David Herron .com

Project expected to provide up to 1,300 Jobs in Tennessee
Washington D.C. --- U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy has closed its $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan North America, Inc. to retool their Smyrna, Tennessee factory to build advanced electric automobiles and an advanced battery manufacturing facility. The two projects are expected to create up to 1,300 American jobs and conserve up to 65.4 million gallons of gasoline per year – an amount equal to six times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Earth 2100 is a rather television program presented by the American Broadcasting Company network on June 2, 2009. They showed what they called the worst case scenario of our future, rising oceans, fuel shortages, a warming climate, water shortages, the big cities of the south-west abandoned due to a lack of water, diseases, famine, a massive die-off of humanity, and on and on. It's told through the eyes of a baby born on June 2, 2009, and who lives until June 2100 (and beyond) to tell us how she lived through the catastrophe.

This is a case of solving one problem and creating yet another. A NY Times article reports on how scrubbing emissions at coal fired power plants results in toxic chemicals going into the water system. Given that water resources are tight it is insane to make the water unsafe by adding pollution but at the same time it's insane to simply let this pollution go into the air. On the one hand there's a way to reduce the toxicity of burning coal in power plants, the question is what to do with the toxic chemicals once they're prevented from going into the atmosphere. Or as Sen.