Free Republic

Facing new regulations intended to limit greenhouse-gas emissions by the electricity industry, California utilities are using their clout as big power buyers to snub "dirty" resources outside the state and push forward development of renewable resources in and around California. At a meeting next month, California utility regulators are expected to approve a measure that will prohibit utilities from entering into contracts to buy electricity from resources that emit substantial greenhouse gases, such as coal. The policy, believed a first among states, implements a new state law that takes aim at global warming. (See related article.) Utilities in the state...

BEIJING - China and the United States on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion dollar deal. The memorandum of understanding was signed by China's Minister for the National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Stephen Tritch, Westinghouse's president and CEO, said the details of the contract have yet to be finalized but that it was a multibillion dollar deal. He said the company want the plants up and running by 2013. Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japan's Toshiba...

March 3 — Suspected Sept. 11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to command a global network of al Qaeda terrorists, but in the three days since his arrest he has refused to tell interrogators anything about planned attacks, instead reciting the Koran to himself, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS. Mohammed was questioned for a third day by U.S. and Pakistani agents today. Analysts said interrogators were seeking details of any planned al Qaeda attacks and leads on the whereabouts of the world's most-wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Though the arrest of Mohammed in Pakistan on Saturday has been described as...

SACRAMENTO - The effects of California's sweltering heat became a political issue today for the candidate seeking to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee for governor, charged that Schwarzenegger has failed to deliver on a campaign promise to attract new power plants to ease energy shortages on summer days that lead to high electricity consumption, thus creating a new energy crisis. ``With this heat wave our energy grid has been strained almost to breaking,'' Angelides said. ``His lack of attention on this issue, his failure to move us forward, has resulted in the state once again playing...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's power grid is expected to post a new electricity demand record on Friday as air conditioners across the state battle a powerful heat wave, the California Independent System Operator said on Thursday. The Cal ISO manages the power grid that connects major power lines in the state. The grid operator called on Californians to conserve electricity by calling a "power watch" from Friday to Monday, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the ISO. By Thursday evening, there had been no weather-related outages, McCorkle said. "New temperature data (are) indicating a warm air mass is pushing up...

Recently the Trib showed a map of the proposed 640-mile-long Trans-Texas Corridor-35 and the initial 316-mile toll road-and-rail segment between San Antonio and Dallas. Notice the area through Williamson, Bell, Fall and McLennan counties, then deduce why TXU’s previous plans to build three coal-burning plants in Robertson and Milam counties were suddenly switched to McLennan County. You will see, raising its ugly head, a 10-mile-wide “blue line” east of and roughly parallel to our Interstate 35. This marks the path of the TTC-35 tollway with its proposed electric-powered bullet train. With 11 coal-burning plants planned in Texas, is corporate TXU...

(2006-03-02) — As part of an historic nuclear deal between the U.S. and India, President George Bush announced today that officials at U.S. nuclear power plants who experience technical difficulties will call a toll-free number to get immediate help from a tech-support center in New Delhi. “Our friendship with the people of India grows stronger every day,” said President Bush. “It’s good to know that from now on, when a nuculer reactor starts to overheat, or meltdown, the plant manager can call on the world leaders in concise and courteous customer service. They’ll hear that cheerful voice saying, ‘Hello, my...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Most people back the use of existing nuclear power plants but are against building new reactors as some states are considering, a survey conducted in 18 countries for the U.N. nuclear watchdog showed on Wednesday. The survey, commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is charged with promoting nuclear energy, showed 62 percent of the roughly 18,000 respondents said existing nuclear facilities should continue to be used while 59 percent were opposed to building new plants. Its release comes two weeks after British Prime Minister Tony Blair put nuclear power back on the agenda by...

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday the government may consider building a new generation of nuclear power stations, in a speech delayed briefly by anti-nuclear activists. "The issue back on the agenda with a vengeance is energy policy," Blair told the Confederation of British Industry. "Energy prices have risen. Energy supply is under threat. Climate change is producing a sense of urgency." Nuclear power currently provides one-fifth of Britain's electricity, but the nation's 12 nuclear power plants are aging and unless replaced will provide just 4 percent by 2010. A government policy paper on energy resources will be...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration proposed new regulations Thursday that could allow the nation's dirtiest power plants to release more air pollutants each year — and possibly undercut lawsuits aimed at forcing companies to comply with the Clean Air Act. The proposal follows a June federal court ruling that said power plants can throw more pollutants into the air each year when they modernize to operate for longer hours. It's the latest in a series of attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to make the nearly 30-year-old Clean Air Act rules for coal-fired power plants more industry-friendly. Some changes were...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming. The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue. "This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth. That group, in addition to Greenpeace and the...

Officials in New York and eight other Northeastern states have come to a preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their current levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020, according to a confidential draft proposal. The cooperative action, the first of its kind in the nation, came after the Bush administration decided not to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Once a final agreement is reached, the legislatures of the nine states will have to enact it, which is considered likely. Enforcement of emission controls could potentially result in higher energy prices in...

WASHINGTON — Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report to be released Thursday. Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment. The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA. "These...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals courts on Friday rejected claims by thirteen states that the Bush administration's decision to let older power plants spew more pollution into the air undermines public health in violation of the Clean Air Act. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying New York and a dozen other states failed to show how the administration's new regulations violate the 1970 environmental law. The Bush administration argued its decision to let power and other industrial plants modernize without making them install expensive new...

"There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will lead to a cleaner and safer nation," President Bush said on Wednesday during a trip to a nuclear power plant in Maryland. "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," he said to applause at the Calvert Cliffs plant. "We're taking practical steps to encourage construction of new plants, Bush said, as he pressed Congress to send him an energy bill by August. President Bush joked that he didn't understand all the buttons and dials in the control room of the Calvert Cliffs plant --...

SHANGHAI, China - China plans to build 40 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years, making them the main power source for its booming east coast, a government official said in remarks reported Thursday. China is expected to be the world's biggest developer of nuclear power stations in coming decades as the government tries to meet soaring demands for electricity while reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants. Zhang Fubao, an official of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, made the prediction Wednesday at a symposium on the nuclear power market and technology, the official Xinhua...

Compiling a list of suspicious incidents nationwide, including train derailments, chemical/oil refinery fires and or explosions, etc. Don't forget to include news link for source. Please send to my attention.

ALBANY, Jan. 11 - The operators of six coal-burning power plants in upstate New York have agreed to significantly reduce emissions that cause smog and acid rain in what state officials called the state's largest settlement ever for reducing air pollution. The agreements with the plants - which were announced here jointly on Tuesday by Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democrat who would like to replace him in two years - call for them to cut the air pollution they produce to a level that officials said would be the equivalent of removing...

... [S]tates' attorneys general garnered a huge windfall for their treasuries (and for the bank accounts of selected private lawyers) in tort suits against tobacco companies. The suits were invalid as a matter of law, but never mind -- they pressured Big Tobacco to agree, in exchange for shelter from competition, to split future profits with the states. (When private parties do this, it's racketeering.) ... [T]hey filed a new pseudo-tort intimidation suit against five large electric utilities. What civil wrong have these defendants committed? They dared to operate 174 power plants, in full compliance with state and federal regulations....