Climate Change

Dustin Mulvany recently provided analysis and testimony on behalf of the Sierra Club on Utah's net metering debate.

Los Angeles County is currently leaving around 98 percent of its solar capacity untapped. Achieving just 10 percent of its rooftop solar potential could create 47,000 jobs and slash nearly 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually — the equivalent of taking about half a million cars off the road — according to new findings released Tuesday by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and highlighted in a White House announcement.

The Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law will be analyzing the Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants. Teaming up with Downstream Strategies, a Morgantown-based environmental consulting firm, the Center will be working on a project titled “Carbon Dioxide Emission Reduction Opportunities for the West Virginia Power Sector.” They will explore the various strategies available to West Virginia to comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan Proposed Rule. ...

They're on the move, scrambling on paws and wings to find refuge from a planetary catastrophe. No, I'm not talking about the computer-generated birds and beasts fleeing the flood in the blockbuster movie Noah. As a scientist, I see many wonderful wildlife species in the real world -- from sea turtles whose nesting beaches are being flooded by rising seas to polar bears dying as sea ice vanishes -- struggling to survive man-made climate change.

Other sources of energy, like renewable and nuclear power and natural gas, will be necessary for China all the same if the country hopes to control its carbon dioxide emissions. Clean coal "needs inevitably to be part of the solution in China, but it’s not the only solution. Far from it." said Gallagher, who just published a book on energy technology in China. Different kinds of power can serve different purposes, and it's impossible to predict which technologies will develop most successfully. ...

Kelly Levin, a senior research associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington, who has researched the implications of the IPCC’s carbon budget, told Mashable that Shell’s decision, along with the other companies that signed the [Trillion Tonne Communiqué], is a positive sign.

Amy Rogers has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support Forest for a Living, which seeks to pilot the first cost-efficient solution to deforestation and farmer exploitation in the tropics.

David Quist (2003) is now with the European Environment Agency, an agency of the European Union, working on natural resource use and emerging technologies for the EU's transition to a greener economy. Visit David Quist's LinkedIn profile or Twitter feed for more information

Even though renewables (not counting small hydro) averaged 12 percent of the in-state power mix between 2001 and 2012, compared to hydropower that generation did not vary unpredictably from year to year. That predictability is very valuable to your electric utility, which needs to plan ahead and unfortunately can’t forecast the water year. Read more