Global warming

The Obama administration scaled back on demands for heavy industrial boilers to cut toxic air emissions, a sign it may be willing to compromise with businesses and Republicans on future air pollution rules.

The Environmental Protection Agency today issued final regulations on cutting air pollutants such as mercury and soot at boilers, which are basically on-site power plants at factories, and incinerators.

The EPA said the move would cost companies $1.8 billion to cut pollution, about half the amount that would have resulted from rules proposed last year.

While the rules are only a minor part of the EPA'… Read more

Governments are looking at ways to keep the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol going beyond 2012 in some form to defuse a standoff between rich and poor nations that threatens efforts to tackle global warming.

Negotiators from almost 200 nations will meet in Bangkok from March 3-8, after side-stepping the Kyoto issue at their last meeting in Mexico in December.

"There is some creative thinking going on" about Kyoto's future, said Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate and energy program of the Washington-based World Resources Institute.

The Kyoto Protocol obliges almost 40 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse … Read more

President Barack Obama today proposed boosting funds for clean-energy research and deployment in his 2012 budget by slashing subsidies for fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal.

The budget would provide the Department of Energy with $29.5 billion for fiscal year 2012, up 4.2 percent from the proposed 2011 budget, and up 12 percent from the enacted 2010 budget. Some $8 billion would support research in clean energy like wind, solar, and advanced batteries.

"Whomever leads in the global, clean-energy economy will also take the lead in creating high-paying, highly skilled jobs for its people," … Read more

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--President Barack Obama announced a new clean energy program in Pennsylvania on Thursday, seeking to show he remains focused on jobs in a state that may be essential to his 2012 re-election prospects.

Obama outlined a plan in his State of the Union address last month to encourage clean energy technologies and to double by 2035 the U.S. share of electricity from clean energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear and "clean" coal.

As part of that program, Obama announced a plan to improve energy efficiency in U.S. commercial buildings by offering businesses … Read more

editor's notebook SAN FRANCISCO--I had the good fortune this past weekend of attending Compostmodern, a two-day conference here devoted to exploring different ways in which designers can help create a sustainable future. And I'd like to mention a few of the tech- and Internet-related highlights--some of which are new, some of which you, like me, may have missed the first time around. There's a variety of supercool stuff here, so read on.

Organized by the San Francisco chapter of AIGA (one of the country's premier professional groups for designers)--and sponsored by Adobe and other companies, … Read more

The U.S. government yesterday gave four biofuel companies loan guarantees of nearly $650 million to help build plants that will make motor fuels from sources like animal fat, orange peels, and trash.

The government is supporting the development of new feedstocks for ethanol to ease dependence on corn. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes to making ethanol, which has spurred concerns from environmentalists and food groups that production of the fuel can raise food prices.

The Agriculture Department gave Coskata loan aid of $250 million to build and operate a 55 million gallon-per-year (gpy) plant … Read more

What's light green, sprayed on top of asphalt, and lowers the temperature of parking lots by 30 degrees? If you went to school at Robert L. Duffy school in Phoenix, you'd know the answer.

Late last month, the charter school became the testing ground for "green asphalt," a concrete-based reflective covering designed to make asphalt surfaces cooler and more durable.

Phoenix-based Emerald Cities installed the coating at the school to demonstrate the viability of the technology to city leaders and contractors, company CEO Sheri Roese said yesterday.

As part of its efforts to be carbon neutral, … Read more

Having tracked traditional weather data for years, Earth Networks is taking on greenhouse gases.

Formerly named AWS Convergence Technologies and operators of the Weather Bug Web application, Earth Networks said today it will invest $25 million over five years to equip about 100 locations worldwide with sensors to measure the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and methane.

The company will collaborate with the Scripps Institute for Oceanography in La Jolla, California to gather and analyze the data and combine it with weather-related data. Earth Networks CEO Robert Marshall and Scripps director Dr. Tony Haymet are … Read more

SINGAPORE--The outcome of U.N. climate talks in Mexico held this month should boost steps in Asia to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with China a likely bright spot in 2011, a senior analyst at a leading U.S. think tank said.

The talks helped put the troubled U.N. negotiations back on track but failed to agree on a broader pact meant to avert every more extreme droughts, floods, heat waves, and rising sea levels.

Across the region, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan are working on myriad policy steps to put a price on carbon emissions, drive … Read more