Indiana lagging on renewable energy plan

While one state is making a substantial imprint in moving to alternative energy it is leaving its neighboring state in the dust. Since 2008 Michigan started passing laws requiring to get 10 percent of their energy from renewable sources and energy efficiency by 2015. Michael Shore, a spokesman for a Michigan Economic Development Corp, said “ Since the adoption of the renewable energy standard in Michigan, we have attracted more than $9 billion in new investment in new alternative energy manufacturing business." Those $9 billion dollars will create more than 9,000 job all over the state in the next 10 years. Michael Shore has targeted on alternative energy such as solar, wind, biofuels and as well as advanced batteries because they believe that those are energy source for the future. While this strategy isn’t a secret Michigan doesn’t talk much about it because if they do they won’t have much of a competitive advantage. Indiana is one of 14 states nationwide without any kind of renewable energy standard, according to the Pew Center of Global Climate Change. One of the reasons why Indiana hans’t passed any laws is because their houses couldn't agree on a compromise because one senator wanted to include a nuclear energy among the renewables. They also felt that if a certain amount of electricity had from a alternative energy source they would have to increase the rate of electricity because it isn’t as cheap as coal.

These is how Indiana compares to its surrounding states:

Illinois: 25 percent of energy from renewables by 2025 (75 percent of that from wind.) Adopted in 2007.
Indiana: None.
Michigan: 10 percent renewable energy portfolio by 2015 (some may be from energy efficiency.) Adopted in 2008.
Ohio: 25 percent of all electricity sold in 2025 must come from alternative energy (12.5 percent from renewables, half of that must be produced in state. The alternative energy may be energy efficiency and clean coal.) Adopted in 2008.
Wisconsin: 10 percent by 2015. Adopted in 2006.
There shouldn’t be any reason why any state doesn’t have a laws to adopt a certain amount of renewable or alternative energy by a certain date, especially because they couldn’t agree because a senator wanted to include nuclear energy. Nuclear energy itself isn’t possible without effecting the environment at a high cost. At this day and age all 50 states should have some sort of goal to become self sufficient in the upcoming years.

Oak Park approves free parking for electric vehicles

Big changes are coming to a small town in Illinois. The board members in Oak Park made the decision the ended on a 5-2 vote on Tuesday that would allow electric cars two hours of free parking and would give the owners free village parking stickers. It might not seems much but as the village manager Tom Barwin says, its “a very small impact, but is part of a larger effort the country should undertake to revitalize the auto industry and be a leader in electric vehicles.This new proposal will be effective for the next 2 years and the board can readdress the issue if there is any problems.
Even though it might same like a small step it are attracting good attention to their town. This proposal will encourage that residents to but electric cars but most importantly lure in car companies who offer electric cars that will support the town itself . If this proposal becomes successful Oak Park will decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that would be otherwise be put in the air and create some new development around the town. Construction will be needed for convenient location for recharge stations around town. One of the two people who denied the proposal, John Hedges, explained why he didn’t like the idea of subsidized parking for a select amount of people; “Being a progressive community I’m concerned about the regressive (nature) of this plan because what we are doing is for those people who can afford to buy electric vehicles, (we are having) everyone else in the community support your parking costs,”

The author of this article, Jim Jaworski, does rise a good argument. Even thought personally I believe that no new law is perfect Oak Park is heading towards a good direction even though it has some negative side affects. Like Tom Barwin said, it is a small step to help solve a big problem, it is those small steps that add up to make a big difference.

Alternative energy costs keep falling

Will solar power and biofuels ever be up to par the challenge gasoline? They are many articles giving evidence that we will run out of petroleum way before alternative energy is available to everyone around the world, but Marc Roca believes that there might be a slight chance that alternative energy can fight the odds. In his article Alternative energy costs keep falling, he goes through many aspects explaining why production cost is decreasing. As a consultant said in the article, Ethanol derived from sugar-rich grasses and other non-edible substances may pose a credible challenge to gasoline by the end of the decade. They are finding new materials that are cheap therefore making the overall the production cheaper. They expect solar thermal projects and bio-fuel production to be at a higher successful level compared to other technologies such as offshore wind power, carbon capture and storage.

This article was a very informative article it give insight to the different type of alternative energy that they are trying to mass produce that we will be able to use for our houses and specially what type of fuel that they expect will be more success to use rather then gasoline. As a society we are very dependent on petroleum and its difficult for us to imagine using any other resource besides that. Slowly but surely we are coming to realization that the abuse we have done to the Earth’s will soon end we will need to find another source of energy. The transition is going to difficult and unwelcome, since we are a society that is sometimes afraid of change, but we are realizing that they are more efficient ways to do things that’ll benefit us and the Earth.

