QUICK NEWS, January 30: Will Voters Cast Climate Change Votes? Making American Workers Losers Again; Smart Siting Crucial For California Ocean Wind

Will Voters Cast Climate Change Votes? Are candidates ready to face climate change? Voters are; A recent forum suggests that climate change will be a factor in the next election

Daniel Cohan, January 29, 2018 (Houston Chronicle)

“…[Unimaginably, seven Democrats are vying to challenge nine-term Congressman John Culberson for the seat long held by Republicans in the Seventh Congressional District of Texas and the Cook Political Report rates the race] a "toss-up."…[A climate forum held by the Houston chapter of 350.org,] Pantsuit Republic Houston — Climate and Environmental Racism Committee, Indivisible To Flip TX7, and Texans for Climate Change Action…[discussed the fact that] recent surveys debunk the misperceptions of voter apathy on climate. A survey by Harvard and Politico showed that Democrats rank climate change neck-and-neck with healthcare and Trump-Russia allegations as the top issues motivating their vote in 2018. Another survey showed that even most Republicans wanted President Trump to remain in the Paris Climate Agreement…

click to enlarge

On a national level, the Trump administration has pushed for "red team, blue team" debates of whether to accept climate science…The discussion revealed a lot of common ground, but also distinctions…But the true value of the event might come less from what the voters learned about the candidates than from what the candidates learned from the voters. Simply put: We care…When voters care, candidates respond…Whoever is elected to Congress this November, they'll know there's a motivated contingent of voters eager to see a more vigorous federal response to climate…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

Making American Workers Losers Again President Trump Slaps Tariffs on Solar Panels in Major Blow to Renewable Energy

Brian Eckhouse, Ari Natter, and Christopher Martin, January 22, 2018 (Time Magazine)

“…In the biggest blow he’s dealt to the renewable energy industry yet, [the president imposed] duties of as much as 30 percent on solar equipment made abroad…[This] threatens to handicap a $28 billion industry that relies on parts made abroad for 80 percent of its supply…The Solar Energy Industries Association has projected tens of thousands of job losses in a sector that employed 260,000…The tariffs are just the latest action Trump has taken that undermine the economics of renewable energy…The import taxes, however, will prove to be the most targeted strike on the industry yet…The first 2.5 gigawatts of imported solar cells will be exempt from the tariffs…[and the four years of tariffs that start at 30 percent in the first year will] gradually drop to 15 percent…[T]hey may represent a step toward making good on a campaign promise to get tough on the country that produces the most panels — China…[The solar industry may] attempt a long-shot appeal to Congress…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

Smart Siting Crucial For California Ocean Wind Will the Navy sink plans for wind farms off Morro Bay?

John Lindt, January 26, 2018 (The Tribune)

“In response to growing interest in developing wind farms off California, the Navy in August published a map that shows where [floating] wind-energy projects and Navy and Marine Corps operations would overlap…The Navy had been asked to weigh in on the wind-power idea by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The agency serves as a gatekeeper for energy development 3 miles offshore and beyond and had received [competitive requests from an Trident Winds for a 650-to 1,000-megawatt floating wind farm, and Statoil Wind US]…[BOEM] is working with the state of California on planning…[The Navy map designated about 36,000 square miles of Southern and Central California, from the Mexico border to just shy of Monterey Bay,] as a red zone, meaning the construction of wind farms in those sectors was ‘not compatible’ with Navy operations…

click to enlarge

The California coastline offers 112 gigawatts of technical offshore wind resource potential, much of it from floating turbines, according to Trident. That is more than 50 Diablo Canyons — about 1.5 times the state’s electric energy consumption…If the Navy sticks to its guns and blocks wind-energy projects off the coast of both Southern and Central California, the winner may be Humboldt Bay, where BOEM has also studied potential wind projects, colored green on the Navy map…The global offshore wind energy market was valued at $20.3 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $57.2 billion in 2022, growing 16.2 percent from 2017 and 2022…UC Berkeley policy analyst Rob Collier says that because of supply chain needs for floating wind technology, the industry will be a huge boon to wherever the staging area is for the mammoth 700-foot-tall turbines that could and should be built nearby, not imported from China or elsewhere…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet