BlogNod & New Energy News

• The Climate and Energy Project blog has an excellent post wrapping up the latest developments in the Kansas legislature visa vis the Holcomb power plant expansion. One of the partners in the Holcomb project, Tri-State Generation and Transmission of Colorado, has announced that they will be investigating the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in southeastern Colorado - news that apparently came as a complete surprise to the residents of Holly, CO.
  
• A post by Sarah Gilman at High Country News' GOAT blog illuminates the coalition of 400 sportsmen’s groups who are fighting to revamp the antiquated 1872 Mining Act. Led by the National Wildlife Federation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Trout Unlimited, the so-called Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining is seeking to gain legal protection for millions of acres of public lands, rivers, and streams from dangerous mining practices and fly-by-night mining operations.
  
• This week's Living On Earth had a story about a paper plant's 'test burning' of tires for energy, and how Sen. Hillary Clinton was not opposed to it - in fact she supported it [audio available].
  
• A measure requiring renewable energy sources make up half the electricity in California by 2025 took a step toward making the November ballot on Tuesday, when proponents turned in about 735,000 signatures to officials in the state, according to a report in Reuters.
  

Blognod: Mashing-Up the Coal Industry's PR Campaign

The folks over at desmogblog have put together a very cool cartographic mash-up of the coal industry's front group, Americans For Balanced Energy Choices', massive public relations campaign. The interactive Google Map is designed to highlight the nationwide campaign that has become an omnipresent part of this campaign season, as can be attested by the numerous presidential debates the organization has underwritten (debates which included nary a mention of global warming or climate change).

Emily Murgatroyd refers to the mash-up as a sort of 'geo-blog,'

"Designed to keep track of the PR, advertising and lobbying efforts being undertaken by "Americans for Balanced Energy Choices," (ABEC) as they spend a reported $40 million on behalf of the coal industry to sell the virtues of "clean coal" in the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election.

The map is a work in progress and users are invited to add in their own ABEC stories and sitings. It should be interesting to see what the map ends up looking like.

BlogNod: Climate Science & Policy Resource Guide

The science has spoken. The debate is over. Climate change is real and human actions are contributing to the acceleration of the buildup of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Well, that is at least what the American public is being spoonfed by the media, presidential candidates, pundits, and each other. Despite the doom-and-gloom forecasts and the daily stories about threatened polar bears habitats, bleached coral reefs, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and the ultimate demise of our planet, I think this new awareness is largely a good thing. But before we start high-fiving each other and dumping tubs of Gatorade on the scientists contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, we have a little unfinished business to take care of.

Although it would be nice to, we don't need to convince everybody on the planet that climate change is real and that humans are causing it. But we do need to make sure that the deniers and delayers don't gain any more traction in the public discourse about climate change than they already have - and below are a few bloggers who are doing just that.

• A Siegel at the Energy Smart blog wrote a piece today about General Motors' Vice Chairman Bob Lutz who said "global warming is a crock of $#!T," adding that, "I’m a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter." Well, actually Bob, your opinion does matter, it matters to your stockholders, your machinists, your sales people, your parts suppliers, and to the discourse in general.
  
• If you want some sound data and real science to back up your climate change arguments, I suggest heading over to the Climate and Energy Project blog (CEP), where Maril Hazlett has assembled a noteworthy collection of links and snippets from some of the most authoritative scientific organizations on the planet and their official positions on climate change.
  
• Relatedly, Maril Hazlett has also been doing a remarkable job at the CEP blog of tracking the debate in the Kansas legislature about the landmark Holcomb case. Kansas' legislators are attempting to overturn the Kansas Department of Health's denial of a permit for a coal-fired power plant expansion.
  
• Finally, Craig Rubens at earth2tech has put together a worthy summary of the seven different carbon bills currently being considered in Congress (I know that this is less science than it is policy, but what else would you expect from a wonk like me?!).

Illustration: Biology Science Fair Projects