C3: "Peak Solar" Strikes States - Solar Power Makes No Economic Sense Without State Subsidies

With U.S. state budgets under tremendous pressure to balance budgets, many are cutting expenses, including those lucrative subsidies for solar installations. Now that solar subsidies have been reduced or eliminated, solar home and business installations rarely make viable economic sense.

Tennessee and Oregon are two recent states that are pulling the plug on solar.

Update on Polar Bear Biologist Investigation

So my impression at this point is that Monnett’s suspension and the IG investigation have no policy significance. Were it not for Monnett’s quasi-celebrity status as the author the 2006 drowning polar bear study, none of this would be news.

Ethanol is now a matter of national security | Grist

Now the bad: The Obama administration (which has been as aggressive an advocate for ethanol as any corn-state Senator) isn't going to let the ethanol industry down -- even if it means using federal dollars to ensure that 40 percent of U.S. corn keeps going into American gas tanks. The administration's commitment comes despite the fact that so-called "second generation" biofuels -- i.e. the kind that don't require corn as the feedstock -- remain forever "around the corner" (as this recent Reuters investigation documented).
...
What's frustrating isn't that the government is investing in alternative liquid fuels. It's that, national security be damned, we're barking up the wrong energy tree: All the data point to ethanol being a climate dead end. And it's a dead end that's eating our food. Yet the government finds ways to keep the money flowing towards ethanol. It's truly the boondoggle that just won't die.

U.S. Icebreaking Woes Threaten McMurdo Resupply, Research Plans

Last month, the Swedish government abruptly ended an ongoing agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation that allowed NSF to lease Oden, the pride of the Swedish icebreaking fleet and also the world's most capable polar-class research vessel. NSF has used the ship each winter since 2006–07 to clear a path through the sea ice to resupply McMurdo Station, the largest scientific outpost in Antarctica and the hub for U.S. activities on the continent. The Swedish government decided that the Oden needed to stay at home this coming winter after two harsh winters disrupted shipping lanes in the region.