Constructing new power lines to handle a huge increase in wind power in the Eastern half of the United States would cost $50 billion to $80 billion over the next 15 years, according to a study released on Monday by power grid operators. That cost would be on top of the $700 billion to $1.1 trillion it would cost power plant developers to build the wind turbines that would produce the power, according to the study.

Saying he needed to restore order to a broken process, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar this week announced his strategy for developing an offshore energy plan that includes renewable energy. On Friday, January 16, its last business day in office, the Bush Administration proposed a new five year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. The proposal was actually published in the Federal Register on January 21, the day after the Obama Administration took office. The deadline for public comment that the Bush Administration established - March 23, 2009 - does not provide enough time for public review or for wise decisions on behalf of taxpayers, the Secretary said.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today set aside the Bush administration's midnight timetable for a vast expansion of offshore drilling. Salazar sharply rebuked the "headlong rush of the worst kind" put in place in Bush's final week in office. Announcing that "the time for reform has arrived," Salazar explained that he "will extend the public comment period by 180 days, get a report on offshore energy resources, hold regional conferences, and expedite rulemaking for offshore renewable energy resources": I intend to do what the Bush Administration refused to do: build a framework for offshore renewable energy development, so that we incorporate the great potential for wind, wave, and ocean current energy into our offshore energy strategy. The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts.

ndiana, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] The Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP'08), the first step of a transmission and generation system expansion analysis of the majority of the Eastern Interconnection, estimates the electricity sector will need more than US $80 billion in new transmission infrastructure to obtain 20% of the region's electricity from wind energy generation. "This is information we believe that our leaders need to consider as they begin work under a new administration and start defining our energy future." -- John Bear, President and CEO, Midwest ISO This initial analysis, which was performed with participation from major transmission owners and operators in the Eastern U.S., looked at two scenarios to examine transmission and generation possibilities between 2008 and 2024. The first, a Reference Scenario, assumes "business as usual" with respect to wind development, with approximately 5% of the region's energy coming from wind. The second was a 20% Wind Energy Scenario and was based on the U.S. Department of Energy's Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study.

Currently in the news, the producers of ethanol are pressing their thumbs to the government, asking them to overturn the 25-year rule limiting the mix of ethanol which can be added to gasoline from its current 10 percent to as much as 15 percent. In the meantime, the Agricultural Department is in discussions with the EPA on raising the current ethanol blend percentage in order to help protect the ethanol industry, which has been deemed a key contributor to the "new energy future". Okay, that sounds just great. But a recent study is warning that the corn-based ethanol produced in the US, may in fact be more harmful and costly than helpful and clean... (read on)

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first multinational agency focused solely on spreading clean energy across the globe, officially launched this week. The expectations are that the agency will help governments and private industry to expand renewable energy installments throughout the industrialized world, where investments are already on the rise, while also assist the developing world acquire the expertise to establish its own clean energy industries.

USDA Undersecretary Mark Rey has signed a Record of Decision (ROD) amending 38 National Forest Land Management Plans to identify locations of corridors suitable for future energy transmission infrastructure across Forest Service land. The corridors protect or minimize resource impacts to lands and surface resources by identifying preferred locations for corridors that also cross Federal lands managed by other agencies. These corridors offer the American public a way to meet the increasing energy demands while mitigating potential harmful effects to the environment.

The new mantra in energy circles is "national smart grid." In the New York Times, Al Gore insists the new president should give the highest priority to "the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid." President Barack Obama, responding to a question by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, declares that one of "the most important infrastructure projects that we need is a whole new electricity grid ... a smart grid." We lump together the two words, "national" and "smart" as if they were joined at the hip, but in fact each describes and enables a very different electricity future. The word "national" in these discussions refers to the construction of tens of thousands of miles of new national ultra-high-voltage transmission lines, an initiative that would further separate power plants from consumers, and those who make the electricity decisions from those who feel the impact of those decisions.

The Times reports that China is struggling with mass layoffs of workers and the worst drought in years - China declares an emergency amid worst drought in 50 years. The worst drought in half a century has parched fields across eight provinces in northern China and left nearly four million people without proper drinking water. Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters described the drought as a phenomenon "rarely seen in history" as the Government declared a state of emergency. President Hu Jintao said that all efforts must be made to save the summer grain harvest.

When the "Clean and Renewable Energy Construction Act" was introduced in the Missouri Senate, the bill's title evoked images of new wind turbines sprouting from the northwest Missouri plains and solar panels lining St. Louis rooftops. A more fitting image might be two more massive cooling towers rising in Callaway County. While the legislation proposed last month may one day aid the development of more renewable energy or a next-generation coal-fired power plant, there's little doubt that its primary purpose is helping AmerenUE build a second nuclear reactor. It would do so by removing a key barrier - a 1976 law that prohibits the utility from charging customers for the plant before it's complete.

