World:

¶ DONG Energy set a record low price for offshore wind power in a winning bid to build two arrays off the coast of the Netherlands. DONG committed to supply electricity at €72.70/MWh ($80.40/MWh), not including transmission costs, which may add about €14/MWh. An industry goal is €100/MWh by 2020. [Climate Home]

Low cost steel and favourable regulations are helping
to cut offshore wind power costs (Pic: DONG Energy A/S)

¶ Trustpower, a renewable energy developer based in New Zealand, says it has been granted planning approval for the 300-MW Dundonnel Wind Farm in the Australian state of Victoria. It is a community-driven project initiated in 2008 by a group of land owners who intended to develop a wind farm on their property. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Almost a third more biogas energy is being produced in the UK compared to this time last year, according to new…

Opinion:

¶ “Did Exxon Lie About Global Warming?” • In the case against Exxon, the plaintiffs do not have to show that the company injured a specific victim or conspired to hide what it knew about climate science, just that Exxon did not tell its own investors the truth about the investment risks of climate change. [RollingStone.com] (Thanks to Tad Montgomery)

Protesters gather outside Exxon’s shareholders
meeting in Dallas. Ben Torres/Redux

Science and Technology:

¶ The average cost of electricity from wind and solar energy could drop by 26 to 59 percent, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency. The report finds policy framework and the regulatory environment to be key unknown factors in the future cost of electricity from wind and solar energy. [Triple Pundit]

¶ Nuclear plants have estimated fixed costs that range from 5¢/kWh to 7¢/kWh, depending on…

Conveniently ignored was a significant body of evidence from studies on workers and the public exposed to low levels of radiation that there is no safe level – no threshold below which significant health effects do not occur.

for now there is no systematic structured way that the detail of these concerns can be brought to the attention of the jurors leaving us with the distinct impression that they are, to borrow a phrase, being treated like mushrooms – kept in the dark and fed on bullshit!

Testing the accepted Linear No Threshold (LNT) model for radiation and health 

Citizen’s Jury – weighing evidence or manufacturing consent? Observations from the first sitting day http://chriswhiteonline.org/2016/06/sa-nuclear-waste-dump-questions/
Following on from the already much criticised recommendation from the Nuclear Industry Royal Commission that South Australia become the site for storage and hopefully disposal of around a third of the world’s nuclear waste, the government…

Science and Technology:

¶ The Energy Transitions Commission, made up of corporate, government, academic and non-profit groups, is now working on analysis to enable a high penetration of renewable energy onto energy grids. Its early findings have said intermittent renewable power can contribute up to 70% of grid electricity. [Business Green]

West of Duddon Sands

¶ Research from MIT says various different energy storage options make economic sense at current prices for some renewable energy projects. The energy storage options profiled by the study included: battery systems, pumped hydroelectric storage, and compressed air energy storage, among others. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ The wide-scale deployment of solar energy technologies in Ireland would see the generation of over 7,300 “high-value” jobs and would also slash fines from the European Union by more than €300 million a year onward from 2020, according to a new report from the Irish Solar…

“Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof
Lev. XXV. v X.”

“The Museum found a considerably higher level of tin in the Liberty Bell than in other Whitechapel bells of that era, and suggested that Whitechapel made an error in the alloy, perhaps by using scraps with a high level of tin to begin the melt instead of the usual pure copper.” (Wikipedia-Hanson et. al. 1975)

“The Silverliner V structural defect was discovered early Friday morning by SEPTA railroad vehicle maintenance personnel. Follow-up inspections with the fleet showed that there was a problem with cracking in the main suspension systems.” (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), 3 July 2016, Philadelphia) SEPTA acted swiftly and removed the apparently rotten Hyundai vehicles from service.

What if this defective bell or the defective rail cars had been nuclear reactor parts or spent nuclear…

Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party, or PNP, on Monday celebrated the 240th anniversary of the independence of the United States by proposing a new 51-star flag, Fox Latino News reports.

PNP secretary-general William Villafañe unveiled the flag at the headquarters of the party, which supports making Puerto Rico the 51st U.S. state.

“It’s time to achieve equality,” Villafañe said.

The politician presented the standard at the PNP’s headquarters in San Juan, saying that the new flag sent a message to the United States to solve the island’s political status and “respect the wishes” of the Puerto Rican people.

The PNP official called on the U.S. government to “respect the will of the people and give way to a decolonization process in which statehood is achieved” in the island.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth and Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth.

On July 25, 1898, U.S. forces invaded Puerto…

It’s Independence Day, and gun owners will be proclaiming their freedom to own as many guns as they want with no restrictions because of the Constitution. Conservatives believe in an unfettered Second Amendment but refuse to accept the rights of people to vote. Although five amendments deal with voting, states can still limit voting rights, and five million people may not be able to cast their votes in the next presidential election because of these restrictions. The difference between freedom to vote in red and blue states has created a two-tiered system for the people of the United States.

In the past decade, more and more GOP-controlled states have passed restrictive laws to keep minorities, people in poverty, and women from casting their votes with the hopes that this will increase the number of Republican elected officials. With the 2010 election of Gov. Scott Walker and a GOP legislature, Wisconsin…