March 2010

The EPA is proposing to expand its newly minted greenhouse gas reporting rules to include additional emissions sources. The existing rules, which were finalized in October 2009 and went into effect in January of this year, cover 31 industry sectors, representing 85 percent of U.S. emissions. The EPA’s new proposal, issued Tuesday of last week, would add the oil and natural gas industries, industries that emit fluorinated gases, and industries that inject and store carbon dioxide underground. In its press release, the EPA notes that the oil and gas industry emits the greenhouse gas methane, twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide, while fluorinated gases "are even stronger and can stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years." read more

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a Tucson-based conservation advocacy organization, is asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to set aside more than 53 million acres of the American Southwest for the endangered jaguar. The group's proposal comes in response to the Service’s January 2010 decision under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to designate "critical habitat" (a geographic area with physical and biological features essential to species survival) and develop a species recovery plan for the jaguar, the largest wild cat in the western hemisphere. The agency’s decision represents a reversal of previous policy; it had determined in 1997, when the jaguar was listed as endangered, and again in 2006 that designation of critical habitat in the United States would not be prudent. read more

Three prominent Senators are working on a new climate bill that will address some of industry's major concerns with the earlier Kerry-Boxer bill while maintaining the Kerry-Boxer bill's caps on carbon emissions.  On Wednesday, Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) shared an outline of their proposal with several major industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Edison Electric Institute, and the American Petroleum Institute. read more

On Tuesday, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) announced his intent to draft and present to the Senate an energy bill that will focus on threats other than climate change, including national security, economic, and environmental threats to the United States and her citizens. The Senator’s plan does not include a cap-and-trade component or any direct control on GHG emissions but it does contain a "clean energy standard" mandating the use of cleaner energy sources. read more

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council is a public-private partnership whose goal is to bring new, high quality jobs to the Phoenix metropolitan area.  According to this article by the Arizona Republic, GPEC has recently focused a lot of its efforts on solar companies and was the driving force behind the Renewable Energy Tax Incentive recently passed by the Arizona legislature.   (We blogged about the bill here.)  GPEC is currently led by board president Michael Bidwell and its president and CEO, Barry Broome.  It receives approximately half of its $4.3 million annual budget from Maricopa County and local municipalities and the rest from private-sector investors. read more

Below is a list of website links that you may find useful in your pursuit of renewable energy information. read more