Climate news this week: Europe cuts carbon, clean energy sags, NJ's water turbines--10/24

First and foremost, this week we wish to congratulate our Climate Matters Video contest winners!

We would also like to congratulate our neighbors on the other side of the pond. The European Union announced this week that their original 15 member nations are “on track” to meet their Kyoto treaty commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

The countries pledged by 2012 to reduce by 8 percent their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases thought to contribute to global warming.

Only three countries — Denmark, Italy and Spain — were "off their Kyoto track" and unlikely to meet individual targets, the European Environment Agency said.

But their shortfalls would be made up by Britain, Germany and Sweden, which were expected to show "outstanding performance," according to agency's executive director, Jacqueline McGlade.

Hopefully, this will set the stage for the next round of international climate talks in Poland in December, and in Copenhagen next year.

Closer to home, we’ve received some surprising (and ludicrous!) news about one of our allies, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN):

A handful of professional environmental advocates were placed on a Maryland State Police list of suspected terrorists, activists charged this morning.

Three staffers for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network have learned they were on a list compiled by the state police, which also included nonviolent peace activists and anti-death penalty advocates, said Mike Tidwell, the group's founder and executive director.
…
Mr. Tidwell said at the rally [to protest the charge] that none of the environmentalists were connected with the groups previously mentioned as having been spied on.

He said it's dangerous territory when the police focus on people who just want to improve the environment.

"The fact that the Maryland State Police was presumably surveilling mainstream environmental organizers puts a chill on all potential organizing for the environment, and that's bad for Maryland," he said.

Unfortunately, this week also brings some bad news on the economic front. Largely due to the current crisis, the economic enthusiasm for clean energy might be waning:

Shares of alternative energy companies have fallen even more sharply than the rest of the stock market in recent months. The struggles of financial institutions are raising fears that investment capital for big renewable energy projects is likely to get tighter.

Advocates are concerned that if the prices for oil and gas keep falling, the incentive for utilities and consumers to buy expensive renewable energy will shrink. That is what happened in the 1980s when a decade of advances for alternative energy collapsed amid falling prices for conventional fuels.

“Everyone is in shock about what the new world is going to be,” said V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology, a California advocacy group. “Surely, renewable energy projects and new technologies are at risk because of their capital intensity.”

Less than two weeks away from the 2008 presidential election, we are happy to hear from the New York Times that both major presidential candidates are committed to strengthening America’s climate policy:

A high priority is helping revive the nuclear-power industry because nuclear plants produce no greenhouse gases, once built. Mr. McCain claims a byproduct of his nuclear push would be the creation of thousands of new jobs.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, insists that his energy plan, which is largely framed around measures that could have climate benefits, would remain a top priority even in the face of economic troubles.

Rather than increasing joblessness, he says, his proposals to create federal programs to cut energy waste and to help Detroit retool and retrain to make fuel-sipping hybrids would create jobs.

We are certainly excited to hear both candidates’ commitment to green jobs. We are a little bit nervous, however, that both candidates

...continue to mention “clean coal” in the context of climate change, even though teams of researchers have concluded that investments in large-scale tests of ways to capture and bury carbon dioxide from coal combustion would be required on a scale far beyond the federal spending either candidate is calling for.

Act now to tell both Presidential candidates that America needs clean energy, not “clean coal!”

Speaking of the presidential election, we’ve all heard a lot of talk about offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. This week, however, we are happy to hear that New Jersey is looking at a different kind of offshore energy production:

The waters of the Jersey Shore may soon become home to the nation's first deepwater wind turbines. New Jersey officials recently announced the state would help fund an initiative by Garden State Offshore Energy to build a 350-megawatt wind farm 16 miles (26 kilometers) offshore. The state wants by 2020 many more of these parks, at least 3,000 megawatts worth, or about 13 percent of the state's total electricity needs.

"This is probably the first of many ambitious goals to be set by states," says Greg Watson, a senior advisor on clean energy technology to the governor of Massachusetts. "Three thousand megawatts is significant. With that you're able to offset or even prevent fossil fuel plants from being built."

The federal government is about to open up to wind energy development vast swaths of deep ocean waters, and states and wind park developers are vying to be the first to seize the new frontier. Wind parks in these waters can generate more energy than nearshore and onshore sites, they don't ruin seascape views, and they don't interfere as much with other ocean activities.

That wraps up this week’s news update. As always, please post in the comments section if you have other relevant news to share!