Left whispers to Warren: It’s not too late to run
The Hill
8/23/2015



Liberal activists and strategists argue Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would be beating Hillary Clinton in the polls by now if she had opted to run for president as a champion of Wall Street reform.

At a time when nervous Democrats are eyeing 72-year-old Vice President Biden and former Vice President Al Gore — who left office 15 years ago — as potential alternatives, some liberals say it’s not too late for Warren to jump in.

“I think she’d be beating Hillary. That’s my opinion,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, who earlier this year worked on a campaign to draft Warren to run for president.

....Snip....

“My members and the general public believe that it’s time we got some economic justice in this country. The ultra, ultra rich are running things,” he said. “My members and the public think it’s time Wall Street stops controlling Main Street and Main Street has a shot to get this country moving again.”

Shelton said he would love it if Warren gave a second though to running for president.

“Have you heard that Elizabeth Warren is going to change her mind? I’d be real interested if she did,” he said.

“I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Warren. I think she’d do well,” he added, though he declined to speculate whether she’d be leading the polls now had she jumped in.

Democrats say Clinton has some trouble generating excitement....

....Snip....

If Warren had run for president, she would have put Clinton on her heels, liberals say.

“The enthusiasm, the energy that Warren tapped into would have made her an incredibly strong contender. She obviously decided not to get in the race but there’s no doubt that her agenda is exactly where the primary electorate is,” said Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of MoveOn.org, which helped launch the “Run Warren Run” campaign.

....Snip....

Read full article here~
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/elizabeth-warren-not-too-late-to-run-2016-election

4 Votes Short

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

This is Ben and Jerry—yes, of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. We're writing today to ask for your help to stop another disastrous, unnecessary, Middle East war.

Right now we have an amazing opportunity to defend the Obama Administration's historic diplomatic deal to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. And yet, some of the same warmongers who led us into Iraq want to sabotage this deal and put us on a path to war with Iran—and some Democrats are thinking about going along with them!

That's not the leadership we need. We need more voices like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has declared, "The test of a great nation is not how many wars it can engage in, it is how it can resolve international conflicts in a peaceful manner."


That's why we're asking you to join us and sign a petition that sends a strong message to all Democrats: If you undermine the Obama Administration's historic diplomatic agreement with Iran, we'll withhold all campaign donations from your campaigns and party committees in the next election.

If the Senate overrides President's Obama's Iran deal, it risks putting us on a path toward war. But despite that—and despite thousands of phone calls, petitions, and meetings—we're still FOUR VOTES SHORT of what we need to stop the Senate from doing just that, according to media reports.2

So it's time to start talking in terms that politicians understand: money.
It's that simple. Be the party of peace and diplomacy—or don't expect any support when you're running on your record of saber-rattling and fear mongering.

Will you click here to sign the petition with us—and join MoveOn's donor strike?

We're businesspeople—and we know that if we sold an inferior product, people would stop buying it.

Well, Democrats who side with war hawks instead of diplomacy and peace are selling an inferior product. And we're not buying it anymore.

These Democrats just need to learn from recent history. They were bulldozed into giving President George W. Bush the power to invade Iraq. Look how that turned out!

And now wimps like Senator Chuck Schumer—who expects to be the next Senate Democratic Leader—are coming out against the deal.3 He was wrong on Iraq. Now, he's wrong on Iran.

And Senator Robert Menendez today came out against the deal—in spite of the fact that he was elected in 2006 based on his vote against the Iraq War.4 He was right on Iraq, but now he's on the wrong side of history.

That's not the leadership we need. We need more voices like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who believe that "war should be the last resort."

So far, more than 25,000 MoveOn members have signed the petition and made the pledge. We're just two more—and we hope you'll join us.

Click here to sign the petition. Join MoveOn's donor strike now and let's stop a war before it begins.

As businesspeople, we understand the "bottom line." And here's what it is: Democratic wimps and chicken-hawks need to come to their senses—or be cut off. It's that simple.

Sincerely,
–Ben & Jerry

Report slams Koch brothers as their Columbus event opens
The Columbus Dispatch
8/21/15

The Koch brothers’ confab is coming to Columbus today, and a liberal group has rolled out a welcome mat — leading straight into a buzz saw of criticism. A 92-page report — “How the Kochs Have Polluted Ohio with Their Business & Politics” — was released by the Bridge Project, a nonprofit group “dedicated to exposing the conservative movement’s dishonest tactics, dismantling its extreme ideology, and shining light on the moneyed special interests that fund it.” The group’s super-PAC is American Bridge, which tracks GOP candidates and conducts opposition research, funded by unlimited donations from unions and major Democratic donors such as George Soros.

Five Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to attend the two-day Defending the American Dream Summit at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are speaking this afternoon, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are slated for Saturday afternoon.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is not among the speakers. When asked why, Christopher Neefus, deputy director of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, the event’s sponsor, replied, “We just don’t think it’s right to talk about who was invited or not invited to any particular event. The Americans for Prosperity volunteers who attend the conference are going to be treated to a range of views and ideas on tackling economic issues we face.”

