With his vote that helped the U.S. House narrowly approve the energy bill, U.S. Rep. Mike Castle established his reputation as moderate Republican. That is not a comfortable place to be, with conservative blogger coming up with a "Wanted Poster" and a few letter-writers from out of state expressing their anger in letters with in all capital letters. Castle did decide to issue a lengthy statement explaining the vote:
"My priorities, as I represent Delaware in the U.S. House of Representatives today, begin with the economic opportunities and security for all who live here. We are facing serious challenges in both areas. With state budget shortfalls, rising unemployment and stagnant growth in many of the industries on which we typically rely-- new ideas and bold strategies for the future are required. Simultaneously, our nation's military is spread thin across the world in an effort to confront those who seek to do us harm. One major threat to our security and theirs is the current reliance we have on foreign energy sources.
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http://www.ledgerdelaware.com/articles/2009/06/28/news/doc4a48269d16023954290172.txt
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced measures on Monday to hasten the development of solar energy on Western public lands.
Mr. Salazar, appearing in Las Vegas with Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said that 670,000 acres of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (an agency within the Department of the Interior) would be studied to determine whether they could support large solar power arrays.
Twenty-four tracts of land in six states — Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah — are under review. Maps of the land will be published shortly in the Federal Register.The solar study zones, Mr. Salazar said, are part of the Obama administration’s push to do “everything we can to put the bulls-eye on the development of solar energy on our public lands.”
Continue:http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/new-measures-to-aid-solar-on-public-lands/
China is planning to construct a number of 10 GW wind power bases in the coming years, in a bid to further boost the development of the country's renewable energy industry, the country's top energy official said recently.
Zhang Guobao, administrator of the National Energy Administration, said: "We have worked out the strategy of building large (wind power) bases and integrating them into the mainstream power grid in order to speed up the pace of wind power development in the country".
Vigorously developing renewable energy, including wind power, forms part of the country's ongoing strategy to contribute to the global campaign for combating climate change.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-06/24/content_8316184.htm
According to Environmental News Service May 26, 2009, seventy-five miles west of Phoenix the Arizona Public Service (APS) will build a second solar energy plant scheduled for completion by 2013. In a long-term contract with an affiliate of the Starwood Energy Group Global, APS will be in charge of dispersing the 290 million watts generated by the plant to more than 73,000 APS customers. The "Starwood Solar I" plant will be erected on 1900 acres in Harquahala Valley and will be one of the largest in the world.
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