Electric and plug−in cars hit the mass market, largely ignored

The all-electric car is coming in quick but when it does come it is going to bring several obstacles with it. The first mass market electric and plug- in hybrid are going to come by the end of the year, but consumer demand for the vehicles may not match the buzz surrounding electric cars, according to a study released last week by J.D. Power and Associates, an information services company. With the release of these new types of vehicles they will contribute in the effort of fighting global warming but in the aspect of the consumer these vehicles won’t satisfy a lot of the need that they require. "If you look at the longer history of cars and Americans, we've always really liked power and range," Stanton said. "Cars represent the technology of freedom, and autonomy and mobility, but the electric car puts limits on those ideas. That's a tricky concept to market to the American public." These all-electric and plug-in vehicles will have a limit on the range they will be able to drive for and the duration of the charging time will also be another aspect consumers will consider before they make a purchase. At the same gas vehicles also had to go through this challenge, so the only question there is to ask is when would be start the movement? Now or later?

Derek Schlom did a great job in this article by addressing all the key points. He also raises the question on when are we going to start switching to a alternative energy because we will go through the same struggle when we came out with gas power vehicles. Some of the details that would of given his article some strength is if he could of gotten into the details of how far all-electric and plug-in cars can go and what is the average time it takes to charge their batteries.

New Solar Powered Air Conditioning System Cools Beverage Trucks

Have you ever thought about solar air conditioning? Well its a concept that wasn’t thought about until a couple of years ago. It sounds like a oxymoron but its a very simple idea, solar air conditioning is an air conditioning system that runs on electricity harvested from solar energy. Companies like Coca-Cola have been introducing this new type of technology into their new fleets of trucks, which benefits them at a large scale. Hong Kong Polytechnic University are looking into developing this new type of technology and improving it. The team has been working on a solar powered air conditioning system that would significantly reduce or eliminate beverage delivery truck emissions related to cooling. How the new technology works is by rooftop system that collects solar energy and stores it in a battery, so the use of alternative energy can continue during inclement weather. The battery storage system is also almost a necessity for using solar energy in high density urban delivery driving, when you consider that a delivery truck may frequent roads that are shaded by tall buildings, to say nothing of getting stuck in traffic, especially in a tunnel. When you step back and look at it in a whole, you’ll see the the amount of carbon dioxide will be saved that would other wise be put back into the environment.

The author Tina Casey gives a good insight on how solar air conditioning works but I feel that she would have expanded on the topic to give the reader a deeper understanding on the topic. One of the things that I believe would of made her article better is if she would of given some facts such as, how many trucks are on the road today, how much carbon dioxide are put out by these trucks and how much would be saved if major companies start using this technology. Overall the use of this new technology will be beneficial in a lot of aspects from the producer, consumer, and of course the environment.

Italy Returns to Nuclear Power

Another country that is going to the wrong directions just to meet some of their needs. Italy announced recently that they are going to go back to nuclear power. To give a little history on Italy energy production at one time Italy had four nuclear power plants. All of these plants were all decommissioned and are being demolished. But Italy is preparing to start its nuclear energy program again. The government says in order to satisfy the country’s energy needs it is necessary to return to using nuclear power again. The government believe it is the best decision they can make to meet the energy demand since they import 80% of the fossil fuels just to use it to supply for electricity. Even still the Italian voters passed a national referendum by 80% margin and banned a nuclear power in Italy, the italian government passed a new law that sidesteps the referendum.
Under the Kyoto protocol, Italy is required to improve its energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. In order to meet its commitments Italy says it has return to nuclear power.

In reality Italy is taking a step back in plans that they are going to need to step forward in the future. The Italian government see that in order to reduce their fossil fuel consumption the solution is to simply turn to nuclear power, which is the wrong direction. To improve this article Brahms should of went into more details of how Italy supported their energy consumption after they tore down the four nuclear power plants that they had. They should have consider the fact that 80% of their population doesn’t support the idea of using nuclear power plants, so that have impacted their decision making and make them realize that approaching the problem in a Green way it would of been better.

