In This Issue
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Commentary
Motivation: Reward Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Motivating workers can be simple and low-cost: Make your employees feel valued and important.
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Commentary
Are Cap’n’Trade and a National RPS Dead?
Data shenanigans and recent political developments in the U.S. suggest that the climate change frenzy is rapidly fading. Could the backlash also sink renewable energy portfolio standards?
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Commentary
Copenhagen: The Case for Climate Adaptation
The U.S. Congress won’t pass anything that looks like a cap-and-trade or carbon tax approach to global warming anytime soon. What’s left? Adaptation, the low-tech, low-cost, slow-cooking, most-sensible policy approach.
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Commentary
TREND: Water, Water Everywhere—But Not in the U.S.
Although hydro power in the U.S. is politically incorrect, even though it generates no greenhouse gases and is by far the largest renewable resource in the country’s generating mix, the rest of the world often has a more sanguine approach to using water to generate electricity. For example…
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FinanceRare Earth and Lithium Supplies Cloud Renewables
Ensuring an adequate supply of rare earth elements and minerals may be a hurdle in the renewable energy supply chain. The metals and their compounds are used in battery technologies, windmills, catalysts, and communications technologies. Add lithium (not a rare earth) to that mix, as Latin American politics could cloud the prospects for new lithium supplies.
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Legal & Regulatory
Computing in the Clouds, Part II: It’s About Security
What do Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have in common? All are examples of cloud computing. All present serious data security challenges.
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Legal & RegulatoryPower Owners in Strong Position to Collect Liquidated Damages
Although law varies by jurisdiction, a recent case demonstrates arbitration panels’ willingness to uphold liquidated damages clauses in power plant engineering, procurement, and construction contracts.
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HR
Protect Yourself from Toxic Colleagues
Just one person behaving badly at work can send company morale into a downward spiral. It’s time to call out those morale-and-productivity-busting personalities so managers can spot them and steer clear of the mess they make.
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Finance
U.S. Wind Capacity Soars, Manufacturing Doesn’t
Wind generating capacity hit new highs in 2009, but that didn’t mean much for the wind power manufacturing sector, meaning fewer “green” jobs than the Obama administration hoped to see.
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Commentary
Socrates, Pharmacies, and Regulatory Conferences
How do pharmacy product displays and regulatory conferences differ? A prominent regulatory thinker ponders the differences, and, ironically, the similarities.