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Here are five recommended reads for today (2/22/12)

1. Bloomberg reports, “Solar-power capacity in Ukraine is forecast to double this year, spurred by the completion of Europe’s biggest photovoltaic plant in December and incentives a third higher than anywhere else in the region.”
2. Stephen Lacey of Climate Progress provides his “top three reasons why natural gas won’t be the death of renewables.”
3. According to Politico, “Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers still aren’t giving up on extending the wind production tax credit, which expires at the end of the year.”
4. CBS News reports, “Apple plans to build to America’s largest privately owned solar facility…Improvements to the massive data center in Maiden, N.C., which was commissioned by Apple in 2011, will include the 100 acre solar farm, green building design and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.”
5. Per The Guardian: Environmentalist, “energy expert and physicist” Amory Lovins says that “fossil fuels are the new whale oil,” and describes “his vision of how the world can attain a green energy future by 2050.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (2/21/12)

1. According to DeSmogBlog, “Climate scientist Peter Gleick has acknowledged that he was the person who convinced the Heartland Institute to hand over the contents of its January Board package, authenticating the documents beyond a doubt and further exposing the disinformation campaign Heartland has pursued in the last week, trying to discredit the information.”
2. Bryan Walsh argues at Time Magazine’s Ecocentric blog: “it’s not the price of gas the President should focus on — it’s the effect high gas prices can have on the economy. A more energy-efficient economy — from gas mileage on up — is naturally more resilient to high energy prices.”
3. The Washington Post reports, “The coalition that has come together in Maryland to back wind power includes more than Sierra Club types. Churches, labor unions and groups of doctors and nurses have joined the push to bring wind farms to the waters off the state’s coast.”
4. At Climate Progress, several analysts from the Center for American Progress recommend that America “[t]ap the geyser of oil company earnings by imposing a tax on imported oil and ending antiquated federal subsidies for oil companies,” that doing so “will pay for an environmentally and fiscally sound plan to upgrade our crumbling transportation, water, and energy infrastructure.”
5. Huffington Post reports, “As millions of pounds of explosives from mountaintop removal strip mining operations continue to devastate historic mountain communities in central Appalachia, a powerful new music video released this week by the beloved American Roots band Magnolia Mountain captures the haunting grief and stories of stricken families in America’s cradle of roots and country music.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (2/17/12)

1. According to Climate Progress, “In a huge step toward making the nation’s first offshore wind farm a reality, Massachusetts officials announced Wednesday that energy companies Northeast Utilities and NStar have agreed to buy more than a quarter of the power produced by the Cape Wind offshore wind farm.”
2. Energy Boom reports, “San Diego Gas & Electric has jumped into its first new renewable energy contracts of 2012 with commitments to purchase a combined 300 MW from two new projects… 100 MW from the 189 MW Manzana Wind project…[and] 200 MW of energy from the Mount Signal Solar project.”
3. According to Inside Climate News: “A new report by the National Governors Association (NGA) showed that 28 states enacted more than 60 new “clean” economic development policies between June 2010 and Aug. 2011. Among those states, more than half, or 16, have Republican governors.”
4. The Hill reports, “Major industry groups have stepped up efforts to scuttle new EPA rules that require curbs on emissions of mercury and other air toxics from coal-fired power plants.”
5. According to the Washington Post, “The Republican-controlled House endorsed a plan Thursday to vastly expand oil and gas drilling off the nation’s coasts to help pay for a $260 billion transportation bill.”

Here are five recommended reads for today (2/16/12)

1. The New York Times reports, “Leaked documents suggest that an organization known for attacking climate science is planning a new push to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools, the latest indication that climate change is becoming a part of the nation’s culture wars.”
2. Daniel Weiss writes at Climate Progress, “On February 13, Senators David Vitter (R-LA), John Hoevan (R-ND), and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced theStrategic Petroleum Supplies Act, S. 2100 that would prevent President Obama from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless Keystone is approved.”
3. Chris Turner of Mother Nature Network argues that “The time is now for Big Geothermal.” Turner explains: “In North America alone, there is enough energy trapped beneath the Earth’s surface to produce 10 times as much electricity as coal currently does. Geothermal power is clean, ubiquitous and reliable. And the technology to harness it is finally ready for primetime.”
4. Stefanie Penn Spear of EcoWatch asks, “Will Natural Gas Become the ‘Achilles’ Heel’ of Our Country?”
5. NPR reports: “The wind power industry in this country has grown fast in recent years, but that could come to a screeching halt. The industry depends on a federal subsidy to keep it competitive with other forms of electricity. It’s a tax credit wind farms get for the power they produce. That credit expires at the end of the year, and it’s not clear whether Congress will renew it.“

Here are five recommended reads for today (2/15/12)

1. DeSmogBlog reports: “Internal Heartland Institute strategy and funding documents obtained by DeSmogBlog expose the heart of the climate denial machine – its current plans, many of its funders, and details that confirm what DeSmogBlog and others have reported for years. The heart of the climate denial machine relies on huge corporate and foundation funding from U.S. businesses including Microsoft, Koch Industries, Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) RJR Tobacco and more.”
2. According to Energy Boom, “DuPont, the leading U.S. chemical maker, and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., a leading Chinese PV panel maker, reached a $100 million deal this week with the goal of boosting supplies of solar-energy materials and promoting broader adoption of solar energy worldwide.”
3. Politico reports that “a variety of forces is pushing coal back to the brink.” These forces include: “federal power plant regulations that are more costly for coal than for other fuels, a barrage of environmentalist litigation hitting individual coal plants, and stiff competition from a glut of inexpensive domestic natural gas that is facing less aggressive attention from the EPA.”
4. At Grist, Daniel J. Weiss outlines “11 important clean energy proposals in Obama’s budget proposals.” These includes “Extend the production tax credit for wind energy.” “Invest in solar and wind energy,” and “Cut oil and gas tax breaks by $40 billion over a decade.”
5. CleanTechnica reports, “Domestic sales of solar PV cells [in Japan] rose 30.7% year-over-year in 2011 to 1,296 MW, the first time they’ve exceeded 1 gigawatt (GW), according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA), which noted that government incentives for homebuyers installing solar energy systems boosted the total.”