dominant global solar market share, manufacturing 43% of the world’s PV panels. In steady decline, US market share shrank to 27% by 2000 and to 7% by 2010. SUNPATH is intended to help return the United States to the forefront.

Congress needs to end its dependence on all special interest money

Noticeably absent from this week’s debt ceiling deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans were the billions in taxpayer subsidies Congress continues to dole out to Big Oil, despite overwhelming support among Americans to end these handouts and in the face of staggering oil company profits released last week. When it came to taking on Big Oil, Congress and the Obama administration blinked.

Cutting Medicare for low and middle-income seniors? On the table. Closing loopholes for profitable, multinational corporations? Not under discussion.

The world’s largest oil companies announced another round of billion dollar profits last week. BP made $5.6 billion. Shell got even more, with over $8 billion. And ExxonMobil’s profits were $10.7 billion – an astounding $117 million a day from April to June. Gas prices are still at record levels and everyday taxpayers are footing the bill for billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies these companies get every year. Big Oil is making big profits—and the American people are paying the price. In fact, we’re paying it twice – once when we fill up our tanks and once when we pay taxes.

Capitalizing on Christie’s asthma

New Jersey environmental groups are capitalizing on Gov. Chris Christie’s asthma attack to make a point about clean air in the state.

Christie was hospitalized last Thursday for difficulty breathing after his inhaler didn’t stop an asthma attack. He was released later that night.

The group Environment New Jersey released a statement offering Christie “best wishes for a speedy recovery,” but posted an online petition calling on Christie to sign the League of Women Voters’ Clean Air Promise.

“Gov. Christie has not done enough to clean up New Jersey’s air, but after being hospitalized for an asthma attack recently, we hope he’ll be more sympathetic to the challenges 163,000 New Jersey kids with asthma face every day,” the group’s page says.

State Parks Become Victim of Budget Slashing

Several states struggling to fight budget shortfalls are announcing plans to shutter parks, recreation areas and reserves in an effort to save a little money.

California alone plans to close 70 parks, ranging from the obscure (Zmudowski State Beach) to the fairly popular (Tomales Bay State Park – pictured).

Other states hanging out the “Closed for Business” sign include Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. TreeHugger reports that Utah and Texas have also severely cut their parks’ budgets, though avoided closures, while Florida has taken far more drastic measures.

Sunshine State legislators are looking into the possibility of privatizing more than 50 state parks, allowing corporations to run camping areas and add RV sites. Honeymoon Island, a beautiful castaway spot just off the coast, could become a major campsite.

Meanwhile, even states that are keeping their parks open are putting off the sort of repairs that would have been a priority in the past. Niagara Falls State Park in New York is in notably bad shape, and it seems unlikely a contractor will be arriving any time soon.

Energy industry sees its agenda stall

Industry is still waiting for its big payday after supporting the House Republicans’ rise to power.

Sure, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, oil and electric utility companies and other fossil-fuel types relish the perpetual onslaught of bills slapping the EPA around.

But for all the symbolic votes critical of environmental regulators run amok, the hard truth remains that little of industry’s energy legislative agenda has been accomplished in 2011.

“Virtually everyone in every sector with every interest is being disappointed by this Congress,” said Joshua Freed, director of the clean energy program at Third Way. “I cannot remember a Congress that has achieved less or been more crippled by gridlock than the 112th.”

New York State’s Fracking Lawsuit Barred by Law, U.S. Says

The U.S. government said it will ask a judge to dismiss a New York lawsuit that seeks to force a fuller environmental review of how natural-gas extraction could affect 9 million water drinkers in the state.

The U.S. plans to ask U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, to dismiss the case on the grounds that the state can’t prove injury and doesn’t have the right to sue federal agencies, according to a letter filed with the court yesterday.

The New York state complaint is “barred by well-settled principles of sovereign immunity,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Levy wrote in the letter to the judge. Sovereign immunity protects the U.S. from lawsuits unless it waives the right.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued on May 31, saying a commission that oversees the Delaware River Basin has proposed regulations that will allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at 15,000 to 18,000 gas wells without a full environmental review. Fracking is the process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and release natural gas.

 

Below are old comments from the earlier Facebook commenting system:

• Timothy Hughbanks · Top Commenter · Professor at Texas A&M University

Democrats’ vows? Please! Obama and his party have shown themselves to be weak, weak, weak:

Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike: http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-debt-ceiling-deal-required-tough-concessions,21067/?utm_source=recentnews.