The Bridge Project’s study detailed widespread involvement by the Koch brothers in Ohio, from a host of campaign contributions to support of right-to-work to ownership of Georgia Pacific, whose plant on the South Side has raised environmental concerns for years. The company is an independently operated and managed part of Koch Industries. It was tagged with 11 “serious” violations — which means death or serious physical harm could result — earlier this year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency proposed fines topping $60,000.

The report also was critical of the Kochs’ involvement in campaigns against the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium levy last year and various local issues and school levies across the state. And it chronicled extensive campaign contributions for Ohio Republicans running for statewide office, U.S. Senate, Congress and the legislature....

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/08/21/koch-brothers-event-brings-critical-report.html

Illegal Dumping of Fracking Wastewater May Be Linked to Radioactivity in PA Creek, Experts Say
EcoWatch
8/20/2015


Water at the edge of the Clyde Mine discharge in East Bethlehem Township turns the water orangey red where it flows into Ten Mile Creek. Photo credit: Natasha Khan / PublicSource

...“There’s something going on there that’s not right,” Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazett. “The radiation, together with higher bromide levels than you would expect to see coming out of a deep mine, point to drilling wastewater.”

In April 2014, under pressure from local environmental groups, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had taken samples from the same mine, the Clyde Mine in Washington County, Pennsylvania, as it discharged into 10 Mile Creek, a popular destination for boaters and fishermen.

Those tests showed one sample with radioactive materials (specifically radium 226 and radium 228) totaling 327 pci/l at and a second totaling 301 pci/l—in other words, up to 65 times the radium levels that the EPA considers safe in drinking water.

Some had speculated that the 2014 test results could simply have been flukes or false positives, a claim that seems less likely now that the subsequent round of testing by independent researchers also showed the presence of radioactivity.

The DEP is continuing to investigate, but some in the region say that these efforts are less than satisfactory.

“The DEP has known of elevated levels of radiation in the streams for more than a year, during which time countless people have recreated in (the water) and been exposed to possible harm,” Patrick Grenter, director of Center for Coalfield Justice, told the state press.

The discharges from the Clyde Mine flow into Ten Mile Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River, which serves as a drinking water supply for much of Pittsburgh and the surrounding region.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/08/20/radioactivity-fracking/

Critique of Hillary From Bernie Supporters Shouldn't Lead to the Phrase 'You Sound Like A Republican!'
by H. A. Goodman
8/19/2015

....big Snip....

...This divide between Hillary and Bernie camps is growing, and it's still 447 days away from Election Day. Thus far, I've already "unfriended" two people from Facebook, I've succumb to endless Twitter debates, and I've done my best to convince (successfully, I might add) friends and family that Bernie is far better for Democrats and the country than Clinton. However, this battle for the soul of the Democratic Party isn't merely a vapid clash of old regime against progressives tired of Democrats who vote for wars, own personal servers, can't answer simple questions about Keystone XL, and promote unfair trade deals 45 separate times.

No, this liberal infighting isn't only about competing allegiances. It's about values, communication style (one candidate answers questions directly, the other uses semantics as a shield), regulating Wall Street, a debate over Clinton's aggressive foreign policy and Bernie's recent Congressional Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the future of the Democratic Party. Will the cold "pragmatism" of Clinton's past become our progressive future, or will the Racial Justice Platform of Bernie Sanders and his willingness to break up the banks emerge as the next era of liberal politics?

Ultimately, the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have two opposing mentalities. Many Clinton voters believe that any critique of Clinton's scandals should be linked to either Benghazi, or a right wing conspiracy to undermine the Clintons. These supporters usually warn others about never criticizing Hillary Clinton, since often times the belief exists that Bernie Sanders can't possibly win a general election, and any critique would only be used against the "eventual" nominee.

...Snip...

Inevitably on the part of Clinton supporters, any honest critique, even from a liberal Democrat, leads to the following rebuttal:

"You sound like a Republican!"

Or, my personal favorite, simply one word that summarizes the viewpoint of many Clinton supporters when presented with a logical critique:

"Benghazi!"

....Snip...According to an article in The Hill titled Clinton probe tests FBI chief, even the FBI must defend itself from accusations of partisanship:....

....Snip...

...Therefore, is it rational to call the FBI a partisan agency intent on ensuring Bernie Sanders wins at the expense of Hillary Clinton?

Is the FBI acting like a Republican?......

Plenty more to read here~
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/critique-of-hillary-from-bernie-supporters-shouldnt-lead-to-the-phrase_b_8007684.html

New technology could reduce wind energy costs
Phys Org
8/13/2015


The Shepherds Flat Wind Farm is an 845 MW wind farm in the U.S. state of Oregon. Credit: Steve Wilson / Wikipedia.

Engineers from the University of Sheffield have developed a novel technique to predict when bearings inside wind turbines will fail which could make wind energy cheaper.

