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Peace Palace Library | Water – International Instruments
Water – International Instruments
1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses. Adopted by UNGA 21 May 1997; Entered into force 17 August 2014 (available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic). See also
UNILC's Report and Commentaries submitted to the UNGA in 1994 along with the draft articles on the law of non-navigational uses of international watercourses.
UN Press Release on the adoption of the Convention
Current Status of the Convention
1994 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Series Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese).
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, Done at Ramsar, Iran, 2 February 1971 (available at English, French, Spanish, and German).
Convention Relating to the Development of the Hydraulic Power of International Affecting More Than One State, and Protocol of Signature. Done in Geneva, 9 December 1923
Convention and Statute on the Regime of Navigable Waterways of International Concern. Done in Barcelona, 20 April 1921
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The law of international watercourses is evolving with increasing importance despite its relative youth as a subject of public international law. From times of Antiquity, when early civilizations settled along the great rivers of the world, water has played an important role in economic and social development. Apart from domestic consumption, navigation was the most important use of water, and early doctrine and State practice reflect this. Following the Industrial Revolution, competition over the non-navigational uses of international watercourses spurred the development of international water law.
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homesports News
Tokyo Paralympics: Debutant Praveen Kumar clinches silver in men's T64 high jump
By PTI Sept 3, 2021 9:44:52 AM IST (Published)
This was also Kumar's personal best performance and his first major medal since taking up the sport in 2019. The teenager is a Noida resident and is now the youngest medal winner in the Indian contingent here. The bronze went to Rio Games champion Maciej Lepiato of Poland who produced an effort of 2.04m.
India's Praveen Kumar clinched the silver medal in the men's high jump T64 event of the Paralympics, taking the country's haul to 11 in the ongoing Games here on Friday. The 18-year-old Kumar, competing in his debut Paralympics, set a new Asian record with a 2.07m jump to finish behind Great Britain's Jonathan Broom-Edwards, who notched up his season's best effort of 2.10m for the gold.
T64 classification is for athletes with a leg amputation, who compete with prosthetics in a standing position. T44, the disability classification that Kumar belongs to but is eligible to compete in T64, is for athletes with a leg deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement in the legs.
Tokyo Paralympics 2020: A look at the athletes who made India proud
His impairment, which is congenital, affects the bones that connect his hip to his left leg. The ongoing Games are turning out to be India's best ever and the nation has so far claimed two gold, six silver and three bronze medals.
Kumar is the second teenager in the Indian contingent after shooter Avani Lekhara to win a medal at the Games. Lekhara had won a gold and is 19 years old. The track and field events were anticipated to give India a good medal haul and the script is unfolding just as it was expected.
Eight of India's 11 medals have come from athletics, including one gold in men's javelin throw through Sumit Antil (F64). India has so far won five silver medals in the athletics arena along with a bronze.
indiaParalympicsTokyo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Q: MySql Inner join based on non empty columns     I have Two tables :
    Table1, Table2

I have to write a SQL query which has inner join on three columns based
on <> 0 condition
on these tables.
My condition is
    if(table1.ID != 0), then inner join on table1.ID = table2.ID else,

    if(table1.MemberID != 0), then inner join on table1.MemberID = table2.MemberID else,

    inner join on table1.PersonID = table2.PersonID

A: You can use a conditional statement (case when for example) in a join clause.
select t1.*, t2.*
from table1 t1
inner join table2 t2 on
            (case when
                 t1.ID != 0
                 then t1.ID =t2.Id
                 else
                 case when t1.MemberId !=0
                      then t1.MemberId = t2.MemberId
                      else
                           t1.PersonId = t2.PersonId
                  end
            end)

see SqlFiddle

A: This should work.
select *
from Table1, Table2
where table1.Personid = table2.personId
and (((Table1.id != 0) and  (Table1.id = table2.Id))
or ((Table1.memberid != 0) and (Table1.memberid = table2.memberId)))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


All surgical procedures have risks and these are magnified with obesity. While it is impossible to list every possible complication of an abdominal surgery, we outline the more frequent and serious complications of laparoscopic weight loss surgery.
With any kind of surgery, there is a risk of bleeding, infection or getting a hernia in your wound. With laparoscopic weight loss surgery, these risks are generally low (one or two out of 100).
There is also a similar risk (less than one out of 100) of getting a blood clot in your legs, which can travel through the bloodstream up to your lungs; that is called a pulmonary embolism. Depending on the size of the clot, this can give people difficulty breathing. For some, this can be a life-threatening problem.
With gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy, the stomach is stapled. Thus, the major risk is that one of the staple lines will develop a leak. In less than one in 100 patients, a leak can develop within the first week and, in rare cases, up to three weeks after surgery. A second surgery will almost always be required to repair a leakage. However, even if the leak is fixed, the fluids that have leaked out can still result in an abdominal infection called peritonitis. For some people, this can become a serious infection and, for a few, even life-threatening.
There is also a risk the stomach or intestine could be injured, leak or be so scarred from previous surgery that we cannot complete the procedure laparoscopically, and have to switch to the open approach (one in 300).
Finally, there is the long-term risk of vitamin, mineral and other nutritional deficiencies. Weight loss surgery patients must be committed to taking vitamins and nutritional supplements often for the rest of their lives.


The Apostle John wanted believers to abide in Christ and have boldness on the day of His appearing, and not shrink back in shame? What does "shrink back at His appearing" meaning.
Jesus often spoke about abiding in Him because we can't do anything without our Lord, and even less than that if we are not abiding in Christ. Jesus said "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me" (John 15:4). It's not that we can do a little bit or something significant without Christ. He says we can do nothing if we are not abiding in Him, for "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). And "nothing" is not a little something…it is nothing, so "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7), but if you and I are not abiding in Christ and in His Word (Scripture), then we cannot do anything of significance for God. This explains the Apostle John's statement that "the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him" (1 John 2:27). By abiding in Christ, we abide in His Words, and His words are found in the Bible. If you are abiding in Christ, it's not likely that you'll shrink back in shame at His appearing (1 John 2:28).
