Greenpeace

The Cape Wind project planned for the Massachusetts coastline has undergone extraordinary opposition since it was proposed in 2001. NIMBY attitudes are common everywhere, but when the potential loss of property from global warming is in your own neighborhood, how can it be so tough to see that solutions are desperately needed? Climate change will impact the FRONT YARD of property owners of some of the Atlantic shore's highest priced real estate. A new study indicates that he potential for losses in this part of the world are greater even than we once thought.

A team of researchers reporting in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is suggesting that moderate to high rates of ice melt from Greenland may cause sea levels off the northeast coast to rise by 12 to 20 inches more than other coastal areas.

"If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise," says scientist Aixue Hu, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the paper's lead author. "Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise."

The new research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and by NCAR's sponsor, the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was conducted by scientists at NCAR, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Florida State University.
(from Eureka Alert!:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/nsf-srm052709.php)

The efforts needed to meet regulatory requirements for this project have seemingly dwarfed the effort needed to actually erect the 130 turbines five miles off-shore on Horseshoe Shoals. All nine required local and state permits have already been granted. According to the Daily Green website, "The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board's approval of its electricity connection alone involved 2,900 pages of transcript, 923 exhibits and 50,000 pages of documentary evidence. The wind farm was originally projected to start producing electricity in 2005, but now the construction phase is likely to start in late 2010, with operations commencing in 2012."

Cape Wind Update:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/cape-wind-farm-460509?src=nl&mag=tdg&list=dgr&kw=ist

Now comes word from wall street that the facts are even starting to have an impact at the federal level. According to the Wall Street Journal's blog Environmental Capital authored by Keith Johnson "The U.S. doesn’t need any new nuclear or coal-fired plants. It can do the job with just renewable energy and natural gas.

Yes, that is Greenpeace’s energy blueprint. It’s also the line of Jon Wellinghoff, the new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the nominal head of the U.S. power system.

Mr. Wellinghoff’s optimism about wind power’s potential echoes that of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. For instance, Mr. Wellinghoff said the U.S. could have 1,000 gigawatts of wind power out West—that is, as much electricity capacity as the whole country has today."

It's time for the good citizens of Cape Cod to wake up, smell the greenhouse gasses, and get behind an energy solution that will protect not only their precious beach-front property but the rest of Earth's habitat, as well.

Energy [r]Evolution:
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/reports4/energy-r-evolution-a-sustain

What an interesting week we have endured. Our president has shown the nation that he has the media savvy to know when to pull the cookies from the oven. Right on the heels of several regulatory and legislative setbacks for the environmental movement, Obama has unveiled a plan to finally move toward new fuel economy and greenhouse gas reduction standards for automobiles sold in this country.

This amounts to nothing more than classic Washington sleight-of-hand. As the power of the Waxman-Markey Global Warming initiative is eroded away in committee, and Obama's Interior Secretary lets a Bush administration policy that dooms the polar bear stand, we are served warm goodies from the White House kitchen that smell of home cookin'. Mmmmm.

Assuming there will even be an American auto industry in 2016, cars from whatever is left of Ford, Chrysler, and GM may be required to meet the CO2 levels long proposed by California and 13 other states. These standards have been challenged by all those car makers (at a cost of millions in legal fees), but if the Obama proposals hold water, at least these cases can be consolidated at the federal level.

The US big three as well as foreign manufacturers (BMW, among others) have supposedly signed off on these new standards, but even those agreements may prove to be more aroma than substance. Nothing binding, yet, nothing that will require any real advances in technology or investment in efficiency initiatives. In fact, according to a New York Times report, Dave McCurdy, president of the industry’s largest trade association (Alliance of Auto Manufacturers) says the new mileage targets can be met using existing technology. 130 models already get 30 miles a gallon or better on the highway.

These new efforts do break some ground, but by the time significant reductions are realized, those cookies from the White House kitchen are going to be mighty stale