Environmental Law

In The News (October 17)

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

• California utility and energy regulators have approved a set of recommendations for how the state should comply with its legal mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the list includes urging that utilities ramp up their renewable power sources to 33 percent of their supply, and that at least some carbon emissions permits be sold at auction when a cap-and-trade program gets going; from a joint statement issued by the California Public Utilties Commission and the California Energy Commission. Officials also made the official documents and other supporting materials, including an audio recording, available. Key recommendations were similar to those outlined in a Climate Law Update report last month.
• The partnership of Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that recently conducted the nation's first auction of carbon permits lays out new details of the event, showing some bids as high as $12, from a statement issued by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Incorporated. It describes the full report on the event from the official market monitor.
• Even the renewable energy industry, it seems, isn't immune from the effects of the nation's financial woes, with word that work at a pair of New York state wind projects has been stopped, in a move tied to "conditions in the financial markets," according to a report in the the Press-Republican.
• The pros and cons of long-term contracts signed by landowners with wind energy companies in the heartland -- some netting up to $10,000 a turbine -- are examined in this article from the Omaha World Herald.
• A little less light in the City of Lights, apparently, with news that to send an energy-saving message, the management of the Eiffel Tower is cutting down on the iconic structure's display of sparkling lights -- now they'll only twinkle for five minutes every hour, instead of 10, according to Reuters.
• Tradeable credits from saving forests, wetlands and endangered species is set to be a growth area for investors seeking to fight climate change, this from the head of a New Zealand carbon trading market, as reported in this Reuters dispatch.
• A new high-resolution solar map of the entire Western Hemisphere is now available online, released by 3TIER, according to Clean Edge News. Have a look at the new tool here. 
• Here's more on how the worldwide economic downturn is threatening Europe's plans to combat climate change, from The New York Times.
• Nuclear power gets a boost as a solution to global warming in a new report from an agency advising countries on the energy source, according to Green Inc., a blog at The New York Times.
• New federal statistics show increases in both natural gas and oil reserves in the United States, according to a statement from the Energy Information Administration. 
• Then again, Cuba is apparently pretty flush with offshore petroleum, at least according to new estimates put out by that country, as reported by the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital. 

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on October 17, 2008 (boomark / email).