Investments drive steady decline in cost of wind and solar power

Last year saw record levels of investment in solar, biofuels, and wind energy. Those 3 markets rose 31% to $246 billion, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2012 report (here) issued today by the research and advisory firm Clean Edge, Inc.

The report is filled with some great charts. For instance, if you thought clean tech VC investment in this country was petering out, it turns out reports of that death appeared to be exaggerated:

U.S.-based venture capital investments in clean tech increased 30 percent from $5.1 billion in 2010 to $6.6 billion in 2011, according to data provided by Cleantech Group. Clean Edge analysis found that clean-tech’s percentage of total U.S. venture capital investments accounted for a record 23.2 percent of total U.S. venture activity last year.

As you can see, clean tech venture investments in US companies are near an all time high — and almost a quarter of all venture investment. I can tell you that back in the mid-1990s, when I was helping to oversee the DOE’s billion-dollar Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, we could only dream of VC investments some day matching our spending. Now it exceeds what we spend on R&D by a factor of 10.

The point is that increases in global and U.S. clean energy investment by the private sector — driven by government policy at the state and national level — drive private sector clean-tech VC investment.

And investment in key clean energy technologies is soaring:

Read more

The boom in shale oil and gas exploration in North Dakota during the Bush and Obama presidencies has transformed the state, satellite imagery shows. This composite image from the National Geophysical Data Center combines nighttime satellite imagery from 1992, 2000, and 2010. Places that had lots of light in all three years show up bright white. The red area in North Dakota — home of the shale boom changing America’s energy politics and physical landscape — shows the bright lights of drilling in 2010 where it was was dark in 2000 and 1992:

Multiyear composite (1992, 2000, 2010) of nighttime satellite images of the Midwestern United States, showing recent Bakken shale boom. Image courtesy NGDC.

The SkyTruth blog explains why shale gas fracking in North Dakota is so bright at night:

So why is this area all lit up at night? Well, the rigs and other facilities are highly illuminated because drilling is a 24/7 proposition – time is money so there is no “down time.” But there is another reason too: operators in this oil field are flaring off large quantities of natural gas. That’s right, burning it off as a hazardous nuisance. Meanwhile some folks on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill complain loudly that environmental rules and government policies are limiting industry’s access to more public lands throughout America so they can drill for – you got it – natural gas. Despite the fact that industry is already sitting on thousands of approved drilling permits that remain idle, and millions of acres of leases they aren’t developing.

As the planet warms from greenhouse pollution, the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival is beginning earlier and earlier. This year, the single-flowered Yoshino cherries and double-flowered Kwanzan cherries may peak at their earliest yet. The Yoshinos may come to peak bloom even before the current record of 2000, when they peaked on March 17, the Washington Post’s Jason Samenow writes:

The May-like warmth forecast over the next week promises to give the cherry blossoms a big shot of adrenaline, bringing them to peak bloom considerably earlier than normal (which is around April 1). With the big temperature spike ahead, the peak bloom date could come close to the earliest on record of March 17, 2000.

This early bloom is no aberration — it’s part of a long-term trend of earlier blooming. The “normal” is moving with the warming of the earth. The National Park Service’s Robert DeFeo has records of the peak bloom dates of Washington DC’s heralded cherry trees since 1921. As this chart prepared by ThinkProgress Green shows, the average blooming time for the trees has moved about 10 days earlier in the last 90 years:

With carbon pollution growing at an exponential rate, it is reasonable to expect that March is the new April when it comes to our capital’s cherry trees.

by Jessica Goad and Scott Keyes, cross-posted from TP Green

Rep. Cliff Steans (R-FL), a birther, one of the leaders of the Solyndra witch hunt and defender of subsidies to Big Oil companies. He told constituents at a town hall meeting Belleview, Florida, on February 25 that “we don’t need any more national parks in this country” and that we need to “actually sell off some of our national parks”:

I got attacked in a previous town meeting for not supporting another national park in this country, a 200-mile trailway.  And I told the man that we don’t need more national parks in this country, we need to actually sell off some of our national parks, and try and do what a normal family would do is — they wouldn’t ask Uncle Joe for a loan, they would sell their Cadillac, or they would take their kids out of private schools and put them into public schools to save to money instead of asking for their credit card to increase their debt ceiling.

