California Community Solar Bill Dies

 Senate Bill 843, a piece of legislation that would have extended the benefits of renewable energy to millions of Californians, died last Friday in the state's Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce.   Currently, 75% of households cannot install residential solar (and other renewable energy) systems for one reason or another.   One of the most

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/09/community-solar-bill-dies?cmpid=rss

Advanced Biofuels Pioneer Terrabon Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy: One-off or Trend?

 In Texas, Terrabon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection; the company's operations will cease and a trustee will be tasked with liquidating the company's assets for the benefit of creditors.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/advanced-biofuels-pioneer-terrabon-files-for-chapter-7-bankruptcy-one-off-or-trend?cmpid=rss

Mainstream Secures Loan for Offshore Wind Farms, Expansion Plans

 Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd. signed a 60 million-euro ($77 million) loan agreement with Macquarie Group Ltd. as the Irish clean energy company develops offshore wind farms and makes plans to expand overseas.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/mainstream-secures-loan-for-offshore-wind-farms-expansion-plans?cmpid=rss

PV Still Facing a Bumpy Ride: Working in a Low-incentive World

 To encourage the continuation of necessary incentives as well as utility participation, the PV industry has promised a consistent (and significant) reduction in module prices along with "grid" parity with conventional energy sources. The PV industry has also promised to do this without subsidies — and it may have to keep its promises.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/pv-still-facing-a-bumpy-ride?cmpid=rss

Feed-in Tariffs Do More for Wind at Less Cost to Ratepayers than RPS Says German Agency

 In a recent report, the German Renewable Energy Agency says that across Europe countries using feed-in tariffs develop more wind energy and pay less for it than countries using quota systems.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/feed-in-tariffs-do-more-for-wind-at-less-cost-to-ratepayers-than-rps-says-german-agency?cmpid=rss

Solar Thermal Competition Heats Up in China

 China's "Big Four" solar thermal firms, with their vast distribution networks, are racing ahead of a fast-consolidating market.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/solar-thermal-competition-heats-up-in-china?cmpid=rss

Brazil Explores Hydropower Options

 José da Costa Carvalho Neto has been tapped by Brazil's president Dilma Vana Rousseff to run Eletrobras, one of the top 10 publicly-traded electric companies in the world. His task is to make Eletrobras the largest clean energy company system in the world by 2020. Marla Barnes and Michael Grossman recently sat down with Carvalho Neto in his office in Rio de Janeiro to learn more about this company and its ambitions for the future.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/eletrobras-seen-from-the-top?cmpid=rss

Photovoltaics, Part 2: Enter the Dollar

Subtitle:&nbsp_place_holder;

Has the declining cost of PV systems made solar electricity affordable? Really?

Images:&nbsp_place_holder;

[](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-architects-lounge/photovoltaics-part-2-enter-dollar)

[](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-architects-lounge/photovoltaics-part-2-enter-dollar)

Not too long ago, our own Jesse Thompson (known for his "What's Bothering Jesse?" segment on the Green Architects' Lounge) wrote a great article, [PV Systems Have Gotten Dirt Cheap](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/pv-systems-have-gotten-dirt-cheap). It was a wakeup call for many.

Podcast NID:&nbsp_place_holder;

[Green Architects' Lounge - Solar PV - Part 2](http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/content/green-architects-lounge-solar-pv-part-2)

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-architects-lounge/photovoltaics-part-2-enter-dollar
Enclosure: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/PV-cost-calculation-spreadsheet_0.xls

'Greens are turning into a force on radical left'

Guardian: John Harris visits the Green party conference for the first time to find a young generation taking over, a battle to attract working-class and BME members, and an ambitious new leader aiming to emulate the Greek Syriza party. This is the first in a series of films from this year's party conference season

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/sep/10/green-party-gain-crisis-video
Enclosure: http://gu.com/p/3aath

