Clean
Energy to Fuel Business, Economic Growth, Says Study (GreenBiz.com
2/20/3)
Solar energy, renewable power, and fuel cells will expand from a $9.5
billion market today to $89 billion by 2012, according to a new report.
The report, by Clean Edge, an Oakland, Calif. research firm, also cited
five trends it believe will influence the growth and development of energy
markets in the coming years. The report also outlines clean-energy investment
trends and issues clean-energy revenue projections for 2002 - 2012. According
to Clean Edge research, solar photovoltaics (including modules, system
components, and installation) will grow from a $3.5 billion global industry
in 2002 to more than $27.5 billion by 2012. Wind power will expand from
$5.5 billion in 2002 to approximately $49 billion in 2012. And fuel cells
for mobile, stationary, and portable applications will grow from $500
million to $12.5 billion over the next decade. The report also finds that
corporate, public, and private-equity investments in clean energy are
faring relatively well in the current economic downturn. "A number
of factors including state-based renewable portfolio standards, increased
corporate activity, and continued venture capital investments are demonstrating
the strength of the clean-energy sector," says Ron Pernick, co-founder
of Clean Edge. Clean energy technologies – including solar PV, wind
power, biomass, and fuel cells – offer significant and tangible
economic, environmental, and social benefits, according to Clean Edge.
These technologies offer solutions to such pressing issues as energy dependence,
security issues, resource scarcity, and climate change while creating
economic opportunities for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and investors.
The free report may be downloaded at http://www.cleanedge.com. |
Uncertain
Days for Connecticut Clean Energy Fund
(SolarAccess.com 3/10/3)
Connecticut's Clean Energy Fund has joined the growing list of Renewable
Energy public benefits funds in danger of being raided to help alleviate
hemorrhaging state budget deficits. Gov. John Rowland's recent budget
proposal for 2004 - 2005 called for revenue transfers that could
entirely eliminate that state's Clean Energy Fund (CEF). Critics
contend this would deal a severe blow the state's Renewable Energy
industry, reversing progress toward a more sustainable, cleaner
environment. As with similar funds across the US, the CEF's main
purpose is to decrease Connecticut's reliance on fossil fuels and
to promote a cleaner environment. The fund grants monies to businesses
to develop cutting-edge clean energy sources such as solar, wind
and fuel cells. In addition to the cuts from the CEF, the proposal
also calls for the entire US$84 million per year expected to come
into the Energy Conservation and Load Management Fund (ECLM) to
be deposited into the state's general fund. The ECLM likewise generates
money through a surcharge on consumer and business utility bills
and reinvests the money through grants to individuals and businesses
aimed at helping them become more energy efficient. "It's a
short-sighted plan driven by desperation, but at the same time it
cripples the industry for years to come," said Joel Gordes,
a consultant with Environmental Energy Solutions, a company that
helps businesses and individuals cut energy costs through efficiency
improvements. "This is where the future is built. They call
Connecticut the fuel cell state but without that sort of an investment
toward the future, the revenues will be seriously affected." |
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Environmental
Lawsuits Could Cost Alaska Litigants
(Anchorage Daily News 3/4/03)
Environmental groups who unsuccessfully sue the state could be forced
to pay attorney fees under a measure proposed by Gov. Murkowski.
Two bills proposing changes in the state's public interest litigant
rules – HB 145 and SB 97 – were introduced in the Legislature
by request of the governor. They would change court rules that allow
public interest litigant groups to recoup attorney fees when they
successfully challenge the state in court. Such groups aren't liable
for attorney fees when they lose. But Murkowski proposes changing
court rules in cases that challenge some decisions made by the state
Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Dept. of Natural Resources
and Dept. of Fish and Game. If the changes are approved by the Legislature,
such groups would be liable for a percentage of attorney fees accrued
by the state should they lose their case. |
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California
Auto Standards Bill Gets a Green Light in New Jersey
(Trenton Times 3/4/03)
A bill requiring New Jersey cars to meet California emissions standards
proceeded out of an Assembly committee, and is also headed out of
the Environment Committee of the Senate, where is has been stalled
for months. The bill would require automakers to sell many more
technologically advanced low emission vehicles than federal laws
currently require. This would result in a reduction of 2.7 - 10.8
tons of emissions of volatile organic compounds per day by 2025.
