Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit, hosted by Monroe County—the county of the Florida Keys. The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact’s Climate Action Plan, which is the written formal response of Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, [...]
Each year, starting in 1989, an annual report titled, “Our Changing Planet” has been produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and submitted to Congress. The USGCRP also conducts the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which has been previously completed in 2000 and 2009. The assessment serves as a “status report” on the latest [...]
This blog was co-authored by Amy Vaden. It certainly seems that extreme weather events are becoming more commonplace. Scientific American recently reported that 2011 saw the sixth-highest number of tornado-related deaths ever recorded, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a big hurricane season as well. This week, Hurricane Irene threatens the eastern [...]
Authored by SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices Organizer, Mandy Hancock. On April 30, SACE joined Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, the Tropical Audubon Society, South Florida Clean Energy Coalition, Save it Now Glades!, Greenpeace, and others in south Florida for a clean energy rally in Biscayne Bay National Park. The timing of the rally was significant in that [...]
The 1 year anniversary of the nation’s worst oil spill was observed just two weeks ago but little has been done to improve offshore drilling safety measures to ensure another accident of similar magnitude does not happen again. Nevertheless, the U.S. House of Representatives just passed legislation introduced by Rep. Doc Hastings to speed up [...]
This blog was co-authored by Katie Stokes, Simon Mahan and Glenn Mauney There’s wind in the North Carolina desert! OK, it’s not really a desert. An area in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties in northeastern N.C., locally referred to as ‘the Desert’, may soon be home to N.C.’s first wind farm. Iberdrola Renewables recently announced they [...]
Co-authored by Simon Mahan and Toni Reale It seems like yesterday when the airwaves were filled with the horrifying news that an exploratory oil rig had exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing eleven men and spewing unknown quantities of crude into Gulf waters. The explosion happened on April 20th 2010 and just two days [...]
In response to a proposed federal natural gas and oil leasing program for the Atlantic, Governor Beverly Perdue of North Carolina created (by executive order) a Scientific Advisory Panel on Offshore Energy in September 2009. The stated purpose of this panel is to evaluate all offshore energy options (wind, tidal, gas, oil, etc.) and develop [...]
On a blustery, yet sunny, December afternoon in Summerville, South Carolina just outside of Charleston, a crowd of about 100 gathered to witness the unveiling of the state’s largest solar tracker. The German-based company, IMO, recently moved to South Carolina following the announcement of Clemson University’s Wind Turbine Drive Train Test Facility. They were the [...]
Even though the Southeast can play a major role in the development of the U.S. offshore wind industry, our region tends to play second fiddle to the Northeast or even the Great Lakes region. Unless the Department of Energy recognizes the importance of Southern states, our region will miss out on a great opportunity and [...]
