QUICK NEWS, May 22: The Plan To Beat Climate Change; Ready For The Offshore Wind Boom; Solar Research Faces Trump Cuts
The Plan To Beat Climate Change A new book ranks the top 100 solutions to climate change. The results are surprising. A chat with Paul Hawken about his ambitious new effort to “map, measure, and model” global warming solutions.
David Roberts, May 10, 2017 (VOX)
“…[The looming dangers of climate change are clear but] what about solutions?...[Paul Hawken, whose Natural Capitalism was called by President Clinton one of the five most important books in the world, has laid out] the 100 most substantive solutions to climate change, using only peer-reviewed research…[Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed Reverse Global Warming] is basically a reference book: a list of solutions, ranked by potential carbon impact, each with cost estimates and a short description. A set of scenarios show the cumulative potential…It is fascinating, a powerful reminder of how narrow a set of solutions dominates the public’s attention…” click here for more
Ready For The Offshore Wind Boom Massachusetts prepares for wind energy; The state aims to harness the strong, steady winds off its coast.
Jan Ellen Spiegel, May 22, 2017 (Yale Climate Connections)
“Off-shore wind energy is common in Europe. It’s never taken off in the U.S…[But Massachusetts] will soon request competitive bids for off-shore wind development – at sites 14 miles or more from Martha’s Vineyard…To encourage development, the state built a marine terminal to receive, construct, and repair wind turbines, which are too big for most ports…To make sure the state also uses the clean wind energy, Massachusetts passed new legislation that requires the purchase of 1,600 megawatts of wind-powered electricity per year within the next decade…Bidding for the first projects will start this year…[The first commercial-scale off-shore wind projects should be up and running] within four or five years.” click here for more
Solar Research Faces Trump Cuts Trump’s budget expected to massively slash research on renewable energy — and ‘clean coal’
Chris Mooney, May 18, 2017 (Washington Post)
“The Trump administration is expected to propose massive cuts to federal government research on wind and solar energy next week…The department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which funds research on advanced vehicles as well as other aspects of clean energy, would face a roughly 70 percent [proposed] cut in 2018, carving about $1.45 billion from its $2.09 billion 2017 budget…The consequences of the proposed cuts could be wide ranging, potentially undermining the office’s SunShot Initiative, which has worked to drive down the costs of large-scale solar energy, which now runs about 7 cents per kilowatt hour. A goal of reaching 3 cents per kilowatt hour for large-scale solar electricity had been set for 2030…The cuts are far from becoming a reality. In recent budget negotiations, Congress funded Energy Department programs roughly on par with 2016 levels, rather than follow a Trump administration proposal to slash them deeply …” click here for more
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