Watch it:

Our national parks represent America’s heritage, held in trust from one generation to the next.

Despite Stearns’ idea for a national-park fire sale, the facts show that parks, monuments, and other protected places generate a steady stream of wealth for both the treasury and local businesses.  In 2010, Florida’s Everglades National Park generated 2,364 jobs and over $140 million in visitor spending, and Florida’s 11 national parks in total provided $582 million in economic benefits.  The National Park Service also reports that America’s parks overall created $31 billion and 258,000 jobs in 2010.  In addition to their economic impacts, national parks have important value in that they are available to all of us for recreation, not just the wealthy few.

This is not the first time Republican members of Congress have advocated selling off Americans’ public lands without clarifying how taxpayers would get a fair return for them.  Last fall, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) proposed selling off 3.3 million acres of the public lands that belong to all of us.  And former Rep. Richard Pombo proposed selling national parks to mining companies in 2005.

Republican presidential candidates have also recently been confused about the tangible and intangible values of our national parks and public lands.  Mitt Romney told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he doesn’t know “what the purpose is” of public lands, Rick Santorum told Idahoans that public lands should go “back to the hands” of the private sector, and Ron Paul advocated for public lands to be turned over to the states.

And so it begins. In January, wind turbine manufacturer Vestas announced that it would lay off up to 1,600 American workers if Congress cannot extend a key tax credit for the wind industry. And now, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a large emerging player in manufacturing and project development, says it will scrap plans to build a new $100 million plant in Arkansas without the tax credit in place.

Even with strong bipartisan support among governors, the business community, and many members of Congress, a small group of clean energy opponents have held up passage of the production tax credit.

Recharge News has reported on the latest comments from Mitsubishi on the lack of action in Washington:

In 2009, the Japanese company revealed plans for a $100m nacelle manufacturing plant in Arkansas to support demand in its main market. It was scheduled to have opened earlier this year.

However, turbine sales are certain to plummet if Washington does not renew the production tax credit (PTC), which is due to expire at the end of the year.

“We need a market to operate our factory. Right now, the market is not so good. We have a site but cannot operate it,” says Yoshinori Ueda, assistant general manager of MHI’s wind turbine business. “If we have the PTC, we will go ahead.”

Without a firm outlook for more equipment orders, it doesn’t make sense for Mitsubishi to operate the U.S. plant. That would mean the end of 330 long-term manufacturing and operations jobs in Arkansas before they had a chance to start. What a great sign that sends to global investors.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas industries enjoy permanent tax benefits for manufacturing and drilling operations. (The top five oil companies brought in $137 billion in profits last year alone.)

The production tax credit provides wind developers with 2.2 cents in tax benefits for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. It has been a central driver for wind deployment in the U.S., helping drive down the cost of wind electricity by 90% since it was introduced.

Because of that support mechanism wind is more competitive than ever. However, extremely (and unsustainably) low natural gas prices are making it difficult for developers to compete. Without an extension of the tax credit, the short-term market for wind could be completely squashed — taking investments in manufacturing, R&D and installation with it.

Without an extension of the production tax credit, the wind industry predicts it will lose up to 37,000 jobs across the U.S.

Related Posts:

• Congress is Killing Wind Energy Jobs, Says Bipartisan Governors Group: No Wonder It’s Less Popular Than Nixon or BP
• Debunking The Error-Riddled Wall Street Journal Editorial on Wind Energy

A new poll finds that the public supports President Obama over Congressional Republicans on gas prices. The National Journal survey shows that 44% of respondents trust the President “to make the right decisions to help bring down the price of gasoline,” against 32% for the Congressional GOP.

We’ve previously reported that both Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and Koch-fueled Cato Institute agree: “It’s Not Obama’s Fault That Crude Oil Prices Have Increased.” The poll found the public shares that assessment:

When asked what the main reason behind the price increase was, some 38 percent laid the blame on “the manipulation of prices by large energy companies.” Twenty-eight percent cited “tension in the Middle East, particularly over Iran and nuclear weapons.” Well down the list were “the policies of President Obama” (14 percent) and “the policies of congressional Republicans” (5 percent).