I bet you're like the rest of us…you get caught at doing something that you shouldn't have been doing, and then when it's found it out, you (like I) was ashamed of it. We clearly knew what we were doing was wrong, but we did it any, but when we're caught, we had to admit it. Have you ever been ashamed of something you did? It's even worse when we're caught in the act. A few times I was doing something I knew was wrong and I remember thinking, "If the Lord returns this very moment, would I shrink back from Jesus in shame?" My honest answer is "Yes," and maybe you have to say the same thing, so maybe that's why the Apostle John implored the church to "abide in [Jesus] so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming" (1 John 2:28). If you are not abiding in Christ, then you are likely not abiding in His Body, the church, and if you're not abiding in Christ, you're probably not abiding in His Word, and by not abiding in Christ, you and I may end up walking in disobedience. If we are not abiding in Christ, we won't be acting as much like Christ, and if we're not acting like Christ and He appears at that very moment, there is certainly the strong likelihood that we would shrink back in shame.
If you look at Scripture, it appears that many are not going to be saved but only a few. There may be many that are called, but very few are chosen (Matt 22:14), and on the day that Jesus returns to judge the world, Scripture teaches that many, not a few, but many will be stunned. Why? Because they will discover, to their horror, that He doesn't even know them (Matt 7:21-23). Many will say "Lord, Lord," but those same many will be turned away. That's right…many will be turned away, not a few, so every unbeliever and false convert will see Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of glory. The only exception would be unless their death precedes His appearance, but that still means a judgment is coming (Heb 9:27), but for all who have rejected Christ, they "will wail (or mourn) on account of him" (Rev 1:7). They knew in their hearts that God existed, but they suppressed it their conscience (Psalm 19:1-2; Rom 1:18-21), and because they refused to bow the knee to Him and repent and be saved, they will wail over their own rejection of Christ. Not only will they shrink back at His appearing, there may be a good many believers who do the same thing because they have not been living like Christ commands them. Many have one foot in the world and the other in the Kingdom. By the way, that doesn't work! It's a slippery slope trying to have a foothold in each world.
The Bible teaches us to examine ourselves to see if we're soundly in the faith, so it doesn't hurt to take a self-diagnostic, and the Word of God does an outstanding job of that. The Book of 1st John is an excellent example of seeing if we're abiding in Christ or abiding in the world. The Apostle John writes that "If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him" (1 John 1:29), which means that if someone's not practicing righteous living (not meaning perfection), then it may well be time to "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test" (1 Cor 13:5). Peter writes that we should "be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall" (2 Pet 1:10), because if we're not sure, we'll have no true and lasting peace. Peter writes, "For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 1:11).
Having a regular self-examination by reading the Scriptures is good because we can see if we're soundly in the faith or not. If we're sure we're in the faith today, we likely won't shrink back at His appearing, so if we are abiding in His Word and He is abiding in us, we're not likely to shrink back in shame at His appearing, and wouldn't you want that on the day He returns?
Previous post: Who Resurrected Jesus? Was It The Father, The Holy Spirit, Or Jesus Himself?


No picture available of Mark Alderson when he raced.
No current picture available of Mark Alderson.
Useful USAC driver, particularly in sprint cars. Later became a car builder. Now lives in Brownsburg, Indiana, where he is still working as an utility patent illustrator for a company called ASD Patent Art, who provide patent illustrations and machine manual illustrations to help inventors enhance their designs. Alderson qualfied from South Dakota School of Mines in mechanical engineering. He has since worked on machine design after racing and developed that to include product engineering, cad design and processing engineering. Although born in Nebraska, Alderson spent a lot of childhood and teenage years in Timberlake, South Dakota. Mark used to sell tyres for Goodyear whilst making it in racing and also studied astrology. Before racing, he used to appear in Joie Chitwood's stunt motorsport shows.
Scott Wood, John Thompson, Bob Tullius, Jerrill Rice, Gary Rubio, Rich Rutherford, Steve Shelton, Dave Simpson, Mike Snow, Mitch Thieman, Jeff Purner, Lee Perkinson Jr, Steve Petty, Patrick Phinny, Paul Dallenbach, Bobby Fix, Nick Fornoro Jr, Tony George, Ron Giery, Mike Hooper, Matt McBride, Chad McQueen, Albert Naon Jr, Jim Noble, Brian Ongais, Santino Ferrucci, Sport Allen, Steve Barclay, Jim Busby Jr, Kim Campbell, Rocky Moran Jr, RC Enerson, John Wood, Bob Ward, Orlo Trice, Alex Figge, Tod Tuttle, Joseph Sposato, Jan Sneva, Mike Shank, Barry Ruble, Jose Luis 'Pepe' Romero, Chip Robinson, John Richards, Bobby Regester, Stevie Reeves, Tom Phillips, Wally Pankratz, Drake Olson, Charles Nearburg, John Morton, Chris Menninga, Michael McDowell, Scott Mayer, Allen May, Ray Lipper, Eddie Lawson, Peter Kuhn, David Kudrave, Cory Kruseman, Jeff Krosnoff, Parker Johnstone, Paul Jasper, Richard Hubbard, Steve Hostetler, Jay Hill, Bruce Hill, Jeff Heywood, Billie Harvey, Rick DeLorto, Ross Davis, Wally Dallenbach Jr, Bob Brutto, John Brooks, Butch Brickell, Darin Brassfield, Geoff Boss, Jon Beekhuis, Richard Antinucci, Colton Herta.


text:
require('bee-button-group/build/ButtonGroup.css');
module.exports = require('bee-button-group');

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Information and requirements for working and traveling in a foreign country. Buying or selling real estate outside the UK? Individuals and commercial firms engaged in international trade.
Transferring ownership of cars and other assets in the UAE.
The process of your documents being notarised, legalised with an apostille cetificate at the Foreign Office and legalised at the UAE embassy.
Our team process documents at the Chinese embassy every day. Documents for China once having been notarised and legalised require supporting documents to be attached before being submitted at the Chinese embassy.
For your pet to travel to the UK without the need for quarantine, insure they have the correct identification documents, vaccinations and treatments. Changes to the pet travel scheme came into effect on 29 December 2014, with a new pet travel Regulation.
