Who should pay for Turkey Point shutdown? FPL or you? | MiamiHerald.com
Who should pay for Turkey Point shutdown? FPL or you?
Miami Herald 7 Nov 08BY JOHN DORSCHNER
In March 2006, a tiny hole — a mere one-eighth of an inch — was discovered in a critical pipe at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant. The hole ended up costing at least $6 million.
This week, a heated debate has been going on in Tallahassee about who should pay the $6 million — Florida Power & Light or its customers.
Who should pay for Turkey Point shutdown? FPL or you? | MiamiHerald.com
The Northern rivers Echo 6 Nov 08
Roll out the solar panels!
The Northern Rivers Echo 6 Nov 08 The Lismore Climate Care Solar Rollout began installations this week with the first of 56 houses being connected.For each household putting in a one kilowatt system, it represents a reduction in greenhouse gases of 1.6 tonnes per year, equivalent to taking two cars off the road or planting 83 trees. It will save approximately $250 a year on their electricity bill at the price in NSW at the moment……………………Nick Lake, director of Nickel Renewable Energy, said there had been bulk buying groups springing up all over Australia that were driving the solar market.In this year’s budget the Rudd government introduced an income cap of $100,000 per house to be eligible for the rebate and many people predicted it would result in a reduction in the number of houses applying and slow growth in the solar industry. But the Department of Environment are now receiving approximately 1000 applications a week for the solar rebate scheme, up from an average of 120 in the last financial year………………………..n all other states apart from NSW ‘feed in tariff’ legislation has been introduced that means people producing renewable energy are paid at a rate of up to 3.8 times the rate that power companies pay for coal-fired electricity.Nick said if similar feed in tariff rates were introduced in NSW, people with a one kilowatt solar system would save around $1000 a year on their power bills.He said in some European countries where high renewable energy targets have been set, power companies are paying a premium price to take out long-term leases on people’s roofs so they can lock in renewable energy supplies.
Low Carbon Economy – International renewable agency to be set up
International renewable agency to be set up
LowCarbonEconomy.com 06 November 2008 An international agency to promote the rapid transition to worldwide sustainable use of renewable energy is to be set up early next year.The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an initiative that was originated by Germany, Spain and Denmark but now has 51 adherents, will be founded at a conference on January 26th.
Member states, which include most European countries, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, agreed to the statute for the IRENA at the Final Preparatory Conference held last month in Madrid.
IRENA will act as a global voice for renewables, bringing the new clean technology sector on level with the fossil fuel and nuclear energy organisations.
Low Carbon Economy – International renewable agency to be set up
Investors want proof of Obama green change | Environment | Reuters
Investors want proof of Obama “green” change
By Gerard Wynn and David Fogarty – Analysis
LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) 6 Nov 08 – President elect Barack Obama faces demands for proof of a change in U.S. tack on the climate from “green” investors and businesses around the world.
Obama said in his acceptance speech Tuesday that climate change was a top priority, alongside wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — marking a sharp shift with President George W. Bush, criticized for downplaying the threat from global warming………………………
“Green” investors, analysts and bankers were not expecting miracles overnight but want early proof of Obama’s climate credentials, when he takes office on January 20.
“The first is that he is seriously looking for a quick way through for national cap and trade in the United States,” said Henry Derwent, head of the Geneva-based International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), the carbon market lobby group…………………………
“I’d like to see the first $15 billion (of low-carbon cash) funded in his first budget,” said Mark Diesendorf, environmental and sustainable energy analyst at Australia’s University of New South Wales.
The Australian government was elected last year partly on promises to cut greenhouse gases and expand renewable energy. “However, in its first budget in May 2008, it funded almost none of its promises to renewable energy,” said Diesendorf.
Investors want proof of Obama green change | Environment | Reuters
Search begins in Geelong region for renewable energy – The Geelong Advertiser
Search begins in Geelong region for renewable energy
Geelong Advertiser Martin Watters November 7th, 2008S A GEOTHERMAL drilling company hopes the Bellarine Peninsula will hold the key to unlocking renewable energy for Geelong’s heavy industry.
