January 11, 2008

California is flexing its muscle. It is now suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for preventing it from strengthening its standards for tailpipe emissions in cars.

It's a classic case of whether federal laws should supersede those of the states when the two come into conflict. Typically, conservatives prefer to give localities greater say as they are the ones closer to the communities that will be regulated while liberals tend to like centralized power at the federal level. In this latest test, the opposite is occurring. So, California officials have vowed to challenge the Bush administration's ruling in the federal courts to forge ahead with its tougher air pollution rules.

January 9, 2008

The nuclear sector's prospects got a little brighter over the holidays. Congress passed legislation to provide loan guarantees to lenders of up to $18.5 billion to facilitate the development of next generation nuclear plants. But the thorny issue of where to store the spent fuel remains unresolved, leaving nuclear operators no option but to store that radioactive material on site.

With the world focused on lessening the level of greenhouse gas emissions, the subject of nuclear energy is gaining increasing attention. Both proponents and opponents of the $18.5 billion earmark reacted to the news, with the former saying it would go a long way toward ushering in a new era of electricity generation while the latter saying it diverts valuable resources away from cleaner and safer forms of energy.

New Energy Law to Phase Out Today's Common Incandescent Lamps, Probe-Start Metal Halide Ballasts

by Craig DiLouie, Lighting Controls Association
Posted January 2008

On December 19, President Bush signed H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, into law.

The legislation is the result of a year-long legislative process that resulted in several modifications before congressional passage in December, and a final product that would receive White House support.

January 7, 2008

For the second time in three years, Congress has passed a comprehensive energy measure that the president has signed into law. The overarching aim is to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. While the bill had bi-partisan support, it has still been criticized by both the right and left as harmful to the economy and giving short shrift to green fuel sources, respectively.

With the blessing of automakers, the new law will increase the minimum fuel-efficiency for passenger vehicles for the first time in 32 years from an average of 25-miles per gallon now to 35-miles per gallon in 2020. That, in turn, could help trim this country's use of foreign oil supplies by 1.1 million per barrels a day that equates to more than half of the oil exported by Kuwait and Venezuela.

January 4, 2008

A small central Illinois town got some big news: It has been chosen as the site to build a 21st Century power plant that advertises itself as virtually emissions free and able to sequester and bury carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming.

"FutureGen" -- as the project is known -- won't come cheap. It's a nearly $2 billion investment funded mostly by American taxpayers, and roughly double that of the early estimates. In the end, though, proponents say that it is an essential undertaking, noting that coal is used to produce the preponderance of this country's electric generation and that every effort must be made to make it cleaner. It's particularly true as the global community grapples with how to reduce heat trapping emissions.