Climate Progress: An insider's view of climate science, politics, and solutions

Valero and Tesoro have reportedly pledged as much as $2 million to help gather signatures for a ballot initiative to suspend the greenhouse-gas-cutting law until the jobless rate improves.

For those still operating under the delusion misimpression that the main opposition to climate action is not funded by the polluters:

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Researchers hope to harness energy from office windows

A project from the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology would use office windows as solar power generators by focusing the sun’s rays.

The “integrated concentrating dynamic solar facade” from CASE would capture light on building exteriors with grids of clear pyramids on windows.

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Glacier melting a key clue to tracking climate change

The world has become far too hot for the aptly named Exit Glacier in Alaska.

Like many low-altitude glaciers, it’s steadily melting, shrinking two miles over the past 200 years as it tries to strike a new balance with rising temperatures.

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Click here to watch the event live.

Today, March 4, the Apollo Alliance and Center for American Progress bring together policymakers, academics, business and labor leaders, and other experts to discuss what policies will support the United States in becoming not only a consumer of clean-energy technologies but also a leading producer of them.

Here’s the agenda — some must-hear talks today:

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There appears to be a lot more natural gas than previously thought.  And that could have huge implications for low-cost CO2 emissions reductions in the near term, if we pass a climate and clean energy bill with a shrinking emissions cap and rising price, as I discuss here.

But can the gas be developed in an environmentally responsible fashion?  That question is explored by Sarah Collins, an intern with the Energy Opportunity team, and Tom Kenworthy, a Senior Fellow at CAP, in this repost.  In the 2008 AP photo above, a natural gas well pad sits in front of the Roan Plateau near Rifle, Colorado.

Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking” or “fracing,” is a widely used but somewhat controversial oil and gas drilling technique that is opening up new energy possibilities in the United States. It’s also starting to draw a lot of high-level attention in Washington, and this scrutiny is appropriate and overdue.

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CleanTech, Clean Energy Jobs: The New Face Of Cleveland

Three demonstrations won attention and approval in Cleveland on a snowy Friday in February. The TEDxCLE conference at the renovated Capitol Theater brought together Northeast Ohio “creators, catalysts, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists” and other thinkers and doers.

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His comment is here.  For continuity’s sake, please respond in that post.

NOTE:  This is a busy week for me, which means not quite as much blogging and responding to comments/emails.

Large N.C. project begins generating power

FLS Energy unveiled a 555-kilowatt photovoltaic array atop a former landfill in western North Carolina today.

The so-called Evergreen Solar Farm, located in Haywood County, is the largest photovoltaic array in the area.

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A stink in Central California over converting cow manure to electricity

Central California is home to nearly 1.6 million dairy cows and their manure — up to 192 million pounds per day. It’s a mountain of waste and a potential environmental hazard.

But for dairyman John Fiscalini, the dung on his farm is renewable gold: He’s converting it into electricity.

At his farm outside Modesto, a torrent of water washes across the barn’s concrete floor several times a day, flushing tons of manure away from his herd of fuzzy-faced Holsteins and into nearby tanks. There, bacteria consume the waste and release methane, which is then burned in a generator capable of producing enough power to run Fiscalini’s 530-acre farm, his cheese factory and 200 additional homes.

Fiscalini’s resourcefulness should be drawing accolades, considering that state mandates are requiring California industries to boost renewable energy use and slash greenhouse gas emissions sharply over the next 10 years.

But efforts to convert cow pies into power have sparked controversy. State air quality control regulators say these “dairy digester” systems can generate pollution themselves and, unless the devices are overhauled, are refusing to issue permits for them.

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Goodbye, Hummer

The world might be saved: It looks as if the Hummer is destined for the junkyard. The plan by General Motors to sell the muscular brand to a Chinese company went up in a puff of exhaust smoke on Wednesday after government officials in China said that they had never received the necessary application for approval and thus couldn’t grant it.

We suspect the deal collapsed because the Chinese Communist Party — which rarely shows much shame — is worried about China’s image as the most polluting nation on the planet. If true, that is good news.

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Obama:  “Price on carbon pollution” key to “competitive America”

President Barack Obama reiterated his support for putting a price on carbon during an address to the Business Roundtable today.

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I have long been a fan of Van Jones (see “Van Jones and the English Language).  I was delighted when the President picked him to be green jobs adviser last March.

The agenda of the people who smeared him is a matter of public record — see Fox News blurts out its agenda: “Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through…. First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions,” and then put “the whole corrupt ‘green jobs’ concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream.”

So I’m delighted to report that, “Today the Center for American Progress announced that Van Jones is rejoining the center as a Senior Fellow and leader of the Green Opportunity Initiative, a new CAP project,” as a CAP press release explains.  Here’s the rest of the PR, followed by WashPost interview:

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Kerry insists US to move on climate

Senator John Kerry vowed the United States would overcome the odds and approve action on climate change, as the United Nations set talks for April to help break a diplomatic logjam.

Without offering a timetable, Kerry on Tuesday rejected assertions that it had become politically impossible for the Senate to finalize the first US nationwide plan to curb carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

“I’m excited. I know that’s completely contrary to any conventional wisdom,” said Kerry, a close ally of President Barack Obama and chief architect of the legislation.

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The NOAA chart FoxNews put up is discussed here.

In January I went on Neil Cavuto’s show because it was cold outside.  Today — barring a last-minute cancellation (which happened last week) — I’ll be going on again around 4:05 thanks to the Senator even the Washington Post mocked as “the last flat-earther.”

UPDATE:  Yes, Cavuto kept me on about twice as long as usual, but then proceeded to cut me off repeatedly, which I confess I wasn’t prepared for because he hadn’t done this before.  Next time I’ll have a different strategy.  I’ll let the comments from the Fox crowd run since it is important to get that perspective every once in a while — and it also helps you see what you’re missing on all those other blogs that have been taken over by the anti-science crowd!

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Loan Guarantee for a Big Solar Power Plant

The United States Energy Department on Monday offered a $1.37 billion loan guarantee to a company planning to build a large-scale solar power plant in the Southern California desert.

The loan guarantee, for BrightSource Energy of Oakland, Calif., is the largest given for a solar project. BrightSource’s 392-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is the first utility-scale solar power plant to undergo licensing in California in nearly two decades. It would use solar thermal technology, in which mirrors concentrate sunlight to heat a fluid and generate steam, and if built it would be the world’s largest such plant.

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U.S. Aims for Legally Binding Climate Change Agreement in 2010

The U.S. said it wants to reach a legally binding climate-change agreement at a summit in Mexico in December, a sign President Barack Obama hasn’t given up the fight for a global accord to limit greenhouse gases.

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German Industrial Giant partners with U.S. Concentrated Solar Startup

The German industrial giant Ferrostaal will use solar technology from the California startup eSolar in power plants to be built in Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.

The partnership, announced on Thursday, comes a month after eSolar, which is backed by Google and other investors, signed an agreement with a Chinese industrial company to build solar power plants that would generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

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This is a daily summary of stories on energy and climate.

ADB May Start $100 Million Clean-Energy Venture Capital Fund

The Asian Development Bank may raise at least $100 million more in venture capital to invest in developers of advanced clean-energy technologies in the region.

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