5 states threaten to sue EPA to get carbon curbs

Interesting way to go about things, but brings a point, why doesn’t ships and aircraft have ever increasing emissons standards like cars? 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Five states led by California on Thursday gave notice of their intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if it does not act soon to reduce carbon emissions from ships, aircraft and off-road vehicles.

In a letter prepared by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the five states and New York City accuse the Bush administration of ignoring their requests to set restrictions.

The threatened lawsuit comes as California is challenging the EPA in federal court over its decision last year to prohibit the state from imposing its own emission standards on vehicles.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25954478/

Stressed plants migrate up mountain

Study measures climb, while warming and or drought cited as factors

LOS ANGELES – Striking new research in the Southern California mountains suggests recent warming is behind a massive die-off and rapid migration to higher ground by nine different plants — from desert shrubs to white firs.

Within 30 years, most had moved to elevations 200 feet above their previous growth range. The findings provide a glimpse of what could happen to the world’s vegetation as the Earth faces inevitable global warming.

Scientists have long warned that human-caused climate change threatens to turn plants into refugees as they migrate to higher, cooler spots to survive. The latest study is the first to physically measure changes in plants’ locations in connection with regional warming — whether man-made or part of a normal cycle — over the past three decades.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26144821/

When building green harms the environment

Gay Browne and her husband Tony have set out to build the greenest house in Montecito, Calif., in a small gated community near the ocean. They’ll find the task much simpler than when they pursued the same green goal, in 1994, in Pacific Palisades, outside of Los Angeles.

Back then, builders had no idea about which materials were truly sustainable or were start-to-finish green, as opposed to being “greenwashed” — materials and appliances that might purport environmental friendliness through advertising or a fancy seal, but are environmentally detrimental. When Gay needed countertops, she took a Geiger counter to a rock quarry to find the stones with the lowest radiation levels; she even found the one insulation maker in the country that used cotton batting instead of environmentally harmful fiberglass. In other words, she had to do everything herself.

Today, Browne, as the founder of greenopia.com, a site that helps consumers distinguish between those products that are highly efficient and have a low footprint from those that are masquerading as environmentally conscious (likely to take advantage of the growing green-materials market), has a much better idea as to what home-building materials and procedures are the greenest. The site is now a go-to resource for truly green construction, as buying greenwashed materials isn’t just the slightly less environmentally friendly alternative; these products can increase your carbon footprint significantly.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25740603/

http://www.greenopia.com/USA/

New Honda hybrid will compete with Prius

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – A top Honda Motor Co. executive said Wednesday the company’s new gas-electric hybrid will be priced lower than the Toyota Prius, its prime competitor.

The new five-door car will only be available with a hybrid powertrain. It will be smaller than Honda’s Civic and also will be priced less than a hybrid gas-electric version of the Civic, said Richard Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26178036/

Ocean ‘dead zones’ now top 400, experts find

WASHINGTON – Like a chronic disease wasting a body, ocean “dead zones” with too little oxygen for marine life are spreading around the globe, researchers reported Thursday.

The experts counted 405 dead zones in 2007 — a third more than their 1995 survey.

“The number of dead zones has approximately doubled each decade since the 1960s,” the researchers wrote in the journal Science.

…..The dead zones covered an area of 95,000 square miles in 2007. The largest U.S. dead zone is at the mouth of the Mississippi River and this summer covers some 8,000 square miles, about the size of New Jersey…..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26202398/

Scientists ‘listen’ to plants to find pollution

TEL AVIV – Scientists in Israel have discovered a new way to test for water pollution by “listening” to what the plants growing in water have to say.

By shining a laser beam on the tiny pieces of algae floating in the water, the researchers said they hear sound waves that tell them the type and amount of contamination in the water.

“It is a red light, telling us that something is beginning to go wrong with the quality of water,” said Zvy Dubinsky, an aquatic biologist at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. “Algae is the first thing to be affected by a change in water quality.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26200052/

$25 Million: Hyperion Sells First Mini Nuclear Power Module

Do you want your own nuclear reactor?

Hyperion Power Generation’s CEO, John R. “Grizz” Deal has announced that the company has received its first Letter of Intent to purchase the Hyperion Power Module (TM) (HPM), a small, compact, transportable, nuclear power reactor.

The intention to purchase up to six units for various projects, at approximately $25 million each, was placed by TES Group, an investment company focusing on the energy sector in Central Eastern Europe. If successful, they could potentially be in the market for up to 50 HPMs. Each power module provides 27 megawatts of electricity when connected to a steam turbine, enough to provide electricity for 20,000 average-size American-style homes or the industrial equivalent.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news08/next-energy-news8.13.08c.html

U.S. Scientists Set a New Solar Cell Efficiency Record of 40.8%

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8 percent of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news08/next-energy-news8.14.08d.html

Study: All New Vehicles By 2020 Will Have Some Level of Hybridization

While technological progress will continue to top the list of automotive priorities in 2020, sustainability shoots up to a close number two, according to a new study on the automotive industry by the IBM Institute for Business Value.

Eight-five percent of the top auto companies worldwide participated in the study, including all of the top 10.

Alternative power will see continued innovation that extends far beyond 2020, with hybridization and battery technology leading the drive toward environmentally sustainable transportation, according to the report. Micro-, mild- and full-hybridization are currently undergoing extensive development today, and study participants believe strongly that by 2020 all new vehicles will have some level of hybridization.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/08/study-all-new-v.html

More-Efficient Solar Cells

A new solar panel could lower costs and improve efficiency.

By changing they way that conventional silicon solar panels are made, Day4 Energy, a startup based in Burnaby, British Columbia, has found a way to cut the cost of solar power by 25 percent, says George Rubin, the company’s president.

The company has developed a new electrode that, together with a redesigned solar-cell structure, allows solar panels to absorb more light and operate at a higher voltage. This increases the efficiency of multicrystalline silicon solar panels from an industry standard of about 14 percent to nearly 17 percent. Because of this higher efficiency, Day4’s solar panels generate more power than conventional panels do, yet they will cost the same, Rubin says. He estimates the cost per watt of solar power would be about $3, compared with $4 for conventional solar cells. That will translate into electricity prices of about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour in sunny areas, down from about 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, he says.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/21255/