TVA Announces Old Coal Retirements

Last Friday the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced a new vision for its energy portfolio at their August Board meeting. (We will be blogging on this in more detail soon.)
TVA CEO Tom Kilgore expressed the hope that TVA will become “one of the nation’s leading providers of low-cost and cleaner energy by 2020″. One of [...]

Time to crack down on toxic coal ash

SACE is closely following the issue of coal ash waste, and the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to finally regulate the toxic by-product of burning coal.  To highlight the importance of this issue and the opportunities to get involved, we are re-publishing our national ally 1Sky’s post on coal ash below.
After reading this post, [...]

SACE Guest Blog with Bill McKibben

We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More
Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming
This blog posting features an article by 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben that has been posted everywhere from TomDispatch.com to Grist.org to the L.A. Times. This provocative piece shows us how to change the dynamics of the climate [...]

Too little, too late? Congress may fail to move from oil spill to a robust energy bill

After decades of scientific data gathering, years of growing public and business support and more than three months of an unmitigated environmental catastrophe, it is reasonable to expect that citizens and leaders would all support a paradigm shift in U.S. energy policy.
In fact, even before BP’s Gulf oil disaster began, President Obama and Congress promised [...]

NC Calls It A Wrap On Climate Commission

After five long years of presentations, deliberation, and multiple extensions, the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change (otherwise known as the NC LCGCC or “Climate Commission”) finally closed its doors on Thursday, May 6, 2010 in Raleigh with majority approval of a 189-page final report.  SACE’s Executive Director, Stephen Smith, was appointed [...]

Lawmakers must create renewable-energy jobs

Opinion Editorial by Stephen Smith
Originally published March 19, 2009 in the Orlando Sentinel
Aaron Deslatte’s column, “Legislature 2010: Can Lawmakers Create Jobs?” on OrlandoSentinel.com recently, provided a good overview of the efforts that the state Legislature is considering to lower Florida’s high unemployment rate.
In Deslatte’s column, House Speaker Larry Cretul says, “We’ve all heard ‘government doesn’t [...]

Tracking the Biodiesel Industry

Policies that will Help Grow the Industry
The past 12 months have been a rough time for the biodiesel industry and some believe much of the biodiesel industry’s problems are self-induced. The industry has been betting that two federal policies, a tax credit (blenders credit) and production requirement (called the Renewable Fuel Standard), would help turn [...]

TV Ads Challenge Investment in New Reactors

Last week, Friends of the Earth launched two television ads challenging $54.5 billion in loan guarantees the Obama Administration proposed to hand out for the construction of the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in 30 years. The 30-second television ads, “Family” and “Risk,” will run in both South Carolina and Georgia. In South [...]

Have an uninformed climate change denier; there is an app for that

Ever find yourself in a debate with a climate change denier or anyone attempting to undermine the science behind global climate change? A new iPhone app offers a list of common skeptic arguments and what the science says on each argument.  Whenever you encounter a denier, you can easily refute their claims by choosing from [...]

Sea Level Rise Adaptation Discussions Underway in North Carolina

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend a sea level rise forum in Raleigh, NC organized by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Division of Coastal Management.  The purpose of this forum was to discuss the latest sea level rise science, what it means for North Carolina’s coastal communities and how [...]