EU raises fresh concerns over environmental impact of Shale Gas

BusinessGreen: The chances of the European Union taking tough new action to regulate controversial Shale Gas projects received a major boost late last week, with the publication of three new in-depth reports that raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" as it is more commonly known. The EU-commissioned reports from the EU Joint Research Centre and environmental consultancy AEA assessed the risks shale gas projects pose to the environment and human health,...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2204221/eu-raises-fresh-concerns-over-environmental-impact-of-shale-gas?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=EU+raises+fresh+concerns+over+environmental+impact+of+Shale+Gas

Jobs, social welfare are crucial to food security, top ag scientist says

AlertNet: Making life better for family farmers is a key way to ensure food security in Guyana without compromising the environment, according to a top Indian agricultural expert who helped lead that country's agricultural "Green Revolution.' M.S. Swaminathan, who promotes sustainable agriculture that preserves biodiversity and who worked in Guyana in the early 1990s on a forest conservation project, says agricultural and conservation need not be in conflict. "The foundations of agriculture are land,...

URL: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/jobs-social-welfare-are-crucial-to-food-security-top-ag-scientist-says
Enclosure: http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/9fa9c555-0d49-48a2-ac91-ecc28121d072/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201209101121

Solar installations surge on strong utility market

Reuters: U.S. solar installations jumped 116 percent in the second quarter from a year ago thanks to the completion of more than 20 big projects for utilities, according to an industry report released on Monday. The quarter was the largest ever for utility installations, which represented 447 megawatts of the 742 MW total. Procurement of utility-scale projects, however, is down, the report said, meaning such lofty figures are unlikely to continue quarter after quarter. That's because utilities in states...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/10/us-solar-market-idUSBRE8890DN20120910?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Q2 Report Shows US Solar Market Booming, Utility-scale Projects Leading

 Solar panel installations in the United States more than doubled in the second quarter of this year, and it's is on track to increase 71 percent in 2012 from the previous year, according to a report released by GTM Research today.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/09/utility-projects-rule-the-u-s-solar-market?cmpid=rss

Climate change hurting food production in temperate zone too

Cape Breton Post: It's no surprise that we will have a record minimum of ice cover in the Arctic Ocean at the end of this summer melt season. It's already down to around four million square kilometres, with at least a few more days of melting to go, but this is what you might call a "known unknown." Scientists knew we were losing the ice cover fast; they just didn't know how fast. I'm no fan of Don Rumsfeld, who helped lead the United States into the disastrous invasion of Iraq when he was George W. Bush's defence...

URL: http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Columns/2012-09-10/article-3070423/Climate-change-hurting-food-production-in-temperate-zone-too/1

Loss and damage from climate change: After adaptation

Daily Star: The climate talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bangkok ended on September 5 in preparation for the eighteenth conference of parties (COP18) which will be held in Doha, Qatar in December 2012. Although not much moved forward in the Bangkok talks, one new topic that gained momentum was the issue of Loss and Damage from Climate Change. Some of the issues with regard to this new and emerging topic are described below. At the seventeenth conference of...

URL: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=249053

United Kingdom: Mainstream inks €60m financing deal for new wave of renewables projects

BusinessGreen: Eddie O'Connor's Mainstream Renewable Power has secured a multi-million-pound financing deal to fund hundreds of megawatts of new wind farm capacity as part the company' ambitious expansion plans. Mainstream confirmed yesterday that it has signed a corporate facility for up to EUR60m (£48m) with Macquarie Group to help fund the construction of more than 300MW of wind and solar plants in Ireland, South Africa, Chile and Canada later this year. The company is a major player in the Crown Estate's...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2204140/mainstream-inks-eur60m-financing-deal-for-new-wave-of-renewables-projects?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Mainstream+inks+%E2%82%AC60m+financing+deal+for+new+wave+of+renewables+projects

Illegal Palm Oil Firms Blamed for Razing Protected East Kalimantan Forests

Jakarta Globe: Berau, East Kalimantan. Forestry officials and police in Berau district are investigating the burning down of 200 hectares of land inside a protected forest by illegal oil palm plantation operators. Heri Suparno, head of forest protection at the district forestry office, said on Friday that large swaths of land inside the Tanjung Batu protected forest were razed to the ground, along with smaller patches in the neighboring Kampung Kasai community forest. He said police had arrested five people...