Our notaries are familiar with requests on getting access to a Facebook account. Facebook owns and operates a your free-access social networking website, they require certain documents notarised in case of being locked out or transfering over to someone else.


text:
Along the coast and under the sea - the outlook for marine protection
ADDENDUM Draft Marine Bill 2008
I grew up in the 50's and 60's on the south coast, looking across the Solent to Cowes, and over Southampton Water to Fawley oil refinery. I dived off wooden breakwaters, dodged floating "jobbies" from sewage outfalls, cleaned beach tar off with eucalyptus oil; and cursed the wake from cross-channel ferries as it scooped up sandals and towels. We lived out our summers on the beach, taking picnics of cold potatoes, drenched in salad cream and sealed in a screw top jar. My mum would show us where the horned poppy, seakale and sea holly grew in the shingle. In my teens, sailing would open up the Solent's many harbours and beaches to me, and a naughty pleasure on long summer evenings was to rush home from school and sail the five miles over to Cowes for a drink at the Folly Inn.
These childhood memories were strongly revived when I read Richard Girling's account of our recent coastal history, the many different aspects of our relationship with the sea and its coastline (1). It put into context the changes that have happened since. The tar and faeces in the Solent have gone, as has the speeding of ferries. So too though has the last remnant of natural coastline where I lived, lost to a linking up of the concreted promenade and the draining of the salty marsh behind the shingle ridge.
Much to my astonishment, I have since found out that this stretch of coast was designated a SSSI in 1993, years after that damage was done (2). It seems a disparity – a dinghy strewn, beach hut lined, concrete promenaded shingle coast being prized for its littoral sediment and earth heritage. The condition report for the SSSI shows the tension between coastal amenity and the features of the designation. Thus the fossils of birds, sharks teeth and a variety of early fish on one stretch of the coast had disappeared under the massive shingle recharge that the local council thought necessary for the beach to retain its tourist appeal. Dredged up from the gravely sand of the undersea quarries of the outer Solent and dumped on to the beach, this shingle hung on to its greyish blue pallor for more years than people had hoped for. Only now is it regaining its characteristic straw/brown colour, plus a vegetation cover that is beginning to catch up with the lusher maritime garden of neighbouring stretches, these perhaps having benefited in places from a top dressing of my mother's ashes.
Even more incongruous is the wetland National Nature Reserve (NNR) perched on this coast, its frozen open water the scene of a mass outbreak of ice skating in that desperately cold winter of the early sixties when the sea itself froze. Once the estuary of the River Meon, a sea wall constructed in 1611 unlinked the estuary from the sea, and the one-way tidal flaps under a road bridge installed in the thirties maintain it as a fresh water marsh, when it had once been a tidal passage inland to an Elizabethan Titchfield, its salt marshes then experiencing the hydrographic regime of the Solent, unique in Britain and Europe, of four tides each day.
Birdlife is pragmatically immune to our manipulation of coastal land over the centuries for agricultural benefit, and so the value of this highly modified wetland landscape, so out of spirit with the natural estuaries and salt marshes that characterize the Solent area, was recognised in its designation as a SSSI in 1959 (3). However, the tinkering to create a massive wetland bird table accelerated when it came into public ownership, with extensive scrapes created in the mid seventies where the water levels are controlled to provide "optimum conditions at particular times of the year" (4). Nesting platforms were built in the main body of water by lobbing in bricks and rubble, and which remain unsightly to this day. I'm just waiting for some water buffalo to be thrown onto the grazing marsh and fen meadows around the scrapes – or maybe it will be wild horses in some sort of mirror-image of the Camargue in southern France (the Camargue's natural freshwater marsh was deliberately turned salty) - because they've pretty much exhausted all the usual bizarre interventions.
In spite of my last name, I wasn't much into what happened under the sea when growing up. The Solent in the shallows is murky at the best of times and so spotting flatfish on the sea bed was a hard task. Cuttlefish bones would wash up, and the odd hermit crab would lose its way, and so the most exciting coastal life after the noisy gulls would be winkles, the minnows in low tide pools and the bladder wrack seaweed growing on groynes. What I did not know was that there was a fascinating and rich undersea topography and wildlife that was even more deserving of protection than the terrestrial designations of the coast. Except that there is no great protection for marine wild nature in UK waters.
The case for marine protection of the Overfalls
Gravel extraction has long been a feature of the outer, eastern Solent, and it was the application in 1999 by Hanson Aggregates Marine Ltd for a licence to dredge banks within that area that exposes this lack of protection (5). Hanson wanted to dredge up marine sand and gravel in an area called the Overfalls, a chain of offshore banks lying east of the Isle of Wight and covering an area of about 6 square miles. It gets its name from a series of underwater north-south ridges with snaking crest lines, made up of immobile relic sand and gravel deposits. Between the ridges are sand dunes and areas of sandy gravel over which the ridges create a dynamic area of turbulence and mixing as they interrupt the strong tidal flows (6).
A variety of fish species, some on a seasonal basis, are attracted to the Overfalls habitats, including blonde rays, bass, turbot and brill. The concentration of these species probably reflects both the nature of the habitats present but also the concentration of available prey species. The presence of sand eels in the sand dunes of the Overfall's is one such prey, and there are also polychaete worms, shrimps and prawns that will be preyed upon (7).
Blonde rays, large 'trophy' bass and flatfish species at the Overfalls are highly valued by local recreational sea anglers, although much of their catch is returned to the sea. It was these local anglers who in 2003, while Government was still considering the license application, first raised an objection to the dredging. They feared that dredging could permanently damage the Overfalls and destroy the ability of the site to support the species and quantities of fish for which it is renowned (the potential damaging effects of shingle dredging are reviewed in (8)). Forming an Action Group with others, they met with Hanson in 2004, who said it would consider excluding the Overfalls from its application when it had identified an alternative area in the block covered by the license application that would not affect the Overfalls. Hanson realized though that their voluntary action would not prevent other aggregate companies applying for a license to dredge the Overfalls. Thus before they would eschew dredging there, they wanted an assurance that a license would not be granted to their competitors (5).
