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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>President Obama announced a plan to divert $2 billion in oil revenues to renewable energy research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Some had hoped for a stronger move toward an energy transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/obama-proposes-major-new-renewables-research/"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/obama-proposes-major-new-renewables-research/</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The administration appears to be delaying regulation of the emissions of existing power plants, but denies that it is stalling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/15/us-usa-climate-power-idUSBRE92E0UJ20130315?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/15/us-usa-climate-power-idUSBRE92E0UJ20130315?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29</font></a>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Transatomic, an MIT spinoff, proposes 500 megawatt nuclear reactors cooled by molten salt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Benefits: half the cost of current standard reactors, greatly decreased waste, greatly increased safety, no cooling water use, and they can be produced in a factory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The fuel is waste from current reactors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>
It may take 5 years to develop detailed engineering plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates that it will take 5 years after that to prepare regulations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>(Meanwhile, the administration is concentrating on producing the small conventional modular reactors.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The Chinese hope to test a reactor similar to Transatomic’s by 2020 and have committed to producing these generation 4 reactors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>My hope is that the Chinese plans will exert enough pressure on our system to produce results before we have built a fleet of outrageously unsafe, dangerous, expensive water hogs.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512321/safer-nuclear-power-at-half-the-price/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130318"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512321/safer-nuclear-power-at-half-the-price/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-weekly-energy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130318</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A new hurricane model from the Niels Bohr Institute indicates that a degree of additional warming will increase the frequency of Katrina-level storm surges by a factor of 3-4, and 2 degrees of warming, by a factor of 10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Sea level rise will add to the destructiveness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Since 1923 we have had a Katrina-level event every 20 years but that is due to change.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font><a href="http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/news/news13/more-hurricane-surges-in-the-future/"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/news/news13/more-hurricane-surges-in-the-future/</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>In 2011 jobs grew at 4 times the rate of all other types combined, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>(The sequester will mean the cancellation of such reports in the future.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-green-jobs-20130319,0,2962980.story"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-green-jobs-20130319,0,2962980.story</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>This short on the Price of Carbon from the Climate Reality Project pleased me enough to pass it along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://climaterealityproject.org/the-price-of-carbon/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=carbon_launch"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://climaterealityproject.org/the-price-of-carbon/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=carbon_launch</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>An alliance of Canadian and US Indian tribes has vowed to block pipelines carrying tar sands oil through their territories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/20/canada-pipelines-aboriginals-idUKL1N0CCB7720130320"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/20/canada-pipelines-aboriginals-idUKL1N0CCB7720130320</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Germany’s largest research institute has disassociated itself from the Canadian tar sands project because it feared for its reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The article provides a general sketch of how things stand with tar sands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></font><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/20/german-institute-canadian-tar-sands"><font color="#0000ff" size="3" face="Calibri">http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/20/german-institute-canadian-tar-sands</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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