matterhacker

US halts solar energy projects over environment fears. Telegraph article here

The US government is putting a hold on new solar energy projects on public land for two years so it can study the environmental impact of sun-driven plants.

House Democrats Introduce National Feed-in Tariff for Renewable Energy Projects.  Article here.

U.S. Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), and Mike Honda (D-CA) introduced landmark legislation [PDF] on Thursday that will provide security for investments in the renewable-energy sector by guaranteeing rates for renewable-energy generation.

The Climate Time Machine from JPL.  It’s an online flash app that lets you display avg global temp, sea level, CO2 emission, and ice melt during any time in the past century or so.

Electric air vehicles. Story here.

The idea of personal planes may conjure up dark visions of “Blade Runner,” but the first batch of two-seater aircraft to fly on electricity rather than fossil fuels could reach more than a dozen buyers by year’s end...

From Investopedia:

An index published by the Conference Board that is a broad-based measurement of current economic conditions, helping economists and investors to determine which phase of the business cycle the economy is currently experiencing.. The Composite Index of Coincident Indicators comprises four cyclical economic data sets:

1. the number of employees on non-agricultural payrolls (released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics)
2. the Index of Industrial Production
3. the level of manufacturing and trade sales
4. the aggregate amount of personal income excluding transfer payments