Highlights: Global Climate and Alternative Energy

Like with many things in life when it comes down to it, its all about the money. Ultimately switching to alternative energy is a business, someone is going to profit from the product and the consumer is going to spend money on the product. In this article gives a small insight of how alternative energy should be available to the consumer with reasonable circumstances. Daniel Kammen World Bank clean energy chief expresses this idea by stating, "We need to make a clean energy transition and we need to do it in a way that is inclusive and supportive of the poor, and not for the wealthy first and the poor second.” One of the major areas we need to attack to reduce our green house gases is enforcing not just strict laws but they also have to be appealing to the companies. We often find a obstruction on the road to being carbon free because we enforce laws that are sometimes to much for companies to afford, Han Seung-soo, a former U.N. special envoy on climate change, expresses this idea by saying, “I do not, frankly speaking, expect too much from the COP-16 (conference of parties next month) in Cancun, because opinions are so divided and an agreement has not been made between major carbon emitters.”

We sometimes say that we can’t afford to do certain things but at the same time we got ask ourselves what will be the consequences if don’t afford it now and wait till it is to late. For example, we are risking losing our outer bank due to the risk of rising ocean levels, losing a lot of precious land. Should we wait till this happens and say we couldn’t afford doing anything about it? When it comes down to it in order to help the situation there is going to be a sacrifice now but it won’t be greater if we were to wait to the problem get bigger.

Important Trends in Alternative Energy

U.S. Energy Information Administration released their most recent report regarding the consumption of alternative energy in the United States. Not surprisingly you quickly see our dependency on fossil fuels making it a total of 37%.On a happier note you see that theres a 7% of energy production made out of renewable resources. When you look into the 7% you see that the highest percent of renewable energy output is Biomass, meaning the burning of fuels produced from renewable sources such as ethanol production and second to that is Hydroelectric also most of these productions are from the same states like New York and California. Even though 7% is a low number comparing it to the other percentages the U.S. is slowly increasing that number. Many states have committed to renewable energy goals, generally striving for about 20% generation capacity by 2020. If growth continues in renewable energy at the present rate, that figure should be well within reach.

When looking at the percentages within the renewable energy what was surprising was how low energy output from solar and wind is. When you think about it you have sun light over half of a day and wind depending where you are located at is sometimes always available. This article was very informative but to improve it I believe there should have been some comparing and contrasting some of the information from previous years to see how we are increasing the renewable energy output and also comparing out statistics with other countries.

Winning the Race for Renewable Energy

Yet Again another blog describing the possible shortcomings of the US compared to other leading countries around to world in the race for a new renewable source that we can use in our daily lives. Jeff Simmons describes in this article the extent of importance that ethanol is to our economy. By using ethanol it support the biofuel industry and creates 400,000 American jobs, mostly in rural areas where employment opportunities are desperately needed. He continues by explaining the positive benefits in using ethanol which are reduces carbon monoxide and other toxic emissions from vehicles, thereby causing less air pollution. What’s really appealing about this source of energy is how easy it is to grow in our own US soil which cuts off the string we have on foreign oil. The downfall to it all is that on December 31st congress is going to rule on the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit that helps support the growth of ethanol production in the U.S. With fingers crossed hopefully it’ll it passed again.

Simmons and I are very similar to how we feel about this subject. US always been a country where it will exceed in everything it wants to but when it comes to a topic like this it is always a few steps back from the rest of the competition.The only short coming of this article is that I wish Simmons would of went into more detail in how the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit pushes for more ethanol use because at a public level I really don’t see a lot of use for ethanol if it isn’t for commercial work, where is a area that needs to be touched upon but is only a faction to the whole.

REFILE-U.S. seen losing renewable energy race to Asia

In a race of using the best technology for alternative energy seems like the U.S. is always left in the back of the line for what ever reason. This blog touches on a couple of reason why we are losing this battle when we are capable of doing so much more.
Countries like India,South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines have put effort into helping this global problem. Unlike the U.S., they have a decent amount of funding for the development of alternative energy. As Ravi Viswanathan, a partner at New Enterprise Associates told a hearing chaired by U.S.Representative Ed Markey, "These nations have outpaced the U.S. in recruiting, incenting and developing domestic manufacturing of solar, wind,and battery technology.". One of the biggest failures we have in this area is when Senate failed to pass a climate bill this year that would put a price on carbon emissions, so it must pass laws that would create demand for alternative energy or fall further behind, experts told the panel.

Businesses are sometimes torn between whether they should do the right thing or to do what would increase their salary, and in many cases to do the right it usually involves some spending. This is what we see in this instance, where the Senate might be hesitant to pass bills because they know that the major companies wouldn't agree with the new bill. To improve the quality of the blog I believe the author should of including the ratio of the decision on the failure to pass the climate bill and maybe some more quotes from those who declined the decision and why they voted it down. We got to ask ourselves whether we should do whats morally right or whats economically right.

