Category «Energy»

Mapping the World’s Coal Capacity

Center for Data Innovation: “Climate news publication Carbon Brief has created several data visualizations mapping the location and capacity of the world’s coal power plants. An interactive timeline map allows users to scroll from 2000-2017 to see where plants are operating, opening, and have closed. The maps illustrate that the world’s coal capacity has nearly …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law

Alaska Refuge May Be the Most Contested Land in the U.S.

The National Geographic [includes photos and graphics]: Congress voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Here’s what’s at stake for America’s wild frontier. “…the current U.S. administration is eager to proceed with the two lease sales, of at least 400,000 acres each, ordered by the new law. Assuming various regulatory and …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research

US recycling hits a wall – China’s ban on imported waste

The New York Times: Plastics and papers from dozens of American cities and towns are being dumped in landfills after China stopped recycling most “foreign garbage. “…as part of a broad antipollution campaign, China announced last summer that it no longer wanted to import “foreign garbage.” Since Jan. 1 it has banned imports of various …

Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents

DOE Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit

“The Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit is an update and expansion of the Eastern Wind Integration Data Set and Western Wind Integration Data Set. It supports the next generation of wind integration studies. The WIND Toolkit includes meteorological conditions and turbine power for more than 126,000 sites in the continental United States for the …

Subjects: Energy, Government Documents

Ireland’s Open Data Portal

Ireland launches the third version of their national data portal DATA.GOV.IE – Promoting innovation and transparency through the publication of Irish Public Sector data in open, free and reusable formats. “A new and improved version of the national Open Data portal, data.gov.ie was recently launched. It is the third iteration of the portal now using …

Subjects: Courts, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Transportation

Every one of America’s 57,636 wind turbines, mapped

Washington Post: “California’s Kern County, home to the city of Bakersfield, bills itself as the “Wind Capital of the West.” But a Washington Post analysis of a massive new U.S. Geological Survey database of over 57,000 commercial wind turbines suggests that the county is being overly modest: It is, in fact, the wind capital of the …

Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents

These 20 Water-Stressed Countries Have the Most Solar and Wind Potential

World Resources Institute: “Most power generation consumes water, whether to cool steam in thermoelectric plants or power turbines for hydropower. And the global demand for both water and electricity will continue to increase substantially in the coming decades. Although growth is generally a good thing for the economy, it challenges nations—particularly ones that are water-stressed—to …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law

Emails Suggest Interior Dept. Prioritizing Fossil Fuel Interests Over Wildlife Well-Being

Pacific Standard – Records reveal that, following requests by fossil fuel industry groups, a top official at the Department of the Interior appeared to take credit for helping to delay new federal protections for a once-endangered species. “The Texas hornshell is a sleek green-gray mussel that once thrived in the Rio Grande watershed, its habitat …

Subjects: E-Mail, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research

Report: Boosting Energy Efficiency Would Bring Vast Health Benefits

Environmental Working Group: “A new report estimated the sweeping public health benefits that a 15 percent reduction in energy demand would yield in one year. The February report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or ACEEE, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, or PSR, found that the savings from modestly cutting energy demand in …

Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care, Medicine