The method, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A and developed by Mechanical Engineering research student Wenqu Chen, uses ultrasonic waves to measure the load transmitted through a ball bearing in a wind turbine. The stress on wind turbine is recorded and then engineers can forecast its remaining service life.

....snip....

...Professor Rob Dwyer-Joyce, co-author of the paper and Director of the Leonardo Centre for Tribology at the University of Sheffield says: "This technique can be used to prevent unexpected bearing failures, which are a common problem in wind turbines. By removing the risk of a loss of production and the need for unplanned maintenance, it can help to reduce the cost of wind energy and make it much more economically competitive."

The new technology has been validated in the lab and is currently being tested at the Barnesmore wind farm in Donegal, Ireland by the company, Ricardo. It is hoped it will be used in the future inside monitoring systems for other turbines.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-08-technology-energy.html#jCp

US wind energy prices are at an all-time low
8/13/2015

Microsoft’s successful integration of wind power into its data center technology has shown that it can be done-and what’s more, it can be done efficiently and rather quickly. The low price has also created an increase in demand for wind energy from both individual commercial consumers and electric utility companies. And right on time, two new reports published this week by the Department of Energy find that one key renewable sector – wind – is booming.

Increased nameplate capacity, hub height, and rotor diameter have helped improve efficiency for large wind turbines, which contributes to dropping the price of wind energy downward to its current all-time low.

...But the U.S. still ranks below many European nations for the proportion of wind the country relies on for its total energy consumption. Wind projects built in 2014 had an average installed cost of $1,710/kW, down nearly $600/kW from the peak in 2009 and 2010.

Wind power’s decreasing cost makes it more competitive with other energy sources, especially on the Midwestern plains, where windy days are frequent and construction costs are often lower, said Ryan Wiser, co-author of the Energy Department’s 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report.

http://www.pressexaminer.com/us-wind-energy-prices-are-at-an-all-time-low/35301

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2014/ee/c3ee42125b

Can we afford storage? A dynamic net energy analysis of renewable electricity generation supported by energy storage†

Michael Carbajales-Dale *a, Charles J. Barnhart a and Sally M. Benson b
aGlobal Climate and Energy Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. E-mail: mikdale@stanford.edu; Fax: +1-650-723-9190; Tel: +1-650-725-8579
bDepartment of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, USA
Received 25th June 2013 , Accepted 5th February 2014

First published on the web 5th February 2014

....5 Discussion
The results clearly demonstrate the advantages of technologies (both generation and storage) with low CEeD, as well as generation technologies with high capacity factors. Combining low CEeD generation and storage technologies allows a greater proportion of the electrical output to be available to society, rather than being consumed by the industry to fuel its own growth. On-shore wind can support 72 hours of geologic storage while maintaining its current growth rate and still consume only around 10–20% of its own output. In fact, this combination could support growth rates of 100% per year (i.e. double in size each year) and still maintain an energy surplus.

Combining sc-Si at its current growth rate with 24 hours of battery storage would entail the technology consuming around 150% of its own electrical output in deploying new capacity. While this is clearly manageable when PV provides only a small fraction of global electricity supply, it would be difficult to sustain when PV penetration rates increase.

Analysis: Wind power taking off in U.S.
Business, Portland Press Herald
8/10/2015

Two reports suggest that wind is being installed at a rapid rate, that its costs are plummeting, that its technologies are advancing, and that it is creating a growing number of jobs.


Cape Wind Power Farm

....Wind energy in the U.S. is now at 66 gigawatts of installed capacity, according to the report – providing roughly 5 percent of total U.S. electricity demand. Sixty-six gigawatts is enough electricity to power 17.5 million homes (a gigawatt is a billion watts). And, says Jose Zayas, who heads the wind and water power technologies office at the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 13 more gigawatts are now “in the construction phase” and set to come online by 2016.

For reference, in 2012, the U.S. had 1063 gigawatts of total installed electricity capacity, according to the Energy Information Administration. “It really dispels some of the past myths that you cannot have significant amounts of wind energy in the system – a variable source in the system – without really affecting the overall efficiency,” says Zayas. In the meantime, wind now provides 73,000 jobs, the new report finds. And most striking, it found that the wholesale cost of wind energy – bought under a “power purchasing agreement,” or PPA, in which a utility or company buys power from a wind farm under a long term contract – is now just 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s the lowest it has ever been....

...snip...

It’s all part of a bigger picture in which since 2007, a third of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S. has been from wind. The Department of Energy has envisioned the possibility of getting fully 20 percent of the U.S.’s electricity from wind by 2030.

A second Energy Department report released Monday, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, focuses on the distributed wind energy market – which, the report says, has now nearly reached a single gigawatt of installed capacity. Distributed wind, like distributed solar, refers to wind energy – typically just one or two turbines – installed by private individuals or companies to allow them to generate a portion of the electricity they need onsite, rather than having to buy it from a utility company. Anheuser-Busch, for instance, has now installed two wind turbines at its Northern California Fairfield brewery.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/10/department-of-energy-reports-says-wind-power-installations-booming/