Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare

I have read this in other places before, but it recently made it into the New York Times, that the actual cost of these biofuels, in terms of carbon production to grow the plants and convert the energy is not efficient or "green" in any way... Its a real knock on the whole sustainable energy/biofuel environmental movement, but I always thought that solar cells should be made more efficient, wind and tide generators should be developed better, and more money should be put into nuclear fusion. Thinking that we could grow our own fuel, in the costs of land and water and labor and gear never really made that much sense now that I think about it... anyway, here is the article:
Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Published: January 31, 2007

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 25 — Just a few years ago, politicians and environmental groups in the Netherlands were thrilled by the early and rapid adoption of “sustainable energy,” achieved in part by coaxing electrical plants to use biofuel — in particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.

A palm oil estate on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Exports hit a record $9 billion last year because of strong European demand.

Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from plants.

But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an environmental nightmare.

Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there.

Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Considering these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world’s third-leading producer of carbon emissions that scientists believe are responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China, according to a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands.

“It was shocking and totally smashed all the good reasons we initially went into palm oil,” said Alex Kaat, a spokesman for Wetlands, a conservation group.

The production of biofuels, long a cornerstone of the quest for greener energy, may sometimes create more harmful emissions than fossil fuels, scientific studies are finding.

As a result, politicians in many countries are rethinking the billions of dollars in subsidies that have indiscriminately supported the spread of all of these supposedly eco-friendly fuels for vehicles and factories. The 2003 European Union Biofuels Directive, which demands that all member states aim to have 5.75 percent of transportation run by biofuel in 2010, is now under review.

“If you make biofuels properly, you will reduce greenhouse emissions,” said Peder Jensen, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. “But that depends very much on the types of plants and how they’re grown and processed. You can end up with a 90 percent reduction compared to fossil fuels — or a 20 percent increase.”

He added, “It’s important to take a life-cycle view,” and not to “just see what the effects are here in Europe.”

In the Netherlands, the data from Indonesia has provoked soul-searching, and helped prompt the government to suspend palm oil subsidies. The Netherlands, a leader in green energy, is now leading the effort to distinguish which biofuels are truly environmentally sound.

The government, environmental groups and some of the Netherlands’ “green energy” companies are trying to develop programs to trace the origins of imported palm oil, to certify which operations produce the oil in a responsible manner.

Krista van Velzen, a member of Parliament, said the Netherlands should pay compensation to Indonesia for the damage that palm oil has caused. “We can’t only think: does it pollute the Netherlands?”

In the United States and Brazil most biofuel is ethanol (made from corn in the United States and sugar in Brazil), used to power vehicles made to run on gasoline. In Europe it is mostly local rapeseed and sunflower oil, used to make diesel fuel.

In a small number of instances, plant oil is used in place of diesel fuel, without further refinement. But as many European countries push for more green energy, they are increasingly importing plant oils from the tropics, since there is simply not enough plant matter for fuel production at home.

On the surface, the environmental equation that supports biofuels is simple: Since they are derived from plants, biofuels absorb carbon while they are grown and release it when they are burned. In theory that neutralizes their emissions.

But the industry was promoted long before there was adequate research, said Reanne Creyghton, who runs Friends of the Earth’s campaign against palm oil here.

Biofuelswatch, an environment group in Britain, now says that “biofuels should not automatically be classed as renewable energy.” It supports a moratorium on subsidies until more research can determine whether various biofuels in different regions are produced in a nonpolluting manner.

Read the next page here.

Awesome photo from NASA's Earth Observatory...

The Mariana Islands are part a volcanic island arc—surface volcanoes formed from magma generated as one tectonic plate overrides another. In the case of the Mariana Islands, the Pacific Plate is being pulled, or subducted, beneath the Philippine Plate along the famously deep Mariana Trench, which is more than 11 kilometers (nearly 7 miles) below sea level. Pagan Island (image right) is made up of two volcanoes connected by a narrow isthmus of land. The volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, which are tall, typically cone-shaped structures formed by layers of dense, crystallized lava and less-dense ash and pumice. Mount Pagan, the larger of the two volcanoes, forms the northeastern portion of the island and has been the most active historically.

The most recent major eruption took place in 1981, but since then numerous steam- and ash-producing events have been observed at the volcano—the latest reported one occurring between December 5–8, 2006. This astronaut photograph records volcanic activity on January 11, 2007, that produced a thin plume that extended westwards away from Mount Pagan. The plume was most probably steam, possibly with minor ash content. The island is sparsely populated, and it is monitored for volcanic activity by the United States Geological Survey and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands.

Astronaut photograph ISS014-E-11872 was acquired January 11, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Aussies may soon be drinking recycled water

An interesting convorsation from an Australian television (?) program about the safety of recycled sewage water and the need for it in water-starved Australia. Pretty interesting stuff. Read the script here.

A battle won for environmentalists

Court: EPA must protect aquatic life near power plants

LARRY NEUMEISTER

Associated Press

NEW YORK - The Environmental Protection Agency must force power plants to protect fish and other aquatic life even if it's expensive, a federal appeals court said in a ruling favoring states and environmental groups.

The decision late Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that it was improper for the EPA to let power plants circumvent environmental laws - for instance, restocking polluted water with new fish instead of paying to upgrade their technology.

It said the EPA's decisions must "be driven by technology, not cost," unless two technologies produce essentially the same benefits but have much different costs.

"EPA's goal is to protect fish and the ecosystem while meeting the nation's need for reliable energy sources," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency's assistant administrator for water. The agency was reviewing the decision, he said.

The ruling drew praise from environmental groups and six states that had sued.

"This decision is a strong and stinging rebuke of the Bush administration's underhanded practice of issuing rule changes to undercut environmental laws," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement Friday.

The other states involved are Rhode Island, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

They sued after the EPA published regulations in July 2004 describing how power plants must protect aquatic life when they use water from bays, rivers, lakes, oceans and other waterways for cooling.

