Alternative Energy Daily News - April 18, 2007

• The world is currently producing more oil annually than it is replacing with new reserves, according to a new survey of global liquids reserves published by Energy Intelligence.

• On the eve of the first U.N. Security Council debate on global warming, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett warned U.S. businesses to invest in carbon-free technology or lose out to Europeans. This is where blockhead global warming deniers miss the big picture. They claim that working to help protect the world from global warming will cost jobs and hurt the economy (suspend for a moment the irony of what a strong economy would do when the Earth is uninhabitable). On the contrary, what Europe and Asia, as well as some investors the U.S., are telling us is alternatiev energy is the next "internet boom" in terms of new jobs and a new sea change in technology and innovation.

• Oakland, CA topped a list of U.S. cities using renewable energy, with 17% of its power coming from solar, wind and geothermal sources.

• Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, joined by Democratic U.S. Congressman Ed Markey, announced a set of initiatives designed to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on petroleum.

• One antidote to cleaners that harm the environment are "green" products, nontoxic substances that can effectively disinfect and maintain sanitation in homes and workplaces, the use of which has been increasing over the past 10 years.

• The U.S. military is increasingly focused on a potential national security threat: climate change.

• Western North Carolina, like the rest of the state, could take the first steps toward energy independence in the next decade, pumping homegrown fuel for vehicles instead of importing foreign oil.

• Millionaires are piling seed capital into young firms developing green technologies, seeking better control over what happens to money they invest to help improve the environment.