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This group's mission is to help shape green energy policy and to create and validate viable renewable energy sources.

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This working group is focused on viable green energy policy and technologies.
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admin Albert Gomez Brian Angus ChrisAllen david hastings docpj
JockGill Maeryn Obley mashalshah

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Growing interest in prairie cordgrass as a biofuel source

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 27, 2012

                                                                              

                                                          Source: illinois.edu

Until recently, prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) has received comparatively little attention because, unlike the other types of switchgrass, it is not a good forage crop; as interest in energy crops and in feedstock production for cellulosic biofuels increases, however, prairie cordgrass is receiving more attention because it grows well on marginal land.

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Loo turns poo into power

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 27, 2012

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have invented a new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers and also reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 percent compared to current toilet systems in Singapore.

Dubbed the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet, it has two chambers that separate the liquid and solid wastes.  Using vacuum suction technology, such as those used in aircraft lavatories, flushing liquids would now take only 0.2 liters of water while flushing solids require just one liter.

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Food Waste Recycling

submitted by Albert Gomez

environmentalleader.com - by John Evans - June 11, 2012

U.K. - Sending our rubbish to landfill sites continues to be a major topic for debate as proposals for wind farms and incinerators are becoming more common.

At present, the Local Government Association estimates that we offload twice as much rubbish into landfill sites than Germany does, although Germany has a larger population. Due to the fact that land available for landfill sites is running out, pressure from Brussels and Westminster is making the use of these sites more expensive, which in turn is increasing the pressure to recycle our waste.

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Can We Survive the New Golden Age of Oil?

submitted by Robert G.Ross

      

EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/Getty Images - For more photos of new energy powers, click here.

foreignpolicy.com - by Steve Levine - June 5, 2012

A flurry of new finds has analysts giddy over a new age of energy abundance. Just don't ask about global warming.

Energy experts are tittering about a prodigious new golden age of oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Israel and Cyprus could become substantial oil and natural gas exporters, in addition to some other surprising places including French Guiana, Kenya, North Dakota, and Somalia.

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U.S. Loan for Huge Brazilian Landfill Gas Project Pays Dividends

submitted by Albert Gomez

waste-management-world.com - May 31,2012

A $48.6 million loan by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) supporting exports of equipment and services for the development of the Novo Gramacho biogas project in Brazil has generated 165 new jobs.

The transaction is Ex-Im Bank's first financing for biogas reclamation and development.

Among the beneficiaries is Newport Beach, California based renewable energy specialist, FirmGreen, which estimated that the project directly generated 165 new jobs at its facilities and at other companies in seven states.

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Gas 'Fracking' Gets Green Light

Cuadrilla shale fracking facility in Lancashire. The controversial method of extracting gas has been given the green light by experts. Photograph: Matthew Lloyd/Getty

by Fiona Harvey - guardian.co.uk - April 16, 2012

Drilling method can be extended throughout UK, say experts, even though it has caused two earthquakes

Ministers have been advised to allow the controversial practice of fracking for shale gas to be extended in Britain, despite it causing two earthquakes and the emergence of serious doubts over the safety of the wells that have already been drilled.

The advice of the first official British government report into fracking, published on Tuesday, is all but certain to be accepted by ministers, with the result that thousands of new wells could be drilled across the UK.

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North Sea Oil Shock Keeps Fire Under Brent Price

Just when it looked as if Iran's oil shock was starting to be absorbed by the market, a problem in Europe is keeping alight the fire under crude prices.

On March 25, a gas leak forced Total SA, the French oil company, to halt production of 60,000 barrels of oil per day at the Elgin field, about 200 kilometers from the coast of Scotland. The high-profile incident has led to soul-searching that could rein in output in the Continent's largest oil patch.

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Activists Worry About Oil Spill Due to North Sea Platform Gas Leak

      

This is an undated handout photo issued by Total E&P UK Ltd of Total's Elgin PUQ (Process/Utilities/Quarters) platform. (AP/TOTAL E&P UK Ltd.)

Associated Press - foxnews.com - March 29, 2012

Environmental groups warned Thursday they fear an oil spill could be triggered at a North Sea offshore platform that has been leaking highly pressurized gas since the weekend.

A flame is still burning in the stack above the Elgin platform, which stands about 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, eastern Scotland, after a leak of flammable gas Sunday-- prompting all 238 staff to be evacuated on Monday.

Platform operator Total S.A. insists there is no threat of any explosion under current weather conditions, but said that surveillance flights have detected a sheen around the platform estimated to extend over 1.85 square miles.

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Exxon's Big Bet on Shale Gas

Drill pipe ready for use on a rig at Exxon's Johnson Ranch site outside Fort Worth

by Brian O'Keefe - CNN - April 16, 2012

America's most profitable company now produces about as much natural gas as it does oil. CEO Rex Tillerson thinks the fracking party has just begun.

FORTUNE -- For Rex Tillerson fracking is more than a revolutionary approach to drilling oil and gas -- it's part of his personal history. Simply mention the word to the CEO of Exxon Mobil (XOM) and he starts reminiscing about his days as a young engineer.

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Looking Back on the Limits of Growth

      

Chart Sources: Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J. and Behrens III, W.W. (1972) /  Linda Eckstein

by Mark Strauss - Smithsonian Magazine - April 2012

Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s,The Limits to Growth.

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030.

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Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

The Club of Rome

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