When the price of oil is high, talk turns to alternative forms of energy, including wind, biofuels and solar. One kind of solar energy isn't getting much publicity. But solar thermal power is quietly becoming a significant source of electricity in the Southwest. In the desert south of Las Vegas, crews working on a project called Nevada Solar One are assembling a parabolic trough of curved mirrors connected in a huge array. At the center, a closed-loop tube will be filled with oil that will be heated by the sun. The hot oil will flow around the 400-acre project and into a building where it will turn water into steam. It, in turn, will turn a steam turbine, which will make electricity.
Solar PV, or photovoltaics -- panels on roofs -- are what most people think of when they think of solar power. The largest PV array in the world, located in Germany, produces 10 megawatts of electricity. But Nevada Solar One will produce 64 megawatts -- enough to power 40,000 homes in the Las Vegas area during the hottest part of the day.
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SCHWARZENEGGER GOES POPULIST
Popular fads are hard for politicians to resist when the harm of them is not immediately apparent
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Hummer-driving Republican with his own Gulfstream jet, has delighted Democrats and environmentalists by promising to sign a Bill that will require his state to reduce its carbon emissions by a quarter over the next 14 years. In the process he has established himself as the leading voice in the US for action on climate change, which President Bush has so far refused to tackle with federal legislation. It has also confirmed California as the country's most influential political laboratory and virtually guaranteed Mr Schwarzenegger's own re-election in November. Not bad for one flourish of what is presumably a rather robust gubernatorial pen.
The smog that fills the Los Angeles basin for most of the year has long since served as a reproach to Californians for their extravagance, but it has never dented their confidence in shaping the future. The Golden State has pioneered bold anti-pollution measures before, with mixed success. This time, the fate of an agreement to drive greenhouse gas emissions down to their 1990 level by 2020 will depend on the ability of research-led business to produce the requisite clean new technologies, and the willingness of the biggest polluters - especially power generators - to invest in it.
If they do, history may smile on the somewhat optimistically-named Global Warming Solutions Act. But Mr Schwarzenegger has already sealed an astonishing comeback by endorsing it. Nine months ago, after stubbornly promoting a series of failed reforms tailored to his partisan base, his political future appeared terminal. He has since appointed Democrats to run his own staff and the state's Environmental Protection Agency and steered decisively back towards the political centre, opening a 14-point lead over his nearest rival. A second term in office is now his to lose. If he wins, it will be thanks partly to a strategy of distancing himself from Mr Bush not just on climate change but also on such key domestic issues as stem-cell research, which he supports, and sending troops to guard the Mexican border, which he opposes.
Mr Schwarzenegger hopes his lead on carbon emissions will be "an example for other states and nations". It will certainly be studied carefully. California's relentless modernity, as well as its sheer size as the world's eighth-largest economy, gives its "local" politics global significance - and if he is as serious about the environment as he says he is, George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, on a visit to Japan, should head there from Tokyo even at the cost of 1.2 extra tonnes of carbon.
The Governor could propose a system that will require carbon emissions from every significant industrial polluter to be measured, with cuts mandated and enforceable by 2012. Mr Bush believes such cuts cannot be achieved by legislation. The more popular Mr Schwarzenegger believes they cannot be achieved without it. They agree, however, on the central role of new technologies in which California hopes to lead the world.
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BRITISH CONSERVATIVES GO POPULIST
Popular fads are hard for politicians to resist when the harm of them is not immediately apparent
Taxes on motoring, flying and other polluting activities would rise under a Conservative government, according to George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor. He said that the Tories would raise more money from green taxes and less from taxes on employment, investment and savings. The policy is aimed at giving the Conservative Party a green image, but risks alienating both motorists and right-wingers, who want more emphasis on tax cuts. He made one of his clearest statements yet on tax on a trip to Japan, where he is studying ways of reducing pollution, including the use of super-fast trains to curb demand for internal flights. Today he will take a ride on a magnetic train capable of travelling at 360mph, which he said could virtually eliminate domestic flights if brought to Britain.
Mr Osborne and David Cameron, the Conservative leader, are touring Asia as part of their strategy to portray the party as a government in waiting, being taken seriously by foreign leaders and with a coherent range of policies. Mr Cameron will next week visit India, where he will meet business and political leaders. Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Osborne said: "I believe we in Britain should move some of the burden of taxation away from income and capital and towards taxes on environmentally-damaging behaviour. Instead of a tax system that penalises hard work and enterprise, I want to move towards more effective and fair taxes on pollution. I want the proportion of tax revenue raised by green taxes to rise." He refused to be drawn on any details of tax changes, but said they were considering fuel tax and vehicle excise duty, as well as tax on aviation, and a new carbon tax to help to tackle global warming.
Steve Norris, who leads a Conservative working group on transport, said that he was sure the party would reintroduce the fuel duty escalator, whereby the tax on petrol and diesel is automatically increased every year. The fuel duty escalator was abolished by Gordon Brown after protests by lorry drivers and farmers.
Ed Balls, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, hit back: "I think the question George Osborne failed to answer is: is he really saying that he thinks taxes on motorists should be going up now at a time when petrol prices are so high? If you are going to be a serious Opposition you need to come along and say what are your proposals, how would you pay for them. Until then people won't take you seriously."
The Shadow Chancellor also insisted that Britain should compete with the rest of the world by developing a series of high-speed rail links with magnetically levitated trains, connecting major cities. Such "maglev" trains already operate in Japan and China, and are being tried out in Germany. "If Japan is developing this technology, if China has already introduced this kind of train, if Germany is looking at this technology, why are we not doing so in Britain?"
Mr Osborne's claims that such travel would tackle global warming by reducing demand for flights was rebuffed by Cliff Perry, of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who said that maglev trains produced more pollution than slower trains and were the "railway equivalent of Concorde". An aide to Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, said that the maglev network would cost tens of billions of pounds. "No party will ever be taken seriously when they throw around commitments on tax and spending like this. David Cameron and George Osborne are proving that they simply do not have the maturity and experience to address the serious issues facing Britain's future," he said.
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Australia: A gay Green politician
A Greens candidate has pleaded guilty to being a public nuisance after undercover police arrested him at a local gay beat. Candidate for Townsville John Boucher yesterday admitted visiting a public toilet in Townsville three weeks ago and undoing his fly outside a cubicle. But the 55 year-old said he was investigating the site after he heard homosexual men were being unfairly targeted by police at the beat.
Greens campaign coordinator Ian Gittus said Mr Boucher last night regretted having pleaded guilty, but wanted to put the episode behind him quickly. "He didn't go there for sex," Mr Gittus said. "He went there to investigate and as soon as he went in there, three undercover police arrested him." Mr Boucher is a probation officer with Queensland Corrective Services and is also a long-time gay rights activist.
Throughout his campaign he has argued for equal rights and social justice issues. Mr Boucher will remain part of The Greens campaign, with the full support of the party. "We do feel that police are harassing gay men in Townsville and we call for a hotline for gay men to call if they are being harassed," Mr Gittus said. Mr Boucher was fined $300.
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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.
Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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