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Here are five recommended reads for today (5/24/13).

1. Paul Holshouser of the American Wind Energy Association writes in the Washington Times, “The facts are clear: American wind power has proven itself as a clean, reliable source of homegrown energy.”
2. The Rocky Mountain Institute looks at “examples from around the world where high renewables are already becoming a reality, and conclude with a look at the work RMI is doing to make a high renewables a broader reality in the U.S. and beyond.”
3. According to Media Matters, “The news that electric carmaker Tesla Motors has repaid its federal loan early is being ignored by some of the same outlets that tried to make the bankrupt solar company Solyndra the face of the Obama administration’s green initiatives — including ABC, which suggested Tesla wouldn’t be able to repay its loan.”
4. Greentech Media has a “US Offshore Wind Fact Sheet,” which updates the status of “thirteen U.S. offshore wind projects in ten states on the Atlantic, Pacific, Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico coasts, representing 5,100-plus megawatts.”
5. Renew Economy has a graphic which “highlights the extent of ‘grid parity’ for solar PV across the world – it is now in 102 countries.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/23/13).

1. AP reports , “Student activists at more than 200 colleges are trying a new tactic in hopes of slowing the pace of climate change: They are asking their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.”
2. According to Climate Progress: “In what will likely prove as meaningless a vote as the 37th repeal vote of Obamacare, on Wednesday night 241 members of the House of Representatives voted to approve the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline…The 241 members who voted for the bill have taken a collective $39,150,812 in career contributions from the oil and gas industry, compared to $5,094,217 for those who voted no. Even more starkly, in the last election cycle, that split widens to $11,529,335 versus $742,125.”
3. Renewable Energy World reports: “last month PG&E chief executive officer Anthony Earley estimated that the first of these new contracts now delivering renewable power to the grid will likely add only 1 percent to 1.5 percent to PG&E ratepayers’ household bills. This is a startlingly low impact. With the average California household paying $100 a month, another dollar or so is a fairly negligible addition; the sort of variation in bills that is really just noise.”
4. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “A broad group of consumer and environmental advocates, business officials and nonprofit leaders urged Georgia Power to add more renewable energy to its electricity mix over the next two decades.”
5. Bloomberg reports, “Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), labeled a ‘loser’ by Mitt Romney during the U.S. election, is giving President Barack Obama’s green-energy strategy its biggest win after almost two years of failures pounced upon by Republicans.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/22/13).

1. The Washington Post reports, “An international group of solar industry trade associations meeting in Shanghai last week has issued a joint declaration appealing to China, the European Union and the United States to avert a trade war and negotiate a settlement to disputes over solar panels, according to one person who attended the meeting.”
2. According to Stephen Lacey of Greentech Media, securitization “could be one of the most effective tools for unlocking the vast potential of energy efficiency…[a]nd institutional investors — banks, pension funds, mutual funds and insurers — are expressing a lot of interest in efficiency as a pooled asset class.”
3. The New York Times reports, “The Obama administration and the European Union have each decided to negotiate settlements with China in the world’s largest antidumping and antisubsidy trade cases involving China’s roughly $30 billion a year in solar panel shipments to the West, officials and trade advisers in Beijing, Brussels and Washington said.”
4. InsideClimate News writes: “U.S. oil production is suddenly booming. Question now is, will Obama say yes to the Canadian tar sands being part of this fossil fuel revival?”
5. Spiegel Online International reports: “Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is rapidly losing its coral, to the point that UNESCO may soon place the natural wonder on its “in danger” list. Climate change is one culprit, but so is the country’s booming extraction industry. Environmentalists warn that time is running out for the reef.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/21/13).

1. NBC reports, ‘Fracking boom triggers water battle in North Dakota.”
2. ClimateProgress lists “7 Very Wrong Things About Climate Science And Energy In House Science Chair Lamar Smith’s WashPost Op-Ed.”
3. According to DeSmogBlog, “New Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) replies have exposed more misdeeds by Professor Edward Wegman and Yasmin Said at George Mason University (GMU),  closely involved with the Kochs, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and many others known for attacks on climate science.”
4. Greentech Media reports, “Energy efficiency proponents rejoiced last month when Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) reintroduced a sweeping bill that would provide incentives, technical assistance and new standards for energy efficiency in the private and public sectors…However, a proposed amendment is dampening enthusiasm for the bill over at the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC), the organization responsible for the popular LEED rating system for green buildings.”
5. An opinion piece in the Arizona Capital Times argues: “When studies show that for every $1 spent, clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels, what’s wrong with looking into alternative investments? Clean energy can increase the number of available jobs and address environmental and health issues people are concerned about. We know that coal fuel and compliance costs are going to continue to increase as time goes on, so why invest in technologies that only increase the cost of electricity? Why restrict the Navajo economy when diversifying the energy mix at NGS by adding wind, solar PV or solar CSP could create 3,000 new jobs?”

Here are five recommended reads for today (5/20/13).

1. The Christian Science Monitor reports: “Demand for fresh water could exceed supply by an estimated 40 percent by 2030, pushing up prices for the water-intensive energy industry. Soaring water prices would help wind, solar, and natural gas, but hurt coal and nuclear plants.”
2. Elizabeth Kolbert writes in the New Yorker: ”In rejecting Keystone, President Obama would not solve the underlying problem, which, as pipeline proponents correctly point out, is consumption. Nor would he halt exploitation of the tar sands. But he would put a brake on the process”
3. The Guardian reports, “Prof James Hansen rebukes oil firms and Canadian government over stance on exploiting fossil fuel, which he says would make climate problem unsolvable”
4. At Greentech Media, former Navy officer and Afghanistan veteran argues,”We Owe Our Veterans a Renewable Energy Way of Life: There is nothing like a natural resource war to give you religion about renewable energy.”
5. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Bucking his party on climate change, [former Secretary of State George] Shultz said all forms of energy should compete “on a level playing field” by incorporating the cost of their carbon pollution.”