URL: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/illegal-palm-oil-firms-blamed-for-razing-protected-east-kalimantan-forests/543097

Climate change and forests — the big picture

Summit County Citizens Voice: Colorado isn`t the only place that has seen major climate-related impacts to its forest ecosystems. During the past couple of decades, extensive forest death triggered by hot and dry climatic conditions has been documented on every continent except Antarctica and forest mortality due to drought and heat stress is expected to increase. Most research to-date has been focused on local and regional impacts of forest mortality, but scientists are starting to grapple with the bigger picture of how widespread...

URL: http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/09/10/climate-change-and-forests-the-big-picture/
Enclosure: http://summitvoice.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/35.jpg?w=300&h=300

New Zealand: Climate change sceptics take fight to court

Agence France-Presse: New Zealand's High Court on Friday dismissed a challenge launched by climate change sceptics against a government research agency's finding that the temperature had risen in the past century. The court backed the science that led the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to conclude that New Zealand's climate warmed almost one degree Celsius between 1909 and 2009. New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust, a private body that rejects the argument that human activity has...

URL: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/environment/climate-change-sceptics-take-fight-to-court-1.1379182

Climate change expert calls for geoengineering and nuclear 'binge' to avert global warming

EurActiv: A leading British academic has called for accelerated research into futuristic geo-engineering and a worldwide nuclear power station "binge" to avoid runaway global warming. Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, said both potential solutions had inherent dangers but were now vital as time was running out. "It is very, very depressing that politicians and the public are attuned to the threat of climate change even less than they were 20 years ago when Margaret Thatcher...

URL: http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/climate-change-expert-calls-geoe-news-514692

Butterfly decline blamed on soggy summer

Press Association: The wettest summer for a century has been blamed for a sharp decline in the number of butterflies in Britain. A study of 223,000 butterflies and day-flying moths found the populations of 15 of the 21 species had fallen. Eleven common butterfly types had decreased by more than a third compared with last year, according to the Big Butterfly Count 2012. Butterfly Conservation said the heaviest rainfall over the summer months for 100 years was putting many already threatened species at risk....

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/10/butterfly-decline-soggy-summer
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/9/10/1347261569583/A-comma-orange-butterfly-010.jpg

United Kingdom: Caroline Flint: 'Conservatives don't show climate change the resepct it deserves' – video

Guardian: Caroline Flint, the shadow secretary of state for energy and climate change, criticises Conservative leadership for trying to reap the PR benefits of environmentalism while lacking the imagination to deliver on their promises. She argues that climate change should be discussed in terms of the opportunities the green economy offers to people in the UK

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/sep/10/caroline-flint-climate-change-conservative-video
Enclosure: http://gu.com/p/3a9zm

United Kingdom: Green Party touts plan for Royal Bank of Sustainability

BusinessGreen: The Green Party used its annual conference in Bristol this weekend to outline a host of new policies designed to broaden the party's appeal ahead of the next round of European elections in 2014. Outgoing leader Caroline Lucas released a major new report, titled The New Home Front II: Policies for Ecological, Social and Economic Renewal, which seeks to draw on policies and strategies that have been deployed in the past at times of national crisis and apply them to current environmental and economic...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2204016/green-party-touts-plan-for-royal-bank-of-sustainability?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Green+Party+touts+plan+for+Royal+Bank+of+Sustainability+

United Kingdom: Mayor Boris pledges to ground Heathrow expansion with new review

BusinessGreen: London Mayor Boris Johnson will hold a rival inquiry into boosting aviation capacity in the South East that will not consider a third runway at Heathrow, presenting a direct challenge to the government's own assessment launched last week. The news comes as Johnson was forced to deny he had held discussions with Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith on whether he should try and replace the Richmond MP in the Commons on an anti-Heathrow expansion ticket. The Mayor has consistently opposed pressure from...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2204034/mayor-boris-pledges-to-ground-heathrow-expansion-with-new-review?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Mayor+Boris+pledges+to+ground+Heathrow+expansion+with+new+review

Ice melt fuels need for climate change action

Washington Post: The Arctic is getting warmer faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. The latest evidence came in an announcement from the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center saying that, as of Aug. 26, the Arctic sea ice cover shrank to 1.58 million square miles this summer, the smallest area since satellite measurements began in 1979. The trend is expected to continue in the next few weeks. Over the past three decades, the average extent of the Arctic sea ice has declined by 25 to 30...

