CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION   (www.ctc.com)

MISSION STATEMENT

As conversations of weather occurrences and suggested anomalies become more frequent and mainstream in the scientific community, as well as at the grass-roots-level, the need to embrace and index substantive information into an authoritative conduit to encourage more research and development~~~IS IMPERATIVE.

Pertinent themes as Global Warming, Climate Change, and Melting Ice Caps has stimulated discussions, seeded forums, and spawned additional research, all to foster consensus, and recommend courses-of-action. 

The intent of CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION, is to be The Bulletin Board, The Platform, The Podium,  and The Credible Source & Bibliography for such astute, sincere, and scholarly considerations. 

Sincerely;

Administrators:

Andrew M. Marconi

Lou Marconi

"""""The floundering U.S. nuclear industry just got a bit of good news: Utah is considering building two new nuclear reactors.
Blue Castle Holdings Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Westinghouse that could eventually lead to the construction of two AP1000 nuclear reactors. The two reactors have an estimated cost of $10 billion and an estimated operational date of 2024.
If constructed, Blue Castle says the reactors will increase Utah’s electricity generation capacity by 50 percent, which would replace the power lost with the retirement of a few coal plants in the state.

 The announcement is important because building new nuclear reactors in the United States has been a struggle, to say the least. There are five other reactors under construction – two in South Carolina, two in Georgia, and one in Tennessee. All have suffered delays and unexpected cost increases. 

Demonstrating the ability to build new advanced nuclear reactors like the AP1000 is critical for the industry’s long-term health. But it is also important for the U.S. as a whole because nuclear power is the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the country.
And unless the nuclear industry can deploy more reactors, greenhouse gas emissions will rise as natural gas replaces some lost nuclear capacity. Consider this: there are 100 nuclear reactors currently in operation in the United States, and 95 of them are more than 25 years old. More than half are approaching the end of their original 40-year licenses, although many are being extended for another 20 years.
Still, the U.S. is going to have to figure out a way to replace around 100 gigawatts of nuclear generation by 2050. As it stands, only 5.6 gigawatts are slated to be completed before 2030, with perhaps another 2 gigawatts if the Utah plants move forward.""""""


Another example of how a singular initiative, once effected and given the time and place to demonstrate its cause-and-effect intentions in a positive way, can influence implementation on a larger scale. Its impact on the economy, pollution, and the focus on Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm and consideration

Lou Marconi 

CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION   (www.ctc.com)

MISSION STATEMENT

As conversations of weather occurrences and suggested anomalies become more frequent and mainstream in the scientific community, as well as at the grass-roots-level, the need to embrace and index substantive information into an authoritative conduit to encourage more research and development~~~IS IMPERATIVE.

Pertinent themes as Global Warming, Climate Change, and Melting Ice Caps has stimulated discussions, seeded forums, and spawned additional research, all to foster consensus, and recommend courses-of-action. 

The intent of CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION, is to be The Bulletin Board, The Platform, The Podium,  and The Credible Source & Bibliography for such astute, sincere, and scholarly considerations. 

Sincerely;

Administrators:

Andrew M. Marconi

Lou Marconi


 Aug 30, 2006:
California Senate passes Global Warming Solutions Act

On this day in 2006, the California State Senate passes Assembly Bill (AB) 32, otherwise known as the Global Warming Solutions Act. The law made California the first state in America to place caps on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, including those found in automobile emissions.

The Global Warming Solutions Act became law thanks to an alliance between the state's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and its Democratic-controlled legislature. The bill's passage solidified California's role as a leader in enacting legislation aimed at combating global warming, or the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere due to the so-called "greenhouse effect" caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. California--which represents 10 percent of the nation's automobile market and is known for its struggles with air pollution--took the lead early in setting stricter fuel emissions standards than the federal government's.

Despite his professed enthusiasm for the Hummer, a sport utility vehicle (SUV) known for its prodigious size (and prodigious emission of greenhouse gases), Schwarzenegger sought to uphold his state's pioneering legislation regarding automobile emissions, passed during the tenure of his predecessor, Gray Davis. That law, AB 1493, required the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to regulate greenhouse gases under the state's motor vehicle program and gave automakers until the 2009 model year to produce cars and light trucks that would collectively emit 22 percent fewer greenhouse gases by 2012 and 30 percent fewer by 2016.

