Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread

Robert S. Eshelman writes in The Nation:

Where's the Clean Energy?: It was in Germany that Ed Regan realized Gainesville, Florida, was going about things all wrong. The assistant manager at Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) was out looking for ways to boost his city's renewable energy capacity. "Germany was a game-changer," Regan says. Wind turbines and solar panels seemed to be everywhere. He soon learned the secret. Before Regan's June 2008 trip, the GRU was trying to promote small-scale renewable energy generation by offering hefty cash rebates to customers who installed solar photovoltaic panels. And it had a "net metering program" that allowed customers who generate their own power to run their electricity meters backward, thereby cutting their electric bills potentially to zero. But the programs weren't attracting a great deal of interest. The utility's rebate program had yielded only 300 kilowatts of solar power capacity--roughly the amount of electricity used by 160 hair dryers--and it cost a lot of money. The difference between Gainesville and Germany was that Germany had a national feed-in tariff. Under this system, energy consumers can become renewable energy producers by installing solar panels on their roof or a wind turbine in their backyard and selling their energy to the local utility. These customers-turned-producers receive above-market prices for their energy, often for up to twenty years. With the feed-in tariff, Germany boosted its renewable energy production from 1 percent of its total output in 1995 to 12 percent in 2005. By 2007 renewables supplied 14 percent of Germany's electricity. Denmark and Spain also have successful feed-in tariff programs. So this past March, Gainesville rolled out its own feed-in tariff. GRU now pays twice the retail cost for every kilowatt of solar power-generated electricity. The extra cost means a small increase in electrical bills for all utility consumers, less than a dollar per month per household. But in order to keep consumer prices down, the feed-in tariff is limited to expand by only 4 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity per year, for six years. And the first year's quota was snapped up in just two weeks. The program now has a waiting list through 2016. Rather than a bunch of homeowners each installing a few panels, the Gainesville quotas were mostly taken by commercial investors.

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Green Diary Rescues appear on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The diary rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.

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Rei asked Who's killing the electric car again?: "How did a woman who the SEC says planned one of the largest accounting frauds in US history end up as Chief Financial Officer of Aptera Motors? It's just one of many questions swirling around what appears to be a meltdown in progress at the beleagured manufacturer of safe, hyper-efficient electric vehicles.  When a business is running smoothly, there are strong incentives for everyone to be a team player and hide any signs of internal strife.  As the rate of layoffs and "vacations" increases, however, so does the potential for leaks.  And sometimes a simple name can take you places you never thought you'd go."

David Brin offered a lesson in capitalism with his diary Re-allocating energy research: "The Obama Administration, while pumping up funding and incentives to further develop hybrid vehicles, has slashed $100 million (60%) from the budget for George W. Bush’s preferred approach -- hydrogen fueled cars.  Of course, this is one more sign that we are being led by people who want America to succeed, and no longer by technological morons, determined to make every possible wrong decision. Why am I so fierce in my appraisal of so-called ‘hydrogen-power’ -- despite my portraying it positively, in several stories and novels? Because it cannot possibly help us in the near (twenty year) future, as was cogently pointed out recently by Energy Secretary (and Nobel winner) Stephen Chu. "

BruceMcF explained to Build Steel Interstates with $1/barrel and 1% of the Carbon Fee: "The Steel Interstate concept (tagpage) is one that I have been discussing, off and on, in my Sunday Train series. The basic idea is to electrify the Department of Defense STrategic RAil Corridor NETwork, STRACNET (right), and establish 100mph Rapid Freight Rail paths, to allow an estimated (Millenium Institute pdf) half of long haul trucking to shift to electric freight rail at a saving of about 10% of our current oil imports. This diary is about how to overcome the only thing standing in its way: Public Finance. And that is to impose a $1/barrel tax on imported petroleum and petroleum products, and allocate 1% of any Carbon Fee to financing construction."

Mark H appeared with another installment of his wonderful Marine Life Series Sargassum Fish: "Out in the middle of the Southern Atlantic ocean is a roughly million-square-mile area known as the Sargasso Sea. On the surface of this sea is an enormous mat of entangled, floating algae, kept in place by a combination of ocean currents and lack of winds. The movement of the currents which surround this sea, including the Gulf Stream, the Equatorial, the Canary and the Caribbean, collude to entrap anything that floats into this area and keep it, mostly, from escaping."

There was fury over some purloined emails, but Desmogblog wrote that Stolen climate science emails just ain't the conspiracy some want it to b: "I'll admit, as someone who spends most days looking for leaked documents, the package of stolen emails and documentsfrom the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University is pretty juicy. Anything provides insight into the inner-workings of your opponents is pretty much manna from heaven in this line of work. I have been going through all the files today and I hate to disappoint but it just ain't the scandal climate conspiracy theorists want it to be."