URL: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120910/EDIT05/309109929/1147/EDIT07

Wider CO2 markets may increase trading efficiency

MENAFN: A link between European Union and Australian cap and trade schemes could inject new life into emissions trading as long as regulators take into account risks such as the impact of market intervention in one region on energy prices in the other. The European Union's executive Commission and Australian government recently proposed a link between their emissions trading schemes from July 2015, pending domestic approval. The link would allow Australian polluters to meet half their emissions caps...

URL: http://www.menafn.com/menafn/1093556342/Wider-CO2-markets-may-increase-trading-efficiency?src=RSS

Climate change challenges power plant operations

Washington Post: Drought and rising temperatures are forcing water managers across the country to scramble for ways to produce the same amount of power from the hydroelectric grid with less water, including from behemoths such as the Hoover Dam. Hydropower is not the only part of the nation's energy system that appears increasingly vulnerable to the impact of climate change, as low water levels affect coal-fired and nuclear power plants' operations and impede the passage of coal barges along the Mississippi River....

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-change-challenges-power-plant-operations/2012/09/09/42b26b8e-f6a5-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_story.html
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/09/01/Others/Images/2012-08-31/jg_hooverdam_014_1346470800.jpg

Kyoto Protocol May End With the Year

Inter Press Service: As government negotiators from the world's poorest countries ended a round of United Nations climate change talks in the Thai capital, they sounded a grave note about what appears imminent when they assemble in November in Doha – the reading of the last rites of the Kyoto Protocol. "We are concerned that the environmental integrity of the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only international treaty that binds developed nations to lower (greenhouse gas) emissions, and thus our lone assurance that action...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/kyoto-protocol-may-end-with-the-year/

Shell criticised for limited testing of Alaska drilling containment equipment

Guardian: Shell has been accused of "stock-car racing recklessness" after apparently undertaking only the most limited testing of a key piece of equipment aimed at preventing a Gulf of Mexico-style blowout during its controversial drilling in the Arctic. Documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request suggest field-testing of a containment dome took place over two hours on 25 and 26 June. The dome, known as a "capping stack", would be dropped over any stricken wellhead. Two officials from...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/09/shell-criticised-limited-testing-alaska-drilling-containment
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/9/9/1347207940195/oil-and-gas-Cook-Inlet-oi-010.jpg

Patagonian Glaciers Are Rapidly Melting, Report Finds

Climate Central: Ice fields in southern South America are rapidly losing volume and in most cases thinning at even the highest elevations, contributing to sea-level rise at "substantially higher" rates than observed from the 1970s through the 1990s, according to a study published Wednesday. The rapid melting, based on satellite observations, suggests the ice field's contribution to global sea-level rise has increased by half since the end of the 20th century, jumping from 0.04 millimeters per year to about .07...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/patagonian-glaciers-melting-in-a-hurry-report-finds-14947?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/news/9-6-12-TDC-patagoniaGlaciers-pic3-450x299.jpg

Opposition mounts as first tar sands mine in US gets a green light

Waging Nonviolence: Activists in Utah crafted this sign with bitumen found in pools on the ground at an abandoned tar sands mine. Photo courtesy Before It Starts, via Flickr. Last week, a new front opened in the struggle against tar sands mining in the U.S. If you didn't know that tar sands mining is in the works on this side of the border in the first place, you're not alone. Most people don't realize that tar sands extraction, which has caused tremendous pollution and environmental degradation in Canada, has crossed...

