October 21, 2010

Call it the case of Texas v. California. Or call it the case the Big Oil v Big Green. One or the other is going to win come election day, in California.

At this point, it looks like the greenies are going to stand their ground against the backers of a movement to toss out the state's trend-setting global warming law - one that requires that the state reduce its greenhouse gas emission to 1990 levels by 2020. The proposition, funded by two Texas-based oil refineries, aims to put that requirement on hold until California is able to gets its unemployment down to 5.5 percent for one year.

October 14, 2010

Nearly a year after the Copenhagen summit to reduce the global carbon footprint, advocates for change feel they have the momentum. Round two of the conference is to begin in Cancun, Mexico in November.

To prepare for the climate change meeting, the United Nations has gathered about 300 companies that are urging their respective governments to enact limits on greenhouse gas emissions as a way to encourage innovation and reduce environmental harm. The businesses that include multinational corporations are seeking aggressive actions - 50 percent reductions in carbon emissions by 2020.

September 23, 2010

Nuclear energy may be jumping through a lot of hoops but finding the uranium to fuel those reactors is not one of them. That's a key finding coming from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which says that today's generation technologies will have a critical role in displacing carbon-intensive generation.

One of the concerns associated with increased nuclear development is that it would drive up the global demand for uranium and thus increase its price. But the MIT Energy Initiative that authored the report goes on to say that supplies are adequate, adding uranium is a relatively small component of the actual electricity generation. Therefore, if prices did rise exponentially, the added costs could be easily absorbed.

August 20, 2010

Efforts to enact legislation that would limit carbon emissions have seemingly stalled. So it would appear that new standards to make the transmission wires more amenable to transporting green electrons are untimely. But those who are in charge of ensuring the dependency of the electric grid say that such measures are vital.

The essence of the argument presented by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. is that climate change initiatives are ongoing and that utilities are already incorporating those standards into their business plans. As such, if greenhouse gas emissions are to be cut, then it would require those power companies to diversify their generation portfolios and to offer more sustainable energy.

August 11, 2010

Carbon capture could become commercial within 10-15 years. And while it holds the potential to significantly cut heat-trapping emissions, it may be noticeably more expensive than current technologies and thereby cause consumers to pay more.

That's the primary findings of the Government Accountability Office, which concluded that current carbon capture and sequestration technologies would increase the cost of power by 30 percent to 80 percent, albeit it has greater potential to reduce carbon emissions than other ideas. The alternative to such progressive technologies is one that centers on improving efficiency gains, or reducing the amount of coal that is burned so as to limit emission levels.