Photo - @TWCBreaking

nbcnews.com - By Alastair Jamieson and M. Alex Johnson - April 30, 2014

Torrential rainfall and “life-threatening" flooding turned deadly in Florida’s panhandle late Tuesday - the latest fallout from a monster weather system that has killed at least 35 people in six states. . .

. . . More than two feet of rain fell in a 26-hour period in Pensacola, Fla. according to one rain gauge, washing away bridges and closing mile after mile of highways across the region, leaving hundreds of drivers stranded for hours. . .

. . . More than five inches fell on Pensacola in the single hour between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. CT (10 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET) Tuesday, the NWS said.

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(THE U.S. RESILIENCE SYSTEM IS ASSISTING WITH RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THIS DISASTER THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A FACEBOOK PAGE TITLED "Mississippi Severe Weather Alerts & Disaster Resources".
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE "Mississippi Severe Weather Alerts & Disaster Resources" FACEBOOK PAGE.)

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) - News

FEMA - Resources - Mississippi - DR-4175

(THE U.S. RESILIENCE SYSTEM IS ASSISTING WITH RELIEF EFFORTS FOR THIS DISASTER THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATION OF A FACEBOOK PAGE TITLED "Alabama Severe Weather Alerts & Disaster Resources".
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE "Alabama Severe Weather Alerts & Disaster Resources" FACEBOOK PAGE.)

State of Alabama - Emergency Management - Situation Reports

Alabama Emergency Management Agency

Image: Walney offshore windfarm named in first wave of green energy projects

clickgreen.org.uk - April 23rd, 2014

The UK Government has announced the first wave of renewable electricity projects to receive financial guarantees, providing a huge boost to the nation’s green growth and green jobs.

By 2020, the eight projects unveiled today will provide up to £12 billion of private sector investment, supporting 8,500 jobs, and they could add a further 4.5GW of low-carbon electricity to Britain’s energy mix, or around 4% of capacity.

The five offshore wind farms and three biomass power plants have progressed through the Final Investment Decision Enabling for Renewables (FID-ER) process, and have been offered contracts for financial support.

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The proposed rules, drafted by Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and his staff, would allow Internet service providers to charge companies different rates for faster connection speeds. Credit Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Edward Wyatt - April 23, 2014

WASHINGTON — The principle that all Internet content should be treated equally as it flows through cables and pipes to consumers looks all but dead.

The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that allow companies like Disney, Google or Netflix to pay Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for special, faster lanes to send video and other content to their customers.

PowerFactor is part of GridSTAR, a demonstration smartgrid project deployed at the Philadephia Navy Yard.

greenbiz.com - by Garrett Hering - April 21, 2014

Technological and market forces have converged to make energy storage one of the most exciting — and potentially game-changing — opportunities for commercial and industrial facility managers, grid operators, homeowners and investors.

Forward-thinking utilities, battery suppliers, power inverter producers, system integrators and public-sector supporters are driving a massive expansion of energy storage solutions aimed at enabling the grid of the future — or even a grid-less future.

Although the energy storage value chain includes hundreds — if not thousands — of players, the following are leading the charge.

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Surprisingly, the fact that it's often free is not the main reason most businesses choose open source software.

pcworld.com - by Katherine Noyes - April 7, 2014

Why should you use open source software? The fact that it’s usually free can be an attractive selling point, but that’s not the reason most companies choose to use it. Instead, security and quality are the most commonly cited reasons, according to new research.

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Black Duck and North Bridge Venture Partners - The Eighth Annual Future of Open Source Survey

submitted by Margery Schab     

Bob and Lisa Parr of Decatur confer with attorneys (from left) Brad Gilde and Richard Capshaw during a break in the lawsuit trial Thursday. The Parrs are suing Aruba Petroleum over alleged toxic emissions from gas wells surrounding their home in rural Wise County. Messenger photo by Bob Buckel

dmlawfirm.com - April 22, 2014

DALLAS — Plaintiffs Bob and Lisa Parr won a $3 million jury award in the first fracking verdict in Texas April 22. The Parrs sued Aruba Petroleum in 2011 for fracking operations which fouled the family’s 40-acre ranch property, their home and quality of life, sickened them and their pets and livestock. (See the Parr – 11th Amended Petition.)

