Podcasts about energy committee

After hours of testimony and hundreds of people testifying, we want to know what came out of the ‘public benefits' hearing in Hartford? We spoke with Senator Ryan Fazio, ranking senator of the Energy Committee. Image Credit: Getty Images

Aaron, Nema and Kim discuss the mood for good trouble spreading across the commonwealth, then check in with Rep. Adrielle Camuel for the news from Frankfort, then - for the second week in a row, head back to KY's biggest blue dot and an interview with the SUPER-INSPIRING Louisville city council member, and head of VOCAL-KY, Shameka Parrish-Wright. Watch this week's #ColonelsOfTruth!SUPPORT PROKY HERE:https://secure.actblue.com/donate/progresskyNEWS OF THE WEAK:https://www.yahoo.com/news/nkys-thomas-massie-stands-alone-165513220.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122095077728788168&set=a.122095079120788168INTERVIEW: Rep. Adrielle Camuel - Lexington's dist. 93https://legislature.ky.gov/Legislators/Pages/Legislator-Profile.aspx?DistrictNumber=93INTERVIEW: Lou Metro Councilwoman Shameka Parrish-Wright https://louisvilleky.gov/government/metro-council-district-3https://vocal-ky.org/CALL TO ACTION: CALL THE LEGISLATIVE COMMENT LINE!1-800-372-7181SB60-Would undermine local Fairness Laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community. This bill has cleared committee and could be voted on today. Contact your legislators and tell them to vote no on SB60. HB398-Would undermine workplace safety standards, guts whistleblower protections, and makes employers less accountable. This bill has passed the House. Contact your SENATORS and tell them to vote no on HB398. SB89-Rollback water protections. This bill has passed the Senate. Please contact your House members and members of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee and tell them you oppose SB89. Good BillsHB405-Allow caregivers to vote absentee. This bill has been assigned to the House Elections, Constitutional Affairs, and Intergovernmental Committee. Contact your legislators and members of the House Elections Committee and tell them you support HB405.#ProgressKentucky - #ColonelsOfTruthJoin us! http://progressky.org/Support us! https://secure.actblue.com/donate/progresskyLive Wednesdays at 7pm on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/progressky/live/and on YouTube http://bit.ly/progress_kyListen as a podcast right here, or wherever you get your pods: https://tr.ee/PsdiXaFylKFacebook - @progresskyInstagram - @progress_kyBluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/progressky.bsky.socialAll the links: https://linktr.ee/progresskyEpisode 199 was kinda produced by AaronTheme music from the amazing Nato - hear more at http://www.NatoSongs.comLogo and some graphic design provided by Couchfire Media

In this episode of Alternative Power Plays, hosts Alan Seltzer and Elizabeth Rosentel, a senior advisor in Buchanan's state government relations group, interview Pennsylvania State House Representative Greg Vitali, who has dedicated decades to environmental and energy issues. As the first legislator in Pennsylvania to introduce climate change legislation and propose a severance tax on natural gas, Representative Vitali shares his journey from community environmental activism to chairing the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.  This episode covers the challenges and opportunities in advancing renewable energy policies, as well as the political dynamics of Pennsylvania's energy landscape. The trio explore community solar, net metering, electric vehicle infrastructure, and the changing demand for electricity.  Representative Vitali emphasizes the obstacles posed by bipartisan governance, the influence of industry and labor unions, and the urgent need for climate action in light of evolving federal and state dynamics.  To learn more about Pennsylvania State House Representative Greg Vitali:  https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/house_bio.cfm?id=210  To learn more about Alan Seltzer, visit: https://www.bipc.com/alan-seltzer⁠      To learn more about Elizabeth Rosentel: https://www.bipc.com/elizabeth-a.-rosentel 

In this episode, we'll delve into the Alternative Energy Committee (AEC)'s journey of research and development behind its renewable energy electrification solutions, tracing the evolution of technologies used to provide renewable energy in underserved areas. From early trials to the successful deployment of these technologies, listeners will learn about the scale of impact, not just for households, but also for critical institutions like hospitals, clinics, surgeries, and schools. The episode will explore the extensive footprint of AEC's electrification projects, highlighting their transformative effects on entire communities. We'll also discuss the unique challenges faced in working in remote locations and the spirit of volunteering that drives those involved. Lastly, we'll touch upon the importance of remedial maintenance in ensuring the sustainability and continuity of these energy solutions, ensuring long-term service to the people who depend on them.

Minority on Parliament's Energy Committee reveal that even before the looming shutdown of three power plants next week, ECG is already shedding a significant amount of load.

Two hot button topics right now in CT: high electric bills and restrictions on cell phones in public schools. Senator Ryan Fazio representing the 36th District and Ranking Member of the Energy Committee spoke on both topics. Image Credit: Senator Ryan Fazio

Join our esteemed Chairs as they illuminate the most pressing topics and key issues in energy law that will shape the year ahead. From regulatory changes and sustainability challenges to groundbreaking technologies and market dynamics, this introduction to the upcoming energy law series promises a front-row seat to the discussions that matter most to professionals navigating the complex world of energy law. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or new to the field, 'Energy Insights' offers a unique blend of expert analysis, insider perspectives, and engaging dialogue that you won't want to miss.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy has directed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to publish a load-shedding timetable to help citizens plan their lives amidst ongoing power cuts.

Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Mines, Samuel Atta Akyea has hinted that his outfit has scheduled a meeting between GRIDCO, VRA, ECG, Ghana Gas, IPGG, Energy Commission, and PURC on Saturday to find a solution to this current power outages.

State Senator Joel Carter joined The Extra Mile Podcast: Legislative Session to talk about how he got into politics, updates from the Energy Committee, his favorite place to grab a bite to eat during the session and more.Show intro/State Senator Joel Carter – 01:15Joel Carter background/Journey to politics – 02:06The benefit of working in the food industry – 04:39Energy Committee update – 05:22Timetable with Nuclear – 06:49Main topics of Legislature – 07:24Gulf Coast District Projects – 08:10Joel Carter on Buc-ee's – 09:08Other Projects – 09:42Coast Bounce back from Katrina – 10:25Joel Carter's favorite place(s) to eat – 11:48Joel Carter's favorite musician(s)/concert(s) – 12:34Additional comments to constituents – 13:45Show outro – 14:10

The Ranking Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has disclosed that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is grappling with a colossal debt of $1.5 billion.

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The Chairman of Parliament's Mines and Energy Committee, Samuel Atta Akyea, has suggested that there may be individuals seeking to undermine Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML).

John A. Rathke, PE, SE, FACEC – Wisconsin Vice President and Principal, Mead & Hunt, Inc. Chair-Elect, 2024-2025, Chair 2025-2026 John Rathke is a Vice President and Principal at Mead & Hunt, Inc., in Wisconsin. He completed his term as Vice Chair on the ACEC Executive Committee at the Annual Convention in June 2023. John was previously inducted into the College of Fellows in 2019. He has served on the Planning Cabinet from 2021 to 2023, responsible for determining metrics to measure progress in achieving the ACEC Strategic Plan Goals and to explore whether ACEC is devoting enough resources to the water and energy markets. The latter ultimately resulted in the forming of a new Energy Committee to focus on the engineering business of the energy market. John is active on ACEC's Transportation Committee and Risk Management Committee. He has served as National Director and ACEC/Wisconsin Chair-Elect, Chairman of the Board, and Nominating Committee Chair. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.

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Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament John Jinapor has disclosed that the current frequent power outages are a result of Ghana's 13 million-dollar debt. This comes after frequent power outages in almost every part of the country. Ghanaians have been wondering whether the country has been brought back to “Dumsor” era as it happened years back.

Today is National Manufacturing Day and our state has worked hard to help residents understand the benefits of entering the industry and eliminate false stigmas. We spoke with Connecticut's Chief Manufacturing Officer, Paul Lavoie. (0:00) October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We spoke with Nuvance Health about new studies on the uptick of breast cancer cases and debunked some myths surrounding breast cancer risks. (18:21) A bomb shell announcement this week: Avangrid is backing out of the offshore Park City Wind project in Bridgeport. We get reaction from Senator Ryan Fazio, ranking Republican member of the Energy Committee. (35:06) Image Credit: Getty Images

Ghana Gas rejects Parliament Mines and Energy Committee's report on GNPC-Genser deal.

Ciarán Cuffe, MEP & Member of the European Parliament's Energy Committee.

Sen Ryan Fazio, legislature's Energy Committee was able to work together and pass some bipartisan measures to strengthen oversight of utilities, and include more hydroelectricity and nuclear energy in the state's renewable portfolio. But he says while these long-term solutions are important, the state needs to focus on short-term relief too.

On this Weekly Update with Rep. Martin Causer (R-McKean, Potter & Cameron), we discuss the business of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, House Democrat Gun Control efforts, and the remembrance of Memorial Day.

On this Weekly Update with Rep. Martin Causer (R-McKean, Potter & Cameron), we discuss the business of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, House Democrat Gun Control efforts, and the remembrance of Memorial Day.

CTL Script/ Top Stories of May 13, Saturday Publish Date: May 12, Friday   Henssler :15 From the Ingles Studio Welcome to the Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast    Today is Saturday, May 13th, and happy 40th birthday to longtime NFL rusher Frank Gore ***Gore Highlight***     I'm Brian Giffin and here are the top stories Cherokee is talking about, presented by Credit Union of Georgia Cavender honored for service to Cherokee County fire department Opponents urge PSC to reject Georgia Power fuel costs recovery plan And COED president named "Game Changer" for Cherokee schools   We'll have all this and more on the Cherokee Tribune-Ledger Podcast      Commercial:  CU of GA   Story 1. Cavender   Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson, Tim Cavender, was recognized for his nearly 20 years of service to the department at a retirement luncheon. Fire Chief Eddie Robinson presented Cavender with a speaking trumpet, a symbol of leadership and tradition in the fire service. Cavender was responsible for keeping the public informed of the department's work throughout Cherokee County. In addition to his work with the fire department, Cavender is known for his alias, Santa, having spent almost 50 years donning the red suit and white beard to bring joy to children everywhere. Cavender's last day of employment with the fire department was May 1.   STORY 2: Ga Power   Environmental groups and manufacturers' lawyers have urged the state Public Service Commission's Energy Committee to reject a proposed agreement that would allow Georgia Power to recover $2.1bn in higher fuel costs from customers, raising the average monthly residential customer's bill by $15.90. Opponents of the agreement argued that Georgia Power should have some “skin in the game” and be required to share some of the costs to motivate it to control fuel costs. They also called for the fuel-cost recovery period to be extended from 36 months to 60 months to spread out the costs. The commission is due to vote on the agreement next week.   Story 3:   Cherokee Office of Economic Development President and CEO, Misti Martin, has been recognized with the 2023 Superintendent's Game Changer Award for Instructional Advocacy for her support of Cherokee County School District (CCSD) students. The award was presented by Superintendent Brian Hightower at the Skilled Professionals Signing Day event in Woodstock. Under Martin's leadership, the Cherokee Workforce Collaborative was developed, which united her office, CCSD, the county government, local businesses and industries, and local colleges and universities to increase awareness of skilled professional career opportunities available in Cherokee. Successful programs from the collaborative include the summer internship program, Be Pro Be Proud initiative, and the Skilled Professionals Signing Day event….be right back   Break:  ESOG 30  - Drake - Dayco   STORY 4: ELA   The Georgia Board of Education has adopted new standards for English/language arts (ELA) in public schools, completing the state's abandonment of the Common Core standards. The new ELA standards were created by teachers, educational leaders, parents, students, and community members, with an emphasis on early literacy and the fundamentals. Governor Brian Kemp praised the new standards for prioritizing learners, while State School Superintendent Richard Woods said they were "Georgia-owned and Georgia-grown, clear, and developmentally appropriate standards for Georgia students." The state will provide training to teachers, develop new resources and assessments aligned to the standards, and communicate the changes to parents.   Story 5: Blood drive   A blood drive will be held today, May 13th in honor of Nathan Moon, a 14-year-old from Cherokee County who died last month due to neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that usually affects children. The event is being held at River Ridge High School in Woodstock, Georgia, in partnership with Blood Assurance. The blood drive is not just for trauma patients but also for those suffering from debilitating illnesses like cancer, according to Dr. Liz Culler, chief medical officer for Blood Assurance. Those who donate blood will receive a free T-shirt and refreshments from Chick-fil-A. To donate blood, get yourself to River Ridge High School today!. Walk-ins will be accepted.   Commercial:  Elon-Ingles     Story 6: Baseball   River Ridge High School's baseball team has qualified for the Class AAAAAA semifinals, marking the fourth team to go this far in the postseason during the 2022-23 academic year. The team will face off against Pope, the defending state champion, in a best-of-three series for a shot at the title. Despite not winning the region title, River Ridge persevered and swept Alexander and Lassiter in the first and second rounds, respectively. The team beat Woodward Academy 9-4 to win the decisive third game of their quarterfinal series. River Ridge has already played Pope once this season, with the Knights taking a comfortable 10-5 win over them on April 6.   Story 7:  Lacrosse   In a Class 5A-6A state playoff match, the Creekview girls' lacrosse team lost 19-8 to Blessed Trinity. The first half was closely contested, with nine ties or lead changes, but the Titans took a commanding lead going into halftime. Although the Grizzlies got back into the game at the start of the second half, Blessed Trinity's aggression on offense led to a double-digit victory. Creekview had an excellent season, winning the Area 4 5A-6A title and finishing 18-2 overall. Blessed Trinity will now play Roswell in the state championship game at Denmark High School. After the game, Creekview honored its seniors who were a huge part of their team.   Thanks again for spending time with us listening to today's Cherkoee Tribune Ledger podcast. Giving you important information about your community and telling great stories are who we are. Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Henssler Financial www.hensslerkennesaw.com Ingles Markets www.ingles-markets.com Credit Union of Georgia www.cuofga.com  Engineered Solutions of Georgia www.esogrepair.com Drake Realty www.drakerealty.com  Dayco Systems www.daycosystems.com  Elon Salon www.elonsalon.com    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this month we are collaborating with The Washington State Urology Society, to share their amazing podcast, The Original Guide to Men's Health hosted by Richard Pelman. We will be doing a collaborative episode with them in June for Men's Health Awareness Month, so be sure to check out their show and we'll be back with a new episode of Let's Examine This in June.     In this two part episode we explore where the modern male finds himself. We review data demonstrating a trend of increasing gaps in educational achievement, increasing rates of male suicide, and addictions, the preponderance of males in the homeless population and the decline in males participating in key careers.   We also hear about a Washington State bill to create a commission on boys and men, why it's important and potentially unique.   If you're unsure if men are indeed in crisis, or are already familiar with some of the issues, listen as we explore,learn and hear not only the issues but solutions from our two very thoughtful, knowledgeable and engaging guests.   Guests: Richard V. Reeves Richard V. Reeves is a senior fellow in Economic Studies,The Brookings Institute, where he holds the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair and leads the Boys and Men Project. His research focuses on boys and men, inequality, and social mobility. Richard's publications for Brookings include his latest book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (2022) and 2017's Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It. He is a contributor to The Atlantic, National Affairs, Democracy Journal, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Richard is also the author of John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand, an intellectual biography of the British liberal philosopher and politician. Rep. Mary Dye First appointed to the House of Representatives in 2015, Representative Mary Dye is a Republican from the Eastern Washington community of Pomeroy. She is serving her fifth term, representing the 9th Legislative District. As a ranking member of the House Environment and Energy Committee, Representative Dye prioritizes protection of affordable and reliable energy, improving environmental and water quality and outdoor recreation. She is also working to improve irrigation infrastructure to ensure irrigated farms are climate resilient. Representative Dye graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Leadership program and holds a B.S. in Crop Management from the University of Idaho. She and her husband farm dryland wheat in Garfield County. Get more information from her website: www.RepresentativeMaryDye.com   During This Episode We Discuss:   The background data and trends supporting the issues are reviewed in an enlightened discussion with Brookings Scholar Richard Reeves   Learn from a Washington State Legislator Rep. Mary Dye about her efforts to sponsor a bill that would create a Washington state commission on boys and men. The would address well-being, including educational achievement, suicide, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and overdose, and incarceration.    Those that feel this bill is serving a population that has already been privileged are looking through a narrow lens. These interviews demonstrate why vulnerable populations, men in poverty, and BIPOC populations would all find an advantage to having such a commission.   Recommended Resources:   Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters and What to Do About It By Richard V Reeves   How Toxic is Masculinity by Zoe Heller, Books, The New Yorker August 8,2022 Issue   Men Need Purpose More Than ‘Respect' Opinion by David French, The New York Times, Feb.12,2023   https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1270.pdf?q=20230116070700   Soulhealfilm.com.   A film by Jose Enrique Pardo Equality for Boys and Men – Advancing empathy and equality ... https://equalityforboysandmen.org   https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/13/the-case-for-a-commission-on-boys-and-men-will-washington-state-lead-the-way/   Visit our website for all the podcasts, additional resources and social media links Website: theoriginalguidetomenshealth.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalguidetomenshealth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/guide2menshlth Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-original-guide-to-mens-health/

John Quick sits down with Rep. George Rauscher to talk about energy in Alaska. Rep. Rauscher is the Chair of the House Energy Committee this year, and they have been looking at all options so that Alaska can have a bright future. If we can not explore for more gas and there is only so much left in the inlet, then options like, nuclear, solar, wind, coal, and everything in between become something that the Energy Committee takes a look at.  Get in touch with Rep. Rauscher here: Representative.George.Rauscher@akleg.gov  We want to thank our show sponsor, The University of Alaska; find out more about our sponsor here: https://empower.alaska.edu   

