Bigger isn’t always better, but in China, bigger is never better, at least in terms of automobiles. China is raising taxes on big cars and reducing them for smaller cars, starting September 1st, to save energy and reduce pollution. With rising global prices of oil, this move is an attempt to alleviate the costs for China’s oil producers and refiners. Zhong Shi, a Beijing-based industrial analyst, said:

The tax move is a good first step for the country toward an energy efficient and environmentally friendly economy.

Maybe not everyone is sensitive to price changes, but they can’t help but be affected by their city's infrastructure – especially its demise. Mayor Bloomberg is especially sensitive to this, as his city grows increasingly at risk with global warming.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg launched the Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, a panel of scientists, government officials, and private sector representatives who will hopefully figure out how to save NYC’s complex infrastructure from the consequences of climate change. Mayor Bloomberg said:

We face two urgent challenges. First, we have to shrink our carbon footprint to slow climate change. Second, we have to adapt to the environmental changes that are already beginning to take place.

Luckily, the Task Force is receiving a ton of support -- the NYC Panel on Climate Change, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Change Resilience Program, and Columbia University’s Earth Institute are all ready to help. According to the Mayor, the Task Force is

one of the most comprehensive and inclusive strategies ever launched to secure a city's critical infrastructure against the effects of climate change.

As to first steps, the Task Force will create an inventory of existing, at-risk infrastructure, develop coordinated adaptation plans, draft guidelines for new infrastructure that will take into account anticipated climate change impacts, and identify adaptation strategies for further study. Senior research scientist of the City Panel on Climate Change, Cynthia Rosenzweig repots:

It is our hope, that cities in the United States and around the world will use New York City's planning process as a model to respond effectively to climate change challenges.

And an effective response may just be a closed door. A bill is expected to pass in the NYC Council that prohibits stores from keeping doors open while running their AC’s.

A first violation gets a warning, the second a $200 fine and the third double that amount. Shops that are smaller than 40,000 square feet are excluded.

Hopefully, this bill will ease the minds of many a Manhattan resident:

Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said she gets a lot of mail from residents complaining about these stores. She said electronics stores are the biggest offenders, though there are plenty of other shops on Fifth Avenue, 34th Street and other popular areas that keep their doors open.

Popular or not, both the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg believe that this move will help conserve energy during the summer. As both Councilwoman Brewer and we know, "There’s no use cooling the sidewalk.”

On the opposite end of the country, the Golden State just got a little brighter -- two solar plants are set to be built in California that will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest plant today.

The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store.

At their best, these plants will put out a total of 800 megawatts – an enormous amount considering the largest solar plant in the U.S. right now puts out 14 megawatts.

If you’re going to make a difference, you’ve got to do it big,” said Randy Goldstein, the chief executive of OptiSolar.

Maybe bigger is better after all.

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