UK solar panel subsidies slashed

BBC News Business 
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The UK government has proposed cuts of up to 70% to the feed in tariff for large scale solar energy production.


The proposal would be implemented on the 1 August, reducing payments to farmers or owners of large commercial buildings.
The industry has reacted with anger to the proposal.
And investors have warned that cutting the scheme just a year after it was created will deter further investment in renewable energy.
"The whole investor market was totally disengaged as a result of the feed in tariff being ripped up," said Ben Warren, partner with Ernst and Young, a consultancy.  MORE......................

 The New York Times by Vikas Bajaj

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NELLORE, India — India has long struggled to provide enough electricity to light its homes and power its industry around the clock. In recent years, the government and private sector sought to change that by building scores of new power plants. 

But that campaign is now running into difficulties because the country cannot get enough fuel — principally coal — to run the plants. Clumsy policies, poor management and environmental concerns have hampered the country’s efforts to dig up fuel fast enough to keep up with its growing need for power. 

A complex system of subsidies and price controls has limited investment, particularly in resources like coal and natural gas. It has also created anomalies, like retail electricity prices that are lower than the cost of producing power, which lead to big losses at state-owned utilities. An unsettled debate about how much of its forests India should turn over to mining has also limited coal production.  MORE.....................

Climate Alarmist Calls For Burning Down Skeptics’ Homes

INFOWARS.com by Paul Joseph Watson

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Writing for Forbes Magazine, climate change alarmist Steve Zwick calls for skeptics of man-made global warming to be tracked, hunted down and have their homes burned to the ground, yet another shocking illustration of how eco-fascism is rife within the environmentalist lobby.

Comparing climate change skeptics to residents in Tennessee who refused to pay a $75 fee, resulting in firemen sitting back and watching their houses burn down, Zwick rants that anyone who actively questions global warming propaganda should face the same treatment.

“We know who the active denialists are – not the people who buy the lies, mind you, but the people who create the lies. Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn. Let’s swap their safe land for submerged islands. Let’s force them to bear the cost of rising food prices,” writes Zwick, adding, “They broke the climate. Why should the rest of us have to pay for it?”

MORE................

Tennessee Law Grants Academic Freedom to Science Teachers

The Heartland Institute by Joy Pullmann
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By a three-quarters margin, Tennessee legislators passed a bill that would allow public school teachers to objectively explain the strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories such as evolution and global warming.
Gov. Bill Haslam (R) allowed House Bill 368 to pass into law without his signature to underline his opposition, he said, because the legislature could override a veto. It passed the House 72-23 and the Senate 25-8 as Senate Bill 893.
The New York Times and Washington Post smacked legislators for passing the bill, saying it promotes “pseudoscience.” Nearly 3,200 people signed a petition to Haslam asking him to veto the bill.
“A lot of people used this bill as an opportunity to spew forth their venom and hate towards religion,” said bill sponsor and state Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville). “The bill doesn’t do anything but tell teachers, ‘As long as you stick with scientific objective facts you’ll be okay.’”  MORE.............................

Battery-powered autos proving a tough sell

Ford group vice president Derrick Kuzak discusses Ford’s Focus electric, which had no sales in February and March.

The Detroit News - Autos Insider by David Shepardson
View Original Article HERE

Electric vehicle sales have been slow out of the box, despite marketing hype, government incentives and the hopes of green car advocates.
Total sales last year were 17,425, which is less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. car and light truck market.
Nonetheless, automakers show no signs of pulling back their multibillion-dollar bets: They need electric cars to meet tough new fuel-efficiency standards. About a dozen new plug-ins and fully electric cars will go on sale in the next year.  MORE........................

Environmentalists Frustrated Over Maryland's Failed Offshore Wind Bill

Inside Climate News by Maria Gallucci

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A highly touted bill to kick-start Maryland's offshore wind energy industry died in the State Senate Finance Committee on Monday, the last day of the legislative calendar, essentially killing the measure until next year.

The delay angered environmental advocates. "The offshore wind bill was our top energy priority, and legislators couldn't get it done," Tommy Landers, director of Environment Maryland, an advocacy group, said in a statement on Tuesday. "That's a big, big shame for our future, our air quality, our health, and our economy."

