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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant provided 35% of the state’s power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Now it has been shut down because, as the power company says, it is uncompetitively expensive to operate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The power company points to natural gas rates, while a Public Service Commissioner echoes the governor in saying that “We are moving full speed ahead with local, sustainable no-carbon renewable in Vermont.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Decommissioning the plant will take decades and cost an estimated $1.5 billion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/29/vermont-shutters-nuclear-power-plant-yankee"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/29/vermont-shutters-nuclear-power-plant-yankee</font></a><font face="Calibri"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><u><font color="#0563c1">
</font></u></span></span>The power company said that economics were behind the shutdown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>An alternative explanation is the rising tide of protests against the plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/29/vermont-yankee-shuts-down/"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/29/vermont-yankee-shuts-down/</font></a><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Globally, renewables now supply twice as much energy as nuclear plants: 22% vs. 11%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The share of renewables is likely to increase and that of nuclear, to fall (though modular reactors and other new designs remain on the horizon and may prove successful).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/30/nukes-fade-wind-solar-soar/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2139f14e0a-Top_News_12_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2139f14e0a-85965093"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/30/nukes-fade-wind-solar-soar/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2139f14e0a-Top_News_12_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2139f14e0a-85965093</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Carl Pope observes that heat, cold, water shortage, water surplus, and fuel supply fluctuations all render fossil fuel and nuclear power plants unreliable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>For reliability we may turn to renewable energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/29/carl-pope-grid-reliability-myth/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=bd978974b9-Top_News_12_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-bd978974b9-85965093"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/29/carl-pope-grid-reliability-myth/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=bd978974b9-Top_News_12_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-bd978974b9-85965093</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>US climate activists produced some memorable moments and some significant successes in 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/30/climate-movement-victories-2014/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2139f14e0a-Top_News_12_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2139f14e0a-85965093"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/30/climate-movement-victories-2014/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=2139f14e0a-Top_News_12_30_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-2139f14e0a-85965093</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Next month the Obama administration expects to release measures to control methane emissions, which account for 9% of total US greenhouse gas emissions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Leaks contribute 50% of methane emissions, and 90% of those leaks come from production and transmission of natural gas, oil, and coal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A NASA map of anomalous methane emissions shows where the leaks are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/delaware-sized-gas-plume-over-west-illustrates-the-cost-of-leaking-methane/ar-BBhkXWu?ocid=AARDHP"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/delaware-sized-gas-plume-over-west-illustrates-the-cost-of-leaking-methane/ar-BBhkXWu?ocid=AARDHP</font></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Calibri">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The Alaskan composer John Luther Adams won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Become Ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>It is a 42 minute orchestral piece in which swelling and subsidence take the place of melodic development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>I don’t think you have to have been at sea to listen to it with pleasure, but it will help.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It will also help to know something about sea level rise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Luther_Adams"><font color="#0563c1" face="Calibri">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Luther_Adams</font></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><font face="Calibri">
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