In a shiny building tucked just off Interstate 91 — 138 miles northwest of the Cape Cod Canal — is the brain that keeps the lights on.  Inside, handlers of New England's electric grid monitor the system from a 4,000-square-foot master control room.  This is the cerebral center of Independent System Operator New England, or ISO, the manager of the region's grid and electricity market.

Suspended on the far wall of the room, a swimming pool-sized screen displays electrical connections from Maine to Connecticut in a rough geographic arrangement.  Teams of men and women watch hawkishly over power supplies and power demand 24 hours a day, year-round.  But the infrastructure that keeps the juice flowing — throughout New England and onto the Cape — faces serious challenges, from both inside and outside the system.
Note: Click here to read this article in the Cape Cod Times

The world's hypoxic zones—swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms—are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise, a new study suggests.
Note: Click here to read this article in National Geographic

Saving energy on State agenda - Patrick, at MIT, talks renewables

...Mr. Patrick said the controversial Cape Wind turbine farm planned for Nantucket Sound would be “a powerful symbol of our clean energy future that could be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., right off our coast in Massachusetts.”

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Click here to read this article in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

More than 40,000 individuals and organizations have submitted comments on an environmental review of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, according to federal officials.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the lead federal agency to review Cape Wind Associates' plan to build 130 wind turbines in the sound.
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Click here to read this article in the Cape Cod Times

Bird Island, a 3-acre teardrop of sand and rock at the mouth of Sippican Harbor, is shrinking with every storm that rakes the coastline. Disappearing with the tiny island is precious nesting area for endangered roseate terns.

But a cooperative effort of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, state environmental officials and Cape Wind developers aims to shore up the island's breakwater and restore critical nesting area for the endangered birds. The cost: Nearly $4 million.
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Click here to read this article in the New Bedford Standard Times

Short-term exposure to smog, or ozone, is clearly linked to premature deaths that should be taken into account when measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution, a National Academy of Sciences report concluded yesterday.
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Click here to read this AP article in the Boston Globe

...Clean-energy firms in Massachusetts, for example, currently account for more than 14,500 jobs. That makes clean tech the 10th largest sector in the state, and it's growing at a rate of 20 percent a year.  Aside from Governor Patrick's support of ecofirms, Massachusetts' House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi last month proposed allocating $50 million in taxpayer dollars to stimulate the creation of green jobs in the state.

"[Green industry] is a major part of the state economy, and it's likely only to grow," says Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs.  In addition to government support, a strong university system and local natural resources are keys to determining which states will prevail as green-industry hubs.
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Click here to read this article in the Christian Science Monitor

Harvard Business School's First Look, that summarizes new working papers, case studies, and publications produced by Harvard Business School faculty, has this entry about a new case study on Cape Wind:

Cape Wind: Offshore Wind Energy in the USA  (Harvard Business School Case 708-022)

Cape Wind is an extreme example of NIMBY—not in my backyard syndrome. This is the first offshore wind project planned for the United States, in Nantucket Sound, just south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Initially proposed six years ago, in 2001, the wind farm would be visible from Hyannis Port and Osterville, two affluent communities. The coastal residents of those towns have led a campaign in Massachusetts and in Congress to thwart the efforts of Cape Wind. This case introduces the global wind industry, the rationale for wind, and then carefully reviews the various issues associated with the project.

Click here to purchase this case from Harvard Business School 

Click here to read an Op Ed from Chuck Kleekamp and Chris Stimpson of Clean Power Now that appears on Cape Cod Today comparing the new Blue H deepwater offshore wind power proposal with Cape Wind.

A chunk of Antarctic ice seven times the size of Manhattan Island has suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, according to scientists.  Satellite images starting Feb. 28 show the runaway disintegration of a chunk covering 414 square kilometers, or 160 square miles. The ice was on the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and had been there for possibly 1,500 years.

This is the result of global warming, David Vaughan, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, said Tuesday.
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Click here to read this International Herald Tribune article