Division of Ratepayer Advocates, California State Government http://tinyurl.com/4uw5h48 [From Press Release] The California Legislature has set standards for renewable procurement — including 20 percent of utilities’ power coming from renewable sources by 2010, with a flexible compliance date of 2013. DRA’s report finds that utilities are well on their way to meeting the 20 percent … Continue reading »
Posted on February 22, 2011 …
Energy Critical Elements: Securing Materials for Emerging Technologies
APS Panel on Public Affairs, Materials Research Society http://tinyurl.com/4dchsyd [From Executive Summary] The twin pressures of increasing demand for energy and concern about climate change have stimulated research into new sources of energy and novel ways to store, transmit, transform, and conserve it. Scientific advances have enabled researchers to identify chemical elements with properties that … Continue reading »
EPA’s Regulatory Retrospective Review Information Site
US EPA http://www.epa.gov/improvingregulations/ [EPA site] EPA is beginning a new periodic retrospective review of our existing significant regulations to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, so as to make the Agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives. As called for by President Obama … Continue reading »
Safety Evaluation Report Related to Disposal of High-level Radioactive Wastes in a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada — Volume 3: Repository Safety After Permanent Closure
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission http://www.scribd.com/doc/49039638/Yucca-Mountain-Safety-Evaluation-Report-Volume-3 [From Heritage Foundation blog, The Foundry] As a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, The Heritage Foundation today obtained the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Yucca Mountain Volume III Safety Evaluation Report (SER). This document is critical because it contains the NRC’s conclusions regarding the scientific and technological … Continue reading »
America’s Great Outdoors: A Promise to Future Generations
US EPA, White House Council on Environmental Quality, Dept. of the Interior, Dept. of Agriculture http://americasgreatoutdoors.gov/report/ [National Parks Traveler blog] Noting that the Interior Department has billions of dollars in maintenance backlogs, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee says now is not the time to embark on more spending to expand the public … Continue reading »
Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone: Summary for Decision Makers
UN Environment Programme, World Meteorological Organization http://www.unep.org/gc/gc26/download.asp?ID=2197 [From Press Release] Using existing technologies and institutions to cut two local air pollutants can save millions of lives and avoid tens of billions of dollars of crop losses annually, while halving regional warming for 30 to 60 years. This will reduce the risk that the Arctic, Himalayas … Continue reading »
Coal Combustion Residuals Impoundment Assessment Reports
US EPA http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/surveys2/index.htm As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing national effort to assess the management of coal combustion residuals (CCR), EPA is releasing the final contractor reports assessing the structural integrity of impoundments and similar management units containing coal combustion residuals, commonly referred to as “coal ash,” at facilities. Most of the … Continue reading »
How U.S. Federal Climate Policy Could Affect Chemicals’ Credit Risk
World Resources Institute / by Shally Venugopal, Amanda Sauer and Kyle Loughlin http://tinyurl.com/62hteze This study, conducted with Standard & Poors Rating Services, examines how climate change policy drivers could be incorporated into the evaluation of credit quality. It analyzes two types of federal climate policy scenarios – (1) a market-based GHG emissions reduction policy as … Continue reading »
