Top Stories
Biz Leaders: Prop 23 Could Stall Renewable
Energy Investments.—reliability high.
"if California’s Proposition 23 passes this November, it could put at
risk 500,000 clean tech jobs, 12,000 companies and billions of dollars
of private investment in California, say business and investment
leaders, according to a report from the Clean Economy Network (CEN).
The Nov. 2 ballot measure would delay the implementation of certain
parts of Assembly Bill 32, the 2006 law requiring that the state reduce
its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, until the
state’s 12.3 percent unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent for four
consecutive calendar quarters". Story in Environmental
Leader from Sacramento Bee. PDF of report here.
[The roll-back
measure is mainly sponsored by Texas oil companies and other fossil
energy interests. Because of the favorable regulatory climate reflected
by AB32, California has many cleantech companies and significant
cleantech investment, which abandonment of AB32 would put at risk. So
this initiative campaign pits oil money against cleantech investors in
the U.S.'s biggest economy. See Alta wind project item below to get a
sense of the scale of new energy investment in California. Oil money
may not be enough.]
Carbon policies will drive heavy industry
out of UK, report warns.—reliability high.
"Rising energy prices and the government’s climate change policies
will drive energy-intensive industries overseas, warns a report
published jointly today by the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) and
the TUC. The report cites steel making, ceramics, paper, cement and
lime manufacture, aluminium and basic inorganic chemicals as industries
based in the UK which face increases in their energy costs of up to 141
per cent by 2020, taking into account electricity, gas and
emission-reduction schemes." See BusinessGreen
story. Another story at Bloomberg
says "Companies including Tata Steel Ltd. and GrowHow U.K. Ltd. may
leave the U.K. as climate-protection policies boost electricity and
natural-gas costs." PDF of the report here.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Wind farm 'mega-project' underway in Mojave
Desert.—reliability high.
"The multibillion-dollar Alta Wind Energy Center ... is officially
breaking ground in the Tehachapi Pass, a burgeoning hot spot for wind
energy about 75 miles north of Los Angeles. When completed, Alta could
produce three times as much energy as the country's largest existing
wind farm, analysts said. It's slated to be done in the next decade.
The project will probably be a wind power bellwether, affecting the way
renewable energy deals are financed, the development of new electricity
storage systems and how governments regulate the industry, said Billy
Gamboa, a renewable energy analyst with the California Center for
Sustainable Energy. 'It's a super-mega-project — it'll definitely set a
precedent for the rest of the state and have a pretty large impact on
the wind industry in general,' he said." Story in The
Los Angeles Times. Another story on the project from Reuters.
[This is a $1.6 bln
project. I don't think its backers want to roll back AB32.]
Enterprise Rent-A-Car to Begin Offering
Electric Vehicles in U.S.—reliability high.
"Enterprise Rent-A-Car today announced the first phase of its plans to
offer electric vehicles (EVs) at select offices throughout its
neighborhood network of more than 5,000 U.S. locations. Delivery of 500
Nissan LEAFs will begin in January 2011 and will continue throughout
the year. In addition to the LEAFs, the company will offer customers
electric vehicles from other manufacturers as they become available."
See CSRwire.
Commercial Airlines May Get 1% of Fuel From
Biofuels By 2015, Boeing Says.—reliability high.
"Commercial airlines may derive 1 percent of their fuel by 2015 from
biofuels made of plants including algae, Boeing Co.'s environment chief
said." From Bloomberg.
[Of course air
travel will increase substantially between now and 2015, so we will be
using much more fossil fuel to fly by then than we do now.]
Government and
Regulation
BSG hybrid expected to be standard for cars
in China.—reliability medium.
"A new policy that will influence every aspect of the auto industry is
now under discussion. General Manager of Chery New Energy Company, Yuan
Tao, said Thursday that relevant authorities are now planning to issue
a policy on hybrid vehicle technology, requiring new PCVs [passenger
vehicles?] to be equipped with the BSG hybrid system for fuel
efficiency. An industry insider from Dongfeng motor confirmed the
statement, and said implementation should happen by 2012. The BSG is a mild
hybrid technology that can save about five percent on fuel." From Global
Times.
Science and
Economics
Climate change equals more Mexican
migration: study.—reliability high.
"For every 10 percent of lost crop yields, 2 percent more Mexicans
will leave and most will try to come to the United States, Michael
Oppenheimer of Princeton University in New Jersey and colleagues
predicted. ... Oppenheimer's team looked at Mexican census data from
1995 to 2005, along with statistics on crop production and climate
data. 'We lined up the climate changes, the crop production changes ...
with the census data, which allowed us to infer the emigration rate,'
he said. ... By the year 2080, they projected, between 1.4 million and
6.7 million Mexican adults will emigrate as a result of reduced farm
productivity." Story at Reuters.
Abstract and open access article here.
[We have heard
abstract assertions about climate-change-driven migration, and also
arguments against such assertions. Here is some research on migration
across a specific border under specific circumstances.]