New York and Massachusetts have also adopted California auto standards
despite auto industry protests. |
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New
Jersey Adjusts Anti-Sprawl Map, Strategy
(The Philadelphia Inquirer 3/3/3)
Weeks after talking tough about stopping sprawl, the McGreevey administration
is fine-tuning its plan. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection
(DEP) issued a report that shows more room for development than
January's version. The administration defends its stance, presenting
a series of bills that would give towns the power to fight sprawl,
rather than one big bill that could be defeated en route. While
this is the most dramatic of McGreevey's proposals, many supporters
of anti-sprawl legislation doubt this type of bill could pass, based
on past trends. In the mid-1990s, for example, bills were proposed
that would make developers pay for municipal services. But even
with the vocal support of Governor, these bills died; powerful construction
lobbies were to blame. Still, McGreevey's press secretary
expects to see legislative movement on sprawl, pointing to public
support of the governor's goals to curb sprawl. |
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Nevada
Lawsuit Pits Risks and Roads
(USA Today 3/3/3)
With the six-lane U.S. 95, the most congested road in the nation's
fastest growing urban area, over-capacity, Nevada policymakers support
a plan to widen the highway to 10 lanes. Opposing the project are
citizens and health experts worried about pollution from the more
than 300,000 vehicles a day that travel on 95. They cite studies
linking higher levels of foul air along busy urban highways to heightened
cancer risks among people who live and work nearby. Urban highway
"hot spots" such as 95 are battlegrounds in many cities,
but here the issue has come to a head. The Sierra Club sued in January
to stop the project. It says the federal government failed to consider
health consequences and alternatives to highway construction as
required by law. Highway projects have been challenged before on
environmental and health grounds, but this is the first such lawsuit
based on scientific research into traffic-generated pollution. At
the lawsuit's core is whether high concentrations of auto emissions
such as benzene and butadiene, which are known carcinogens, raise
health risks. A Denver study in 2000 found that children living
within 250 yards of highways used daily by more than 20,000 vehicles
were eight times more likely to get leukemia. A study the same year
in Los Angeles showed that vehicles accounted for 90 percent of
the cancer risk from air pollution, and that the highest risk was
in congested, heavily populated urban zones. A study in suburban
Buffalo last year found that children living in neighborhoods close
to heavy truck traffic had increased asthma risks. The judge could
stop work on the project and order the highway agency to reassess
health risks. He could order it to consider alternatives to widening,
such as mass transit, as required under the National Environmental
Policy Act. |
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Massachusetts
May Create a National Forest
(Boston Globe, 3/3/3)
The Romney administration is considering plans to create a national
forest over much of northwestern Massachusetts, a move that would
open up privately held woods to the public for recreation and bring
in federal money to help protect and manage the rolling Berkshire
Hills landscape. The proposal, which is still in its earliest planning
stages, would give the state its first national forest. A national
forest generally involves fewer restrictions on land use than a
national park, leaving room for possibilities such as selective
timbering and an array of privately financed recreational activities
alongside broad preservation of the woods. The US Forest Service
annually can give out as much as $800 million from the Land and
Water Conservation Fund for the creation and upkeep of forests.
Established in the 1960s, the fund diverts money collected from
fees ranging from offshore leases to ski area royalties, and funnels
them back into the forest expansion and care. However, town officials
fear that they would lose money on the deal since federal land is
not subject to local taxes. Instead, the federal government makes
a payment of $2.20 an acre in lieu of taxes, a fraction of the return
on property taxes in the Berkshires. |
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California
Report Widens Blame in Energy Plot
(LA Times 3/3/3)
New evidence submitted by California officials to federal regulators
last week show that more than a dozen public utilities and energy
generators, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,
Sempra Energy, Mirant Corp. and Duke Energy Corp., participated
in schemes to push up prices during the California energy crisis.