Scientists say fish, larvae and eggs are killed in the water-cooling process, which is used heavily in states with many older, mostly fossil-fuel plants.

The appeals court previously rejected arguments that some species are nuisances and require eradication. The court had also dismissed the claim that other species respond to population losses by increasing their reproduction.

Maine Land Use Commission Rejects Wind Power Proposal

Despite LURC ruling, governor upbeat on wind power

By Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer | January 28, 2007

AUGUSTA, Maine --Despite last week's ruling by state officials that could lead to final rejection of the proposed Redington wind power project in western Maine, Gov. John Baldacci said he remains committed to that form of renewable energy.

The governor did not question last Wednesday's 6-1 vote by the Land Use Regulation Commission, saying that LURC "is an independent, citizen board" that must scrutinize each project in a balanced and measured way.

"They are responsible for evaluating projects like this one. Just because I support an expansion of wind energy does not exempt the project from the review process. These things have to be done in a reasonable way," the governor told The Associated Press.

Maine Mountain Power, meanwhile, remained undecided Sunday on what its next step will be following the wilderness zoning board's ruling against its $130 million project, which called for 30 wind turbines on Redington and Black Nubble mountains, spokesman Dennis Bailey said.

Of course, this seems entirely ridiculous to me, although its impossible for me to give a real opinion without reading the exact details of the proposal submitted and the reasons for rejection. I am just confused as to what the Land Use Regulation Commission is holding out for? I mean we need to start really focusing on renewable energy and Maine can take the pioneering first step into developing multiple wind farms... This is a shot in the foot to all proponents of sustainable energy. Read the rest here.

Alaska fights for their right to fish for halibut

Bend Weekly News Sources

The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is issuing a call to action from saltwater fishermen throughout the country in an effort to make their collective voice heard by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC); an organization forged under a U.S./Canadian treaty to manage the halibut biomass in Pacific waters.

Next week, the IPHC is scheduled to hold closed meetings for discussions on the recreational harvesting of halibut off the coast of Alaska. Currently, Alaska's commercial fleets take over 90% of the halibut resource and kill over 12 million pounds, annually, just in wasted bycatch. This, alone, is close to double the amount that sport anglers catch. However, the commercially dominated IPHC is proposing to cut the charter fleet bag limit to one fish per person, crippling Alaska's charter and tourism industry.

"The IPHC's main job is to continually monitor the health of the halibut biomass and then determine how many pounds of halibut can be harvested by the U.S. and Canada in a given year", explained RFA executive director Jim Donofrio. "In the past, the allowable catch for halibut is then managed federally by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) under the control of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act."

The RFA aims to protect Alaska's recreational halibut fishing industry and uphold legislation in the Magnuson Steven Act (MSA) that dictates fisheries management be a transparent process with public input, by urging individuals to voice their concern to Dr. William Hogarth, assistant administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, as well as their local senators.

"This proposed action sets a terrible precedent for U.S. fisheries policy", states Greg Sutter of the Alaska Charter Association. "We are currently looking into the legality of this action to insure that no jurisdictional bounds have been overstepped."

Now I can't pretend to know the whole situation with the halibut. I do know that in my fisheries course, we looked at the stocks and they were being overfished. However, I love how its always the recreational fisherman that get blamed. Instead of closing the commercial catch (which worked so well for stripers on the Atlantic coast), they will punish the recreational guys who want to keep fish stocks healthy and dont stand to make any profit from the fish... GOOD IDEA IPHC!

Baby fish smell their way home

I know about fish and homing abilities, but I never heard of it for reef fish...
Cosmos Online

Baby reef fish like this damselfish can use smell to find their way back to their own home reef across kilometres of ocean, researchers say. Image: iStockphoto

SYDNEY: Some baby fish manage to find their way to their home coral reef across kilometres of open ocean by using their sense of smell, researchers say.

The discovery, made on Australia's Great Barrier Reef by a team of U.S. and Australian scientists, shines a new light on how the breathtaking diversity of fish on coral reefs has arisen, and has major implications for the management of reefs.

"The babies of many coral fish species are swept off their home reef by ocean currents within days of hatching," said Mike Kingsford of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, a member of the research team. "Ordinarily you'd expect them to be thoroughly mixed up and this would mean the population of one reef would be pretty much the same, genetically, as another."

"But that is not the case," he said. "There are major genetic differences between fish of the same species on reefs only a few kilometres or even just hundreds of metres apart.

"This genetic separation between reefs may be what gives rise to so many different species in coral reef systems," said Kingsford, who believes that the lack of interbreeding between groups of fish from the same species on different reefs may, over time, have caused them to evolve into separate species.

The impetus for the research came from the researchers' interest in how tiny damsel and cardinal fish, swept off of their home reef, manage to find their way back - braving strong currents and ferocious predators during 20 days at sea - all when only a centimetre or so in size.

"We tested several ideas, but the most attractive seemed to be that they could smell the unique trace of their home reef - rather like salmon can smell the home river," said Kingsford. "We know these late stage fish larvae … already have developed noses - but the question was whether they could use them to recognise what the home reef smelt like, when they left it only a day or so after hatching."

The team exposed tiny fish larvae in a tank to pure streams of water from four different reefs. To their amazement, within minutes a surprisingly high percentage of baby fish had congregated in the water flow from their home reef.

"It was a lot more than you'd expect to happen by pure chance - and it applied, in differing degrees, across several species of fish," said Kingsford.

The fish could also be responding to other stimuli, including distant noise off a reef and the behaviour of other fish, but the team concluded that smell was probably the dominant factor leading the babies home.

"Every reef gives off its own unique chemical signature, a rich mixture of the proteins and amino acids emitted by corals, all the plankton and mucus from its life," said Kingsford. "We think baby fish can pick this up and distinguish it from other reefs.

