Friday, March 14, 2008

Legislation for a moratorium on coal fired plants without CO2 sequestration introduced in U.S. House From The Environment News Service: "Two powerful House Democrats Tuesday introduced legislation that would require new coal-fired electric generating plants to use state-of-the-art control technology to capture and sequester emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Congressman Henry Waxman of California, who chairs the House Government Oversight Committee and Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, introduced the bill known as the Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power Plants Act of 2008. The lawmakers said in a joint statement that 'comprehensive economy-wide regulation to address global warming' will soon be introduced, but new coal-fired power plants are being built today, without controls on CO2 emissions. The moratorium proposed in the bill would extend until a comprehensive federal regulatory program for global warming pollution is in place. 'The alternative is senseless,' said Waxman, 'locking in decades of additional global warming emissions and requiring greater emissions reductions across the U.S. economy to compensate.'" "cc" 7:28:32 AM     Climate Change: The earth is a beautifully complex system From Mongabay.com: "Water held in man-made reservoirs is masking the true extent of sea level rise from melting ice and thermal expansion, report scientists writing in the journal Science. The researchers, from the National Central University in Taiwan, calculate that sea levels would be 30 mm (1.2 inches) higher without water stored behind dams. The findings are significant in that they increase by a third the annual rise in sea levels observed since 1961, from 1.8 mm to 2.4 mm. Rising sea levels have been attributed to thermal expansion of warming sea water and melting of polar ice caps and glaciers. According to the University of Colorado at Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, about 60 percent of total global sea rise from ice loss can be attributed to glaciers and ice caps, 28 percent from Greenland, and 12 percent from Antarctica." "cc" 7:01:28 AM

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