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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Mainers voiced their disapproval Tuesday for a 145-mile (233-kilometer) conduit for Canadian hydropower that was billed as either a bold step in battling climate change or unnecessary destruction of woodlands. Utilities have poured more than $90 million into the battle over the $1 billion project ahead of the referendum on Tuesday, making it the most expensive referendum in Maine history.... ...Three-quarters of trees already have been removed for the project, which calls for a transmission line that mostly follows existing utility corridors. But a new section needed to be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of...

Widespread electricity outages could become the new normal in Venezuela, experts have warned, as the country struggled to restore power after a massive blackout that left millions without power or access to the internet. Blackouts plunge Venezuela into chaos as minister blames saboteurs Energy minister Freddy Brito said on Tuesday morning that power had been restored in Caracas and at least five states after the outage which the government blamed on an “electromagnetic attack” at hydroelectric dams in the south of the country. Around 80% of Venezuela’s grid is served by hydropower. But energy analysts were deeply suspicious of government...

Guest post by David MiddletonSource: U.S. Department of Agriculture Drought Monitor MARCH 22, 2017Record precipitation, snowpack in California expected to increase hydro generation in 2017 For the first time since 2011, California’s drought is significantly weakening—a result of one of the wettest winters on record. California has experienced record levels of precipitation this winter, and unlike last winter, cooler temperatures over the 2016–2017 winter season have enabled the precipitation to build up snowpack (the total accumulated snow and ice on the ground). High precipitation and snowpack levels, both of which supply hydroelectric generators throughout the year, suggest that hydroelectric...

Hydropower has always been touted as a clean source of generating electricity, despite of the facts that it displaces thousands of people from their natural abodes, destroys their lives and livelihoods and submerges huge amounts of lands and forests. Now, a new study claims that it is also accelerating global warming. […] The study is done by Washington State University the has found that during times of drawdown — a period in which the water level behind a dam is rapidly lowered — temperate reservoirs can produce up 20 times more methane than normal. …

With the new United Nations (UN) and federal government grand plan to steal what remains of our land through the ruse of ecosystem management, there is one grand daddy that will take all of Idaho in one fell swoop. In 1944 the United States and Canada began talks to jointly manage the Columbia River which crossed the border. Both came to an agreement in 1961 creating a treaty that would provide flood control, generate hydropower, and meet irrigation needs. This treaty, known as the ColumbiaTreaty, was finalized in 1961 and implemented in 1964. Because the river crossed borders, called transboundary,...

NN.COM › Earth Matters › Energy Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy Thousands of drilling rigs are idle. Why not put laid-off roustabouts to work drilling for renewable energy? By: Lloyd Alter Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM 13Facebook 52Twitter 0Pinterest 0Google+   Hey, if we can drill for oil, we can drill for heat. (Photo: Getty Images, Roustabouts at Spindletop) In a recent post on ground source heat pumps, I purposely used a photo of a geothermal installation in Iceland to make the point that geothermal energy was a very different thing. Many complained...

Ethiopia's bold decision to pay for a huge dam itself has overturned generations of Egyptian control over the Nile's waters, and may help transform one of the world's poorest countries into a regional hydropower hub. By spurning an offer from Cairo for help financing the project, Addis Ababa has ensured it controls the construction of the Renaissance Dam on a Nile tributary. The electricity it will generate - enough to power a giant rich-world city like New York - can be exported across a power-hungry region. But the decision to fund the huge project itself also carries the risk of...

New York, United States --- ESI-AFRICA.COM --- 13 September 2011 - The Chinese ‒ through their engineering and manufacturing giants ‒recently completed or are in the process of participating in hydropower projects worth US$9.3 billion in various countries across the African continent. According to data compiled by Bloomberg and International Rivers ‒ a Berkeley, California-based environmental group ‒ the hydropower projects concerned are in Zambia, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and elsewhere on the continent, When completed in 2013, Gibe III on Ethiopia’s Omo River will be Africa’s tallest dam ‒ a US$2.2 billion project. Some 965km to...

China has started rationing electricity to try and stave off an energy shortage that government officials say could be the worst since 2004. State-owned power generating companies are dealing with high global energy prices that have cut their profits. China has also banned the export of diesel, to try to meet domestic demand. Power cuts occur every summer, but this year rising coal costs and a drop in hydropower output mean they could be much more severe.

For decades, most of the nation’s renewable power has come from dams, which supplied cheap electricity without requiring fossil fuels. But the federal agencies running the dams often compiled woeful track records on other environmental issues. Now, with the focus in Washington on clean power, some dam agencies are starting to go green, embracing wind power and energy conservation. The most aggressive is the Bonneville Power Administration, whose power lines carry much of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest. The agency also provides a third of the region’s power supply, drawn mostly from generators inside big dams. The amount of...