"We think some fishes then choose currents that smell like 'home' and swim up them. The ones that cannot do this perish. The ones that get home preserve the unique 'ethnic' make-up of their tribe - and so continue the process of evolving into separate new species."

How the fish learn the unique smell of home remains a mystery. In their paper, published last week in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers theorise that the smell is imprinted on a baby fish either when it is an unfertilised egg inside its mother, a fertilised egg on the bottom, or a newly-hatched fry.

"An egg, even a fry, hasn't a fully developed sense of smell, but it may have a way of absorbing the local molecules and then recognising their signature as 'home' when it grows up a bit and is ready to settle," said Kingsford. "This evidence that individual coral reefs play such a key role in the emergence of new species is a fresh reason to take even greater care in how we look after them."

with James Cook University

NOAA: Nutrient Pollution Increasing Along the New England, Mid-Atlantic Coasts

Not that this isn't already pretty common knowledge to researchers in the area, but now that a government agency is actually admitting it, thats a big step in the right direction!

Underwatertimes.com News Service

Washington, D.C. (Jan 5, 2007 16:25 EST) A NOAA research project shows nutrient pollution in estuaries, bays and harbors from the mid-Atlantic to New England is on the rise, showing excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are a threat to coastal water quality nationwide. The study's findings are compiled in a report, "Improving Methods and Indicators for Evaluating Coastal Water Eutrophication: A Pilot Study in the Gulf of Maine."

"Nutrient pollution is a pervasive problem that impacts ecosystems and human activities, particularly in highly developed areas," says co-author Suzanne Bricker, physical scientist at the NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. "Our study found that the problem is greater in the mid-Atlantic region, which has a higher population density and more intensive watershed development than coastal New England."

New England, however, has similar problems that are likely to get worse. The study's results indicated that nutrient pollution in the Gulf of Maine is higher than it was early 1990s, and conditions are expected to worsen as the coastal population in that region is expected to increase in the future.

"By including the socioeconomic impacts of pollution in coastal watersheds, we not only prove the value of applying integrated coastal and ocean observing technology in coastal management issues, but also in promoting a coastal stewardship that more fully evaluates the environmental impacts of development and other human activity," said John H. Dunnigan, director of the NOAA Ocean Service.

In many coastal ecosystems, future nutrient load increases of 10 percent to 25 percent are expected. These increases, in addition to the natural processing of nutrients once the loads reach estuarine waters, are important factors related to "eutrophication," the process by which excess nutrients—whether from storm water runoff, sewage treatment plants, septic systems, airborne dust or agriculture—fuel excessive algal blooms that lead to low oxygen conditions. Severe eutrophication causes a number of impacts to ecosystems, ultimately leading to the death of marine organisms, including important commercial fish species.

"Evaluating the extent of eutrophication, and how it affects different parts of the ecosystem, is the first, critical step toward developing strategies to address it," said Dwight Trueblood, NOAA co-director for the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology, which co-sponsored the study. CICEET is a partnership between NOAA and the University of New Hampshire.

NOAA scientists developed a "human use indicator" that examined the impact of nutrient pollution on recreational fish catches, making the study distinctive by including human activity as part of the ecosystem, improving traditional methods to assess eutrophication.

"Coastal managers and the public need a way to understand how low oxygen conditions impact the fisheries that are major economic drivers for their regions," said Bricker. "We've developed an indicator that, once tested and expanded, can be used to predict the loss of fish that will potentially occur when dissolved oxygen concentrations drop to a specific, low level."

The assessment methods were originally developed in the 1990s and were modified through this study. They will serve as the basis for an update of the NOAA National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment that will be released in 2007.

Keys fear disaster if Cuba taps nearby oil

Does anyone else find it convenient that for years the United States has wanted nothing to do with Cuba except impose strict embargos? There was no cry from the public or the government to extend helping hands to Cuba, no talks of opening trade or free travel without having to visit other foreign countries first, except for a few of us who would then be labeled liberals or communists? Even when Hurrican Katrina hit and Castro offered to send aid the United States turned it down. Early in 2006 large stores of oil were discovered in Cuban waters. All of a sudden, the United States wants to open the door to Cuba, sending delegations to try to usher a new era between the two nations. If this does not show you that the US is controlled by money hungry big oil and military industrial complexes, then you need to wake up... Its not about Cuba being communist, China, our largest trade partner is communist... It was always about Cuba having nothing to offer... Now, Cuba's pristine waters will be destroyed by big oil which may also create major environmental problems for the United States, and we will all just sit here and do nothing.

By Mike Williams

Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service

Monday, January 01, 2007

KEY LARGO — The pelicans gather each afternoon, cute, gawky and hungry. They flap and flop awkwardly among the mangrove roots as Juan Leon, a worker at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center, tosses them fish to supplement their natural diet.

"We feed them because the natural fish population isn't what it should be," said Bruce Horn, who heads the center, which helps rescue injured and sick birds. "Our environment here is very fragile."

That's why Horn and other residents of this vacation paradise are worried about news that the Cuban government has struck oil just a few dozen miles from this environmentally sensitive string of islands.

"That's absolutely scary," Horn says. "The Keys don't have sandy beaches, and you couldn't just scoop up oil if there was a spill. If it got into the mangrove roots, it would be disastrous."

Experts say the size of Cuba's offshore oil deposits is still in question, but the potential is impressive. A U.S. Geological Survey study estimates that a curving belt of ocean floor north of Cuba may contain at least 4.5 billion barrels of oil and nearly 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In contrast, an area in U.S. waters about 200 miles west of Tampa that Congress just approved for drilling is believed to hold about 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The United States uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day.

For impoverished Cuba, the oil prospects are dazzling, and Fidel Castro's government has wasted no time in pushing to develop the fields. The region has been divided into 59 exploration blocks, and Cuba has signed deals with foreign oil firms to begin drilling in earnest.

One well that the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF sank already has found oil, but not in commercially viable quantities.

