A 300 MW wind power project in Lynn County, Texas has closed its financing. The project is managed by Lincoln Clean Energy, which is owned by I Squared Capital. Morgan Stanley will provide construction and term financing and long-term tax equity will come from BHE Renewables, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company. “The successful
The Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Sid Miller, has approved a new poison specifically intended for use against wild hogs known as Kaput Feral Hog Lure. The approval has resulted in the creation of a petition on Change.org calling for the approval to be rescinded. As some background here, the new poison includes warfarin — often used
A majority of Texas Republicans say they favor using clean energy to generate electricity, concludes a survey conducted by the Texas Clean Energy Coalition (TCEC). This new TCEC survey reveals 85% of Lone Star State voters, including a 78% factor from Republicans, favor the increase of clean energy as a way to generate electricity. In addition,
(Originally published on SolarLove.org) Secure, clean, and affordable energy is driving the U. S. economy toward a more prosperous future. Solar and wind power generation are making significant contributions to this rising prosperity. And in Texas, where everything is bigger, this is true in a very big way. Solar and wind projects on the ground
Over 50,000 Nissan LEAFs have now been sold in the US! That makes the LEAF the first electric vehicle to hit the impressive sales number in the country. The milestone was recently hit when a family in Dallas, Texas purchased a black LEAF SL at AutoNation Nissan of Lewisville. The achievement is of course no surprise,
US “clean gas” wells in operation (Irekia-Eusko Jaurlaritza in blogs.lse.ac.uk) Turns out that just about everyone (including President Obama) has been hugely underestimating the methane pollution levels of so-called “clean gas.” The booming American economy now seems to come at a greater cost than we originally thought when we found out that natural gas produces
When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce
If you’ve ever wondered about the composition of the electricity delivered to your home (most of us have no clue), there’s one quick and easy way to find out. The EPA’s ‘Power Profiler’ tool has apparently been around for at least 2 years, but I only discovered it recently. Although the data used to generate
We’re trying to get more solar energy stories going here on Planetsave. To catch readers up, I’m doing a short series on the top 50 solar energy stories of 2013 so far. Learning from the Top 33 EV Stories article I recently published, I’m splitting this one into 5 posts. Otherwise, the page would take forever to load.
One oil spill is too much. Three oil spills happened in the last short week, bringing horror to humans and wildlife alike. Dirty oil, at the root of this, has no moral compass. It is a style of bullying at the worst level. If the earth did not have the resources for renewable energy that its
Wind power is the cheapest option for new electricity in many, many places now. Partly due to that, more power capacity was added in the U.S. last year from wind than from any other power source. And the U.S. isn’t the only place it’s been growing — it saw 20% growth worldwide last year. This is all
Google, which has a history of investing plenty in large-scale renewable energy projects, just announced that it has invested $200 million in a Texan wind power project. The project is called the Spinning Spur Wind Project, which is a 161MW wind farm that was originally built by EDF Renewable Energy. It is powered by 70 2.3MW
Two hot “world’s largest marine reserve” stories have been swimming around the news over the last few months. A few days ago Australia announced it was going to create a massive network of marine reserves whose area would total 888,000 miles2. That’s nearly the combined area of Alaska and Texas… 931,000 miles2! However, back
The global solar power industry has experienced remarkable growth since the 2009 recession. The growth rate each year between 2007 to 2011 was around 70%. At the end of 2011, the total GW of solar panels installed worldwide was 62, divided between residential roofs, commercial buildings, and utility plants. With increasing pressure for the
OCI Solar Power and CPS Energy have just signed a deal to build the largest municipal utility solar project in the US. The project will be over 400 MW in size. In addition, it will create over 800 long-term jobs and “drive an estimated $700 million in economic impact each year.” “As part of its plan, OCI
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is one of the more well-known climate scientists in the U.S. these days. One reason is that she’s not your typical scientist; she’s an evangelical Christian and Republican. Another key reason for her relative fame is that she’s a climate scientist (an atmospheric scientist) in Texas (at Texas Tech University) and has gone
The fossil fuel industry, the think tanks it funds, and the politicians it supports have a strong influence on communication of climate change and even climate science in the U.S. This has result in many an edited statement and even report. Luckily, a recent battle in Texas has resulted in favor of science. “A
Can you spell irony? In all seriousness, though, my grandparents live in Texas and I feel for their distress and those of others around their state. You would think this would help to wake more of the state up to the threat of global warming and climate change… let’s hope so. “Texas, Alabama and
Believe it or not (and it would be hard not to believe it), extreme weather is increasing in the U.S., and around the world, due to global warming. And 2011 was a record year for extreme weather. Wet and dry extremes hit an all-time high, as you can see in the chart above. Unfortunately,
The month of November and the overall September to November autumn season were warmer than average across the contiguous United States according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center. Not only were they warmer, but precipitation totals across the country were also above average during November, though the totals
October provided below-normal, above-normal and normal temperatures across the United States, as detailed as part of the monthly analysis provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the last month, a persistent upper-level weather pattern created below average temperatures throughout the southeast of the United States and above-normal temperatures throughout the vast majority of
With the world’s population approaching 7 billion people, we are encountering a threat of a lack of clean drinking water. Now is the time to start conserving water and considering processes to alleviate the lack of clean drinking water.