Greenearth Energy yesterday announced it has started exploring the peninsula for heat sources thousands of metres underground in the for new geothermal hotspots……………………………..Company executive director Robert King said it was advantageous to have a potential heat goldmine near so much of the state’s heavy electricity users.
“What is exciting here is that the Geelong area is under the major electricity transmission wires and near Geelong and industries with significant energy consumption and greenhouse gas footprints,” Mr King said.
“This means that any resource located has the market at its doorstep and not hundreds of kilometres away.
Search begins in Geelong region for renewable energy – The Geelong Advertiser
More of the same no cure for inherent ills | theage.com.au
More of the same no cure for inherent ills
The AgeJoanne Knight November 7, 2008 The consumer economy is consuming itself. It has created excessive household and national debt as consumers indulge in compulsive shopping in a system depending on their dollars. The process of producing extraneous consumer goods, electronic gadgets and larger cars has resulted in damage to the environment that some are calling a climate emergency. The Australian Government has just handed out $10 billion, which will exacerbate the shopping binge.
There is a question: why haven’t we spent this money in the long term on green infrastructure such as public transport and renewable energy? The economic crisis represents an opportunity to move the economy away from dependence on consumption and into solutions to global warming.
It seems that creating better public transport, investment in energy efficiency measures, and renewable energy infrastructure will stimulate the economy as much as encouraging spending on plasma TVs………………………..The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachuari, says that if we continue with business as usual, we will head towards economic and environmental disaster……………………..We need a new economic driver. In their book Climate Code Red, David Spratt and Phillip Sutton argue that the greatest hope for the planet in the “climate emergency” is for government to make large investments in energy efficiency technology, renewable energy production, zero-emissions transport and carbon-capture technology such as biochar………………………….. A comprehensive government program to improve the energy efficiency of houses or government incentives provided for the home owner to do it would significantly reduce energy consumption and greeenhouse gas production.
Other measures include biodiversity finance, including ecological relations in accounting practices as in carbon credits and payments directly valuing ecosystem preservation. The UN Food and Agriculture Program declared this year that payments to protect ecosystems and encourage permaculture were the only practical ways out of the food crisis.
Breaking News
Russia to deploy missiles
THE STRAITS TIMES Nov 5, 2008 MOSCOW – RUSSIA will deploy Iskander missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad in response to plans by the United States to build an anti-missile system in Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.Mr Medvedev said Russia would electronically jam elements of the proposed US system and that Russia had scrapped plans to stand down three missile regiments.
Russia has been infuriated by US plans to intercepter missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.
DALIY TRIUMPH-Projections of power
Projections of power
DAILY TRIUMPH By Andrew Nagorski 6 Nov 08 So the seemingly endless U.S. presidential campaign is finally ending………………………….. The most promising area for a dramatic new breakthrough could involve the biggest legacy of the cold war: both sides’ huge arsenals of nuclear weapons. Four American elder statesmen—former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former secretary of state William Perry and former senator Sam Nunn—have been advocating a nuclear “zero option”—the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Once seen as a purely utopian vision, this has stimulated a growing debate about massive cutbacks, which was the focus of a major EastWest Institute conference at the United Nations on Oct. 24. “Such initiatives deserve greater
support,” U.N. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the gathering. He also urged all nations to seek an international convention on nuclear weapons backed by a strong verification system or to pursue separate agreements.
The United States and Russia, whose arsenals are still crammed with the most nuclear weapons, must lead the way. And in the current situation, the new American president is the only person who could give this initiative the impetus it truly needs. This is unlikely to lead to the “zero option,” but a growing number of experts are convinced it could produce a radical reduction in the size of both countries’ nuclear arsenals without eliminating their ability to defend themselves. Russia has continued to brandish its nuclear might as a means of clinging to the remnants of its superpower status; it is also acutely conscious of the limitations of its conventional forces—despite their muscle-flexing in Georgia. But a concerted effort by the United States and others to engage Russia on this issue could lead to the win-win situation that both sides need.
