The legislature of the great state of Kansas, is preparing to consider a bill that would eliminate the renewable energy portfolio standard.  The RPS requires investor-owned utilities in the state to procure 20% of energy capacity from renewable sources by 2020.  It isn't the most aggressive RPS in the country, but it is significant for a state like Kansas, dominated by conservative leadership at all levels of state government.

A July 2012 Wichita Eagle article noted that Gray County, in southwestern Kansas, will collect $1.2 million in taxes each year from wind turbines.  Landowners will collect more than $2 million per year over the life of the wind projects - typically 20 to 25 years.  This is not-insignificant revenue for any municipal government and is particularly meaningful for western Kansas communities starved for economic development of any kind.

So why is the legislature considering repeal of the renewable portfolio standard?

Ministers are considering launching a negative advertising campaign in Bulgaria and Romania to persuade potential immigrants to stay away from the UK.

"Don't come to Britain please because we're a government of pea-brained xenophobes."

The sadly funny aspect of this is the outpouring of self-hatred it will provoke from the English. OK so there's a lot to hate... but there's nobody quite like the English for it, and it's not all funny.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

A European court has cleared the Icelandic government of failing to guarantee minimum levels of compensation for UK and Dutch savers in the collapsed Icesave bank.

Icesave, run by the Icelandic Landsbanki, collapsed in 2008 along with all of Iceland's banking system.

The UK and Dutch savers were bailed out completely by their governments.

The ruling may halt the UK's attempt to get all of its money back from the Icelandic government.

The Icelandic government said it took "considerable satisfaction" from the ruling from the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) Court.

"Iceland has from the start maintained that there is legal uncertainty as to whether a state is responsible for ensuring payments of minimum guarantees to depositors using its own funds and has stressed the importance of having this issue clarified in court," it said.

"We see a growth of extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, hatred and nationalism," she said.

"Not since World War II have extreme and populist forces had so much influence on the national parliaments as they have today. In some countries even neo-Nazis have been elected," she added.

Should the trend continue, next year's European elections "might further strengthen these forces", threatening the entire European project, Malmstroem said.