DOE Project Management: NNSA Needs to Clarify Requirements for Its Plutonium Analysis Project at Los Alamos, GAO-16-585: Published: Aug 9, 2016. Publicly Released: Aug 9, 2016. “The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) defined requirements for the revised Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) project to provide plutonium analysis equipment at its… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Energy
Article – International shipping touches 90% of everything we buy
Via Fast co.exist: “The climate deal made in Paris last November didn’t include cargo ships—despite the fact that shipping emits roughly as much climate pollution as the entire country of Germany (and more pollution than the 160 least-polluting countries to sign the agreement, combined). A visualization from researchers at University College London and the digital… Continue Reading
Brookings – The end of coal-fired growth in China
Brookings Editor’s Note: “The original paper titled “China’s post-coal growth” was published in Nature Geoscience and authored by Qi Ye, Nicolas Stern, Tong Wu, Jiaqi Lu and Fergus Green. When will China reach its coal peak? Most analysts have predicted that China’s coal consumption will peak somewhere between 2020 and 2040. In an article recently published in Nature Geoscience, however,… Continue Reading
Searchable guide to American Landfills and Waste Production
Via Save on Energy – guide, data and visualizations: “The average American tosses 4.4 pounds of trash every single day. It may not seem all that astonishing on the surface, but with 323.7 million people living in the United States, that is roughly 728,000 tons of daily garbage – enough to fill 63,000 garbage trucks.… Continue Reading
How long is the U.S. shoreline?
NOAA’s official value for the total length of the U.S. shoreline is 95,471 miles. “The NOAA shoreline length calculation of 95,471 miles was determined by hand in 1939-40 with a recording instrument on the largest-scale charts and maps available at that time. Shorelines of outer coast, offshore islands, sounds, bays, rivers, and creeks were included… Continue Reading
Nuclear Waste: Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Recovery Demonstrates Cost and Schedule Requirements Needed for DOE Cleanup Operations
Nuclear Waste: Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Recovery Demonstrates Cost and Schedule Requirements Needed for DOE Cleanup Operations, GAO-16-608: Published: Aug 4, 2016. Publicly Released: Aug 4, 2016. “The Department of Energy (DOE) did not meet its initial cost and schedule estimates for restarting nuclear waste disposal operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), resulting… Continue Reading
The 2016 Sustainability Leaders
The 2016 Sustainability Leaders – A GlobeScan / SustainAbility Survey – 07 Jun 2016 – Report “For SustainAbility and GlobeScan’s annual Sustainability Leaders Survey, we asked over 900 expert stakeholders representing business, government, NGOs and academia across 84 countries to evaluate the progress that institutions have made since the 1992 Earth Summit and reflect on… Continue Reading
New Report Calls for Rigorous Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico
“To improve and ensure the efficacy of restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico following Deepwater Horizon – the largest oil spill in U.S. history – a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends a set of best practices for monitoring and evaluating ecological restoration activities. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)… Continue Reading
The Environmental Justice Implications of Biofuels
Gonzalez, Carmen G., The Environmental Justice Implications of Biofuels (July 21, 2016). UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, Vol. 20, 2016. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2813002 “Analyses of the viability of biofuels as alternatives to fossil fuels have often adopted a technocratic approach that focuses on environmental consequences, but places less emphasis… Continue Reading
GAO – DHS Management, Federal Travel, IRS 2017 Budget, Oil and Gas
DHS Management: Enhanced Oversight Could Better Ensure Programs Receiving Fees and Other Collections Use Funds Efficiently, GAO-16-443: Published: Jul 21, 2016. Publicly Released: Jul 21, 2016. Federal Travel: Opportunities Exist to Improve Data and Information Sharing, GAO-16-657: Published: Jul 21, 2016. Publicly Released: Jul 21, 2016. IRS 2017 Budget: IRS Could Improve Presentation of Budget… Continue Reading
EPA Research – Corrosion in Majority of Diesel Fuel Underground Storage Tank Systems Studied
News release: “In a report released today on corrosion inside diesel fuel underground storage tanks (USTs), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found moderate or severe corrosion that could affect metal components inside both steel and fiberglass underground tank systems. Corrosion inside USTs can cause equipment failure by preventing proper operation of release detection and… Continue Reading
Report – Deforestation in the Amazon
The Ongoing Struggles With Deforestation in the Amazon by Council on Foreign Relations (Creative Innovation) – “Deforestation is second only to the burning of fossil fuels as a source of global greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists link to climate change. Researchers say halting and reversing land clearance in tropical forests could reduce global carbon emissions… Continue Reading
