By Roy L Hales
At a time when the United States government appears to be falling under the control of the fossil fuel sector, cities are taking the lead in transitioning to a cleaner economy. In Oregon, for example, Portland is poised to curtail new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Continue reading Portland Poised To Curtail New Fossil Fuel InfrastructureBy Roy L Hales
The American people have spoken. Donald Trump is not Dr Allan Hoffman’s choice for President. While it is still possible that Trump will be more reasonable than his pre-election rhetoric suggests, this is unlikely. Hoffman described Trump as a demagogue who appears to be a climate denier, whose statements about energy were “uninformed, ignorant and terrible.” Never-the-less, he has been elected and, for the next four years, “the American public is going to have to live with that.” Hoffman spoke about the realities of living with a Trump presidency.
Continue reading Living With A Trump PresidencyBy Roy L Hales
Canada’s $2 billion Aquaculture industry is embroiled in controversy. While there may be some debate as to whether wild salmon spread more infections to British Columbia’s penned stock or vice versa,[1] there have been incidents like the Queen Charlotte Strait’s 2015 sea lice epidemic.[2] On May 20, 2016, Dr Kristi Miller, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, announced that there is “a potential Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) in farmed Atlantic salmon samples” collected from a aquaculture facility off the coast of Vancouver Island. In Norway, where HSMI is more common, this disease is “associated with generally low mortality on farms, generally between 0 to 20%.”[3] The stress (and thus mortality rate) is undoubtedly greater on wild salmon, which need to capture prey, escape predators and swim upstream to spawn. So, acting on behalf of marine biologist Alexandra Morton, ECOjustice is suing Canada’s Ministry of Fisheries for putting wild salmon at risk. Some argue the best answer is to bring salmon farms on land.
Continue reading Bring Salmon Farms On Land
Last July, Leon County (home to Tallahassee) became the first Florida municipality to adopt the HERO PACE Program. Several other Florida counties and cities followed suit. The latest was Orlando, whose city council approved the program this week. These are a few of the milestones, as HERO PACE comes to Florida & Missouri.
Continue reading HERO PACE Comes to Florida & MissouriThirty-seven years ago, the United States was poised on the edge of an energy revolution. The interdepartmental plan that Dr. Allan Hoffman presented President Jimmy Carter outlined how the nation could derive 20% of its’ power from renewables (principally wind & solar) by the year 2000. What could have happened, if Carter’s successors had pressed forward, is another of the great “ifs” of history. Hoffman answers another question in his book THE U.S. GOVERNMENT & RENEWABLE ENERGY: how America adopts energy policies.
Continue reading How America Adopts Energy Policies
