Put Solar On It!

by A Siegel

The roof, that is ...

Received a phone call earlier today from my better 95+%

...

Dominion Virginia Power staff were at my home, at that moment, upgrading the meter to be able to handle net metering.  Fingers crossed ... with tomorrow's dawn, my roof will be part of the power generation system covering over 90 percent of my family's electricity usage.   A bit more investment (both in terms of sweat and some $s) in energy efficiency, continuing tightening of our own attention to energy use, and we might be soon covering 100% of our power requirements.

My rooftop has solar hot water and solar pv.

It is unique, on both accounts, in my neighborhood.

Being unique isn't always good ... it isn't good in this case.

continued at Daily Kos....

Naomi Klein nails it on G20

by Funkygal

My city feels like a crime scene and the criminals are all melting into the night, fleeing the scene. No, I’m not talking about the kids in black who smashed windows and burned cop cars on Saturday.

I’m talking about the heads of state who, on Sunday night, smashed social safety nets and burned good jobs in the middle of a recession. Faced with the effects of a crisis created by the world’s wealthiest and most privileged strata, they decided to stick the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries with the bill.

How else can we interpret the G20’s final communiqué, which includes not even a measly tax on banks or financial transactions, yet instructs governments to slash their deficits in half by 2013. This is a huge and shocking cut, and we should be very clear who will pay the price: students who will see their public educations further deteriorate as their fees go up; pensioners who will lose hard-earned benefits; public-sector workers whose jobs will be eliminated. And the list goes on. These types of cuts have already begun in many G20 countries including Canada, and they are about to get a lot worse.

continued at Daily Kos....

'Special Places at Risk...'

by hold tight

Cross-posted in a slightly different form at 1Sky.org.

Yesterday, a guest blog at 1Sky posted a heart-wrenching story about oil from the  BP spill coming ashore at Florida's Gulf Island National Seashore. Sadly, this location is one of 15 special places identified as at-risk of contamination from the BP oil spill,in a report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Special Places at Risk in the Gulf of Mexico' (in .pdf form that can by accessed at this link), was written in late May to summarize the ecological value of only a few of the many National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, Seashores, and State Wildlife Management Areas at potential risk from the spill that has now been flowing for more than 2 months.

continued at Daily Kos....

Black Plague of Death Lurks Below, BP Booms the Press

by FishOutofWater

Weathering of dispersed plumes of BP Oil has depleted the oxygen from water below a thin surface layer. Fish have migrated into the top 50 feet of water. Creatures that can't swim aren't so fortunate. A black zone of death sucks the life out of everything below.

continued at Daily Kos....

News from the Arctic: Record low ice in June 2010 (Update at bottom)

by billlaurelMD

This is the next in an occasional series of diaries on the state of Northern Hemisphere Arctic sea ice (and other topics as warranted), written in memory of Johnny Rook, who passed away in early 2009. He was the author of the Climaticide Chronicles.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has just issued its June 2010 report, and it isn't pretty. Headlines:

• Record low mean June Arctic sea ice extent
• A return of the sea level pressure and wind patterns that brought us the record Arctic sea ice minimum extent in September 2007
• Arctic sea ice loss may decrease for a time because of reaching thicker second- and third-year sea ice

Details below.

continued at Daily Kos....

Getting Off the Grid....Slowly but Surely.

by Patric Juillet

It has been our dream to get off the grid, and build a safe environment for our daughters. There are basically four things to do: install a panoply of solar panels and/or purchase a small wind turbine (easier said than done, believe me); sink a water well (that is costly but ultimately viable), plow a portion of available land and purchase a plastic tunnel with the view of becoming self-reliant on vegetables, and build a kick-ass hearth oven, one that will withstand the fierce westerly winds and heavy winter rains of our Emerald Isle. Well, because I seem to start at the end, I've built a neat cooking/roasting/baking device that will be around for quite a few decades.

                                 

As you can see the finished product is now ready, complete with twin chimneys, and what follows over the jump is a pictorial diary of its construction, brick by brick!

continued at Daily Kos....

To BP: the meter's running - you spill it, you buy it

by Chellie Pingree

Seeing the picture spreading on the Internet of a sign at a BP gas station with the company policy "you are responsible for all spills" made me think of something.

Let’s say you are filling your car at a BP gas station, the numbers on the pump steadily ticking. But when you pull out the pump you give it an extra squeeze, spilling oil on the ground. The meter on the pump just keeps rolling. In other words, you spill it, you buy it.

continued at Daily Kos....

Transocean, BP's drilling partner, linked to Iran, Syria

by Jed Lewison

Transocean, the world's largest drilling company and owner of the exploded Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by BP, conducts business with some pretty bad people.

Human rights advocates have called for an investigation into Transocean’s recent dealings in Myanmar. They cite its involvement in a drilling project that apparently included a company that is suspected of having ties to two men accused of laundering money for Myanmar’s repressive government, which is under United States trade sanctions.

Transocean has disclosed in Securities and Exchange Commission filings that its drilling equipment was shipped by a forwarder through Iran and that until last year it held a stake in a company that did business in Syria. The State Department says Syria and Iran sponsor terrorism.

The NYT report adds that Transocean is not only under investigation for skirting U.S. tax laws, but it is also under investigation in Norway. In 2008, the company moved its corporate headquarters from Cayman Islands to landlocked Switzerland to lower its tax burden. It's pretty scummy stuff.