While you could argue that Government could just go on refusing a dredging licence for the Overfalls, which they initially did for the Hanson application, its an unsatisfactory approach to marine protection, and hence why the Overfalls has become a case study in understanding how that protection can be provided (5). There has also been an extensive local stakeholder process to seek consensus over how best to plan and manage the diverse range of activities and objectives in the Overfalls area (9).
On protection, a Sea Fisheries Committee (SFC) could theoretically establish a Byelaw to protect stocks of specific species (i.e. bass or blonde ray) within the 6-mile limit (10). However, the Overfalls site straddles two SFCs areas (Southern and Sussex & District) and it is both inside and outside the 6-mile limit. Thus SFC enforcement would be complicated by this and is limited by its location straddling the 6-mile limit. A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive can be designated for 'sandbanks which are slightly covered by seawater at all times'. Although some of the banks rise to depths of less than 20 metres, much of the site is deeper than this which excludes designating the Overfalls as a SAC (5). Moreover, marine SACs are only 'protected' for the species or habitat which is stated as the 'primary' designating feature for the site and thus cannot be assumed to offer adequate protection to our nationally important marine biodiversity, such as the blonde rays. Looking to non-statutory measures, 'Sublittoral sands and gravels' is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority habitat. However, in practice BAP status affords little or no protection to marine habitats and wildlife (5, 8).
As if to confirm the inadequate marine protection available from SAC designation, Defra recently consulted on a draft fishing order under the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 that will ban the damaging fishing methods of scallop dredging and bottom trawling in the marine area of the Fal and Helford SAC. This measure is needed to protect some exceptional marine life on the sandbanks and in the maerl bed communities in Falmouth Bay (maerl is the collective term for several species of calcified red seaweed) as well as scallop stocks (11). A current voluntary agreement exists that was negotiated between local fishermen and the Cornwall SFC in 2006 and updated in March 2007. This closes the SAC to all scallop dredging in the months of January to October and allows local vessels to fish for 15 days a month each in November and December, but only in a strictly defined area that amounts to 28% of the outer SAC. However, there must still be doubts at the efficacy of this ban which, coupled with the current scientific advice that this is not sufficient to ensure that those habitats are undamaged, has led Defra to consult on the order for a complete ban.
The fact that there are no current conservation or marine management measures worth their salt in conserving the interest of sites such as the Overfalls or the Fal and Helford SAC leads most observers to pin their hopes on new measures in a Marine Bill that Government have been developing over the last few years (see my consultation response A Sea of Change - a response to the Marine Bill White Paper). As I have noted before, the Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) marine campaign has called for the bill to set up a network of Nationally Important Marine Sites (NIMS) for marine ecosystem recovery, and that includes a suite of Highly Protected Marine Reserves (HPMRs) within which any damaging and/or harmful activities (notably extractive activities) are excluded (see the Addendum to No-take zones – a maritime rewidling).
WCL in its case study report for the Overfalls recommends a multi-use NIMS in which certain activities like dredging are prohibited while others are unrestricted. The NIM may also include a smaller HPMR within the NIMS boundary, offering the full protection of a no-take zone (NTZ) to a proportion of the area of the Overfalls, but allowing activities less damaging than dredging, such as commercial or recreational angling, anchoring or diving, to continue outside of the HPMR (5). This proposal has the merit of keeping both the conservationists and the anglers happy, and would meet Hanson's requirement that no other dredger would get access to the Overfalls.
Fishing industry mistrusts marine protection
In the main, marine protected areas (MPAs) such as the NIMs and NTZs are consistently reviled by the fishing industry. At a first UK conference on MPAs in Scarborough last October, Barrie Deas of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations bluntly stated that the benefits from MPAs were unknown, unproven and were probably only achievable in places like the tropics. This was in spite of the fact that a little while before, the opening speaker, Prof Steve Gaines, University of California, had comprehensively demonstrated the science of MPAs and their benefits, and had shown data that such benefits were independent of whether the reserves were in temperate or tropical habitats and, if anything, were slightly greater in temperate reserves (the conference program, presentations and report can be downloaded at (12)). In addition, Natural England took the opportunity of the conference week to release the latest monitoring results from Lundy MNR, where the first statutory NTZ was set up five years ago. Amongst evidence of success in rewilding, lobsters there are getting bigger, there are more of them and they are venturing beyond the NTZ in a classic example of spillover (13).
Disappointingly, the conference report itself makes no mention of an excellent presentation on MPAs and NTZs/HPMRs by Mary Lewis of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) (14). She demonstrated that the existing network of designated sites around the Welsh coast, such as the SACs and SPAs that cover 30% of Welsh territorial seas, is inadequately protected, unrepresentative of the maritime area, and lacks ecological coherence (for an explanation of the latter, see (15)). Her project working for CCW is to formulate ecological criteria for HPMRs, and a process for identifying potential HPMRs in Welsh waters that includes stakeholder involvement.
In devising her stakeholder process, Mary should perhaps read a recent journal article that gives an account of the views about NTZs of fishing industry representatives in south-west England (14). Of those questioned, only 23% thought such MPAs were the way forward. So much else of the account shows an industry that is in desperate need of unbiased information. At root also is a serious need for them to understand that marine conservation is not just about conservation objectives for fisheries (their livelihood) but as importantly conservation objectives for marine biodiversity. Thus they should not deny the right of an NTZ to exist just for its own sake, for the sake of its wild nature and not just for the sake of replenishing their livelihood.
The industry holds the views of the beleaguered: they believe that the spillover benefits from NTZs will not compensate them for being banned from catch in the NTZ, and they are right that there is unlikely to be any financial compensation; they think the benefits to spawning grounds could be achieved instead through partial/seasonal closure; and closure anyway will just displace fishing elsewhere so that it cancels out any benefit. These are understandable if misguided, but then there is an additional set of views that are just plain bizarre. That fishermen are an integral part of the ecosystem, and that bottom trawling is necessary to "avoid the stagnation of fishing grounds" by becoming "infested by 'vermin' like starfish and anemones". Thus fishermen are "like the farmers of the sea in that they turn the ground over, thin the stocks and help maintain productivity".