In this two part episode we explore where the modern male finds himself. We review data demonstrating a trend of increasing gaps in educational achievement, increasing rates of male suicide, and addictions, the preponderance of males in the homeless population and the decline in males participating in key careers.   We also hear about a Washington State bill to create a commission on boys and men, why it's important and potentially unique.   If you're unsure if men are indeed in crisis, or are already familiar with some of the issues, listen as we explore,learn and hear not only the issues but solutions from our two very thoughtful, knowledgeable and engaging guests.   Guests: Richard V. Reeves Richard V. Reeves is a senior fellow in Economic Studies,The Brookings Institute, where he holds the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair and leads the Boys and Men Project. His research focuses on boys and men, inequality, and social mobility. Richard's publications for Brookings include his latest book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (2022) and 2017's Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It. He is a contributor to The Atlantic, National Affairs, Democracy Journal, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Richard is also the author of John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand, an intellectual biography of the British liberal philosopher and politician. Rep. Mary Dye First appointed to the House of Representatives in 2015, Representative Mary Dye is a Republican from the Eastern Washington community of Pomeroy. She is serving her fifth term, representing the 9th Legislative District. As a ranking member of the House Environment and Energy Committee, Representative Dye prioritizes protection of affordable and reliable energy, improving environmental and water quality and outdoor recreation. She is also working to improve irrigation infrastructure to ensure irrigated farms are climate resilient. Representative Dye graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Leadership program and holds a B.S. in Crop Management from the University of Idaho. She and her husband farm dryland wheat in Garfield County. Get more information from her website: www.RepresentativeMaryDye.com   During This Episode We Discuss:   The background data and trends supporting the issues are reviewed in an enlightened discussion with Brookings Scholar Richard Reeves   Learn from a Washington State Legislator Rep. Mary Dye about her efforts to sponsor a bill that would create a Washington state commission on boys and men. The would address well-being, including educational achievement, suicide, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction and overdose, and incarceration.    Those that feel this bill is serving a population that has already been privileged are looking through a narrow lens. These interviews demonstrate why vulnerable populations, men in poverty, and BIPOC populations would all find an advantage to having such a commission.   Recommended Resources:   Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters and What to Do About It By Richard V Reeves   How Toxic is Masculinity by Zoe Heller, Books, The New Yorker August 8,2022 Issue   Men Need Purpose More Than ‘Respect' Opinion by David French, The New York Times, Feb.12,2023   https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1270.pdf?q=20230116070700   Soulhealfilm.com.   A film by Jose Enrique Pardo Equality for Boys and Men – Advancing empathy and equality ... https://equalityforboysandmen.org   https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2023/01/13/the-case-for-a-commission-on-boys-and-men-will-washington-state-lead-the-way/   Visit our website for all the podcasts, additional resources and social media links Website: theoriginalguidetomenshealth.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalguidetomenshealth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/guide2menshlth Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-original-guide-to-mens-health/

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A West Central Tribune Minute feature story: The Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission Ag and Renewable Energy Committee has worked for nearly 20 years to promote agriculture in the county. They've worked with numerous new and existing businesses while also educating the public about the importance of agriculture. 

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A Clare Government Senator is questioning why the State's electricity grid operator didn't 'raise a red flag' about energy supply concerns sooner. It comes as Eirgrid, the Department of the Environment and the Commission for Regulation for Utilities are to appear before an Oireachtas committee today to discuss potential winter blackouts.

Representative Davina Duerr serves as Vice Chair of the Environment & Energy Committee, Vice Chair of the Local Government Committee, and is a member of the Transportation Committee. She has served as an Assistant Majority Whip since 2020. She has worked on preserving open space and addressing affordable housing and transportation needs, with a particular focus on environmental sustainability. Davina. Additionally, Davina also serves as a Bothell City and has over 10 years of service on the Bothell Landmark Preservation Board, including 8 years as Chair. Davina graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor's degree in architecture and currently works as a senior interior architect at a local architecture firm. Davina Duerr - https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/duerr/WA State House Environment and Energy Committee - https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ENVI/Pages/default.aspxWA State House Transportation Committee - https://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/TR/Pages/default.aspxWA State Local Government Committee - https://leg.wa.gov/House/committees/LG/Pages/default.aspx Host: Kira DorrianProduced by the Northshore Schools Foundation, a Top-Rated “Great Nonprofits” award-recipient, “Guidestar” Gold Participant, and Best of a “Best of Northshore” nonprofit. We are on a Summer schedule through mid-September. Join us on the third Monday of July, August and September for new episodes!Thank you, supporters! DonateInterested in sponsoring the Skills 4 Life Podcast? Contact us: podcast@nsdfoundation.orgFollow us on:InstagramFacebookSkills 4 Life FacebookTwitterLinked In

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Dr. Muireann Lynch, Energy Economist with ESRI; Ciarán Cuffe, MEP & Member of the European Parliament's Energy Committee & John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin and Member of the Climate Change Advisory Council

1) Sen. Joe Manchin will only support a Prescription Drug Deal and Assistance on Health Care Premiums. Says "no" to tax increases and climate bill effectively crushing the Biden Agenda for now. Progressives liberals are furious. Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts Manchin (Chairman of the Energy Committee) calling it sabotage. Claims Climate Change is a threat to humanity 2) Biden meets with Saudi's and MBS - They get photo op and U.S. is unclear what we got? No apparent increase in oil production. 3) Biden job approval at 33% 4) 20% of Americans have applied for Federal and State Food Assistance or went to food banks. This illustrates the damaging effects of Biden's increase in inflation and food costs. 5) Border Crossings set a record in June 2022 compared to June 2021 as 192K cross bringing the 2022 Fiscal year total to 1.7M. It is out of control and open. Americans do not favor open borders. 6) Liz Cheney is down 20 points to her Wyoming Primary opponent Harriet Hagerman. 7) NASCAR star Bobby East murdered by a tattooed face homeless criminal in Westminster, a city here in Orange County CA. He was filling up his car at a gas station in the middle of the afternoon. 8) 57% of Democrats say the Constitution is racist and sexist, however 89% of Republicans, 80% of Independents and 74% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of it. 49% of Democrats want it rewritten while 77% of Republicans, 63% of Independents 47% of Democrats say no to that idea. 9)Trump to deal with a changing electorate in 2024 according to Dick Morris in his new book "The Return - Trumps Big 2024 Comeback" 50% more people voted in 2020 than 2000 while population grew by only 30%. 10) Cameron Smith wins the British Open Championship at St. Andrews!

Scientists have concluded that the world needs to reach net zero emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change. For the world to reach net zero emissions, a wide range of trends and factors need to be considered, and transformational changes need to be anticipated during this transition. We invited Mr. Larry Choi, Chairman of Energy Committee 2050, Director and CEO of ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute to share with us insights into these findings.

The Power Planning Technical Committee (PPTC), the body responsible for the drafting of the 2022 Electricity Supply Plan, has stated that contrary to the claims by NDC MP, John Jinapor and ranking Member of Parliament's Mines and Energy Committee, that ‘dumsor' is imminent, there is no such risk.

In this episode of Smart Energy Voices, host John Failla introduces Susan Corry of the University of Maryland College Park, David Reid of Celanese, and Peter Kelly-Detwiler of Smart Energy Decisions from a panel at Smart Energy Decisions' recent Innovation Summit. These three leaders discuss decarbonizing thermal loads and how different types of organizations are facing this challenge. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... Hard-to-Abate emissions [02:09] Susan Corry's role at the University of Maryland [06:31] David Reid's role at Celanese [09:22] Investigating new technologies [12:28] Resources needed to move forward [15:00] Enthusiasm and next steps [20:40] Addressing the thermal challenge Peter Kelly-Detwiler explains that thermal energy accounts for a quarter of our energy use and about half of our emissions. While hydrogen is clearly in the offing, other exciting technologies are emerging. A company in California just signed a lease with the U.S. government for the land where they're going to put concentrating mirrors. The idea is to drive focused solar energy at mirrors with molten salt and generate either hydrogen or heat for thermal applications. Siemens has a project in Europe where they take wind energy and put it through resistors to warm up volcanic rock. Originally they were going to use that to generate steam and generate power. However, the roundtrip efficiencies were 30%. Now they're pivoting to use that for thermal applications.  The real challenge with any solution is if it can be scaled. Scaling would require first that the solution is viable and then that the economy of scale can be created while the technology improves. Unfortunately, applications aren't one size fits all, and each situation may require different technology. University of Maryland's energy research The University of Maryland is a flagship university within the state of Maryland. Every month, a number of the universities within the state of Maryland convene, calling themselves the Energy Committee. With each person's partnership and relationship with various energy services companies, these meetings are an excellent opportunity to share information and discuss potential pilot projects.  As a major research institution, the University of Maryland also has several faculty members who are researching thermal space in terms of energy-related technologies. At one point, the university had a professor growing a particular type of algae for carbon capture. Unfortunately, the economics were challenging to justify, even on a small scale, so it never gained legs. While a lot of technology is being explored, newer technologies won't be proven without the finances devoted to development. Celanese energy challenge While some companies have a separate capital fund for sustainability or an internal cost of carbon, Celanese doesn't have either yet. Its energy and sustainability efforts compete for capital along with every other project within the company. Funds are always a challenge, so Celanese is looking at alternatives in order to have projects justified within the company. Other financing options are sometimes available, and Celanese is trying to have an open mind to different opportunities.  Energy efficiency is still the number one project for Celanese. Recently the company challenged its energy sites to develop a 30% reduction at its sites over a five-year period. Through this method, the company has found a lot of great projects, but some of them don't have great paybacks.The challenge is to figure out how to make the projects look better financially or find different ways to acquire the money needed to do such a project. Resources & People Mentioned Celanese Corporation University of Maryland Energy storage recharges the transition I Siemens Gamesa A highly efficient microalgae-based carbon sequestration system to reduce CO2 emission from power plant flue gases Connect with Susan Corry Susan Corry is the Director of Engineering and Energy at the University of Maryland College Park and has spent her career in the energy industry. Susan received her mechanical engineering degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Certified Energy Manager, Certified Demand Side Manager, and Certified Existing Building Commissioning Professional. She began her career in the energy sector, working on energy and demand-side management programs with public utilities. She then moved into higher education, working for George Mason University, leading the development of long-term conservation plans to meet energy and carbon reduction goals.  Susan moved on to the University of Maryland, where she is responsible for energy procurement, energy and carbon reduction plans, renewable energy strategies, building design standards, building performance, and management of the campus power plant. Susan leads the energy committee comprised of the University System of Maryland institutions and the Maryland Department of General Services, representing all other State agencies in energy-related matters. She has served on the advisory boards of the Maryland Clean Energy Center and Maryland Strategic Energy Investment Fund and was past chair of DOE's Better Buildings Alliance Higher Education Steering Committee. Connect with David Reid On LinkedIn David Reid is the Senior Manager, Global Energy and Productivity for Celanese. He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Canada with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Chemical Engineering and is a certified energy manager (CEM). David has more than 30 years of manufacturing experience in polymer and chemicals industries. He has held positions in Process Control, Manufacturing Operations Leadership as well as global Operational Excellence responsibilities including his current role leading the Energy and Productivity programs for Celanese manufacturing sites worldwide. Celanese is a global technology and specialty materials company that engineers and manufactures a variety of products essential to everyday living. Connect with Peter Kelly-Detwiler On LinkedIn Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy industry, with much of his career in competitive power markets. He's currently a leading consultant in the electric industry, providing strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate the rapid evolution of the electric power grid. Mr. Kelly-Detwiler offers numerous keynotes and workshops on a wide range of topics. He has also written widely on energy issues for Forbes.com and GE, with over 300 articles to his credit. His book on the transformation of electric power markets - “The Energy Switch” - was published by Prometheus Books in June of 2021. Connect With Smart Energy Decisions https://smartenergydecisions.com Follow them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter Follow them on LinkedIn Subscribe to Smart Energy Voices If you're interested in participating in the next Smart Energy Decision Event, visit smartenergydecisions.com or email our Event Operations Director, Lisa Carroll at lisa@smartenergydecisions.com Audio Production and Show notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com

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Yesterday, Russia announced that it will halt natural gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria, renewing questions of European decoupling from Russian gas. Cristian Silviu Busoi, a Romanian member of the European Parliament and President of Industry for the Research and Energy Committee, joins Giselle and Dalibor to discuss Europe's dependence on Russian oil. Cristian assesses the intersection of Europe's goal to reduce its total consumption of gas with the conflict in Ukraine, how the US can help Europe reduce Russian oil dependence, and Romania's role in NATO and as a leader in the Black Sea.

On this edition of Conversations with Clint, Rep. Owlett talks with officials and farmers from Tioga and Bradford counties who were visiting Harrisburg to testify at an informational meeting of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee about a package of bills to address maintenance of creeks and streams to help prevent flooding. The group talked about their takeaways from the meeting and why changes are so desperately needed to protect lives and livelihoods from floods.

On this edition of Conversations with Clint, Rep. Owlett talks with officials and farmers from Tioga and Bradford counties who were visiting Harrisburg to testify at an informational meeting of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee about a package of bills to address maintenance of creeks and streams to help prevent flooding. The group talked about their takeaways from the meeting and why changes are so desperately needed to protect lives and livelihoods from floods.

On today's special bonus edition of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we welcome two Ukrainian leaders from inside Kyiv. First, we speak with Inna Sovsun. Sovsun is a Ukrainian professor and politician. She is a currently a Ukrainian Member of Parliament and serves on the Energy Committee. After that, we chat with Oleksandra Matviichuk, the Head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine. She was the recipient of the Democracy Defender award in 2016 by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Matviichuk has dedicated the last 8 years of her life to documenting war crimes. If you enjoyed today's episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Medfield Energy Committee program on Heat Pumps held on March 22, 2022.

Senator Gene Yaw, Chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, joins Senator Phillips-Hill to discuss rising energy costs in Pennsylvania and across the nation. The senators discuss the efforts by the Wolf Administration through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and how it will only make matters worse in the state. They also discuss Senator Yaw's recent op-ed titled, “Are We Nuts? American Energy is Key to Undermining Putin's War,” which can be found here: https://www.senatorgeneyaw.com/2022/03/01/are-we-nuts-american-energy-is-key-to-undermining-putins-war/ Finally, they review the recent Independent Fiscal Office's report showing Pennsylvania a major net exporter of electricity, which can be found here: http://www.ifo.state.pa.us/download.cfm?file=Resources/Documents/Electricity_Update_March_2022.pdf

Topic: Rising Cost Of Fuel, Any Hope For the Ordinary Ghanaian? with Duncan Amoah (Executive Director, COPEC), Andrew Egyapa Mercer (Deputy Energy Minister) and John Jinapor (Ranking Member, Mines and Energy Committee).

The House Environment and Energy Committee meets for a public hearing where they discuss Senate Bill 5703, which bans the addition of certain toxic chemicals in cosmetics.

Medfield Energy Committee meeting held on January 31, 2022 about the Medfield Climate Action Plan

