[GWSG] New solar mounts; the spending bill; Scott Pruitt profile; One Strange Rock; sea level rise expectations

[Tilley, Al]

1. Powerfield's solar mounts for use in ground installations, now being tested at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, are hollow plastic frames which hold a few hundred pounds of rock or sand. They are not bolted to anything (except the solar cells). Besides being cheap themselves, they greatly reduce the time and money required for installing solar power on the ground. https://climatecrocks.com/2018/03/21/simpler-faster-cheaper-new-solar-racking-leapfrogs-solar-tariffs/



2. The new federal spending bill keeps the EPA funding at current levels and increases the support for renewable energy. Trump's disrupters will still be able to impede and distort the programs they manage, although Americans strongly support the transition to renewable energy. https://climatecrocks.com/2018/03/24/trump-wants-to-cut-clean-energy-congress-fearful-of-green-majority-says-yeah-no/

The final spending bill dropped many of over eighty Republican anti-environment riders to gain Democratic support. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22032018/congress-omnibus-spending-bill-environment-clean-energy-riders-campaign-finance-dark-money?utm_source=InsideClimate+News&utm_campaign=87e80811f5-Weekly+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-87e80811f5-326454481

Renewable energy projects were supported with Republican help. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-presidents-own-party-still-doesnt-back-his-energy-strategy?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GTMDaily#gs.brMhRoc



3. Scott Pruitt is the man from ALEC, a friend of coal ash who aspires to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general. It is hard to imagine what constructive role he might play in government. He works at being to government for the common good what a wrecking ball is to a sound building.  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/scott-pruitts-dirty-politics?utm_source=EHN&utm_campaign=661fcdc674-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8573f35474-661fcdc674-99031877



4. National Geographic's new ten-part series One Strange Rock promises to be a perspective adjuster. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/26/one-strange-rock-will-change-no-really-new-mind-bending-science-series-cleantechnica-exclusive-interviews/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29



5. We are already locked in for some degree of sea level rise. The uncertainty about what is coming arises mostly from the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Several interviews with knowledgeable scientists profile the state of opinion on sea level rise. The interview with Paul Hawken might help overcome the aftertaste of Scott Pruitt from the New Yorker article. https://climatecrocks.com/2018/03/26/new-video-sea-level-bad-news-and-fragile-hope/

Florida and other coastal areas are already due for trauma. One or two feet of rise, expected in the next few decades, will compromise water supplies in south Florida and elsewhere, and will destabilize the barrier islands which line our east coast. ?

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