Portland Awarded

I've finally got some news about Oregon. Portland has just received a Solar America Cities Award from the U.S. Department of Energy. Portland's Mayor Sam Adams has set a goal for the city of more than doubling its production of solar energy in the next 3 years. You can read more about it at here from Redgreenandblue.org. Hopefully Portland will receive additional funds for this kind of work.

EPA All The Way

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has found that greenhouse gases are a public health hazard. We already knew that, but two years ago the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA should make absolutely certain that were the case, and they did. This proclamation by the EPA is likely to force Congress into actually regulating carbon emissions among other things. Great news for the environment, venture capitalists, the green movement, and even for polluting industries who might actually be told where it is we want them to shoot for, rather than being left hanging in doubt, unable to move forward.

Wind Win

A Study conducted by The Brattle Group for ITC Holdings Corp. concluded that under future legislation for carbon control, wind energy will be economically competitive in windier sections of the united states, more specifically Midwest states like North and South Dakota. This projected viability hinges on the availability of extra high voltage transmission lines in these regions, which currently lack them. The chairman, president, and CEO of ITC Holdings Corp., Joseph L. Welch, has already presented the study findings before Congress. You can find the full study online as a pdf. ITC Holdings Corp., one must remember, is in the power grid business, so it makes sense for them to make as much noise about wind energy as possible in front of Congress, especially since the viability of said wind energy depends entirely upon upgrading the grid in a huge area. It may be self serving, it might even be just to make a few (OK more than a few) bucks off the government, but it still helps the environment, and I still think its awesome.

Wind and Water

While browsing through Red Green And Blue (one of my favorite sources for both political and environmental news) today, I found a couple day old article detailing a federal report claiming that wind power stations put in shallow seas could provide somewhere around 20% of the power demanded by coastal states. America has a lot of coastal states that use an unimaginable amount of power (Think LA). The study focused on the Atlantic ocean, but this marks a great step toward greater implementation of wind power in every coastal state, including Oregon! It gets better though, Red Green And Blue ran a follow up story three days later reporting that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Interior Department (who produced the aforementioned study) are actually making agreements for regulations on implementing this sea based wind farm. Regulation seems to me the first step a bureaucracy must take, simply by its very nature, towards actually accomplishing anything. This is good news indeed. A heartfelt thank you to Timothy B. Hurst for writing both articles, and making my day.

Inspiration

I'm a simple person. I care about my world, my environment, what is wrong in it, what is right in it, and what works in it, which, are not always the same things. I just finished reading "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis (http://www.buzzmachine.com), and I was inspired. The Internet is completely natural to me, so natural in fact that I have been taking the opportunity it presents for conversation, networking, sharing, and learning for granted. "WWGD?" made me realize that entering the online conversation isn't just opportunity, but necessity. The necessity of conversation brought me to the creation of this blog. I recommend "WWGD?" to anyone who hasn't read it. I am Corwin Scott, and this is my Blog. Here I am. Where are you? Please, join the conversation.