Tired of reading all those enraged and enraging blogs about AIG? No? Still got some more anger to work out? Well, do your heart a favor and relax for a few before delving back into the stress mines for another shift of using the execs at AIG as a keyboard punching bag.
What I've got here is a handy-dandy UPDATE on all things renewable energy. A controversial wind farm takes a big step toward approval, a couple red states are actively looking to get in on the wind power action, solar and biomass plans are drawn all over the map, and even the Saudi Arabian oil minister stops by to say not to forget lil' ole' them in your mad dash to energy independence. They've got a lot more oil under that sand of theirs, and boy howdy do they wanna sell it to ya!
So join me for a review of the latest goings-on and wheely-dealings with renewable energy. Your blood pressure will thank you.
Wind Power
Plan for Huge Wind Farm Moves Forward
BOSTON (Reuters) - A $1 billion proposal to build the first massive U.S. offshore wind-power farm has moved a step closer to overcoming permit requirements in Massachusetts, where it faces opposition from some influential residents.
Cape Wind Associates LLC, a privately funded Boston-based energy company, has proposed constructing 130 wind turbines over 24 square miles (62 sq km) in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts.
The project, designed to power about 400,000 homes, won tentative approval by Massachusetts authorities for a certificate that combines nine state and local permits needed to build the turbines.
Cape Wind said in a statement on Friday that Thursday's ruling by the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board represented a "major victory.
As a former Boston resident, I'm well aware of the strong feelings this project has stirred up. Among its detractors are the Kennedy family, notably Ted and Robert Jr. Their arguments are that the turbines would threaten migratory birds, hurt tourism, and disrupt shipping lanes.
Proponents point to the urgent need for renewable energy, and to favorable reviews by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As for the tourism argument - I'm just gonna say that I've always thought it was a crock. "Honey, let's not go to Martha's Vineyard this year. They've put up wind turbines!"
The project received a favorable final environmental review from a key federal agency, the Minerals Management Service, which is part of the Interior Department, in the waning days of the Bush administration. And, of course
The Obama administration will decide whether to grant final government approval.
The expectation is that President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar will support the project. Which brings us to our next items.
INSIDE WASHINGTON: Rivalry Stymies Wind-power Goal
While the Obama administration has touted offshore renewable energy development, a turf fight between two federal agencies has stymied the government's ability to issue rules needed to approve wind energy projects off America's coasts.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the infighting has got to stop.
"It will be resolved," Salazar said in response to questions about the dispute. "We will not let any of the jurisdictional turf battles of the past get in the way of our moving forward with the renewable energy agenda."
The dispute, which dates to late 2007, pits the Interior Department against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over which entity should approve projects that use coastal waves and currents to produce power.
Offshore wind development has been entangled in the dispute because Interior's Minerals Management Service does not want to separate wind projects from the tidal wave, or hydrokinetic power, programs - which FERC in turn has refused to surrender, according to several officials who have followed the dispute.
Interior and FERC are said to be close to agreement on a "memorandum of understanding" that would delineate each organization's involvement in the offshore renewable energy approval process.
Salazar has been vocal in his call for more aggressive development of renewable energy projects off the country's coasts, especially off the northern and central Atlantic. He said the governors of New Jersey and Delaware have asked what is holding up the regulations and said projects off their coasts are ready to go.
Jon Wellinghoff, acting chairman of FERC, played down the interagency dispute and - like - Salazar said he was confident the problem will soon be worked out.
That was the story Monday. Tuesday?
Interior, FERC end feud on offshore renewable projects
The Interior Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to work together to settle a longstanding conflict over which agency oversees offshore alternative energy, the Interior Department announced today.
"I'm proud to let you know this morning that late last night we signed a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Interior and FERC that will allow us to move forward with the siting of renewable energy facilities in the outer continental shelf," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Noting that there is no dispute with respect to offshore wind energy, Salazar added that the intention of FERC and Interior's Minerals Management Service is to work together to finalize rules governing all offshore alternative energies, including current and tidal.
Wow, that was quick. And given the language of the articles, and President Obama's campaign rhetoric, it would certainly seem like wind projects are going to get the fast track.
