Republican senator slams EPA chief: 'You don't run this country' Senate Republicans on Wednesday accused Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy of trying to run America by proposing new rules to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants. McCarthy is the public face of the agency's new carbon rules, which are a central pillar of President Obama's second-term climate change agenda. Republicans say the rules threaten to bring the economy to its knees, and on Wednesday, accused the EPA of staging a massive power grab. "The American people run this country — you don't run this country," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told McCarthy during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.
When given a chance to respond, McCarthy said she doesn't think she runs the U.S., and cited a Supreme Court endangerment finding on carbon pollution, backing up the agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gases. Sen. Barrasso wasn't convinced. "It is designed to be moderate in its ask," McCarthy said. Chairwoman of the committee, Sen. Utility and Energy Transmission & Distribution News | Utility Dive.
MIT Finds New Way to Get More Out of Solar | Domestic Fuel. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a new way to get more out of harvesting solar energy. This article from the school says they’re using the sun to heat a high-temperature material whose infrared radiation would then be collected by a conventional photovoltaic cell. In this case, adding the extra step improves performance, because it makes it possible to take advantage of wavelengths of light that ordinarily go to waste. The process is described in a paper published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, written by graduate student Andrej Lenert, associate professor of mechanical engineering Evelyn Wang, physics professor Marin Soljačić, principal research scientist Ivan Celanović, and three others.
A conventional silicon-based solar cell “doesn’t take advantage of all the photons,” Wang explains. The design of the two-layer absorber-emitter material is key to this improvement. New energy. Electric Light & Power - Electric power generation, transmission & distribution for today's smart grid. POWERGRID International. ICC - International Code Council. Energy Central - Home Page. Marcus evans north america conferences: business corporate conference events. Infocast: The Leading Source - Home. Latest Energy, Metals & Steel News, Market Data and Analysis | Platts.