QUICK NEWS, April 6: TO BEAT CLIMATE CHANGE; THE WIND AND SOLAR HANDBOOK; PLUG-IN CARS GETTING AFFORDABLE

TO BEAT CLIMATE CHANGE How to win the climate change wars

Chris Trejbal, April 6, 2015 (AmericaBlog)

"America has failed to act decisively on climate change not because the science isn’t there but because the message isn’t. Reason and science are losing the marketing war to polluters and the politicians they’ve purchased…If we’re going to get serious about climate change, we need to declare war…There’s nothing like a good war metaphor to stoke the imagination and rally the people. Conservatives have Ronald Reagan’s ‘War on Drugs’ and George W. Bush’s ‘War on Terror,’ along with Fox News’ imagined ‘War on Christmas’ and…Progressives talk of Lyndon Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty’…War is extreme. There’s no room for squishiness when we’re at war. We’re in it to win…If we are to match war with war, what should the other side invoke? Are climate change deniers waging a war on the world? A war on humanity? A war on the future? Yes to all of those,..” click here for more

target="_blank"

Tweet

THE WIND AND SOLAR HANDBOOK Wind and solar industries release handbook to help states use renewable energy to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan

March 30, 2015 (American Wind Energy Association)

“The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have jointly published A Handbook For States: Incorporating Renewable Energy Into State Compliance Plans For EPA’s Clean Power Plan…[which details] how to incorporate renewable energy into state plans to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, the proposed regulation to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants…[The handbook] interprets the more than 1,000 pages of the draft EPA rule and technical support documents and provides step-by-step guidance to states on how to incorporate renewable energy into their state compliance plans…[It also] details the benefits of using renewable energy as a compliance tool, including the consumer benefits created by integrating low-cost renewables and provides access to dozens of in-depth renewable integration studies confirming significant amounts of wind and solar energy can be added to the power system without harming reliability…” click here for more

target="_blank"

Tweet

PLUG-IN CARS GETTING AFFORDABLE Affordable Electric Cars Are Coming Soon, Study Says

Maddie Stone, April 5, 2015 (GizModo)

"For many of us, purchasing an electric vehicle is still a pie in the sky dream. But that might be changing soon, if a new Nykvist and Nilsson peer-reviewed study is correct that the cost of electric car batteries is falling much more quickly than we assumed…Lithium ion batteries make up anywhere between a quarter and half the cost of electric cars today. By systematically reviewing over 80 cost estimates published between 2007 and 2014, researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute found that the cost of Li-battery packs used by leading manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan is falling by roughly 8 % per year…[That means] battery cost is rapidly approaching a threshold that could make the average Joe think seriously about trading in his gas guzzler…The authors found that batteries appear on track to reach $230 per kilowatt-hour by 2018. Depending on the price of gas, the sticker price of an EV is expected to appeal to many more people if its battery costs between $125 and $300 per kilowatt-hour…” click here for more

target="_blank"

Tweet