2 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 8:05pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

Are the GOP terrorist?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-faa-shutdown-in-one-post/2011/07/11/gIQAfatTsI_blog.html

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 4:28pm

George Ennis · Top Commenter · University of Toronto

I get so confused learning the new Washington budget math. So if I understand, there are to be cuts in discretionary spending albeit small in 2011 but larger in 2012. So with less money what on earth could the Democrats hope to accomplish. They seem to have forgotten that in this recent debt ceiling farce they sold the store. What I think Americans need to brace for is what the GOP terrorists will do in November and December as it again holds the country hostage. This process will go on until at least 2013 and possibly long after that unless the GOP faces a crushing electoral defeat in both houses of Congress and for the presidency.

Anyone who thinks that there is going to be a jobs agenda other than in the feverish minds of President Obama and the Democrats is in a deep state of denial. The principle that applies to “new” job creation is WYSIWYG.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 4:25pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

The temperature fell to only 86 degrees Wednesday morning, which would tie the all-time record for warmest low in North Texas.

The low temperature on July 26 was also 86, which broke the record for highest low of 85 set Sept. 1, 1939, according to National Weather Service data on its website.

The 86 on Wednesday, if it holds through midnight, would break the record for this date set in 1910 and equaled in 1980, by three degrees.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/08/03/3266341/another-record-for-warmest-low.html#ixzz1TzqspNkC.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:41pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

FORT SMITH, Ark. — Fort Smith broke its all-time record high temperature of 113 degrees, set back in 1934, on Wednesday afternoon.

Fort Smith hit 114 at 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, a new high temperature record for the area and the 30th 100-degree day this summer.

Other areas of Arkansas have set record temperatures Wednesday, as well, including Little Rock at 112.

Read more: http://www.4029tv.com/weather/28755226/detail.html#ixzz1U00rGqtw.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 4:23pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

Record Warm Nighttime Temperatures: A Closer Look | This summer, thousands of records have been set for warm overnight low temperatures, matching long-term trends showing that nights are warming faster tha.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=261976597161400&id=139434822741700

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:44pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/08/03/nl-cp-arctic-mission-803.html
Canada us arctic mission.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 12:43pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

U.S. All-Time Highest Min Temperature Records set on August 2, 2011.

DEL RIO AP VAL VERDE TX 56 90.0°F 2011-08-02 87.0°F 1998-07-13.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/records/all-time/himn/2011/08/02?sts%5B0%5D=US#records_look_up

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 2:07pm

Mark Freed

here’s what David Dayen, Firedoglake says about this focus on jobs: “This is that famous pivot we’ve been hearing so much about, the one that has been attempted at least seven other times by the Administration. Remember that the end of the health care bill was supposed to precipitate a pivot to jobs. Then the end of Dodd-Frank would do the same. And so on.”

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:43pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

How does peak oil look…
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/lateline/video/podcast/r808774_7199214.m4v

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 12:58pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/03/sellafield-mox-plant-close

The mixed-oxide fuel plant will be shut as a consequence of the Fukushima incident, with the loss of about 600 jobs.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:32pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

Texas crop, weather for Aug. 2, 2011
Drought worsens as daytime highs break historical records.

http://agrilife.org/today/2011/08/02/texas-crop-weather-15/

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 2:55pm

James Hwang · Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)

The good news is the oil industry hasn’t gotten its agenda through. The bad news is clean energy isn’t being supported.
I wonder what kind of news that the Dems are announcing a focus on energy is? Are they actually listening to us, or are they just hearing but not listening?

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 2:37pm

Climate Chaos

Poor weather affecting hay crops – Ottawa – CBC News.
www.cbc.ca
Ottawa’s unfavourable weather of the past few months have farmers worried that hay supplies could be in short supply this year.

1 · Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 12:40pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

Looking at the numbers tonight , U.S. All-Time Highest Min Temperature Records set on August 1, 2011.
Out of a possible 6,465 records: 1 (Broken) + 5 (Tied) = 6 Total.
If you look this one up, the dot map shows that none of these locations are urban heat islands.

29 All Time Night Time Records set in the first three days of August.
…See More

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 11:18pm

Prokaryotes – · Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)

Haiti braces for deluge from Emily.

Disorganized Tropical Storm Emily posed a serious flooding threat for a Caribbean nation but it remained uncertain whether it will have much of an impact on Florida and the mainland U.S.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/03/2344212/haiti-braces-for-deluge-from-emily.html#ixzz1U1GsK4rx.

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 9:31pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

Japan sacks top officials over nuclear disaster.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-japan-nuclear-idUSTRE77212020110804

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 11:28pm

Colorado Bob · Top Commenter

On Thursday, Indianapolis could match the city’s all-time record of 19 straight 90-degree days, which was set during the Dust Bowl era of 1936.
http://www.theindychannel.com/weather/28755119/detail.html

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 11:43pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

Web surfing, email and memory downloads take an environmental toll.
http://tinyurl.com/3rqysdj

Like · Reply · Subscribe · August 3 at 3:45pm

Paul Magnus · Top Commenter

Time to chill out…

Like · Reply · August 3 at 3:51pm