Energy and Environment News Roundup – 7.31.13

A daily roundup of the most important energy, environment, and climate news from around the world.

ENERGY MARKETS 

US oil and gas projected to surge for years (via Houston Chronicle)

JPMorgan Chase to pay $410 million penalty in electricity pricing scheme (via Washington Post)

Could utilities’ future be selling light instead of electrons? (via Midwest Energy News)

GRID 

$23 million energy storage research center launched in New York State (via CleanTechnica)

EMISSIONS 

British Columbia’s carbon tax after five years (via Energy Collective)

California and Australia bolster carbon trading ties (via BusinessGreen)

GHG plan could cost “less than 0.5% of total airline revenue” (via Environmental Leader)

RENEWABLES 

Trade fight over solar benefits a bystander – Taiwan (via New York Times)

Claims of faulty data in EU-China solar trade case now under investigation (via Renewable Energy World)

Europe’s biggest solar projects threatened by China deal (via Bloomberg)

Largest solar project in southern hemisphere gets go-ahead from Australia (via BusinessGreen)

Renewables workers wages “growing faster than oil and gas pay” (via BBC News)

Congress eyes change to US biofuels mandate, EPA targets loom (via Reuters)

US biodiesel production reached record output in May 2013 (via US EIA)

BP shelves sale of 2.6GW wind energy arm (via BusinessGreen)

BP wins as US refiners suffer under biofuel mandate (via Reuters)

Virginia seeks research lease for offshore wind energy test project (via Richmond Times-Dispatch)

COAL 

Southern Company absorbs $450M in additional losses for over-budget Mississippi coal plant (via Star-Tribune/AP)

Despite slowdown, global coal remains a planet-destroying monster (via Grist)

CLIMATE 

Calgary facing “well over” $3 billion in flood damage costs (via Calgary Herald)

US investors signal new interest in climate-related risks (via RTCC)

McCarthy: Climate change poses economic threat (via Politico)

A nation on fire: climate change and the burning of America (via Climate Progress)

Congressional task force links worsening wildfires to climate change (via National Journal)

NATURAL GAS/FRACKING 

Gulf natgas blowout could tip regulator focus to shallow water (via Houston Chronicle)

Crews to start relief well Thursday at Gulf blowout site (via Houston Chronicle)

Ohio state forest fracking plan halted, for now (via Columbus Dispatch)

ENVIRONMENT 

Something in the air: how global warming is spreading toxic dust (via ClimateWire)

The crucial question for the American West: how long will the water hold out? (via Mother Jones)

Which energy resources are gulping down our water? (via GreenBiz)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY 

Sponsors pare back energy efficiency bill ahead of Senate debate (via The Hill)

Philadelphia enforces building energy benchmarking in October (via Energy Manager Today)

KEYSTONE XL/TAR SANDS 

McCarthy: EPA will be “honest commenter” on Keystone XL review (via The Hill)

EPA: Enbridge nearly tripling oil spill dredging (via Houston Chronicle/AP)

NUCLEAR 

Fukushima cleanup turns toxic for Japan’s Tepco (via Reuters)

Japanese utility and public in dark about crippled nuclear plant (via Reuters)

POLITICS 

Obama calls out GOP for wasting time on Keystone (via Climate Progress)

New EPA head McCarthy outlines ambitious agenda in Harvard speech (via Washington Post)

Kochs tap ex-Cantor aide to lobby on anti-carbon tax measure (via The Hill)

OPINION 

The world needs more Energiewende (via WRI Insights)

Can Washington find agreement on biofuels mandate? (via National Journal)

Green Decor: Flexible Cork Bowls from Bambu Home

green decor cork bowl

Who says you can't stay organized and have cute, green decor options at the same time? Not this gal!

Ever since having my baby back in March, I've been all about decluttering and organizing our house. My husband has made countless trips to Goodwill as we get rid of our tchotchkes, and I've been working on decorating with and organizing what's left. It's made our house feel a lot bigger and makes it so much easier to keep things tidy!

One method that's helped me a lot is using baskets and decorative boxes in bookshelves as hidden or semi-hidden storage. When the folks at Bambu Home offered to send me one of their new cork bowls to review, it gave me some green decor ideas!

Green Decor: Cork

Cork is a great material for designing all manner of green decor options. Much like bamboo, cork grows quickly and doesn't require a lot of water or pesticides to grow. That makes it much more sustainable than wood or paper, and of course it's leaps and bounds better than plastic. Cork forests also help preserve biodiversity, which in this age of monocropping is more important than ever!

These bowls aren't meant to be used as storage, but when I unwrapped my sample bowl a couple of weeks ago, I knew it would be wasted in my kitchen. It looks handy for serving, but we have serving dishes up the wazoo already. What we didn't have was something to wrangle my son's toys in the living room, and this bowl was the absolutely perfect size!

cork bowl

See how nice it looks loaded with persimmons? That is a product shot from the company, showing one of the ways you can use these bowls in the kitchen. The bowls are water- and stain-resistant, and you can wash them with the rest of your laundry. As you can see, since they're flexible you can fold the sides down to make them as shallow or deep as you need.

Because the bowl is flexible, it's also great for home decor and storage! We have one of those Ikea bookcases that's made of cubes in the living room, and the bowl fits easily into one of the cubes with room left over to stash a few books. The lighting in my living room is not super ideal, so I mocked up this storage situation to give you an idea of how I've been using my cork bowl.

green decor cork bowl with toys

Since the bowl is machine-washable, I can toss it in the wash along with the blanket and toys that I'm storing in there, which is great! My son has just reached a serious drooling phase, so all of his stuff gets gross pretty quickly. I also could probably fit one more book on that shelf, because the flexible bowl conforms somewhat to the area where you fit it.

You can find these cork bowls and Bambu Home's full line of products on their website. I poked around a little bit while I was working on this review and stumbled upon these super rad, colorful cutting boards that may just have to become part of my kitchen!