Water concensus – On Line Opinion – 7/11/2008
Water concensus
OnLine opinion Bruce haigh 7 Nov 08 “……………….Water is essential to sustaining life and all other activities undertaken by man. As such it makes no sense that large companies, cartels and monopolies should control and allocate this vital resource. They have no interest, nor indeed mandate, in protecting or fulfilling public interest, so that the least powerful and often the most needy have diminished or no access to the vital commodity of water.
This is the situation that increasingly applies within the Murray/Darling Basin (MDB). However the problem of managing the sustainable use of water extends far beyond the MBD. The obvious problems of the Basin are the not so obvious problems of tomorrow in all other basins, rivers and tributaries in Australia.
The use and allocation of water in Australia is at crisis point. Water is both a hidden and visible export………………..The collapse of international financial markets and the move into recession, caused primarily by greed and lack of regulation, should stand as a warning to those similarly motivated in agribusiness, irrigation and mining with respect to water……………… It says little for the collective understanding of the crisis facing water in Australia that the pace of the federal government’s response has been slow, unco-ordinated, lacking courage and lateral thinking.
So far the states have prevaricated and the major users have bullied, it’s time to call their bluff and establish a regulated framework for national water sustainability.
RSS: Bush`s Last 100 Days the Ones to Watch
Bush`s Last 100 Days the Ones to Watch
mathaba.net by Jesse Jackson 6 Nov 08
(Chicago Sun Times) The Washington Post reports that the White House is “working to enact an array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.”………………………..About 90 new rules are in the works,………………………..Many will make changes that the new administration will find it hard to reverse for years to come. More emissions from power plants; more exemptions from environmental-impact statements; permission to operate natural gas lines at higher levels of pressure — the changes could be the last calamities visited upon us by the Bush administration.
Congress — the old one, not the new one just elected — comes back into special session right after the election. Representatives Henry Waxman and John Conyers would be well advised to convene special hearings to try to curb what Bush has cooked up for his last 100 days. Let’s not let the new dawn that is possible be dimmed by clouds left over from an old era that has failed.
Renewable energy: Obama’s cruise to the White House puts the wind back in green sails | Environment | The Guardian
Renewable energy: Obama’s cruise to the White House puts the wind back in green sailsAfter Bush’s years of neglect, the new president promises the planet a fresh start
The Guardian Terry Macalister November 6 2008The election of Barack Obama has put the wind back into the sails of the renewable energy sector, where investor confidence had been badly punctured by the credit crisis. Clean technology and green energy stocks have soared as City analysts predict a major boost from the incoming president.
Solar Integrated Technologies rose by 30% yesterday after increases of 22% by Renewable Energy Corporation and 16% by the wind turbine maker Vestas in the 24 hours before, when they were helped upwards by oil prices returning to above $70 a barrel.
Obama has promised to invest $150bn over 10 years in renewables as part of a wider plan to increase US energy security amid fear of oil shortages, while also reducing the country’s carbon emissions in a bid to tackle global warming – and create jobs during an economic downturn.
Harvey Wasserman: A Blow to Nuclear Power in Chicago
A Warning to ObamaA Blow to Nuclear Power in Chicago
counterpunch By HARVEY WASSERMAN November 6, 2008 As the world media filled with the victory of Barack Obama, a defeat for atomic power in his own back yard sent a Solartopian message to the new administration.In the Chicago-area communities of Oak Park, Berwyn and Riverside, voters approved by well over two-to-one a referendum asking that “our elected officials in Illinois take steps to phase out nuclear power in the state, replacing it with renewable sources such as wind and solar.”………………………A strong lobby with a slick, expensive pubic relations campaign is now pushing new nukes here. New ratepayer-based reactor financing is now being shoved through state public utilities commissions in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and possibly elsewhere, with tens of billions in potential liability.But Wall Street has given thumbs down to a technology that can’t compete with Solartopian sources like wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and other green energies.
