This week at SolveClimate, we discovered that a $10 billion bonus to Big Coal has been buried in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, to be paid for by every electricity ratepayer.
We exposed how the bill’s "Combined Efficiency and Renewable Energy Standard" would put a half million new green jobs at risk, and examined how ACES would leave the U.S. South further behind the clean energy curve. We also covered how the law would kill the vital market for voluntary renewable energy purchases.
In Germany, UN climate talks kicked off with the same old squabbles and just six weeks of negotiating time to solve them. Meanwhile, big business continued its calls for immediate international climate regulation.
China’s largest electric transmission company announced plans to develop a massive smart grid by 2020, while IBM picked the five hottest smart grid companies to watch. China also launched its first Urban Low Carbon Institute to market the rewards of a low-carbon lifestyle
We analyzed a seldom-heard hurdle facing "clean coal:" Who will be liable if the CO2 in storage sites leaks? We also dissected a new study that could complicate a plan by U.S. lawmakers to eliminate an essential piece of the EPA’s proposed biofuel rules.
In other news, India floated a proposal to add a whopping 200,000 MW of solar by 2050. Greenpeace revealed that Nike, Timberland and Adidas are "slaughtering the Amazon."
Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, made the case that we can’t count on Washington or Copenhagen to solve climate. The most important leadership will come from cities and CEOs. He then detailed the cities of America’s future.
Last but not least, Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, reminded readers that big industry’s resistance to change in the U.S. has not only proved groundless, but that higher standards set by government actually stimulated economic growth.
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