The Global Warming Solutions Act went even further, calling for an overall 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (or to 1990 levels) by 2025, a timetable that would bring California close to full compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate-change treaty signed in that Japanese city in 1997. Even after Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 into law in September 2006, California faced an uphill battle to enact these new standards against the resistance of the automotive industry, backed by the administration of President George W. Bush. Automakers had historically resisted increases in fuel-economy standards, as stricter standards usually require an overhaul of their production methods to make cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles. The tides turned, however, with the presidential election of 2008, and in 2009 President Barack Obama announced new nationwide rules on auto emissions standards, bringing them into line with those mandated by California.

Another example of how a singular initiative, once effected and given the time and place to demonstrate its cause-and-effect intentions in a positive way, can influence implementation on a larger scale. Its impact on the economy, pollution, and the focus on Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm.

Lou Marconi 

CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION   (www.ctc.com)

MISSION STATEMENT

As conversations of weather occurrences and suggested anomalies become more frequent and mainstream in the scientific community, as well as at the grass-roots-level, the need to embrace and index substantive information into an authoritative conduit to encourage more research and development~~~IS IMPERATIVE.

Pertinent themes as Global Warming, Climate Change, and Melting Ice Caps has stimulated discussions, seeded forums, and spawned additional research, all to foster consensus, and recommend courses-of-action. 

The intent of CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION, is to be The Bulletin Board, The Platform, The Podium,  and The Credible Source & Bibliography for such astute, sincere, and scholarly considerations. 

Sincerely;

Administrators:

Andrew M. Marconi

Lou Marconi

""""""Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles could soon gain ground on electric cars in the race to develop zero-emission cars, according to a new report.
The auto industry is seeing a convergence of factors that make fuel cell cars more viable, according to the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis.

Major automakers are pushing the technology. Hyundai began leasing its Tucson fuel cell crossover in Southern California earlier this year, targeting the handful of communities that have hydrogen fueling stations. Toyota and Honda plan to bring out their first mass-market fuel cell vehicles next year.
UC Davis transit experts say the key to this rollout is building clusters of hydrogen stations in urban and regional markets.
“We seem to be tantalizingly close to the beginning of a hydrogen transition,” said Joan Ogden, a UC Davis environmental science professor and director of Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways. “The next three to four years will be critical for determining whether hydrogen vehicles are just a few years behind electric vehicles, rather than decades.”

The researchers calculated that a targeted regional investment of $100 million to $200 million in support of 100 stations for about 50,000 fuel cell vehicles would be enough to make hydrogen cost-competitive with gasoline on a cost-per-mile basis. And that investment is poised to happen in at least three places: California, Germany and Japan. California, for example, plans to spend $46 million to build 28 hydrogen fuel stations.

Also helping pave the way for the zero-emission cars are the continually declining expenses for the development of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen station components, the report says. Ample low-cost natural gas for making hydrogen also helps.

Once people get the chance to see and drive the cars, consumer acceptance should be good, Ogden said.
“Hydrogen fuel cell cars offer consumer value similar or superior to today’s gasoline cars,” Ogden said. “The technology readily enables large vehicle size, a driving range of 300 to 400 miles, and a fast refueling time of three to five minutes.”
Other factors powering adoption of the hydrogen cars include:

• Hydrogen cars can become a realistic option if all the people who have wind turbines, use existing technology to produce the hydrogen in a cheap and eco-friendly way. Certainly, in the UK, we could power the cars throughout England, Wales and Scotland. It would also provide additional income...
  mountstamper

—Consumer incentives such as vehicle purchase subsidies, tax exemptions, free parking and access to freeway carpool lanes.
—Global public funding of $1 billion a year for research and development of hydrogen cars and infrastructure. Moreover, UC Davis calculates that automakers have spent more than $9 billion on fuel cell development.
Near-term prospects for plentiful, low-cost hydrogen are good because of the boom in natural gas. The researchers said that cost effectively producing low-carbon hydrogen from renewable sources holds promise for greater greenhouse gas emission reductions.
But Ogden said fuel cell vehicles still face many bumps in the road.
“Hydrogen faces a range of challenges, from economic to societal, before it can be implemented as a large-scale transportation fuel,” Ogden said. “The question isn’t whether fuel cell vehicles are technically ready: They are. But how do you build confidence in hydrogen’s future for investors, fuel suppliers, automakers, and, of course, for consumers?”
Follow me on Twitter (@LATimesJerry)"""""""""


It is important to show and discuss the viable considerations that are manifesting themselves in the arena of ALTERNATIVES to the internal-combustion-engine.  These are not periphery theories.  This is very very near  mainstream implementation.  Its impact on the economy, pollution, and the focus on Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm.

Lou Marconi