The future of new reactor construction thus depends on massive federal and state subsidies. In the fall of 2007, the industry inserted into a Congressional energy bill a package of loan guarantees meant to provide $50 billion in taxpayer-backed funds to build new reactors……………………….. The clock is ticking very fast on the idea of new nukes. With projected construction times of a decade or more, new reactors cannot begin to deliver energy for many years after the installation of competing green sources, whose comparative costs continue to drop.
So this small but strong Chicago-area vote for a Solartopian future sends a very clear message. A powerful new nuke lobby will be pushing hard from Day One of the new administration.
Nukenomics No Longer Add Up – Expert by OneWorld United States — nuclear power, energy, environment | Gather
Nukenomics No Longer Add Up – Expert
gather NEWS Brittany Schell, OneWorld US November 05, 2008WASHINGTON, (OneWorld) – Nuclear power is a risky source of energy that comes with many hidden costs, said an environmental analyst and long-time leader in the U.S. environmental movement Tuesday.
Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, said the “flawed economics” of nuclear power are placing unforeseen burdens on taxpayers: the costs related to the construction of nuclear plants, the disposal of nuclear waste, the decommissioning of old plants, and security in case of an accident all contribute to the price the world pays for nuclear power. Wind energy is a more economically sound option, said Brown………………………
Brown said that when calculating the true cost of nuclear power, factors such as waste disposal, insurance in case of an accident, and decommissioning costs once a plant is worn out have to be included.
“A dollar invested in wind produces more energy, leads to a greater reduction in carbon emissions, and creates more jobs than one invested in nuclear power.”……………………
Brown mentioned the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, where the United States plans to store the radioactive waste from its 104 nuclear reactors, as an example of unforeseen costs of nuclear power. Yucca Mountain is located 90 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The cost of this repository, estimated at $58 billion in 2001, has climbed to $96 billion.
“Not only is Yucca Mountain over budget, it is 19 years behind schedule,” said Brown. “It was originally supposed to be ready to accept waste in 1998 and it now is scheduled for 2017. It’s not even certain that it will ever be completed.”
The lack of a permanent waste storage facility is a security risk and security costs are usually not included in financial analyses either, said Brown. There are 121 temporary facilities in 39 states, and it is difficult to monitor and provide adequate security for all the sites. He cautioned that this distribution leaves the sites vulnerable to leakage, as well as possible terrorist attacks.
“There is a growing risk of radioactive material getting into the wrong hands,” Brown said. He said there were 250 incidents last year of nuclear material being lost or stolen, and a lot was never recovered………………………According to a 2004 International Atomic Energy Agency report, the decommissioning cost for each reactor will range from $250 to $500 million, not including the cost of removing and disposing of the waste.A report by nuclear consultant Mycle Schneider said recently that about 90 nuclear reactors are set to close within the next seven years……………….In light of this impending decline, Brown said the U.S. government should stop investing money in nuclear power — currently over $70 billion a year — and devote more money to the research and development of renewable energy sources, such as wind.
U.N. watchdog urges Spain action on nuclear waste | Environment | Reuters
U.N. watchdog urges Spain action on nuclear waste
SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) 5 Nov 08 – The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog on Wednesday praised Spain’s regulator but recommended stepping up efforts to find a permanent site for dumping spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste.
Urich Schmocker, head of an International Atomic Energy Agency mission to Spain, said building a central storage facility was just an interim solution……………………..
Spain’s eight aging nuclear power stations face an uncertain future, as operating licenses for seven of them are due for review between 2009-11.
That is within the mandate of Spain’s Socialist government, which has vowed to phase out nuclear power amidst a boom in renewable energy sources………………………………
As part of a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce its heavy dependence on imported fuel, Spain has encouraged renewable energy and is now the world’s third-largest producer of wind power, with a capacity of 16,000 megawatts.
Spain is now also the world’s third producer of solar, and may have up to 1,800 MW by the end of the year.
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