"But it was enough that Norway's Norsk Hydro acquired a 30 percent stake," said Jorge Pinon, a former oil company executive who is now a research associate at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

"Norsk Hydro wouldn't go to Cuba for political purposes," Pinon said. "They are one of the best deepwater drilling companies in the world, and if they are going in, it is likely this will be viable."

Cuba has signed other oil deals with firms from Venezuela, India, China and Canada, a clear sign that a Cuban oil boom is brewing. But Pinon says it will be several years before the offshore Cuban operations crank into high gear because of soaring demand around the world for the limited number of deepwater rigs.

The activity has piqued the interest of U.S. lawmakers. Competing bills were introduced in Congress this year, with supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba proposing to deny visas to foreign oil workers headed to Cuba. Their opponents introduced a bill that would exempt U.S. firms from the embargo and allow them to participate in the Cuban oil rush.

"At risk are the Florida Keys and the state's tourism economy, not to mention the $8 billion that Congress is investing to restore the Everglades," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., one of the sponsors of the bill aiming to limit the Cuban drilling.

Neither bill passed, but the issue seems certain to come up again.

Embargo opponents hope that the new Congress, which Democrats will run for the first time in more than a decade, will ease the trade and travel restrictions and allow U.S. participation. The Cuban government has sought bids from American oil firms.

"This is a product the U.S. needs," said Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, a group seeking to break the embargo. "If we maintain the embargo, it says we don't need that oil and it's OK for India, Canada, Spain and these other countries to take it."

With some of the Cuban exploration blocks just 50 miles from Key West, many Keys residents would prefer no drilling at all. Short of that, they would rather have American companies involved.

"My concern is that these other companies may not have the safety precautions that U.S. companies follow," said Joe Angelo, manager of Ocean Divers, a scuba diving outfit in Key Largo. "A spill would wipe us out."

The Cuban exploration is tied to a 1977 treaty that the United States and Cuba signed setting the offshore boundary between the countries. The line runs roughly down the center of the Florida Straits, a channel that is about 100 miles wide and separates Cuba from the Florida Keys.

The Keys are home to a huge coral reef, an underwater formation rich in marine life. State and federal parks and reserves already protect much of the reef, and it has spawned a thriving tourism industry catering to scuba divers, fishermen and offshore sightseers.

But the Keys are not the only Florida area at risk.

Ocean currents that run like rivers in the sea carry water from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Straits and up Florida's east coast.

"Any spill in the eastern gulf can wind up putting materials into the current and then onto the east coast of Florida," said Robert Weisberg, an oceanographer and ocean current expert at the University of South Florida. "The current is always there, and the risk is real."

But even without a major spill, Keys environmentalists say, oil drilling and fragile reefs shouldn't mix.

"Routine operations can be devastating because of the chronic daily discharge of drilling mud that carries heavy metals and other toxic materials," said DeeVon Quirolo, founder of Reef Relief, one of the Keys' oldest environmental groups. "It poses a grave threat not only to Florida's reefs but also to the reefs along the Cuban coast."

Although Cuba has benefited lately from a deal in which Venezuela is providing oil and gas at a discounted price, it seems clear that the communist island will continue the drive to secure its own offshore oil supplies.

Keys residents, already threatened by hurricanes and rapid development that is degrading water quality, figure the Cuban oil rush will be one more risk they must face.

"The reefs are the only way people have to make money here," said Jessica Dombrowski, who works at Key Largo Watersports, where tourists rent boats and water scooters. "This is the scuba diving capital of the U.S. If they kill the reef, they kill the Keys."

January Blooms!

Hello everyone... this was an email I received from from a colleague from the MSRC at Stony Brook, its some pretty interesting info, but also scary info...

Perhaps you have noticed trees and flowers blossoming around your
neighborhood. Attached are some images from New York City central
Park from a colleague there. Daffodils and irises are sprouting
everywhere. Forsythias bushes are erupting in yellow flowers,
something
normally seen there during the last week of March. Below is some more
climate info. Long-Range models are suggesting perhaps at least a brief
return to some more normal temps early next week, but we'll see....
Brian

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY
THE MONTH OF DECEMBER IN CENTRAL PARK NEW YORK WAS VERY MILD AND
QUITE DRY. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH CAME IN AT 43.6
DEGREES WHICH IS 6.3 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL AND THE THIRD WARMEST
DECEMBER ON RECORD IN NEW YORK CITY. THE WARMEST DECEMBER ON
RECORD WAS BACK IN 2001 WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 44.1
DEGREES. THE SECOND WARMEST WAS IN 1984 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 43.8
DEGREES.

THE LAST TIME THAT WE HAD A DECEMBER WITHOUT MEASURABLE SNOW IN
CENTRAL PARK WAS IN 2001. WHAT MAKES THIS DECEMBER RARE IS THAT NOT
EVEN A FLURRY HAS BEEN OBSERVED. WE HAVE TO GO BACK INTO THE 1800`S
TO FIND A DECEMBER WITHOUT A FLURRY (TRACE OF SNOW). WHILE RECORDS
FROM THE 1800`S MAY NOT BE TOTALLY ACCURATE IN TERMS OF TRACE
AMOUNTS OF SNOW...AS BEST WE CAN TELL THE LAST TIME WE HAD A
DECEMBER WITHOUT EVEN A TRACE OF SNOW(FLURRIES) WAS BACK IN DECEMBER
1877.

LOCATION AVG DEC TEMP DEPARTURE PRECIP DEPARTURE

CENTRAL PARK 43.6 +6.3 2.15 -1.80
NEWARK 43.0 +6.6 2.19 -1.38
BRIDGEPORT CT 41.0 +5.9 2.66 -0.81
JF KENNEDY AP 42.9 +5.7 1.91 -1.40
LA GUARDIA AP 45.4 +7.5 2.21 -1.30
ISLIP 41.1 +5.4 2.15 -1.98

ON AVERAGE...2006 WAS WARM AND WET IN NEW YORK CITY. THE AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE CAME IN AT 56.8 DEGREES...WHICH IS 2.1 DEGREES ABOVE
NORMAL AND GETS PLACED IN THE TOP TEN WARMEST LIST AT SIXTH PLACE.
THE FIVE WARMER YEARS WERE 1998...1991...1990...1953 AND 1949. THE
WARMEST YEARS ON RECORD ARE 1998...1991 AND 1990 WITH AN AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE OF 57.2 DEGREES.

