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China to Focus on Renewable Energy
By Kari Cameron Beijing 01 May 2009
China is battling air pollution and high costs for imported energy with an aggressive focus on renewable energy.
China's government says it will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020 - enough to power more than 60 million homes. That figure is more than three times the target the government laid out just 18 months ago.
Steve Lyons is the director of CWE Renewables, a wind energy company based in Hong Kong. His company is setting up wind farms in Inner Mongolia, funded mainly by Chinese investors. Despite the global economic crisis, the company has seen continued interest from investors and from provinces.
"There are provinces that have good wind resources, no wind capacity, and have asked us to help them put in place what needs to be put in place for a wind developer to come in," he said.
China's government has vowed to increase the use of alternatives to oil and coal for energy, such as wind, solar and nuclear power. The goal is to reduce the thick air pollution that blankets its cities and to reduce expensive imports of oil.
Companies from start-ups to well established businesses such as General Electric, see China's drive to clear the air as an opportunity. They are tapping the market hoping to capitalize on Beijing's push to for cleaner energy sources.
Renewable energy could play significant role
Adrian Ho is the director of CWE Renewables. He thinks China's use of renewable energy will increase in coming years to play a significant role in meeting the nation's energy needs.
"There is a high chance that I believe China will go to 25 percent some day and that 25 percent will keep expanding," he said.
Today, renewable sources produce just eight percent of China's total energy. But Beijing aims to increase that to 15 percent by 2020. In comparison, the United States hopes to generate 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2012.
The roots of China's push for renewable energy are in a 2005 law that gives incentives such as fixed rate tariffs and carbon credits to renewable-energy companies. The law also makes clear that provinces are expected to meet new clean energy guidelines.
Chris Flavin is the president of the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S. environmental group. He says the law works thanks to China's entrepreneurs and a government that is making the move to clean energy a priority.
"The Chinese government, I guess in part of the fact that it does not have some of the kind of democratic complexities that Western countries do, is able to do things quicker and without the kind of resistance from narrow economic interests that might make it more difficult," said Flavin.
China's wind energy capacity has doubled
The World Wind Energy Association says China's wind energy capacity has doubled every year since the law was put in place, to 12 gigawatts. Wind is the fastest growing renewable energy in China, with 60 percent more capacity since 2005.
But pollution takes much longer to clean up than it does to create. China is failing to hit targets for bringing pollution and carbon emissions under control.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has said she will push developing nations such as China and India to commit to reducing carbon emissions as part of a new international treaty on fighting climate change. Emissions from fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are thought to contribute to global warming.
Flavin says that it is not that China does not want to reduce emissions - the problem is their lack of a better option.
"The main driving force is that China is not rich in any fossil fuel except for coal and coal is a heck of a lousy way to fuel an economy," he said.
Stimulus plan is helping
Things are changing. Wind and nuclear power are getting a boost from China's almost $600 billion economic stimulus plan, which promises to help with grid infrastructure and nuclear development.
"If you look at where we are today and compare with what anybody might have expected or even hoped for five years ago, I think it's really extraordinarily encouraging what they've accomplished," Flavin added.
As China continues to build its renewable energy capacity, the world's most populous nation is emphasizing that clean energy is not a luxury but a necessity for its survival. Renewables will help reduce pollution in the long term, quelling Beijing's concerns about social unrest over pollution-related illness. China also needs clean energy to increase its role on the global stage - a lack of natural resources make clean energy the only possibility for China to achieve energy independence.
more@ www.voanews.com/english/20...1-voa34.cfm
China to Focus on Renewable Energy
By Kari Cameron Beijing 01 May 2009
China is battling air pollution and high costs for imported energy with an aggressive focus on renewable energy.
China's government says it will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020 - enough to power more than 60 million homes. That figure is more than three times the target the government laid out just 18 months ago.
