Some of the latest news and happenings in the green world our readers should know about:

1. Oil Giants Loath to Follow Obama’s Green Lead: Here’s a story about oil companies spending so very little on green energy development it looks as if they will be left behind as the economy switches to renewable, carbon-free sources of energy.  They don’t seem to be changing course, despite having a President with a green agenda.

They seem to be missing the boat.  Check it out:

The oil companies have frequently run advertisements expressing their interest in new forms of energy, but their actual investments have belied the marketing claims. The great bulk of their investments goes to traditional petroleum resources, including carbon-intensive energy sources like tar sands and natural gas from shale, while alternative investments account for a tiny fraction of their spending.

And:

In the last 15 years, the top five oil companies have spent around $5 billion to develop sources of renewable energy, according to Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, an industry trade group. This represents only 10 percent of the roughly $50 billion funneled into the clean-energy sector by venture capital funds and corporate investors during that period, he said.

Compare that to the $150 Billion of taxpayer money the Obama Administration wants to pump into the green economy over ten years.

2. Gavin Newsom: Power America With Wind Energy

San Fransisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom writes in The Huffington Post that wind- and wave-generated power off of our coasts could drastically reduce our need of carbon-based fuel.

Offshore wind power is one promising source of energy that is commercially viable today. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimate that the wind off America’s coast could generate nearly 1,000 gigawatts — a little more than the current U.S. electrical capacity.

3. According to Grist, President Obama has announced that high-speed rail is on the way with a down payment of $8 billion in the stimulus package committed to its implementation:

The plan calls for development of a new “efficient, high-speed passenger rail network in 100-600 mile corridors.”  It would be paid for with the $8 billion for rail that was included in the economic-stimulus package, as well as the $1 billion per year over the next five years that the administration requested in its budget. These funds would be a “down payment,” according to the White House.  The admin expects more funds to be made available through the reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs later this year.

4. The Nation’s Pulp Nonfiction, by Christopher Hays outlines the paper industry’s abuse of a law written to increase usage of alternative fuel by adding regular diessel to their process in order to qualify:

Wood chips are cooked in a chemical solution to separate the cellulose fibers, which are used to make paper, from the other organic material in wood. The remaining liquid, a sludge containing lignin (the structural glue that binds plant cells together), is called black liquor. Because it’s so rich in carbon, black liquor is a good fuel; the kraft process uses the black liquor to produce the heat and energy necessary to transform pulp into paper. It’s a neat, efficient process that’s cost-effective without any government subsidy.

But the paper industry (several companies) got smart and began adding diessel in order to qualify for the tax credits to the tune of billions of dollars.

5. Solar panels beaming electricity back to earth (in the next seven years!)?

Apparently, this may be coming true, according to the United Kingdom’s Guardian:

The initial plan is for the firm Solaren Corp to provide some 200MW of electricity. Solaren, which is based in Manhattan Beach, California, says it will launch a satellite with an array of solar panels around 22,000 miles above the earth’s equator using existing rocket technology, and then convert the power generated into radio-frequency transmissions. The radio waves would be beamed back down to antennae in Fresno, California and then converted into electricity and fed into the regular power grid, PG&E said.

Wow!

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