CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers, facing a June 1 adjournment, rushed Thursday to complete work on “green energy” legislation which has become one of the major initiatives of the 2009 session.
Energy
Here’s a summer riddle for you: What’s clear and fresh and very clean, all blue but still completely green? If you guessed a swimming pool, you’re right. But what’s green about a clean pool? The green isn’t from algae but from the energy saved by using a variable-speed pool pump.
CARSON CITY — As lawmakers rush through the final weeks of their 2009 session, they’re working out details on bills to help Nevada overcome obstacles to realizing its full potential as a renewable energy leader.
RENO — An environmental group says it plans to sue two federal agencies, claiming a public lands management plan adopted last year for more than 17,000 square miles in Nevada amounts to “ecological disaster” for nearly a dozen protected species.
WASHINGTON — If the federal government already manages huge chunks of Nevada and other Western states, why should it be allowed to take even more property out of private hands to build high voltage power lines?
Hiking is one of my favorite activities since I love reconnecting with the natural world. Safety is always No. 1 so I try to avoid paths that get too close to dangerous cliffs. Call it self-preservation. I’m also not a speed demon, preferring to savor the experience — noticing the details.
CARSON CITY — Jump-starting a renewable energy economy in Nevada has emerged as a top priority for Nevada lawmakers who are battling to close a gaping budget hole.
KINGMAN, Ariz. — A Tempe-based firm intends to build and operate what it says will be the world’s largest solar-thermal power plant on land in northwest Arizona that it has acquired from Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes.
Imagine driving the equivalent of round trip to Denver or one way to Houston from Las Vegas on just one tank of gas. You may have to stop for other reasons, but it won’t be for fuel if you’re behind the wheel of a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.
The Interior Department is directing more than $300 million in federal “economic stimulus” money to the Bureau of Land Management to update its facilities, roads and trails and jump-start renewable energy projects across the country, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who performed like a trained seal here Saturday.
CARSON CITY — Officials from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission and state Energy Office raised concerns Tuesday over a proposal by state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford to put the energy agency under the PUC.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar launched a plan Saturday to spend $305 million for creating jobs on what he called the public lands’ “renewable energy frontier” to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil while at the same time restoring landscapes and wildlife habitat.
WASHINGTON — Bob Abbey, a former state director for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, is in line to be nominated to head the BLM nationally, Sen. Harry Reid said Thursday.
Who knew serving as the nation’s chief labor-law enforcer could become such a gustatory whirlwind? … That’s what the job became on Thursday for U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis on her first official visit to Las Vegas as labor secretary. While in town for the afternoon, Solis spent more than an hour at Nevada Partners and the Culinary Training Academy on Lake Mead Boulevard in west Las Vegas.
CARSON CITY — Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford found nothing but support on Earth Day for his bill to use federal stimulus money to create “green jobs” for the anticipated renewable energy economy in Nevada.