Steve Lyons is the director of CWE Renewables, a wind energy company based in Hong Kong. His company is setting up wind farms in Inner Mongolia, funded mainly by Chinese investors. Despite the global economic crisis, the company has seen continued interest from investors and from provinces.
"There are provinces that have good wind resources, no wind capacity, and have asked us to help them put in place what needs to be put in place for a wind developer to come in," he said.
China's government has vowed to increase the use of alternatives to oil and coal for energy, such as wind, solar and nuclear power. The goal is to reduce the thick air pollution that blankets its cities and to reduce expensive imports of oil.
Companies from start-ups to well established businesses such as General Electric, see China's drive to clear the air as an opportunity. They are tapping the market hoping to capitalize on Beijing's push to for cleaner energy sources.
Renewable energy could play significant role
Adrian Ho is the director of CWE Renewables. He thinks China's use of renewable energy will increase in coming years to play a significant role in meeting the nation's energy needs.
"There is a high chance that I believe China will go to 25 percent some day and that 25 percent will keep expanding," he said.
Today, renewable sources produce just eight percent of China's total energy. But Beijing aims to increase that to 15 percent by 2020. In comparison, the United States hopes to generate 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2012.
The roots of China's push for renewable energy are in a 2005 law that gives incentives such as fixed rate tariffs and carbon credits to renewable-energy companies. The law also makes clear that provinces are expected to meet new clean energy guidelines.
Chris Flavin is the president of the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S. environmental group. He says the law works thanks to China's entrepreneurs and a government that is making the move to clean energy a priority.
"The Chinese government, I guess in part of the fact that it does not have some of the kind of democratic complexities that Western countries do, is able to do things quicker and without the kind of resistance from narrow economic interests that might make it more difficult," said Flavin.
China's wind energy capacity has doubled
The World Wind Energy Association says China's wind energy capacity has doubled every year since the law was put in place, to 12 gigawatts. Wind is the fastest growing renewable energy in China, with 60 percent more capacity since 2005.
But pollution takes much longer to clean up than it does to create. China is failing to hit targets for bringing pollution and carbon emissions under control.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has said she will push developing nations such as China and India to commit to reducing carbon emissions as part of a new international treaty on fighting climate change. Emissions from fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are thought to contribute to global warming.
Flavin says that it is not that China does not want to reduce emissions - the problem is their lack of a better option.
"The main driving force is that China is not rich in any fossil fuel except for coal and coal is a heck of a lousy way to fuel an economy," he said.
Stimulus plan is helping
Things are changing. Wind and nuclear power are getting a boost from China's almost $600 billion economic stimulus plan, which promises to help with grid infrastructure and nuclear development.
"If you look at where we are today and compare with what anybody might have expected or even hoped for five years ago, I think it's really extraordinarily encouraging what they've accomplished," Flavin added.
As China continues to build its renewable energy capacity, the world's most populous nation is emphasizing that clean energy is not a luxury but a necessity for its survival. Renewables will help reduce pollution in the long term, quelling Beijing's concerns about social unrest over pollution-related illness. China also needs clean energy to increase its role on the global stage - a lack of natural resources make clean energy the only possibility for China to achieve energy independence.
more@ www.voanews.com/english/20...1-voa34.cfm
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Wed, July 8, 2009 - 12:43 PMwww.foxnews.com/story/0,29...781,00.html
Pentagon Official: North Korea Behind Week of Cyber Attacks
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
North Korea was indeed behind the cyberattacks that targeted dozens of Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea over the past week, a U.S. defense official told Fox News Wednesday afternoon.
The unnamed Pentagon official added that the attack did not penerate the Department of Defense's computer systems, which are constantly being probed from outside.
Some defense officials complained privately that the Department of Homeland Security was taking the lead on protecting government agencies from cyberattacks, and yet the Pentagon wasn't informed about the attacks until Wednesday — by hearing about it from the media.
Another source told Fox News that the attacks actually began a week ago, not Saturday as previously reported.
