June 2, 2014

In a major effort to curb global warming, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today unveiled proposed rules that would significantly cut carbon pollution from United States electric power plants. The rules would mandate the first nationwide reduction in carbon emissions–30 percent over 2005 levels by 2030. Currently, about 38 percent of yearly U.S. carbon emissions–some 551 million short tons (500 million metric tons)–comes from power plants, particularly those fueled by coal. According to EPA estimates, a 30-percent reduction in carbon pollution from power plants would equal the carbon emitted by two-thirds of all cars and trucks in the United States. However, energy experts noted that more than 38 billion tons (35 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide was  emitted worldwide in 2012.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that acting on climate change was a “moral obligation.” Carbon pollution, she said, “supercharges risks not just to our health, but to our communities, our economy, and our way of life. “The administration of President Barack Obama has been under continuing pressure from environmental groups to take significant action to reduce carbon emissions since the administration failed to get a climate change bill through Congress during the president’s first term in office.

Proposed rules from the Obama administration aim to boost the production of electric power from solar farms and other renewable energy plants in order to reduce carbon emissions. (© PhotoDisc/Getty Images)

The rules face a year-long period of public comment as well as fierce legal battles from business and industry groups and political opposition in Congress and some state legislatures. Opponents of the rules have argued that they will boost electric power costs for consumers and increase business costs. The EPA estimates that the rules will cost $7.3 billion to $8.8 billion annually but will lead to economic benefits of $55 billion to $93 billion over the life of the rule. The agency also predicted that the rules will prevent 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks.

Once the rules are finalized in 2015, states would have until June 2016 to submit rules for ensuring that power plants within their borders meet the emissions cuts. EPA officials stressed that coal-fired plants need not be shut down immediately. Instead, states could install new wind, solar, natural gas, or nuclear units or upgrade pollution and efficiency technology in existing plants. They could also start or join state or regional “cap and trade” programs. Under under such programs, government sets an overall limit on carbon emissions, and then states meet these targets by allowing businesses to buy and sell pollution credits. According to the EPA, even if states meet the pollution-reduction targets, about 30 percent of U.S. electric power would come from coal, compared with 40 percent today.

Additional World Book articles:

• Air pollution
• Fossil fuels
• Greenhouse effect

January 15, 2014

Stocks of incandescent light bulbs dwindled in January 2014 as manufacturers ceased production of 40- and 60-watt lamps. These wattages joined 75- and 100-watt incandescents in light-bulb limbo. They were phased out of production in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The phase-out was the result of the Energy Independence and Security Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2007. The regulation does not outlaw the sale or use of incandescents, but it restricts companies from manufacturing or importing them.

Incandescent lights bulbs, the oldest kind of light bulb, produce light by passing electric current through a metal wire called a filament. The filament heats up and glows. But in the process, about 90 percent of the electric current’s energy goes to waste as it turns to heat. The Energy Independence and Security Act aimed to reduce such waste.

An incandescent light bulb was the first kind of light bulb invented. It uses a thin metal wire called a filament. Passing an electric current through the filament causes it to glow. © Michael Germann, Shutterstock

Newer electric lights, including compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s) and light-emitting diodes (LED’s), are more expensive than incandescents, but they last much longer and waste far less electric power. Savings from reduced electric bills often make these more efficient light bulbs cheaper, in the long run, than incandescent bulbs. Using more efficient light bulbs also leads to less pollution from power plants that burn fossil fuels.
While some early CFL’s cast a harsh-colored light and flickered upon turning on, modern CFL’s and LED’s turn on smoothly and can mimic the type of light produced by incandescent bulbs. Even so, some customers rushed to hoard 40- and 60-watt incandescents before they disappeared from store shelves permanently.

Additional World Book articles:

• Lamp
• Lighting
• Light pollution
• Choosing the Right Light

July 31, 2012

Hundreds of millions of people are without electric power in India. Three electric grids–one for a second day–collapsed today, leaving northern and eastern India–more than half of the country–without power. Hundreds of trains are stalled on tracks, and traffic lights have stopped functioning in Delhi and in the capital, New Delhi, causing massive traffic gridlock. (The adjacent cities have a joint population of 14,700,000 people.) Hospitals are running on backup generators. In eastern India, hundreds of miners are trapped underground because of mine elevator failures. In all, 600 million people are without power in 20 Indian states.

The failure of street lights in the massive blackout caused gridlock on Delhi's already congested streets. (c) Erwin and Peggy Bauer, Bruce Coleman, Inc.

According to public utility experts, the collapse of the electric grid is part of the severe energy crisis facing India today. India’s use of electricity has soared in recent years as its economy has grown, but the aging infrastructure cannot keep up with demand. The experts also point to a shortage of coal, the source of most of India’s electric power generation, and to inefficient and corrupt private distribution agencies.

July 2, 2012

Some 3 million residents in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States were left without electric power after a series of extremely violent storms downed hundreds of trees and power lines late on June 29. At least 17 people were killed, most of them by falling trees. The National Weather Service described the storm system as a derecho, a fast-moving band that can produce hurricane-force winds. The crescent of storms swept down from Indiana and Ohio, across the Appalachians, and into the mid-Atlantic states, causing particually widespread damage in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

On June 29, a huge region of the United States from the Midwest to the Southeast had record-setting high temperatures: 104 °F (40 °C) in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.; and 109 °F (42.7 °C) in Nashville, Tennessee, and Columbia, South, Carolina. The 104 °F temperature was the hottest June day in the nation’s capital in 142 years of record keeping.

A derecho is a widespread, long-lived windstorm associated with a line of thunderstorms. A derecho can sometimes last for more than a day and blow across a distance of several hundred miles. (© Jim Reed, Corbis)

As the hot air rose, it clashed with a cold front, giving birth to violent thunderstorms. Fueled by the heat and powered by roaring upper level winds, the storms grew in intensity as they moved southeast. Winds of 72 miles (115 kilometers) per hour were clocked in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and 80 miles (128 kilometers) per hour in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Meteorologists believe that this derecho is likely to go down as one of the worst on record along its entire path, from northwest Indiana to the Jersey shore. Derechos are most common in the Midwest and Great Lakes region between May and July.

Additional World Book articles:

• Weather
• The Forecast: Better Weather Prediction Ahead (a special report)