2006 WAS THE SIXTH WETTEST YEAR ON RECORD WITH 59.90 INCHES FALLING.
THAT DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO THE WETTEST YEAR WHICH WAS 1983 WITH A
WHOPPING 80.56 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION.

HERE'S SOME CLIMATE INFORMATION FOR OTHER CLIMATE SITES AROUND THE
REGION FOR 2006.

LOCATION AVG DEC TEMP DEPARTURE PRECIP DEPARTURE

CENTRAL PARK 56.8 +2.1 59.90 +12.65
NEWARK 57.0 +2.3 50.16 +3.91
BRIDGEPORT CT 53.9 +2.2 58.90 +17.32
JF KENNEDY AP 55.7 +2.1 44.80 +2.34
LA GUARDIA AP 58.4 +3.2 53.95 +9.59
ISLIP 53.9 +1.4 54.10 +7.50

2006 was the Earth's sixth warmest year on record, averaging 0.4C above
the 1961 to 1990 average, according to the World Meteorological
Organization. The records extend back to 1861. And the UK charted its
warmest year ever; its records go back to 1659.

Huge Ice Shelf Breaks Free in Canada's Far North

Reuters

Dec 29, 2006

(RNZAF/Getty Images)

CALGARY, Alberta—A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, a researcher said Friday.

Global warming could be one cause of the break of the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, which occurred in the summer of 2005 but was only detected recently by satellite photos, said Luke Copland, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's geography department.

It was the largest such break in nearly three decades, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 square km (25 square miles) adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said Copland, who specializes in the study of glaciers and ice masses. Manhattan has an area of 61 square km (24 square miles).

The mass is now 50 square km (19 square miles) in size.

"The Arctic is all frozen up for the winter and it's stuck in the sea ice about 50 km (30 miles) off the coast," he said.

"The risk is that next summer, as that sea ice melts, this large ice island can then move itself around off the coast and one potential path for it is to make its way westward toward the Beaufort Sea, and the Beaufort Sea is where there is lots of oil and gas exploration, oil rigs and shipping."

The break went undetected when it happened due primarily to the remoteness of the northern coast of Ellesmere island, which is only about 800 km (500 miles) from the North Pole.

The speed of the crack and drift-off shocked scientists.

Satellite images showed the 15-km long (9-mile long) crack, then the ice floating about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the coast within about an hour, Copland said.

"You could stand at one edge and not see the other side, and for something that large to move that quickly is quite amazing," he said.

Copland said the break was likely due to a combination of low accumulations of sea ice around the mass's edges as high winds blew it away, as well as one of the ocean's warmest water temperatures on record. The Arctic Ocean was 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees F) above average in the summer of 2005, he said.

Ice shelves in Canada's far north have decreased in size by as much as 90 percent since 1906, and global warming likely played a role in the Ayles break, Copland said.

"It's hard to tie one event to climate change, but when you look at the longer-term trend, the bigger picture, we've lost a lot of ice shelves on northern Ellesmere in the past century and this is that continuing," he said. "And this is the biggest one in the last 25 years."

Fish dance on sulphur cauldrons

By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

These fish thrive in conditions that would kill most other fish More details

Scientists have witnessed the extreme lifestyle of tonguefish that like to skip across pools of molten sulphur.

The animals - a type of flatfish - were filmed on three expeditions to undersea volcanoes in the western Pacific.

Huge numbers were seen to congregate around the sulphur ponds which well up from beneath the seafloor.

Researchers from the University of Victoria, Canada, are trying to work out how the creatures survive in such a hostile environment.

"There are a lot of toxic heavy metals coming out of these active volcanoes," explained Dr John Dower, a fisheries oceanographer.

As a visual spectacle, it's like something from another planet Dr Alex Rogers, ZSL

"The water is very warm, and it can be very acidic, the pH can be as low as two like sulphuric acid," he told BBC News.

"And yet here we've got a group that has not previously been seen in this type of environment and they're doing very well - they're actually thriving."

The fish have been studied with remotely operated submersibles, including the Jason II vehicle this year.

Noaa's arc

The area of interest is the Mariana Arc, a 1,200km chain of volcanic seamounts and islands between Guam and Japan.

It hosts a number of hydrothermal vents - rock systems that draw water through cracks in the seafloor, heat it to temperatures which can be well above 100C, load it with dissolved metals and other chemicals, and then eject the hot fluid back into the ocean.

This type of habitat will support a range of specialised animals such as crabs, shrimp, mussels, and worms - but very few fish. And the flatfish seen on the Mariana Arc seamounts are a first.

"The density of these things is remarkable; we've determined that the abundances are actually about two orders of magnitude (100x) higher than what one typically finds on the continental shelf," said Dr Dower.

"So, these may be the highest flatfish densities seen anywhere, and it raises the puzzling question: what's supporting all that biomass?"

The team thinks the flatfish may be living on resources in the sediments, possibly worms or even bacteria. On one voyage to the vents, the tonguefish were seen to rip apart a dead fish that had fallen out of the water column above - so they may not be too choosy about where their meals come from.

Sulphur skippers

The Jason vehicle returns after a dive covered in sulphur deposits

What is certainly astonishing is their behaviour around the sulphur pools. The molten material that wells up from beneath the seafloor is denser than the surrounding water and simply lies in ponds in the depressions through which it emerges.

The measured temperature is more than 180C (355F).

