Climate Climate & Energy

Wind power installations set to soar 63 percent this year

Some good energy news:

US wind power installations are projected to jump 63 percent this year amid concern about global warming and rising fuel prices, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The US wind industry is on track to complete a total of 4,000 megawatts worth of installations in 2007, or about enough to power 1 million average homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association [AWEA].

Tip o' the hat to state renewable energy standards and the federal production tax credit.

You can get more details from the AWEA website, including the third-quarter market report. Here are some state highlights:

• Texas again added the largest amount of new wind power generation (600 MW).
• Colorado installed 264 MW and now ranks as the state with the sixth-largest amount of wind power generation.
• Washington, with 140 MW of new wind capacity, pulls ahead of Minnesota into fourth place.

So yes, climate progress does occur, when the government works at it.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Portland, Ore., will pay builders to build green

Portland, Ore., has unveiled an innovative plan to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. The city will require an energy-efficiency inspection of new homes, then levy a tax on builders who have merely complied with Oregon’s efficiency requirements. Builders who construct homes 30 percent more efficient than the state building code requires will escape the fee; those who […]

Waterways downstream from oil sands are full o’ toxins, says study

Fish, water, and sediment downstream from the gigantic oil sands projects in Alberta are chock-full of carcinogens and other toxins, says a new study. While the research does not make a direct link between the oil sands, the toxins, and presumed health consequences, the largely Native residents of downstream community Fort Chipewyan have long suspected […]

The youth climate movement proves itself at Power Shift

Van Jones gets youth activists riled up at Power Shift rally. Photo: Fritz Myer About 5,500 people, most under the age of 21, traveled from all over the country to the unremarkable suburb of College Park, Md., this past weekend to take part in the largest climate-change conference and rally in U.S. history. At Power […]

Oil companies target the fragile Arctic continental shelf for oil drilling

You’re probably against drilling in the Alaskan Refuge, but what you really ought to be worried about is offshore drilling on Alaska’s continental shelf, which isn’t protected by law or by close attention from environmentalists — and where the likelihood and impact of accidents are far worse. Read Peter Matthiessen’s definitive piece in The Nation: […]

Some signs of another mitigation alternative emerging

There has certainly been a great deal of discussion of carbon taxes and various cap-and-trade and cap-and-auction frameworks among environmentalists. Recently, Nordhaus and Shellenberger used the term "public investment" as another mitigation strategy, a term which seems to refer mostly to research and development.

However, another alternative is direct governmental construction of the various means of transforming economies toward sustainability -- what might be called public reconstruction. I thought I'd share three quotes from well-known writers that seem to be moving in this direction.

Vote early and often

I don’t usually pay much attention to the Weblog Awards, but it has come to my attention that the odious skeptic blog Climate Audit has marshaled its flat earth fanboys to push it in the lead for “best science blog.” That just ain’t right. Unless you want to hear Glenn Beck repeating a new talking […]

Clinton, Daley to green Sears Tower, other Chicago landmarks

The tallest building in North America is officially going green, along with a few of its Windy City counterparts. At a green building expo in Chicago yesterday, former President Bill Clinton and eterna-Mayor Richard Daley announced a partnership to retrofit landmarks including the Sears Tower and the Merchandise Mart, the nation’s largest commercial center. Using […]

Misleading Shell Oil ads removed from British media

Shell Oil has removed ads from Britain’s media after the country’s Advertising Standards Authority criticized the company’s claim to consumers that “we use our waste CO2 to grow flowers.” A complaint from activist groups estimated that perhaps 0.325 percent of Shell’s emission of poor, misunderstood CO2 emissions are used to grow flowers.

Fiji Water announces plan to become carbon negative

A bold new plan to bypass carbon neutrality and become carbon negative has been announced by, of all things, a bottled-water company. Fiji Water has announced specific goals to pursue renewable energy, forest preservation, and water conservation, and will buy carbon offsets to cover 120 percent of its greenhouse-gas emissions. Which is good and all, […]