Jul 30 12

The Green Jobs Source for Monday, July 30

BLUEGREEN ALLIANCE TAGS: The Source

This is The Source for July 30, 2012, green jobs news every day from the BlueGreen Alliance. Don’t forget to “tell your friends” about this great resource. You can sign up here.

TOP THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW FOR JULY 30

“Call me a converted skeptic.” In an editorial in Sunday’s New York Times, Richard Muller, professor of physics at the University of California Berkley, says he now a “converted [climate change] skeptic.” Following “careful and objective analysis” as part of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, Muller found “…the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years…” and “it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.”

California Keeps Going. The use of renewable energy in California keeps going up! In 2011, renewable energy “represented 20.6 percent of the electricity mix from the state’s three biggest utilities at the end of 2011, up from 17 percent in 2010.”

Identifying “Environmental Justice” Hot Spots. The Environmental Protection Agency is now using a mapping tool to identify “pockets of people whose health has suffered disproportionally over the years because of environmental factors.” This is part of the EPA’s “Plan EJ 2014” effort to “integrate environmental justice into the Environmental Protection Agency’s programs, policies, and activities.”

National and International Blue-Green

USA Today examines how this year’s drought is changing business.

A new U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory study is claiming every state in the nation has the “space and resources to generate clean energy.” CleanTechnica has more.

CNN reports gas prices increased by a dime over the past two weeks. This increase comes after three months of decreases.

A blackout in India left 300 million people without power in New Delhi and northern India, Reuters reports.

CleanTechnica quotes a manufacturer as stating its new solar module lines will reduce payback time for solar projects by up to five years.

Environmental Health News looks at the new link found between certain plastic chemicals and diabetes in women.

TIME looks at the new “rift in the rock of West Antartica that runs as deep as the Grand Canyon."

The New York Times Green blog considers if climate change could “trip up punctual songbirds.”

To the States

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a partner of the BlueGreen Alliance, today released a report stating Minnesota has “seen an increase in dangerously hot summer weather.” ThePioneer Press has more.

The San Francisco Chronicle was on hand Friday when California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control announced its new guidelines to “help people identify harmful chemicals in household products and encourage businesses to adopt safer alternatives to them.”

EnergyTrends.Org has released its new “2010 Energy Consumption Data and State Rankings.”

The Streets.MN blog has a six part series on the “Fall and Rise of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge.”

KVNO examines efforts to increase the use of renewable energy in Nebraska.

Blue-Green Links

Huffington Post: Climate Change, Extreme Weather Link Becoming More Apparent

New York Times: Our Energy Choices and Climate Change

Examiner: The U.S. is falling behind other countries in renewable energy

CleanTechnica: Wind Turbine Net Capacity Factor — 50% the New Normal?

Hill: Administration hits China with wind tower tariff in face of GOP criticism

Hill: Conservative group hits GOP over energy subsidies in farm bill

Christian Science Monitor: Electric cars: How many miles will kill 'range anxiety'?

E&E News: Drought, searing heat reignite food-fuel debate