May 15, 2008

Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species (NYT)

The polar bear will be placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the US Interior Department has announced. But the agency has added stipulations that would allow oil exploration to proceed in areas where the bears live.

House Bill To Extend Solar Credits Likely To Die In Senate (Tech Trader Daily, Barron's)

Solar stocks have been rallying on reports that the House will approve a bill that extends the renewable energy tax credit. Even if it passes, it will likely get killed off in the Senate.

West Virginia’s Top Judge Loses Re-election Due to Questionable Ties to Coal Chief (NYT)

West Virginia's top judge, once the clear favorite, will be out a job after being rocked by a scandal over a secret vacation with a top coal exec whose company had a case pending before the court.

World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm in the Works (Reuters)

British utility Scottish & Southern Energy has announced that it will build the world's largest offshore wind farm off Britain's east coast, and has awarded $3 billion in contracts to US engineer Fluor Corp and Germany's Siemens AG.

IBM Replants Chip-Cooling Tech in Solar Farms (Green Tech Blog, CNET)

IBM has developed technology that will let solar cells withstand the heat of more than a 1,000 suns.

Dell Plans Green PC Push (PC Magazine)

Dell has announced that its plans to cut the energy consumption of its desktop and notebook PCs by 25 percent in two years.

Antarctic Ice Bubbles Show CO2, Methane, at 800,000-Year Highs (Bloomberg)

Ancient air bubbles trapped in Antarctica's ice have revealed that levels of CO2 and methane in the Earth's atmosphere are at their highest in 800,000 years, according to two new studies in the journal Nature.