Cleantech news you might have missed: 2 Feb. 2009
Need to catch up on your cleantech news after the weekend? After you’ve done with shoveling away the snow on your steps, check out some of the recent headlines you might have missed:
- While many of the adverts aired during yesterday’s Super Bowl broadcast less than wowed, GE’s commercial for smart grid technology proved a stunner. If you missed the game itself, no worries … you can view the ad at GE’s Website;
- Nuclear power opponents are steamed about the US Senate Appropriations Committee’s decision to include a $50 billion increase in nuclear plant loan guarantees in the proposed economic stimulus package. Climate Progress calls the provision a “radioactive dirty bomb” that would “not create a single job for many, many years”;
- Salt Lake City and the state of Utah are exploring ways to tap the region’s low-temperature geothermal resources for their electricity needs. Officials are working with geothermal company Raser Technologies to see whether it would be possible to build a geothermal plant in the city in just six months;
- British Airways has announced plans to cut its carbon emissions in half by mid-century. It said its goal — “the most ambitious set by any airline” — would reduce its emissions from 16 million tonnes in 2005 to eight million tonnes by 2050. “”Some people say that in economic times as desperately tough as these, we can afford to put climate change issues on one side,” said Willie Walsh, the airline’s chief executive. “I could not disagree more. Halving net CO2 by 2050 is an extremely challenging target. But it is one I am sure we can achieve.”