The bill failed to come to a vote in the 11-member committee. Thomas Middleton, the panel's chair, said members would not vote unless the legislation had the majority support of the committee, Offshore Wind Wire reported.

Opponents have long-held concerns about the costs of building offshore wind farms to ratepayers.

The Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2012, which passed 88 to 47 in the House of Delegates on March 30, was a signature policy of Gov. Martin O'Malley. It would have required electric utilities to source 2.5 percent of their electricity from offshore wind projects—of which the United States has none. A similar measure last year withered in the same Senate committee.

O'Malley said he would push the wind measure for a third time next year.

The bill is seen as Maryland's best chance at capturing a slice of the coming manufacturing job boom in offshore wind. A recent Environment Maryland report found that deploying wind farms along Maryland's coast could create "thousands" of jobs for nearly 900 Maryland companies, especially those that could supply iron, steel, bolts and cables for turbines, connect towers to the sea floor and hook transmission lines to the electrical grid.

"This was a tough year for energy and climate policy in the General Assembly. But it is absolutely essential that Maryland tap into the wind blowing off our Atlantic Coast to power our homes and businesses. It's only a matter of time," Landers said.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAYS NO PUBLIC INPUT NEEDED

Recreational Fishing Alliance Contact: Jim Hutchinson, Jr. / 888-564-6732 For Immediate Release March 30, 2012 OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAYS NO PUBLIC INPUT NEEDED Denies Congress' Request To Allow More Comment On Oceans Takeover (03/30/2012) House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) received official notice from the Obama Administration denying the Chairman's request for a 90-day extension of the public comment period on the draft National Ocean Policy Implementation plan. "President Obama issued an Executive Order imposing a new bureaucracy to zone the oceans that threatens to deter new economic investment, suppress job creation, restrict even recreational fishing, block energy development, and stretch far from the shore to affect farmers and inland communities," Rep. Hastings said in an official release. "Given the high economic stakes, the vast amounts of new red-tape set to be unrolled, and the fact that some 15 agencies spent over two years devising this scheme, it's unreasonable that the Obama Administration won't allow the American people more than just 75 days to review and comment on it," added Chairman Hastings. The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) has been a longtime critic of the over burdensome bureaucracy of the National Oceans Policy going back to 2003 following a report by the Pew Ocean Commission when original legislation to bureaucratize management of our nation's oceans was first presented by Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) in the form of the Oceans 21 bill. RFA executive director Jim Donofrio, a vocal opponent of both the Farr bill and the President's executive order to bypass legislative process, has testified numerous times in front of Congress to stop what he called a "takeover" of our U.S. oceans by radical, anti-access agenda. "RFA has been back and forth to the House Natural Resources Committee many times over the past 10 years in an effort to stop this bureaucratic nonsense, and we've been very successful in keeping this bottled up thanks to the efforts of congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle," Donofrio said. "Then President Obama came in and essentially moved this bill out of Committee with the stroke of a pen, completely angering the legislative branch of government." In a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on June 18, 2009 in which Donofrio was asked to testify (see www.joinrfa.org/Press/RFACongress_062309.pdf), Rep. Don Young (R-AK) spoke out against the heavy influence of Pew Environment Group and their support of the Farr legislation, saying "this bill's not going to go anywhere." "You may try to work it through the House, you may have the Speaker help you out, but I'll stop it dead in the Senate, because you're not going to mess with my waters in Alaska, you're not going to mess with my fishermen as you've done in the past," Rep. Young added, calling the Farr bill "bad legislation" and warning fellow Committee members that the bill was being pushed by an "overzealous group of people" who were opposed to fishing. Despite the repeated failures by Rep. Farr to get his "bad legislation" out of Committee, President Obama initiated an executive order in July of 2010 (see release at www.joinrfa.org/Press/KingObama_072010.pdf) which bypassed the entire legislative process and excluded from the debate all those concerns brought up by RFA and the Committee members themselves. RFA called yesterday's announcement by the administration the final act by a President who is clouded by his own agenda. "This isn't just about our oceans, but everything connected to our nation's waterways will now be under federal control through this executive order," Donofrio said. "It's a complete takeover of every lake, river and stream that flows into the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, along with all the lands within." In an October 17, 2009 letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Donofrio