September 5, 2008

World's First Carbon Capture Pilot Fires Up Clean-Coal Advocates (Guardian)
The world's first complete demonstration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will begin next week at a coal-fired power station in Germany. Built alongside the 1,600MW Schwarze Pumpe power plant in north Germany, the demonstration experiment will capture up to 100,000 tons of CO2 a year.

UK Approves Building of Major Offshore Wind Farm (Reuters)
The British government has approved construction of a 500-megawatt offshore wind farm in Cumbria, northwest England, the government said on Thursday.

Doubling Dead Zones (Nature)
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions could strip tropical oceans of
oxygen and drastically expand the region's 'dead zones' by the end of
this century.

Emissions Standards Tightened (Washington Post)
The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday tightened emissions standards for new gasoline-powered lawn mowers, weed trimmers and boat engines, reducing the amount of smog-causing pollution these motors will be allowed to emit. Once fully implemented, the new regulations will annually eliminate emissions totaling 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons.

Second Generation Tidal Turbines Promise Cheaper Power (Guardian)
The device, unveiled by a team of engineers from Oxford University, re-thinks the way power is generated underwater and the inventors believe it will be more robust, more efficient and cheaper to build and maintain than anything in operation today.

California Revives Program to Buy Water from Farmers (Los Angeles Times)
Saying California's water reserves are all but gone, state officials on Thursday announced the revival of a dormant 17-year-old program to buy water from Sacramento Valley farmers and sell it to the thirstiest Southern California agencies in case this winter brings a third year of skimpy precipitation.

How Much Will Sea Level Rise? (Real Climate)
A new study estimating a sea level rise up to two meters, but some media sources are misrepresenting the data.