In similar vein, the damage that fishermen do is regarded by them as merely modifying the habitat of the sea bed so that it supports different communities. The analogy was given with modified, terrestrial habitats such as meadow, thus again viewing their effects on maritime areas in the same light as the effects of farm management. Strange then, that the report goes on to say that many fishing industry representatives feel a sense of proprietorship over the seas and are very resistant to the terrestrial protected areas approach and its conservation objectives being extended into the marine environment. Don't they know that the terrestrial protected areas approach is just farming anyway, albeit that its conservation grazing is just a synthetic form of farming? If only it were the case that we had the equivalent of NTZs, the Zone 5 of Permaculture, in our approach to terrestrial protected areas.
With this range of views in the SW fishing industry, it seems appropriate that Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) are heavily backing Finding Sanctuary, a regional stakeholder-led partnership project in south-west England, to design an MPA network that provides sites of sufficient size and spacing for healthy marine ecosystems. Project officers are working with local industries, fishermen and wildlife groups to map areas of economic activity and of ecological importance and to begin to develop proposals for a network (17).
Damaging the sea bed
There is no denying the damage that is being done by fishing, and it is hard to think that it could be otherwise given the methods involved. Common sense suggests that dragging tons of metal across fragile seabed habitats and communities will lead to damage and disruption. Evidence comes all the while, such as the thousands of starfish that were washed up in early March on the stretch of coast between Pegwell Bay and Sandwich in Kent (18). They are believed to have been dislodged and killed by fishermen as they dredged the sea floor for mussels. At about the same time, a quarterly repeat survey of a 600m stretch of Chesil Beach in Dorset turned up hundreds of dead pink seafans - evidence of the damage being done by scallop-dredging (19).
The pink seafan is a coral found around the southwest coast of the UK, including Lyme Bay and the Lundy and Skomer MNRs. Colonies often reach around 25cm high but can reach up to 80cm. Thus it is easy to understand how devastating scallop-dredging can be to the seafan, especially since the coral only grows approximately 1cm per year. Lyme Bay consists of reefs which are a haven for these corals, as well as sponges and starfish. The reefs also support valuable seafood animals, including crab, lobster and scallops. Some forms of fishing, such as scallop-diving, cause no damage to the reefs, but Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has been studying the reefs for 15 years and has shown that dredging for scallops is extremely destructive – hence the dead pink seafans washing up on Chesil beach. Pink seafans can take decades to develop, but dredging can destroy them in seconds.
It was DWT that eventually negotiated a voluntary agreement in 2001 with local fishermen to exclude scallop dredging from two areas of Lyme bay. Over the next three years, monitoring of the seafan in the closed areas showed a clear sign of population recovery compared to areas that remained open to scallop dredging. However, following a massive increase in scallop dredging during 2005/06 the agreement broke down and the voluntary closed areas were heavily fished. A video survey by DWT conducted in June 2006 showed once abundant reefs had been reduced to marine deserts. Both English Nature and the Wildlife Trusts pushed the Government for a statutory closure to safeguard the reef system for the future. But in August 2006 Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw decided to reject the call for the requested 60 sq mile protected area and instead accepted a voluntary proposal from fishermen for just 20% of that area (20).
As has often been shown, voluntary agreements, however well meant, are worthless in the face of economic pressure. In addition, DWT considered the new agreement to be flawed as it was based on major misconceptions. Thus they, along with Natural England, called upon DEFRA again to introduce an Order to stop the damaging activity. Defra consulted late last year on three options for protecting the Bay's marine wildlife, one of which would seek to give statutory protection to the whole of the Lyme Bay Reefs, an area of 60 square miles but less than 10% overall of Lyme Bay (21). The results of the consultation were published last month, and 73% of respondents were in favour of that 60sq mile exclusion zone in Lyme Bay – protecting the full area of reefs from damaging scallop-dredging (22).
The result begs the question of how this protection of Lyme Bay reefs is to be brought about. Seemingly, in the nick of time, Government has just given us some of the answers in a Draft Marine Bill published a few days ago as part of this session's legislative process (23). The Bill is wide-ranging in that it covers marine spatial planning, licensing activities in the marine area, managing marine fisheries and new rights of access to coastal land, as well as marine conservation. But in its proposals for a network of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) in which a range of activities can be excluded, I think we may at last have the basis for marine protection for its own sake. Defra is developing more detailed guidance on how the nature conservation provisions in the draft Bill will be implemented, especially on how MCZs are to be selected and designated, and how the conservation objectives for MCZs are to be achieved. Along with others, I await this guidance before responding to the consultation on the Bill, which is open to until 26 June this year, and which I will return to later (24).
The expectation is that the Bill will be passed and have Royal Assent by the summer of 2009. In the meantime, the more enlightened amongst the fishing industry must have realised that they have been living on borrowed time in their exploitation of what is in effect a commonweal amongst all species, our maritime area. Thus the public expression and will for marine protection, as evidenced by the potential of this Marine Bill, will be weighed against the self-interest of individual fishermen who cling to their belief that they have an inalienable right to fish anywhere at whatever cost to the marine environment.
Mark Fisher 19 April 2008
A draft marine bill was issued on 3 April 2008 for consultation. I chose not to comment on that draft while I was writing this article as DEFRA announced shortly after its release that they would be issuing further guidance notes to the Bill. These would cover Part 4 of the draft Marine Bill, and would explain how it was intended that the powers and duties contained in the Bill were to be used in order to designate and protect Marine Conservation Zones. The guidance notes were not released by DEFRA until 28 May, 2008. I suspect many people delayed, as I did, their consultation response to the draft Bill until those guidance notes arrived.
My consultation response can be download here.