Oklahoma officials seek to woo wind power industry
Oklahoma officials are in Marseilles, France, trying to interest wind power companies to bring "green collar" jobs to the state.
They are attending the 2009 European Wind Energy Conference, which began Monday and runs through Thursday.
Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism Natalie Shirley says officials are positioning the state to become a hub of wind activity, focusing production of wind generating equipment and research.
Commerce expects the state's emerging wind industry to create 7,000 jobs over the next five years and up to 18,000 jobs within 10 years. That translates to $1.48 billion in total personal income to be created from the wind industry cluster alone.
Le France? Mai, non!
Green Energy: Nebraska expecting explosion of wind development
Despite Nebraska's strategic location at the center of a High Plains wind corridor that some say is to wind what Saudi Arabia is to oil, Nebraska has only a scattering of wind turbines. And Katana Summit's plant is Nebraska's only operating wind manufacturer. A startup hopes to open a plant in Blair.
By contrast, neighboring Iowa ranks No. 2 nationally in wind energy production and has become a hub for U.S. wind component manufacturing.
Iowa got ahead because its policymakers worked for more than two decades to nurture the fledgling industry with incentives, regulatory changes and other support. That spadework left the state well-positioned when wind took off nationally.
At the same time, comparatively little was happening in Nebraska. Wind development was hindered by the cheap power already provided by the state's publicly owned utilities. Those utilities often resisted prodding that they do more with wind.
But Nebraska's public utility companies and policymakers are now reading the winds of change.
An explosion of wind development is expected over the next two decades, driven by a perfect storm of economic necessity, concern about global climate change and the desire to break from dependence on foreign oil.
The push could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the wind energy industry alone, and experts say there is still time for Nebraska to join in the boom.
"Nebraska historically has been a conservative state, and I think we took a conservative approach to wind," said Dave Rich, manager of renewable energy programs for the Nebraska Public Power District. "We're behind, but we think there are still opportunities for Nebraska."
Good to see the "winds of change" (sorry, couldn't help myself) blowing across the plains states. Northward, in Michigan, folks are looking to wind energy production to help ease the economic impact of an auto industry that continues hemorrhaging jobs.
Wind is at the back of West Michigan's fledgling renewable energy industry
GRAND RAPIDS -- Solar power is hot. Wind turbines are terrific. But will renewable energy power up jobs as fast as Michigan's auto industry is switching them off?
"I don't think it's a complete solution, a silver bullet," Grand Rapids lawyer Scott Watson said of the region's growing energy industry.
"But it's one component of silver buckshot."
As alternative energy gathers momentum, area manufacturers are dipping their toes into a widening pool of opportunity.What they're hoping to find is an incoming tide of customers and a boatload of tax breaks from state and federal coffers.
In the past six months, big wins blew in for Michigan manufacturers contemplating the energy industry: The state set a goal to tap 10 percent of its energy needs from alternate fuels by 2015.
Then last month, renewable energy projects got a boost in the federal stimulus package
Most West Michigan manufacturers still are mulling the impact of those programs. But they're feeling optimistic.
"I think it certainly will help create a market for wind power, in particular, but also for renewables across the board," Watson said of the state and federal incentives.
"When you have a market for installing this, you have a market for manufacturing components."
Also of particular note:
The state's car-making muscle will in fact be a leg up for these startups.
"Turbines are not terribly different from the supply chain associated with the auto industry," Chapla said. "It is a very big opportunity."
Also in Michigan:
Michigan Entrepreneurs Have Big Plans For Wind Power
Two Michigan entrepreneurs say they plan to begin putting thousands of people to work in the wind energy industry this summer.
Global Wind Systems Inc. says it will employ 300 at its Novi assembly operations by this fall, building the central hubs of huge 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. CEO Chris Long likens the hubs to "70-ton school buses" in shape and size.
Meanwhile, Gilbert Borman and his Borman Holdings LLC hope to act as a supplier of gears to Global Wind Systems.
The dirty little secret of today’s rapidly growing American wind power industry is that virtually all of its hardware is imported from Europe, which has been pursuing wind power for 30 years now. Long and Borman aim to change that, with the enthusiastic support of state officials like Stanley "Skip" Pruss, director and chief energy officer of the state Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.
