Ameren Illinois Utilities propose Energy Efficiency plan

The Ameren Illinois Utilities have filed an energy efficiency plan with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) designed to help customers save money by reducing their natural gas usage.

Customers will be given a variety of options from which to cut their energy costs. For example, the plan proposes incentives for residential customers to install high-efficiency furnaces, automatic programmable thermostats, water heater and hot water pipe insulation, wall insulation and low-emissivity double-pane windows.

There also will be programs for low-income customers and incentives for apartment building owners and commercial customers that will help them improve energy efficiency.

New energy Law Increases Opportunities For Businesses

New energy efficiency requirements will spur sales of many next-generation products -- from light emitting diodes to cutting edge biofuels -- to help America go greener.

Suppliers of components for fuel-efficient cars will be big winners as automakers scramble to meet a 40% increase in average fuel efficiency by 2020. They'll snap up diesel engines from BorgWarner, IHI Corp. and Honeywell's Garrett. And batteries for hybrids from Johnson Controls and Panasonic. Hitachi, TRW and others will see more orders for electronic and mechanical components.

Lighting manufacturers can also expect their order books to fill up fast. New efficiency regulations for lighting will effectively KO incandescent bulbs by the middle of the next decade. Lighting firms such as Osram Sylvania and Philips can expect huge demand for light emitting diodes, compact fluorescents and pinpoint halogens. Among smaller firms likely to benefit: Element Labs, an LED expert. And Orion Energy Services, a leading player in efficient fluorescents.

Students Tackle Global Warming Through Game

Four groups of students finished the college’s National Symposium on Global Warming with the Climate Change Game, working as corporations, governments and individuals to affect climate change and reduce carbon emission from their respective organizations.

"It puts people in charge of the global climate,” said Medard Gabel, a consultant with Big Picture, Small World, which designed the climate game and helps educate students and corporate offices on the subject matter. “It’s about changes we need to make as a society to deal with the climate change. There are things we can do as governments, corporations, organizations and as individuals.”

Each group was given a set of strategies released by international scientists on what people could do to help alleviate the problem in their respective areas, such as raising fuel efficiency standards. From all 17 corporations, governments and organizations listed, the groups chose to represent, the Chinese government, U.S. government, Chinese individuals and Wal-Mart.

With students within the groups working against each other as “change-makers” and “keepers of the status quo,” the game wasn’t entirely easy, especially when the goal was a 200 billion ton reduction of carbon. Students also tried to outdo each other, funding certain programs and making deals or merely bribing two students representing the media outlets for preferential treatment.

Rise In CO2 Emissions Predicted

Definitive figures for the UK's 2006 carbon dioxide emissions published on Thursday are expected to show further rises in the climate change gas, CO2. Provisional statistics for 2006, published last March, showed UK emissions were around 1.2% higher than 2005.

And despite the Government's commitment to taking action on global warming - shown most recently in the Climate Change Bill - figures look set to show a 2.7% increase since Labour came to power in 1997. While the UK is set to meet and exceed its Kyoto target of 12.5% cuts on 1990 levels by the period 2008 to 2012, it has become clear the Government will not meet its 20% cuts by 2010 manifesto target.

College to host 2-day global warming teach-in

North Shore Community College already has started making its campus environmentally friendly, but with the two-day National Global Warming Teach-in starting Thursday, the college hopes to shift the focus to the entire community. US Senator John Kerry will be among legislators who will participate in a 'Dialogue with Decision Makers' on Friday.

The school's Lynn campus on Thursday and Friday will join other colleges and universities across the nation in hosting the event as part of Focus the Nation, an effort to educate citizens about the effects of global warming and climate change. The event will host local lawmakers, environmental specialists, and members of local environmental councils, and will feature speeches, demonstrations, and displays.

New Book Highlights Global Warming Policy

What? Yet another book on global warming? Yes, and it is needed. While there are a number of excellent books explaining the problem of global warming, these are surprisingly devoid of actionable policy recommendations. The result is that the reading public is generally aware that global warming is serious and tough choices need to be made in the next decade. However, what the choices are and why we can wait a decade to implement them remains vague.

