California Rejects Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags

Credit:  The Environmental Leader

“California uses 19 billion plastic bags a year. … We use them for 10 minutes and it takes 1,000 years to break down,” the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica told ABC News.  Brownley said it costs the state $25 million a year to clean up the mess. “It’s very difficult to really completely clean it up,” Brownley said. “It’s very easy for us to change our habits.”

The bill, which GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hailed when itpassed the State Assembly in June, would have barred grocery stores, large pharmacies and retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart that sell food from offering plastic bags in 2012. The ban would have extended to convenience stores, drugstores and mom-and-pop shops in 2013. Consumers would have had to carry their goods in reusable bags or buy recycled paper ones at store cost.  More... http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/09/02/california-rejects-ban-on-plastic-shopping-bags/

Feds lease prime solar land

Credit:  GRIST.org

Ready for your morning bowl of crazy? Five years ago, Congress set aside millions of acres of public land in the Southwest for the development of solar farms. This was primo real estate for solar, considered one of the best spots in the world. So far not one solar panel has been erected. 

Oh, you want us to build something? This discouraging news comes courtesy of the AP's Jason Dearen, whose investigation shows that the understaffed U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) focused almost all its time on approving oil and gas projects and leased the land on a first-come, first-served basis, often to outfits with little or no experience in actually building solar farms. Case in point: Cogentrix Solar Services, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. Cogentrix had zero solar experience, but holds leases on nearly half the Nevada acreage for which applications have been filed. Another sickening stat: In the last five years, the BLM has approved more than 73,000 oil and gas leases on public land, but hasn't given final approval to one solar lease. ... See more...http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-02-prime-solar-land-lies-fallow-southwest-desert-/