Tuesday Update:

Hey Everyone-

Its time for our weekly update on environmental stories from around the country! Though much of the press’s attention has recently been focused on the stimulus package in Congress, a few interesting developments have sprouted up in various fields on global warming science. Read about them below:

Feed in tariffs, long vanquished to Europe, are starting to find their footing in North America. The idea is simple: mandate that power utilities purchase electricity back at market price from homeowner’s who manage to produce more electricity than they consume. Gainesville, Florida, announced this week that they would be pushing an ordinance for feed-in tariffs in the near future, continuing a trend started in Ontario, Canada, nearly three years ago.
“The big surprise with the standard offer was just how successful it was,” says Keith Stewart, an energy analyst at World Wildlife Fund Canada. “The lesson is that renewable energy technology was a lot more market-ready than the energy planners thought it was.” (The New York Times)
Read more here

A few weeks ago, we reported on a study done in California that found pitting neighbors against each other in competition for lower energy bills led to extremely effective cuts in consumption. In a similar development, Google announced today that it will soon launch its very own power metering social network, designed to integrate hardware that can clamp onto your home’s energy monitoring system and automatically stream data to the Google server, where it will be recorded, graphed, and shared via an online community of neighbors and friends. Though currently hindered by a lack of “smart meters” installed in the states, the system is being tested on Google employee homes before being released to the public. Fascinating stuff! Read more here

In a win-win for environmentalists and business associates, Enterprise rent-a-car announced last week that it would immediately begin phasing more than 5,000 new hybrid vehicles into its fleet. The move will double the number of hybrid cars available for rent from Enterprise, and was made because “doing well for the planet, to the extent that a rental car company can, is what their customers increasingly expect and demand.” (Triple Pundit) Read more here

A national geographic report found that certain tree species are migrating north at a speed of up to 62 miles a century. Experts are convinced the recent movement is due to global warming, and expect more significant geographical shifts in a number of other biological arenas as well. Read more here

Grist reported on a study released in Science magazine last week, highlighting the dangers to the southern US Coast if the Western Antarctic Ice Shelf collapses. Beyond catastrophic effects felt throughout Florida and Louisiana, some scientists estimate that the sheer force of the movement alone might even throw the earth’s rotational axis off kilter. Scary stuff; read more here

That’s all for now! Remember to keep checking in over the course of the next few days for more updates and blog entries about the stimulus bill, green job developments and rail projects in the state of Iowa!

-Sam