Dann Weeks wrote an informative article last week in the Pahrump Mirror about radioactive groundwater making its way from the Nevada Test Site toward Beatty. Tests showed the groundwater contains radioactive contamination.

Next time you fill your glass with water from your tap you may want to carry it into a dark closet to see if it glows. The radioactive ingredient is Tritium. What is Tritium? Well it is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. [Read more →]

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has opened a public comment period for a third solar project in Nevada: a 180-megawatt solar plant called the Crescent Dunes project, planned by Tonopah Solar Energy, a subsidiary of Solar Reserve. [Pahrump Valley Times]

Progress in solar energy is slowly inching ahead in Nye County.

“BLM will accept comments on the project until Dec. 24. Public hearings have been scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Dec. 17, at the Tonopah Convention Center and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Dec. 18, at the BLM Southern Nevada District Office at 4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive in Las Vegas. Representatives from the BLM and Tonopah Solar Energy will be present to answer questions.

“Comments submitted in writing have to be postmarked before Dec. 24. They may be sent to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, attention Tom Seley, field manager, Tonopah Field Office, 1553 S. Main St., PO Box 911, Tonopah NV 89049. Comments will also be accepted by fax, at 1-775-482-7810 or by e-mail to crescent_dunes@blm.gov.

“A megawatt is roughly enough to power 200 to 250 homes, meaning the plant could supply power to almost 50,000 homes.”

“Tonopah Solar Energy will use an array of 17,350 mirrors called heliostats that follow the sun and reflect light onto the top of a 633-foot tower with a holding tank of molten salt. The salt liquid, heated to 1,000 degrees, is then routed to an insulated storage tank. When electricity is to be generated, the hot salt is routed to a heat exchanger to produce steam, which generates electricity.”

So, if you have questions or input now is your chance to speak up.

Glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors. [CNN]

These changes are taking place in Washington State and Alaska in three different climate regimes,” said Edward Josberger, the lead researcher on the study with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington. “So we feel it’s definitely something going on, probably on a global scale, and of course, if you look at other such measurements around the world and put it all together, yes, glaciers are retreating and retreating rapidly.”

Show your support for a Clean Energy Plan

Let our elected officials know we need green jobs.

Host: Nevada State Democratic Party

Type: Meetings – Informational Meeting

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Time: 8:30am – 10:00am

Location: Steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus

Street: UNLV campus at Tropicana and Swenson

City/Town: Las Vegas, NV

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Email: kirsten@nvgreenvote.org

Description

Friends,

Last year, Americans voted overwhelmingly for change, including an energy policy for the 21st Century.

Members of Congress are working to jumpstart our economy and create new, green jobs in Nevada by passing a historic Clean Energy Plan. Unfortunately, big oil and gas companies are using scare tactics to stall this work and are organizing a protest Monday against any sensible reform to our nation’s outdated energy policy.

PLEASE JOIN US — Monday, August 10, at 8:30 a.m. on the steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus — to let our elected officials know we need green jobs and a Clean Energy Plan now! It’s important that we show our support for a Clean Energy Plan.

Join other Nevadans to send a public “thank you” to Sen. Harry Reid for the work he is doing to support a Clean Energy Plan in Congress and call on other senators to vote in favor of jobs that can’t be exported overseas. Sen. Reid recognizes that we must harness Nevada’s vast solar, wind and geothermal energy potential to stabilize our energy costs and create much-needed jobs!

Free parking is available in the Cox Pavilion parking lot on the UNLV campus at Swenson and Tropicana. For more information, please go to www.rebuildnevada.org. To RSVP, please email kirsten@nvgreenvote.org.

Jobs and the New Economy

Host: U.S. Senator Harry Reid, UNLV, and Center for American Progress Action Fund

Type: Meetings – Convention

Network: Global

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Time: 10:00am – 6:00pm

Location: UNLV – Cox Pavilion

Street: 4505 S. Maryland Parkway (corner of Tropicana Ave. & Swenson Ave.)

City/Town: Las Vegas, NV

View Map

Description

JUST ADDED: Former PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON!