Experts stump for alternative energy

Dale Rodebaugh writes about Paul Gipe ,of Wind Works of Bakersfield, Calif, stood up and demanded for a quick change. He purposed that we in the United States should enforce feed-in tariffs to push the general public into using alternative use to energy. For such a that is so ahead in technology he states that we are so behind most big countries in using natural resources which makes no sense. “The rest of the world is ahead of the United States in using feed-in tariffs that allow farmers, individuals or small businesses to sell the power they produce at a reasonable price”. Gipe’s form of enforcing these feed-in tariffs calms that it will embrace three elements- guaranteed access to the grid by energy producers, payments based on the true cost of producing electricity, and long-term contracts to make the venture worthwhile. Also while purposing his idea Gipe made sure he threw some statistics in there to the public wouldn't have such concerning questions but stating Germany in the first six months of this year installed twice as many solar photovoltaic systems as the United States has in the last 20 years and Italy's total solar photovoltaic installations in the first quarter of this year was expected to exceed that of the United States. We got to ask ourselves is this what America is really all about?

Rodebaugh made a good argument for Paul Gipe. Rodebaugh made sure he hit all the key concepts the Gipe announced in his speech. Even though Gipe wants to raise up our tariffs it is for the greater good as you read on. What Gipe whats to do is put a ball in motion because was Gipe said we are so behind in the playing field compared to a lot of big countries.

Germany agrees to extend life of nuclear power stations

William Delcarmen
9/10/2010
2:44

Germen chancellor, Angela Merkel, made the decision to extend usage of nuclear power plants for a average of another 12 years and claimed it as a “"revolution in energy provision". There is a common censuses of a large about of people who don’t agree with this new agreement that Merkel pushed forward with. She argues is that this project will “aid it embracing of renewable energy that she had agreed to keep nuclear power plants running for longer. She also claims nuclear power would be a "bridge" that would allow more time for reliable and affordable technologies to be developed.”She ended by saying that these nuclear plants will also contribute to the renewable energy investment fund which is also in the agreement that she created. Countries surrounding Germany like Austria looked down at the decision calling it a “disappointment" and a "retrograde step" for energy policy, where around the world many countries are in the process of moving forward to the more popular more efficient product of renewable resources. Austrian environment minister Nikolaus Berlakovich, commented on the subject by saying, "What's clear is that atomic energy is no answer to climate change and no sustainable way in which to reduce CO2 emissions.”, making all the negative effects of nuclear power plants evident.

Kate Connolly the author of this article hit really great point by writing about all of the different aspects of the argument, whether it was from the public thoughts about the subject to politicians to the Germen chancellor herself. What I felt would have made this article a touch stronger is if Connolly would have gotten into the mind of the public to explain why their positions of not agreeing with this agreement. I personally believed Germany being such a large country in Europe set forward a ugly foot in the movement all countries are trying to avoid. Hopefully later with the power of the Green Party in Germany they can change this agreement or better eliminate it making Merkel realize that renewable energy is what she really need to push forward with.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/06/germany-extend-nuclear-power-stations

A Nuclear Giant Moves Into Wind

William Delcarmen

September 3, 2010

Alternative Energy

Exelon, one of the largest companies that produce nuclear power, has announced that they will move toward a more green development after withdrawing from a construction where they were going to build a twin-unit nuclear power plant in Victoria County Texas. “The company says it is sticking by its commitment two years ago to cut its carbon dioxide output in 2020 by 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.” Which would cut more than the total emissions they produced in 2001. They plan on converting to a large amount of wind power by buying John Deere Renewables, “which has 735 megawatts in operation and 230 megawatts in “advanced stages of development”, with this conversion it will make Exelon the largest nation’s largest wind operators.

Exelon is heading down a bright road, its good to see large nuclear plants moving into alternative resources to produce energy. It is a fact the nuclear plants are effective in producing energy but at the same time it is very dangerous. If a power plant was to have one mistake it will set off a chain of catastrophic melt downs that in turn affect miles of where the power plant is and put lives in danger of sickness or death. Exelon is setting a great example for other large companies around the world and will encourage them to turn to a different source of energy. Consumers love seeing companies turn to natural source of energy because when they buy products from that company, it gratifies them to know that they are supporting a company that is taking the right steps to help the earth.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/a-nuclear-giant-moves-into-wind/?scp=5&sq=alternative%20energy&st=cse