It’s funny how things work sometimes.
A-Power, the Chinese wind-turbine maker and its American partner, U.S.Renewable Energy Group announced yesterday that they will build a wind-turbine plant in the U.S. capable of producing 1,100 megawatts of wind turbines a year and employing more than 1,000 U.S. workers, according to the WSJ .
This announcement comes on the heels of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) asking the Obama administration to block any stimulus money for a Chinese wind farm planned for Texas because it would provide plenty of Chinese jobs and few jobs for Americans.
The new turbine plant …

Jay Leno takes the Tango out for a test drive.  It’s fast and looks fun.  And, you can lane-split.  Imagine this passing you by.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reduced its long-term forecast for global oil demand as the financial crisis continues to squeeze markets and countries increase their pursuit of alternative energy sources.
The news comes as global energy consumption is set to fall in 2009 for the first time since 1981 and CO2 emissions could shrink by as much as 3 percent - the steepest decline in the last 40 years.
According to the revised forecast contained in the IEA’s recently released annual World Energy Outlook, global oil consumption is now expected to expand 1 percent …

Overflowing landfills and a growing apprehension about their effect on climate change has many communities considering a “zero waste” strategy, according to the New York Times.

One of the most notable examples of a “no waste” society can be found in Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts whose want for landfill space and uneasiness about the cost of shipping local trash over 30 miles to the mainland encouraged its leadership to implement significant changes to it’s trash policy.  Like many communities, this no trash initiative was born not from …

The Department of Energy awarded  $338 million to geothermal energy projects Thursday.
In making the awards, Secretary Chu stated “The United States is blessed with vast geothermal energy resources, which hold enormous potential to heat our homes and power our economy.”
Russell Gold of the WSJ noted that the “usual geothermal suspects” fared well under the new DOE awards.  Ormat Technologies and AltaRock Energy (which we wrote about here ) are two high profile geothermal beneficiaries.
Other big names companies sharing in the DOE grant money include: GE, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Baker …

The New York Times highlighted the concept of ” environmental patents to the commons,” which essentially means that anyone may use them at no cost.  Dr. Sarah Slaughter, coordinator of the M.I.T. Sloan Sustainability Initiative said in the interview, “We all want to save the planet, and the problems are bigger than any one firm, sector or country.” 

It looks likes there is more trouble for the Copenhagen summit.
President Obama is scheduled to be in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10. Mr. Obama, however, will most likely not stop off in Copenhagen for the climate summit being held December 6 - 18, unnamed White House sources told The Times.
Without congressional approval of a cap and trade bill, administration insiders see no advantage to the president attending the Copenhagen meeting.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rejected a Westinghouse-Toshiba nuclear reactor design because of concerns with its shield building.
The shield building protects the reactor from severe events including tornadoes and earthquakes. In a report issued last Thursday, the NRC stated that Westinghouse “has not demonstrated that certain structural components of the revised AP1000 shield building can withstand design basis loads.” The AP1000 is the leading design among reactors in the U.S.
The NRC is seeking modifications and new testing to demonstrate the shield’s performance and safety.
In a press release, Westinghouse has …

Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm proposed in the United States, has met with, and overcome many obstacles since it was proposed eight years ago, including well-funded NIMBY groups and powerful politicians.
Now two Indian tribes are trying to stop the project by having the Nantucket Sound listed on the National Register as a “Traditional Cultural Property.”
The tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag of Gay Head, have brought their action under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) claiming that the wind farm will interfere with their view …

It is looking more and more unlikely that the U.S. will agree to cut greenhouse gases in Copenhagen according to the chief U.S. negotiator to the climate change talks, Jonathan Pershing.  Pershing is quoted in Bloomberg as saying “It will be extraordinarily difficult for the U.S. to commit to a specific number in the absence of action from Congress.”