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To:

From:

Sent:

Subject:

Allen, Kara[Kara.Allen@mail.house.gov]

Allen, Kara

Fri 4/11/2014 2:08:21 PM

SEEC

Daily Clips 4.11.14

Sustainable Energy Environment

Coalition

Top news stories:

The United States has made major advances toward creating new sources

of

renewable, clean and

domestic energy in the last decade. Federal, state and local governments are committed

to

working with

private businesses, unlocking America s entrepreneurial spirit so

that

we might solve the challenge of

creating whole new energy industries

where

none existed before.

Have you ever envisioned an alternate reality in which the

majority

of House Republicans not only

accepted

the

reality

of

man-made climate change but also saw

it as

an

urgent

national

priority?

Now

you can, thanks

to

this mashup

from SEEC

Member

Rep Jared

Huffman (D-Calif.).

SEEC

Member

Rep

Peter Welch (D-Vt.) urged his colleagues

to

remove a corn-based

ethanol mandate

from

the

Renewable Fuel Standard

RFS),

saying the mandate hurts a diverse range

of

people and

businesses including farmers, small engine users and restaurants.

The House Appropriations Committee plans

to

mark up the Commerce-Justice-Science measure after

the two-week

recess, pressing its aggressive schedule

on

spending bills,

while

Senate

Appropriations

will

move

to

take up its first bill, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, later in May.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Thursday said

the

Obama administration's all

of the

above energy

strategy is working, but

that

more funding is needed. Moniz's testimony before

the

House Science,

Space and Technology

Committee

drew fire from

the

panel s Republicans, who indicated they are

dubious

of the

administration's claims

that it

remains committed

to

fossil fuel development.

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The

wind

industry

didn t

just see

the

number

of new

turbines

it

brought on ine fall

off

a cliff last year,

it

also shed more than a third

of

its

workforce as project

developers, manufacturers, utilities and other

companies struggled

to

rebound

following the

brief expiration

of

a prized tax incentive,

the

American

Wind Energy Association said today in its annual report.

Climate change is causing an increase in many types of extreme weather. Heat waves are

hotter,

heavy

rain events are heavier, and winter

storms

have increased in

both

frequency and

intensity.

To date,

these kinds

of

severe weather are among

the

leading causes

of

large-scale power outages in

the

United

States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned leaders in Europe on Thursday

that

Russia could cut supplies

of

natural gas

to

Ukraine if its unpaid bill isn t addressed, potentially disrupting deliveries

to

the rest of the

Continent.

Energy news:

Once a booming industry, U S

wind power

saw its

growth

plummet 92 last year as it wrestled with tax

uncertainties and cheap natural gas. The

industry

is still

growing

but not nearly

as

fast, says a report

Thursday by

the

American Wind Energy Association. It added a record 13,131 megawatts

of

power in

2012 but

that

fell

to

only 1,087

MW

last year - the lowest level since 2004.

The

strategy

emphasizes siting and design features in

development

to

mitigate

the

impacts

to

federal

lands, while seeking to protect or restore resources

that

must be harmed. It comes as energy

development is increasing rapidly on federal property, and the Obama administration is under constant

pressure to allow more.

The

report

from the Energy Department s Office of

Inspector

General found at least

one document

created by

the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on power grid weaknesses, and information

related

to

an attack on a California utility substation last year, should have remained classified.

Spain

overtook

Norway

last

month

to

become

the

region's biggest

exporter

of

liquefied natural

gas. The

southern European nation has never produced any of the fuel.

Solar power could soon be used directly in the manufacturing of new solar cells, making production of a

key chemical require zero energy. The study, published in the journal Royal Society of Chemistry

Advances, found

that

the sun could be used to create copper indium diselenide ink, a promising solar

material. Its efficiency at converting solar energy is high, around 20 percent, and should be capable of

improving

even more.

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Grain producers, manufacturers and coal shippers told federal regulators Thursday

that

rail service has

deteriorated drastically in the nation s

midsection

in recent months, leaving crops in piles on the ground

and fuel stocks low at electric

power

plants

as

resources go undelivered.

Houston and the rest of the U.S. Gulf Coast have more crude oil than the region can handle. Stockpiles in

the region centered on Houston and

stretching

to

New Mexico in the west and Alabama in the east rose

to

202 million barrels in the week ended April 4, the most on record, Energy Information Administration

data released yesterday show.

On Wednesday, Swiss pilots

Bertrand

Piccard and Andre Borschberg unveiled a plane

that

is set

to

become

the first

to

fly around the world using only solar and

battery

power. The

team

hopes

to

make

the

trip

with its Solar Impulse 2 plane for five consecutive days in March 2015, using only electricity

generated

from the sun hitting the photovoltaic panel across its wing.

Tesla Motors Inc.

TSLA),

the electric-car maker, plans

to

start selling its luxury sedans in China this

month

and said the company s co-founder, billionaire Elon Musk, will be

there

to kick off the effort.

