California regulators on Thursday went where no regulators have gone before — approving a utility contract for the nation’s first space-based solar power plant.

The 200-megawatt orbiting solar farm would convert solar energy collected in space into radio frequency waves, which would be beamed to a ground station near Fresno, Calif. The radio waves would then be transformed back into electricity and fed into the power grid. [Green Inc]

A Southern California start-up called Solaren will loft components for the solar power plant into orbit and sell the electricity it generates to Pacific Gas and Electric, the major utility in Northern California, under a 15-year contract. The project is supposed to be turned on in 2016.

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Press conference on steps of State Capitol building will discuss the most far-reaching proposal in history to regulate marijuana

CONTACT: Dave Schwartz, NSML Campaign Manager ……………702-727-1081 or dschwartz@mpp.org

CARSON CITY, NEVADA — On Wednesday, Jan. 6, on the steps of the Nevada State Capitol building in Carson City, Dave Schwartz, the campaign manager for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, will discuss the details of a 2012 ballot initiative to establish a taxed and regulated marijuana market for adults 21 years of age and older in the state of Nevada. The press conference will occur immediately after Schwartz submits the initiative petition to the Secretary of State. Submission to the Secretary of State is a prerequisite to circulating the petition throughout the state.  The campaign will need to collect 97.002 signatures by November 2010 in order to qualify for the November 2012 ballot. Schwartz will also unveil the campaign’s Web site, which will serve as a key educational and organizing tool over coming years.

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Politics and Senators. There is a tiny clause tucked into a 383-page Manager’s Amendment to the Senate health care reform bill. You can read it on page 98. It relates to money that states will have to pick up with regard to Medicaid. The Senate bill would expand Medicaid to people below 133 percent of the poverty level. Up until 2017, the federal government will pick up the tab for the added cost that will place on Nevada and all the other states of the union. After 2017, Nevada (and all the other states, except Nebraska) will have to start sharing the cost.

The bottom line is that Nebraska will never have to share the added cost of Medicaid if that amendment becomes law. The federal government would continue to pay for the added cost to Nebraska even after the year 2017. But Nevada will have to pay.

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