Sunday, January 16, 2011

Vatican seeks better ties with Islamic institute

The Associated Press 
Friday, January 28, 2011; 12:17 PM

 

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican is seeking to repair relations with the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world.

Cairo's Al-Azhar academy froze its dialogue with the Vatican last week to protest Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks calling for better protection for Christians in Egypt.

The head of the Vatican's office for interreligious dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the Vatican newspaper Friday that the Holy See didn't understand what Al-Azhar was so upset about.

He said any careful reading of the pope's remarks showed he was merely asserting universal values about the need for religious freedom.

Tauran said he remained open to dialogue and that regardless, a February meeting with Al-Azhar remained on his calendar.

 

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Al-Azhar getting angry at the Catholic Church asking for better protection of Christians was most likely offensive to him. This is said since he saying he closed dialogue  due to wanting / asking for protection.  Al-Azhar needs to be asking to repair relations not the Roman Catholic Church. 

2010 REVIEW / 2011 OUTLOOK.


2010 REVIEW / 2011 OUTLOOK.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News


Three paragraphs can sum up the energy highlights, or low-lights, of 2010.

BP’s Macondo well blew up on April 20 killing 11 and spilling more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Herculean efforts cleaned up much, but not all. It will take years to determine the real damage. The catastrophe was also a missed opportunity: President Obama should have used the event to push his clean, less oil dependent energy agenda. He didn’t for political reasons. He had signed off on more offshore drilling shortly before the incident.

However, clean energy and the beginnings of permanent move away from oil started near year’s end. Deliveries began for Nissan’s all-electric Leaf and Chevy’s partly-electric Volt. Both cars mark a profound change in the auto industry: Electric vehicles are here and they’re here to stay. A purchase of 12000 Volts by General Electric for fleet use nearly guarantees the success of that car. GE will buy another 13000 electrically-driven vehicles by 2015.

Washington may not have been the shining star in the Macondo well/Deepwater Horizon disaster, but it did come through with cash to help new renewable energy projects get started and come online. There’s no doubt that the US Department of the Treasury’s 1603 Program: Payments for Specified Energy Property in Lieu of Tax Credits has really been helpful in building more renewable capacity in the U.S. that may not have been built otherwise. As part of the Stimulus Package of 2008 the program was set to expire at the end of the year. Thanks to the work of industry groups (aka lobbyists) the program was extended for a year in a last minute tax cut bill. Another year will do wonders for large scale renewable energy.

On to 2011.

I can’t predict the future, but I can look at trends in the news and offer some thoughts for the coming year.

As above, the 1603 Program will help build more renewable power plants than would have been built had the program been left to expire. With that thought I expect solar energy will be the beneficiary in the number of projects built, but not in power output. Wind is still cheaper and one turbine sticking in the air can generate the same amount of clean power as a solar plant that covers many acres. Still, solar photovoltaic power plants can be built quickly and in populated areas with little or no resistance from the public. Few complain about solar power plants since they are often out of sight on rooftops or carports.


2011 should be another good year for non-silicon photovoltaic solar power. There’s more factory production capacity being built that’s going online this year.

Generally, anything legitimately green energy should do well in the year in the US despite a lagging economy. It seems everybody is on the green bandwagon. Green energy may also get an additional boost this year with help from Big Oil.

Currently gasoline prices are on the rise. John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil says $5 a gallon is in the cards, but not until 2012. Between now and then gas would be rising in its usual saw-tooth, up-and-down but generally upward curve.

If this happens there will be the usual call for more drilling: Drill Baby Drill! The opposing message needs to be sent out loud and clear and simple: The price of oil is set on the global market. Drill all you want, but you won’t bring the down the price. It’s the global demand for oil that determines the cost and even though the U.S. is the single most oil guzzling nation in the world, the rest of the world guzzles more than we, thus we don’t control price.

(By the way the only way to dramatically bring the cost of oil down would be to nationalize the remaining domestic oil companies. But that’s not going to happen.)

High prices at the pump tend to help spur interest and investment in renewable and alternative energy technologies. So for those in the Green Energy Industry hope for $5 a gallon gas.

This time if petrol skyrockets as it did in 2008 (contributing to the recession) the U.S. is much better armed for battle: Electric cars are here as are a nice array of far more fuel efficient conventional cars. It’s a bit of a stretch, but the next time gas peaks the U.S. might actually benefit.