URL: http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/09/opposition-mounts-as-first-tar-sands-mine-in-us-gets-a-green-light/
Enclosure: http://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/No-Tar-Sands.jpg

Study: Sea Otters Can Help Reduce CO2

redOrbit: A new study, led by the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that a thriving population of sea otters will keep the sea urchins in check, which will in turn allow kelp forests to prosper. Spreading kelp forests can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to sea urchin ravaging. "It is significant because it shows that animals can have a big influence on the carbon cycle," said Chris Wilmers, assistant professor of environmental studies....

URL: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112689941/sea-otters-urchins-kelp-co2-090812/
Enclosure: http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/09/shutterstock_96124340-617x416.jpg

Ask the Weather Guys: What's so funny about climate change?

Capital Times: Q: What's so funny about climate change? A: In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney jokingly upbraided his opponent for campaigning on climate change and the impact it's having on the planet. "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet," Romney said to a mix of laughter and boos from the assembled crowd. "My promise is to help you and your family." This column avoids politics,...

URL: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/ask/weather-guys/ask-the-weather-guys-what-s-so-funny-about-climate/article_459d2e7c-f94f-11e1-b687-0019bb2963f4.html

Pay No Attention to the Elephant: The Conventions and the Climate

Huffington Post: Let's see now. What has happened in the last two weeks? Both major political parties held their quadrennial national conventions, each of which was disrupted by weather unanticipated by convention planners. Neither party emphasized climate change. Nor did the hordes of media types in attendance, who essentially ignored it in favor of the usual back-and-forth. And, oh yes, the once deeply ice-capped Arctic Sea turned into a giant slushy at the top of the world. At least President Barack Obama...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/pay-no-attention-to-the-e_b_1867507.html
Enclosure: http://youtu.be/xKWFBvne3GI

Mountain forest study shows vulnerability to climate change

Phys.Org: CU-Boulder assistant professor Noah Molotch deploying an automated snow depth sensor and solar panel in Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Molotch and colleagues have found that mid-level mountain ecosystems in the West where people live, camp, hike, fish and mountain bike are the most sensitive to climate change. Credit: Image courtesy Noah Molotch, University of Colorado A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study that ties forest "greenness" in the western...

URL: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-mountain-forest-vulnerability-climate.html

Mining our ecosystems: Overconsumption, climate change and biodiversity

Business Mirror: Farting dinosaurs are probably not among the first thoughts that come to mind when thinking about today's urgent global matters. Notwithstanding, looking back a few million years to the Mesozoic--the dinosaur era--precisely this could have been considered a high-ranking environmental problem. A recent study shows that the long-necked sauropods--one of the dominant dinosaur groups--had gut bacteria to help them digest their food, akin to other herbivores. These bacteria also produce methane, which...

URL: http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/biodiversity/32481-mining-our-ecosystems-overconsumption-climate-change-and-biodiversity

In swing states climate change considered critical election issue

Christian Science Monitor: Climate change, a signature issue for President Obama, has thus far been absent on the campaign trail. Here's why you can expect it to soon dominate the debate. In Tampa, Mitt Romney threw down the gauntlet to Barack Obama, for whom global warming – and the consequent sea level rise – has been a signature issue since he promised in 2008 to do something about it as president. "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet," Mr. Romney told GOP delegates...

URL: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/swing-states-climate-change-considered-critical-election-issue

China pushes wind power, but no quick payoff for producers

Reuters: China will order its dominant electricity distributors to source up to 15 percent of their power from renewable energy including wind, but slow compliance means it may be years before the country's struggling wind power developers benefit, industry executives say. The quota system will apply to State Grid Corp of China and China Southern Power Grid Co Ltd by the end of this year, the executives say. China boasts the world's largest wind power capacity, but a third of it sits idle as renewable...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/09/us-china-windpower-idUSBRE8880J720120909?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120909&t=2&i=651083588&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE8881OG700