The verdict included $275,000 for the Parr’s property loss of market value and $2 million for past physical pain and suffering by Bob and Lisa Parr and their daughter,  $250,000 for future physical pain and suffering, $400,000 for past mental anguish.

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Ron Ness, North Dakota Petroleum Council President, testifies in front of officials with the Oil and Gas Division of the North Dakota Mineral Resources Department at a hearing Tuesday, April 22, 2014, in Bismarck, N.D. The North Dakota Industrial Commission was holding the hearing on its new natural gas flaring policy. (AP Photo/The Bismarck Tribune, Mike McCleary)

ap.org - by James MacPherson - April 22, 2014

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Dr. Lyle Best traveled nearly 200 miles from the heart of North Dakota's oil patch Tuesday to tell state regulators one thing: "Slow down."

The North Dakota Industrial Commission is considering a proposal that would cut back on the state's booming oil production as a means of controlling the amount of natural gas that's being burned off at well sites and wasted as a byproduct of the more valuable substance, oil.

But oil companies are fighting the idea of slowing production, and want regulators to consider self-imposed steps to curb natural gas flaring, such as submitting plans for natural gas gathering before applying for a drilling permit.

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(Reuters/China Daily)

The climate crisis has such bad timing, confronting it not only requires a new economy but a new way of thinking.

thenation.com - by Naomi Klein - April 21, 2014

This is a story about bad timing. . .

. . . We too are suffering from a terrible case of climate-related mistiming, albeit in a cultural-historical, rather than a biological, sense. Our problem is that the climate crisis hatched in our laps at a moment in history when political and social conditions were uniquely hostile to a problem of this nature and magnitude—that moment being the tail end of the go-go ’80s, the blastoff point for the crusade to spread deregulated capitalism around the world.

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Some 30,000 people demonstrate in the center of Copenhagen on Dec. 12, 2009 to turn up the heat on world leaders debating global warming at the U.N. climate conference
Attila Kisbenedek / AFP / Getty Images

A new study shows that human beings are too selfish to endure present pain to avert future climate change. That's why we need win-win solutions now

science.time.com - by Bryan Walsh - October 21, 2014

You want to know what the biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change is? Simple: time. It will take decades before the carbon dioxide we emit now begins to have its full effect on the planet’s climate. And by the same token, it will take decades before we are able to enjoy the positive climate effects of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions now.

npr.org - wwno.org - by Bob Marshall - April 20, 2014

. . . more than 54,000 wells were planted in and off this coast — part of the 300,000 wells in the state. They're connected by thousands of miles of pipelines, all vulnerable to leaks.

And leak they do.

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(ALSO SEE SAME ARTICLE HERE)

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott stands before the Senate on Tuesday as they debate the GMO food labeling bill at the Statehouse. (Photo: EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS )

burlingtonfreepress.com - by Terri Hallenbeck - April 15, 2014

MONTPELIER – The Senate gave a decisive 26-2 vote Tuesday for a bill that would require labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, a strong indication that Vermont could become the first state in the nation to enact such a law.

“We are saying people have a right to know what’s in their food,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor.

Campbell and other supporters argued that they believe they have written a bill that is legally defensible.

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Andres Gutierrez/AP

Meet 'photoswitches,' a breakthrough set of materials that act as their own batteries, absorbing energy and releasing it on demand.

theatlantic.com - by Todd Woody - April 15, 2014

The next big thing in solar energy could be microscopic.

Scientists at MIT and Harvard University have devised a way to store solar energy in molecules that can then be tapped to heat homes, water or used for cooking.

The best part: The molecules can store the heat forever and be endlessly re-used while emitting absolutely no greenhouse gases.

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Nature Chemistry - Templated assembly of photoswitches significantly increases the energy-storage capacity of solar thermal fuels

Image: Fracking site. (Credit: Jim Parkin/Shutterstock)

salon.com - April 16th, 2014 - Lindsay Abrams

Fracking sites at Pennsylvania’s natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale are releasing way more methane than we thought — somewhere on the order of 100 to 1,000 times EPA estimates, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Flying about seven well pads in a plane equipped to measure greenhouse gas emissions, researchers found that, on average, the sites emitted 34 grams of methane per second. The EPA’s estimate: between 0.04 and 0.30 grams of methane per second.

The problem, the researchers were surprised to discover, begins before the controversial process of fracking even gets started.

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