Solar Industry Stepping Up To The Plate To Solve The Energy Problem

The President of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Rhone Resch says that the solar industry is America’s answer for independence from fossil fuels.

“Over the last few months, we have seen disaster after disaster caused by the fossil fuel industries and Americans are calling for a new direction for our energy future. And in communities across America, people are asking for an energy source that is clean, reliable, safe and creates economic opportunity. That energy source is solar.”

Resch said that there is an industry-wide goal set to install ten gigawatts of solar capacity annually by 2015.

“The solar energy industry – invented and commercialized in the U.S. – is the solution for our country’s addiction to fossil fuels. It’s time we get this country moving in the right direction”

By Robert Hune-Kalter



Today At TRNS

Gulf Coast Correspondent Miles Wolf Tamboli will be visiting an Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Theodore, Alabama.

The Washington Bureau will be covering:

House Financial Services Committee hearing on the “Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy.”

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on “The Department of the Interior’s Oversight of Offshore Oil Drilling.”

House Homeland Security Committee Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee hearing on “Enhancing DHS’ Efforts to Disrupt Alien Smuggling ACross Our Borders.”

Speaker Pelosi press conference.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) announce their support for Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, to be director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

The U.S. Travel Association announces new data on the long-term economic impact of the BP oil spill.

Senate Grills DNI Nominee On Defense Contractors

Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Gen. Jim Clapper testified Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. If confirmed, he would become the fourth director of the fairly young department. 

Today, the Washington Post published the second of a three-part series detailing how heavily the Department of Defense (DoD) relies on contractors to do, among other things, intelligence gathering. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) expressed concern to Clapper over the large number of civilian contractors currently carrying out such work.

“The use of contractors needs to continue to decrease substantially,” said Feinstein.

Clapper told the committee that he believes the bloated number will come down naturally. History, he said, shows that the size of the nation’s intelligence community has fluctuated based on events.

“We were constricting facilities, [employing] fewer people, then 9/11 occurred. We put the breaks on screech, and then had to rejuvenate and re-expand the intelligence community,” he said. “Of course, the obvious way to do that is through contractors.”

Clapper said the giant number of contractors will swing back like a pendulum, and compared the situation faced by the intelligence community now, to the problem the U.S. faced after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the Pentagon reduced its intelligence force by 20 percent.  

Multiple members of the committee asked Clapper to confirm that the DNI is the clear leader of the intelligence committee.

“I would not have agreed to take this position on if I were to be a titular figure or a hood ornament,” he replied.  “There needs to be a clear, defined, [and] identifiable leader of the intelligence community to exert direction and control over the entirety of that community.”

EPA Says Dispersants Are Not Affecting Gulf Coast Environment

Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson told the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday that the high amount of dispersants being used in the Gulf of Mexico has not produced any negative side effects, yet. 

Committee members grow wary of dumping high amounts of oil dispersants into the Gulf and showed particular concern about the short and long-term effects these dispersants will have on the environment.

“As of yesterday, BP had used 1.8 million gallons of oil dispersants in the Gulf,” said Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). “In Exxon Valdez we used 250 thousand barrels.  By comparison, Deepwater, the biggest oil spill in history, now uses 35-60 thousand barrels a day.”

Jackson assured the committee that the EPA has not seen any significant environmental impacts from the dispersants so far. Due to unknown scientific factors regarding these dispersants, the EPA has directed BP to greatly reduce the number of barrels of dispersants being dumped into the Gulf. The number of gallons being dumped has been reduced nearly 70% since May 26.

Dispersants have not been used within 30 miles of the coast and are prohibited from being used off shore because of the time it takes the dispersants to break up oil.

“Yesterday, the state of Louisiana reopened some state waters to fishing after tests showed no presence of oil or dispersants,” said Jackson.

Oil continues to spew from the well unabated after BP failed to cap it earlier this week.

Clean Energy Advocates March To White House, Demand Change

Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group, rallied outside the Canadian Embassy Thursday to protest against a proposed pipeline that would link the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. The advocacy group said the pipeline would put many farms and ranches at risk in the event of yet another catastrophic oil spill. 

“For far too long Canada has been pushing tar sands oil, the dirtiest source of oil on Earth, onto the U.S. people, and we’ve been a willing buyer,” said Alex Moore, Dirty Fuels Campaigner for Friends of the Earth.

TransCanada, the company proposing the pipeline, is seeking a safety waiver which would allow them to use thinner piping. 

“We have all… seen the ramifications of how the fossil fuel industry has been reeking havoc on our lives, on our health, on our communities [and] on our environment by their blatant disregard for environmental and safety regulations,” said Actress and National Wildlife Federation board member, Gloria Reuben.

The group marched from the Canadian Embassy to the White House to raise awareness for clean energy reform and to make it a priority for the Obama Administration and Congress.