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by JAWVMM
Despite those who have dismissed Obama's visit to China as useless, and despaired of any useful outcome from Copenhagen, Scientific American reports that his programs to advance clean energy in China and India, plus negotiations with Canada and Mexico and his commitment to cutting US emissions, addresses over half of all global warming emissions.
In particular, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab will partner with India's Solar Energy Centre and Centre for Wind Energy Technology to map potential, develop technology and, ultimately, aid in its deployment-potentially allowing rural Indians to "leapfrog" directly to distributed solar energy, without the need for costly transmission lines.
It's a pity West Virginia can't leapfrog, too. But New Jersey, just as cold and dim, has been providing incentives and already has more solar connected to the grid than any other state but California. Their newest incentive reimburses more for equipment made in New Jersey.
If China and India are committed to wind and solar, prospects for increasing exports of West Virginia coal there are pretty slim. If the East Coast shifts to efficiency and local wind and solar, where is the market for coal-by-wire? Some West Virginia coal and power companies have acknowledged (along with business and industry nationwide) that a sustainable economy is the future. It's time everyone else, especially the governor, did.
We are not just a coal state; we have been an energy, chemicals, plastics, metals, glass, timber, and beautiful outdoors state for generations. Industry will shift to sustainable production if we restructure our regulations, taxes, and economic development incentives to favor them.
We are in a good position to shift to a sustainable economy, if we seize the opportunity.
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Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.