A tale of 2 power plants: Tennessee's experience shows how environmental concerns can be misdirected On Dec. 22, a deluge of coal-ash slurry broke through a retaining wall near the Kingston Fossil Plant, a power plant in eastern Tennessee. Black sludge inundated a valley and destroyed houses as it surged down to the Emory River, where hundreds of fish soon lay dead on fouled banks. Helicopter video footage showed a landscape resembling the moon's surface, with more than a billion gallons of sludge covering 300 acres. The disaster also temporarily halted an incoming train loaded with coal. This presumably came from other industrially ravaged landscapes to the east, where entire Appalachian mountaintops are routinely bulldozed into valleys to access seams of Paleozoic carbon.

Since oil gushed from Spindletop in 1901, the Houston area has been the energy capital of the United States and a major destination for federal dollars devoted to oil and gas production. But the mammoth economic stimulus bill that is winding its way through Congress largely bypasses Houston-based energy giants and fossil-fuel development in favor of funding new technologies to glean power from crops, the sun and heat trapped beneath the earth. "There's not a lot of oil and gas" money in the stimulus bill, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.

The Worldwatch Institute has released the latest version of their State of the World series, State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World:

Energy leaders at the World Economic Forum debated the true cost of fuel on Thursday as they grappled with the implications of world recession and how to navigate out of it. Record-high oil prices close to $150 a barrel in July last year added to the pain of economic slowdown, and now much cheaper prices of near $40 a barrel could help the global economy to rally. But for consumers, producers and the planet, oil at that level could be too cheap as it slows investment in new supplies of fossil fuel as well as in alternative energy. Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter, said late last year $75 was a fair price for crude -- at the top end of the $60-$80 a barrel many in the industry consider a desirable level. "That seems to be what you need to get investment," BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward on Thursday told the forum in Davos, with reference to the $60-$80 range.

Congress is planning to direct at least $10 billion in economic stimulus funding to an Energy Department loan guarantee program that hasn't backed any projects since it began in 2005. The new money is intended to generate $100 billion in loans for renewable energy and transmission projects, according to Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. Congress previously approved at least $38.5 billion for clean-energy loan guarantees, and not a single project was funded.

The House voted Wednesday to strengthen whistleblower protections for federal employees, including those working for the Transportation Security Administration and others employed in national security areas. The bill also would create specific protections for those who expose abuses of authority by those trying to manipulate or censor scientific research in federal agencies for political purposes. Critics of the George W. Bush administration alleged that scientific findings were often influenced by politics.

A new study done by Duke University says exposure to the fly ash from the TVA spill could have "severe health implication." Duke University scientists collected water and solid ash samples at sites affected by the TVA spill on Jan. 9. Following preliminary analysis, the solid ash samples were incubated and underwent more detailed analysis. "Our radioactive measurements of solid ash samples from Tennessee suggests the ash has radiation levels above those reported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for typical coal ash," said Avner Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "Preventing the formation of airborne particulate matter from the ash that was released to the environment seems essential for reducing possible health impacts." More than a billion gallons of sludge coal waste spilled from a pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-burning power plant on Dec. 22.

Following former Vice President (and Nobel Laureate) Al Gore's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the Union of Concerned Scientists strongly supported Gore's testimony in pushing for a "to address the urgency of the climate crisis." Here is a statement from Alden Meyer, the UCS director of policy and strategy: "Once again, Vice President Gore is speaking the inconvenient truth: It's long past time for the United States to join the rest of the world in the fight against global warming, and it's essential for Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation this year. The United States has joined other countries in calling for adoption of a new climate change treaty at the Copenhagen climate summit this December. Having a congressionally approved plan in hand would strengthen President Obama's ability to negotiate a strong agreement in Copenhagen

Push through a bulletproof revolving door in a nondescript building in a dreary patch of the former East Berlin and you enter the control center for Vattenfall Europe Transmission, the company that controls northeastern Germany's electrical grid. A monitor displaying a diagram of that grid takes up most of one wall. A series of smaller screens show the real-time output of regional wind turbines and the output that had been predicted the previous day. Germany is the world's largest user of wind energy, with enough turbines to produce 22,250 megawatts of electricity. That's roughly the equivalent of the output from 22 coal plants--enough to meet about 6 percent of Germany's needs. And because Vattenfall's service area produces 41 percent of German wind energy, the control room is a critical proving ground for the grid's ability to handle renewable power.

TVA is near the end of its first phase of response to a massive coal ash spill in East Tennessee last month, stabilizing and preventing further spread of the sludge at an estimated cost of $1 million a day. The giant public utility is considering options for what could be the costliest, lengthiest and most complicated operations: removing the ash from land and water and restoring the area to pre-spill conditions. Advertisement The state must approve the Tennessee Valley Authority's "corrective action" plans and has given it a mid-March deadline to submit details.