These findings are particularly impressive because conservatives and GOP presidential candidates have been bashing Obama almost nonstop on this issue, trying to blame the President for high oil prices.

What the president can do is reduce the oil intensity of the economy, the amount of oil consumed per dollar of GDP, which is the true measure of how vulnerable the economy is to the price spikes and generally rising prices that are inevitable as we approach peak oil production. Obama has been pursuing such policies, which include his aggressive fuel economy standards and investing in clean energy alternatives.

And even in the face of rising gasoline prices, the public still supports Obama’s approach, as the poll found:

Americans put somewhat more stock in the Democrats’ policy of conservation and development of alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar power, than they do in the Republicans’ emphasis on greater domestic production of oil and gas. Fifty percent of respondents said that the Democratic approach “would do more to lower fuel prices,” while 42 percent went with the GOP approach.

In related news, the Washington Post fact-checker gives 3 Pinocchios to the GOP claim that Obama wanted higher oil prices. Also, Gallup reports that “U.S. economic confidence improved sharply” last week to “the highest weekly levels Gallup has recorded since it started tracking confidence daily in January 2008.” Finally, the WashPost notes of its recent poll:

At the moment, 63 percent of Americans say that gas prices are causing them financial hardship, with 36 percent saying the gas squeeze is causing “serious” financial hardship. (See Question 11.) But those are actually the lowest hardship numbers since May of 2008 — and, in fact, it’s virtually identical to what Americans were saying in May of 2004, six months before George W. Bush won re-election.

A new study finds the tar sands have yet higher CO2 emissions than expected because of the threat they post to forests and peatlands.

That is no bombshell: Climate Progress has previously pointed out that tar sands development threatens the carbon-rich boreal forests. Now it has been quantified.

A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that existing industry plans for exploiting the tar sands will destroy over 29,500 hectares (65%) of local peatland.  Peatlands are better known as bogs, moors, mires, and swamp forests. Their decaying organic matter is rich in carbon and already emerging as a major amplifying carbon-cycle feedback.

The study, “Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massiveloss of peatland and stored carbon,” finds that this destruction will release stored carbon equivalent to 42 to 173 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, “as much as 7-years worth of mining and upgrading emissions at 2010 production levels. The study notes that this “will reduce carbon sequestration potential by 5,734–7,241 metric tons C/y” and points out

These losses have not previously been quantified, and should be included with the already high estimates of carbon emissions from oil sands mining and bitumen upgrading

The study also slams the industry’s claim can restore the tar sands “to a sustainable landscape that is equal to or better than how we found it”:

Claims by industry that they will “return the land we use – including reclaiming tailings ponds – to a sustainable landscape that is equal to or better than how we found it” (33) and that it “will be replanted with the same trees and plants and formed into habitat for the same species” (34) are clearly greenwashing.The postmining landscape will support >65% less peatland. One consequence of this transformation is a dramatic loss of carbon storage and sequestration potential, the cost of which has not been factored into land-use decisions. To fairly evaluate the costs and benefits of oil sands mining in Alberta, impacts on naturalc apital and ecosystem services must be rigorously assessed

CP has previously reported on research that makes clear there is no place for a major expansion of the tar sands if we want to avoid catastrophic global warming. This study reinforces that conclusion.

Related Post:

• Boreal Forests: The Carbon the World Forgot
• Must-See Video On The True Cost of Tar Sands
• Stunning Peatlands Amplifying Feedback: Drying Wetlands and Intensifying Wildfires Boost Carbon Release Ninefold

by Jorge Madrid

The public transportation system in Medellin, Colombia, is one of the most successful in the world. It is successful for promoting not just environmental sustainability, but social equity as well.

In 2012, it was named one of the top transport systems in the world by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a global consortium of organizations founded in 1985 to promote sustainable transportation worldwide:

“The city [of Medillin] transformed violence and despair into hope and opportunity, using sustainable transport as one of the key levers to drive change,” said ITDP board member Holger Dalkmann.