brought up the RFA's critical concerns that the Administration's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was treading dangerously close to violating the Constitutional separation between the Legislative and Executive Branch of government. "RFA believes that enacting laws through Executive order and proclamation sets a dangerous precedence," Donofrio said. "RFA is concerned about the relatively rapid speed at which CEQ is advancing with this initiative and the apparent lack of opportunity the average recreational angler will have when the final Policy and subsequent bureaucracy is put in place," he added. (See RFA's official comments at www.joinrfa.org/press/CEQComments_101909.pdf). According to Chairman Hastings, despite all the Congressional hearings and numerous requests by his Committee for more information, the Administration has refused to tell Congress what programs will be cut to provide the money to fund this new bureaucracy. "This refusal to allow a thorough and open review of the plan to carry-out the President's Executive Order is another example of the Obama Administration prioritizing their job-destroying agenda over the livelihoods of Americans from coast to coast," added Chairman Hastings. Donofrio said while there may be partisan gridlock in Congress between democrats and republicans at times, the House Natural Resources Committee has always provided a stellar example of bipartisan unity in support of issues related to the management, conservation and utilization of our nation's resources. (Watch Committee member Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida cross-examining Pew Environment Group consultant Terry Gibson at the most recent hearing on National Oceans Policy at www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLqFgyRMzBI). "Some folks don't want to hear it, but the fact is that President Obama and his appointees have completely disregarded the legislative process, that they have ignored the requests by Congress, while supporting the input of environmental business leaders like Pew and Environmental Defense Fund over that of the American people," Donofrio said. "The only way to stop this federal takeover of our public resources now is to have a new executive order rescinding the previous one, and that can only be done by a new president." "That's not partisan politics, that's just simple truth," Donofrio said, adding "If you don't like the king's decree, you need to participate in an American revolution on Tuesday, November 6." RFA encourages anglers to sit down and view testimony from the 10/26/11 House Natural Resources Committee hearing archived it its entirety at: http://resources.edgeboss.net/wmedia/resources/112/2011_10_26_fc.wvx. For a select look at NOAA's bad day in Congress in support of the President's National Oceans Policy, use the scroll bar in the media window to fast-forward ahead to a few of the best parts. 1:15 - Committee Chairman Doc Hastings describes lack of response from Obama administration regarding National Ocean Policy bureaucracy. 40:20 - Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) provides single token letter of angler support for the executive order, that of John McMurray, an advisor for Environmental Defense Fund hand-picked by Dr. Jane Lubchenco to represent New York fishermen at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC). 1:34:10 - Rep. Don Young (R-AK) grills Dr. Lubchenco on her comments that "quite a few fishermen" support the executive order, though she's unable to produce a name except to say the MAFMC ("same one as you put catch shares involved into," replies Young.) 1:42:00 - Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) questions the use of new "regulation" under the executive order, though neither Dr. Lubchenco nor Sutley seem willing or capable of appropriately answering the congressman's question about regulations and enforcement. 1:54:40 - In his opening five-minute remarks, Donofrio calls executive order "a complete government takeover of our fisheries," while criticizing NOAA for not funding scientific efforts which he calls the "administration's complete disregard of personal liberties and state's rights." 2:13:03 - In answering a question from Chairman Hastings about science, Donofrio says NOAA "couldn't run a kindergarten playground," charging the fisheries service with perjuring itself in a recent black sea bass lawsuit, saying "they lied to the judge, yet they're keeping us at the dock based on MRFSS data." 2:23:30 - Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) calls the ocean policy "ideological" and asks Donofrio about how stakeholder input is considered by NOAA. "Dr. Lubchenco's administration has been whacking people off the councils and stacking them with their own people," Donofrio replied. "So of course she throws it back to the council now and said 'okay the councils are going to make the decision.'" 2:28:10 - In response to a follow-up question from Rep. Jon Runyan (R-NJ) about the state of the fishing industry, Donofrio said fishermen are "disgusted with federal regulations that are not allowing them to fish on rebuilt stocks and NOAA's not doing a thing about it." About Recreational Fishing Alliance The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation's saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit www.joinrfa.org.

No Global Warming For 15 Years

THE GLOBAL WARMING POLICY FOUNDATION

View Original Article HERE

New UK Met Office global temperature data confirms that the world has not warmed in the past 15 years.

