The historic American Clean Energy Act, co-sponsored by Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has been passed by a close margin in the US House of Representatives. As reported by Kirsten Korosec on Bnet:

“Maybe it was Al Gore’s effort via telephone or Nancy Pelosi’s chocolate-covered Dove bars. Heck, maybe it was all of those last minute concessions to please lawmakers in farm states. After weeks of negotiations and compromises and nearly seven hours of debate on the House floor, the American Clean Energy Act, also known as ACEs or the Waxman-Markey bill, passed in the House on Friday in a 219-212 vote.

The 1,201-page bill is considered the broadest piece of legislation ever considered by Congress aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions and placing a price on carbon. Under the bill, emissions would be cut 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. The massive bill tries to do it all and through a lengthy negotiating process to ensure its passage, it’s also loaded with compromises. But even with those concessions, the bill barely stayed alive, with more than 40 Democrats breaking ranks to vote against it.

Here are some highlights and a few of the compromises.

• Farm states. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson held the bill hostage until certain compromises were made. What resulted is a 50-page amendment that among others things shifts control from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Agriculture to determine rules for carbon offsets, a program that would pay farmers for practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Grist delves into the amendment and includes all the nitty gritty details.
• Biofuels. Peterson’s amendment also requires a lengthy review, with final results published within five years, of biofuel regulations. During this five-year review, biofuels emissions from international indirect land use are exempt.
• Clean energy technology. The bill provides $90 billion by 2025 for clean energy technology and energy efficiency, $60 billion for carbon capture and sequestration and $20 billion for electric and other advanced technology vehicles.
• Solar, wind. A renewable energy standard has been established that will require 20 percent of all U.S. electricity to come from alternative sources by 2020. This mandate opens up opportunities for growth within the renewable energy industry including solar and wind power.

With such a hyper-focus on Waxman-Markey it’s easy to forget what lies ahead. The passage of Waxman-Markey is the first in a number of hurdles facing energy and climate change legislation.

From here, the battle moves onto the Senate, where its Energy and Natural Resources committee has already marked up its own energy legislation called American Clean Energy Leadership Act or ACELA. Any legislation dealing with climate change would fall to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. According to Grist, Barbara Boxer, who leads the Environment and Public Works committee, will produce a climate bill by the end of August.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already indicated, in a statement sent out Friday, the Senate and the appropriate committees will take up the energy and climate change legislation. But the fight promises be even more contentious in the Senate, where it must receive 60 votes to pass. That means every Democrat will have to be on board, plus a few Independents and Republicans.

Let the lobbying begin.”

- as reported by Kirsten Korosec on BNet Industries (Energy) 0 find the story here: ]]> http://www.purepowerd.com/blog/2009/06/house-passes-bill-to-address-threat-of-climate-change/feed/ 0 http://www.purepowerd.com/blog/2009/06/does-your-ev-substitute-one-form-of-air-pollution-for-another/ http://www.purepowerd.com/blog/2009/06/does-your-ev-substitute-one-form-of-air-pollution-for-another/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:59:51 +0000 Christopher http://www.purepowerd.com/?p=400 This spring, the Obama Administration  directed $2.4 billion toward energy efficiency in automobiles, and specifically to aid the development of plug-in cars and the infrastructure required to keep them charged, including:

• $1.5 billion for U.S.-based manufacturers to produce batteries and components
• $500 million to help produce other electric vehicle (EV) components such as electric motors
• $400 million to demonstrate and evaluate plug-in hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts which could include charging stations, electric rail and training for technicians to build and repair EVs

In terms of air pollution, electric cars are a brilliant alternative to diesel or gas motors. Which highlights the issue on any truly sustainable EV owner’s mind is: FUEL.

It may be very cool to drive an EV, but if your power source is electricity from coal-fired power plants, then you’re substituting one source of air pollution for another when you drive.

The sensible thing to consider is the greener alternative: SOLAR.

The production, made in conjunction with a nationwide campus competition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions called Chillout, had a wide variety of stars, producers, musicians, directors and producers involved.

Check the video on YouTube

Working with the Green Screen

Kudos to the ridiculously talented Melissa Balin, the diverse and dedicated stars, and her exceptional crew who brought together the National Wildlife Federation’s webcast for the “Chillout 2009.”

“The webcast is a low carbon footprint production, going well beyond the industry’s sustainable filmmaking guidelines, and has been recognized by the Environmental Media Association’s Green Seal Program for using the film industry’s best environmental practices. The production used the Red Camera–a 4K camera system that is filmless and tapeless, cabling directly into a hard drive, eliminating wasted film, tape, and chemicals. The lighting was Lite Panels’ LED system, and the lights and production were powered by solar energy thanks to a solar generator provided by Pure Power Distribution and a portable solar-capturing tent from FTL Solar. Even the teleprompters were made from recycled materials!”

Check out the Chillout webcast here:

http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/chillout/index.cfm

Speaking to a rep from one of the West Coast’s largest grocery retailers, who is interested in and diesel alternative (solar) for a pretty ‘outside the box’ application. We give him a business card and the conversation stops…

He’s looking at the back of the card (shown) and says, “I figured you guys would be environmental, but you’re also FSC? We never see this in our industry. YOU’RE OUR KIND OF PEOPLE.”

The new satellites will work as carbon accountants by keeping a close eye on how the Earth “breathes” and returning regular audits. Ibuki, which means “breath” in Japanese, orbits the Earth approximately every 100 minutes at an average altitude of 667km. It will gather data from 56,000 points around the globe with two detectors. One is a spectrometer that measures sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface. Both carbon dioxide and methane absorb energy from sunlight and both leave a unique signature that can be measured to detect changes in intensity. JAXA says Ibuki can detect carbon-dioxide changes of around one part per million, which is akin to detecting the change in salinity produced by four drops of salt water in a 200-litre bathtub of water. The second detector takes readings of clouds and other aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere that can reflect or absorb radiation.

OCO will similarly study carbon dioxide and also oxygen signatures in reflected sunlight. It will fly at an average altitude of 705km and orbit the Earth about every 99 minutes. Once launched, OCO will form part of a loose group of American satellites called the “A-train”. These carry instruments that complement one another in helping to provide a fuller picture of the Earth’s carbon and water.

The carbon cycle
With the additional data that the satellites provide, researchers hope finally to shed light on the Earth’s complicated carbon cycle. The concentration maps produced by Ibuki and OCO will help in understanding where carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere and where it gets absorbed. Today, most big man-made carbon-dioxide emitters, such as a large power station, are known about and their outputs are measured. But there are global phenomena, such as forest fires, where the carbon-dioxide contributions are not fully understood. There are also some ecosystems, such as the boreal forests of Canada and Siberia and the Amazon rainforest, which are huge absorbers of carbon dioxide, but which are changing rapidly because of temperature increases and deforestation.

Researchers think that the carbon cycle turns over about 330 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Oceans absorb about half this. Earth-based measurements suggest there is a large unaccounted-for surface “sink” of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but its location is fiercely debated. The reason for this is the paucity of data over the tropics, where many of world’s dense (and highly inaccessible) rainforests are situated. The satellites will be able to look in detail there.

Although these data will not be as accurate as those taken on the ground, what they lack in precision will be more than made up for in coverage. It is believed that atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million to around 370 parts per million since the start of the Industrial Revolution. How much of this is because of human action is still a matter of conjecture, but it is widely accepted to be significant.

Ibuki and OCO should provide a better idea of what happens to carbon dioxide once it is produced. Some researchers, such as Paul Palmer at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, think satellites could also monitor the effect of policies such as carbon trading to see if they can rein in emissions.