The United States is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions far too slowly to help avert the worst effects of global warming. But what would happen if the country adopted seven of the most ambitious climate policies already in place around the world? Together, these seven policies would slash greenhouse gas emissions in the United States roughly 29 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, and roughly 50 percent by 2050, according to Energy Innovation’s climate policy modeling. To put that in context, under the Paris climate agreement, the United States vowed to cut emissions at least 26 percent by 2025 and laid out a broad goal of reducing emissions 80 percent by midcentury. Assuming these policies worked as intended, they would take the country a big chunk of the way toward deep decarbonization. These are not the only steps the United States could take to address global warming. Many of these policies...

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd: , our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping public lands conservation bill, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for environmental protection and permanently reauthorizing a federal program to pay for conservation measures. The Senate voted 92 to 8 in favor of the bill, offering a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided chamber and a rare victory for environmentalists at a time when the Trump administration is working aggressively to strip away protections on public lands and open them to mining and drilling. “It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development, and conservation,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the majority leader. Western lawmakers of both parties...

Five years ago, a new company emerged in Cullman with a unique technological system to power a vehicle without activating the engine. Next month, the company — Zero RPM — will be one of three in the state to receive an Economic Development Partnership of Alabama Innovation Awards. The awards celebration will take place Aug. 23 at the Alabama Theater in Birmingham. “That was truly a community effort, when Zero RPM needed a place to get started and was welcome at Wallace State Community College,” said Dale Greer, director of the Cullman Economic Development Agency. “This a great honor recognizing the innovation and importance of the work they do. Only a few companies in the entire state are recognized.”   At the time Zero RPM was getting started at Wallace State, the operation became part of a statewide announcement and drew former Gov. Robert Bentley and other state officials to the campus...

Cullman, AL--(BUSINESS WIRE)— March 31, 2017—Zero RPM Inc., a leading provider of patented vehicle idle mitigation systems, announced today that through its partners and customers, the Idle Mitigation System (IMS) prevented a record 589,000 lbs. of pollutants from being emitted by eliminating over 30,000 idling hours at the worksite during the past 90 days, as tracked by the IMS management tool, Intellimetrics® and based on data supported by the Department of Energy. Lance Self, CEO of ZeroRPM, stated, “Idle mitigation at the worksite is a great way for commercial and emergency vehicles to contribute to America’s Energy Independence initiative to promote clean air, while reducing fuel costs, excessive engine wear, worksite noise and providing operators with cab comfort without running the vehicle’s engine.” ZeroRPM Idle Mitigation System products are versatile enough to be integrated into a broad range of applications and on light to heavy duty chassis for utility, telecom, ambulance,...

The Energy Department today announced over 65 organizations are participating in the Better Building Alliance's Interior Lighting Campaign (ILC) and committing to drive greater energy efficiency through new interior lighting technologies. Original link

Last month a group of industry stakeholders, and energy efficiency and environmental advocates, along with the Department of Energy (DOE), proposed consensus energy conservation standards for multiple commercial heating and cooling equipment types. DOE estimates these standards could save about 15 quadrillion Btu over 30 years. The working group represents an alternate approach to energy efficiency standards development within the DOE Original link

Nuclear power currently makes up slightly more than 2% of China's total power generation. However, the Chinese government has a stated goal to provide at least 15% of overall energy consumption by 2020 (increasing to 20% by 2030) from non-fossil fuel sources, including nuclear, hydroelectricity and other renewable sources. To help achieve this target, China plans to increase nuclear capacity to 58 gigawatts (GW) and to have 30 GW of capacity under construction by 2020. Original link

As the country reaches the summer peak electricity demand season, nearly all U.S. nuclear generators have returned from refueling outages. Total outages were less than 1.5 gigawatts (GW) on July 6, the lowest level since late January. Daily nuclear outage levels and plant-by-plant status updates can be found in EIA's new Status of U.S. Nuclear Outages page. Original link

With the release of the most recent Natural Gas Monthly, EIA began publishing base gas levels in natural gas storage facilities through the natural gas query system. Base gas plays an important role in underground natural gas storage, serving to maintain cavern or reservoir pressure and keeping natural gas storage facilities operational. Original link

EERE offers webinars to the public on a range of subjects, from adopting the latest energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, to training for the clean energy workforce. Webinars are free; however, advanced registration is typically required. You can also watch archived webinars and browse previously aired videos, slides, and transcripts. Original link