Analysis by the GWPF of the newly released HadCRUT4 global temperature database shows that there has been no global warming in the past 15 years - a timescale that challenges current models of global warming.

The graph shows the global annual average temperature since 1997. No statistically significant trend can be discerned from the data. The only statistically acceptable conclusion to be drawn from the HadCRUT4 data is that between 1997 – 2011 it has remained constant, with a global temperature of 14.44 +/- 0.16 deg C (2 standard deviations.)

The important question is whether 15 years is a sufficient length of time from which to draw climatic conclusions that are usually considered over 30 years, as well as its implications for climate projections. MORE.........................

Solar Trust of America files bankruptcy

REUTERS by Jonathan Stemple

View Original Article HERE

Solar Trust of America LLC, which holds the development rights for the world's largest solar power project, on Monday filed for bankruptcy protection after its majority owner began insolvency proceedings in Germany.

The Oakland-based company has held rights for the 1,000-megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project in the Southern California desert, which last April won $2.1 billion of conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is unclear how the bankruptcy will affect that project. MORE...............

The Negative Math of Wind and Solar Energy

Many people support wind and solar energy because they believe it replaces an equal amount of reliable energy in the form of coal, nuclear, natural gas, and in some areas of the country, hydroelectric. They generally understand solar energy is not available at night and on cloudy days, and that wind turbines do not provide energy when the wind doesn’t blow. Some even recognize if the wind blows too hard, the turbines must be shut down or the motors fail.

However, most people don’t understand the problem intermittent energy creates for PJM – the systems operator in this region, and bigger problems created due to the inability to store unreliable energy and dispatch it when needed.

System operators are responsible for scheduling arrivals and departures of electricity, which must be kept in precise balance or risk system failure. Based on long experience, the operators know approximately how much electricity must be scheduled to meet anticipated demand and plan accordingly. With reliable sources of energy this is an easy task because these sources of energy are usually only down for scheduled maintenance.

Because the “arrival” of solar and wind energy is difficult to predict, PJM is now using weather forecasts to help address scheduling problems. Even then, anyone who has relied on the forecast of sun, to plan a day at the beach, only to be greeted by clouds and rain, understands even short term forecasts are an inexact science.

So, how do you plan for the “departure” of unreliable, intermittent energy when its availability is generally difficult to predict? Answer – you can’t. This is because there is currently no cost-effective utility scale storage solution available to reliably dispatch wind or solar energy, using available battery technology – or any other technology.

This means each unit of alternative energy deployed must be backed up, or tended, by an equal unit of reliable energy. The consequence of this scientific reality is that wind and solar energy does not add to overall system capacity value, it actually reduces the capacity value of the grid and lessens the ability to meet demand. This has already led to system outages in Texas, which has the most installed wind capacity of any State in the Union. As alternative energy penetration increases, these problems will increase in frequency and severity.

Those on the inside are well aware of these problems. Rather than building reliable generation and adding to new capacity, the proponents of alternative energy argue society must demand less. If demand is not voluntarily reduced, the consequence will be prioritized electricity delivery, in order to protect the integrity of the grid. The bottom line is less electricity for consumers and businesses, more expensive electricity for everyone, and less prosperity for America.

John A. Nichols

NV Energy windmill program generates rebates, little electricity

Las Vegas SUN by Anjeanette Damon
View Original Article HERE

A year ago, a Reno clean energy businessman warned the Public Utilities Commission that if it didn’t set a few standards for NV Energy’s wind rebate program, its customers could end up footing the bill for turbines that rarely produce electricity.
One reason behind his concern: To be eligible for rebates, customers didn’t need to prove that the wind actually blows enough to justify installing a turbine on their property. MORE...............

Businesses, Investors Betting on Future of Natural Gas

CNBC by Matthew J. Belvedere

View Original Article HERE

Energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens has been proselytizing for some time now about what he thinks is a secret weapon to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil: natural gas.

The U.S. is sitting on lots of it and right now it is dirt cheap.

“We looked at natural gas two years ago. We’ve been listening to Mr. Pickens,” Mark Schupan, president and CEO of Schupan & Sons told CNBC’s “Street Signs.” MORE.........................

