January 4 News: Romney Squeaks Out Win in Iowa Over Fellow Climate Denier Rick Santorum

Other stories below: Climate models may underestimate extinction, say researchers; Storehouses for Solar Energy Can Step In When the Sun Goes Down

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are both bad news for climate change fight

Rick Santorum, who surged at the last minute to give Mitt Romney a real run for his money in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, is less green than his rival, and decidedly nuttier when it comes to climate change. But let’s not split hairs here. Both men will staunchly defend fossil fuels, and neither is likely to do much of anything to fight global warming.

Mitt Romney has expressed qualified concern about climate change over the years, and then vacillated about how much of it is human-caused and whether we should try to do anything about it.

No wobbling of that sort from Santorum — he’s an out-and-out denier. “There is no such thing as global warming,” he told a smiling Glenn Beck on Fox News in June 2011. That same month, he told Rush Limbaugh that climate change is a liberal conspiracy: “It’s just an excuse for more government control of your life and I’ve never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative.”

Climate Change Models May Underestimate Extinction, Study Shows

Climate change projections may “grossly” underestimate the extinction of animal and plant varieties because the models don’t account for species movement and competition, U.S. researchers said.

Animals and plants that can adjust to climate change have a competitive advantage, while animals with small geographic ranges and specific habitat requirements are likely to go extinct under climate change, according to a study led by Mark Urban, an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut.

China, France Join Hunt for U.S. Shale Oil and Gas

Taking advantage of low barriers to entry and even lower natural gas prices, two large foreign-owned oil and gas companies announced plans to invest billions of dollars to develop shale resources in the United States.

Sinopec, China’s second-largest oil company inked a $2.5 billion deal with Oklahoma-based Devon Energy to invest in five new shale development areas ranging from Ohio south to Alabama. In another deal, France’s Total Group is investing $2.3 billion in a joint venture with Chesapeake Energy and EnerVest on an Ohio oil and gas project.

The two deals have a similar structure and purpose. The foreign companies are paying a majority of the development costs plus cash up front for a minority stake. The reason? Total and Sinopec want to learn a thing or two about advanced drilling techniques.

California Train Plan Hits Bump Over Funds

California’s ambitious plan for a high-speed rail system hit a big roadblock Tuesday, as an independent panel urged lawmakers to deny authorizing the issuance of $2.7 billion in bonds to kick off the $98.5 billion project.

The California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group—which the state legislature appointed to analyze funding for the rail system—questioned the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plan to start construction without any assurance of future funding from the federal government, among other factors.

Moving ahead “represents an immense financial risk” for California, the group said in its report, echoing concerns from critics who say the project could leave state taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in future costs. The panel appeared to leave the door open to supporting state funding in the future, if the rail authority addresses its concerns. While the report isn’t binding, it puts pressure on California lawmakers as they decide whether to release billions of dollars in state bonds for the project.

Mark DeSaulnier, chairman of the California State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, said the report is “not good news” for the high-speed rail plan.

Storehouses for Solar Energy Can Step In When the Sun Goes Down

If solar energy is eventually going to matter — that is, generate a significant portion of the nation’s electricity — the industry must overcome a major stumbling block, experts say: finding a way to store it for use when the sun isn’t shining.

That challenge seems to be creating an opening for a different form of power, solar thermal, which makes electricity by using the sun’s heat to boil water. The water can be used to heat salt that stores the energy until later, when the sun dips and households power up their appliances and air-conditioning at peak demand hours in the summer.

Two California companies are planning to deploy the storage technology: SolarReserve, which is building a plant in the Nevada desert scheduled to start up next year, and BrightSource, which plans three plants in California that would begin operating in 2016 and 2017. Together, the four projects will be capable of powering tens of thousand of households throughout a summer evening.