The San Jose (Calif.) City Council has unanimously approved Tesla Motors’ new electric car manufacturing plant. The plant will produce the $60,000 electric sedan that the 5-year-old company currently has in development.
Wisconsin’s Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming has recommended that the state achieve 2005 levels by 2014; reduce emissions by 22% from 2005 levels by 2022 (someone one day will have to explain to me the fascination with number alliteration); and finally, it calls for 75% reductions from 2005 levels by 2050.
The task force has also recommended a two-pronged approach, adopting state level support for either a federal or state-level cap and trade program, as well as a series of policy recommendations for several important state industry sectors:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought today, following two straight years of below-average rainfall, very low snowmelt runoff and the largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in state history.
The governor also issued an Executive Order meant to address related problems caused by the water shortages, such as extreme fire danger due to dry conditions, economic harm to urban and rural communities, loss of crops and the potential to degrade water [...]
A California State Assembly committee last week declined to entertain a controversial bill set to build a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and shelved it until next year.
Senator Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has worked on gaining approval from various parties for Senate Bill 27 for two years. Ultimately, farmers, environmentalists and Delta locals opposed the proposed legislation and may have convinced the assembly committee to reject the bill as is.
Often viewed as a new permutation of the 1980 “Peripheral Canal” bill, which proposed the construction of a Delta water-transfer facility and was viewed by many as threat to the local environment, SB 27 has been controversial from its inception.
Today NPR News aired a story about a rural Michigan school district that is pursuing green by using wind turbines to power their schools and offices. The Jr. High Principal, Kathy Dickens, took the initiative three years ago by applying for grants to pursue wind harvesting. As a result of her efforts The Lakers School District was awarded a quarter million dollar grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
With that money they purchased three large refurbished wind turbines which now power their elementary school and the superintendent’s office. They have since received another grant and energy smart incentives. The Lakers School District now owns a biodiesel processor in addition to their wind turbines. This spring their high school students will have a “Pressing Party”. They will gather sunflower seeds from the plants growing beneath their wind turbines, combine them with soybeans then press these seeds and beans to obtain oil to make alternative fuel.
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