via Tiny Green Bubble • US Military Has Aggressive Biofuel Goals.

(NC Warn—Duke) Solar photovoltaic system costs have fallen steadily for decades. They are projected to fall even farther over the next 10 years. Meanwhile, projected costs for construction of new nuclear plants have risen steadily over the last decade, and they continue to rise.

In the past year, the lines have crossed in North Carolina. Electricity from new solar installations is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants. This new development has profound implications for North Carolina’s energy and economic future. Each and every stakeholder in North Carolina’s energy sector — citizens, elected officials, solar power installers and manufacturers, and electric utilities — should recognize this watershed moment.

Commercial-scale solar developers are already offering utilities electricity at 14 cents or less per kWh. Duke Energy and Progress Energy are limiting or rejecting these offers and pushing ahead with plans for nuclear plants which, if ever completed, would generate electricity at much higher costs — 14–18 cents per kilowatt-hour according to present estimates. The delivered price to customers would be somewhat higher for both sources.

NCW-SolarReport_final1.pdf (application/pdf Object).

El Mirage voters in November will consider a long-term plan to transform the West Valley city into a transit-oriented, environmentally friendly arts hub. Officials also want to cut the city’s carbon footprint by half over the next several decades and create parcels for organic and urban gardens.

The El Mirage City Council approved the plan earlier this month.

“It’s an ambitious plan,” said Scott Chesney, the city’s economic development director.

El Mirage already is doing some things outlined in the plan, such as trying to attract artists and creative businesses via zoning changes that allow for live-work studios, and hooking them up with federal stimulus help such as weatherization grants and energy-efficiency tax breaks.

But the plan hinges on the recovery of the real estate and lending markets and building transit-oriented, urban development around a possible commuter rail station near Grand Avenue and Thunderbird Road. There is a proposal to create a commuter rail line along the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks to link the city to downtown Phoenix.

“El Mirage wants to build a jobs core around a train station,” Chesney said.

The Maricopa Association of Governments is moving forward with plans for a 30- to 50-mile Grand Avenue commuter line that could run to Wickenburg. But MAG planner Marc Pearsall said such a line hinges on finding funding and likely is a decade away. MAG’s Regional Council approved the idea of a Grand Avenue rail line in May.

“Since there is no existing funding for commuter rail in our existing Regional Transportation Plan, a new funding source would need to be identified and sent to the voters. In today’s economic and political climate, that may be very difficult for the near future,” Pearsall said.

A May MAG report on the Grand line estimates costs of $434 million to $701 million, depending on the length of the line.

About 200 acres of land near Grand and Thunderbird could be redeveloped around the train station, including a 140-acre lot of the north side of Grand used by BNSF.

Chesney stressed the plan is long-term when it comes to transit-oriented developments and finding ways to reduce El Mirage’s carbon footprint.

via El Mirage plan would create urban arts hub – Phoenix Business Journal.

The rice has been approved, but is not being commercially marketed.

Denny Deshotels claimed that he and his family lost more than $1 million when the market dropped, and he incurred more costs by switching crops and cleaning his equipment of the LibertyLink rice. He sought $1.5 million in damages.

via Courthouse News Service.

The government will submit plans to develop cleaner energy, including nuclear power and gas from unconventional sources, in 2011 to 2020 to the State Council, or Cabinet, for approval, Jiang Bing, head of the National Energy Administration’s planning and development department, said in Beijing today.

China needs between 500 billion and 600 billion yuan annually to develop energy-conservation and low-carbon technologies, according to the government’s 2050 China Energy and CO2 Emissions Report published last year. The country attracted $11.5 billion of asset financing in clean-energy technology in the second quarter, more than Europe and the U.S. combined, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said on July 13.

via China May Spend $738 Billion on Clean Energy Projects – BusinessWeek.

(UPI) German scientists Juergen Pfitzer and Helmut Naegele invented “liquid wood,” which has the potential to save significant fossil fuel and natural resources.

Lignin, combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers forms a mass that can be processed like any other thermoplastic material. The bio-plastic can be molded via injection machines, is durable and forms super-precise when it’s cast.

Arboform degrades like wood (into water, humus and carbon dioxide), so no more fume-emitting burning of plastics, and its inventors say no tree needs to be cut down to produce Arboform.

Lignin is a byproduct of the paper-making process. The paper and pulp industry produces some 130 million pounds of lignin each year.

“By just using lignin, we could technically replace a quarter of the world’s plastic production,” Pfitzer said.

via German company sells ‘liquid wood’.

In 2008, and Associated Press investigation revealed that the drinking water consumed by more than one-sixth of the U.S. population is contaminated with trace (but potentially biologically active) amounts of over-the-counter and prescription drugs. While some of these chemicals enter sewage systems after being excreted by people taking the drugs, many of them were traced back to a common practice in hospitals and other health-care facilities: disposing of unused pharmaceuticals by flushing them down sinks or toilets.

via NY hospitals agree to stop flushing pharmaceuticals down the drain and polluting watershed.

(Huffington Post/AP) A new analysis of U.S. health data links children’s attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. While the study couldn’t prove that pesticides used in agriculture contribute to childhood learning problems, experts said the research is persuasive.

Read the rest: ADHD In Children: PESTICIDES May Be Missing Link.

National Geographic News) Bottom-fishing fleets in United Kingdom waters today have to work 17 times harder to catch the same amount of fish as their sail-powered Victorian counterparts did, according to a new study.

After analyzing historic catch records from England and Wales, the researchers conclude that the amount of fish caught per unit of fishing power has fallen by 94 percent since 1889.

That doesn't necessarily mean the number of fish along the seafloor, such as cod and haddock, dropped by 94 percent. But it's probably “a very good approximation,” lead study author Ruth Thurstan, a graduate student at the University of York in England, said via email.

Read the rest: Seafloor Fish Nearly Wiped Out off U.K..