"Global Warming: The Answer (The Energy Dividend)" (published by AuthorHouse - http://www.authorhouse.com), the new book by Wilfred Candler, steps directly into the policy void with a simple philosophy: Get the prices right, and all else will follow.

Has Global Warming Been Proven?

There are still global warming skeptics:

Jonathan Chait of the New Republic magazine points out that a recent National Journal poll found that 84 percent of House and Senate Republicans surveyed didn't believe that it has been ``proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made problems.''

That rather stunning poll result causes one to ask whether these skeptics have even made themselves aware of the Fourth Assessment of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In that report, the panel's 2,000-plus scientists concluded that there was more than a 90 percent chance that human activity was the main cause of global warming over the last half- century.

What do you think?

Global Warming May See Santa Claus In Shorts

If the most dire climate forecasts come true the tourism industry in Europe's far north, already feeling the effects of global warming, may find itself promoting a Santa in shorts and a camel-drawn sleigh.

Each year at the end of autumn, residents, shopkeepers, travel agencies, reindeer herders and even politicians in the Finnish Arctic town of Rovaniemi - home to Santa Claus' Village, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Finland - look to the skies in the hopes of a snowy winter.

Washington - Global Warming & Theft

This is an excerpt from an editorial in the Seattle Times that peeked my curiosity. It got me to thinking that Washingtonians have a litttle more to worry about this holiday season.

They have Stan "Pampy" Barre, III lurking in their midst. Who knows if Stan "Pampy" Barre, III will go on another crime spree to possibly steal some child's XBox.

Outdoors economy demands governor's focus

If the recent record floods and droughts haven't gotten our attention, we are not paying attention.

As an avid angler and a proud grandfather, I am very concerned about the devastating effects that global warming could have on the region's treasured fishing heritage. On top of the enormous human toll, recent flooding scours out spawning nests and destroys critical river habitat for our wild salmon and steelhead.

Because the stakes are so high, I am closely watching the actions and decisions of the state Climate Advisory Team, which will soon release a draft report of recommendations.

I am looking to Gov. Christine Gregoire for strong leadership on this issue. She should be bold in addressing the issue of global warming as it impacts our economy and culture, including our sportfishing traditions.

To all parents in Washington State: Make sure you keep your homes and vehicles secure, this holiday season. You don't want Stan "Pampy" Barre, III stealing your kids' Xbox.

Protection for 'Ribbon Seals' Sought

The Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday filed a 91-page petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service seeking to list ribbon seals as threatened or endangered. The group says the classification is needed because sea ice is disappearing due to climate change brought on by humans.

The petition marks the center's second attempt to use the Endangered Species Act to force action on global warming. Within weeks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to list polar bears as threatened because of habitat loss from global warming.

World climate experts who made up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in February that global warming "very likely" is caused by human use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.

EPA won't allow 17 States to set emission standards for cars

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday denied California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.

The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the proposed California rules were pre-empted by federal authority and made moot by the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said California had failed to make a compelling case that it needed authority to write its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks to help curb global warming.

The 17 states — including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — had waited two years for the Bush administration to issue a ruling on an application to set stricter air quality standards than those adopted by the federal government. The decision, technically known as a Clean Air Act waiver, was the first time California was refused permission to impose its own pollution rules; the federal government had previously granted the state more than 50 waivers.

The new federal law will require automakers to meet a 35-mile-per-gallon fleetwide standard for cars and trucks sold in the United States by 2020. It does not address carbon dioxide emissions, but such emissions would be reduced as cars were forced to become more fuel efficient.

Twelve other states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — had proposed standards like California’s, and the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah said they would do the same.

If the waiver had been granted and the 16 other states had adopted the California standard, it would have covered at least half of all vehicles sold in the United States.

Bush signs Bill boosting Fuel Standards

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed into law Wednesday legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming.

The legislation signed by Bush at a ceremony at the Energy Department requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also ramps up production of ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022.

Bush said the new requirements will help "address our vulnerabilities and dependency" on foreign oil by reducing demand for gasoline and diversifying the nation's fuel supply.

Presidential Hopefuls Take on Global Warming

At their final face-off in Iowa last week, the three leading Democratic presidential candidates tried to outdo each other in describing their commitment to fight global warming.

Hillary Clinton wants to rally Americans on climate change the way they rallied behind the space program when she was a child.