2022 ends its third week today, and this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is intended to capture where we are as of January 21. Listeners and readers do not need to know that this is Squirrel Appreciation Day, National Cheesy Socks Day, National Hugging Day, and One-Liners Day. But, now you do, and that is information you may find useful. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs, and now here’s something I hope you’ll really like.In the 318th edition:The Blue Ridge Health District hits another one day record for COVID-19 with 800 casesA quick snapshot of where the General Assembly was as of this morning And the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership takes a look at “missing middle” housingFirst subscriber-supported public service announcement - #MLKCVILLEThe commemoration in Charlottesville of the life, times, and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. continues on Sunday with the 37th Community Celebration put on by the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church. Beginning at 4 p.m., a panel discussion will be held virtually on the topic of “The Urgency of Creating the Beloved Community.” Nancy O’Brien will moderate the event which will features speakers Bitsy Waters, Sarad Davenport, and Cameron Webb. Community members will be recognized and the winners of the local MLK essay contest will be announced. Visit and bookmark the YouTube mlkcville page to review last year’s celebration while you wait for Sunday at 4 p.m. New one-day record of new COVID cases in the Blue Ridge Health DistrictThe Virginia Department of Health reports another 800 new cases of COVID-19 in the Blue Ridge Health District. That’s the highest one day total so far. Those cases are among 17,027 reported across the Commonwealth today. The seven-day average for percent positivity statewide continues to decrease and is at 30.9 percent today. Kathryn Goodman of the Health District confirmed the numbers.“It is important that people follow multiple mitigation strategies to help prevent spreading COVID-19, which include staying home when sick, getting COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, wearing masks in public settings,” Goodman said. The highest plateau of hospitalization numbers so far continues with 3,836 new cases according to the Virginia Healthcare and Hospitalization Association. There are 632 patients in intensive care units and 387 are on ventilators. Today the UVA Health System has the most number of COVID patients then at any time of the pandemic to date. Wendy Horton is the Chief Executive Officer for UVA Health and said there are 114 in-patients today.“And of those 114 COVID patients, 36 are in our ICU’s and six of them are pediatric patients,” Horton said. Some of those COVID patients are asymptomatic and had gone to the hospital for other reasons. We’re now in the third year of the worldwide pandemic, and the Associated Press reports some countries across the world are opting to shift their public health strategy towards accepting COVID-19 as a continuing condition. More of an endemic rather than a pandemic. Dr. Costi Sifri is the director of hospital epidemiology at UVA Health he cautions against making that conclusion.“Many people have predicted the ending of the pandemic at various interactions through this and we think that we’re all a little bit concerned about doing that prematurely,” Dr. Sifri said. “We don’t know what things may look like after Omicron and if there are other variants that we’ll have to deal with. We may see some of the old variants come back and cause problems.”So far, Dr. Sifri said the omicron variant does not cause as many fatalities per infection. “There are reasons for that that seem to be bearing out based on studies,” Dr. Sifri said. “Things like the fact that it causes upper respiratory tract infections compared to pneumonia and lower respiratory tract infections.” Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order Two declared that mask usage in public schools was optional. One stated reason is that the omicron variant “results in less severe illness.” Dr. Sifri said it’s still a serious issue.“Omicron still really can cause very, very serious illness and we’re still seeing patient deaths and we’re seeing them almost on a daily basis,” Dr. Sifri said. Vaccination continues to be a protection against serious disease. The seven-day average for doses administered per day is at 20,915 today and 68.6 percent of the total Virginia population is fully vaccinated and around 2.3 million have received a third dose or a booster. Horton said it is a misnomer to state that omicron is not a threat. “It does cause quite a bit of disease especially in immunocompromised individuals so far our health systems a lot of strain on the intensive care units and caring for those individuals,” Horton said. Later in the week, Youngkin issued another executive order to declare a limited state of emergency to provide hospitals and health care with “flexibility” in the work against COVID-19. (Executive Order 11)“For a health system it really is an acknowledgment of where we’re at and really garners additional resources,” Horton said. “I was really so pleased to see an emphasis on making sure that people have access to vaccination. So that is really very, very important.” Horton said this allows hospitals the ability to increase bed capacity and increase staffing. “We are very fortunate here at UVA that we haven’t had to activate those special accommodations, but it is really great that we know that we have them if we ever need to activate or use any special resources available,” Horton said. Regional group briefed on “missing middle” housingChanges to land use rules are being made across the region to allow for additional density to create what planners and developers refer to as “missing middle” housing. The term was coined by Dan Parolek in 2010. “His focus is on small units and making them feasible to build in neighborhoods where only large single-family houses currently exist,” said Emily Hamilton is a senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.Hamilton was one of the speakers at the latest discussion run by the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership on Thursday. She said additional flexibility to allow more housing can lead to units becoming more affordable. (watch the video)“In some of the cases where we see lots of small in-fill construction happening there is that increased flexibility where for example large duplex units or townhouses can be built in places where exclusively detached single family houses would have been permitted previously,” Hamilton said.The recent adoption of the Crozet Master Plan as well as the Future Land Use Map in the Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan are both intended to encourage the production of these units and developers have responded. Many community members have pushed back, as seen this week in Scottsville when community opposition may have led to a deferral of two special use permits.However, Hamilton said this is how houses in communities used to be built.“Historically in an era before zoning we saw that what we would now call missing middle was often times the bread and butter housing of working and middle income Americans because it has lower per-foot construction costs compared to a large multi-family building,” Hamilton said. The topic comes up a lot in the community. Here are two examples I’ve not yet had the chance to review completely: The Places29-North Community Advisory Committee was introduced to the new Middle Density Residential category at its meeting on January 13. (watch the video)The Crozet Community Advisory Committee discussed a planned residential community within that designated growth area on January 12. (watch the video)Second subscriber-supporter public service announcement goes to Shift/EnterDo you or someone you know want to find a job in the tech community? On this upcoming Saturday, there will be another Shift/Enter workshop in which participants can go through directed sessions with knowledgeable volunteers on resume feedback, interview advice, and perspectives on the tech landscape. For an $8 ticket, you'll have three different interview sessions with people to have a career conversation, to review your resume, or to have a mock interview. To learn more and to sign up, visit shiftenter.org. General Assembly update: Charlottesville sales tax referendum moves close to passage in the SenateToday is Day Nine of the Virginia General Assembly, and we’re at the point where the first pieces of legislation have made their way out of Committee and await a vote in either the House of Delegates or the Senate. There’s a lot of these, but here are some of note. For starters, a bill from Senator Creigh Deeds that would allow Charlottesville to levy a one-cent sales tax increase for capital education costs has been reported out of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee on a 14-2 vote. Senators Steve Newman and Emmet Hanger voted against the measure. (SB298) Today, the bill was read for the second time by the full Senate. Delegate Sally Hudson has similar legislation in the House of Delegates. It is currently within a subcommittee of the House Finance Committee (HB545)If signed into law, voters would have to approve the measure in a referendum. The funding would be earmarked for the school reconfiguration project. Here’s the status on more legislation. A bill (HB28) from Delegate Ronnie Campbell (R-2) to increase the length of the Maury River’s Scenic River status by 23.2 miles was approved by the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee on a 19-2 vote. One of the two to vote against it was Delegate Chris Runion (R-25). The full House had first reading today. A bill (HB828) from Delegate Tony Wilt (R-26) to expand eligibility in the Dairy Producer Margin Coverage Premium Assistance Program was reported out of the same committee on a unanimous vote. Learn more about the program here. The full House had first reading today. Delegate John McGuire (R-56) has a bill (HB358) would direct the Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs and the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to examine the feasibility of waiving fees for small businesses owned by veterans. The House Commerce and Energy Committee unanimously recommended adoption. A bill (HB8) from Delegate Tim Anderson (R-83) would allow veterans hired by school boards to be school security officers to perform any other duty they are requested to do so. The House Education committee reported that out unanimously. The full House had first reading today. Another bill (HB9) carried by Delegate Lee Ware (R-65) would allow school boards to extend probationary period for teachers and would appear to make it easier for school boards to dismiss teachers by reducing the period of notice of a dismissal hearing from ten days to five days. That was also reported out of the House Education Committee unanimously. The full House had first reading today. A tax credit program for “major business facilities” is currently slated to sunset this July 1, but a bill from Delegate Kathy Byron (R-22) would extend that to July 1, 2025 (HB269). The House Finance Committee reported that out on a 20-1 vote. Delegate Nick Frietas was the lone vote against this action.  The full House had first reading today. The Attorney General would be required to report every year the number of fraudulent Medicaid claims on a public website if HB232 from Delegate Bobby Orrock (R-54) becomes law. The House Health, Welfare, and Institutions unanimously reported this out unanimously. The full House had first reading today. Over in the Senate, a bill (SB8) from Senator Chap Petersen (D-34) to permit hunting on Sunday reported out of the Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources on a 9 to 4 vote, with two abstentions. Second Here are some other bills of note:A bill from Senator Barbara Favola (D-31) that would allow roof replacement projects at for public buildings to enter into a energy performance-based contract (SB13). The Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources committee reported this out and it has been rereferred to the General Laws and Technology Committee. Another bill from Senator John Edwards (D-21) would remove the ability of the Department of Wildlife Resources to charge a fee for boat ramps that the agency manages but doesn’t own. (SB141) The same committee reported this out, and rereferred it to the Finance and Appropriations Committee. Currently localities with combined stormwater and sewer systems have until 2036 to have replacement systems in place. Under a bill from Richard Stuart (R-28), that would be moved up to 2030. This reported out of the same committee by an 11 to 4 vote, and the bill will go to the Finance and Appropriations Committee. (SB534)A bill has passed the full Senate that would add the City of Chesapeake to a list of localities that require an analysis of drinking water. Albemarle County already has this ability. (SB53)Localities would be allowed to require broadband be installed as part of a residential development if a bill from Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-33) is approved. The Senate Commerce and Labor reported that out and it now goes before the Local Government committee. (SB446)Boysko has another bill to be known as Adam’s Law to require private and public higher education facilities to develop anti-hazing policies (SB439). This was reported unanimously from the Education and Health Committee but with one abstention. Legislation is also pending to require the Department of Education to develop guidelines on policies to inform student athletes and their coaches about the dangers of heat-related illness. SB161 was reported out of the Senate Education Committee and is now before the Finance and Appropriations Committee. The Virginia Arts Foundation would be eliminated and its powers transferred to the Virginia Commission of the Arts under one bill (SB597) from Senator Todd Pillion (R-40). The Education and Health Committee unanimously reported this out. A bill from Siobhan Dunnavant (R-12) would allow certain pharmacists to dispense cannabis products until such time as retail sale licenses are available. (SB621) The Education and Health Committee reported this bill out, and it’s now been assigned to the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee. A bill from Senator Richard Stuart would require cyclists riding two abreast to not impede vehicular traffic passed out of the Transportation Committee on an 11-4 vote. (SB362)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

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In KwaZulu-Natal, the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy will hold two public hearings on the Gas Amendment Bill this weekend. Speaking to Radio Islam International; Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources, Sahlulele Luzipo says that this bill highlights the safety and protection of workers, community and the environment.

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My guest today is saxophonist, clarinetist, and founding member of Brothers of Brass, Armando Lopez. Armando and I go back to our teenage years. I had just joined the acclaimed dixieland jazz ensemble at CU Denver, The Claim Jumpers, at the beginning of my sophomore year. Armando (just finishing high school at the time) joined us on reeds and blew everyone away. He was very comfortable with his instrument, and spoke the style fluently. As someone just learning about traditional jazz, I listened to a lot of what he was doing on the other side of the room. It's been a few years since then, and Armando is doing more than ever. Aside from being a part of Denver's only brass band (Brothers of Brass), Armando is an activist, a scientist with a degree from Colorado School of Mines, and is a member of an Energy Committee in Denver. In our conversation we chat about all of the above, as well as the recent death of Brothers of Brass bass drummer, Krishnaswami Ramachandran Azad. If you enjoy the podcast, please let others know, subscribe or write a review. 5 star ratings and reviews on Apple Music as well as subscribing to our YouTube Channel help us out the most!! IF YOU'D LIKE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST IN A MONETARY WAY, I'M NOW ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/andysydow You can support my artist career and this podcast for as little as $3 per month. The price of one cup of coffee helps keep this podcast on its feet. Any and every contribution is greatly appreciated! Guest Links: Brothers of Brass Website: https://www.brothersofbrass.band/ Episode Music: **All original music by Andy Sydow Sponsors: A huge thanks to our sponsors, PQ Mastering and Narrator RF. For any sponsorship inquiries, shoot me an email at middleclassrockstar@gmail.com http://pqmastering.com https://narratorrf.com

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A transportation bill passes the Colorado Senate Transportation and Energy Committee, a new shop is coming to town soon, a disc golf club is starting up in mid-May, and the governor signs a bill helping people access prescription drugs. 

Hon. Bill Brewster, Chairman & Founder, Capitol Hill Consulting GroupUnited States Head of Delegation, International Council for Game and Wildlife ConservationFormer Congressman Bill Brewster serves as Chairman of Capitol Hill Consulting Group and is the United States Head of Delegation for the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation. Congressman Brewster represented the Third Congressional District of Oklahoma in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1997. During his tenure in Congress, Congressman Brewster served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he made a profound impact on a wide range of tax, energy, health care and trade legislation. Congressman Brewster also served on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure during Highway Reauthorization in 1991 and 1996.As the first and only practicing pharmacist to serve in the U.S. Congress in the last 30 years, Congressman Brewster made significant contributions to the health care policy debate of the 1990’s. His background in health care allowed him to pave the way for common sense reforms in the nation’s health care system.Throughout Congressman Brewster’s service in Congress, he used his innate skill of coalition building to bring the two political parties, the Administration and private sector together on a host of legislative and public policy initiatives. The results of Congressman Brewster’s strong coalition and partnering skills are still evident in Congress today. In 1994, he formed the Congressional Oil and Gas Forum, and served as its first Chairman. In addition, Congressman Brewster was Chairman of the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus and was co-founder of the Blue Dog Coalition (an influential group of pro-business Democrat Members of Congress).A true leader in building and maintaining strong bipartisan coalitions in Congress, Congressman Brewster was instrumental in organizing the first congressional oil and gas meeting with a sitting U.S. President. The Congressional Oil and Gas Forum included more than 80 U.S. Senators and Representatives all of whom met with President Clinton in 1994 to discuss the plight of the domestic oil and gas producers.Prior to his service in Congress, Congressman Brewster served 8 years in the Oklahoma State Legislature where he chaired several legislative committees as well as serving as Chairman of several outside business organizations, including Southwest Energy Council, Energy Committee at the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Energy Committee at the American Legislative Exchange Council.Congressman Brewster holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Business has always been a focal point in Congressman Brewster’s career going back to his work in Oklahoma as a pharmacist, cattle ranch owner, owner of a car dealership and owner of a real estate company.

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The Rose Bowl parade, how his office is working with the governor's office to communicate with the public, how the assembly will be able to function more smoothly this year because of covid-related planning and budget priorities will be focused on vaccines, and opening up both CA schools and the economy more generally. Then they turn to his work as chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee where they recognize that wildfires are now a year-round possibility that has to be dealt with while working with energy companies to have smart and safe plans that reduce shutoff while maintaining safety. Personally, Assemblymember Holden will be working on issues around systemic racism and use of force with a focus on clear guidelines and penalties around California’s Duty to Intervene Law, diversity in the corporate boardroom and in the upper levels of the California civil service. He also discusses the importance of seeing Dr. Shirley Weber became the Secretary of State,  his focus on ensuring minority small businesses are participating in the state contracting process along with social justice, and the history and role of the Legislative Black Caucus. Finally, they talk about the current Lakers season. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

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In honor of CARICOM Energy Month we have Dr Dale Ramlakhan providing insight about the Energy Chamber - EE&AE Committee, Indicating his top 3 highlights from the 2020 Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Conference in Trinidad and Tobago and, offering advice on how young professionals can be more influential. Dr. Dale Ramlakhan is an experienced Engineering Professional and thought leader with a demonstrated history of working in the utilities industry. Skilled in Asset Management, Strategic Planning, Reliability Engineering, Maintenance Management, Asset Performance and Health Monitoring, Renewable Energy and Data Integration. Dr. Ramlakhan graduated with a PhD. degree in Mechanical Engineering in the area of Renewable Energy in 2011 and is the current Chairman of the Energy Efficiency and Alternate Energy (EE&AE) Committee – Sub Committee of the Council of the Energy Chamber and a member of the Institute of Asset Management.