Petrol, pasties and the politics of panic: No.10 shambles over drivers hoarding fuel, and the tax on takeaway food

MailOnline by James Chapman and Ray Massey
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How far are we from this situation in this country?

Ministers appear to give conflicting advice on how motorists should cope with threatened fuel strike

Cameron tries to seize control of crisis as panic plays out at the pumps

Then PM declares his love of Cornish pasties in an attempt to calm criticism of new 'pasty tax'

Meanwhile, RAF personnel train to operate fuel lorries to counter walk-out

Francis Maude stokes chaos by advising drivers to fill up spare jerry cans

Firefighters say message would 'massively increase' fire and explosion risks

Sales of petrol up 45 per cent yesterday compared to a normal Tuesday

Miliband STILL refuses to condemn Unite, Labour's biggest union paymaster

Filling up the family car and buying a hot snack are two of the simple realities of everyday life.

But yesterday they conspired to plunge the Government into a day which veered between high farce and panic.

First, ministers appeared to give conflicting advice on how motorists should cope with threatened fuel shortages caused by a looming strike by militant tanker drivers MORE.............

Wind farms in Pacific Northwest paid to not produce

Fox News.com by Dan Springer

View Original Article and Video HERE

Wind farms in the Pacific Northwest -- built with government subsidies and maintained with tax credits for every megawatt produced -- are now getting paid to shut down as the federal agency charged with managing the region's electricity grid says there's an oversupply of renewable power at certain times of the year.

The problem arose during the late spring and early summer last year. Rapid snow melt filled the Columbia River Basin. The water rushed through the 31 dams run by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in Portland, Ore., allowing for peak hydropower generation. At the very same time, the wind howled, leading to maximum wind power production.

Demand could not keep up with supply, so BPA shut down the wind farms for nearly 200 hours over 38 days.

"It's the one system in the world where in real time, moment to moment, you have to produce as much energy as is being consumed," BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said of the renewable energy.

Now, Bonneville is offering to compensate wind companies for half their lost revenue. The bill could reach up to $50 million a year.

The extra payout means energy users will eventually have to pay more.

"We require taxpayers to subsidize the production of renewable energy, and now we want ratepayers to pay renewable energy companies when they lose money?" asked Todd Myers, director of the Center for the Environment of the Washington Policy Center and author of "Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment."

"That's a ridiculous system that keeps piling...

READ MORE.........................

Government proposes first carbon limits on power plants

REUTERS by Timothy Gardner

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The Obama administration proposed on Tuesday the first rules to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new U.S. power plants, a move hotly contested by Republicans and industry in an election year.

The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal would effectively stop the building of most new coal-fired plants in an industry that is moving rapidly to more natural gas. But the rules will not regulate existing power plants, the source of one third of U.S. emissions, and will not apply to any plants that start construction over the next 12 months. MORE..............

EPA Still a Threat to Property Owners

Farm Futures by Gary H Baise

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News articles and comment on the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in Sackett v Environmental Protection Agency are bursting with enthusiasm. But there's reason enough to sober up over this decision.

The EPA regulators clearly lost the battle on their compliance order strategy, but they have not lost the war on wetlands and taking private property of landowners.

In 2010, EPA filed 3,995 compliance orders, and in 2006 EPA filed 19,008 such orders. EPA is busy in taking away private property from land owners.

The Sacketts of Idaho, who are trying to build a house on 0.63 acres, are in for a long, expensive and time consuming slog with the EPA. One need only to look to EPA's most egregious case of spending over 22 years destroying the Charley Johnson family in Massachusetts, over the definition of a wetland. MORE.................

Court rules against EPA in Spruce Mine case

The West Virginia RECORD by Michael Tremoglie and Chris Dickerson

View Original Article HERE

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) -- In yet another court case to limit what has been termed an Obama administration EPA power grab, a ruling has resulted in yet another court saying that the EPA is arrogating too much power.

The March 23 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of Mingo Logan Coal v. EPA came two days after the Supreme Court ruled against the EPA in Sackett v. EPA.

This case -- like Sackett -- involved the EPA's enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Here, the EPA tried to withdraw permission to use two streams as discharge sites. The permission was granted three years earlier by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Just as the Supreme Court ruled in Sackett, the District Court ruled that the EPA's interpretation of its authority to enforce the CWA was erroneous. MORE..................