"These flatfish live right up against the edge of the pools, and in a couple of cases we saw them out on the surface of a pool," said Dr Dower.

"We have video of a fish sitting on the molten sulphur and then moving off after a couple of minutes, apparently unharmed. They seem to be able to tolerate an environment that no other flatfish, and very few fish in general, are found in."

The deep-sea submersibles captured some of the fish and they are now being analysed.

They have been assigned to the taxonomic genus of Symphurus but they are a species new to science. The team intends to describe their behaviour and ecology in detail in a forthcoming journal paper.

MARIANA ARC TONGUEFISH The largest specimens are less than 11cm (five inches) They probably feed on worms and vent bacteria Species is new to science; currently under description Analysis of their tiny head bones will reveal growth rates Isotopic (types of atom) tests will determine food sources

Independent scientists who have seen the video of the tonguefish confess to being amazed.

Dr Alex Rogers is a senior research fellow at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and recently co-authored a report on the state of seamounts for the United Nations.

"This is stunning," he told BBC News. "The temperatures which these fish are experiencing means they must have remarkable stress defence mechanisms to be able to survive in that environment.

"So physiologically it's remarkable; but as a visual spectacle, it's like something from another planet."

Dr Dower has been talking about the fish here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

You can see video of the flatfish by clicking on the Noaa web link.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

18 manatees found dead, linked to eating laced seagrass

Given the declining seagrass in Florida, the recurrent red tides, the already heavy threats to manatees, isn't it just great Florida removed them from their endangered species list??? Well the red tide threatens many species, and recently this happened... Its a shame

Eighteen manatee carcasses have been recovered in the Ten Thousand Islands area of Everglades National Park since Nov. 9, and scientists think the animals died from eating red tide-laced seagrass.

Most of the dead manatees were recovered around Chevelier and Huston bays, but some were found as far south as Lostman's River.

"That area averages two manatee deaths a year, so 18 is unusual," said Sara McDonald, a marine research associate at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

National Parks Service officials conducted an aerial survey of the Ten Thousand Islands last Thursday to search for more dead manatees. None were found.

Since July, 24 manatees from Pinellas County to Lee County are suspected to have died from red tide poisoning.

Manatee carcasses are often taken to the state's Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory in St. Petersburg, where scientists perform necropsies - post-mortem examinations.

But transporting the Ten Thousand Island manatees would have taken eight hours, so researchers performed field necropsies.

Because the manatees were badly decomposed, they didn't show the usual red tide symptoms, which include bloody froth from the nose, swollen and bloody kidneys and wet, bloody lungs.

So scientists used a different technique to test stomach, kidney, liver, feces and lung samples of four manatees.

All samples except lung tissues showed toxin in high levels.

"To me, this indicates that these animals were not exposed by inhaling," McDonald said. "The evidence indicates they were likely exposed while feeding in seagrass beds."

Researchers recently discovered that manatees can die from eating seagrass laced with red tide toxin weeks or months after a red tide bloom. Before that, red tide had been thought to kill manatees only when they inhale the toxin at the water's surface.

"We don't know the lethal dose of red tide for manatees," McDonald said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions. We don't know whether a lethal dose comes from chronic exposure or acute exposure or a range from chronic to acute. It's difficult: We can't do controlled experiments where we give doses of red tide to manatees."

©Marco Island Sun Times 2006

Global Warming Trend Continues in 2006, Climate Agencies Say

hey all, sorry I haven't posted in a while... end of semester, busy doing last minute papers and studying for my exams... But considering how warm it still is in NY in december, and the fact that Moscow has not recorded a temperature below freezing yet this season and international ski competitions have been cancelled bc of no snow in Europe, I thought this article would be appropriate...Its from the NY Times...

A decades-long global warming trend that most climate experts say is linked to rising levels of heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases continued apace this year, according to summaries issued yesterday by several national and international climate agencies.

Figures differed slightly, with British weather officials and the World Meteorological Organization, based in Geneva, estimating that 2006 would end up the sixth warmest year since modern records began and NASA scientists putting it fifth.

But all of the reports noted that temperatures greatly above normal were recorded in places as varied as Australia and Scandinavia’s Arctic islands, shattering a variety of longstanding records.

The global climate has warmed and cooled naturally throughout Earth’s history, including a protracted warm spell a millennium ago and a “little ice age” from the 1400s through the 1700s.

But the last 50 years of warming, many climate scientists say, is pressing beyond natural peaks of the last 11,000 years. They say the changes cannot be explained without including a substantial, and growing, push from billions of tons of annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases known to trap heat in the air.

The records set this year support various studies that “showed links between human behavior and the warming trend,” said David Parker, a climate scientist at Britain’s Met Office.

England recorded its warmest average annual temperature, 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit, since the Central England Temperature series began in 1659, British officials said.

The contiguous United States had its third warmest year since records began in 1880, according to the analyses. Blistering summer heat contributed to the worst fire season on record, with more than 9.5 million acres burned through early December.

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said that the Earth’s five warmest years since the late 1880s were, in decreasing order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and — if no unexpected fluctuations occur the rest of this month — 2006.

James E. Hansen, the director of the Goddard center, said that 2007 was likely to be warmer than this year because one of the periodic hot spells in the tropical Pacific Ocean, called El Niño, has begun and should persist into next spring.

In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release the main findings of its first update since 2001 on causes of global warming. The previous report concluded that most of the warming since 1950 was probably caused by human activities.

Research and fresh computer simulations considered under the new review have greatly strengthened that link, while also closing in on a possible warming of 5 degrees above the 1990 average, more or less, should the concentration of carbon dioxide double from the longstanding peak measured before the industrial era.

For at least 600,000 years before the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide rarely nudged beyond 280 parts per million. It is now 382 parts per million and rising steadily.

Without a worldwide shift to nonpolluting energy technologies, such a doubling is considered almost unavoidable given the growth in such emissions in both wealthy and developing countries, but particularly in China and India.

