[GWSG] New battery; Ohio's folly; French plan; climate losses; Supreme Ct. ruling; mitigation benefits

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The iron-vanadium redox flow battery is said to provide cheap, durable energy storage with relatively benign materials, and to be scalable up to grid applications.  http://climatecrocks.com/2014/06/22/energy-storage-technology-offers-solid-backup-to-renewables/  The Department of Energy provides verification of the claims of the video and further information.  The new technology offers “superior performance and cost advantages unlike any other existing system.”
  http://techportal.eere.energy.gov/technology.do/techID=619

2.  Ohio’s legislative attack on their efficient energy resource standard begins the pointless destruction of a successful program.  Cost of the negawatts (watts which did not require generation because of the program) was $.02/watt, and the savings to Ohio ratepayers has exceeded $1 billion since 2009.  The only apparent benefit of destroying the program is to allow the utilities for a while to continue business as usual.     http://aceee.org/blog/2014/06/ohio-sb-310-post-mortem-it-s-worse-yo

3.  France has announced a financial package intended to support energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy, which they intend to supply 40% of France’s power by 2030.  http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/71762

4.  According to a report by Risky Business, the US faces losses of tens of billions a year from climate disruption within the next 25 years.  The projections are based on past heat waves and expectations of effects such as sea level rise, and are targeted to units as small as counties.  Michael Oppenheimer calls it “the most detailed ever of the potential economic effects of climate change on the U.S.”  Risky Business is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and Tom Steyer.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/24/us-climatechange-economy-idUSKBN0EZ0AA20140624?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
The report calculates growing areas of the US will become impossible for outdoor activity during increasing numbers of days as the century continues.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/24/with-heat-and-humidity-a_n_5524219.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change

5.  The Supreme Court’s most recent ruling on the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gasses is largely supportive, but seems to open a path for future litigation based on an implication that such gasses are a special form of air pollution not necessarily covered by general statements in the clean air act, and that EPA regulation is inherently “unreasonable.”  http://grist.org/climate-energy/the-supreme-courts-latest-greenhouse-gas-ruling-is-a-97-victory-for-the-environment/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

6.  The World Bank finds that even climate measures short of putting a price on carbon would add $1.8-2.6 trillion a year to the world GDP by 2030.  The gains would come in crop productivity, health savings, and new jobs.    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/24/tackling-climate-change-would-grow-global-economy-world-bank-says
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