The crown jewel of the city’s transportation system is the Metro de Medellín, a network of clean and efficient metro cars that serves over half a million (553,000) passengers every day.  This project was financed by a public-private partnership led by the city; construction took ten years, with the last major expansion completed in 2006.  The system saves 175,000 tons of C02 every year, the equivalent of planting 380,000 trees that would occupy 11% of the city’s land mass.  Metro calculates that it saves the city $1.5 billion in respiratory health costs every year, and $4 billion in reduced traffic accidents and congestion.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of the metro system is the world renowned metro cablé system, a network of 9 cable car systems that take passengers up steep mountainsides that line the Valley of Medellin.  The lines were completed in 2010 with plans for future expansion.  The metro cable system has revolutionized mobility and accessibility for residents of Colombia’s second largest city, particularly the poorest — and often most violent — communities that line the valley of Medellin’s mountainous region.

Read more

By Jessica Goad and Scott Keyes.

Rep. Cliff Steans (R-FL), a birther, one of the leaders of the Solyndra witch hunt and defender of subsidies to Big Oil companies, told constituents at a town hall meeting Belleview, Florida, on February 25 that “we don’t need any more national parks in this country” and that we need to “actually sell off some of our national parks”:

I got attacked in a previous town meeting for not supporting another national park in this country, a 200-mile trailway.  And I told the man that we don’t need more national parks in this country, we need to actually sell off some of our national parks, and try and do what a normal family would do is — they wouldn’t ask Uncle Joe for a loan, they would sell their Cadillac, or they would take their kids out of private schools and put them into public schools to save to money instead of asking for their credit card to increase their debt ceiling.

Watch it:

Our national parks represent America’s heritage, held in trust from one generation to the next.

Despite Stearns’ idea for a national-park fire sale, the facts show that parks, monuments, and other protected places generate a steady stream of wealth for both the treasury and local businesses.  In 2010, Florida’s Everglades National Park generated 2,364 jobs and over $140 million in visitor spending, and Florida’s 11 national parks in total provided $582 million in economic benefits.  The National Park Service also reports that America’s parks overall created $31 billion and 258,000 jobs in 2010.  In addition to their economic impacts, national parks have important value in that they are available to all of us for recreation, not just the wealthy few.

This is not the first time Republican members of Congress have advocated selling off Americans’ public lands without clarifying how taxpayers would get a fair return for them.  Last fall, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) proposed selling off 3.3 million acres of the public lands that belong to all of us.  And former Rep. Richard Pombo proposed selling national parks to mining companies in 2005.

Republican presidential candidates have also recently been confused about the tangible and intangible values of our national parks and public lands.  Mitt Romney told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he doesn’t know “what the purpose is” of public lands, Rick Santorum told Idahoans that public lands should go “back to the hands” of the private sector, and Ron Paul advocated for public lands to be turned over to the states.

HT: Florida Political Action Cooperative.

by Tina Swanson, reposted from NRDC’s Switchboard

Other stories below:  Allergy season comes early this year because of the unusually mild winter, Why gas prices aren’t likely to decide the 2012 election

Climate Central: Record Warm Week Ahead East of the Rockies

The warm winter season is giving way to an even warmer early spring, with record temps spreading throughout the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains this week. Records are likely to fall from Minneapolis to Maine and points southward starting today and lasting through at least the end of this week, possibly putting an end to the ski season in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic….

The warm weather is likely to add to the imbalance between warm temperature records and cold temperature records in the U.S. this year. During the month of February, for example, the number of daily warm record-low temperatures outpaced cold records by a stunning ratio of 6 to 1 in the Lower 48.

So far this month, there have already been 805 record-high temperatures in the U.S., and just 176 record-cold high temperatures.

In a long-term trend that has been linked to global climate change, daily record-high temperatures are now outpacing daily record-lows records by an average of 2 to 1, and this imbalance is expected to grow as temperatures continue to warm. According to a 2009 study, if the climate were not warming, this ratio would be expected to be even.

Read more