Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Ann Hancock on local greenhouse efforts (Audio)
Jason Bradford, Global Public Media
Today’s guest, Ann Hancock, led all local governments in Sonoma County towards agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What strategies can help Mendocino County, and what will make these pledges reality? Anne’s website is www.climateprotectioncampaign.org. Jason Bradford hosts The Reality Report, broadcast on KZYX&Z in Mendocino County, CA.
(4 Sep 2006)
Bush ‘prepares emissions U-turn’
Independent (UK) via Climate Ark
President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming, senior Washington sources say.
After years of trying to sabotage agreements to tackle climate change he is drawing up plans to control emissions of carbon dioxide and rapidly boost the use of renewable energy sources.
Administration insiders privately refer to the planned volte-face as Mr Bush’s “Nixon goes to China moment”, recalling how the former president amazed the world after years of refusing to deal with its Communist regime. Hardline global warming sceptics, however, are already publicly attacking the plans.
The rethink follows increasing pressure on the White House from Republican governors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, the mayors of more than 300 cities, business leaders and Congress.
Over the past few days rumours swept the capital that the “Toxic Texan” would announce his conversion this week, in an attempt to reduce the impact of a major speech tomorrow by Al Gore on solutions to climate change.
The White House denied the timing, but did not deny that a change of policy was on its way. Sources say that the most likely moment is the President’s State of the Union address in January.
(17 Sep 2006)
It’s hard to know what to make of this. We know that the Bush White House has tight security and uses leaks skillfully, so these hints are presumably authorized. So, is it a trial ballon to gauge public reaction? A Bush conversion is not as unlikely as it may seem at first. In the UK, the Conservatives have embraced a green position. Also, in a remark that the mass media have overlooked, Bush reportedly regrets global warming, energy policy decisions. -BA
Energy for a cool planet
Staff, Nature Magazine
The most pressing technological problem facing the world is uncoupling the provision of energy from the production of carbon dioxide. Developed countries no longer need to increase their energy use in order to increase the size of their economies, but developing countries do. And yet to add more carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere is to increase inexorably the chances of climatic chaos.
To highlight this issue Nature is assembling a suite of feature articles and associated material which will outline the promises and, where necessary, the pitfalls of new energy technologies. From mainstream possibilities like the expansion of nuclear power to more offbeat subjects such as microbial fuel cells and schemes for combining biofuel with fertiliser manufacture, this regularly updated Nature web focus will provide a comprehensive overview of the energy landscape.
(7 Sep 2006)
Unfortunately, the articles are all behind a paywall except for
Solar energy: A new day dawning?: Silicon Valley sunrise.