PENDING: Keynote Address by GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

WHAT: High-level industry leaders, scientists, policy experts, and public officials, along with citizens and the media, will gather in Nevada for a day-long summit hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, U.S. Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID (D-NV), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

This year’s summit will bring together the nation’s top minds, including former Vice President AL GORE, Secretary of Energy STEVEN CHU, energy executive T. BOONE PICKENS, White House Council on Environmental Quality Special Advisor VAN JONES, Nevada State AFL-CIO executive DANNY THOMPSON, and many others to chart a course for our nation’s clean energy future.

WHY: 2009 provides a pivotal opportunity for our nation to come together to define a policy agenda that accelerates the deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency, creates good jobs, advances energy independence, and ensures long term economic prosperity for Nevada, the nation, and the world. We hope you will join the conversation.

For more information on the summit and to register online, visit: http://www.cleanenergysummit.org

$25 discounted admission price for students!!!

Want to participate in a different way? Volunteer at the event by applying at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SS_2fKOgcDwWwNwh6armDwVw_3d_3d

NASA reports:

Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft, provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic’s ice cover. [NASA]

Take a look at the NASA pictures.

President Barack Obama

Organizing for America (OFA) has officially landed in Nevada. Organizing for America is dedicated to forwarding President Obama’s agenda through grassroots action, and to creating a progressive, grassroots movement in the State of Nevada.

In order to best serve Nevada, OFA will visit cities throughout the state to re-engage and mobilize the grassroots movement in support of President Obama.

For Organizing for America to succeed, we need to hear from you – your effort and commitment are the backbone of this movement, and your input will help guide our action in Nevada. [Read more →]

Republicans in Congress will spend the Memorial Day recess attacking Democrats for pushing a cap-and-trade bill that could raise Americans’ transportation and energy costs wrote The Hill on May 23, 2009.

“Democrats and the Obama administration have said that putting a price on carbon emissions is the best way to wean the country off of foreign oil and stem global warming while also creating new jobs.”

“The attacks on the Democratic energy proposals is part of a larger GOP effort to paint the Democrat-led Congress as big spenders who backed a $787 billion stimulus plan and are now pushing an energy tax and a “government takeover of healthcare,” according to House GOP talking points.”

Not much new about any of this. Republicans just naturally call anything the Democrats do as too expensive, socialistic, and an expansion of government. All the same things the Republicans did while they controlled the White House and Congress. [Read more →]

That is what the Wall Street Journal says. A whole lot of it has been found in Northern Louisiana.

So what, you say!

The discoveries have spurred energy experts and policy makers to start looking to natural gas in their pursuit of a wide range of goals: easing the impact of energy-price spikes, reducing dependence on foreign oil, lowering "greenhouse gas" emissions and speeding the transition to renewable fuels.

is what the WSJ answers. “A climate-change bill being pushed by President Barack Obama could boost reliance on natural gas. The bill, which could emerge from the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May, is expected to set aggressive targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent man-made greenhouse gas.”

Meeting such goals would require quickly moving away from coal-fired power plants, which account for substantial carbon emissions. President Obama wants the U.S. to rely more on renewable energy such as wind and solar power, but those technologies aren’t ready to shoulder more than a fraction of the nation’s energy burden. Advocates for natural gas argue that the fuel, which is cleaner than coal, would be a logical quick fix. In addition, billionaire energy investor T. Boone Pickens has been touting natural gas as an alternative to gasoline and diesel for cars and trucks.

What? Move away from coal-fired power plants? Nevada has a love affair with coal-fired power plants! Or did, until recently.

T. Boone Pickens tells us:

98 percent of the natural gas used in the U.S. is produced right here in North America. Why is that important? Just ask Europe. This January in the dead of winter, Russia slashed natural gas shipments to the Ukraine and Western Europe and completely cut off the Balkans and Turkey over a contract dispute. How did the European Union respond? By telling the Russians that their actions were "completely unacceptable." Hell of a response. You think OPEC wouldn’t cut off our crude over a major disagreement? Hugo Chavez would do that in a heartbeat.
Remember, establishing a sustainable energy policy that relies on domestic resources such as natural gas is not just an economic issue. First and foremost, it’s a security issue.

Security issue? That should bring everyone to the table.

An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday. [Huffington Post]