(1) Sea Change - Britain's coastal catastrophe, Richard Girling (2007) Eden Project Books, ISBN 978-91903919774
(2) Lee-on-The-Solent to Itchen Estuary SSSI, Natural England
www.english-nature.org.uk/Special/sssi/sssi_details.cfm?sssi_id=1005846
(3) Titchfield Haven SSSI, Natural England
(4) Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve and Visitor Centre, Hampshire County Council
www3.hants.gov.uk/hampshire-countryside/titchfield.htm
(5) A Future for our Seas – The Overfalls case study, Marine Bill Bulletin No: 6, Wildlife and Countryside Link, February 2006
www.wcl.org.uk/downloads/2006/Link_Marine_Bill_Bulletin-Issue6.pdf
(6) Overfalls Benchmarking – Physical & Biological Aspects, Chapter 4a, Multiple-use Planning and Management: The Overfalls Area. Phase 1, Centre for the Economics & Management of Aquatic Resources (CEMARE) (2006) University of Portsmouth, UK
www.port.ac.uk/special/theoverfalls/phase_I/downloads/downloads/filetodownload,50979,en.pdf
(7) Overfalls Benchmarking – Physical & Biological Aspects, Chapter 4b, Multiple-use Planning and Management: The Overfalls Area. Phase 1, CEMARE (2006) University of Portsmouth, UK
(8) The Shingle Currency, understanding the marine aggregates industry and its impacts on biodiversity. The Wildlife Trusts' South East Marine Programme 2007
www.southeastmarine.org.uk/files/shingle%20currency%20pamphlet%20%20web%203.pdf
(9) The Overfalls Project, CEMARE, University of Portsmouth
www.port.ac.uk/special/theoverfalls
(10) The Overfalls Briefing Sheet v01, Multiple-use Planning and Management: The Overfalls Area, CEMARE (2006) University of Portsmouth
(11) Consultation on measures to protect the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation (SAC) from the impacts of fishing with dredges and other towed gear, Defra, March 2008
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/fal-helford/index.htm
(12 ) Marine Protected Areas Conference 2007, Conservation, Natural England
www.naturalengland.org.uk/conservation/designated-areas/mpa/conf2007/default.htm
(13) Lundy's lobsters are on the move, reveals Natural England, Natural England press release, 28 September 2007
www.naturalengland.org.uk/press/releases2007/280907.htm
(14) Highly Protected Marine Reserves: their contribution to achieving MPA targets for Wales, Mary Lewis (2007) Countryside Council for Wales
www.naturalengland.org.uk/conservation/designated-areas/mpa/conf2007/Session4/Lewis-MPA2007.pdf
(15) Ecological Coherence of MPA Network, Meeting of the Working Group on Marine Protected Areas, Species and Habitats October 2004, Annexe 8, OSPAR Convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic, OSPAR Commission
www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/ANNEX08_ecological%20coherence.pdf
(16) Fishing industry and related perspectives on the issues raised by no-take marine protected area proposals, P.J.Jones (2008) Marine Policy in press
www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfwpej/pdf/SWViewsPaper.pdf
(17) Finding Sanctuary www.finding-sanctuary.org
(18) Thousands of dead starfish washed ashore in Kent and Sussex, Times 18 March 2008
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3569045.ece
(19) Survey turns up more destroyed pink seafans on Chesil Beach, Wildllife Trusts press news 14 March 2008
www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=news&id=2298
(20) Lyme Bay Reefs - A 16 year search for sustainability, Devon Wildlife Trust October 2007
www.savelymebayreefs.org/saveourseas/uploadedFiles/Lyme_Bay/Lyme_Bay_Report_Text_Only.pdf
(21) Consultation on measures to protect marine biodiversity interests in Lyme Bay from the impact of fishing with dredges and other towed gear, Defra September 2007
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/lymebay-biodiversity/index.htm
(22) Summary of responses to the Consultation on Measures to protect marine biodiversity interests in Lyme Bay from the impact of fishing with dredges and other towed gear- 7 September -21 December 2007, Defra, March 2008
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/lymebay-biodiversity/responses-summary.pdf
(23) Draft Marine Bill April 2008, HM Government
www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7351/7351.pdf
(24) Consultation on the draft Marine Bill, Defra April 2008
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/marinebill/
url:www.self-willed-land.org.uk/articles/coast_sea.htm
www.self-willed-land.org.uk mark.fisher@self-willed-land.org.uk
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Commentary /
The Glenn Beck Program /
'This is indoctrination': Leaked documents reveal disturbing lessons our schools are planning to teach
'I believe in understanding other people, but that's NOT what this is'
On the radio program Tuesday, Glenn Beck discussed the details of just one of the 800 leaked documents that reveal some truly disturbing lessons that schools all across America are planning to teach our kids.
"This is the Black Panthers' Ten-Point Program," Glenn said of the document. "This particular school assignment is to memorize the Black Panthers' Ten-Point program."
Glenn read the content of the Ten-Point Program, which includes demands for guaranteed income, guaranteed housing, reparations, free health care, and release from incarceration for "black and oppressed people."
"So your kids have to study all of this. And then ... students will be given a worksheet to make sure they retain the information," Glenn explained. "This is obscene. And this is one document — they get much worse than this. This is one of the documents that we will be exposing, that are building floated and put into action in schools across the country.
"I believe in understanding other people, but that's not what this is. This is indoctrination ... and, I believe, a trap for your children," he added.
Watch the preview below for more details.
Click here to watch the full Glenn Beck special "BRAINWASHED: How Black Lives Matter Hijacked Our Schools" at 9:30pm ET on Wednesday, August 26.
To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.
LIVE NOW: BRAINWASHED: How Black Lives Matter hijacked our schools - TheBlaze ›
How Public Schools Indoctrinate Kids Without Almost Anyone Noticing ›


Hola peeps! I know that it has been forever since I have written a blog post. Just know that I haven't forgotten about SNC and you all. Life has just seriously taken over and blogging has been pushed to the side for now.
I am however very active on social media so please keep up with me on instagram, twitter and Facebook all @sassncurlz. Once I get my life in order I promise you I will be back and better. SNC will definitely get a face-lift and a change in content all while staying true to why I originally started this blog. So please stay tuned. Love ya!


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HomePosts tagged 'solar power'
Alliant Energy has Plans for Iowa's Largest Solar Power Project
November 4, 2021 josieetaylor Energy, solar power	Energy, environment, Iowa, renewable energy, solar power
Josie Taylor | November 4, 2021
Alliant Energy says it will invest $750 million in 400 megawatts of solar power generation and 75 megawatts of battery storage in eastern Iowa, making it the state's largest solar project to date.