The details are part of a sealed, 1,000-page filing that is intended
to show that the exploitation of California's deregulated energy
market in 2000 and 2001 was far more pervasive than has been proved
to date and involved more participants than the few that have previously
been named. The filing was submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) by a coalition of state government agencies and
the state's two largest electric utilities, Southern California
Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric. The coalition wants federal
regulators to order $9 billion in refunds for overcharges during
the energy crisis. "The massive cover-up by generators is
unraveling," Gov. Gray Davis said in a statement. "This
evidence should force FERC to recognize, at long last, just how
egregiously and extensively California was plundered, defrauded
and ripped off by the energy pirates," said Atty. Gen. Bill
Lockyer, whose office coordinated the investigation. "FERC
can no longer avoid providing California the long-overdue justice
it deserves." The accused utilities have denied the charges. |
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Drought
in West May Last Decades (Arizona
Daily Star 3/3/3)
The drought gripping the western U.S. might not end for decades,
a University of Arizona researcher says. Data from tree rings and
Pacific and Atlantic ocean temperatures indicate that the Great
Plains, the Rockies and the Southwest may be in the midst of one
of several episodic droughts that have occurred for at least 750
years. "Climate does not behave cyclically at one site, or
a network of sites, but there is a tendency to have prolonged wet
periods and prolonged dry periods," said Julio Betancourt,
a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and UA professor. The 1950s experienced
a "megadrought," or a drought that lasts for several
years to several decades over a large part of the continent. The
'50s drought lasted about two decades. "There shouldn't be
any reasons for optimism, and there should be a few reasons for
pessimism," Betancourt said. The researchers said that it
would be wise for water resource managers to plan for this magnitude
of drought. "We should always be thinking and planning for
drought. Anytime we're making decisions in terms of development,
we should make those decisions in light of the possibility of these
severe droughts in western areas," doctoral student Steve
Gray at the University of Wyoming said. For more on how your state
can combat drought, see http://www.serconline.org/waterconservation/pkg_frameset.html. |
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West
Virginia Air Quality Inspections Are Down 30 Percent
(Dominion Post 3/3/3)
West Virginia inspections to detect air pollution at industrial
facilities have dropped off by a third since 2000, according to
an audit report. The state Department of Environmental Protection
conducted nearly 900 air quality inspections three years ago. But
last year, only 627 inspections were conducted, according to the
report. Acting DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer said one explanation
for the decrease is a change in federal policy that encourages more
detailed inspections. But despite a number of possible causes, Timmermeyer
and her staff said they could not provide a conclusive explanation
for the change in numbers. |
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Government
Finds 10 Times Greater Cancer Risk for Children
(ENN 3/4/3)
Babies and toddlers have a 10 times greater cancer risk than adults
when exposed to certain gene-damaging chemicals, the government
said Monday, in proposing tougher environmental guidelines that
would take into account the greater hazards to the very young. If
its guidelines are made final, the Environmental Protection Agency
would for the first time require that the substantially greater
risk to children be weighed in the development of regulations covering
a variety of pollutants. While scientists have long known that very
young children are more vulnerable than adults to gene-harming chemicals,
this is the first time the EPA has formally proposed calculating
the difference in assessing the danger from some pesticides and
other chemicals. The guidance on cancer and children, which must
still be reviewed by EPA's panel of science advisers and has to
be subjected to a lengthy process before becoming final, is part
of a broader reassessment of how the EPA evaluates cancer risk. |
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Michigan
Study Finds Greater Need for "Fix It First"
(Great Lakes Bulletin News 2/20/3)
Despite the billions of dollars that the Michigan Department of
Transportation has spent to repair its ragged road system, the state's
highways have scarcely improved since the current rebuilding program
began in 1997, according to an analysis of state records by the
Michigan Land Use Institute. As a result, Michigan's road
conditions continue to rank among the worst in the nation. The Institute's
study, based on MDOT's internal road repair data, found that
the state allowed some roads to decay prematurely while it poured
money into patching old ones that instead needed complete reconstruction.
The investigation also found that this maintenance approach actually
drove up costs and that the transportation department spent a much
smaller percentage of its budget on repairs than it claimed. For
more information on "fix it first" legislation, see
http://www.serconline.org/trafficcongestionrelief/index.html. |
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