Latest Articles
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Solar PV in Los Angeles: The emperor has no clothes, says UCLA
The Los Angeles Business Council released a hard-hitting report on the future of solar photovoltaics in southern California at its annual sustainability summit on Tuesday. The blockbuster report could have profound repercussions on renewable energy policy not only in Los Angeles, but also in California. In unusually clear and concise language, the report, written by […]
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Krugman says what political media won’t: economists agree climate action is necessary, affordable
Paul Krugman has a fantastic piece on the cover of the upcoming issue of the New York Times Magazine: “Building a Green Economy.” With his typical patience, cogence, and clarity, Krugman walks through the mainstream economics take on climate change: its cost, the best way to respond, the cost of responding, and the proper scale […]
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Egger’s Head: School lunches
Robert Egger has a lot going on in his head. Just ask him. As a nonprofit entrepreneur, a serial searcher for ordinary people doing extraordinary things, a deeply deep thoughts kind of guy, Egger gives us something to ponder every week. In this installment, he scratches his noggin over the school lunch crisis, which has […]
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Paul Krugman on ‘Building a Green Economy’
Nobelist Paul Krugman has a long piece in the upcoming Sunday New York Times Magazine, basically climate economics 101. It is nearly 8000 words, so while you should read the whole thing, I’ll post some of the highlights below. I’ll also throw some links to the scientific and economic literature that the NYT, in its […]
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Sarah Palin recounts recent Mensa meeting
“I knew that we’d be buddies when I met her when she said, ‘Drill here, drill now.’ And then I replied, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and then we both said, ‘You betcha!'” — former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on meeting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)
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Senate Energy spox responds; more on fossil-fuel safety and our energy future
Yesterday I took issue with this quote from Senate Energy Committee spokesperson Bill Wicker, about the mine accident in West Virginia: “This is a mining accident,” says Bill Wicker, communications director for the Senate Energy Committee. “This issue involves the health and safety of our miners, not our energy future.” As I wrote, it seems […]
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Meet America’s most extreme energy geeks
Photo courtesy PNNL via FlickrJet-engine wind turbines, fuel made from big batches of algae, enzymes that trap power plant CO2. Sound seriously far-fetched? They may be. But these concepts are fetching serious investment dollars from the Department of Energy. DOE Secretary Steven Chu — a Nobel Prize-winning inventor himself — has launched a new program […]
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World Bank vote gives billions to coal
It's bad news for clean energy and our planet today, as the United States failed to follow its own global warming guidelines. The World Bank today approved a $3.75 billion loan to South African power utility Eskom to help build a 4,800 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Medupi. The funding would also facilitate plans for a second large coal plant in Kusile. The coal plants will be among the largest and most polluting worldwide.
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Another tragic iceberg awaiting Massey’s titanic violations: Brushy Fork Dam
Hope must die last in the coalfields, as our prayers go out to the families of the missing four coal miners and the 25 killed in the recent Montcoal mining disaster in West Virginia. But as heroic rescue teams attempt to reach the missing miners, another potential disaster instigated by reckless Massey Energy regulatory violations […]
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Weather Channel asks, "July in April?"
CP: So it’s friggin’ hot in DC and much of the country. Audience: How hot is it? CP: It’s so hot that: I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin’. The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up. I saw squirrels fanning their nuts. Even meteorologists are doing stories about human-caused […]
