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US DoE Announces $2Bn Federal Energy Loan Program

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman yesterday unveiled DOE program guidelines for a total of $2 billion in loan guarantees to help spur investment in projects that employ new energy technologies. Secretary Bodman made the announcement in Baltimore while joining Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich at a ribbon-cutting ceremony opening Maryland’s first State-owned E-85 fueling facility. “With these loan guarantees we hope to encourage creativity and ingenuity that will help us strengthen our nation’s energy security,” Secretary Bodman said. “Projects eligible to receive loan guarantees are vast and varied. We hope to spur investment in new renewable energy projects like solar and wind, as well as clean coal technologies and efforts that can convert cellulosic biomass into ethanol.” The solicitation, which will be issued soon, will govern the first round of loan guarantee applications, valued at a total of $2 billion. In addition over the next several weeks, DOE will propose draft regulations for public comment that will govern future solicitations. The Department views this first round solicitation as a learning opportunity that will assist in building expertise before permanent regulations are developed. Loan guarantees will enable the Department to share some of the financial risks of projects […]

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California Leads on Warming

Tony Blair, the British prime minister, who worries about global warming more than any other world leader, has finally found an important American ally: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. This week, the two agreed to collaborate on cleaner-burning technologies and to explore an emissions-reduction program that would combine mandatory controls on greenhouse gases with market incentives to reduce the costs of compliance. Mr. Blair said he was not end-running his good friend President Bush. The governor was less diplomatic, saying that the administration and Congress had shown no leadership on the issue. In any case, the White House was a conspicuous no-show. No surprise there: the meeting of politicians and corporate executives, convened to discuss climate change, served only to dramatize how badly Washington lags both Britain and California with its program of voluntary reductions and Hail Mary technologies. And California is about to get a lot tougher. Later this month, the Legislature will vote on two ground-breaking bills. One would set binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions with a goal of reducing them to 1990 levels by 2020 – an ambitious undertaking by any measure. The other is a strikingly original bill that would bar long-term contracts with any […]

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Bipartisan House Resolution Calls for U.S. to Negotiate Climate Commitments

On July 25, Rep. Carnahan (D-MO) and co-sponsor Rep. Leach (R-IA) introduced a concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 453) in the House expressing the Sense of Congress regarding the need for the United States to address global climate change through the negotiation of fair and effective international commitments. The resolution language mirrors that of the Lugar-Biden Sense of the Senate resolution (S. Res. 312), which was introduced in the Senate in November and reported out of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations July 25. Both resolutions call for U.S. participation in negotiations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to establish mitigation commitments for all countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The Carnahan-Leach resolution states that the United States should act to reduce the health, environmental, economic, and national security risks posed by global climate change, foster sustained economic growth through a new generation of technologies and to achieve a significant long-term reduction in global GHG emissions. The Carnahan-Leach resolution was referred to the Committee on International Relations. Click on the following link for the text of the resolution: Website: [sorry this link is no longer available]     

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Fueling Geothermal Energy

By Ken Silverstein, August 7, 2006 One answer to providing sustainable energy may be at our fingertips, or more precisely, about 10 feet underground. Just below the earth’s surface, the temperature ranges from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit — a form of energy that can be tapped using geothermal heat pumps. Such devices use less energy than conventional heating and air conditioning, which saves money and cuts the level of harmful emissions. Generating geothermal power via central facilities starts by trapping steam that is below the earth’s surface. That steam is then funneled through turbines to generate electricity. While such projects are characterized by high capital investment for exploration, drilling wells and plant installation, they have low operating costs once they are up and running because of the low marginal costs for the fuel source. “I am surprised at how inappropriate the large centralized energy system is that we have created during our economic planning, especially for a developed country,” says Peter Platell, an energy researcher in Sweden. Heat pumps can bring comfort to indoor climates by exchanging heat to and from the ground — a process that avoids the building of expensive investment in transmission lines, increasing national security […]

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Extreme Global Warming Fix Proposed

URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060804-global-warming.html Website: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060804-global-warming.html     

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