In Arctic oil battle, Shell starts preliminary drilling

NBC: More than 20 years after the last drill bit went into the Chukchi Sea floor off northern Alaska, a Shell drilling rig on Sunday began work that the company hopes will lead to a bonanza that adds to its bottom line and extends Alaska's oil economy. "Today marks the culmination of Shell's six-year effort to explore for potentially significant oil and gas reserves, which are believed to lie under Alaska's Outer Continental Shelf," Shell Alaska Vice President Pete Slaiby said in a statement. Welcomed...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/09/13763372-in-arctic-oil-battle-shell-starts-preliminary-drilling?lite
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120909_shell-rig.photoblog600.jpg

China's green industry expands in the west to offset slowing profits at home

Observer: China's green energy industry has long been seen as a world-beater. But domestic pressures are mounting on its renewables firms as growth slows; and analysts are warning that Chinese companies could respond by accelerating their expansion overseas, stoking a rising east-west tension in the race towards a low-carbon economy. The European commission has just followed up US trade action against China by announcing its own investigation into allegations that Bejing firms are "dumping" cheap solar...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/09/china-green-energy-industry-west
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/9/7/1347030682425/solar-panels-008.jpg

Enough wind to power global energy demand: New research examines limits, climate consequences

ScienceDaily: There is enough energy available in winds to meet all of the world's demand. Atmospheric turbines that convert steadier and faster high-altitude winds into energy could generate even more power than ground- and ocean-based units. New research from Carnegie's Ken Caldeira examines the limits of the amount of power that could be harvested from winds, as well as the effects high-altitude wind power could have on the climate as a whole. Led by Kate Marvel of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120909150446.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

Where do the Dems and GOP stand on energy and the environment?

Star-Tribune: They're out. Both dominant national political parties wrapped up their platforms, or written statements of their policy positions and goals, over the past few weeks during their respective political conventions. Both the Republican and the Democrat party faithful highlighted energy policy and environmental issues in their platforms. That's not unusual. But take note what they say, and how it compares to their platforms written four years ago. Some things sound the same and some are very, very...

URL: http://trib.com/business/energy/ffb39b30-6a64-5fef-a2fc-a9bb4cd7fcc0.html

United Kingdom: Tories' dash for gas risks climate target

Independent: An over-reliance on gas-fired power stations risks making it impossible for Britain to meet targets on cutting carbon emissions, the new head of the independent climate change watchdog has warned. The intervention by Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was a secretary of state for the environment in the Major government in the 1990s, comes as the coalition's green credentials are again thrown into doubt by claims that climate sceptics were promoted in the reshuffle and steps towards major expansion...

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/tories-dash-for-gas-risks-climate-target-8120153.html

Tornado reported in New York City, causes some damage

Reuters: A rare tornado struck New York City on Saturday, blowing out the windows of at least one building, and a separate twister hit the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., as a line of fierce thunderstorms swept the region, knocking out power to thousands of homes. There were no immediate reports of heavy damage or injuries from the storms, but the National Weather Service said a tornado watch remained in effect for parts of New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut. A tornado warning, a higher...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/08/us-usa-weather-newyork-idUSBRE8870CJ20120908?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Research suggests climate-change impacts to Puget Sound

Summit County Citizens Voice: A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary survey of Puget Sound suggests that increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon are turning the water more corrosive during certain seasons, with potentially significant impacts to shellfish populations. The study was conducted by the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program, a scientific partnership among universities and government agencies. The report also documented the presence of unusual, harmful algae that can contaminate shellfish, as well as nutrients...

URL: http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/09/09/research-suggests-climate-change-impacts-to-puget-sound/
Enclosure: http://summitvoice.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/sampling.jpg?w=300&h=220

Romney's climate change answer: All of the above

Foreign Policy: As has been covered extensively during the campaign, Mitt Romney believed humans caused climate change before he didn't believe it and before it became a punch-line in his speeches. In response to a question on the climate a science questionnaire from Nature this week, also filled out by Obama, Romney seems to be trying to have it both ways: I am not a scientist myself, but my best assessment of the data is that the world is getting warmer, that human activity contributes to that warming, and...

URL: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/07/romneys_climate_change_answer_all_of_the_above