Long said Michigan’s long legacy manufacturing expertise gives it substantial advantages in wind turbine manufacturing, and global demand is astounding.
In which case, this makes sense:
Wind energy partnership follows region's economic strategy
In Boulder, Colorado, they're arguing over height restrictions for wind turbines limiting them to the county's height limit for all structures.
Boulder County to discuss new wind-turbine regulations
Wind turbines currently are allowed if they don't violate the county's height limit, which is typically 30 feet in residential areas. But wind turbines are most effective where the wind is smooth and constant, far above the turbulent gusts around trees, buildings and ridges.
Generally, that means placing a turbine about 30 feet above the surrounding trees and houses. So, while wind turbines are allowed in the county, they can't be built tall enough to take advantage of the best wind.
"It's like saying you can put basketball poles on your property, but they can only be 3 feet tall," Kreutzman said. "Or that you can have a car in Boulder County, but you can't have four tires."
Also in Colorado some green jobs news:
Hundreds seek work at new Colo. wind power plant
A new wind turbine plant coming to Pueblo has drawn overwhelming interest among jobseekers, a surge attributed to the poor economy and layoffs in Colorado's gas and oil industry.
Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems held a job fair Saturday for some 400 manufacturing jobs coming to what the company says will be the world's biggest turbine-tower factory. Hundreds of interested workers were turned away after about 1,000 people showed up.
At least it isn't just one janitorial job!
Texas, currently producing the most wind energy in the country, is looking to keep its' mojo going and give its' economy a boost:
Building wind power lines could create thousands of jobs
The Public Utility Commission's $5 billion project to build transmission lines to bring West Texas wind power to North Texas and Houston could create thousands of jobs.
Oncor alone expects to hire "a couple thousand" contract workers to erect the lines it's responsible for, chief executive Bob Shapard said Monday. The North Texas utility, a unit of Energy Future Holdings, will do $1.34 billion of the entire project.
The project offers a hopeful vision of the way a government job stimulus plan could work. The massive build-out, to be funded ultimately by a fee on ratepayers, would create jobs not just at the utility itself, but also for building contractors, steel fabricators and steel mills.
Oncor hired Falcon Steel, based in Fort Worth, to build 3,800 steel towers for about $100 million. To do the work, Falcon president David Smith said he must hire up to 40 more people.
"We were able to keep this project right where it belongs, in Texas," Smith said at a news conference Monday.
Once completed in mid-2009, Texas' Roscoe Wind Farm, seen in the pic below, will be one of the largest in the world.
In our final wind power tidbit, it's always good to see headlines like this:
Study finds wind power economically, environmentally advantageous when coupled with grid improvements
Novi, MI, March 17, 2009 -- Wind-generated electricity from the upper Midwest will become cost-competitive with power generated from more conventional fuel sources like coal, while providing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions when connected to the nation's electricity grid via new extra-high voltage transmission lines, a new study by The Brattle Group has concluded.
The study, "Transmission Super Highway: Benefits of Extra High Voltage Transmission Overlays," provides evidence that renewable resources offer an important and economically-feasible means to respond to escalating energy demands in a carbon-regulated environment with domestic energy sources. The study was commissioned by ITC Holdings Corp.
In Solar News
BP Solar to Build Solar Power Projects for Long Island Power Authority
BP Solar has announced that it has been selected to enter into negotiations with the Long Island Power Authority to provide nearly 37MW of photovoltaic solar power on the grounds of the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.
BP Solar's proposal includes two large-scale commercial solar photovoltaic projects at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) site located in Upton, New York. Each project would be sized at just over 18MW.
Let's hope this is a sign of things to come for a company that has "Beyond Petroleum" as its' slogan, and just over a year ago announced it was going to sell its renewable energy assets to "concentrate on increasing oil production and improving results within its refining and marketing division."
In New Mexico, a huge step is being taken to make solar panel installation more affordable.
Solar energy financing proposal clears NM House
Residential and commercial property owners will have a new option for financing solar power systems under a proposal approved by the New Mexico House.