They will file a plan on Tuesday with the Iowa Utilities Board stating its plan for a 200-megawatt installation, part of which would be on the grounds of the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant. The plant in Palo, northwest of Cedar Rapids, is being decommissioned.
Alliant has committed to building 400-megawatts, which would be the state's largest solar project, said Morgan Hawk, an Alliant spokesman. Once it's complete, about half of Alliant's energy would come from renewable sources, which already include 1,300 megawatts of wind energy, Kouba told the Register.
Iowa utilities are investing heavily in renewable energy. The state got nearly 60% of its energy from wind last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
MidAmerican Energy, Iowa's other large investor-owned utility, has invested mostly in wind, which provides about 80% of its power generation. The Des Moines-based company said this year it's also investing in about 140 megawatts of solar generation.
Biden aims to raise solar energy production from 4 to 45%
September 8, 2021 Elizabeth Miglin Climate, economy, Energy, Infrastructure, News, Politics, Uncategorized	Biden-Harris Administration, solar energy, solar power
Elizabeth Miglin | September 8, 2021
The Biden administration announced plans to produce half of the nation's electricity through solar power by 2050, on Wednesday.
Last year, solar energy provided less than 4 percent of the country's electricity, now the administration aims to raise production to 45 percent. A new report by the Department of Energy argues the U.S. must quadruple annual solar installations by 2025 in order to reach the administrations' goal of decarbonizing the power sector.
Pressure to expedite the transition off of fossil fuels has increased due to recent natural disasters across the country, including Hurricane Ida in New Jeresy and New York, which have highlighted weaknesses in the current energy system.
With the cost of solar panels dropping over the last decade, solar has become one of the cheapest sources of energy for much of the U.S. The reduced costs has boosted the solar and wind energy market where growth has exceeded government and independent analysts predictions. In culmination, a U.S. Energy Information Administration report projects renewable energy sources will share 42% of the U.S. electricity mix by 2050 at our current growth rate.
Additionally, the administration hopes to reduce net emission from the power sector to zero by 2035, add hundreds of offshore wind turbines and ensure half of all new cars sold are electric by 2030.
Iowa farmers concerned about land requirements for solar energy
January 22, 2020 January 21, 2020 jposka Farming, Infrastructure, Land, Uncategorized	agrovoltaics, des moines reigster, Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Farm Bureau, iowa power cooperative, solar power
Solar panels near farmland (via Creative Commons).
Julia Poska | January 22, 2020
The Iowa Farm Bureau is urging state legislators to regulate siting of wind and solar operations this session, citing concerns about conflicting land use.
The Des Moines Register reported earlier this month that Farm Bureau legislative preview videos said generating 3,000 megawatts of solar power through 20 proposed projects in Iowa "could potentially take thousands of acres out of production."
Kerri Johannsen, the Iowa Environmental Council's energy director, told the Register that generating 10% of Iowa's power through solar panels would require 13,000 acres, or 0.4% of Iowa's farmland.
Bill Cherrier, CEO of Central Iowa Power Cooperative (which has a few solar projects in the works) said solar projects are usually cited on "subprime" land for farming. Environmental groups said they would be open to regulation, as long as they did not restrict the state's transition to renewable energy in the future.
An article this week from clean energy website Clean Technica suggested Iowa farmers consider "agrovolatics," or integration of renewable energy and crops. The author cited European studies and projects that demonstrated increased productivity of land through the practice.
Iowa solar employment is on the rise
February 14, 2019 February 13, 2019 jposka economics, economy, Energy, solar power, Uncategorized	National Solar Jobs Census, renewable energy, solar industry, solar power
Most solar jobs are in installation and project development (flickr).
Julia Poska | February 14, 2019
Despite a 3.2 percent drop in solar energy jobs nationwide, solar jobs in Iowa grew 4 percent in 2018, according to the recently released National Solar Jobs Census.
Various solar projects recent years likely contributed to job growth in Iowa. In 2017, Alliant Energy built Iowa's biggest solar farm on 21 acres near Dubuque, but the Central Iowa Power Cooperative recently announced plans to surpass that record with an 800 acre solar farm in Louisa County in 2020. Solarize Johnson and Linn Counties brought a combined 1,760 kilowatts of residential solar power to eastern Iowa in 2017 and 2018. Ideal Energy in Fairfield is currently building a solar array with special battery storage at Maharishi University of Management as well.
But still, only 844 Iowans are employed in solar. The state ranks 45 in solar jobs per capita despite 2018 growth, according to the census, which is conducted annually by the Solar Foundation.
Overall, U.S. solar employment has risen 159 percent since 2010 and is projected to continue growing. The price of solar installation has fallen dramatically, too. At the utility scale, the cost of a one Watt segment of a solar panel dropped from $4.40 in 2010 to $1.03 in 2018. For residential panels, the cost dropped from $6.65 to $2.89 per Watt.
Iowa's largest solar project announced for 2019
December 20, 2018 December 18, 2018 jposka Energy, solar power, Uncategorized	Solar, solar energy, solar farm, solar power
The project might look something like this solar farm in Germany (flickr).
Julia Poska| December 20, 2018
The new year will be a big one for solar power in Iowa. The Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) recently announced plans to start construction on a 100-megawatt solar farm on 800 acres in Louisa County at the end of 2019. This would be Iowa's largest solar project to date, and will likely be completed at the end of 2020.
An Idaho company called Clēnera (pronounced clean-era) will develop and operate the farm, to be named Wapello Solar. According to conversions from Clēnera's website, clean energy generated by Wapello Solar could offset carbon emissions equivalent to driving 8.8 billion miles or 8.5 million barrels of oil over 20 years.
CIPCO will purchase 100 percent of energy produced and share it among cooperative members, including the Eastern Iowa Light & Power Cooperative, which serves the construction area. Some of this energy will offset the loss of the the Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear plant in Palo, Iowa, of which CIPCO owned a 20 percent share and derived 20 percent of its generating capacity.
Iowa explores renewable energy storage
November 8, 2018 November 6, 2018 jposka economics, Energy, solar power, Sustainability, Uncategorized	battery, ideal energy, renewable energy, solar plus, solar power
Batteries can make solar arrays productive even after the sun goes down (flickr).
