global warming

The last remaining partners in the construction of the Big Stone II coal-fired power plant announced yesterday that they would not continue the project. They proposed a 500 to 600 megawatt expansion of an existing coal burning power plant located near Milbank, South Dakota. The expansion would have been built on the shores of Big Stone Lake, headwaters to the Minnesota River, near the Minnesota border.

“We are excited to see that the economic realities have finally been acknowledged,” said Darrell Gerber, Clean Water Action Program Coordinator. “Not only was this project bad for public health, the Minnesota River and the environment it would have been bad for the pocketbook of many rural communities.”

Partners in the $1.6 billion project were left scrambling to find investors after the project lead, Otter Tail Power, withdrew in September. This was preceded by the withdrawal of Great River Energy last year. The remaining partners, Montana-Dakota Utilities, Company Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Heartland Consumers Power District and Missouri River Energy Services, announced yesterday the closure of the project.

"Militarism is the way corporations maintain their access to their food supply — the planet."   --Steve Martinot, Militarism and Global Warming

More at Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d26-Cli...

From Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m...

The Union Concerned Scientists issued an argument by argument debunking of the "Global Cooling" section of the new book, SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The chapter's positions are typical of those used bythe global climate denier movement to stall action on climate solutions like clean energy, renewable power and more sustainable business practices.

UCS spokesperson, Aaron Huertas, says the book "features a chapter that grossly mischaracterizes climate science." 

 A so-called "Minnesota Energy Citizens' Rally" for "affordable energy"-- long a code word for coal, oil and nuclear power--is set to take place in South St. Paul on Monday, August 31 at 11am.

Event sponsors include the MinnesotaFarm Bureau, River Heights Chamber of Commerce, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, Free Market Institute,  MN Taxpayers League, Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota.

"These are multi-million dollar, business organizations who routinely oppose any and all pro-environment legislation in the Minnesota Legislature. The Farm Bureau is essentially an insurance company and financial services company. The Chamber of Commerce proudly  represents the interests of big business. The Taxpayers League is one of the most powerful right-wing lobby groups at the Capitol," said a source with a local environmental organization.

A coalition of pro-business groups has formed to push for an "aggressive grassroots campaign to push for the [new nuclear power plant] moratorium's repeal," during Minnesota's 2010 legislative session.

The nation's food security could be at risk in a warming climate, say a group of climate scientists and other experts representing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Iowa State University, the US Climate Change Science Program (US CCSP), and the Great Plains Institute, in a new report called the Corn and Climate Report.

"High temperatures can lead to crop failure," said Professor Eugene Takle of Iowa State University. "There are likely to be other pressures as well, from unpredictable rainfall and snow cover to northward migration of diseases, all of which threaten the Midwest's ability to produce corn and other agricultural commodities."

"This is America!  We figured out how to put a man on the moon in ten years. You can't tell me we can't figure out how to burn coal, that we mine right here in the United States of America, and make it work!"

Cross post from Examiner.com.