Segment of Latest Conservative Climate Change Podcast

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Senator Paul Formica is the ranking senator on the Energy Committee.  He discusses the PURA/Eversource rate hike hearings with Joe D. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Rare earth minerals are essential ingredients for many of the technologies that are important today and will be key in the future. In this episode, we learn about a new global economy being created around rare minerals and how the United States can catch up to the commanding lead that China has established in dominating the mineral dependent industries. Executive Producer: Coffee Infused Nerd  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Episodes CD215: COVID-19 Testimony, Listen on Spotify CD208: The Brink of the Iran War, Listen on Spotify CD201: WTF is the Federal Reserve? Listen on Spotify CD191: The Democracies of Elliott Abrams, Listen on Spotify CD190: A Coup for Capitalism, Listen on Spotify CD187: Combating China, Listen on Spotify CD186: National Endowment for Democracy, Listen on Spotify CD176: Target Venezuela: Regime Change, Listen on Spotify CD175: State of War, Listen on Spotify  CD167: Combatting Russia (NDAA 2018), Listen on Spotify CD156: Sanctions: Russia, North Korea, and Iran, Listen on Spotify CD131: Bombing Libya, Listen on Spotify CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? Listen on Spotify CD095: Secret International Regulations, Listen on Spotify CD067: What Do We Want In Ukraine?, Listen on Spotify  CD003: The Free Market vs. US, Listen on Spotify Bill Outline S. 1317: American Mineral Security Act Text as of July 27, 2020 TITLE I - American Mineral Security Sec. 102: Policy We will analyze supply and demand of minerals to avoid supply shortages, mitigate price volatility, and prepare for demand growth We will map and develop domestic resources of minerals Speed up the permitting process for mineral mining and new mineral manufacturing facilities Invest in workforce training for mineral exploration and development Transfer technology and information in international cooperation agreements Recycle critical minerals Develop alternatives to critical minerals Sec. 104: Resource Assessment Within 4 years of the date the bill is signed into law, a “comprehensive national assessment of each critical mineral” must be completed which identifies known quantities of each mineral using public and private information and an assessment of undiscovered mineral resources in the U.S. The information will be given to the public electronically Sec. 105: Permitting Orders reports to be done on expediting permitting Sec. 107: Recycling, Efficiency, and Alternatives The Secretary of Energy would be required to conduct a research and development program to promote production, use, and recycling of critical minerals and to develop alternatives to critical minerals that are not found in abundance in the United States. Sec. 109: Education and Workforce The Secretary of Labor will be given almost two years to complete an assessment of the Untied States workforce capable of operating a critical minerals management industry Creates a grant program where the Secretary of Labor will give “institutions of higher eduction” money for up to 10 years to create critical minerals management programs, and to help pay for student enrolled in those programs. Sec. 110: National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program Authorizes, but does not appropriate, $5 million per year from 2020-2019 for the program created in 2005 that catalogs geologic and engineering data, maps, logs, and samples. This program was authorized at $30 million from 2006-2010. Sec. 112: Authorization of Appropriations Authorizes, but does not appropriate, $50 million for fiscal years 2020-2019. TITLE II: Rare Earth Element Advanced Coal Technologies Sec. 201: Program for Extraction and Recovery of Rare Earth Elements and Minerals from Coal and Coal Byproducts Requires the Secretary of Energy to create a program for developing “advanced separation technologies” for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and minerals from coal. Authorizes, but does not appropriate, $23 million per year for 2020-2027. Articles/Documents Article: Unsanitized: The HEALS Act Emerges By David Dayen, The American Prospect, July 28, 2020 Article: Pompeo’s Surreal Speech on China By Ernest Scheyder, The Atlantic, July 25, 2020 Article: Trump wants an ‘alliance of democracies’ to oppose China. It’s starting to take shape By By Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2020 Article: Pentagon resumes rare earths funding program after review By Ernest Scheyder, Reuters, July 21, 2020 Article: Quantitative Easing vs. Currency Manipulation By Matthew Johnston, Investopedia, June 25, 2019 Article: China hands out more grain import quotas to increase purchases - sources by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton, Reuters, May 13, 2020 Article: Trump’s tariffs on China could cost the US in its fight against the coronavirus by Audrey Cher, CNBC, April 13, 2020 Article: Mining the moon: Trump backs new space race by James Marshall, E&E News, April 27, 2020 Article: Trump wants more countries to join US policy approach to space resources, lunar mining by Michael Sheetz, CNBC, April 6, 2020 Article: Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources, White House, April 6, 2020 Article: As copper recovery declines, so does the tellurium supply for thin-film solar panels By Kelly Pickerel, Solar Power World, July 3, 2018 Article: Drone video shows blindfolded, handcuffed prisoners in China's Xinjiang Uyghur region By Liselotte Mas, The Observers, September 25, 2019 Article: China footage reveals hundreds of blindfolded and shackled prisoners By Lily Kuo, The Guardian, September 23, 2019 Document: Rare Earth Elements in National Defense: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress By Valerie Bailey Grasso, Specialist in Defense Acquisition, Congressional Research Service, December 23, 2013 Article: U.S. imposes quotas on some Chinese textiles By Keith Bradsher, The New York Times, Sept. 2, 2005 Additional Resources Bill: H.R.2262 - U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, Congress.gov, November 25, 2015 Sound Clip Sources Speech: Communist China and the Free World’s Future, Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary Of State, Yorba Linda, California, The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, U.S. Department of State, July 23, 2020 Transcript: 14:00 Mike Pompeo: The Department of Justice and other agencies have vigorously pursued punishment for these crimes….And so our Department of Defense has ramped up its efforts, freedom of navigation operations out and throughout the East and South China Seas, and in the Taiwan Strait as well. And we’ve created a Space Force to help deter China from aggression on that final frontier. And so too, frankly, we’ve built out a new set of policies at the State Department dealing with China, pushing President Trump’s goals for fairness and reciprocity, to rewrite the imbalances that have grown over decades. 18:35 Mike Pompeo: It’s true, there are differences. Unlike the Soviet Union, China is deeply integrated into the global economy. But Beijing is more dependent on us than we are on them. 21:30 Mike Pompeo: The challenge of China demands exertion, energy from democracies – those in Europe, those in Africa, those in South America, and especially those in the Indo-Pacific region. And if we don’t act now, ultimately the CCP will erode our freedoms and subvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so hard to build. 22:20 Mike Pompeo: So we can’t face this challenge alone. The United Nations, NATO, the G7 countries, the G20, our combined economic, diplomatic, and military power is surely enough to meet this challenge if we direct it clearly and with great courage. Maybe it’s time for a new grouping of like-minded nations, a new alliance of democracies. We have the tools. I know we can do it. Now we need the will. Speech: Attorney General Barr’s Remarks on China Policy at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, U.S. Department of Justice, July 16, 2020 Read Transcript Transcript: 13:50: The People’s Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkrieg—an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent technological superpower. 14:15: A centerpiece of this effort is the Communist Party’s “Made in China 2025” initiative, a plan for PRC domination of high-tech industries like robotics, advanced information technology, aviation, and electric vehicles, and many other technologies . Backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, this initiative poses a real threat to U.S. technological leadership. 15:20 “Made in China 2025” is the latest iteration of the PRC’s state-led, mercantilist economic model. For American companies in the global marketplace, free and fair competition with China has long been a fantasy. To tilt the playing field to its advantage, China’s communist government has perfected a wide array of predatory and often unlawful tactics: currency manipulation, tariffs, quotas, state-led strategic investment and acquisitions, theft and forced transfer of intellectual property, state subsidies, dumping, cyberattacks, and industrial espionage. 16:30: The PRC also seeks to dominate key trade routes and infrastructure in Eurasia, Africa, and the Pacific. In the South China Sea, for example, through which about one-third of the world’s maritime trade passes, the PRC has asserted expansive and historically dubious claims to nearly the entire waterway, flouted the rulings of international courts, built artificial islands and placed military outposts on them, and harassed its neighbors’ ships and fishing boats. 17:00: Another ambitious project to spread its power and influence is the PRC’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. Although billed as “foreign aid,” in fact these investments appear designed to serve the PRC’s strategic interests and domestic economic needs. For example, the PRC has been criticized for loading poor countries up with debt, refusing to renegotiate terms, and then taking control of the infrastructure itself, as it did with the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota in 2017. This is little more than a form of modern-day colonialism. 19:20: The PRC’s drive for technological supremacy is complemented by its plan to monopolize rare earth materials, which play a vital role in industries such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, medical devices, and military hardware. According to the Congressional Research Service, from the 1960s to the 1980s, the United States led the world in rare earth production.[6] “Since then, production has shifted almost entirely to China,” in large part due to lower labor costs and lighter environmental regulation. The United States is now dangerously dependent on the PRC for these materials. Overall, China is America’s top supplier, accounting for about 80 percent of our imports. The risks of dependence are real. In 2010, for example, Beijing cut exports of rare earth materials to Japan after an incident involving disputed islands in the East China Sea. The PRC could do the same to us. 41:00: In a globalized world, American corporations and universities alike may view themselves as global citizens, rather than American institutions. But they should remember that what allowed them to succeed in the first place was the American free enterprise system, the rule of law, and the security afforded by America’s economic, technological, and military strength. Globalization does not always point in the direction of greater freedom. A world marching to the beat of Communist China’s drums will not be a hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade, or the free exchange of ideas. There was a time American companies understood that. They saw themselves as American and proudly defended American values. Hearing: U.S.-China Relations and its Impact on National Security and Intelligence in a Post-COVID World, U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, July 1, 2020 Read Transcript Witnesess: Dr. Tanvi Madan – Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution Dr. Evan Medeiros – Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies and Cling Family Distinguished Fellow, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Mr. Orville Schell – Arthur Ross Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society Ms. Meredith Sumpter – Head of Research Strategy and Operations, Eurasia Group Transcript: 21:15 Mr. Orville Schell: We were accustomed for many, many decades. And I've written this along. piece that's in the in the record, I think is my testimony. But engagement was the kind of center of how we related to China. And what were the presumptions of that? Well, the presumption was that this began in 1972, with Kissinger and Nixon going to China, that if we simply engage China across the board, that slowly, we would have a greater likelihood of more convergence rather than divergence that we would slowly morph out of the Cold War. And what is so extraordinary about the policy of engagement and I'm not one of the people who believes it was an erroneous policy. I do, however, believe it is a failed policy. But it was not erroneous, precisely because for eight presidential administrations United States government sought, and I think this is the height of leadership, to slowly bend the metal of China, to help China in to assist China, to morph out of its Maoist revolutionary period into something that was more soluble and convergent with the world as it existed outside, of the marketplace, international order, etc, etc. And I think if you look at all of these different administrations and go through them one by one, as I've done in the piece that's in your record, it is so striking to see how one president, Republican and Democrat came in after another, usually with a rather jaundiced view of China. Ultimately, they embraced the notion that we should try to engage China. So what happened? Well, I think just to cut to the chase here, what happened was that we have a regime in China now that's very different in its set of presumptions than that pathway that was laid out by Deng Xiaoping in 1978-79 of reform and opening. Without reform, without the presumption that China will both reform economically and politically to some degree, engagement has no basis. Because if you're not converging, then you're diverging. And if China actually is not trying to slowly evolve out of its own old Leninist, Maoist mold, sort of form of government, then it is in a sense, deciding that that is what it is and that is what its model is and that is what it's going to be projecting around the world. 55:45 Ms. Meredith Sumpter: Beijing decision makers believe that their state directed economic system is the foundation of the livelihood of their political system. In other words, we have been spending our energies trying to force China to change and China is not willing to change an economic model that it believes underpins its political longevity. 56:15 Ms. Meredith Sumpter: There are limits to how much we can force China to not be China. And China is working to try to create space for its own unique model within what has been up until just now with this competition, a largely Western based market consensus of how economic systems should work. 56:40 Rep. Jim Himes (CT): Do we care if they have a more state directed model? I mean, what we care about is that like, This room is full of stuff that has Chinese inputs in it. What we really care about is do they send us stuff that is of high quality and cheap. Do we really care? You know, I mean, the Swedes have a much more state directed model than we do. So do we really care? Ms. Meredith Sumpter: We care so long as we don't see China's model as impairing our own ability to viably compete fairly. And so this gets to that level playing field. And ultimately, this is not about the political ideology driven Cold War of the past. But it's really a competition over which economic model will deliver greater prosperity and more opportunity to more people in the years ahead. So in the short term, there's all this focus on China's incredible rise and the success of its economic model. And it's not trying to export that model per se. It wants to create space for its model to coexist in this market led global economic system. Hearing: China’s Maritime Ambitions, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee: Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation, June 30, 2020 Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Gregory Poling - Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia, Director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Dr. Oriana Sklylar Mastro: Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Assistant Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University Dr. Andrew Erickson: Professor of Strategy, China Maritime Studies Institute at the Naval War College and Visiting Scholar at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University Transcript: 21:45 Gregory Poling: Chinese interest and Chinese claims have expanded considerably over the decades. Prior to the 1990s, the South China Sea featured a dispute over islands. And then Beijing decided to declare straight baselines and internal waters around the paracels and more worryingly historic rights throughout the entirety of the South China Sea, claiming in some form all waters, all airspace, all seabed, in contravention of international law. Over the last decade, Beijing has become far more aggressive in pursuing that illegal claim. At the end of 2013, China embarked on a unprecedented campaign of artificial island building and military nation, which today allows China to deploy a 24/7 presence of naval Coast Guard and paramilitary forces throughout every inch of the nine dash line, slowly pushing its neighbors away from their legal rights, out of the waters guaranteed to them by international law. 26:00 Gregory Poling: The United States must have rotational forces deployed along the so called first island chain that rings China. And there is no place south of Japan that that can happen other than the Philippines, Admiral Davidson has recognized this. The United States might not be able to do that under Duterte, but we must prevent further erosion of the Alliance and we must prepare a plan for a post 2022, post-Duterte Philippines that will allow us to reengage. 37:00 Dr. Andrew Erickson: Here's where China's overwhelming and still rapidly growing numbers are posing very significant challenges for our efforts to keep the peace and stability in the region. In the naval dimension for example, while many advocate a US Navy of 355 plus ships, both manned and unmanned, China already has its own fully manned Navy of 360 warships according to data recently released by the Office of Naval Intelligence. 48:30 Dr. Oriana Sklylar Mastro: So the number of Chinese nationals overseas, for example, is a relatively new phenomenon. I wrote a paper about it maybe about eight years ago and you have 10s of thousands of Chinese companies operating now in the Indian Ocean region that weren't there before. That we have seen an uptick because of One Belt, One Road as well. And also China used to not be so reliant on oil and energy from outside and now they are one of the top importers and they rely on the Malacca straits for that. 1:00:00 Dr. Andrew Erickson: We see concretely already a naval base in Djibouti. And as you rightly pointed out, there are a series of other ports, where sometimes it's unclear what the ultimate purpose is. But clearly there's extensive Chinese involvement and ample potential for upgrading. 1:03:00 Dr. Andrew Erickson: China's Coast Guard really, in many ways is almost like a second Navy. It's by far the largest in the world in terms of numbers of ships, and while many of them are capable of far ranging operations, the vast majority of China's more than 1,000 coast guard ships are deployed generally near to China. Unlike Coast Guard, such as the US Coast Guard, China's Coast Guard has a very important sovereignty advancement mission. And China's coast guard by recent organizational changes is now formally part of one of China's armed forces, as I mentioned before. 1:08:45 Connolly: And meanwhile China is the title of this hearing is maritime ambitions. It's not just in the South China Sea. The fact that the Chinese built and now are operating the Hambantota port facility, which could easily become a military base because of the indebtedness of the Sri Lankan government and its inability to finance and serve the debt on that finance, has given China a strategic location, through which passes, I'm told, about 30% of all the word shipping, and it's a real nice reminder to India, that now China has that strategic location. Hearing: Impact of COVID-19 on Mineral Supply Chains, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, June 24, 2020 Witnesses: Nedal T. Nassar, Section Chief, National Minerals Information Center, Geological Survey, Department of the Interior; Joe Bryan, Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, Hyattsville, Maryland; Mark Caffarey, Umicore USA, Raleigh, North Carolina; Thomas J. Duesterberg, Hudson Institute, Aspen, Colorado; Simon Moores, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, London, United Kingdom. Transcript: 22:00 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): Border closures in Africa have impacted the export of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and platinum from South Africa. Mines in Argentina, Peru and Brazil have temporarily shut down restricting supplies of lithium, copper and iron. 25:00 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): The World Bank released a report last month estimating that demand for lithium, graphite and cobalt will increase 500% by 2050 to meet clean energy demand. 37:00 Nedal T. Nassar: Mineral commodities are the foundation of modern society. Smartphones would have more dropped calls and shorter battery lives without tantalum capacitors and cobalt based cathodes and their lithium ion batteries. Bridges, buildings and pipelines would not be as strong without vanadium and other alloying elements and their Steel's medical MRI machines would use more energy and produce lower quality images without helium cooled niobium based superconducting magnets. 38:45 Nedal T. Nassar: Tantalum and cobalt in smartphones for example, are now predominantly mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and refined in China. 39:00 Nedal T. Nassar: Concurrently, developed countries such as the United States have become increasingly import reliant for their mineral commodity needs, thereby increasing their exposure to foreign supply disruptions. 39:30 Nedal T. Nassar: Many high supply risk commodities are recovered as byproducts. The supply of byproducts has the additional challenge of potentially being unresponsive to demand signals, given their relatively minimal contribution to produce those revenues. 40:00 Nedal T. Nassar: Once a mineral supply chain is identified as high risk, the next step is to determine the best way to reduce that risk. Various strategies can be pursued including diversification of supply, identification and potential expansion of domestic mineral resources, increasing recycling, developing substitutes, maintaining strategic inventories and bolstering trade relations. 43:00 Joe Bryan: From communications gear that keeps our troops connected on the battlefield, to unmanned aerial and subsurface platforms to tactical ground vehicles, transitioning away from lead acid, lithium ion batteries are everywhere. That is not surprising. Energy storage can not only increased capability, but by reducing fuel use can also help take convoys off the road and our troops out of harm's way. 44:15 Joe Bryan: COVID-19 severely impacted the supply of cobalt, a key mineral in the production of lithium ion batteries. 44:30 Joe Bryan: But the lithium ion market also represents an opportunity. Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory is one example. The state of Ohio recently landed a $2.3 billion investment from General Motors and Korea's LG Chem to build a battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio. That facility will bring more than 1000 jobs to the Mahoning Valley. 45:00 Joe Bryan: Now we can't change geology and create resources where they don't exist. But we can change direction and compete for supply chains jobs in minerals extraction, processing, anode and cathode production and cell production. 45:15 Joe Bryan: The scale of global investment in the lithium ion supply chain is massive and investment patterns will have geopolitical impacts. Right now, commercial relationships are being forged and trade alliances hammered out. Decisions made over the next few years will define the global transportation industry for decades to come and plant the seeds of future political alliances. Maintaining our global influence and diplomatic leverage depends on us, not just getting in the race, but setting the pace. From establishing priorities for research and development, to setting conditions for attracting investment to most importantly, hitting the accelerator on transportation electrification. There are things we can do. But to date, our actions have matched neither the scale of the opportunity, the efforts of our competitors, nor the risk we accept, should we remain on the sidelines. 46:30 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): Thank you, Mr. Bryan, appreciate you pointing out the importance of mineral security for our military. Some of us think that our American Mineral Security Initiative would be a good fit within the NDAA that will be coming before us for floor action in these next few days. So thank you for that reminder. 55:45 Thomas J. Duesterberg: Let me now turn to the auto industry. Other witnesses have noted the importance of lithium ion batteries in the control of China over the major mineral resources that go into those batteries. This is incredibly important to the future of the auto industry. China has clearly targeted this industry. It has control of the resources, has a goal of producing for its own domestic market, which is the largest market in the world, 80% of electric vehicles domestically by 2025. 56:30 Thomas J. Duesterberg: China is a major producer of manganese and magnesium minerals which are associated - controls of over 80% of those magnesium resources - which is incredibly important to the future of light vehicles. Substituting alloys with magnesium products is one key to reducing the weight of all kinds of transportation vehicles and construction equipment. 57:30 Thomas J. Duesterberg: Other witnesses have also mentioned rare earths, and other important minerals for which we are dependent on China, such as just tantalum to a certain extent cadmium, these are all important to the $500 billion semiconductor industry, where the United States holds a technological lead and produces over 45% of the chips that it produces here in the United States. 59:00 Thomas J. Duesterberg: I will finally note that the solar power industry also depends on rare earths like cadmium and tellurium. And the leading producer in the United States for solar as a thin film technology that depends greatly on these minerals and gives it an cost advantage over the related products that are being subsidized heavily by China. 39:30 Simon Moores: China is building the equivalent of one battery mega factory a week. United States one every four months. 40:00 Simon Moores: Since 2017, China's battery manufacturing pipeline has increased from nine to 107, which 53 are now active and in production. Meanwhile, the United States has gone from three to nine battery plants, of which still only three are active, the same number as just under three years ago. 1:02:30 Simon Moores: Lithium ion batteries are a core platform technology for the 21st century, they allow energy to be stored on a widespread basis in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. And they sparked the demand for the critical raw materials and candidates. A new global lithium ion economy is being created. Yet any ambitions for the United States to be a leader in this lithium ion economy continues to only creep forward and be outstripped by China and Europe. 1:03:00 Simon Moores: The rise of these battery mega factories will require demand for raw materials to increase significantly. By 2029, so 10 years from now, demand for nickel double, cobalt growth three times, graphite and manganese by four times, lithium by more than six times. 1:03:30 Simon Moores: The United States progress is far too slow on building out a domestic lithium ion economy. For the opportunities that remain are vast and the pioneers have emerged. Tesla has continued to lead the industry and build on its Nevada Gigafactory by announcing supersize battery plants in Germany and China and is expected to announce a fourth in Texas which will give you the United States as first ever 100% own MMA lithium ion battery cells. Ohio has recognized the scaling opportunity and attracted $2.3 billion from General Motors and LG Chem, a joint venture. You can also turn to Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee for electric vehicle and battery cell investment success. Yet, these developments are more of a standalone achievement in a coherent US plan. 1:04:20 Simon Moores: ...Imported raw materials and chemicals are the two main components that make a lithium ion battery - the cathodes and the anodes. America is some of the best cathode know how in the business, yet only three capital plants producing under one percent of global output, while China produces over two thirds of global supply from over 100 cathode [inaudible.] 1:04:45 Simon Moores: For graphite anodes, the United States has zero manufacturing plants while China has 48 plants and controls 84% total global anode supply. 1:05:00 Simon Moores: Developing this midstream of the supply chain will create a domestic ecosystem engine, more battery plants to be built, more electric vehicles to be made, more energy storage systems to be installed, animal spark with the betterment domestic mining and chemical processing. However, be under no illusions that the United States needs to build this 21st century industry from scratch. FDR's New deal for example, built core infrastructure that the United States still relies on today. Nearly 100 years later in similar economic and industrial circumstances your country has to do this all over again. Yet, instead of dams, you need to build battery mega factories in their tenant. Instead of highways and bridges and tunnels you need to build the supply chains to enable these mega factories to operate securely and consistent. These include cathode and anode plants and the lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel and manganese sources to feed them. This has to be done at a speed scale and quality that will make most US corporations feel uncomfortable. Even more, the supply chain needs to be underpinned by bigger sized battery recycling facilities to match the scale of these operations and close the loop. One can also look to the creation of a battery creation - widespread US semiconductor industry back in the 1980s believe that the United States built in semiconductors and computing power has sustained your country's dominance in this space for over five decades. Those who invest in battery capacity and supply chains today will hold the sway of industrial power for generations to come. 1:06:30 Rep. Joe Manchin (WV): Yet here in United States, we have the General Mining Law of 1872, which frankly is nothing short of an embarrassment to our country. In 1872, Ulysses S. Grant was elected president and Susan B. Anthony was served an arrest warrant for voting. Tells you how antiquated our laws are for the hardrock mining, if we're serious about reducing our import reliance for critical minerals, our mining goals need to be updated. We need to improve the regulatory scheme for mines and low ratio at high grade areas and the claim patent system and help the mining industry put themselves in a better light in the public by establishing a royalty to share the profits with the American people. 1:09:15 Rep. Joe Manchin (WV): What portion of the supply chain either upstream or downstream needs the most attention in terms of our national security? Nedal T. Nassar: Thank you, Ranking Member Manchin. So it really the the answer depends on the commodity. So different commodities will have different bottlenecks in their supply chains. In some cases, there's a highly concentrated production on the mining stage. In other cases, it might be further downstream. So for example, for niobium, an element that's produced in only a handful of mines worldwide. And so there are very few mines that are producing it and a single mine might be producing somewhere on the order of two thirds of the world's supply. On the other hand, there might be commodities where it's really not about mining, and it's the there's enough concentrate being produced, but we're simply not recovering it further downstream, such as many of the byproducts. So, earlier, one of the other witnesses mentioned tellurium. There's a lot of tellurium in some of the concentrate that we're mining with copper. Once it gets to the our copper electrolytic refineries, it's simply not recovered for economic reasons. So there there are different stages for different commodities. And that's why I mentioned in my testimony that we do need to look at these supply chains individually to figure out what really is the bottleneck and what strategy would be most effective at reducing that bone. 1:17:45 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): I recall a hearing here in the Energy Committee and one of our witnesses made the comment when it came to recycling that the first place we should look to mine is within our own economy not in the earth but what we have already produced and and basically, remind, repurpose, reuse that so thank you for that comment. 1:19:20 Thomas J. Duesterberg: As Senator Manchin alluded to, we need to revise our mining laws to speed up the permitting process. And perhaps put some time limit on the impact environmental reviews and mining permitting for critical materials. 1:41:30 Joe Bryan: At the same time, from a national security perspective, we may not have minerals but we in some segment segments of the supply chain, but we do have allies and people we can work with and we need to really reach out to those folks like Australia is a perfect example. How are we working with Australia to diversify our supply chain to support our own needs and also perhaps to hedge against China? 2:01:00 Joe Bryan: As a point of reference, note the scale of the Europeans investment, just one of the tranches of funding that came out of the EU. Last December, they put three and a half billion dollars into supply chain investments. Three and a half billion dollars. That's one tranche. I think the European Investment Bank has said that something like 100 billion dollars has been channeled to the battery supply chain. So the scale of their effort is, we sort of pale in comparison to that, notwithstanding your efforts, Madam Chairman, the other thing I would say is post-COVID, it's interesting, I think Europeans have seen support for electrification and the supply chain in their stimulus packages. I know Germany and France have both targeted those industries as part of their stimulus. And I think the reason for that is, we obviously, countries are going to want to recover what they have lost, but they also are seeing this as an inflection point for them to decide where they want to be in the future. And so I think they've taken advantage of that opportunity and have have sort of doubled down on it. And I think we're in the same position as we assess where we are and where we're going. But the scale of their commitment has been, I'll say impressive. 2:11:00 Joe Bryan: Our weakness is throughout the supply chain. So if we have a stockpile of minerals, but they're not processed and usable, then I'm not sure how much good it does. If we have to ship the stockpiled minerals to China for processing, that's probably not the most ideal scenario. So I think we have to look again holistically at the supply chain, look at what we need, and figure out how we position ourselves to attract the kind of massive massive economy changing, transforming levels of investment that are happening globally to the United States. Hearing: Minerals and Clean Energy Technologies, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, September 17, 2019 Witnesses: The Honorable Daniel Simmons - Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy, Simmons Testimony Dr. Morgan Bazilian - Director of the Payne Institute and Professor of Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, Bazilian Testimony Ms. Allison Carlson - Senior Vice President, Foreign Policy Analytics, Carlson Testimony Mr. Robert Kang - CEO, Blue Whale Materials, LLC, Kang Testimony Mr. Mark Mills - Senior Fellow Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc., Mills Testimony Transcript: 40:45 Daniel Simmons: Material intensity and potential global demand is illustrated by a recent report, by a recent analysis by the head of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in the UK, using the most current technologies, for the UK to meet their 2050 electric car targets, it would require just under two times the current annual world cobalt production, nearly the entire world production of neodymium, three quarters of the world's lithium production and at least half of the world's copper production. And to put that in perspective, the UK the population of the UK is only 66 million currently, while the population in the United States is 327 million. 41:40 Daniel Simmons: Cobalt makes up 20% of the weight of the cathode of lithium ion electric vehicle batteries. Today, cobalt is considered one of the the highest material supply risks for electric vehicles in the short and medium term. Cobalt is mined as a secondary material from mixed nickel and copper ore. With the majority of the global supply mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as Senator Manchin mentioned. 52:15 Robert Kang: We need to collect far more of the spent batteries for recycling. The US currently collects less than 5%, while Europe collects approximately 40% or more. Secondly, we need to expand the United States capacity to process batteries. Today, we shipped most of our collected lithium ion batteries for recycling to China, South Korea and Europe. Increasing us processing capacity will allow us businesses to control the flow of these metals earlier in the supply chain. Lastly, we should encourage refining capabilities here in the US. A market for recycled metals will support investments to strengthen the entire lithium ion battery industry in the US. 1:17:45 Robert Kang: I've heard estimates that anywhere from about 20-30% of the world's mineral needs can be met by recycling. Sen. Angus King (ME): Well, that's not insignificant. That's a big number. Robert Kang: And actually it's reclaiming value from our waste stream. Sen. Angus King (ME): Right. Robert Kang: One way to think about this is if you could change your perspective, I believe one of the next new minds of the future, our urban cities, our homes, we have these, this material locked away in our drawers and inboxes that we don't look at too often. So if we can promote collection, if we can take these kind of, spent batteries away from, or bring them back to this industry, I think we can claim a significant amount of minerals. 1:19:00 Robert Kang: We are well aware of foreign entities now that are coming into the US and setting up recycling facilities here because they see these minerals and it's widely known that the US is one of the largest producers of spent lithium ion batteries. Sen. Angus King (ME): They're mining under our very noses. Robert Kang: Yes, sir. Sen. Angus King (ME): In a domestic resource. Robert Kang: Yes, sir. Sen. Angus King (ME): Ridiculous. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): Who is it? Robert Kang: Well, I do know that there is a Korean company that is coming in. There is a Canadian company that's setting up facilities here, as well as we are aware of conversations and research by Chinese firms recyclers who are coming into this market. 1:42:30 Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM): My constituents, is the incredible legacy of uncleaned up mines across the west. There are thousands of them. A few years ago during the gold King mine spill, irrigators had to close off their ditches not water their crops, not water their livestock. There were municipal and tribal impacts as huge amounts of released heavy metals came downstream because of the uncleaned up legacy of 150 years of abandoned mines all across the Mountain West. So I think if we're going to, you know, create a path forward, one of the things we need to do is really think about reforming the 1872 mining act if we're going to create the the environment where some of these other things can move forward in a first world country. Hearing: Mineral Security and Related Legislation, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, May 14, 2020 Witnesses: The Honorable Joe Balash - Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, Balalsh Testimony Dr. David Solan - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy Mr. Jonathan Evans - President and COO, Lithium Americas, Evans Testimony Dr. John Warner - Chairman, National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries, Chief Customer Officer, American Battery Solutions, Warner Testimony Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz - Director, West Virginia Water Research Institute, West Virginia University Transcript: 36:00 David Solan: Critical minerals are used in many products important to the US economy and national security, and they are particularly important to the most innovative clean energy technologies. For example, some of the minerals DOE considers the most critical in terms of supply risk include gallium for LEDs, the rare earths dysprosium in neodymium for permanent magnets and wind turbines and electric vehicles, and cobalt and lithium for electric vehicle and grid batteries. The US is dependent on foreign sources of many critical minerals. And we also currently lack the domestic capability for downstream processing and materials as well as the manufacturing of some products made from them. 41:10 Jonathan Evans: Lithium Nevada Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Americas. It is headquartered in Reno, Nevada and is developing a project called Factor Pass, which is the largest known lithium resource in the United States. Factor Pass will profoundly improve the supply of lithium chemicals by producing 25% of today's global lithium demand when in full production. Currently, the US produces just 1% of lithium minerals and 7% of lithium chemicals. 49:15 John Warner: Chinese companies are buying up energy materials supply sources around the globe in order to ensure that battery manufacturers based in China have access to reasonably stable supplies of low cost materials. 1:04:30 Paul Ziemkiewicz: Some price support, if not, market support is needed in the early stages, because the first thing that Chinese will do and they've done it before, is drop the price on the market because it has its monopoly. And that'll drive anyone out of business. Mountain Pass was our only active mine right now in United States sends all of its oxide product to China for refining. Sen. Joe Manchin (WV): Is that because environmental laws in America we were making it very difficult for us to do that process. Paul Ziemkiewicz: I think, and I'm not an economist, but I think it's just because they have the supply chain. 1:16:15 Joe Balash: At the Department of the Interior, we're seeing a graying of our own staff in terms of the the expertise for mining in general and that is something that we see nationwide. 1:17:45 John Warner: There's very few universities today that actually do focus on a program to develop battery engineers, which is one of the most unique engineering fields because it does compromise and come compose of all of the engineering facets from thermodynamics to electronics and software to the chemistry of it. 1:21:20 Jonathan Evans: There are ways to do this. And I think it will be done very, very safely. If you look at traditional sources at least at lithium, but also known cobalt and others, I think projects can do good and do well. Even under the current environmental laws that we have or what's being promulgated in the future, it's possible I think to live in both worlds. 1:22:50 Jonathan Evans: You go next across the border to Canada or Australia, they still have strict environmental standards as well, but they accomplish what Senator Murkowski said. It's seven to 10 years to get approvals here in the United States. There's lots of mineral resources in those countries, it's usually about two years, because there's very strict process, agencies work together and they have, they have to get back and close the process out where things can drag. Sen. Angus King (ME): One of the things we did in Maine that was helpful, might be useful is one stop shopping. In other words, you don't have to go serially to five agencies, you have one lead agency and everybody else works through that process and that we found that to be very effective. 1:25:15 Paul Ziemkiewicz: The Japanese had a territorial dispute on some islands between Japan and China. And it was few years ago, 2010 maybe, the Chinese simply restricted the ability for the Japanese to get their rare earth supply. And the Japanese caved within something like three or four months. Sen. Angus King (ME): Because of the Japanese manufacturer of these high tech devices that needed that supply? Paul Ziemkiewicz: That's correct Senator. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Adam Mutawakilu, has asked the government to immediately withdraw the increment in the BOST margin announced by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). He said the decision to increase the margin amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is unfortunate. He said the Minority in Parliament is concerned that while the government appears to be granting some reliefs to individuals and businesses due to COVID-19, it has been secretly introducing new levies and taxes that places extra burden on Ghanaians. The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in a statement over the weekend said the BOST Margin which used to be three pesewas on each litre of petroleum product has been increased by an additional three pesewas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Kentucky State Senator Phillip Wheeler joins the show. Senator Wheeler, a member of the Republican Party is the State Senator for Kentucky’s 31st District. This year, he is up for re-election and is on the ballot for the Republican Primary which is to be held on June 23rd. Senator Wheeler was born Pikeville, Kentucky and a graduate of Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky, respectively. Some of Senator Wheelers current committee assignments include: Appropriates and Revenue Committee; the Judiciary Committee and the Natural Resources and Energy Committee (all under the Kentucky State Senate). Previously, the Senator has been a member of the Coal Run Lions Club, the Kentucky Justice Association and the Kentucky Workers Association.

POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna sat down with Sen. Lisa Murkowski to discuss the much-anticipated energy package, arctic drilling, and her time on the Energy Committee. Plus, organizers pull the plug on one of the world’s largest energy conferences amid coronavirus fears. Kelsey Tamborrino is a Politico Energy reporter. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of Politico's audio department. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of Politico's audio department. Carlos Prieto is a Politico podcast producer.

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The proposal for a statewide ban on thin plastic bags in retail establishments is quickly moving forward. A vote is scheduled for Tuesday in the state Environment and Energy Committee, where lawmakers heard public comments from a packed chamber this week.

In this episode Matt Lensink and Lisa Barber sit down with Aqeel Zaidi, M.Sc., P.Eng., CEM, CMVP. Aqeel is Supervisor, Commercial/Industrial Technologies, Enbridge Gas Inc., to chat about all things CHP. Aqeel has over 35 years of professional engineering experience in the energy industry, primarily dealing with energy efficiency, demand side management (DSM), combined heat and power (CHP), gas heat pump (GHP), energy auditing, boilers, steam plants, industrial process equipment, solar energy and GHG emissions including Ontario’s electricity grid emissions. Prior to joining Enbridge Gas Distribution in 2006, Aqeel held similar positions at Union Gas Limited, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), ADMIC Controls and two consulting engineering firms. Education: University of Manitoba (1981) M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering (Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow) University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan (1976) B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Memberships: Aqeel is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and a member of Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, Association of Energy Engineers, Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada and Energy Solutions Center based in Washington, D.C. Aqeel is currently co-chair of the Industrial and Major Account Consortium (IMAC), past-chair of Industrial Energy Efficiency Consortium, Gas Paper Drying Consortium and the Boiler Burner Consortium of the Energy Solution Center, and past-chair of the Energy Committee of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada (Paptac). He is a current member of the Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of Automotive, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science of Ontario Tech University, Oshawa. He is a past member of the US DOE Steam Steering Committee. He was guest lecturer at the Gas Technology Institute, Chicago for the Chartered Industrial Gas Consultant (CIGC) program from 1996-2000. Awards: He is inaugural recipient of the Life Time Achievement Award of the Energy Solution Center, Washington, D.C. (2019) He is recipient of 2012 F.G. Robinson Award for being a leading Committee Chair of Paptac. (2012).

Congress is moving at full speed ahead of the Thanksgiving break. Today, the Senate Energy Committee will vote on the nominations of Dan Brouillette for Energy secretary, James Danly as FERC boardmember, and Katherine Macgregor for deputy Interior secretary, while the House Energy and Commerce committee holds a massive markup that includes a ban on asbestos and legislation on PFAS chemicals. Meanwhile on the Hill, more public testimony unfolds as part of the impeachment probe, and a group of climate activists gathers at Nancy Pelosi’s office. Find more on the show at politico.com/energy-podcast.

In this episode, we discuss how to market yourself and grow your career. A reservoir engineer for Endeavor Energy Resources, LP and a very active SPE member, Yogashri Pradhan joins on The SPE Podcast sharing tips and tricks to grow your network. More From Yogashri Pradhan LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/yogashripradhan/ JPT: Did I Make the Right Career Choice? JPT: Permian Operators Collaborate to Improve Understanding and Performance of Unconventional Reservoirs OnePetro: Lessons Learned From Existing Horizontal Fractured Wells on University Lands in the Midland Basin: Rate Transient Analyses vs Completion and Field Development Optimization OnePetro: Evaluating the Impact of Frac Communication Between Parent, Child, and Vertical Wells in the Midland Basin Lower Spraberry and Wolfcamp Reservoirs Mentioned in This Episode SPE Gulf Coast Section: https://www.spegcs.org SPE Women in Energy Committee: https://www.spe.org/en/volunteer/women-in-energy/ SPE Cares at ATCE: http://www.atce.org/schedule/spe-cares SPE Members in Transition:https://www.spe.org/en/members/transition/ We hope you enjoy the SPE Podcast… and take away something useful to your job and career along the way.  Your feedback is welcome, along with ideas for topics you would like to see us cover in future podcasts. You can also send your feedback to podcasts@spe.org. Like what you are hearing? Give us a 5-star rating and leave a review – we love reading what you have to say. You can also get connected with SPE on all social media, just use #SPEpodcast. Society of Petroleum Engineers on Social LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube More Information Event Calendar | Membership | Publications | Training | Resources   Thanks for listening!

