[GWSG] Permit freeze?; Tianjin conf.; 6k mw of NE wind; more US wind; cc and pop.; drying soil in the South; AEI & Brookings plan

[Tilley, Al]

1.  States which do not have greenhouse gas permitting regulations in place by Jan. 2 2011 may not be permitted to construct new major emissions sources or modify old ones.  Though the affected states were not named, Texas and Wyoming are two of them.  http://www.awma.org/pressroom/index.html?id=2143

2.  The climate conference in Tianjin has wrapped with no concrete agreements.   http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101009/wl_nm/us_un_climate_china   Notice the denier bow in the next to last paragraph of this CNN story, which conveys little of the detail in the previous account from Reuters.   http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/09/china.climate.talks/  This Guardian story carries the words of the UN’s Christiana Figueres:  "I understand there is disappointment with the multilateral process but this issue is not easy. This is the greatest societal and economic transformation that the world has ever seen."  Some have found the Tianjin talks encouraging in their new spirit of positive engagement of the problem.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/09/climate-talks-china-america-clash

3.  Google has joined other investors in a project to lay a 350-mile underwater power cable to transmit power from offshore wind turbines.  The system has a carrying capacity of 6,000 megawatts. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/earth/12wind.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

4.  The Department of Energy has guaranteed the loan for an 845 megawatt wind project, the world’s largest, off the coast of Oregon.  http://www.energy.gov/news/9676.htm  The Department of the Interior has leased 25 square miles offshore of Massachusetts for a 182 megawatt commercial wind farm.  It is the country’s first such lease.  http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Signs-First-US-Offshore-Commercial-Wind-Energy-Lease-with-Cape-Wind-Associates-LLC.cfm  The Cape Wind project must still pass the state regulatory body, and has some opposition.  http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/10/11/11climatewire-despite-lease-approval-future-of-cape-wind-r-14048.html?ref=earth

5.   A PNAS study calls attention to the relationship between climate change and population.  While we cannot solve climate change through birth control, population can either ease or exacerbate the climate problem.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101011150354.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

6.  A study published in Nature documents widespread drying of soil in the Southern Hemisphere.  The general precipitation increase expected with global warming apparently halted in 1998.  The development could constitute a dangerous feedback as decreased vegetation lowers the amount of carbon stored and raises the amount in the atmosphere, and a decrease in evaporation augments heating of the land, leading to further drying of the soil.     http://www.livescience.com/environment/climate-change-causing-earth-soil-dry-101011.html

7.  The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution (an unexpected partnership) are releasing a joint call for up to $25 billion in government financing for projects which promise to reduce the price of renewable energy.  The initiative hopes to accomplish the climate mitigation mission of cap and trade proposals without raising the price of fossil fuels.    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/business/economy/13leonhardt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y