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February 3, 2017
Soil’s Star Is Rising
Soil isn’t necessarily the watchword of the environmental movement – but soon could be. Soil is responsible for providing the nutrients and water to grow food, feed, fiber and renewable fuels and chemicals. It also provides innumerable environmental benefits – filtering and storing water, and playing a key role in the carbon cycle. Healthy soils can improve resilience to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods and actually remove and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Off the farm, healthy soils help prevent issues such as impaired drinking water, excess sediment and urban flooding events.
Faced with still climbing carbon emissions, degraded water quality and a need to feed, clothe and support an estimated 9 billion people by 2050, policymakers are looking for those elusive ‘win-win-win’ solutions to the interconnected food-water-energy nexus. Soil -- a decidedly low-tech climate solution -- is becoming somewhat of a darling in certain circles, as more realize the interconnectedness between soils and farm productivity, food security and combatting climate change.
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Headlines
1. Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) Bills Aimed at RFS Reform
2. Vilsack Backs Perdue for Agriculture Secretary
3. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Seeks 80 Percent Emissions Reductions on Some Long Flights With Big Switch to Biofuels
4. Syngenta Announces $340,000 Donation to Prime the Pump Fund
5. Farmers Looking At On-Farm Ethanol Plants
Events:
1. 2017 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook
Friday, February 10 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Gold Room 2168 Rayburn House Office Building C Street SE and South Capitol Street
Hosted in coordination with the House and Senate Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Caucuses.
Please RSVP to expedite check-in
For the fifth year in a row, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) have produced the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, which provides the latest industry information and trends from the energy efficiency, renewable energy, and natural gas sectors in the United States.
2. Electric Transmission Infrastructure 101
The High-Voltage Grid: Its Operations, Challenges, and Benefits
Thursday, February 16 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Room 385 Russell Senate Office Building Constitution Avenue and 1st Street, NE
WIRES, the House Grid Innovation Caucus, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invite you to an important briefing on the modernization of the nation’s critical network of high-voltage transmission. Designed and built well before the digital age to serve more localized customer loads, the “grid” is struggling to support active and increasingly competitive wholesale power markets that now operate regionally. It is often congested or inadequate to deliver domestic energy resources that are not close to customers. Its aging facilities have acknowledged weather and cyber vulnerabilities. Moreover, the planning and regulation of this fundamental infrastructure is complex, often uncoordinated, and slow to produce results. However, despite the combined effects of the recession and greater energy efficiency, the grid will be called upon to serve 30 percent more electrical demand over the next two decades.
To Contact the Editor: Jessie Stolark at [email protected]
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