With an electricity grid supplied by hydroelectric dams across rivers, from the heat of its numerous volcanoes, and from wind and the sun, the small Central American nation expects 97 percent of its energy generation to come from renewable sources this year.
Bright sunshine isn’t anything new to Costa Rica, but broad, consumer-based distributed generation solar power soon will be, following the recent publication of an executive decree on the issue.
Despite declarations from the executive branch that the Costa Rican government will not pursue geothermal electricity development in national parks, the office of governing Citizen Action Party legislator Ottón Solís is working on a bill to allow it in three volcanic protected areas.
The best historical precedent for the Environmental Protection Agency's action comes from Ronald Reagan. He's not exactly known as the environmental president, but he took the decisive steps toward solving an earlier air pollution problem: destruction of the ozone layer.
On Monday, the Obama administration plans to release the finalized Clean Power Plan, the president's flagship policy to combat global warming. The plan is aimed at the electricity sector, which generates the largest single slice, 31 percent, of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.
The rule, if it stands, could substantially alter the U.S. energy landscape, driving the expanded use of "clean" energy while further diminishing coal's long dominance as a source of power for homes and businesses.
The Costa Rican government is set to present a substitute text to the recreational marijuana bill after obtaining feedback from different institutions.
According to Natalia...