Bill C-69 has been described as the pipeline-killing legislation. It is currently being debated in the Canadian Senate before the Environment and Energy Committee. Senators had agreed to a cross-Canada tour in order to allow Canadians to raise any issues they may have with C-69. Now Senator Yuen Pao Woo (leader of the Independent Senators Group (Liberals) is trying to change the itinerary so the tour only includes one Eastern Canada stop and wants Winnipeg written out of the itinerary as well. Conservative Senator David Tkachuk is insisting on a true Eastern/Western Canada tour.  Why shouldn't Canadians from all regions have the opportunity to speak to this significantly impactful legislation?  Guest:  David Tkachuk, Senator See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ray Hoffman interviews Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud. You might say there’s electricity in her blood. Long before her reputation was established as one of the world’s foremost experts on power storage, her father, Wolfgang Lampe, was world-renowned for building power stations and power transmission lines. After earning her doctorate in her native Sweden, Christina came to the U.S. and started her first company, Boston-Power, in 2006. In 2012, she and three of her former colleagues, one of whom is her husband, started Cadenza Innovation. It’s a Connecticut-based firm, which has developed a fireproof lithium-ion battery. It can be snapped together like LEGO® bricks to store virtually infinite amounts of power and sold cheaply. In 2018, this Cadenza Innovation story turned into a fast-moving one, which is why, after one long interview with Christina Lampe-Önnerud, Ray had to go back for a major update just six months later!   Key Takeaways: [:21] Ray Hoffman introduces Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud. [1:22] A lot has happened. Cadenza Innovations has gone from being a technical promise, through the demonstration at Fiat Chrysler earlier this year, into having initiated the program with New York State and the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the biggest public utility in the United States coming into New York City. [1:48] Cadenza Innovation is constructing a public demonstration of what the Cadenza technology can do for the United States, with the specifics of the New York City grid. That’s going live in the summer. The stakeholders have all started their work. [2:12] The Fiat Chrysler demonstration came from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which recognized the Cadenza opportunity as associated with the lowest cost, highest safety, and highest energy density per volume. [2:26] Fiat Chrysler then signed up to be the champion. The demonstration happened in Q1 2018, which was on the heels of an over-three-year-long program with lots of third-party testing and validation, under the supervision of Fiat Chrysler, then being incorporated into the Fiat 500E. The test was run in Los Angeles. [2:58] Cadenza Innovation demonstrated the Cadenza cell could go in as a retrofit. They demonstrated blocks that stack like LEGO® bricks. They demonstrated very aggressive goals set out by the U.S. DOE. The battery industry had said they could not do it but Cadenza met the goals, which included targets for range, safety, and cost. [3:27] The cost is incredibly interesting because Cadenza is using supply chain assets, today. [3:37] In June, Cadenza was given funding by NY State to do this clean energy storage demonstration project in White Plains, NY. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud tells how this happened. New York State, through NYSERDA, invited Cadenza to be part of an evaluation where they looked at multiple ways to meet energy efficiency. [4:21] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud explains the old system of centralized power plants, distribution, and deployment. She outlines the future course of power distribution with multiple points of power generation paired with storage, almost like the internet where you trade energy where it’s most efficient. [5:02] The battery and storage are critical for that arbitrage. Batteries significantly also replace climate change threats. New York looked at policy, incentives, and technology. Cadenza scored highly in the technology category so they were invited to give a demonstration. [5:29] The demonstration will be hooked up to the NYPA’s headquarters in White Plains. It will be in a public space next to a bus stop. There is a potential for the demonstration to include generating data to show peak shifting in real-time and peak savings, including the reduction of CO2 and other climate gases. [6:20] The state has designated a pad outside the building, roughly the size of a storage container with air conditioning and the hand-off between the battery and the grid. The battery takes up a small area. The container is partly to prevent battery theft. [7:28] The demonstration will be for at least three months. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud is very hopeful that NYPA will pick up more units very quickly and deploy the technology. [7:51] Cadenza has received funding in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. The team has only 30 people. They have received support from the battery industry ecosystem. Cadenza serves as a demonstration that new technology is not dangerous. It has moved the needle a little bit into acceptance, also thanks to low pricing. [8:42] Cadenza is interested in playing in multiple states but as engineers, they work hardest on execution, to make sure every demonstration is successful. Cadenza technology is less dangerous than legacy systems. [9:04] Another success point in the past six months is that Cadenza has engaged with the Department of Defense (DOD), who have done their best to blow up the technology. The standard industry test, thermal runaway, did not happen with the Cadenza cells. That garnered quite a bit of interest and a lot of curiosity. The results are remarkable. [10:30] The jelly roll cell technology of encased cells prevents thermal cascades as a short will shut down the cell. The DOD warned them “We’re going to blow up your cell.” The engineers replied “Thank you, ... but we don’t think it will.” It didn’t blow up. [11:37] In 2012, when Dr. Lampe-Önnerud founded Cadenza Innovation, she was very committed to the tripod of safety, cost, and performance. Nobody thought it was possible. She notes the technical achievement of her team and also points out the business innovation of putting together a very safe and collaborative system to succeed. [12:28] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud elaborates on the recent news that China’s Shenzhen BAK Power Battery and Cadenza Innovation have announced that they will co-manufacture lithium-ion cells and modules based on Cadenza Innovation’s supercell architecture. BAK is already one of the biggest suppliers of jelly rolls in China. [13:48] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud tells how lithium-ion jelly roll technology improves on the earlier lithium-ion technology. The jelly roll is easy to manufacture and you can have it manufactured locally, close to point of use, so your battery factory only needs to do final assembly. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud talks of BAK’s success from startup to a major manufacturer. [15:14] Cadenza was also honored in Tianjin, China, by the World Economic Forum as a 2018 Technology Pioneer. Four of the team had already been acknowledged for the same award in 2010 for a different technology. The four, including Dr. Lampe-Önnerud, have been working together for 20 years. [16:05] Boston-Power innovated in the portable power arena at a time when the industry had a lot of safety issues. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud had been at Arthur D. Little (ADL) and the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) had engaged ADL as an independent advisor on how to treat these 20 million recalled batteries. [16:44] Boston-Power stepped up the game by cleaning up some of the safety idiosyncrasies and pioneered cleaning up some of the greenhouse gases. Boston-Power was a green company before it was cool to be green. They fueled the paradigm where the battery had to last the life of the laptop. [17:06] Boston-Power also pioneered the paradigm of fast charging. Their battery was capable of the longest run-time and also charged to 80% capacity in 30 minutes, which was unheard of in 2005. [17:22] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud knew with a little group — 10 people out of her garage — a little bit of confidence, and a lot of friends, they could become a player. [17:36] The World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer Award is a recognition from global industry leaders, including Fortune 50 companies in the forum, and heads of states. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud had previously been recognized as a pioneer entrepreneur. [18:08] As a tech pioneer, you get invited to share a story or vision, which can become part of the content for the World Economic Forum agenda. As a two-time winner, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud has also been invited and has accepted to be a co-chair for The Future of Energy Committee to help drive the discussion. [18:29] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud also was in Nice recently to address the International Energy and Power Supply Conference (Batteries 2018) on The Role of Energy Storage in the New Economy Paradigm. Two macro-trends she covered are the rate of technological change and climate change. [19:46] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud worked with the Club de Madrid and the United Nations from 2009 to 2011, and with Condoleezza Rice and the President of the European Council to try to facilitate a data-driven global agenda. They developed a model for watching temperatures and predicting problems. The model has been a good estimate. [20:55] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud sees hesitation around global collaboration. You have to be rather stubborn that you want to keep the door open. It takes a lot of positive force. [21:47] Since starting Boston-Power in 2004, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud has learned that it was not as hard as she imagined it would be to raise capital. She didn’t have time for a process, she just needed investors immediately. Over the years, she raised almost $360 million and the company had a chance to grow. [22:37] With Cadenza Innovation, Dr. Lampe-Önnerud is more knowledgeable and she invented a new security that aligns investors and the management team for a ‘long play.’ She is determined to try to stay courageous for global markets. She is trying to stay very true to doing good and doing well, at the same time. [22:59] With Dr. Lampe-Önnerud’s new investment security, there is no artificial driver for the investor to get out. The intent is not to flip the company in two years. If they sold it, it would be for a remarkable opportunity. [23:13] The strategy is actually to deploy great technology into a vacuum that is huge. And with that, they will do a ton of good, and make a lot of money in it, as well. [23:26] It is very difficult to make transformations within a year or two. Most policies call for four years or less of effort, which is still too short. Dr. Lampe-Önnerud says it is basic to commit to something that is over 10 years. 10 years is very fast for technology shifts. [23:49] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud got investors to sign on from the beginning. She went only to ‘angels.’ She told them they may make 10X or 20X their investment, but it will take 10 years. She told investors liquidity may be available in Year Six, but not in Year One. [24:32] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud could spend all her time in music because she loves it so much, but she loves equally this exciting game of trying to make a difference. She dedicates her music time to Silk’n Sounds, a Connecticut female a cappella chorus. [25:47] Dr. Lampe-Önnerud approaches the group with her CEO mindset. She sees it as providing empowerment!   Mentioned in This Episode: Dr. Christina Lampe-Önnerud Cadenza Innovation, Inc. Fiat Chrysler NYPA Department of Energy (DOE) NYSERDA Department of Defense (DOD) Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) Arthur D. Little Club de Madrid United Nations Silk'n Sounds Stephens.com This Is Capitalism

What's Next Washington's Host, Sue Mason, interviews Angeline Thomas. Angeline began her legal career as non-partisan Session Counsel for Washington State’s Senate Committee Services where she served on the Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Eager to put public policy into action, Angeline joined the Access to Justice Institute at her alma mater, Seattle University School of Law, where she developed and managed the Foreclosure Mediation and Outreach Project—a pro bono program for law students focused on foreclosure prevention education, outreach, and legal assistance. She became a regional expert on Washington State’s newly implemented Foreclosure Mediation Program, where she trained more than 100 law students, started an advice and referral legal clinic in Tacoma, founded the Pierce County Foreclosure Prevention Roundtable, consulted with city government and state agencies on outreach efforts, oversaw the production of a widely praised YouTube video about the law, and implemented two robust door-to-door canvassing campaigns to reach homeowners. Angeline graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 2011. She is currently a member of the Pro Bono and Public Service Committee of the Washington State Bar Association and has served as a volunteer with the Housing Justice Project. Angeline Thomas joined Washington Appleseed as the Executive Director in May of 2016. Washington Appleseed Website Produced and edited by ZipBangWow! Productions - Jonnie Wilder http://zipbangwow.com/ Song credit Marker Beacon. Song “Free".   Marker Beacon Website    

Ray Long, vice president of government affairs for NRG Energy, addresses the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee concerning nuclear subsidies.

PSEG CEO Ralph Izzo addresses the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee concerning nuclear subsidies.

January 23, 2018 Rain with high temperatures in the upper 50s. COVERING UP POLICE MISCONDUCT COSTS MILLIONS, REPORT SAYS A two-year investigation by the Asbury Park Press finds that various government entities have spent more than $40 million over the last decade to cover up police misconduct. “A veil of secret settlements and nondisclosure agreements” have been used to silence victims of rogue cops, the Press reports. Among the police transgressions are deaths, physical abuse, sexual misconduct, false arrests and harassment. NJ HOME VALUES COULD DROP BY 7.5%, CREDIT RATER SAYS A reduction in the state sales tax combined with recently enacted federal tax cuts could cause a drop in value for the average New Jersey home of 7.5 percent, warns the credit-rating agency Moody’s, according to The Record. The federal tax overhaul limits the amount of property taxes that homeowners can deduct to $10,000, while the average deduction taken in 2015 was $17,850, Moody’s says in a report. And the sales tax cut could reduce state revenue by nearly half a billion dollars, the agency says. DESPITE LOOMING RETRIAL, DEMOCRATS NOT ABANDONING MENENDEZ Even though he is facing retrial on federal corruption charges, Sen. Bob Menendez is seeking re-election and still has the support of the state’s Democratic leaders, Politico.com reports. The Justice Department announced Friday that it would retry the senator on bribery and corruption charges and asked the court to set the matter for “the earliest possible date.” But LeRoy Jones, the Democratic chairman of Essex County, said, “I have a strong belief in Bob Menendez that is, I would say, unflappable.” MEASURE FOR PSEG NUCLEAR SUBSIDY IS REVIVED IN LEGISLATURE Controversial legislation that would provide PSEG subsidies to keep three nuclear power units in South Jersey operating is being revived, even though the bill died in the lame-duck legislative session, NJ Spotlight reports. The Senate Environment and Energy Committee is scheduled to consider the bill on Thursday. The measure would provide the power company up to $300 million a year in subsidies paid by ratepayers. NJ MEDICAL EXAMINER CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF DEATH INQUIRY SYSTEM State Medical Examiner Andrew Falzon testified Monday at a Senate committee hearing in Trenton that the system used for investigating deaths needs upgrading, NJ.com writes. Falzon said the system, which relies on a mixture of state and county medical examiners, was in “desperate need of updating in order to bring it in line with current forensic pathology practices and guidelines." But officials in various counties contend that their offices are efficient and well financed.

Yann is joined by AriSEIA’s Lucy Mason. Lucy is the executive director of Arizona’s State Chapter, a republican and former Chair of the Water and Energy Committee in the State House of Representatives in Arizona. Arizona has been the battleground for solar net metering for many years and Lucy has recently joined a settlement. We talk about how solar can speak to republicans and the mutual benefits to both sides. This is the last in the conversations with State Chapter directors.

Chuck Ross was appointed as the Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets by Governor Peter Shumlin and took office in January of 2011. Prior to his current role as Secretary, he served as U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy’s State Director for 16 years. Before joining Leahy’s staff, Ross was a farmer and legislator from Hinesburg, Vermont. During his six years in the Vermont State Legislature, Ross served as Chair of the House Natural Resource and Energy Committee. He has served on the Board of Directors at Shelburne Farms; on the Advisory Board of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont; as an advisory member of the Vermont Council on Rural Development; and as Vermont’s National Democratic Committeeman. Ross formerly served as a trustee at Fletcher Allen Health Care; a trustee at the University of Vermont; a member of the Hinesburg Planning Commission; and a member of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. Born in Burlington, Vermont, he graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.A. in Geography in 1978 and from the University of Washington with an M.A. in Geography in 1982. Thanks to our sponsor, Hearst Ranch. “If the 98% percent of people who are not involved in food production are not literate in agriculture, it’s going to be difficult to address the problems of our state, our country, and our globe when it comes to food issues.” [3:15] — Chuck Ross, Secretary of Agriculture (VT), Greenhorn Radio

EnviroPolitics visits NJ Spotlight's Energy Roundtable and speaks with reporter Tom Johnson about alternative fuel vehicles and with Bob Smith, chiarman of the NJ Senate's Environment and Energy Committee about dune rebuilding (after Superstorm Sandy) and about his solar roof warranty legislation.  For more valuable environment and energy news in NJ, PA, NY & DE, check out EnviroPolitics Blog 

