commonground

Same Blog New Digs

Seed Media group  has offered to host my blog commonground .  So I will resume posting under  the same name but at a posh  a new address.   For those of you  frequented the blog over the past year  thanks for the kind words and encouragement.  ( Seed Media)

Scientists Offered 10k to Undermine Global Warming Findings

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).( Guardain Unlimited)

AEI                                                                                                                       Source Watch

US Mayors Unite on Green Fight

As the USA comes off its warmest year on record, cities are changing ordinances to encourage construction of environmentally sustainable homes and offices, buying hybrid vehicles for their fleets and giving fast approval to green projects. Many require that all public buildings comply with environmental design standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of building industry groups. ( USA Today)

US Mayors Conference

Did Bush Cook the Books on Climate Change

The Democratic-controlled Congress is focusing on climate change this week as an international panel of scientists gathers in Paris to release a report that is expected to reinforce concerns over so-called greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say are warming the earth. (Seattle P-I)

Philip Cooney                                                                                  Silencing Scientists

Bush Directive Limits Agency Power

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries.  This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. ( NY Times)

Rep Henry Waxman                                                 OMB Watch

Follow the Carbon Trail

In the quest to unravel the puzzles of a rapidly warming planet – and perhaps find the best ways to apply the brakes – carbon turns out to be as good as money in the bank. ( OC Register)

UCI                                                                                                   Carbon 14

How Green Is My Valley

In Silicon Valley hiring is on  the rebound lead by green technology. Alternative energy products, like solar panels and hybrid cars, to the use of nanotechnology to solve environmental problems — went from $34 million in the first quarter of 2006 to $290 million in the third quarter, according to an annual report released Sunday by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a research organization in San Jose, Calif. ( NY Times)

Venture Capital Financing

Emmissions Admissisons May Lead to Fed Handout

Detroit automakers have asked the Bush administration for hundreds of millions of dollars to help develop hybrid cars. They say they need government support to complete research and development into lithium-ion battery technology, a crucial component in bringing the cars to the market. ( Washington Post)

Hybrid Cars                                                                                                            Drive Clean

Trashahol a New Use for Garbage

Creating something valuable  out of discarded  single use  products is a basic tenant of the environmental movement. A new system for converting trash into ethanol and methanol could help reduce the amount of waste piling up in landfills while displacing a large fraction of the fossil fuels used to power vehicles in the United States. ( Technology Review)

EIT

When Feeling the Heat Isn't Enough

While preserving and restoring forests is unquestionably good for the natural environment, new scientific studies are concluding that preservation and restoration of forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to help slow climate change. And some projects intended to slow the heating of the planet may be accelerating it instead. ( NY Times)

Carbon Sinks                                                          Carnegie Institution