In the first emissions trading to be introduced outside of Europe, the New Zealand government has just launched a cap and trade system to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 10 and 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, UPI is reporting.

New Zealand imports most of its oil, but nearly half of the emissions are agricultural, due to the volume of exports from the isolated nation, and they have increased by 25 percent over the last 20 years.

Its nearest neighbor is Australia, but much of its trading is much further away, with the EU. New Zealand has long been a land of sheep farmers, and with an economy of only 4 some million people, has a very high carbon footprint in shipping its products to customers far overseas. When you factor in the carbon footprint of ocean transport, not just exporting, but also, importing, New Zealand is actually not as green as its reputation.

And now, with oil giants like Petrobras nosing around the island nation for an off-shore killing, the announcement is timely.

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In a sign of things to come for corporate activism, The Gap, Timberland, Levi Strauss and Walgreens have just joined Whole Foods and Bed, Bath and Beyond in a boycott of petroleum products sourced from the notorious Alberta Tar Sands. As reported by Bob Weber of The Canadian Press, Federal Express has also adopted a policy that appears to lead toward joining the boycott.

The move comes just as scientists from the University of Alberta released a report on the mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, and nine other toxins from tar sands operations found in the Athabasca River system. In the meantime, environmentalists in the U.S. are raising the alarm over tar sands-related damage in Montana, where new road construction is planned in order to accommodate trucks hauling massive pieces of equipment to the Alberta tar sands.

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In a last-minute race to the finish-line, the CEC has approved a staggering 2,800 MW (or 3 GW) of solar projects this month in California.

Among them are Tessera Solar’s 709 MW Imperial Valley Solar project in Imperial County (scaled down from 750 MW, by BLM request) and NextEra Energy’s 250 MW Beacon Solar Energy Project, the first large-scale solar-thermal power projects permitted in California in two decades.

During the same time, only one 760 MW fossil plant was approved: Mirant Corp.’s 760-MW Marsh Landing Generating Station.

This ratio of clean energy approvals to dirty energy approvals reverses the pattern over the last ten years.

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For the last 20 years, Republican Senators have been held to single standard of climate denial by the fossil industry which sends them there. But Republican Governors were left alone.

Thus California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been synonymous with active support for clean energy. Likewise, Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist who flouted Republican dogma with innovative clean energy policies, was a true independent – although, now as a Senate candidate, he’s had to run as one, literally.

But in what may be a harbinger of doom for state level climate and clean energy policies, it appears that the stupid has gotten into Republican Gubernatorial candidates now too.

Wonk Room is reporting that all 4 Republican candidates for Governor of New Mexico are in climate denial. They sound just like Republican Senators.

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According to a study unveiled today by Energy Secretary Chu and VP Joe Biden, the US is on-track to achieve the three major renewable energy  goals that the Energy Department set out to achieve with the $90 billion in Recovery Act investments in science, technology and innovation projects across the country.

1. Make solar power as cheap as dirty energy by 2015
2. Make electric vehicles as cheap as gas ones by 2015
3. Double US renewable energy generation and manufacturing by 2012

All three goals are on track.

The Recovery Act funding for renewable energy will probably go down in history as truly changing America. Only three Senate Republicans crossed the line to vote with the Democrats to pass it. Collins and Snowe survived the wrath of Republican voters – in 55% renewably powered Maine. Arlen Specter didn’t. He will be gone in January, but he has a lot to be proud of in standing up to the Party of No on renewable energy.

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According to a letter sent to the US Department of Energy by Gregory Friedman, the Inspector General, there is some risk that $3.4 billion in American  Recovery Act (ARRA) funds may not get allocated in time to meet the September 30th deadline, which is the “use it or lose it” date. While 90% of the ARRA funds were spent on clean energy,  the remaining funds might not make it.

Most of this was to be for two Carbon Capture and Storage projects to see if coal can be used to make energy without endangering the climate on this planet for the next 100,000 years.

Several billion in funds to demonstrate and monitor CCS are of concern to the Accountability and Transparency Board (pdf). The Carbon Capture and Storage project was to partially fund construction of the first commercial scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the country.

However, the Department of Fossil Energy has not yet completed its selection process for the $1 billion CCS project. Also, the industrial application of CCS is in danger of not being fully allocated in time. Nearly half the original award amount, $741 million is still unallocated.

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The last time TVA ever shuttered a coal plant was in 1983, but on Friday, the Tennessee Valley Authority announced that it is shutting down 7% of its coal power production under a ten-year plan to switch from coal to nuclear power. More than 60% of the electricity under TVA control comes from coal.

More than 1,000 MW of aging coal plants, grandfathered in under more lenient EPA rules in the past, are to be taken offline. To replace the energy they were belching out, President Tom Kilgore announced that the TVA will restart work on the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama, that has remained unfinished since 1988.

The TVA has included $248 million in next years budget to restart the nuclear project, currently estimated to cost $4.7 billion by the time it is complete, and expected to raise ratepayers rates.

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The French government announced a huge investment package for renewable energy last week, totaling €1.35 billion ($1.73 billion). The money is to be invested over the next 4 years.

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The French government announced a huge investment package for renewable energy last week, totaling €1.35 billion ($173 billion). The money is to be invested over the next 4 years.

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One of the biggest misconceptions people have about solar is that it is just about to become so cheap that you better not get any now, because in a few years it will be much cheaper. A common belief is that an astounding technological breakthrough is just around the corner and about to make solar cheaper.

While it is true that technological breakthroughs happen all the time, most are at the lab research stage. That does not guarantee that any of them will ever actually make it past the “valley of death” as VC funders call it, to actually go into production, so that someone can actually buy them, in the US.

Then, because they are radical new technology, they have to be tested and certified by the state (at least in California, which pays the rebates based on “expected performance”) as able to last 40 years or so. The original crystalline solar developed in the Carter years is the only solar that has been proved to last 40 years, because, in the real world, it has. For at least the next decade, tried and tested solar tech that is on the market now is your best bet.

You also have to consider what the future might hold for renewable energy, politically, in this country.  Rebates and incentives that now lower your costs might soon be a thing of the past.

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