Martin Mulvihill, the Executive Director of Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, discusses the Center’s efforts to build an academic program to advance green chemistry through interdisciplinary scholarship. He discussed his views of sustainability in chemistry. bcgc.berkeley.eduTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next Speaker 2: [inaudible].Speaker 3: Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and [00:00:30] technologists. Speaker 2: [inaudible].Speaker 1: Good afternoon. I'm Rick Karnofsky. Brad swift and I are co-hosting today's show today. We have on Martin Mulva Hill, the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. He'll talk to us about the center's efforts to build a novel academic program and how he views sustainability and chemistry. Marty Mulvihill, welcome to spectrum. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I wanted [00:01:00] to have you talk about sustainability and then my take on things. Sustainability is fast becoming a cliche, so if you would spell out what you believe sustainability to be. Speaker 4: Yeah. Sustainability is a broad movement towards both dematerialization materialization and trans materialization, so looking at ways to use fewer resources to still meet the means of society such that future generations [00:01:30] can also meet their needs. That comes from the Brundtland report, which is the UN report, which back in 86 sort of defined sustainability. Sustainability includes a lot of different things, which is much broader than any one discipline and even any one interdisciplinary center can really take on, in my opinion, at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, my background and my current position, we really focus on a narrow part of sustainability and that's the chemicals piece. How do we ensure [00:02:00] that at the molecular level, the things we're building, um, are more sustainable, I. E don't use more resources than necessary and are safe for human health and the environment. The overarching goal for the center, how would you characterize that? Speaker 4: And you're the executive director of the center now, right? That's correct. We have like many of the centers on campus, three main purposes. The first is education. So we're teaching [00:02:30] a number of graduate classes and are redoing the undergraduate laboratories in chemistry. So first and foremost, it's about bringing these concepts of sustainability and green chemistry to our students here at UC Berkeley. Secondarily, as a research institution, we're very interested in pushing the bounds of green chemistry. So making the new materials, working with people to make safer materials and understanding the broad consequences of chemicals within [00:03:00] our environment and business supply chains such that we have better and safer chemicals for consumer use. That's the research piece. And the third piece, because this is applied and a big topic is about engagement. So that's working with both local NGOs, the California government, as well as a local businesses to take a look at how do we, beyond the [00:03:30] walls of UC Berkeley, actually improve the chemical footprint, so to speak. Speaker 4: Can you give us an example of a sustainable versus an unsustainable chemical process? Yeah. I'll give you an example of something that we're working on right now. So we don't necessarily have the more sustainable substitute at hand. But in the wake of the recent oil spills, we were taking a close look at what was used, [00:04:00] what was the response? So first we have to characterize what are your options that are available? What are the technologies in the case that dispersants so something that's gonna take that oil slick and turn it into small globules are your only option either because of concerns about the environment or concerns about the human health, safety of the people cleaning up the oil spill. Sometimes these really are your best option. You dig down another level and you talk to the folks in a toxicology [00:04:30] and you find out that the dispersants we use actually break down more slowly than the oil itself. Speaker 4: So if you're going to add something to an oil slick, it seems like what you'd want is something that breaks down at least as fast as the oil you're trying to get rid of. So again, we talked to our colleagues and we're characterizing this issue. So as chemists, we can think about how can we make something that breaks down more quickly. Additionally, you talked to your, our colleagues that have worked out in the Gulf and characterize [00:05:00] the biological communities that actually break down this oil, found that there are a couple of strains of bacteria that are primarily responsible for that and one of those strains of bacteria is adversely effected by the most commonly used oil dispersant. That's a problem. Again, if you want to clean up oil and sometimes it's absolutely necessary to disperse it, you want to make sure that the things that are naturally going to break it down aren't going to be harmed by the thing you're using to disperse it. Speaker 4: So [00:05:30] with those design parameters in mind, the center is now seeking to create an oil dispersant that breaks down as quickly or more quickly than awhile and is not toxic hopefully to any aquatic life, but especially not to the aquatic life that's going to be primarily responsible for breaking down the dispersant in the oil that we're getting rid of in the first place. So it's a way of, in the past, you would have chemists just to create a molecule that effectively disperses [00:06:00] oil. Absolutely good goal. But it wasn't until other people took a look at what they created that you started understanding the environmental fate and the toxicology of these things. Now we have the knowledge upfront, so I'm working with graduate students in toxicology and in chemistry to characterize this solution from beginning to end before we even claim that this is something we can be used out in the environs Speaker 2: [inaudible] [00:06:30] you you're listening to spectrum on KALX we are speaking with Martin Mulvihill, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. Speaker 4: The the key thing to getting the center off the ground was getting buy in from college chemistry, the School of Public Health, college in natural resources, Haas School of business and the College of Engineering. So getting all [00:07:00] of those folks at the table was actually probably the biggest challenge. The center is so far met because you find that as the disciplines become, you know, more and more focused and more and more advanced, their ability to communicate actually has lost a little bit. So understanding that a chemist doesn't advance in his field without making new products, while at the same time a environmental scientist has a hard time advancing in his or her field if they don't actually [00:07:30] characterize problems. Chemists don't like to hear about problems. Environmental scientists don't necessarily like to hear about the millions of new chemicals we want to make. So those discussions are aren't necessarily, it's easier as natural as we'd want them to be, but we're breaking those barriers down at Berkeley and the people who break them down the most are actually the students because they aren't indoctrinated in one way of thought yet. So they naturally see the connection between making a capital goal and understanding where [00:08:00] it goes. It's really the people who have been trained for the longest have the hardest time breaking down those boundaries. So a bit of a generational issue. Yeah, absolutely. We view a generational shift in the way that we can see of making and distributing chemicals and materials in our society. Speaker 4: And what about the regulatory environment? I know the European Union is very aggressive and the EPA has somewhat, [00:08:30] California's always been very aggressive. How does that play in this with the industry and their costs and how they want to go forward? Yeah, the regulatory question is a very important one and is actually in some ways where you see Berkeley. Got It start. So since 2006 the folks in public health, especially Mike Wilson makes Schwartzman, they were both working actively with California legislation in this area and continue to work [00:09:00] actively in this area. The regulatory piece, at least the way we see it is all about providing more information, more information to the marketplace and also more information to the consumer. So when you look at things like the reach initiative in the European Union, what is really asking for is information. If you produce chemicals at certain scales, you have to, as the scales increased, provide more and more information. Speaker 4: The next step is going to be how do [00:09:30] we figure out what to do with that information. And it is regulation that can create economic barriers or incentives to adoption of safer chemicals. So the California Green Chemistry initiative is still in the phase of deciding what information we're going to ask for. And then how are we going to promote changes to safer chemicals. Those discussions involve both industry folks, academic folks and NGO folks. They're happening in [00:10:00] real time, so there are certainly differences of opinion there, but we are intering a phase of global chemical production where more information is going to become necessary and consumers, governments and other folks are going to start asking for products that perform better environmentally is an international standard, something that's conceivable and possible because what seems to happen is that developing countries create strict standards [00:10:30] and then the companies just dump in the non developed world or company places where they don't have any sort of regulatory framework. Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly from a my viewpoint international action is certain is necessary because if you have different sets of economic and environmental drivers in different places, it's easy to game the system. I mean we do have a, a global chemical manufacturing [00:11:00] system. It's already global so they can easily move things from one place to another. I think that it's in the best interest of all of us in the end, all of the stakeholders, both individual consumers as well as the companies and the governments to do some coordination, um, coordination of international policies, very tough. You sometimes run the risk of being pushed to the lowest common denominator. I think that's the danger [00:11:30] of going that route. The first step. And what I would like to see globally is at least some standard information requirements. So taking a look at what do you have to test for chemicals produced at what levels based on where you're selling them. So you might be producing them somewhere else and you have to worry about all those, uh, waste products and how they're being dealt with. But at least if you have a standard [00:12:00] for a global standard for what information you have to test in order to sell, it does, you know, good to produce a chemical somewhere that you can then sell back into the developed world. Speaker 5: Talk a little bit about your research in nanotechnology. Speaker 4: Yeah. So, um, I've actually been at Berkeley Awhile and my research as a graduate student was in nanotechnology, making [inaudible] new materials, mostly inorganic materials [00:12:30] that had some application for either the energy space or environmental sensing space. So I was able to create a sensor for arsenic in groundwater. That was actually the project that got me excited about this more interdisciplinary approach to science and technology. After that, I did research on the fate of nanoparticles in the environment. So I went up to the national labs, um, Berkeley national labs right up the hill behind campus [00:13:00] and did a year long postdoc in environmental science and material science characterizing the fate of Nano materials in the environment. Because as we create all these new materials, it's important to take a life cycle approach, right? Understand both how as a chemist I can get the function that I want out of a new material, but also make sure that the end of life isn't going to create unfortunate undesirable harms. So that's an exciting area of my own research [00:13:30] where now that I have a better sense of the life cycle of nanomaterials. We're trying to apply some of that too. Water purification technology, so I still work with a show Gad go who's in environmental engineering and e t d at the labs trying to create new, a safer, I'm sorbent for mineral contamination and groundwater so get rid of things like arsenic or excess fluoride. Speaker 5: Nanoscience then could [00:14:00] also have this kind of sustainability issue and push in. It's Speaker 4: growing cause this, this is a brand new science. It's, yeah, I think nanoscience is a great case study. Take a look at Green Chemistry and nanoscience side by side. They actually started around the same time and they have a lot of the same goals. The goal of nanoscience really is to do more with less, right? Let's take small materials that are well-engineered [00:14:30] to more efficiently produce energy. I mean you look at what Nano technologies being used for. It's a lot of, it looks like the same things that green chemistry is trying to do and in fact folks are also it already looking at the end of life issues around nanomaterials. I think it's a perfect example of how greater awareness, greater awareness from the funding agencies is actually taking a more proactive approach to new chemical materials, Nano materials [00:15:00] being a large class of the new materials that we're producing. So you already have large centers throughout the country that are taking a look at what are the environmental implications of nanomaterials, what are the toxicological fates of new nano materials? It's actually a place where I think we're ahead of the historical curve. Are there still concerns and unknown knowns about nanomaterials? Absolutely. Are nanomaterials making it into consumer products? Yeah, they're just beginning to, [00:15:30] I don't think they represent a clear and present danger that's larger than any of the other chemicals that we're using. Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 4: you're listening to spectrum on KLM Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 4: one exciting thing I'd just plug is that this May, we're going to be having our second conference here on campus. So last March was [00:16:00] our first kind of big open public conference and brought in people representing all of these backgrounds. And we're going to do that again, this May. So take a look at our website, it's going to be on May 3rd here on campus. So you know if you're interested in being involved, always send me an email. We have lots of opportunities. Take a look at our classes and consider coming to our conference in May. And the conference is open to the students and community. Absolutely, absolutely. [00:16:30] Great. And what's the website? The website is BC gc.berkeley.edu so Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, BC GC. Good. See you there. Excellent. Marty Mulvihill thanks very much for coming on spectrum. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: Pleasure. [inaudible] Speaker 6: [00:17:00] irregular feature of spectrum is a calendar that highlight some of the science and technology events happening in the bay area over the next two weeks. The Audubon society is hosting a winter bird count tomorrow, Saturday, January 28th this is a free event open to families of all ages and sizes. Naturalists will lead a bird walk around lake merit to discover and [00:17:30] count wintered bird species such as ducks cormorants inheritance. Meet at the lake 600 Bellevue Avenue in Oakland. Dress warmly bring binoculars and field guides if you have them, but binoculars will be available to borrow. Bring water into lunch. Please RSVP with the Golden Gate Autobon g g a s education@gmail.com or (510) 508-1388 or [00:18:00] also visit www.andgoldengateaudubon.org for more information. Speaker 1: Registration is open for she's Geeky Bay area. This event runs January 27th 28th and 29th at the Computer History Museum in mountain view. She's Kiki hosts on conferences across the U s providing a unique environment for women working in technology and other geeky fields including science, engineering and math. To learn from one another. Grow networks, [00:18:30] connect across generations and discuss issues. Women attending. She's Geeky events. Find inspiration and gain self confidence to pursue or continue on stem career paths because they are given the opportunity to present their work often for the first time. Discuss critical issues and build peer networks for support. Visit www dot [inaudible] dot org for more information Speaker 5: producing natural gas from shale opportunities and challenges of a major new energy source. Mark Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page [00:19:00] professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Mark Conducts Research on institute stress, fault mechanics and reservoir geomechanics. He currently serves on the National Academy of Energy Committee investigating the deep water horizon accident and the secretary of Energy's committee on Shale gas development and environmental protection. His presentation is Monday, January 30th at 4:15 PM on the Stanford University campus whining science center [00:19:30] and Video Auditorium. It is free and open to the public conversations at the Herbst, the power of gaming on a planetary basis. We spend 3 billion hours a week playing video games. That's a lot of time enough to change our lives and probably save the world. The real world while we're at it, author of reality is broken, why games make us better and how they can change the world. Dr Jane mcgonigal discusses her belief [00:20:00] that video games can be a positive platform for exploration and problem solving in our lives and for our planet. In conversation with Ryan Wyatt, director of the Morrison Planetarium, Tuesday, January 31st at 8:00 PM at the herps theatre four oh one Venice avenue in San Francisco, tickets start at $22 Speaker 6: February's free. Leonardo art center, evening rendezvous or laser will be on the first at Sanford [00:20:30] universities. PGO Hall Room one 13 networking begins at six 45 and a talk starts at seven here from artists, Daniel Small and Luca and two Nucci on firstlight, their art based on the Hubble ultra deep field imaging systems portrait of the visible universe that reveals the first light from 13.5 billion years ago. Architect and photo person will present city of the future as of 2008 over 80% [00:21:00] of land of the world that is suitable for raising crops is in use. Where will we find farmland we need? By 2040 80% of the world's population will reside in urban centers pushing out into the neighboring agricultural land. How will we feed ourselves form a NASA scientists. San Gill will talk about collaborative intelligence and how evolution and natural systems can inform social problem solving. Then I will conclude with artists, Phil Ross, his presentation [00:21:30] on micro architecture. Fungi can be used to transform agricultural waste into durable and low impact materials at room temperature. The future is moldy in this presentation, Phil will describe as research on growing a building out of living fungus. For more about the laser series, browse www.leonardo.info Speaker 5: the February science cafe presents exploding and brains mice [00:22:00] who love cat piss and people who eat too much cake. The hidden ways that microbes manipulate animal behavior. All animals live in close contact with micro organisms of all sorts. These micro organisms depend on animals for food, shelter, places to reproduce, et cetera. These microbes lives are thus affected by ways in which the animal behaves in. Many of these microbes have evolved ways to ensure that their hosts behave in ways that are good for them, often at the [00:22:30] expense of the animals. Dr. Michael Isen, we'll talk about new work from his lab and elsewhere. Looking at a variety of different ways in which micro organisms use chemical signals and targeted disruptions of cells in the nervous system to alter animal behavior. He will also touch on the ongoing battles over public access to the scientific literature. Michael Isen is an evolutionary biologist at UC Berkeley and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Science cafe happens Wednesday, [00:23:00] February 1st at 7:00 PM in the La Pena Cultural Center, 31 oh five Shattuck avenue in Berkeley.Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 5: you're listening to spectrum Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 6: and now for some science news headlines. Here's Brad swift Speaker 5: diesel truck emissions in Oakland fall sharply in January, 2010 [00:23:30] the California Air Resources Board banned all 1993 and older drayage trucks from ports and rail yards statewide. They also ordered trucks built within the years 1994 to 2006 to particle filters by the end of the year 2011 in a paper recently published in environmental science and technology. You see Berkeley Professor Robert Harley and coauthors Tim Dolman and Tom Cush [00:24:00] stutter described the process and the results of their monitoring truck exhaust at a section of highway near the port of Oakland and the Oakland rail yards. They compare data they collected from November, 2009 before the ban with data they collected from the same Oakland site in 2010 after the ban, the comparison found black smoke emissions were reduced by about half and the nitrogen oxide emissions dropped by 40% Harley [00:24:30] and his researchers will return to this section of highway several more times over the next two years. As the remaining 2004 to 2006 truck engines are retrofitted with filters, they expect to study in greater depth the properties of emitted particulate matter. They will also examine more closely the chemical composition of the nitrogen oxide emissions to determine the split between nitric oxide and the nitrogen dioxide. [00:25:00] This diesel emissions control program will go statewide to all trucks over the next several years, including trucks from out of state, Speaker 6: neuro psychopharmacologist, David Nutt and colleagues at the Imperial College. London wrote an article that was published in the January 23rd of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on how hallucinogens such as magic mushrooms work in the human brain. 15 people with previous history of psychedelic usage were injected with a small amount of psilocybin. [00:25:30] This caused an immediate reaction that peaked within minutes and lasted for about an hour. This differed from those injected with Saltwater Placebo functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans before and after administration showed decreased blood flow activity through some regions of the brain. The result was found again with a new batch of 15 volunteers and through a different brain scan methodology that showed lower blood oxygenation in the brain. Specific areas [00:26:00] affected included the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. Science news reports that Brian Roth of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who was not involved with the study remarked that they had the complete opposite of what had been predicted. They differ from earlier studies that use positron emission tomography. This work hearkens back to an earlier headline we ran on spectrum that reported that some hallucinogen and phenomena such as synesthesia [00:26:30] may arise from a relaxing of some of the brain's filters. It may also help find drugs or derivatives to be used in the treatment of depression, cluster headaches, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other conditions that linked to too much brain Speaker 5: activity. For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis among [00:27:00] other nervous system diseases. James Hickman at University of central Florida, bioengineer and leader of the research group says we're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells. The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. Had Devika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, [00:27:30] was able to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and the spinal cord. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair. The other possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis [00:28:00] and similar nervous system diseases. Speaker 2: [inaudible] music you heard today was from Lozan and David Sofer. These album Croak and acoustic. It is released under the creative Commons attribution license version 3.0 [inaudible] [00:28:30] spectrum was recorded and edited, and by me, Rick Karnofsky and by Brad swift and Mark Taylor, thank you for listening to spectrum. We are happy to hear from this. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum dot k a l x@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. [00:29:00] [inaudible] [00:29:30] [inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Martin Mulvihill, the Executive Director of Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, discusses the Center's efforts to build an academic program to advance green chemistry through interdisciplinary scholarship. He discussed his views of sustainability in chemistry. bcgc.berkeley.eduTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next Speaker 2: [inaudible].Speaker 3: Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and [00:00:30] technologists. Speaker 2: [inaudible].Speaker 1: Good afternoon. I'm Rick Karnofsky. Brad swift and I are co-hosting today's show today. We have on Martin Mulva Hill, the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. He'll talk to us about the center's efforts to build a novel academic program and how he views sustainability and chemistry. Marty Mulvihill, welcome to spectrum. