Opinion:
¶ Good news: Big companies are using a record amount of clean energy • In the United States, clean energy is already a booming business. Solar is the fastest-growing energy source in the country, and in 2015, total investment in renewable energy projects here reached nearly $40 billion. And big companies are getting involved. [Grist]
Shutterstock image.
¶ The broken promises, politics of corn ethanol • The federal corn ethanol mandate, also known as the Renewable Fuel Standard, exemplifies how national politics play into an issue that makes absolutely no sense. The case against it is so strong that groups ranging from the Sierra Club to Americans for Tax Reform agree on it. [Modesto Bee]
World:
¶ With just a week to go until a crucial global warming summit begins, 170 countries have submitted pledges for greenhouse gas curbs to underpin a 195-nation climate pact. Those countries account for about 93% of the world population and produce roughly 93% of emissions driving dangerous levels of climate change. [The Japan Times]
¶ Two years ago, a global energy company abandoned plans to build a $120 million pilot wind farm off Maine’s coast following opposition from the Governor Paul LePage. Now it is moving ahead with a similar project in Scotland. The decision is inviting an examination of what Maine may be losing in terms of jobs and investment. [Press Herald]
Floating wind turbines.
¶ Electricity coming to Crimea from Ukraine was cut shortly after midnight on Sunday, local time, according to the Crimean branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry. The ministry said 1,896,000 people were without power, and that emergency supplies had been turned on for hospitals and other important facilities. [Deutsche Welle]
¶ The government of Bangladesh approved construction of a large-scale solar park in an effort to increase the share of power from renewable sources in this electricity-starved country. The new solar park, which is due to begin generating within the next 18 months, will supply up to 200 MW of electricity to the national grid. [DhakaTribune]
¶ The Greens will seek to build momentum for more ambitious action on climate change by calling for the creation of a new government authority to help Australia reach a 90% target for renewable energy by 2030. The party has already adopted the goal, but the new policy document spells out how this could be achieved. [The Guardian]
Wind farm near Merredin, Western Australia. Photograph: Calla Wahlquist for the Guardian
¶ Residents of rural China have fears about the proposed expansion of the country’s nuclear program. Ask villagers in the Chinese village of Hubin what they think of proposed nuclear plant, and talk quickly turns to the Communist government’s dismal record of industrial accidents, as well as the Fukushima Disaster of 2011. [New York Times]
US:
¶ Republicans are taking aim at a new “Green Climate Fund,” as they look to weaken President Obama’s hand in global climate talks later this month. The pot of money, a $3 billion climate change pledge the administration made last year, is something officials hope to bring to the negotiating table at United Nations summit in Paris. [The Hill]
¶ A proposed solar energy project in Bethel, Connecticut, that has been entangled in bureaucracy for years could finally get underway early in 2016. Officials expect that a proposal to build a 954-kW solar farm on the site of the town’s old landfill will finally come to a vote soon, allowing construction to begin in the spring. [Danbury News Times]
geoharvey 
November 22, 2015 at 2:42 pm
Reblogged this on nuclear-news.