Scientists: Seagrass Ecosystems at a 'Global Crisis'; Elevating Public Awareness 'Critical'

Underwatertimes.com News Service

Washington, D.C. (Dec 1, 2006 14:41 EST) An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS).

The article "A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems" cites the critical role seagrasses play in coastal systems and how costal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.

"Seagrasses are the coal mine canaries of coastal ecosystems," said co-author Dr. William Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "The fate of seagrasses can provide resource managers advance signs of deteriorating ecological conditions caused by poor water quality and pollution."

Among its findings, the study analyzed an apparent disconnect between the scientific community’s concerns over seagrass habitat and its coverage in the popular media. While recent studies rank seagrass as one of the most valuable habitat in coastal systems, media coverage of other habitats – including salt marshes, mangroves and coral reefs – receive 3 to 100-fold more media attention than seagrass systems.

"Translating scientific understanding of the value of seagrass ecosystems into public awareness, and thus effective seagrass management and restoration, has not been as effective as for other coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes, mangroves, or coral reefs," said co-author Dr. Robert Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "Elevating public awareness about this impending crisis is critical to averting it."

"This report is a call to the world’s coastal managers that we need to do more to protect seagrass habitat," said co-author Dr. Tim Carruthers of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Seagrasses are just one of the many keys to maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems and their biodiversity."

Seagrasses – a unique group of flowering plants that have adapted to exist fully submersed in the sea – profoundly influence the physical, chemical and biological environments of coastal waters. They provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help mitigate the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution.

Seagrasses, thats my thing! It is troubling that these vital coastal ecosystems are disappearing all over the world. And given the state of fisheries, one would expect that critical habitats like seagrass beds would be protected. Unfortunately that is not the case in many places, and even where they are protected, little resources are allotted for restoration and monitoring. This has to change for seagrasses to recover. Check out Seagrass.li, its a cool site describing the grasses as well as monitoring and restoration efforts of Long Island seagrass beds.

Roxbury ice maker will use sun to make cubes

A New Jersey Ice maker is converting. He is going to harness the sunse energy to create ice...

New Jersey Ice Maker Will Use Sun Power to Make Cubes. By Michael Daigle, Morris County Daily Record, November 28, 2006. "In the very near future, Fred Schuld will be making ice from sunlight. Schuld, owner of The Ice Factory in Landing, has installed 85 solar panels on the roof of his home/business, which will run the ice makers that provided his livelihood for the past 19 years... He is installing a 15,000-kilowatt system that will power his ice-making operation and supply the home's electric power needs... He said the solar system helps the environment and his bottom line. Schuld said his average electric bill is $13,000. The new system will drop his annual electric cost by $8,000 to $9,000, including an annual $4,320 Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, generated by the sale of excess electricity to the power system. He also is qualified for a 30 percent federal tax rebate related to his business, and he received a $72,000 rebate from the state Clean Energy Program to cover a significant portion of the $122,000 installation costs. His final cost for the solar system was $49,330. Schuld said. He will be able to break even on the installation in five years."

Turkey fryer oil for biodiesel?

PLANO - It can't be good for your arteries but it is good for the environment.

In the US South, folks like their Thanksgiving Day turkey deep fried -- and the city of Plano north of Dallas collects the bird fat from residents for use in the biofuels industry. "This is our busiest time, the week after Thanksgiving. We collect about 500 gallons of turkey fat during that time," said Lois Woolf, a Plano City worker, as she hoisted a plastic container of oil left outside someone's home for collection. In 2005, Plano collected 1,200 gallons of cooking oil, the vast majority turkey fryer fat. The bulk of it is picked up during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The turkey fat is donated to Biodiesel Industries, the first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel in the state of Texas. Biofuels are gaining favor as an alternative "clean" fuel amid growing concerns about carbon emissions linked to climate change, high oil prices and instability in crude producing regions like the Middle East. This is even the case in pockets of Texas, the heart of the massive US oil industry. "The City of Plano has a rolling stock of 700-800 vehicles and 59 of these are using hybrid or alternative fuels," said Melinda Sweney, the Sustainability Communications Coordinator for Plano. Plano collects the oil from residents who call in and ask for pick-ups -- and there is plenty of demand in a region where people like their food fried and crispy. "The first time I heard about fried turkey was years ago in Louisiana and I thought 'who eats fried turkey,' said Plano resident Rita Keys. "But it's good," she added as Marty Huffman, a Plano City worker, poured fat from a deep fryer into plastic containers via a funnel. The scent in the air was distinctly turkey. The favored method is to use a deep fryer outside which is filled with peanut oil and heated with propane. Forty-quart deep fryers typically are used -- "super-sized" like everything else in Texas. This is a sharp contrast from American homes to the north where the big bird is usually stuffed and baked in the oven and the fat is consumed as gravy, not fuel.

Story by Ed Stoddard

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

I especially like that last line - "sharp contrast from American homes to the north where the big bird is usually stuffed and baked in the oven and the fat is consumed as gravy, not fuel." Good one! Anyway, I always liked fried foods, and although they are not good for you, being able to reuse fryer oil for biodiesel can help, and every little bit counts toward a better future.

As globe warms, can states force the EPA to act?

The agency argues that climate change requires a global solution, not federal regulations. The Supreme Court weighs in this week.

By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – Arctic sea ice is melting. Glaciers are in retreat. Sea levels are rising. So what is the Environmental Protection Agency doing about it?

That's what a group of state officials and environmentalists want to know.

Seven years ago, they asked the EPA to get involved - to take an initial step in response to scientific evidence that suggests greenhouse gases are causing global warming.

The agency refused, saying there were too many unresolved questions about the causes and effects of global warming. The state officials took their case to court, charging that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to take immediate action.

On Wednesday, the dispute arrives at the US Supreme Court, where the justices must decide whether the EPA is required to take action or whether the agency retains the discretion to decide for itself how best to respond to world-wide environmental threats.

