The State of Texas has just approved a plan for enormous $4.9 Billion investment in wind power, the largest in U.S. history. Utility officials in the Lone Star State gave preliminary approval to the plan which will build new transmission lines for carrying electricity from the turbines of windy west Texas to power urban areas like the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The plan, which was approved by a 2-1 vote by the Texas Public Utility Commission, will provide the vital transmission capability for up 18,000 Megawatts, enough to power more than 4 million homes. Texas currently pays some of the highest electricity rates in the country, which the new plan will help to bring down by putting more power online in the congested system.

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As big as alternative energy is getting in the United States, it is really taking shape in the 50th State, Hawaii.  We all know young’uns are good with technological gizmos, but the Aloha State is putting its mainland big brothers to shame with the speed it’s adapting toward energy self sufficiency.  First there was the new law in Hawaii requiring all newly installed residential water heaters to run off of solar power.  Now the island of Maui has announced plans for plant that creates biodiesel from a crop the Pacific state has a whole lot of access to: algae.

A Hawaiian conglomerate of HR BioPetroleum, Alexander & Baldwin Inc and Hawaiian Electric Industries is developing the Maui plant to harvest large quantities of lipid oil to fuel the state’s combustible needs.  If factors align, the plant could begin production as soon as 2011.  Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle had this to say on the proposed plant:

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Eating local here in New York City usually involves a trip to the farmers market at Union Square, where produce has to be transported from nearby farms located several miles outside city limits. But Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, wants us to ask ourselves what it could mean if local farms literally became part of the New York City skyline. His “vertical farm” project was conceptualized in 1999, and has captured the attention of architects around the world for its unique design, but also for its promise to help alleviate weather-related food shortages and fluctuating food prices. Here’s Despommier being interviewed on The Colbert Report:

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T. Boone Pickens has a plan for energy independence in the United States and he’s putting his money where his mouth is to promote it.  The Billionaire Texas Oil Man and investor has been one of the loudest voices warning of peak oil for years now, but now he’s taking his push for alternative sources of energy for the USA a step further with Pickens Plan. 

Pickens’ numbers cannot be disputed (And why would we?  We’re arguing for the same thing on here every day.).  The United States now imports 70% of its oil - up from a mere 24% in 1970.  At today’s prices we are currently sending $700 Billion dollars overseas for the oil we need to run our economy, which is four times the annual cost of the Iraq War.  Over the next ten years the projected cost for the oil we will import at present levels will be $10 Trillion, which will be the largest transfer of wealth in human history. 

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The largest solar rooftop on the planet is being installed by none other than American automotive giant General Motors. The company announced on Tuesday that it plans to install the biggest rooftop solar photovoltaic power installation on Earth on top of its car assembly plant at Figueruelas, Zaragoza, Spain. The installation will cover over 2 million square feet of space with renewable electricity producing photovoltaic cells on 85,000 solar panels.

Partnering with Clairvoyant Energy, Veolia Environmental and the Government of the Spanish state of Aragon, GM will produce over 12 MW at peak output on the Zaragoza rooftop using United Solar Ovonic thin laminate panels - enough to power over 4,500 households per year. GM already operates two of the largest solar power installations in the United States at its plants at Fontana and Rancho Cucamongo, California. The latter facility powers 50% of its electricity by the solar installation.

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Nuclear weapons. Who’s got them, and how many do they have? Are those numbers increasing or decreasing? Oh, and what would happen if one were dropped on the Empire State Building?  Sensational?  Maybe a little, but  Good Magazine certainly puts nuclear proliferation into perspective with this flashy video featuring RATATAT’s “Gettysburg.”

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Nevada, it’s not just for gamblers anymore. The Silver State is seeing an industry boom the likes of which it hasn’t experienced since the growth of its gambling industry starting in the 1950’s. A state that was once on the verge of losing its statehood after changes in the mining industry caused a massive drain in population - which in turn lead the state to legalize both gambling and prostitution ,in certain underpopulated counties, in order to draw residents back within its borders - is now seeing the same arid, sun drenched conditions that burdened it being turned into an asset through the rapid growth of the solar power industry.

Witness the opening of Ausra’s solar thermal power plant factory in Las Vegas last week which will produce the hardware necessary to convert all that free, clean, renewable sunlight out there into power we all can use. At full capacity the plant can produce equipment to generate 700 MW of electricity - enough to power 500,000 homes. The future of solar looks practically limitless in Southern Nevada, with the Bureau of Land Management having received applications for production facilities capable of producing up to 10,000 MW, projects that could bring up to $40 Billion worth of investment to the state.

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Not to be overtly profound or obtuse, but rather consider the above an attempt to call attention to something that just makes good, plain, sense.  In an article published Thursday in the journal Science, a group of former senior federal officials call for the establishment of an independent Earth Systems Science Agency (ESSA) “to meet the unprecedented environmental and economic challenges facing the nation”.  ESSA, it would be called, proposes merging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).  Basically, what they said was if we want to understand the earth and prevent disaster it makes sense to have the air people and the water people talking to the rock people.  Good job for speaking up!

Maybe we get so caught up in our bureacracy sometimes we evade good reason like this.  What if the solution to global warming is more simple than we think?  What if the earth is like a big orange and all we have to do is stick a giant straw in it and let the water boil to give us electricity and get rid of carbon dioxide?

We’d never know if we were too busy forming agencies instead of talking to each other. (here’s a link to the AP story.)

“As GM goes, so goes the nation.” the old adage goes. So perhaps it’s not surprising that with the United States economy teetering on a precipice amidst record high oil prices, that Merrill Lynch analysts described a General Motors bankruptcy as “not impossible” yesterday. The Wall Street investment bank said that the American automaker could need to raise up $15 Billion in capital to stay solvent should the auto market continue to slump. In accompanying news GM’s share price slumped to a 54-year low on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

Honestly, I’m having a hard time feeling bad about this. GM is now experiencing what’s commonly known as a market correction. The company that for years pushed big, boxy, unconscionably low mileage SUVs onto the American market and stifled any sort of innovation whatsoever when it came to fuel efficiency in their cars is now getting the brunt of what analysts for years have been predicting; increased demand and declining supply in the oil market. Who could miss the GM of today? Gone is the ‘57 Chevy and the other dream cars of America’s postwar boom with their gorgeous tailfins and brilliant designs. In their place we’re given gas guzzler boxes with lower average mileage than even Chinese automakers produce.

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As long as we’re talking about Canada these days on the site here, I’ll go ahead and mention that Ottowa has approved construction of a facility that will turn 400 metric tons of garbage into 21 megawatts of electricity every day. I didn’t even know this technology even existed, but it seems like it’s the best idea ever.

Technology Review (published by those fancy-pants at MIT) reports today that this plant, to be constructed by the PlascoEnergy Group, would be the first large-scale gas-to-energy facility in North America. Technically, the process is called “gasification,” and

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