Well, it has been a long time coming, but the US is finally putting some money into high-speed rail (HSR)!
Obama put a strong focus on this in his State of the Union speech last night — “From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains…. Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information.”
Now, the White House has just announced the 12 rail lines that will receive billions of dollars for HSR in the very near future. If these HSR projects come to fruition, the US may finally be level with Europe and China.
It’s the secret that so many big box retailers already know: prices are lower when you buy in bulk. San Francisco-based 1 Block off the Grid has taken that mindset and applied it to solar power with amazing results. Now, the company is adding its very first east coast solar campaign in northern New Jersey.
Candy giant MARS, parent company of M&M’S®, DOVE®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, and TWIX®, turned on a huge new solar array (a “solar garden”) at its headquarters in New Jersey today. No matter what you think of candy food like this, it is good to see such a company going solar. Popular with millions, billions perhaps, and about as mainstream as you can imagine, this is a good step for solar’s more widespread use across the country.
This facility is PSEG Solar Source’s first large-scale solar project. It is one of the largest solar projects in the state of New Jersey, which is already 2nd only to California in its amount of installed solar capacity. The MARS headquarters adjacent to the solar garden is the workplace of about 1,200 employees and is where M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies are manufactured.
If the turbines are out of sight, the level of support goes up to an astounding 82%.
A full 25% of the population of the US lives in the nine Atlantic states from Massachusetts to North Carolina. The potential is staggering. So it is very fortunate that so many people in the middle of part of the region with such great potential for wind power feel this way.
Off-shore wind power off the Atlantic could take one third of the US population off the fossil grid.
Global Solar Center just finished a comprehensive, 50-state survey of solar incentives and adoption. Who leads the nation? It is surprising. As they say, it is the states who were “solar laggards” that are now “solar leaders”. But incentives aren’t the only issue.
Pumped hydro storage is a simple technology already in wide use. Pump water up a hill when you have available energy, let it fall when you need its power.
But Riverbank Power; a new start-up founded by a former wind developer who wants to develop large-scale energy storage, is trying out a new idea. Instead of using hills for the height, it will go the other way. Down into the ground.
Their Aquabank would let gravity drop water underground to turn turbines and make hydro electricity. That electricity would be sent from underground to the grid day time. At night, when excess wind is available; wind powered electricity would gently push the water back up to replenish its surface source.
The lower stretch of New Jersey’s Rahway River is under threat. There is increasing pressure to bisect the wetlands with yet another unnecessary road project - despite the fact that it is home to wildlife found no where else in the area.
One of the residents of this marsh habitat is the Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin), listed as a species of special concern. Nonprofit group National Biodiversity Parks (NBP) hopes to protect and conserve this highly threatened area by studying its diamondback terrapin population.
The field data collected by the study will document the habitat’s value and generate recommendations concerning the long-term conservation of the terrapins on the Rahway River, inclusive of is feeder creeks - and as a result, protect this habitat for the multitude of resident and migratory species that require this specialized habitat for their survival.
Hot dogs are gross; there’s just no getting around it. They are made from left over parts and full of nitrates. Unfortunately, they are part of American food culture, what little there is, and a summer time mainstay from ball parks to BBQs across the country. New Jersey residents have filed a class action lawsuit accusing five companies of consumer fraud and demanding hot dog labels come with a warning: “Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer.”
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have sponsored the NAT GAS Act. This bill is aimed at giving natural gas the push it needs to become part of the cure for America’s oil addiction. Senator Reid (D-Nevada) is also an original co-sponsor.
“Each day, our nation consumes about 21 million barrels of oil- more than 25 percent of the world’s oil supply,” Reid said. And most of that oil comes from foreign soil. “With only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, we cannot produce our way to a safe and secure energy future,” Reid continued.
The new legislation would promote the use of natural gas over traditional oil by using tax credits. This legislation would, in effect, be an extension of the CLEAR Act - encouraging the growth of natural-gas infrastructures to go along with the current boom in hybrid-electric vehicles.
Next week Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation that will create a national park from 35 acres of historical sites that surround a 77 foot high waterfall in New Jersey. It will be the first national park Obama will designate during his presidency.
The tall waterfall is known as the “Great Falls,” and has been featured in a philosophical poem by William Carlos Williams, and even as a nice spot for a murder in a Sopranos episode. Williams’s poem focuses upon Sam Hatch, who jumped over the falls, and later gained notoriety for becoming the first known person to survive a ride over New York’s Niagara Falls.
The U.S. may lag behind Europe when it comes to generating power from offshore wind farms, but a proposed wind farm off the Long Island Coast would be a big step forward in catching up.
Consolidated Edison and the Long Island Power Authority say they want to build a 700 megawatt in the Atlantic Ocean, about 13 miles off the Rockaway Pennisula. The project would be built in two stages of 350 MW each.
A draft assessment of the project released by Con Ed and LIPA this week said it would cost about $415 million to expand electricity transmission capabilities to handle the first 350 MW phase when built.