In what's known as a "DDoS," or distributed denial-of-service, attack, a huge number of "zombie computers" were directed to all go to U.S. government Web sites at the exact same time, which shuts down less-robust sites because they can't handle all the traffic at once.
"It's just overloading the system," the source said.
In this case, the attacks were able to shut down some Web sites, but they were never able to penetrate the security systems surrounding them. By their very nature, DDoS attacks do not compromise security or steal or damage information — they simply knock Web sites offline and tie up valuable resources and manpower.
The powerful attacks were even broader than initially realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.
Other targets of the attack included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks.
Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained computer assaults.
The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were.
The attack was remarkably successful in limiting public access to victim Web sites, but internal e-mail systems are typically unaffected in such attacks.
Some government Web sites — such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service — were still reporting problems days after the attack started during the July 4 holiday.
The South Korean sites included the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and top Internet portal Naver.
They went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokeswoman at the Korea Information Security Agency.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service, the nation's principal spy agency, told a group of South Korean lawmakers Wednesday it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South were behind the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information. The National Intelligence Service said it couldn't immediately confirm the report, but it said it was cooperating with American authorities.
The attacks will be difficult to trace, said Professor Peter Sommer, an expert on cyberterrorism at the London School of Economics.
"Even if you are right about the fact of being attacked, initial diagnoses are often wrong," he said Wednesday.
Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the agency's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and other partner organizations about the problems and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks."
The U.S., she said, sees attacks on its networks every day, and measures have been put in place to minimize the impact on federal Web sites.
Kudwa had no comment on the South Korean attacks.
New York Stock Exchange spokesman Ray Pellecchia could not confirm the attack, saying the company does not comment on security issues.
Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack.
Attacks on federal computer networks are common, ranging from nuisance hacking to more serious assaults, sometimes blamed on China. U.S. security officials also worry about cyber attacks from Al Qaeda or other terrorists.
This time, two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.
Keynote Systems is a mobile and Web site monitoring company based in San Mateo, Calif. The company publishes data detailing outages on Web sites, including 40 government sites it watches.
According to Rushlo, the Transportation Web site was "100 percent down" for two days, so that no Internet users could get through to it.
"This is very strange. You don't see this," he said. "Having something 100 percent down for a 24-hour-plus period is a pretty significant event."
He added that, "The fact that it lasted for so long and that it was so significant in its ability to bring the site down says something about the site's ability to fend off (an attack) or about the severity of the attack."
The FTC site, meanwhile, started to come back online late Sunday, but even on Tuesday Internet users still were unable to get to the site 70 percent of the time.
Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, and some banking sites were paralyzed Tuesday.
An initial investigation found that many personal computers were infected with a virus ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korea Information Security Agency official Shin Hwa-su said.
Denial of service attacks against Web sites are not uncommon, and are usually caused when sites are deluged with Internet traffic so as to effectively take them off-line.
Mounting such an attack can be relatively easy using widely available hacking programs, and they can be made far more serious if hackers infect and use thousands of computers tied together into "botnets."
For instance, last summer, in the weeks leading up to the war between Russia and Georgia, Georgian government and corporate Web sites began to see "denial of service" attacks.
The Kremlin denied involvement, but a group of independent Western computer experts traced domain names and Web site registration data to conclude that the Russian security and military intelligence agencies were involved.
Documenting cyber attacks against government sites is difficult, and depends heavily on how agencies characterize an incident and how successful or damaging it is.
Government officials routinely say their computers are probed millions of times a day, with many of those being scans that don't trigger any problems.
In a June report, the congressional Government Accountability Office said federal agencies reported more than 16,000 threats or incidents last year, roughly three times the amount in 2007.
Most of those involved unauthorized access to the system, violations of computer use policies or investigations into potentially harmful incidents.
The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, says there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers in 2008, up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006.
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, Mike Levine, Paul Wagenseil and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
more@> www.foxnews.com/story/0,29...781,00.html
