Insiders fear that President Obama is on the verge of making a brutal compromise with the GOP that would allow the 1,700 mile tar sands pipeline to be built across the heart of the nation.
The pace of solar energy development is accelerating as the installation of rooftop solar water heaters takes off.
Gainesville, Florida, is an international solar power leader?
British designers "looking to bridge the divide between furniture and interior design and the reality of everyday life on two wheels."
Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, has announced that the Fukushima nuclear site finally stabilised, 280 days after the earthquake and tsunami that damaged it.
The shutdown-averting budget bill will block federal light bulb efficiency standards, giving a win to House Republicans fighting the so-called ban on incandescent light bulbs.
You’ll find that misleading lede filed in the Politico under “GOP wins light bulb fight” with the even more misleading blurb, “The budget bill gives a victory to House Republicans fighting the ban on incandescent bulbs.”
Except, of course, there was no “ban on incandescent bulbs.” As a leading manufacturer explained to Climate Progress in July:
“The reality is, consumers will see no difference at all. The only difference they’ll see is lower energy bills because we’re creating more efficient incandescent bulbs.”
The only victory is for the right wing media that kept lying about the issue (see “Led by Murdoch Outlets, Conservative Media Misled Light Bulb Consumers 40 Times In 7 Months“).
Oh, and there was a victory for the extremist Tea Party wing of the party, which opposes all government standards, even ones that the lightbulb industry itself wants and that would save households an average of $100 annually — which is to say it would save consumers $12 billion a year.
As E&E News (subs. req’d) reports, the non-deluded majority understand how nonsensical this “victory” is:
“In the real world, outside talk radio’s echo chamber, lighting manufacturers such as GE, Philips and Sylvania have tooled up to produce new incandescent light bulbs that look and operate exactly the same as old incandescent bulbs and give off just as much warm light,” Republicans for Environmental Protection Policy Director Jim DiPeso said in a statement. “The only different is they produce less excess heat and are therefore 30 percent more efficient. What’s not to like?”
Blocking the standards effectively serves as a slap in the face to light bulb manufacturers, who have been working since 2007 to produce the new bulbs.
“Eliminating funding for light bulb efficiency standards is especially poor policy as it would leave the policy in place but make it impossible to enforce, undercutting domestic manufacturers who have invested millions of dollars in U.S. plants to make new incandescent bulbs that meet the standards,” a coalition of dozens of lighting manufacturers, efficiency groups and environmentalists said in a letter this week to senators.
And it would disrupt the marketplace, supporters of the standards say, because individual states could still implement the standards. California, in fact, already is enforcing them.
“It would create a patchwork of enforcement that would be nightmarish for the industry,” said a lighting industry executive.
Nightmarish for the industry. Costly for consumers. Undercutting U.S. competitiveness.
So how did this inane provision stay in the final deal?
The rational folks turned wobbly and the extremist dim bulbs stood their ground. Sound familiar? Politico spells it out:
After giving up in recent weeks on dozens of other riders aimed at stopping EPA rules because of opposition from Senate Democrats and the White House, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) told POLITICO that the light bulb rider was “going to be in there.”
“Speaker [John] Boehner to Chairman [Fred] Upton to Chairman [Hal] Rogers, they all strongly support keeping it in,” said Barton, who served as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2007 when the light bulb language got approved. “And it’s a personal commitment because of their philosophy.”
The White House was not publicly spelling out which riders it didn’t want in the final spending package, with communications director Dan Pfeiffer only saying Wednesday that the House GOP plan would “undercut environmental protections.”
On Twitter, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) wrote: “I strongly oppose that language. I hope it’s deleted from any final bill that we pass.”
House Democrats recalled Upton was an original co-sponsor of the light bulb provision inserted in the 2007 energy law and bemoaned his rightward shift since running last fall for Energy and Commerce chairman.
“This is just another poke in the eye,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
“It’s the power of Michele Bachmann and the presidential campaign,” added Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee that approved the original language. “What can I say? If we can solve the energy problem with the outcome on the light bulb, America would be a great place.”
… Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chairman of the Interior and environment appropriations subcommittee, said Senate opposition to the light bulb provisions had up to this point been minimal.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he said. “They objected to all the other EPA riders and stuff. That was the instructions from the White House. But apparently the light bulb ones didn’t bother them too much.”
Amazing? How about “pathetic”?
Related Post:
Dim Bulbs Insert Rider In Spending Bill, Delaying Light Bulb Efficiency Standards.
As a nation, we are spending way too much energy arguing about energy. With all the energy-related debates going on today about everything from environmental regulations to the role of government subsidies, it is time to step back and remember that all of us in the energy space share many of the same long-term objectives. We ultimately want to develop new technologies, cleaner energy and a more robust grid while using energy more efficiently. If we can join together and focus our energy on supporting a balanced national energy policy, we can achieve the goal of a cleaner, more secure energy future.
