ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Energy Experts Say EPA Regs Will Shut Down Coal Plants [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

The Institute for Energy Research projected that coal plants in Lansing, Litchfield and Holland would “likely” be shut down due to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations by 2016. The three Michigan plants were part of a nationwide look at coal plants expected to be impacted by new regulations recently enacted or proposed by the EPA.

Ten percent of the country’s coal energy capacity is expected to go offline by 2016, according to the Institute for Energy Research.

via www.michigancapitolconfidential.com

Windmills to shut at night following demise of rare bat

Night operation of the windmills in the North Allegheny Windpower Project has been halted following discovery of a dead Indiana bat under one of the turbines, an official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.

via www.freerepublic.com

Radio New Zealand : News : National : Golf course next to organic farm ordered to close

The owners of the Organic Farm Company and BioFarm Products, James and Catherine Tait-Jamieson, took legal action against Brookfields Park Golf Club in 2002.

Mr Tait-Jamieson says since he filed court proceedings, 20,000 golf balls have been picked up from the 30 hectares of his property near the golf course.

"All inputs to an organic farm must be approved, and golf balls are not an approved input. The effect was that we couldn't make hay or silage in the paddocks surrounding the golf course."

He says he is relieved that the farm's future organic rating will now be safe.

via www.radionz.co.nz

New study shows how gamma-ray bursts could end life on Earth | Mail Online

They say the blasts could be contributing to the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Calling Al Gore-is this just another part of the global-warming deniers' conspiracy? I thought only global warming I(now conveniently renamed "climate change") was responsible for depleting the ozone layer?

NREL | Green Jobs Farm | Colorado | Stimulus | The Daily Caller

President Barack Obama’s “green jobs” initiatives suffered another major blow late Monday, as the nonprofit National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, announced a plan to lay off roughly 10 percent of its staff through a voluntary buy-out plan.

According to the Denver Post, the lab plans to eliminate between 100 and 150 of its 1,350 jobs. The Obama administration supported the NREL in 2009 with roughly $200 million in stimulus grants. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu visited Golden in May 2009 to promote the NREL as a beneficiary of those funds.

At the time, the Associated Press reported that the stimulus grants included $68 million to build demonstration model of an energy-efficient office building; $19.2 million for solar, geothermal and fuel cell equipment; $10 million for testing and evaluation of wind technology; and $45 million to research and test drive-train systems for wind turbines.

The lab’s mission is to handle U.S. Department of Energy research and development programs.

NREL spokesman Bob Noun blames Congress for the organization’s failures. The Denver Post reports that he believes the gridlocked U.S. Congress forced the NREL to find $8 million in new budgetary savings.

via dailycaller.com

Only history will tell whether "green" energy has a future (I know, nice ironic phrasing). But one thing is beginning to emerge as fact-- that future is not here yet. Green technology is simply not well-enough developed to subsititute for traditional sources of energy.

The federal government should not be picking winners and losers in technology--while green energy should be allowed to develop, if it can, so should tradfitional oil and gas resoruces--of which the United States has plenty and which are presently being restricted by regulation. One exception is North Dakota, which has somehow escaped this Administration's antipathy toward oil and gas developmen--and which recent press reports suggest is booming economically from drilling.