“Irked?” Try “ballistic”

California cities irked by borrowing plan

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, wants to invoke a 2004 law to force municipalities to loan the state 8% of their property tax revenues.

Administrators of already cash-strapped cities and counties said the loans would force even deeper cuts in services. Fewer cops and fire engines would be on [...]

Turning wastewater sludge green

Sanford Fla., in a first-ever, will use dried biosolids from waste water sludge as fuel for the sludge dryer instead of natural gas, thus saving millions of dollars.

Another project by the same company, MaxWest Environmental Systems, will process 100,000 tons of horse manure and other waste into 10.5MW of electricity per year.

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Phoenix fixing its own housing market as foreclosure sales go crazy

In Phoenix, the real-estate market is fixing itself with no help from the government.

How? Houses owned by folks who can’t afford to own them are being sold at auction. In some cases, happily, the buyers are then turning around and renting the houses to their previous owners with at rents that are much lower [...]

Get your Bernie Madoff urinal screen now

If ever there was a person that should be water boarded, Bernie Madoff takes the cake. Atl east here, you get to express your “warm feelings” for this fallen Wall Street whore and give water boarding a whole new meaning. We beg you to place these all over Wall Street

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Plasma gasification of waste into fuel, power

WMI and EnTec are working on a plasma gasification project that turns industrial and medical waste into electricity onsite with modules that can handle 5-125 tons per day.

This is a double win for the companies because they are creating their own power from trash they would otherwise have to pay to have hauled away.

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How Britain deals with huge, sudden power demands

When the TV show EastEnders rolls their credits, Britain has a massive increase in power demand as, among other things, a million people start making tea. In their central power control room, they immediately tell hydro plants to work at full capacity, and grab power from France too.

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Irish Tube Compressor: Wave energy breakthrough or pipe dream?

Wave energy is proving difficult to do. The ocean is a rough environment. However, a new design from Jospa, an Irish company, shows promise.

California could be broke by July

The California shortfall now stands at $24.3 billion and the state is quickly running out of money. The only way the legislature can make up the difference will be with bludgeon-like budget cuts. It’s going to get real ugly.

Yet as all this happens, public pensions in California must be funded at 100%, something which [...]

Geothermal, the ‘undervalued’ renewable resource, sees surging interest

Image from Ormat

NYT profiles the about-to-boom geothermal industry. Unlike wind and solar, geothermal power is steady, and California and Nevada have prodigious amounts of it. Also, many abandoned oil and gas wells could be used to product geothermal. Ormat is a key company here. Unlike many renewable energy firms, they are already profitable [...]

The crazy rasberry ant. “An alien species”

The crazy rasberry ant swarms in huge numbers, killing every insect in their path. They get inside electronics and destroy them. Nothing can stop them. Yet another hideous peril from nature, and now they are marching on San Antonio. Truly, we must all be doomed.

Oh wait, didn’t we hear exactly the same thing about [...]