[GWSG] Gore hopeful; giant US solar cell plants; gassy wells; big Utah ppa; 4 Republicans; 1 Republican

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Al Gore recounts his reasons for feeling we are getting on track in a forthcoming Rolling Stone article.  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the-climate-20140618
2.  SolarCity announced plans to build one of the world’s largest solar panel plants in New York State, with further and even larger plants in mind.  Currently little solar panel manufacture is going on in the US.  I have read elsewhere that SolarCity is working on a sales plan combining packaged financing with matching residential power and storage systems.  Elon Musk, SolarCity and Tesla CEO, has said that he is optimistic, like Gore, but is concerned about the massive momentum of the fossil fuel industry—a billion cars in use, a gigantic infrastructure of power supply and use.   http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/19/elon-musk-solar-panel/
3.  Gas wells are typically exhausted fairly quickly.  Millions of dead gas wells are leaking currently unmonitored methane.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/abandoned-oil-wells-methane-emissions-17575
4.  Utah utility Rocky Mountain, obeying a state law which requires that utilities contract for power cheaper than that they could produce themselves, has signed a power purchase agreement for 320 MW of solar power from First Wind.  Construction will begin in 2015 and end a year later (compare the long lead times for fossil fuel and nuclear power).    http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/20/3451429/utah-solar-purpa/?elq=~~eloqua..type--emailfield..syntax--recipientid~~&elqCampaignId=~~eloqua..type--campaign..campaignid--0..fieldname--id~~
5.  In Senate testimony four EPA Administrators who served in Republican administrations urged action and climate and defended the EPA’s role in climate mitigation.  http://www.sunherald.com/2014/06/18/5657060/republican-ex-epa-chiefs-say-its.html
6.  Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary under Bush, urges a carbon tax as soon as may be.  “I feel as if I’m watching as we fly in slow motion on a collision course toward a giant mountain.  We can see the crash coming, and yet we’re sitting on our hands rather than altering course.”   Paulson was secretary during the 2008 financial crash.  “With that experience indelibly affecting my perspective, viewing climate change in terms of risk assessment and risk management makes clear to me that taking a cautiously conservative stance — that is, waiting for more information before acting — is actually taking a very radical risk. We’ll never know enough to resolve all of the uncertainties. But we know enough to recognize that we must act now.”    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140621&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0   Paulson is a member of the Risky Business group which will release a report on climate this week.
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