Under the bill, a homeowner or commercial property owner could use a special property tax assessment to repay a private loan for making a solar energy improvement, such as installing a photovoltaic system that generates electricity or a solar thermal system for heating water.
"This will remove the greatest hurdle to the expansion of solar in New Mexico," said Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who sponsored the bill.
For a comprehensive list of solar financial incentive programs across our many states, check out this page on the DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency). Or check out their homepage which is chock FULL of useful info on your state.
In Nevada, at the Coyote Springs megadevelopment attempting to turn desert land north of Las Vegas into a new town, a deal has been reached for 600mW of solar-thermal power to be provided to the development and other parts of Nevada, as well as California.
Nevada developer Whittemore, solar-thermal firm reach agreement on power deal
Nevada developer Harvey Whittemore and BrightSource Energy Inc. have reached an agreement on a solar-thermal project that could provide up to 600 megawatts of power for Whittemore's Coyote Springs development and other markets in Nevada and California.
The project would be built on a six-square-mile site in Lincoln County near existing power transmission lines, and should be on line by 2012. Financial terms of the deal between Whittemore and Brightsource, based in Oakland, Calif., weren't disclosed.
Whittemore and BrightSource representatives said the project already has received environmental permits from various federal, state and county agencies.
BrightSource plans to set up a mirror field that will reflect sunlight onto a boiler to produce high-temperature steam. The steam runs into a turbine which generates electricity.
Coyote Springs, located on 43,000 acres of desert land about 50 miles north of Las Vegas along U.S. 93, eventually could have more than 150,000 homes plus a business district. A golf course opened last year.
Tidal Power
Harnessing the Tides: Marine Power Update 2009
One hundred and forty-one years ago, the relentless sea off Scotland's coast inspired the following observation from native son and author George MacDonald.
"I climbed the heights above the village, and looked abroad over the Atlantic. What a waste of aimless tossing to and fro! Gray mist above, full of falling rain; gray, wrathful waters underneath, foaming and bursting as billow broke upon billow...they burst on the rocks at the end of it, and rushed in shattered spouts and clouds of spray far into the air over their heads. "Will the time ever come," I thought, when man shall be able to store up even this force for his own ends? Who can tell?"
If one defines "commercial ocean energy" as several tens of megawatts, the world cannot yet boast a commercial ocean energy installation. Indeed, only two installations of either wave, tidal or in-stream current devices are grid-connected and can generate over 1 megawatt (MW) of power....
...The rest of the world's wave, tidal and current installations, some of which have been in the water as far back as the 1990s, are experimental and prototype units ranging in size from 35 kilowatts (kW) to 400 kW. Because these units operate only intermittently and are not typically connected to any grid, it is not possible to determine their total power generation.
Many of these units are prototype demonstration units for the much bigger installations that are under development and that will begin to realize significant exploitation of the world's ocean energy resource.
It appears the Navy's gonna give it a lil' try, due to a Congressional mandate for Department of Defense agencies to get 25% of their power from renewable sources by 2025:
Navy to test tidal power off Marrowstone Island
BREMERTON — The Navy will drop turbines in the water off Marrowstone Island next year to test how the tides could generate electricity.
Engineers at Naval Base Kitsap are working with turbine and marine architects on the study.
Navy spokeswoman Sheila Murray says turbines with 8-foot blades would be placed in water about 50 feet deep. They should generate enough electricity to light a parking lot or small building at the Navy's ammunition depot on Indian Island.
After a year-long test, the turbines will be removed in 2011.
Biomass
Incredibly, we have this story from Georgia:
Plant Mitchell a step closer to converting to biomass
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Georgia Power took another step Tuesday toward changing Plant Mitchell from a coal-fired power plant to one that uses renewable biomass wood.
The Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday for the changeover. That switch will create as many as 75 jobs and provide a way to use a resource that's currently dumped in landfills. It's not the final hurdle for the company. That will come next year from the Environmental Protection Division.
As a former Georgia resident, it's nice to see Georgia Power really moving forward on renewable energy. They've got a total of five biomass plants in the state.
Meanwhile, some of our friends down in Arkansas are hoping to turn underutilized land into bioenergy production real estate.
