Busybusybusy, here’s the highlights of climate and energy news lately, especially as it affects KS and the Midwest.
Note first: Everyone here is talking about the weather. Tornados, floods, crops harvest commodities it’s all about the weather. And bemoaning or boasting about the state of our tomato plants after said weather. I’m fighting blossom drop. too much wet.
News:
More on the KS connections of sustainability architects working in Greensburg – Salina Journal. Quotable: “ After all, Hardy said, while nothing might be left of grandma’s house, many people still feel an attachment to the land it was on — and wouldn’t want to be told it was going to be the site of the new city hall, library or park. The property lines were still intact, Wedel said, and “if a plot of land has been in the family for four or five generations, going back through your parents, grandparents and to your great-grandparents who settled it,” that plot retains some importance. “We quickly learned that without any buildings, what you think of as a community, the community is still there,” Hardy said. “All of what you think of as a community is gone, but the relationships are still there.”
East Kansas Agri-Energy, LLC, Garnett, Kan. wins award from EnergyStar/ EPA for cutting greenhouse gas emissions – EPA press release
Utilities scrambling as floods compromise railways and delay coal shipments; prices could rise even further as a result - CNNmoney
Controversy over financing coal plants with bonds – Reuters – Even new coal plants with up to date pollution standards are at risk due to upcoming changes in regs re CO2 emissions. Quotable:” Thompson called on the federal government to investigate how tax-exempt bonds are used in building the plants because current plans are “based on outdated assumptions and a suspension of disbelief that the risks will be managed or wished away.”… But Moody’s, which gave the bonds a “A1″ rating, also warned that there are “no assurances that environmental regulation will remain the same. Any federal legislation that addresses greenhouse gas emissions could have an adverse impact on the cost of coal-fired generation.” Changing environmental regulations, including limits on the pollutants, or greenhouse gases, released into the atmosphere, is one threat to all coal plants’ viability, Thomson wrote. “Plants constructed under current rules will incur new financial obligations to curb greenhouse gases,” he wrote. He also said that AMP-Ohio is “proceeding based on the assumption that ratepayers will simply pay any price increases without question.” Problems could arise if they rebel against the increases.”
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
