IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Obama introduces the electric superhighway; Climate legislation hearings (finally) begin in the Senate; Fuel efficiency beats cup holders! ... PLUS: The myth of 'global cooling' ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': EPA to limit mercury emissions from power plants by 2011; French city installs power-saving, heat-sensitive lampposts; Massive Farmed Salmon Jailbreak In British Columbia; Past experiences makes Native Americans cautious on new renewable energy projects; China drywall 'made homes unsafe'; Why it’s better to invest in efficiency than to hold electricity rates down ... PLUS: Dear Mr. President: We face a national security threat on Coal River Mountain ....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Obama Announces Historic Investment in a 'Smart Grid Superhighway':
• Obama putting $3.4B toward a 'smart' power grid (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
• WHAT IS A 'SMART GRID'?: Smart grids: Wiser Wires (The Economist)
• Obama Names 'Smart Grid' Projects (Wall St. Journal)
• U.S. awards $3.4 billion in smart grid grants: 100 projects include plans to deploy 18 million smart meters (EE Times)
• Obama's Florida schedule to include FPL solar plant (Miami Herald)
• GM Plant to Re-open to Build Electric Cars:
• A maker of electric cars plans to use old GM plant in Delaware:: California-based Fisker is poised to revamp Wilmington factory (Washington Post)
• Fuel Efficiency Beats Cupholders with Consumers:
• Hell Froze Over: Fuel Economy Now More Important Than Number of Cup Holders to U.S. Car Buyers (Treehugger)
• OMG: Gas Mileage Is More Important Than Cupholders, Say Buyers (Green Car Reports)
• General Motors Ignored Data that Consumers Wanted Fuel Efficiency:
• Say it Ain't So! Detroit Ignored Fuel Efficiency Demands, Says Ex-GM Economist (Green Car Congress)
• Senate Hearings Begin on Landmark Climate & Clean energy Legislation:
• THIS JUST IN: Kerry smacks down Inhofe’s lies about the cost of climate policy (Grist):
  That’s good, but he could have said so much more. Even with those shortcomings of economic models, the costs turn out to be “modest,” in CBO chief Doug Elmendorf’s words.

  For more on why economic models overestimate the cost and underestimate the benefits of green policy see: “Why we overestimate the costs of climate change legislation.”

• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA): Telling the Whole Story on Global Warming (Huffington Post)
• Kicking Off The Senate Climate Debate... (The New Republic)
• Senate panel kicks off climate bill drive (Reuters)
• Who’s Who On The EPW: Senate Committee Begins Landmark Climate Hearings (Wonk Room)
• Boxer releases chairman’s mark, EPA releases economic analysis (Grist)
• Green Ink: Climate Week in the Senate (Wall St. Journal)
• Stonewalling by opponents means key legislation is unlikely to be in place by Copenhagen summit (Guardian UK)
• Senate's climate bill a bit more ambitious: Early version would cap carbon allowance prices --- and deficit (Washington Post)
• Senate Global Warming Bill Is Seeking to Cushion the Impact on Industry (NY Times)
• Six in Ten Americans Support Cap-And-Trade Legislation:
• CNN Poll: 6 in 10 back 'cap and trade' (CNN)
• SLIDESHOW: Photos from the International Day of Climate Action:
• 350.org: International Day of Climate Action

• We're only starting to get the real scale of what happened Saturday (350.org)
• Debunking the Myth of 'Global Cooling' --- AGAIN:
• AP IMPACT: Global cooling? Statisticians reject claims that climate trend is shifting (Baltimore Sun) [emphasis added]:
In a blind test, the AP gave temperature data to four independent statisticians and asked them to look for trends, without telling them what the numbers represented. The experts found no true temperature declines over time.

"If you look at the data and sort of cherry-pick a micro-trend within a bigger trend, that technique is particularly suspect," said John Grego, a professor of statistics at the University of South Carolina.

• “Global cooling” scam debunked yet again (Grist)
• TODAY'S MUSICAL GUEST: They Might Be Giants, "Electric Car":

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• EPA to limit mercury emissions from power plants by 2011 (McClatchy)
• Lights down as heat sensitive lampposts come to the streets of Toulouse: Streetlights go dim in the absence of pedestrians; Energy-saving trial just the start, says deputy mayor (Guardian UK)
• Massive Farmed Salmon Jailbreak In British Columbia (La Vida Locavore)
• Rethinking Green Jobs on the Rez (In These Times)
• China drywall 'made homes unsafe': Homeowners have reported health problems and damage to wiring; The US and China have agreed to investigate reports that a widely used Chinese-made building material has made people in the US ill and damaged homes. (BBC)
• Why it’s better to invest in efficiency than to hold electricity rates down: Efficiency investment has all sorts of social advantages, multiplier effects, and system-of-system benefits that rate assistance doesn’t. (Grist)
• Dear Mr. President: We face a national security threat on Coal River Mountain (Grist)

                 

Article Categories: Green News