Carbon Footprints

Swiss news service SwissInfo is reporting Bush readies speech on ethanol, climate change.
U.S. President George W. Bush’s annual speech to Congress next week is likely to call for a massive increase in U.S. ethanol usage and tweak climate change policy while stopping short of mandatory emissions caps, sources familiar with White House plans said on [...]

The Sunday Times in the UK is reporting China chokes on a coal-fired boom.
A GREAT coal rush is under way across China on a scale not seen anywhere since the 19th century.
Its consequences have been detected half a world away in toxic clouds so big that they can seen from space, drifting across the Pacific [...]

The US Governments Department of Energy has today announced New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner today announced that with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing [...]

In New Scientist the are saying Geothermal power plants could also consume CO2.
Pumping carbon dioxide through hot rocks could simultaneously generate power and mop up the greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuel power stations, according to a new study.
Harnessing geothermal power involves extracting heat from beneath the surface of the Earth. Normally, this means pumping [...]

Mr Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper is running a story PM turns up heat on solar power.
A PROPOSED $400 million solar plant that could deliver 154 megawatts of power will be the cornerstone of the Howard Government’s fight against climate change.
In a political shift that steals an approach trumpeted by federal Labor, the federal and Victorian [...]

The BBC News is reporting Branson makes $3bn climate pledge.
Sir Richard Branson is to invest $3bn (£1.6bn) to fight global warming.
The Virgin boss said he would commit all profits from his travel firms, such as airline Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, over the next 10 years.
“We must rapidly wean ourselves off our dependence on coal [...]

The Independent has a story World must wake up to the dangers of biofuels, head of Kew Gardens warns.
The world should wake up to the dangers of the mass production of biofuels, which are increasingly seen as a major solution to global warming, according to Professor Sir Peter Crane, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, [...]

Over at HybridCar.com they have announced Ford Delivers Mariner Hybrid Presidential Edition to President Clinton
Bill Clinton is promoting the greener mile in the latest of a string of environmental initiative being undertaken by the Former President. Gone is the secret service-issued SUV, to be replaced by the more fuel efficient Ford Mercury Mariner Hybrid SUV. [...]

Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, has announced a new “Good Neighbour” policy and will spend over £100 million on green power and other initiative, the UK’s Guardian is reporting in an article headlined Tesco plans to be green and a good neighbour.
The main plank of the community plan is a £100m environmental fund, which [...]

From MarketWire: Polaris Geothermal announces registration for sale of carbon credits
Polaris Geothermal Inc., a developer of geothermal power projects, is pleased to announce that its Nicaraguan subsidiary, Polaris Energy Nicaragua S.A. (”PENSA”), is now registered to sell its carbon credits produced from its San Jacinto-Tizate geothermal project.
Adriana Romero, PENSA’s Director of Public Relations stated that [...]