Cellulosic energy research
Because Arkansas is "prime real estate" for bioenergy crops, the recent announcement of a joint U.S. Department of Energy/University of Arkansas research effort is most welcome, says Chuck West.
"I see biomass crops directed to land areas that don’t reliably produce profitable food crops," says the professor with the University of Arkansas Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences. "There’s a lot of land like that all over the state — for example, the foothills along the Arkansas River Valley. And some of the underutilized pastureland throughout the state is suitable for biomass crops."
While several Arkansas companies are producing biodiesel using soy oil and other vegetable oils and animal fats as feedstock, the big prize would be to make cellulosic biofuel an economically viable alternative. When treated with acids or enzymes, sugars bound in the cellulose of stems and leaves are released. Those sugars can then be fermented to make fuel. While current processing costs are too expensive, cellulosic feedstocks are plentiful and cheap in the Mid-South.
Wood Energy Needs More Attention - Report
Increased use of sustainable wood energy could yield long-term economic, social and environmental benefits in many regions of the United States, according to newly published analysis by a Duke University-led team of experts.
"Wood energy is one of America’s most important renewable fuels. Our forests could sustainably produce at least 368 million dry tons of wood for energy annually, yet it’s really not on the national radar screen when we talk about renewable energy sources," said Daniel D. Richter, lead author of the study and professor of soils and forest ecology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. "It’s time to reconsider this."
An article detailing the benefits of increased U.S. investment in sustainable wood energy, written by Richter and a multi-institutional team of ecologists, engineers, forest conservationists and energy specialists, appears in the Policy Forum section of the March 13 issue of the journal Science.
Wood used to power the plants can come from many sources, notes Kasimir Nemestothy of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. These include beneficial thinnings of local forests; the removal of diseased or dead trees from city property; or the harvesting of excess fuelwood from forests in areas where communities are threatened by wildfires. Wood from construction sites and low-value solid wood products from local mills can also be used. Careful monitoring is needed to assure that these practices enhance rather than deplete the forest ecosystems.
Nuclear Power
I will avoid the arguments here about the pros and cons of nuclear power, and instead say that given the President's statements about nuclear power's future it is obviously imperative, whatever your position, to be aware of the goings-on.
Economic woes delay U.S. nuclear power expansion
The sputtering global economy and frozen credit markets have shrunk the first wave of a highly touted U.S. nuclear power renaissance.
Nuclear industry advocates had predicted more than a dozen new reactors worth $100 billion or more generating at least 15,000 megawatts of power in the United States by 2020.
Then the economic slump hit. Now, Cambridge Energy Research Associates expect four to eight new reactors providing 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW by 2020. The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry advocate, said four units will be in service by 2016 and as many as eight by 2018.
Low-level waste emerges as hurdle for new nuclear reactors
While President Obama's plan to find alternatives to storing high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev., is grabbing headlines, another problem has begun threatening license applications for new reactors.
What can be done with low-level nuclear waste?
There are dwindling places to put low-level nuclear waste -- contaminated resins, filters, wood, paper, plastics, pipes, structural steel and pressure vessels that can be hazardous for up to 500 years. And nuclear-power opponent groups are filing and winning legal fights to force utilities to present disposal plans for low-level waste before they can build a new reactor.
"I'm going to argue low-level waste is a bigger issue than high-level waste right now," Edward Sproat, then-director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, warned at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event last fall.
Other Items of Note
President Obama repeatedly called for development of carbon sequestration for coal power, dubbed by proponents as "clean coal," while still a candidate. He has now put his money where his mouth is, as the stimulus package allocates $3.4 billion to this effort.
Stimulus Money Puts Clean Coal Projects on a Faster Track
DWARDSPORT, Ind. — Near the middle of a dusty construction site here stands a patch of land, about the size of two football fields, notable because it is empty.
Duke Energy has high hopes for this two-acre plot: If all goes right, and there is a happy convergence of technology, money and federal energy policy, the construction project could become the first environment-friendly coal-fired power plant in the nation.
The company is studying a method for capturing the carbon dioxide produced by using coal and storing the gas underground, preventing it from entering the atmosphere. Machines to separate carbon dioxide from other elements in the coal may someday stand on the empty land.