NellaSelim Monarch to launch into space: "While most of humanity will remain stuck on the this pale blue dot in the ocean of space some Monarch caterpillars are now in residence onboard the International Space Station courtesy of the NASA and the recent launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  The three caterpillars are part of a educational outreach program contracted to BioServe Space Technology in conjunction with Monarch Watch, a research organization based in the University of Kansas in Lawrence dedicated to the study and preservation of Monarch butterflies. The caterpillars will remain on the ISS throughout lifecycle to become hopefully mature Monarch butterflies to study the effect microgravity has upon their development and physiology."
RLMillerBusiness as usual: six degrees of warming. Act now.: "Global temperatures could rise 6C by end of century, reads the Guardian headline.  More alarming, the Independent reports: World on course for catastrophic 6 degree rise, scientists report. (In Fahrenheit terms, that's closer to 10 degrees.)  There's plenty to be scared about in these stories.  Yet they only emphasize that action is required now, more than ever."

tribalypredisposed had a good laugh at the "30,000 Scientists" Who Sued Al Gore for Fraud: "The 30,000 ‘scientists’ are people with at least a Bachelors of Science in some field, including computer science and other non-research science degrees. They signed a petition back in 1998 saying that they did not believe in Global Warming. Many of them are dead now. None have agreed to be party to a lawsuit. After nearly two years no lawsuit has been filed. There are actually no grounds that a lawsuit could be based on against Al Gore on the issue of Global Warming. Over the last twelve years not one single peer reviewed scientific paper has been published that challenges Global Warming. There is no ‘scientific debate,’ and even if there was one a person cannot be sued for supporting a reasonably sound scientific hypothesis, even if it turned out to be wrong."

Patric Juillet told us delicious Tales from the Larder: Olive, the Empress of Oil: "Homer called it ‘liquid gold.’ Olive oil has been more than mere food to us Mediterraneans: it's our way of life. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in both friendly games and bloody war. Olive crowns and olive branches, ancient emblems of benediction and purifiation, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures but it is only in recent times that modern scientific research has proven over and over what the peasant wisdom knew a long time ago: its wonderful taste and health properties."

gmoke had high praise for Energy Barnraisings: "Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) has been doing monthly weatherization barnraisings for over a year now.  Since then, at least 14 other groups have followed the lead:
In Massachusetts, Watertown, Maynard, Arlington, Marlborough, Waltham, Somerville, Worcester, Boston, Carlisle, Reading, Allston/Brighton, Roxbury/Dorchester, Providence, R.I., and Maine. It would be good to see that growth explode over the next year and extend to solar barnraisings as well."

A Siegel looked at the energy habits of the places most of us buy our food in Clean Energy Jobs Go To the Market: "Clean Energy Jobs Go the Market: $4 billion year for 80,000 jobs. In too many grocery stores across America, turning the aisle into a refrigerated section can require wearing a parka -- even in the middle of summer.  Looking from overhead, too many grocery stores have black roofs. And ... well, energy inefficient practice after energy inefficient practice. Grocery stores, nationwide, are ripe for cleaning up with Clean Energy Jobs.  Not only are the requirements clear, the solutions are straightforward, the financial return is tremendous, and this has the potential for kickstarting some jobs quickly while enabling stores to make more profits even while giving them the opportunity (which we can hope they'll seize) to pass on some of the savings to their customers."

Jeff Biggers via Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse wrote Big Coal and Child Victims: "Last Friday, November 13th, marked the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster in Illinois, when an estimated 259 coal miners lost their lives to fire and the buildup of ‘black damp’ or toxic gases. The St. Paul Coal Company Mine in Cherry was hailed by its consulting engineer as the ‘safest mine in the world.’ While we take time to reflect on the heroic sacrifices of coal miners and their families this week, the Cherry Mine Disaster remains a haunting reminder of the secret legacy of child labor in our coal mines--and its unconscionable use today."

Haole in Hawaii Another Hawaii Photo Diary.

Climate Change Deniers' Smear Campaigns Exposed reported jamesboyce: "In this vain attempt, a small group of Heartland Institute enthusiasts petitioned the American Physical Society's stance on acknowledging global warming and the causal links of human activity. The 206 signatures on the petition challenged the 47,000 member strong stance on the merits of scientific fact. Now the funny part... Not only did the APS reject this lame attempt at spreading propaganda, but it issued a 128-page report debunking the science, exposing the petitioners qualifications, diagramming the how the ‘gaggle is not a consensus’ group try to distort the truth of science."

Tom Taaffe drew some flak for his diary, 3 Stooges Save the Environment - Nukes to the Rescue!: "Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are on a mission to save the climate. Oh dear. With such stalwart defenders of international capital at the helm, who can possible gain from their efforts? Oh yeah, nuclear power. Leave it to the US Senate to turn such a critical issue such as global warming to the best financial advantage of international capital. Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire!"

Among other green diaries were:

3 new wind turbines now supplying power in Maine by Spud1

Enviro gift book: "Forecast" review by Captain Future.

Frugal Fridays - Creative Gift-a-Palooza by asterkitty.