November - 2017

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Keystone Pipeline Spills 210,000 Gallons Of Oil On Eve Of Permitting Decision For TransCanada

Keystone Pipeline Spills 210,000 Gallons Of Oil On Eve Of Permitting Decision For TransCanada

The spill comes just days before a crucial decision next Monday by the Public Service Commission in Nebraska over whether to grant a permit for a new, long-delayed sister pipeline called Keystone XL, which has been mired in controversy for several years. Both are owned by Calgary-based TransCanada. The spill on the first Keystone pipeline is the latest in a series of leaks that critics of the new pipeline say shows that TransCanada should not receive another permit. “TransC

Fixing Climate Change ...

Fixing Climate Change ...

PETER DIAMANDIS — This blog looks at four options: Pass government legislation that incentivizes carbon abatement Drive mass adoption of solar energy and battery technology Adapt ourselves and our civilization to the changing climate Invest in geoscale engineering projects Let’s dive in. 1. Government Regulation and Top-Down Incentives We’ve seen many government debates, laws passed and treaties signed. We’ve heard a lot about the efficacy of cap and trade, taxing carbon, and

Rolls-Royce To Skip Hybrids And Go Straight To Electric Vehicles

Rolls-Royce To Skip Hybrids And Go Straight To Electric Vehicles

Autocar reports that Rolls-Royce is not looking into expanding its portfolio of vehicles with hybrid technology. Instead, the marque will pursue electric cars. “Electrification is the way forward—and there will be no in between steps for us like hybridization,” Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Otvös told the British publication. “It is the propulsion system for the future, make no error. There is a time—nobody can predict when—when there will be no combustion engines. That will

Zillow Expands Solar Energy Rooftop Scores To 84 Million Homes

Zillow Expands Solar Energy Rooftop Scores To 84 Million Homes

Zillow has partnered with two startups, Sun Number and Wave Solar, to include Sun Number’s proprietary rooftop solar scoring system on 84 million properties on Zillow nationwide as of today. That’s up from 40 million buildings on Zillow that had a Sun Number listed as of last year. Sun Number’s methodology is complex, but the idea is simple. The tech startup has developed a 1-100 scoring system that provides homeowners with a measurement of how good their rooftop is for solar

California May Reach Its Renewable Energy Goal 10 Years Early

California May Reach Its Renewable Energy Goal 10 Years Early

FUTURISM — In 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that would see the state committing to renewable energy. The law gave California until 2030 to ensure 50 percent of its electricity came from renewable sources like the Sun and wind. At the time, Brown made it clear that fossil fuels are taking humanity down a dangerous path, despite their impact on getting us this far. “We’ve got to realize that we are here today because of oil — oil and gas, [and] to a lesser

Tesla Unveils Its Electric 'Semi' Truck ... And Adds A Roadster

Tesla Unveils Its Electric 'Semi' Truck ... And Adds A Roadster

A workhorse truck and a new supercar are in the works for Tesla, after founder and CEO Elon Musk introduced his company's latest effort to widen the U.S. market for electric vehicles Thursday night. Musk called the Roadster "the fastest production car ever made, period." Musk unveiled the Roadster toward the end of an event that was supposed to be all about Tesla's new Semi trucks. Taking a page from Apple and other tech companies in using showmanship to wow crowds, Musk surp

Oregon Governor Kate Brown Calls For Solar Ready Homes By 2020

Oregon Governor Kate Brown Calls For Solar Ready Homes By 2020

Last week, Gov. Kate Brown signed an executive order saying in about three years, all new homes must be built wired and ready to install solar panels. Currently, homes in Oregon are not necessarily designed to have solar panels put on top of them. That means if a homeowner wants to add the panels, they often have to pay to retrofit their homes. That may mean, among other things, adding new wiring inside. The governor's executive order would require all homes built after S

Solar Power Is Growing Way Faster Than Predicted

Solar Installers Are Getting Closer To Profitability

Solar Installers Are Getting Closer To Profitability

BLOOMBERG — There’s long been a Catch-22 about residential solar: despite staggering market demand, it’s been hard to make money doing it. Until now. Sunrun Inc. said Wednesday that it’s cash-flow positive. And Blackstone Group LP-backed Vivint Solar Inc. expects to hit that mark next year. Rooftop solar installers have chased growth in recent years, investing revenue into marketing and installations. The model helped fuel the expansion of residential power systems in the U.S

Syria Signs Paris Climate Agreement And Leaves US Isolated

Syria Signs Paris Climate Agreement And Leaves US Isolated

Syria has decided to sign the Paris agreement on climate change, the world’s final functioning state to do so. The surprise decision, taken amid a brutal civil war in the country, will leave the US as the only country outside the agreement if it follows through on President Donald Trump’s vow to leave. Syria’s decision brings to 197 the number of nations signed up to the landmark 2015 pact on global warming, the first in more than 20 years of UN negotiations to bind both deve

Trump Administration Releases Report Finding 'No Convincing Alternative Explanation' For Cli

Trump Administration Releases Report Finding 'No Convincing Alternative Explanation' For Cli

THE WASHINGTON POST — To the surprise of some scientists, the White House did not seek to prevent the release of the government’s National Climate Assessment. The report affirms that climate change is driven almost entirely by human action, warns of potential sea-level rise as high as eight feet by the year 2100, and details climate-related damage across the United States that is already unfolding as a result of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming since 1900. “It is ex

By 2100, Our Carbon Usage May Be Enough To Trigger A 10,000-Year-Long Ecological Disaster

By 2100, Our Carbon Usage May Be Enough To Trigger A 10,000-Year-Long Ecological Disaster

“Thresholds of Catastrophe” Daniel Rothman, a professor of geophysics in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, recently published a study in Science Advances that could change how we think about the future of our environment. For his study, Rothman analyzed changes in the carbon cycle over the past 540 million years, including all five mass extinction events, and used mathematics to demarcate “thresholds of catastrophe” in the carbon cycle. Moving be

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