GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

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"Commercial" Carbon Capture by 2020... And more corn-based ethanol. The White House backs them both.

Also, in the midst of controversy, this Nobel-award winner gets a vote of confidence from the U-N Climate Chief.

And how your cell phone can help you track down "alternative fueling stations".

Good morning, I'm Tyler Suiters, in for Susan McGinnis... Thanks for joining us for The Energy Report this 4th day of February, 2010.

Biofuels and clean coal technology now have "new" top-level federal support, from the President and 4 of his Cabinet members.
President Obama met with 11 governors yesterday from coal and agricultural states... and announced his Administration's goal of developing carbon capture and sequestration technology by 2020.
That includes building "five to 10" CCS demonstration projects by 2016.
And for the farmers: EPA's renewable fuel standard "will" allow continued growth of corn-based ethanol.
The biofuels industry had feared the agency's "lifecycle GHG calculation" would show corn didn't have emissions 20% below gasoline, which is the legal standard.

But Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA leader Lisa Jackson jointly announced that "improved EPA analysis showed otherwise"... and Jackson strongly rejected a suggestion that EPA had "changed the science" to fit the politics.

{***LISA JACKSON***}
"I don't agree with the premise of your question. I don't agree that we changed the science to fit any of them and I would refer you to the scientists at EPA who made the recommendations to me as far as how based it saw the modeling and the life cycle analysis go. Listen, I understand advocacy and I understand that for many of us, when we look at these fuels, the one thing we really wanted to make sure is that they are renewable fuels. That we weren't dumbing downt he standard in order to favor any particular industry or get any particular outcome. I feel very strong that's exactly what happened here. That through the public comment process, through a peer review process that was openly conducted, through an uncertainty analysis, the staff came forward with the recommendation that said based on what we know now - and by the way, based on including an indirect land use analysis, not excluding it, based on what we know now - there is no basis to exclude these fuels."

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Jackson said the carbon impacts of corn-based ethanol are "less than we thought", and she pointed to 3 factors in reaching that conclusion... better crop data, the use of "co-products" like corn cobs as feedstock... and a 4-fold increase in the countries used to assess indirect land use impacts.

The UN Climate Chief is now defending his top scientist...
Yvo de Boer says it would be "senseless" for Rajendra Pachauri to resign as head of the IPCC.
De Boer told reporters in New Delhi that the Nobel-winner is not personally responsible for an inaccurate claim in the panel's 2007 report.
The panel apologized last week for the assertion that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035. But de Boer says the IPCC's scientific evidence hasn't been shaken by what he calls a "very unfortunate mistake"... and he believes Pachauri is a "good chairman."
Pachauri has said he will not resign... he believes climate skeptics and corporate interests are orchestrating a campaign against him and his panel.

The world's biggest industrial democracies are heading to the top of the world for their next meeting... an effort to underscore "a side effect" of climate change. G-7 leaders will meet tomorrow and Saturday in Canada, in the tiny capital of Nunavut... a territory whose largely Inuit population has a small measure of self government.
Canadian officials want to emphasize "sovereignty over their part of the Arctic".
Because of melting ice sheets, several nations are making land claims in the region... a bid for access to newly exposed minerals, petroleum and polar shipping routes.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says his country wants to send a diplomatic message that it will protect its rights to those resources.

NRG and Delaware regulators have come to a tentative agreement to shut another unit at NRG's Indian River coal plant.
The two oldest units are being shut this year and next under a 2007 consent decree.
The latest agreement would shut the third unit in 2013, thereby eliminating 30 to 40 billion gallons of annual cooling water withdrawals from the river.
The fourth and newest unit has a closed cooling system and needs little water.
Under the 2007 deal, unit 3 was to be retrofitted with new emissions controls. Now, only unit 4 will be retrofitted, at a cost of $360 million.
NRG is planning the Bluewater Wind off-shore wind project to help compensate for the power loss.

The world's largest greenhouse gas emitter is adding more wind-generated electricity to its grids.
A new study by the Global Wind Energy Council says China doubled its wind capacity over the past year from 12 to 25 gigawatts... and became the largest buyer of wind turbines worldwide.
China says its goal is to add 150 gigawatts of wind capacity by 2020...
But right now, China gets just 1% of its electricity from wind.
The study says the US still ranks as the world's "largest user" of wind power, even though the country gets less than 2% of its electricity comes from wind.
The European Union's wind generation total is now 9%.

White House climate advisor Carol Browner is defending the Obama administration's commitment to cap and trade.
The president's top advisor on climate issues delivered a pep talk yesterday to the RETECH 2010 conference... The renewable energy industry's annual exhibition of its latest technology is going on here in Washington.
In her speech... Browner made repeated references to "caps" and "price signals"... Showing that the administration isn't backing down on a Senate climate bill.
She says a government push for renewable energy isn't just a climate issue... It makes good business sense.

{***CAROL BROWNER***}
"The question isn't whether clean energy is a smart business decision, the question is, will those solar panels be manufactured in Tokyo or Toledo. Will the batteries that power the next generation of hybrid cars come from South Korea or South Carolina? Will we be satisfied taking a backseat to Denmark in wind power, or will we build a strong, thriving wind turbine manufacturing base right here in America."

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Lee Patrick Sullivan has a complete look at what Carol Browner had to say yesterday at the RETECH conference, right here on CleanSkies.com

One of the country's largest gas guzzlers is considering raising taxes on oil to pay for renewable energy.
Hawaii may add a 2 to 3 cent tax on every gallon of gasoline in order to raise $30 million for the state's renewable energy initiatives.
Hawaii wants to generate 40 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030.
The state's Democrat-controlled legislature tried to increase oil taxes last year, but it was voted down by Republican Governor Linda Lingle.
She said the state couldn't afford its airline industry to take such a huge financial hit.
But, under the new proposal, the airline industry would be exempt from the tax increase.

Driving an E-V and running out of juice...? Yep, there's an app for that...!
A company called "NY Enterprises" now has an iPhone app that locates "alternative fuel stations"...
Green-Fuel can help you find stations with Compressed Natural Gas, L-N-G, Hydrogen, Biodiesel, or Electric services.
And the issue of "battery range" remains something of a barrier for the E-V industry.
I spoke with EPRI's director of electric transportation Mark Duvall about where battery technology is now, and why the current range per charge "isn't higher".

{***MARK DUVALL***}
Batteries are expensive, and they're going to be expensive for a while. So it'll be a while - if ever - until you're able to build some car with tremendous range, that's not a small-volume niche production vehicle"

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We also discussed the infrastructure needed to accommodate a massive transition to E-V's here in the U-S...
You can catch my entire conversation with Mark Duvall here on CleanSkies.com.
Mark is also a guest on this week's edition of Clean Skies Sunday, at 9:30 AM on ABC here in the Washington, DC area.

Here's a look at goings on around the Beltway..
10:00 AM, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will testify on DOE's budget for the first time this year, in Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Also at 10:00 a.m., company leaders from the clean energy industry meet to release a study on the the job creation impact of a strong renewable electricty standard.
And at 2:00 PM, renewable energy industry leaders meet for the RETECH conference to discuss hydrogen, fuel cells, green buildings, smart grids, and other technologies.

And that's the Energy Report - thank you for joining us in the Energy News Center.

If you have any suggestions or comments regarding our programming here on clean skies news, we'd like to hear from you, you can email us at

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I'm Tyler Suiters, you're watching Clean Skies News.