GEORGETOWN, Colo.  --  Five workers trapped at least 1,500 feet underground survived an initial chemical fire at a hydroelectric plant, but died before emergency workers could rescue them. Investigators were trying to determine how they died, and the county coroner's office was working Wednesday to identify the workers, who were employed by a California contractor. Authorities had yet to remove the bodies from the tunnel. Crews who entered from the bottom of the sloping tunnel to put out the fire discovered the bodies late Tuesday, Clear Creek County Undersheriff Stu Nay said. They were among a group of nine contract...

President Bush said he would speed up his alternative-energy push during the remainder of his term with new spending focused on easing bottlenecks that are slowing the spread of ethanol in the market. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on a swing through Alabama, Mr. Bush said he is seeking ways to overcome difficulties in transporting the fuel, and to increase the number of stations selling it.

Much of Colorado’s water leaves the state in its rivers. That can be explained by the state’s obligations under interstate and international compacts. Additionally, Colorado has not fully developed — put to use — all of its water. The amount of water yet to be stored in reservoirs for consumptive use is a matter of discussion. .. In an average year, about 16 million acre-feet flows through Colorado rivers... Under the Colorado River Compact of 1922, the upper basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming are obligated to allow 75 million acre-feet of water, spread over a span...

Can Indiana Jones rescue Hetch Hetchy Valley from its watery Temple of Doom? No sooner did the California Department of Water Resources issue a report concluding it would cost between $3 billion and $10 billion to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and replace San Francisco's water and power supply than never-say-never environmentalists enlisted action hero actor Harrison Ford to their daunting cause. The 64-year-old Ford flew his own plane into Tuolumne County this past week, then drove to Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park to shoot a bit of added footage and commentary for the 19-minute Environmental Defense documentary, "Discover...

America's First Self-sufficient Automobile First of all... there is already coming soon a fully electric (non-hybrid) automobile that can do 0-60 in 4 seconds. You can see a preview of that and some FAQ at the www.testlamotors.com website. They don't have pricing on the unit and they are not available for sale, yet. Now, they are talking about plugging this thing in for about three hours to do 250 miles. So the question I posed to them through their website today is... why not install a hydro power unit (uses water for fuel) powering a generator that runs non-stop, 24...

Now that oil is 75 dollars a barrel, and it costs fifty bucks to fuel the SUV, what about tapping the gulf stream for inexhaustable power? This nation's energy needs are growing, and national security demands that we free the electricity producers from the oil economy. Florida has ALL the free new energy it needs in the form of the Gulf Stream. This moving current of water is one thousand feet deep, twenty miles wide and three miles off Broward County. A moving current of water is 832 times more energy dense than wind. There is many times more energy...

Just as high-tech windmills tap the power of wind to generate electricity, a new water-mill technology promises to efficiently tap the flow of water in rivers, streams, and tidal basins. It could be a new source of clean, renewable, and unobtrusive energy. The quest for clean, renewable energy has resulted in a number of interesting technologies. One of the newest is now being tested; it's called Instream Energy Generation Technology or free flow hydro power. It’s a technology that promises to tap energy wherever there is a river, stream, canal, or any place where water flows. What is Instream Energy...

Hydro's Dirty Secret Revealed Hydroelectric dams produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, and in some cases produce more of these greenhouse gases than power plants running on fossil fuels. by Duncan Graham-Rowe London, UK (SPX) Feb 25, 2005 Contrary to popular belief, hydroelectric power can seriously damage the climate. Proposed changes to the way countries' climate budgets are calculated aim to take greenhouse gas emissions from hydropower reservoirs into account, but some experts worry that they will not go far enough, reports New Scientist. The green image of hydro power as a benign alternative to fossil fuels is...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.05.14.04 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Electric utilities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest face another tough summer as a record drought slashes available supplies of hydroelectricity, the main power source in the region. Northwest investor-owned utilities like Idacorp Inc. , parent of Idaho's biggest utility Idaho Power, and Avista Corp. in Spokane, Washington, must turn to generation fueled by more expensive coal and natural gas to make up hydro shortfalls. The Northwest, which depends on hydropower for 65 percent of its electricity supply, is in the fifth year of a drought, the driest...

<p>BEND, Ore. - Wholesale power rates may be higher this fall thanks to Oregon's fast-evaporating snowpack and low river levels.</p> <p>Those conditions could leave hydroelectric plants unable to produce much power, according to a spokesman from the Bonneville Power Administration, which operates 31 dams in the Pacific Northwest and sells electricity to utility companies.</p>