Heavy monsoon rains over the course of August 2011 have caused widespread flood damage in Pakistan. The southern province of Sindh was hit especially hard. The horrendous flooding has effected close to 5 million people, destroyed millions of homes, killed at least 361 people and displaced 600,000 who are currently living in refugee camps because of the continually rising waters.
If you haven’t heard, Texas has been fighting massive wildfires this week. Yes, the state forced to pray for rain that denies climate science, for the most part (their state climate scientists don’t), is getting hit with tremendous natural disasters. We haven’t covered the Texas wildfires much (so little time, so much to cover), so thought I’d share this excellent coverage of the topic by Dr. Joe Romm of Climate Progress. Check it out (full repost below the top picture):
Here is irony befitting a Shakespearean tragedy. Gov. Rick Perry finally got what he called on all Texans to pray for — some rain – but it was almost entirely dumped elsewhere and the winds of Tropical Storm Lee merely served to stoke the most brutal wildfires anyone had ever seen.
Despite recent scientific speculation to the contrary, clouds do not cause climate change, says Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professor Andrew Dessler. Rather, they act almost singularly as a feedback mechanism.
Well, actually, I’ve got a few images I think Rick Perry should see, but this first one is the one that inspired me to write this post.
The sad thing is not that Texas Governor and potential presidential candidate Rick Perry is rallying his state to prayer for rain — prayer is all the state’s got at this point in the midst of this massive, harmful, record drought and heat wave. The sad thing is, Rick Perry and his GOP are doing nothing to prevent future heat waves and droughts like this or worse from doing even more harm. Climate science is clear and sound. It has been developed over centuries! However, fossil-fuel-funded Republicans like Perry are ignoring it and claiming it is a hoax to make a buck. I don’t think that’s very in-line with the teaching of Christ or any other religious leader. Since when was it moral to sacrifice the lives and basic necessities of billions so that you can make more money and have more power?
The percent of continental America currently experiencing exceptional drought has reached the highest levels ever recorded over the past 12 years.
Tar sand oil extraction — already a growing environmental issue in Canada — has now made it to America. Considered the most polluting of energy extraction industries, tar sand processing is becoming a more appealing option in this current “energy at all costs” zeitgeist — fueled by a major domestic energy push by the Obama administration. The primary focus of concern in the US is the proposed Keystone XL pipeline which is currently under review. Critics charge that the US State department is not doing enough to assess possible harmful environmental impacts of the 13 billion dollar pipeline.
Other than the 50+ stories we covered in the past week, here are 15 more green stories I thought were worth a share:
Since April 6, more than a million acres have burned throughout the state of the Texas, says the Texas Forest Service. This image, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows conditions on April 15, 2011. Wind whips both smoke and dust southeast across the state. The fires that MODIS detected are marked in red.
Taken using the Landsat-5 satellite on April 9, this image captures the difficulties being faced by firefighters in Mexico who are attempting to put out two large fires in northern Mexico’s Coahuila state.
The seven lowest maximum Arctic sea ice extent measurements have all taken place in the last seven years, and 2011 is no different, according to the most recent satellite measurements taken by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. “I’m not surprised by the new data because we’ve seen
Some of the top green living, activism, and clean energy stories from the past day or so: Activism Greenpeace Gives Facebook “Unfriend Coal” Deadline Greenpeace has been pushing Facebook to “unfriend coal” and go the route of clean energy for awhile. Facebook, for the most part, hasn’t listened. Greenpeace is now telling Facebook it should
Ranking U.S. stadiums according to “the depth and breadth” of their green initiatives, national home solar company SunRun recently came up with a top 10 list of the greenest stadiums. Cowboys Stadium, where the Super Bowl is about to be played, came in at number 5. From the planning stages, when the Dallas Cowboys intended
Other than what we’ve already covered, of course, here are a number of good environmental, wildlife, and green living stories form around the internet. GreenDeals aims to be a Groupon for green shoppers New website aims to offer US consumers discounts on green products and services… High-speed rail route to get 2m trees for shelter
What’s better for the environment and society than bicycling for transportation purposes? Going on a long-distance bike ride and performing helpful services for the communities you visit on the way might be. Rory Woods of sustainablog recently reported on a crew of “cycling superheroes” who have been doing this annually or biannually since 2000 and
The 2002 Texas floods created a 2.2 kilometre-long and 7 metre deep canyon, all within 3 days. [social_buttons]A week of heavy rains in Central Texas in the summer of 2002 caused Canyon Lake, the reservoir of the Canyon Dam, to flood over its spillway and down the Guadalupe River Valley in what was a planned
[social_buttons] More money was distributed today by the Department of Energy. 141 million dollars to be more precise. This time Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands and Texas will play beneficiaries of the Recovery Act. As a part of the Department’s State Energy Program, which has been apportioned $3.1 billion, states and territories