Julia Poska| November 8, 2018
Already a leader in wind energy, Iowa wants to expand its renewable energy portfolio even further. The Iowa Economic Development Authority granted $200,000 to Ideal Energy in Fairfield last month to study "solar plus" systems, solar arrays enhanced with energy storage capacity via batteries.
Without the addition of batteries, these solar grids would only supply power when the sun was shining. The batteries can supply power during outages and at night, and help "shave" energy bills by supplying energy at peak demand hours, when utility costs are highest.
Ideal Energy is currently building a large, 1.1 megawatt solar array with a 1.1 megawatt hour vanadium flow battery for the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. This is the largest solar plus project in the state of Iowa and will cover about a third of the university's annual energy needs.
Ideal is also installing a somewhat smaller array with a lithium-ion battery at the Agri-Industrial Plastics Company in Fairfield. The battery will provide nighttime power for the company's 24-hour production lines and save them an estimated $42,000 annually.
With the Iowa Economic Development Authority grant, Ideal will assess and compare the performance, efficiency and maintenance of both systems in partnership with Iowa State University's Electric Power Research Center. A statewide committee, established by the 2016 Iowa Energy Plan, will evaluate the research to inform future solar plus projects in the state.
SE Iowa school district to become first powered almost entirely by solar
June 5, 2015 June 4, 2015 Nick Fetty Energy, News	Crawfordsville Iowa, Henry County Iowa, Iowa, solar power, WACO Community School District, Wayland Iowa
Principal Jeff Nance stands by one of four sets of solar panels at WACO High School in Wayland. This set operates lights for the school's football field. (John Gaines/The Hawk Eye)
Nick Fetty | June 5, 2015
The WACO Community School District in southeast Iowa may soon be the state's first to be almost completely powered by solar energy.
This summer construction is expected to begin on a solar farm behind the junior-senior high school building in Wayland. In January the district installed a large solar collector behind the elementary school building in Crawfordsville. School district officials expect that these two project will provide about 90 percent of the district's electricity needs. Superintendent Darrell Smith estimates the initial project has already saved the district about $20,000. He said his hope is that these projects will serve as not just a clean source of energy for the district but also as a learning opportunity for the students.
"It makes it meaningful when they can see what's happening and it makes a difference when you talk about science and green power and then say 'Let's go look at it,'" he said in an interview with KCRG.
The initial solar system was funded by a one-cent local option tax. The district worked with the Department of Education to procure funding for the second project which was possible through private investors. Both projects took advantage of solar tax credits. On especially sunny days, the panels are expected to generate roughly 110 percent of the district's electricity needs with the excess energy being solar back to the utility company. Work on the second project is expected to begin in July.
The WACO Community School District serves approximately 500 students in Crawfordsville, Wayland, and the surrounding areas in Henry County.
Iowa farmer uses the sun to power irrigation system
August 13, 2014 KC McGinnis Climate, Energy, Farming, Land, News, Politics	agriculture, farming, Iowa, irrigation, Solar, solar energy, solar power
A solar array. (h080/Flickr)
A farmer near Sioux City has turned to solar energy to power his irrigation system, according to a report from the Sioux City Journal.
Dolf Ivener recently designed a center pivot irrigation system that runs on a 22-panel solar array in his farm near Whiting, Iowa. The solar panels produce enough power to propel the system around the field while spraying water or fertilizer through its pipes.
While heavy rain and record flooding in the Sioux City area earlier this summer prevented Ivener from getting the most out of his system, he expects the innovation to pay off over the next ten years. Nearly half the cost of installing the solar panels was covered by federal and state grants designed to encourage solar energy use.
The agriculture industry has led the way in solar energy applications, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers in remote areas were some of the first to turn to solar energy as an alternative to kerosene, diesel and propane when grid connections were unavailable. A switch to renewable energy sources like solar could drastically reduce carbon emissions from farms.
Chinese company to provide solar energy for World Cup
June 12, 2014 September 10, 2014 Nick Fetty Energy	alternative energy, Brazil, carbon dioxide, Carbon Footprint, China, football, Soccer, solar power, South Africa, sustainability, United States, Word Cup 2010, World Cup, World Cup 2014, Yingli, Yingli Solar
Nick Fetty | June 12, 2014
The United States taking on Guatemala in Kansas City during a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup.
Photo by Brent Flanders; Flickr
Yingli Solar looks to become the first carbon-neutral sponsor for the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off today in Brazil.
The 16-year old company contributed more than 5000 solar panels and nearly 30 off-grid solar energy systems to provide power for matches at the various stadiums. Yingli – which is the only Chinese company to sponsor the World Cup – is the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. The company hopes to not only "use the World Cup platform to increase the awareness toward the functionality of solar energy in day-to-day use" but also to raise brand awareness in the United States as well as globally. Yingli first got involved sponsoring the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and research shows that customer awareness increased 30 percent because of the sponsorship.
A 2010 study found that the World Cup that year created a carbon footprint equivalent to more than 2,750,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The 2014 tournament is expected to create roughly the same carbon footprint.
Governor Branstad hails Iowa's solar energy progress
April 10, 2014 malhughes Energy	CGRER, clean energy, Iowa, Iowa Senate, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power, solar tax credit, wind energy
Solar energy panels at the Iowa State Fair;
Photo by vanhookc, Flickr.
During Iowa Solar Day, an annual event sponsored by Iowa's Solar Energy Trade Association (ISETA), Governor Terry Branstad and Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, said because Iowa is a leader in wind energy, we can use the same road map to become a leader in solar energy as well.
"I see tremendous potential for growth in solar energy as I do in other renewable energy items in our state," Gov. Branstad said.
Northey expressed support of expanding Iowa's solar energy tax credit and on March 27, 2014, the bill to triple the tax credit passed unanimously in the Iowa Senate.
Increasing Iowa's solar energy is an important aspect of boosting the state's overall use of clean energy, however Iowa has only tapped a small portion of the potential solar energy in the state.
To read the full story, visit the Iowa Environmental Council.