Of land deals totalling 71 million hectares, 22% was for mining, tourism, industry and forestry, and most of the rest was for biofuels.
Commenting on the Sunday Times YouGov public opinion poll [1] which showed huge support for solar power, STA Chairman Howard Johns said:
“Yesterday we delivered a petition to Number Ten from 17,000 people and over 200 important organisations concerned about the government’s treatment of the UK solar power industry. Now we know three quarters of the public want to see more solar power.
That’s not a surprise because everyday people get how empowering and exciting this technology is. Central government needs to catch up and take immediate steps to secure our industry. The public want to see more solar power, but politicians have signed off proposals to deliver a lot less.”
The Poll showed that 74% of the public want more solar power. Support varied with voting intention: 88% Lib Dem, 75% Labour and 69% Conservative. There was little variation in the strong support for solar power by age, gender or class.
67% of people said that solar was a realistic way of combating climate change. This is consistent with the views of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), who have both stated that solar will be the biggest power source in the world in future in 50 years. Solar is the UK’s second biggest renewable resource and can technically meet UK electricity demand twice over. Domestic solar now attracts the same FIT support as river hydro and less than mini wind. Non-domestic solar requires less support than anaerobic digestion (AD).
Related job opportunities include:
Source: NewsWeek
NewsWeek cut through the green chatter and compare the actual environmental footprints, management (policies, programs, initiatives, controversies), and reporting practices of big companies. NewWeek teamed up with two leading research organizations to create the most comprehensive rankings available. View our full methodology.
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Rank
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Company
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Country
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Industry Sector
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Green Score
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Envtl. Impact
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Envtl. Mgmt.
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Disclosure
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| 1 | IBM | United States | Information Technology & Services | 82.5 | 78.8 | 86.2 | 83 |
| 2 | Hewlett-Packard | United States | Technology Equipment | 75.8 | 66.7 | 87.6 | 63.7 |
| 3 | Sprint Nextel | United States | Telecommunications | 75.6 | 71.5 | 81.5 | 68 |
| 4 | Baxter | United States | Healthcare | 74.9 | 60.4 | 88.7 | 78.3 |
| 5 | Dell | United States | Technology Equipment | 74.7 | 66.4 | 88.6 | 49.3 |
| 6 | Johnson & Johnson | United States | Healthcare | 74.6 | 60.8 | 96.2 | 39.1 |
| 7 | Accenture | United States | Information Technology & Services | 74 | 78.6 | 78.9 | 31.6 |
| 8 | Office Depot | United States | Retailers | 73.6 | 65.9 | 80.6 | 76.6 |
| 9 | CA Technologies | United States | Information Technology & Services | 72.6 | 78.4 | 75.2 | 35.2 |
| 10 | Nvidia | United States | Technology Equipment | 71.9 | 76 | 75.6 | 36.6 |
| 11 | Agilent Technologies | United States | Healthcare | 71.7 | 65.2 | 80.4 | 62.2 |
| 12 | Hartford Financial Services Grp. | United States | Financials | 71.7 | 77.6 | 68.2 | 60.5 |
| 13 | EMC | United States | Technology Equipment | 71.6 | 66.4 | 85.7 | 32.1 |
| 14 | Adobe Systems | United States | Information Technology & Services | 71.5 | 79 | 64.7 | 68.5 |
| 15 | Intel | United States | Technology Equipment | 71.4 | 58.4 | 82.8 | 78.9 |
| 16 | Cognizant Technology | United States | Information Technology & Services | 70.9 | 80.1 | 63.7 | 62.2 |
| 17 | Staples | United States | Retailers | 70.7 | 67.6 | 76.5 | 58.6 |
| 18 | Motorola Solutions | United States | Technology Equipment | 70.7 | 64.1 | 83.9 | 40.7 |
| 19 | Best Buy | United States | Retailers | 70.2 | 70.7 | 72.8 | 56.1 |
| 20 | Allergan | United States | Healthcare | 70.1 | 62.9 | 82 | 49.7 |
| 21 | McGraw-Hill | United States | Media & Publishing | 69.9 | 73.1 | 66 | 73.7 |
| 22 | Ford Motor | United States | Vehicles & Components | 69.8 | 54.6 | 82.8 | 79.2 |
| 23 | Walt Disney | United States | Media & Publishing | 69.6 | 69.6 | 68.7 | 73.5 |
| 24 | Citigroup | United States | Financials | 69.5 | 69 | 68.8 | 74.7 |
| 25 | American Express | United States | Financials | 69.4 | 82.4 | 61 | 49.5 |
I am an Eco-Entrepreneur, author, and webmaster of PeoplePlanetProfitBlog.com I love living green and try to incorporate all I do in this industry. Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll show you how to make a rewarding and profitable career in the Energy Industry… just contact me.
I am an eco entrepreneur, author, and admin here on People Planet Profit Blog. Let me know if you have any questions I am here to help. I’ll show you how to make a rewarding and profitable career in the Energy Industry... just contact me.