The case will test the authority of special interest groups and state governments to sue federal agencies and force them to adopt certain regulatory policies that they favor. The case could also establish important legal precedents that might help or hinder state efforts to regulate greenhouses gases on their own in the absence of federal action.

On a broader level, the case raises questions about the role of the judiciary in resolving litigation over regulatory policy arguments. Should judges defer to controversial decisions made by administrative agencies on whether or when to pass regu-lations? Or should judges aggressively enforce what they see as the underlying purpose of statutes that govern agencies?

At issue in Massachusetts v. US Environmental Protection Agency is whether EPA officials acted properly when they declined to issue national regulations limiting the release of four greenhouse gases from new automobile models. The gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons.

EPA officials say the agency lacks the power to regulate greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to take action to reduce and control agents that cause "air pollution." But agency officials have concluded that greenhouse gases are not agents of air pollution. They say the Clean Air Act does not address global climate change.

As a fallback position, EPA officials say that even if they do have authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act they also have discretion under the act to decide when to initiate such measures. The officials have said there was scientific uncertainty about global warming and that they wanted to wait for more research and additional action by Congress before crafting an appropriate response.

Massachusetts along with 11 other states, three cities, a US territory, and numerous environmental groups are urging the Supreme Court to order the EPA to faithfully enforce the law as passed by Congress.

"A straightforward reading of the language of the Clean Air Act shows that carbon dioxide and other air pollutants associated with climate change are 'air pollutants' potentially subject to regulation [under the Clean Air Act]," writes Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General James Milkey, in his brief. "When Congress has spoken as plainly as it has here, an administrative agency is bound to obey that legislative command."

In his brief, US Solicitor General Paul Clement defends the EPA's earlier legal positions. He also argues that Massachusetts lacks the legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place. Mr. Clement says Massachusetts officials are unable to draw a direct link between harm to the state and the EPA's decision not to pass the requested regulations.

Massachusetts and other petitioners in the case complain of "profound harms" caused by climate change including the inundation of coastal property, damage to seaside facilities, and additional emergency response costs from more frequent and intense storms. Clement argues that the state's generalized concerns are not enough to demonstrate that such cataclysmic harms are a direct result of the EPA's decision not to regulate.

The specific request was for the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from new cars. Such emissions make up only a fraction of greenhouse gases released worldwide.

Clement says that 80 percent of all greenhouse gases are from countries other than the US and that, of US emissions, 70 percent are from nontransportation sources. The solicitor general adds that of the remaining 30 percent, the requested regulation would only affect new vehicles models - leaving the vast majority of emissions in the US and throughout the world not covered by the new regulations.

In effect, Clement says, the threat of global warming is an international threat that requires an international solution. Since the EPA acting alone cannot solve the problem, lawyers from Massachusetts don't have legal standing to try to hold the EPA responsible for a problem it can't solve without international cooperation.

Mr. Milkey says the primary concern of Congress in the Clean Air Act was for the agency to determine whether certain pollutants can reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. Where they pose such a threat, Milkey says, the agency must act to protect the public.

Sharks and seaweed inspire green energy

Researchers in Australia are looking to sea plants and shark tails as inspiration for ways of extracting energy from ocean waves and tides. Dr Tim Finnigan at the University of Sydney has formed a company, BioPower Systems, to commercialise the technologies. The wave energy system is called “bioWave” and has long, vertical blades that sway back and forth. Dr Finnigan says that it, “Is the only wave energy system that captures a wide swath of incident wave energy without using a large rigid structure. It is also the only such device that absorbs energy over the full water depth and continually self-orients with the wave direction”. The blades are attached to an “O-Drive” generator, which uses a single stage reciprocating gear mechanism with a direct-drive synchronous permanent magnet generator and a high-inertia flywheel. In extreme wave conditions, the generator is back driven to ensure that the blades assume a safe position lying flat against the sea bed. Systems are being developed for 500kW, 1000kW and 2000kW capacities. The shark tail machine is called, “bioStream” and mimics the shape and motion characteristics of shark, tuna and mackerel tails, but is a fixed device, designed to be used in a moving stream or tidal flow. In this configuration the propulsion mechanism is reversed and the energy in the passing flow is used to drive the device motion against the resisting torque of the generator. More information from BioPower Systems

The pictures from the website can't be copied to the blog... check out the website...

China boasts plan for world's largest solar plant

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, seeking to ease its dependence on coal to fuel its booming economy, said on Tuesday it will build the world's largest solar power station in the poor but sunny northwestern province of Gansu.
The 100 megawatt (mw) project would cost approximately 6.03 billion yuan ($766 million) and construction would take five years, Xinhua news agency said.
China's economy is racing along at more than 10 percent a year and miners are struggling to meet booming demand for coal, which fuels about 70 percent of the nation's energy consumption.
China has also stepped up investment in energy projects abroad and nuclear power, keen to cut down on pollution which hit the maximum "hazardous" level in the capital on Tuesday.

Planners chose the "oasis town" of Dunhuang for the solar plant.
"Covering a total area of 31,200 square metres, Dunhuang boasts 3,362 hours of sunshine every year and is hailed as a prime area for solar energy development, with its easy access to electricity transmission and communications," Xinhua said.
Xinhua claimed the world's current largest solar power station was a 5mw project in Leipzig, Germany, with 33,500 solar panels.
But a solar plant in Arnstein near Wuerzburg in southern Germany has a 12mw capacity, according to its operator S.A.G. Solarstrom.

Now this is just crazy. Why is China stepping up before the United States? I know one large solar power plant is not the end all but it is at least a start. I don't understand why we don't put solar panels on buildings in southern cities. You don't even need to be in a southern state to use solar power, houses in Maine are set up with solar power and run efficiently. We could at least start to curb our dependence on oil. Solar panels are becoming cheaper and more efficient as technology progresses. We need to step up!