In other oil spill news and notes:

• Plans to capture 90% of the oil leak continue to be hampered by bad weather. A third containment vessel can't be hooked up until seas calm down, which will be next week at the earliest. A new tropical depression in the Gulf has triggered tropical storm warnings in South Texas and could potentially further complicate matters.
• Drilling continues on the relief well, though it is not expected to be finished until mid-August.
• Oil continues to threaten Alabam's shoreline even as more oil washed ashore in the region on Wednesday (photos).
• When oil hits beaches, it seeps below the top layer of sand, making cleanup extremely difficult. Fortunately, the oil is weathered and therefore not terribly toxic, but it still poses a threat, particularly to tourism and local economies.
• Bobby Jindal isn't getting a free pass on his chest thumping bravado anymore. People who actually know what they are talking about are stepping up to the plate and calling him on his baloney.
• By the way, did you know that the company that won the contract to build Bobby's berms was also the #3 contributor to his congressional campaigns? Are there any experts on Louisiana campaign finance who could explore his state-level fundraising?
• Mobile Mayor Sam Jones is criticizing Alabama Governor Bob Riley's handling of the oil spill. Jones says Riley hasn't made funds from BP available to Mobile; Riley says Jones has never asked for help, a charge Jones denies.
• In the diaries: BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 44 and Fishgrease: Booming Separation.
• St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis believes dispersants are responsible for breaking apart the oil and allowing it travel inland into Lake Pontchartrain. He's calling on the federal government to order BP to stop using them.
• Alabama state officials say at least 58 people have gone to emergency rooms and other care centers since May 14 to be treated for ailments related to the oil spill.
• BP CEO Tony Hayward is flying to Abu Dhabi to ask for financial assistance in dealing with his company's oil disaster. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., he's paid at least $5.6 million so far to purchase newspaper ads to boost BP's image.

continued at Daily Kos....

EPA Takes Action to Protect People from Dangerous Coal Pollution

by Bruce Nilles

How's this for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fulfilling its role to protect environmental and public health: On Tuesday, EPA proposed a rule that would prevent between 14,000 and 36,000 premature deaths annually.

The Transport Rule would set stronger emissions standards for the dangerous air pollution emitted from coal-fired power plants in the eastern United States. This new rule would replace the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which had been struck down by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2008.

continued at Daily Kos....

Renew America's Water

by Food and Water Watch

Since much of the country is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave this week, it seems like yet another good opportunity to talk about water. While you’re sweating profusely and in desperate need of hydration, think for a moment about the water you’re drinking and how you get it. Even though we have one of the most accessible and safe water systems in the world here in the U.S., it’s falling into a state of disrepair. Many of the individual systems that carry our water are outdated. Old drinking water pipes lose 1.7 trillion gallons of treated water a year, while sewage overflows and storm runoff continue to be a problem. Remember the water main break in Boston recently? We need to turn our attention to how we can prepare our water infrastructure for the future. We need to Renew America’s Water.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Makes Me Sick

by Forrest Brown

UPDATE: We're at 22,000 signers. Can you help us hit 30,000 today?

Good morning, I'm Forrest Brown, senior organizing fellow at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

We just sent out an email to PCCC members letting them know that BP blocked workers cleaning up the oil disaster in the Gulf from wearing protective respirators.

Keith Olbermann reports that workers are breathing in toxic fumes day after day -- and some have already landed in the hospital with nausea, chest pains, and headaches. Yet BP seems more worried about controlling what images the public sees than about the health of workers.

Shame on them. Watch Keith Olbermann’s report on this issue -- then join us, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and  22,000 others in demanding action from the White House. Click here.

Then read the coalition statement below.

continued at Daily Kos....

Distortions about oil boom from Packgen

by DollyMadison

Over the last 2 months, I've read with great interest all the stories about how the Obama Administration and BP were messing up when it came to failing to purchase enough oil containment boom. Turns out that most of those stories weren't true.

In my latest searches for new news about the results of recent real-world trials of Packgen's boom product, I discovered some new and disturbing info to add to my collection of info about how dishonest this company has been.

They were out to get paid for untested oil containment boom before it had ever been approved in any real-world tests as a satisfactory product. They solicited references and praise from Republican elected officials in Maine, and those officials then portrayed the company as one that was not being treated fairly by BP and the Obama Administration. That portrayal is not accurate and was unfair to both BP and Obama.

Follow me below the fold for more.

continued at Daily Kos....

Warning: Gulf Coasters Beware.

by dov12348

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Just. Stay. the. Hell. Away. From. The. Beaches.  Of course this doesn't apply to the entire coast.

Yet.

Then comes the Atlantic coast.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 44 - organic chemistry 101 Edition

by Gulf watchers

The current ROV DIARY:Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #185 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Gulf Watchers Overnight/peraspera

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

Wee Mama has been a professor of biochemistry at a Big Ten university since 1981. Her research focuses on the cytoskeleton. She has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1994.

Wee Mama will be available to answer questions after 8:30 CDT.

continued at Daily Kos....

Fishgrease: Booming Separation

by Fishgrease

Boomers! I'm going to be on Virtually Speaking with host Jay Ackroyd and fellow-guest Riki Ott! We'll be on July 8th at 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern.

BlogTalkRadio

Also HERE

There'll be a podcast available for those who want to listen later. We'll also be on Second Life. I've never done Second Life, so if my avatar scratches his balls or struts around squawking like a huge ckicken or starts humping Jay Ackroyd's leg... please forgive me. I'm really nervous about fat-fingering the Second Life controls.

The most popular feature of my diaries here has always been my explanations of oil and gas technology and processes. Today, I'm going to talk about gas, oil and water separation. It's something I actually know a lot about. Let's splash over to the other side of the baffle.

continued at Daily Kos....