For years, scientists have been experimenting with ways to "clean" coal, a carbon-heavy fuel that countries around the world increasingly rely on. But the technology for carbon capture and storage has been tried only on a small scale. Governments have not required companies to do what Duke is proposing here, in part because costs were so uncertain.
The allocation of $3.4 billion in the federal stimulus bill for carbon capture and sequestration, as carbon storage is often called, however, has allowed Duke Energy and other companies to consider mounting full-scale projects.
Of course, "environmentally friendly" is up for debate. Duke says it will be capturing 18% of its' carbon emissions in four to five years, and an additional 40% "a few years after that."
But not so fast:
Why Clean Coal Is Years Away
America runs on coal. It's cheap, plentiful (at least for another 100 years or so), and comfortingly domestic. Two hundred years ago, it powered the industrial revolution. Today, it spits out nearly half of the country's electricity.
Coal's problems, however, are getting to be so big and serious that they are not just overshadowing the industry but threatening to render it obsolete. About 80 percent of the electricity sector's carbon dioxide emissions come from burning coal. A price on CO2 pollution, which Congress might impose as early as this year, is expected to be so costly that the mere prospect of it is already shaking things up. Some states have banned new coal plants, and many companies are canceling their plans in other places.
The industry's greatest hope for survival, as far as CO2 emissions go, is a work-in-progress technological arsenal known as carbon capture and storage, or CCS. With all the makings—and risk—of a classic American gamble, it is in some ways the energy equivalent of missile defense. It's ambitious, expensive, intricate, and wildly controversial.
Cleaner Coal Is Attracting Some Doubts
"The phrases ‘capture ready’ and ‘capture capable’ are somewhat controversial," said Revis James, the director of the energy technology assessment center at the Electric Power Research Institute. "It’s not like you just leave a footprint for some new equipment."
Many experts outside the industry share his concerns.
A major new study by faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, scheduled for release soon, concludes in a draft version that it is not clear which technology — the so-called integrated gasification combined cycle or pulverized coal — will allow for the easiest carbon capture, because so much engineering work remains to be done.
"Other than recommending that new coal combustion units should be built with the highest efficiency that is economically justifiable, we do not believe that a clear preference for one technology or the other can be justified," the draft concludes. The M.I.T. study said it was critical that the government "not fall into the trap of picking a technology ‘winner.’ "
The study leader, Ernest J. Moniz, a former assistant secretary of energy in the Clinton administration, was more blunt. "Clearly in a lot of discussions, I.G.C.C. has been anointed as the solution," he said referring to integrated gasification combined cycle. He made his comments at a symposium organized by the Aspen Institute in Washington last fall. "We certainly don’t agree with that."
Saudi Arabia cautions us to not get ahead of ourselves in another manner: by switching too quickly to fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia Warns on Rapid Shift to Renewable Energy
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, cautioned against falling investment in fossil fuels and a "premature shift" to renewable energy, which may leave the world short of fuels when the economy recovers.
All energy sources have a role in meeting the energy demand though the fossil fuels of oil, natural gas and coal will remain the world’s energy "work horse" for many decades to come, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in a speech at the Energy Pact Conference in Geneva today.
"The days of easy oil may be over, the days of oil as a primary source for the people of the world are far from over," he said.
Switching too early to "slowly evolving" alternative fuels risks lowering levels of investment in fossil fuels and increasing market speculation on oil prices, he said. "The consequences can be deeply counter-productive to global energy security."
I'm sure their motives are purely driven from heart-felt concern.
The Maldives, a country that certainly has reason to be concerned about climate change, is telling the world that it does not want to drown, and is setting an example:
The Maldives plans to go carbon neutral
The President of the Maldives has announced that his country plans to be the first in the world to go carbon neutral.
The Maldives is aiming to meet all its energy needs through renewable sources such as solar and wind power within a decade.
It is a strong statement of intent from a country which could be wiped out by sea level rise unless the world takes urgent action to tackle climate change.
And finally, if the cries of help from the Maldives don't quite motivate us, there's this little pictorial from National Geographic reminding us of the urgency of the situation.
PHOTOS: Five Global Warming "Tipping Points"
Thanks for reading!