John Edwards calls the fight against global warming a "moral responsibility" which demands leadership from a president who will draw on American patriotism for something other than war.

Barack Obama calls it a "moral imperative" to leave the planet clean for his two young girls.

But in the wake of the recent Bali climate summit are prospective successors to George W. Bush pledging to move quickly enough for the rest of the world? Or are they in line with the American electorate?

The San Francisco Sprint

San Francisco sprints towards use of tidal power today in the race to combat global warming.

Initially, tidal wave energy will produce enough power for 1,500 homes beginning in 2012, San Francisco based Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announces at 9:00 a.m. this morning.

The announcement is the latest move by PG&E to “aggressively add renewable energy to its power mix,” reported utility spokesmen.

PG&E currently supplies 12 percent of its energy from qualifying renewable sources under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program. |Read on|

Bali Talks Progress

From the outset, the major schism was between most developing countries and the US, which found itself in a spoiler role. In the final plenary session, challenged to "lead, follow or get out of the way", the US delegation was forced into last-minute concessions.

The meeting had barely closed when George W. Bush expressed "serious concerns", speaking of the "legitimate" right of every country to economic growth and a need for developing countries to take more responsibility for cutting emissions.

But there was progress. First, 188 nations agreed to continue talking, through a meeting in Poland next year leading up to Copenhagen late in 2009, where a successor to Kyoto is to be negotiated.

Global Warming Talks in Bali

During the global warming talks, in Bali, negotiators agreed to start two years of talks on a new climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the main deal for fighting climate change until 2012, to bind outsiders led by the United States, China and India.

The talks will start with a first meeting by April 2008 and end with adoption of a new treaty in Copenhagen in late 2009.

A U.S. U-turn allowed the deal to go ahead after a dramatic session in which Washington was booed for opposing demands by poor nations for the rich to do more to help them fight global warming.

Red Cross Weigh In On Global Warming Crises

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has pointed to the growing role of global warming in causing natural disasters.

The Swiss-based humanitarian agency made the comments as it published its World Disasters Report 2007, which this year focuses on tackling discrimination of women, people with disabilities and the elderly during catastrophes.

There were 427 disasters in 2006 compared with 433 in 2005. In the same period, the number of affected people dropped ten per cent, while the number of deaths plunged by 75 per cent to 23,833.

Disaster costs were estimated at $34.5 billion (SFr39 billion) for 2006, a much lower figure than in 2005 - $210 billion - the year of the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

However, the annual report also noted that more than two thirds of natural disasters last year were caused by floods or by extreme weather and pointed to global warming as the main factor.

UN Chief says gas cuts too ambitious

Guidelines on greenhouse gas emissions cuts opposed by the United States may be "too ambitious" to include in a final statement from the climate conference in Bali, the U.N. chief said Wednesday.

Drafts of the conference statement obtained by The Associated Press have included a call for industrialized countries to reduce emissions blamed for global warming by between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, said such goals might have to wait for subsequent negotiations, though he added that at some point targets for emissions cuts would be necessary.

"Realistically, it may be too ambitious" to set guidelines now, Ban told reporters, when asked about steadfast opposition by the United States, though he urged Washington to be flexible.

Later he added, "Practically speaking, this will have to be negotiated down the road."

Talks at the two-week U.N. climate conference, which wraps up Friday, intensified with the arrival of ministers and heads of state. Many leaders, in a series of speeches, urged the world to quickly impose deep cuts in emissions to head off scientific predictions of rising seas, worsening droughts and famines, and melting ice-sheets due to global warming. |Read on|

Al Gore - Climate missing from U.S. elections

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore said on Monday the U.S. presidential election campaign had paid insufficient attention to the environment and climate change.

Gore & IPCC to accept Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore said the Nobel Peace Prize he accepts Monday already has helped draw the world's attention to global warming and he expressed optimism that growing public pressure would push governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

The former vice president shares the prize with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be represented at Monday's award ceremony by its leader, Rajendra Pachauri.

A day before accepting the prize, Gore said reducing greenhouse gases was essential to fighting the ``planetary emergency'' of global warming. ``That phrase may sound shrill to some ears but it is accurate,'' he said. |Read more|