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I wanted [00:01:00] to have you talk about sustainability and then my take on things. Sustainability is fast becoming a cliche, so if you would spell out what you believe sustainability to be. Speaker 4: Yeah. Sustainability is a broad movement towards both dematerialization materialization and trans materialization, so looking at ways to use fewer resources to still meet the means of society such that future generations [00:01:30] can also meet their needs. That comes from the Brundtland report, which is the UN report, which back in 86 sort of defined sustainability. Sustainability includes a lot of different things, which is much broader than any one discipline and even any one interdisciplinary center can really take on, in my opinion, at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, my background and my current position, we really focus on a narrow part of sustainability and that's the chemicals piece. How do we ensure [00:02:00] that at the molecular level, the things we're building, um, are more sustainable, I. E don't use more resources than necessary and are safe for human health and the environment. The overarching goal for the center, how would you characterize that? Speaker 4: And you're the executive director of the center now, right? That's correct. We have like many of the centers on campus, three main purposes. The first is education. So we're teaching [00:02:30] a number of graduate classes and are redoing the undergraduate laboratories in chemistry. So first and foremost, it's about bringing these concepts of sustainability and green chemistry to our students here at UC Berkeley. Secondarily, as a research institution, we're very interested in pushing the bounds of green chemistry. So making the new materials, working with people to make safer materials and understanding the broad consequences of chemicals within [00:03:00] our environment and business supply chains such that we have better and safer chemicals for consumer use. That's the research piece. And the third piece, because this is applied and a big topic is about engagement. So that's working with both local NGOs, the California government, as well as a local businesses to take a look at how do we, beyond the [00:03:30] walls of UC Berkeley, actually improve the chemical footprint, so to speak. Speaker 4: Can you give us an example of a sustainable versus an unsustainable chemical process? Yeah. I'll give you an example of something that we're working on right now. So we don't necessarily have the more sustainable substitute at hand. But in the wake of the recent oil spills, we were taking a close look at what was used, [00:04:00] what was the response? So first we have to characterize what are your options that are available? What are the technologies in the case that dispersants so something that's gonna take that oil slick and turn it into small globules are your only option either because of concerns about the environment or concerns about the human health, safety of the people cleaning up the oil spill. Sometimes these really are your best option. You dig down another level and you talk to the folks in a toxicology [00:04:30] and you find out that the dispersants we use actually break down more slowly than the oil itself. Speaker 4: So if you're going to add something to an oil slick, it seems like what you'd want is something that breaks down at least as fast as the oil you're trying to get rid of. So again, we talked to our colleagues and we're characterizing this issue. So as chemists, we can think about how can we make something that breaks down more quickly. Additionally, you talked to your, our colleagues that have worked out in the Gulf and characterize [00:05:00] the biological communities that actually break down this oil, found that there are a couple of strains of bacteria that are primarily responsible for that and one of those strains of bacteria is adversely effected by the most commonly used oil dispersant. That's a problem. Again, if you want to clean up oil and sometimes it's absolutely necessary to disperse it, you want to make sure that the things that are naturally going to break it down aren't going to be harmed by the thing you're using to disperse it. Speaker 4: So [00:05:30] with those design parameters in mind, the center is now seeking to create an oil dispersant that breaks down as quickly or more quickly than awhile and is not toxic hopefully to any aquatic life, but especially not to the aquatic life that's going to be primarily responsible for breaking down the dispersant in the oil that we're getting rid of in the first place. So it's a way of, in the past, you would have chemists just to create a molecule that effectively disperses [00:06:00] oil. Absolutely good goal. But it wasn't until other people took a look at what they created that you started understanding the environmental fate and the toxicology of these things. Now we have the knowledge upfront, so I'm working with graduate students in toxicology and in chemistry to characterize this solution from beginning to end before we even claim that this is something we can be used out in the environs Speaker 2: [inaudible] [00:06:30] you you're listening to spectrum on KALX we are speaking with Martin Mulvihill, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. Speaker 4: The the key thing to getting the center off the ground was getting buy in from college chemistry, the School of Public Health, college in natural resources, Haas School of business and the College of Engineering. So getting all [00:07:00] of those folks at the table was actually probably the biggest challenge. The center is so far met because you find that as the disciplines become, you know, more and more focused and more and more advanced, their ability to communicate actually has lost a little bit. So understanding that a chemist doesn't advance in his field without making new products, while at the same time a environmental scientist has a hard time advancing in his or her field if they don't actually [00:07:30] characterize problems. Chemists don't like to hear about problems. Environmental scientists don't necessarily like to hear about the millions of new chemicals we want to make. So those discussions are aren't necessarily, it's easier as natural as we'd want them to be, but we're breaking those barriers down at Berkeley and the people who break them down the most are actually the students because they aren't indoctrinated in one way of thought yet. So they naturally see the connection between making a capital goal and understanding where [00:08:00] it goes. It's really the people who have been trained for the longest have the hardest time breaking down those boundaries. So a bit of a generational issue. Yeah, absolutely. We view a generational shift in the way that we can see of making and distributing chemicals and materials in our society. Speaker 4: And what about the regulatory environment? I know the European Union is very aggressive and the EPA has somewhat, [00:08:30] California's always been very aggressive. How does that play in this with the industry and their costs and how they want to go forward? Yeah, the regulatory question is a very important one and is actually in some ways where you see Berkeley. Got It start. So since 2006 the folks in public health, especially Mike Wilson makes Schwartzman, they were both working actively with California legislation in this area and continue to work [00:09:00] actively in this area. The regulatory piece, at least the way we see it is all about providing more information, more information to the marketplace and also more information to the consumer. So when you look at things like the reach initiative in the European Union, what is really asking for is information. If you produce chemicals at certain scales, you have to, as the scales increased, provide more and more information. Speaker 4: The next step is going to be how do [00:09:30] we figure out what to do with that information. And it is regulation that can create economic barriers or incentives to adoption of safer chemicals. So the California Green Chemistry initiative is still in the phase of deciding what information we're going to ask for. And then how are we going to promote changes to safer chemicals. Those discussions involve both industry folks, academic folks and NGO folks. They're happening in [00:10:00] real time, so there are certainly differences of opinion there, but we are intering a phase of global chemical production where more information is going to become necessary and consumers, governments and other folks are going to start asking for products that perform better environmentally is an international standard, something that's conceivable and possible because what seems to happen is that developing countries create strict standards [00:10:30] and then the companies just dump in the non developed world or company places where they don't have any sort of regulatory framework. Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly from a my viewpoint international action is certain is necessary because if you have different sets of economic and environmental drivers in different places, it's easy to game the system. I mean we do have a, a global chemical manufacturing [00:11:00] system. It's already global so they can easily move things from one place to another. I think that it's in the best interest of all of us in the end, all of the stakeholders, both individual consumers as well as the companies and the governments to do some coordination, um, coordination of international policies, very tough. You sometimes run the risk of being pushed to the lowest common denominator. I think that's the danger [00:11:30] of going that route. The first step. And what I would like to see globally is at least some standard information requirements. So taking a look at what do you have to test for chemicals produced at what levels based on where you're selling them. So you might be producing them somewhere else and you have to worry about all those, uh, waste products and how they're being dealt with. But at least if you have a standard [00:12:00] for a global standard for what information you have to test in order to sell, it does, you know, good to produce a chemical somewhere that you can then sell back into the developed world. Speaker 5: Talk a little bit about your research in nanotechnology. Speaker 4: Yeah. So, um, I've actually been at Berkeley Awhile and my research as a graduate student was in nanotechnology, making [inaudible] new materials, mostly inorganic materials [00:12:30] that had some application for either the energy space or environmental sensing space. So I was able to create a sensor for arsenic in groundwater. That was actually the project that got me excited about this more interdisciplinary approach to science and technology. After that, I did research on the fate of nanoparticles in the environment. So I went up to the national labs, um, Berkeley national labs right up the hill behind campus [00:13:00] and did a year long postdoc in environmental science and material science characterizing the fate of Nano materials in the environment. Because as we create all these new materials, it's important to take a life cycle approach, right? Understand both how as a chemist I can get the function that I want out of a new material, but also make sure that the end of life isn't going to create unfortunate undesirable harms. So that's an exciting area of my own research [00:13:30] where now that I have a better sense of the life cycle of nanomaterials. We're trying to apply some of that too. Water purification technology, so I still work with a show Gad go who's in environmental engineering and e t d at the labs trying to create new, a safer, I'm sorbent for mineral contamination and groundwater so get rid of things like arsenic or excess fluoride. Speaker 5: Nanoscience then could [00:14:00] also have this kind of sustainability issue and push in. It's Speaker 4: growing cause this, this is a brand new science. It's, yeah, I think nanoscience is a great case study. Take a look at Green Chemistry and nanoscience side by side. They actually started around the same time and they have a lot of the same goals. The goal of nanoscience really is to do more with less, right? Let's take small materials that are well-engineered [00:14:30] to more efficiently produce energy. I mean you look at what Nano technologies being used for. It's a lot of, it looks like the same things that green chemistry is trying to do and in fact folks are also it already looking at the end of life issues around nanomaterials. I think it's a perfect example of how greater awareness, greater awareness from the funding agencies is actually taking a more proactive approach to new chemical materials, Nano materials [00:15:00] being a large class of the new materials that we're producing. So you already have large centers throughout the country that are taking a look at what are the environmental implications of nanomaterials, what are the toxicological fates of new nano materials? It's actually a place where I think we're ahead of the historical curve. Are there still concerns and unknown knowns about nanomaterials? Absolutely. Are nanomaterials making it into consumer products? Yeah, they're just beginning to, [00:15:30] I don't think they represent a clear and present danger that's larger than any of the other chemicals that we're using. Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 4: you're listening to spectrum on KLM Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 4: one exciting thing I'd just plug is that this May, we're going to be having our second conference here on campus. So last March was [00:16:00] our first kind of big open public conference and brought in people representing all of these backgrounds. And we're going to do that again, this May. So take a look at our website, it's going to be on May 3rd here on campus. So you know if you're interested in being involved, always send me an email. We have lots of opportunities. Take a look at our classes and consider coming to our conference in May. And the conference is open to the students and community. Absolutely, absolutely. [00:16:30] Great. And what's the website? The website is BC gc.berkeley.edu so Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, BC GC. Good. See you there. Excellent. Marty Mulvihill thanks very much for coming on spectrum. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: Pleasure. [inaudible] Speaker 6: [00:17:00] irregular feature of spectrum is a calendar that highlight some of the science and technology events happening in the bay area over the next two weeks. The Audubon society is hosting a winter bird count tomorrow, Saturday, January 28th this is a free event open to families of all ages and sizes. Naturalists will lead a bird walk around lake merit to discover and [00:17:30] count wintered bird species such as ducks cormorants inheritance. Meet at the lake 600 Bellevue Avenue in Oakland. Dress warmly bring binoculars and field guides if you have them, but binoculars will be available to borrow. Bring water into lunch. Please RSVP with the Golden Gate Autobon g g a s education@gmail.com or (510) 508-1388 or [00:18:00] also visit www.andgoldengateaudubon.org for more information. Speaker 1: Registration is open for she's Geeky Bay area. This event runs January 27th 28th and 29th at the Computer History Museum in mountain view. She's Kiki hosts on conferences across the U s providing a unique environment for women working in technology and other geeky fields including science, engineering and math. To learn from one another. Grow networks, [00:18:30] connect across generations and discuss issues. Women attending. She's Geeky events. Find inspiration and gain self confidence to pursue or continue on stem career paths because they are given the opportunity to present their work often for the first time. Discuss critical issues and build peer networks for support. Visit www dot [inaudible] dot org for more information Speaker 5: producing natural gas from shale opportunities and challenges of a major new energy source. Mark Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page [00:19:00] professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Mark Conducts Research on institute stress, fault mechanics and reservoir geomechanics. He currently serves on the National Academy of Energy Committee investigating the deep water horizon accident and the secretary of Energy's committee on Shale gas development and environmental protection. His presentation is Monday, January 30th at 4:15 PM on the Stanford University campus whining science center [00:19:30] and Video Auditorium. It is free and open to the public conversations at the Herbst, the power of gaming on a planetary basis. We spend 3 billion hours a week playing video games. That's a lot of time enough to change our lives and probably save the world. The real world while we're at it, author of reality is broken, why games make us better and how they can change the world. Dr Jane mcgonigal discusses her belief [00:20:00] that video games can be a positive platform for exploration and problem solving in our lives and for our planet. In conversation with Ryan Wyatt, director of the Morrison Planetarium, Tuesday, January 31st at 8:00 PM at the herps theatre four oh one Venice avenue in San Francisco, tickets start at $22 Speaker 6: February's free. Leonardo art center, evening rendezvous or laser will be on the first at Sanford [00:20:30] universities. PGO Hall Room one 13 networking begins at six 45 and a talk starts at seven here from artists, Daniel Small and Luca and two Nucci on firstlight, their art based on the Hubble ultra deep field imaging systems portrait of the visible universe that reveals the first light from 13.5 billion years ago. Architect and photo person will present city of the future as of 2008 over 80% [00:21:00] of land of the world that is suitable for raising crops is in use. Where will we find farmland we need? By 2040 80% of the world's population will reside in urban centers pushing out into the neighboring agricultural land. How will we feed ourselves form a NASA scientists. San Gill will talk about collaborative intelligence and how evolution and natural systems can inform social problem solving. Then I will conclude with artists, Phil Ross, his presentation [00:21:30] on micro architecture. Fungi can be used to transform agricultural waste into durable and low impact materials at room temperature. The future is moldy in this presentation, Phil will describe as research on growing a building out of living fungus. For more about the laser series, browse www.leonardo.info Speaker 5: the February science cafe presents exploding and brains mice [00:22:00] who love cat piss and people who eat too much cake. The hidden ways that microbes manipulate animal behavior. All animals live in close contact with micro organisms of all sorts. These micro organisms depend on animals for food, shelter, places to reproduce, et cetera. These microbes lives are thus affected by ways in which the animal behaves in. Many of these microbes have evolved ways to ensure that their hosts behave in ways that are good for them, often at the [00:22:30] expense of the animals. Dr. Michael Isen, we'll talk about new work from his lab and elsewhere. Looking at a variety of different ways in which micro organisms use chemical signals and targeted disruptions of cells in the nervous system to alter animal behavior. He will also touch on the ongoing battles over public access to the scientific literature. Michael Isen is an evolutionary biologist at UC Berkeley and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Science cafe happens Wednesday, [00:23:00] February 1st at 7:00 PM in the La Pena Cultural Center, 31 oh five Shattuck avenue in Berkeley.Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 5: you're listening to spectrum Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 6: and now for some science news headlines. Here's Brad swift Speaker 5: diesel truck emissions in Oakland fall sharply in January, 2010 [00:23:30] the California Air Resources Board banned all 1993 and older drayage trucks from ports and rail yards statewide. They also ordered trucks built within the years 1994 to 2006 to particle filters by the end of the year 2011 in a paper recently published in environmental science and technology. You see Berkeley Professor Robert Harley and coauthors Tim Dolman and Tom Cush [00:24:00] stutter described the process and the results of their monitoring truck exhaust at a section of highway near the port of Oakland and the Oakland rail yards. They compare data they collected from November, 2009 before the ban with data they collected from the same Oakland site in 2010 after the ban, the comparison found black smoke emissions were reduced by about half and the nitrogen oxide emissions dropped by 40% Harley [00:24:30] and his researchers will return to this section of highway several more times over the next two years. As the remaining 2004 to 2006 truck engines are retrofitted with filters, they expect to study in greater depth the properties of emitted particulate matter. They will also examine more closely the chemical composition of the nitrogen oxide emissions to determine the split between nitric oxide and the nitrogen dioxide. [00:25:00] This diesel emissions control program will go statewide to all trucks over the next several years, including trucks from out of state, Speaker 6: neuro psychopharmacologist, David Nutt and colleagues at the Imperial College. London wrote an article that was published in the January 23rd of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on how hallucinogens such as magic mushrooms work in the human brain. 15 people with previous history of psychedelic usage were injected with a small amount of psilocybin. [00:25:30] This caused an immediate reaction that peaked within minutes and lasted for about an hour. This differed from those injected with Saltwater Placebo functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans before and after administration showed decreased blood flow activity through some regions of the brain. The result was found again with a new batch of 15 volunteers and through a different brain scan methodology that showed lower blood oxygenation in the brain. Specific areas [00:26:00] affected included the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. Science news reports that Brian Roth of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who was not involved with the study remarked that they had the complete opposite of what had been predicted. They differ from earlier studies that use positron emission tomography. This work hearkens back to an earlier headline we ran on spectrum that reported that some hallucinogen and phenomena such as synesthesia [00:26:30] may arise from a relaxing of some of the brain's filters. It may also help find drugs or derivatives to be used in the treatment of depression, cluster headaches, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other conditions that linked to too much brain Speaker 5: activity. For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis among [00:27:00] other nervous system diseases. James Hickman at University of central Florida, bioengineer and leader of the research group says we're very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells. The main challenge in working with stem cells is figuring out the chemical or other triggers that will convince them to convert into a desired cell type. Had Devika Davis, a postdoctoral researcher in Hickman's lab, [00:27:30] was able to transform umbilical stem cells into oligodendrocytes critical structural cells that insulate nerves in the brain and the spinal cord. There are two main options the group hopes to pursue through further research. The first is that the cells could be injected into the body at the point of a spinal cord injury to promote repair. The other possibility for the Hickman team's work relates to multiple sclerosis [00:28:00] and similar nervous system diseases. Speaker 2: [inaudible] music you heard today was from Lozan and David Sofer. These album Croak and acoustic. It is released under the creative Commons attribution license version 3.0 [inaudible] [00:28:30] spectrum was recorded and edited, and by me, Rick Karnofsky and by Brad swift and Mark Taylor, thank you for listening to spectrum. We are happy to hear from this. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum dot k a l x@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. [00:29:00] [inaudible] [00:29:30] [inaudible]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mimi White has been teaching creative writing for twenty-five yearsand was Co-Director of PicturePoets of AIR, a non-profit organizationthat provides enriching arts and cultural experiences to teenagegirls. She has been a finalist and a recipient of a NH StateFellowship in Poetry. Her chapbook "The Singed Horizon" was selectedby Robert Creeley as the recipient of the 2000 Philbrick PoetryAward. Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire 2005-2007, she iscurrently working to reduce the effects of global warming as a memberof Rye, New Hampshire¹s Energy Committee.

Mimi White has been teaching creative writing for twenty-five yearsand was Co-Director of PicturePoets of AIR, a non-profit organizationthat provides enriching arts and cultural experiences to teenagegirls. She has been a finalist and a recipient of a NH StateFellowship in Poetry. Her chapbook "The Singed Horizon" was selectedby Robert Creeley as the recipient of the 2000 Philbrick PoetryAward. Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire 2005-2007, she iscurrently working to reduce the effects of global warming as a memberof Rye, New Hampshire¹s Energy Committee.

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension Topic: Maine Towns Take Action on Global Warming How are towns and organizations taking action on global warming? What are some of the projects that are making a difference? What advice do those involved have for anyone thinking of starting a similar project? Guests: Ann D. Burt, Maine Council of Churches; Deb Avalone-King, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Air Bureau; Pam Person, Bucksport Environment and Energy Committee; Andrew Carpenter, City of Belfast Energy and Climate Committee; Julie Balistreri, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston-Auburn; Barbara DiBiase, Intern, Carbon Emissions, Falmouth Call in show The post Talk of the Towns 4/11/08 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.