nevada

Audio Only Washington, DC - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, T. Boone Pickens; Daniel Weiss, Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy, Center for American Progress preview the National Clean Energy Summit scheduled for Aug. 19 in Las Vegas.

After an extensive one-year investigation, Mr. Devaney concludes, in language that is always blunt and at times incendiary, that both the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have “put the public’s health and safety at risk” by failing to clean up or seal off abandoned mine sites. Several deaths and injuries have already occurred — one mine swallowed an entire vehicle, the report says — and “the potential for more deaths and injuries is ominous.”

It all depends on who you ask.

The longer it takes to build a nuclear waste repository, the more money goes into the hands of the nuclear power industry. Does this make any sense? After all, taxpayers are footing the bill.

Las Vegas is a pretty sunny place, right? So why isn't the whole city powered through solar energy? You could ask this question for a lot of places in the world. The answer we're hearing more and more is that alternative energy is not just about being good, but being politically advantageous and affordable. Boehm explains the ups and downs oftrying to implement alternative energy as a primary source of power. He also shows us some of the technology (includingsunlight captured through fiber optics for lighting!) that they're testing at the Center.

The Nevada legislature in 2005 had passed a law giving very generous tax breaks to Green projects (LEED). Earlier this year, they decided perhaps they were too generous and changed the law. How will this effect future green projects?

Why more green projects are showing up in Nevada. It could be about the money.

Nevada has the most solar power production per capita in the nation, and Reno is the only U.S. city with a population over 100,000 with enough geothermal power within its borders to power the whole city. Nevada companies are also innovating with biodiesel, including growing ultra-efficient fuel source algae in the desert.

A new green project has been announced for downtown Las Vegas. The Verge lofts will be a new green project.

Nevada is getting its first green loft building. Green Valley lofts will be built in Henderson, Nevada.