Japan s

cabinet approved

the first

national

energy strategy since the Fukushima nuclear accident more

than

three

years ago, designating nuclear as an

important

source of

electricity

for the resource-poor

nation.

The government and the people also turned

to

another

option, energy efficiency and conservation. A

campaign called

1

setsuden (power saving) was established

to

generate support. It worked, and by

allowing

dressed-down

outfits

and rotating

air-conditioning

schedules, the country averted blackouts.

Climate news:

With winds gusting

up to

160-180 mph, Cyclone lta is barreling toward

the northern

coast

of

Queensland, Australia,

where

its

violent

winds and high

storm

surge could cause considerable damage.

lta

unexpectedly intensified

rapidly

on

Thursday and its

winds would

make

it

a Category 4

hurricane

in

the Atlantic Ocean.

It is already taking shape as the 21st century urban nightmare: a big storm hits a

city

like Shanghai,

Mumbai,

Miami or

New York, knocking out

power

supply and

waste

treatment plants, washing out

entire

neighbourhoods and

marooning the

survivors in a

toxic

and

foul-smelling

swamp.

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The U.S.

Environmental Protection

Agency's plan to focus on cracking down on

just the

largest

polluters

will deliver lasting

returns to the

American public, its top enforcement official said on Thursday.

The student-led

effort

to pull Harvard's $32. 7 bill ion university endowment

out of

the fossil fuel

campaign just gained

the

support

of

the school's faculty.

In an

open letter to the Ivy League school's

president and trustees, signed by 93 staff members, they called

the

university

out for

supporting

greenhouse gas-reducing programs on campus while maintaining investments

that

promote

their

increase locally and

worldwide.

Come grilling season, expect

your

sirloin steak

to come with

a hearty side

of

sticker shock. Beef prices

have reached

all-time

highs in

the

U.S. and aren't expected to come down any

t ime

soon.

One

of

Congress' most vocal climate advocates today appealed to like-minded corporations to balance

the

influence and capital

that anti-regulatory

companies have spent fanning

the

flames

of

climate

skepticism.

The

Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing, called to examine physical

threats

to the electric grid

and recently leaked classified information on the

vulnerability

of several substations, strayed to talk of

the Environmental Protection

Agency's carbon emissions

limits

on coal-fired

power

plants.

White

House press secretary Jay Carney attempted to sideline any noise

that

President Obama would

establish a hard deadline

for

his decision on

the

Keystone

XL

pipeline Thursday.

Environment Health news:

The

report,

published Wednesday by

the

Center

for

American Progress and Oxfam America, looked at

three

coastal

restoration

projects on

different

coasts in

the U.S.

and found

that, for

every $1 invested in

coastal

restoration

projects, $15 in

net economic

benefits was created.

A strong earthquake struck

off

the western coast

of

Papua New Guinea on Friday, the USGS reported.

The

7.3-magnitude

temblor hit about

32 miles

west

of

Panguna.

Dressed in a pale

blue snow jacket

and

purple

beanie, Sally Jewell listened

intently as the

scientists

described

the

years

of

research dedicated

to the

park's glaciers. The secretary

of the

Interior eyed a

graph

charting

changes in

the

Nisqually's elevation and noted

the drop-off between

2002 and 2011. Yes

the

scientists

confirmed,

that's

one

sign

of how climate

change is

impacting the

glaciers.

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Whether

or not

fracking causes groundwater

pollution,

people

fear the

risk enough

that

property values

have dropped

for

homes

with

drinking-water wells near shale-gas pads, according

to

new research.

West Virginia s eight black lung community clinics are facing big funding cuts

that

may affect

the

medical

care and benefits received by some 8,500 coal miners suffering from the deadly disease.

A report just made public by the

U S

Fish and

Wildlife

Service documents a disturbing amount of bird

injuries

at

three large California desert solar power plants, and says that there are

no

easy fixes to the

issue.

Bats in Wisconsin and Michigan have been infected

with

a disease

that

has killed millions

of the

mosquito-eating

mammals elsewhere in the U S and could have a detrimental impact on

farming

and

forestry, wildlife officials said on Thursday.

Residents in the western Chinese

city

of Lanzhou rushed to buy bottled water on Friday after

authorities

said the city s drinking water contained levels of benzene, a cancer-inducing chemical, standing

at

20

times

above national safety levels.

Here s some

much-needed

good news

for

our shark friends: The Hong Kong

chapter of the

World Wide

Fund

for Nature

(WWF) announced

this

week

that the

volume

of

shark fins

exported

to Hong Kong fell

by about 35

percent between

2012 and 2013.

While

the

government and mines would

foot

part of

the

bill,

the

cost would mostly fall on consumers,

said Marius Keet, acting chief director of

the

department s office in Gauteng province, which includes

Johannesburg, the country s biggest city.

As political unrest continues to threaten the peace in Ukraine, thousands of animals

at

one of the

country s zoos are at the

brink

of starvation, an

international

conservation

group

announced this week.

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