Natural Gas Car - Home Appliance For Refueling

A natural-gas-powered car and fueling system on display at an auto show.Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it is working with General Electric Co. and Whirlpool Corp. to develop a $500 appliance that will allow natural-gas powered cars to be refueled at their owners’ homes. The effort would be Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake’s latest push to promote compressed natural gas as a mainstream fuel and boost its own sales. It is the first attempt at overcoming...

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Natural Gas Refrigerators

Refrigerators use similar basic concepts, whether powered by electricity or by fossil fuels like natural gas. Both approaches cool storage spaces with a sealed heat exchange system that circulates a liquid refrigerant. When the refrigerant boils, the change to vapor robs heat from the local environment, dropping the refrigerated compartment's temperature. Electric systems control a refrigerant by mechanical compression, but gas-powered refrigerators use absorption refrigeration, a method that works without a noisy compressor.  Propane Refrigerator,...

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Susan Rice May Have Stakes in Keystone XL Pipeline

Mother Jones Mag, On Earth Mag (NRDC) and Bill McKibben ObjectSusan RiceSusan Rice holds millions of dollars in investments in Canadian oil companies and banks with stakes in the $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline, according to OnEarth, a magazine published by the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council.As head of the State Department, Rice would have ultimate authority in determining the fate of the pipeline, which would link...

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Sodium Sulfur Battery

Sodium Sulfur (NaS) batteries are high capacity battery systems developed for electric power applications. A NaS battery consists of liquid (molten) sulfur at the positive electrode and liquid (molten) sodium at the negative electrode as active materials separated by a solid beta alumina ceramic electrolyte. The electrolyte allows only the positive sodium ions to go through it and combine with the sulfur to form sodium polysulfides. During discharge,...

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Global Steel Glut

This year, steel mills around the world have a production capacity of 1.8 billion tons but will take orders for only 1.5 billion tons. By 2016, an estimated 100 new mills, with total estimated supply capacity of 350 million tons, are expected to come on stream. Companies in Vietnam, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, all backed in some way by their governments, are building or planning new mills. Stainless steel coil in China, Xinhua/Zuma...

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Obama Signs Bill Excluding U.S. Airlines From E.U. Carbon Fee

Obama Vetoes European Carbon TaxPresident Obama has signed into law a bill that requires U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emissions fees.  The bill shields U.S. airlines from paying a carbon tax merely for flying to Europe. Earlier this month, the EU put the emission fees on hold for a year to buy time for a global agreement on aviation emissions. The rules were not frozen for airlines in the EU, however.According to a White House...

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BP Suspended From New Federal Contracts

BP Temporarily Suspended from New Contracts with the Federal Government The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that it has temporarily suspended BP Exploration and Production, Inc., BP PLC and named affiliated companies (BP) from new contracts with the federal government.EPAEPA is taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout,...

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Thawing Permafrost Expected To Cause Additional Warming

Permafrost covering almost a quarter of the northern hemisphere contains enormous amounts of carbon, maybe more that currently in the atmosphere, and could significantly amplify global warming should thawing accelerate as expected, according to a new report released today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).  Warming permafrost can also radically alter ecosystems and cause costly infrastructural damage due to increasingly unstable ground,...

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President Obama Proposes Small Business Tax Breaks

President Obama is proposing tax breaks to companies to hire workers or pay them higher salaries. The tax breaks would target small businesses and refund 10 percent of the cost of new payroll — in the form of new hiring or new wages — up to a total of $500,000 next year.It is estimated that this credit would help nearly 2 million small businesses and is focused on middle-class workers and small businesses.The proposal appeared in the president’s...

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U.N. Climate Talks Stumble Between Rich & Poor Countries

Doha, QatarThe 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol is taking place from Monday, November 26 to Friday, December 7, 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar. The United Nations chose the Qatari capital of Boha as the location for this year's round of climate change talks.  Qatar...

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Cape Wind Power Purchase Agreement Approved

Massachusetts Approves Cape Wind / NSTAR Power Purchase Agreement Cape Wind secured another major milestone today with the approval by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) of the 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NSTAR to buy Cape Wind's energy, capacity and renewable energy credits. This decision helps secure the position of Massachusetts as the U.S. leader in offshore wind power, launching a new industry that...

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Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plants Worldwide

Some 1,200 new coal-fired power plants are being planned across the globe despite concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from such generating stations, the most polluting type, the World Resources Institute estimates. Two-thirds of them would operate in China and India.In 2007 there were over 50,000 active coal plants worldwide.There are currently 1,446 coal-fired generating units in the United States.There are about 18,000 total individual electricity...

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Low Natural Gas Prices Hurting Coal Helping Electricity Bills

Surging natural-gas production from shale rock formations has caused a glut in U.S. natural-gas production, which has pushed prices lower for both gas and coal.  Coal and natural gas compete as fuels to produce electricity. This has lowered energy costs for homes and businesses, given a crucial competitive advantage to manufacturers that use natural gas as a raw material, and created jobs in other industries, like steelmaking, trucking...

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Water Management In Europe

Water pollution and excessive water use are still harming ecosystems, which are indispensable to Europe’s food, energy, and water supplies. To maintain water ecosystems, farming, planning, energy and transport sectors need to actively engage in managing water within sustainable limits.   ‘European waters – current status and future challenges’ brings together findings from nine other European Environment Agency (EEA) reports published during...

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Carbon Tax

Congressional Research ServiceCarbon Tax: Deficit Reduction and Other Considerations SummaryThe federal budget deficit has exceeded $1 trillion annually in each fiscal year since 2009, and deficits are projected to continue. Over time, unsustainable deficits can lead to reduced savings for investment, higher interest rates, and higher levels of inflation. Restoring fiscal balance would require spending reductions, revenue increases, or some combination...

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Fiscal Cliff & Energy Subsidies

Because the Budget Control Act (BCA)’s 12-member supercommittee failed to reach a compromise last year, a package of deep spending cuts and steep tax hikes is now slated to take effect on January 1, 2013 (the Fiscal Cliff). Although energy subsidies are not specifically target by BCA cuts, negotiations to avoid the automatic cuts could include energy subsidies.  Wind, nuclear, solar, oil and natural gas subsidies are all in danger of losing...

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Patriot Coal Says It Is Getting Out of Mountain Top Removal

As part of a deal with citizen groups, Patriot Coal is going to retire this dragline mining machine that is currently used at its Hobet complex along the Boone-Lincoln County line.Patriot Coal, the second largest producer of surface-mined coal in West Virginia, has just agreed to end its mountaintop removal mining. Enormous environmental costs foisted on Patriot Coal forced them to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2012.  They...

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Water Cap & Trade Can Lead To Environmental Injustice

Fred Tutman"Pollution Trading and Zip Code Environmentalism" By Fred Tutman In a society where the environment that surrounds you is treated like a commodity, we can usually count on most people buying the very best environment for themselves and their families that our incomes and means will afford. That is why in America, your zip code says a lot about your income, your prospects, your life expectancy and your environmental health. So...

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Black Elk Energy Offshore Oil Rig Accident

Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations, LLC confirmed that a fire ignited Friday morning on the company’s platform located at West Delta 32 Block, located in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 17 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La. There were 22 workers on the platform at the time of the incident. Two individuals have yet to be accounted for and an aggressive search and rescue effort is underway. Nine workers were injured and are now being treated at...

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