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SF keeping PACE

The built environment is responsible for something like 72% of electricity use and ~36% of greenhouse gas emission in the US.  How to get at that chunk of embedded carbon? On Monday, the City of San Francisco launched Green Finance SF, the country’s largest Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program.  The bonding capacity is […]

The way to carbon neutrality

My co-presenter at last weekend’s Carbon Neutrality Unconference, smart-guy Pete Erickson of Stockholm Environment Institute, used four slides that are worth sharing again. Taken together, they’re an excellent — if somewhat wonky way — to think about the basic structure of reducing emissions. 1. What are the cheapest reductions? (Click for larger version) This McKinsey […]

President Must End 200 Years of Regulated Manslaughter

At 3:30pm EST today, residents in West Virginia and across the nation will be observing a moment of silence for the fallen coal miners in last week’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster, their families, and the rescue crews. Everyone in the nation–across the 48 states that burn coal for electricity–should take this moment to consider […]

Insane posse of climate deniers?

I know you were probably a little worried that these guys had gone extinct, so I have some excellent news: Insane Clown Posse just came out with a new song! And that’s not all. It teaches us about science—with a twist—so no need to fret any longer about our flagging education system. It’s a little […]

Don Blankenship called safety regulators ‘as silly as global warming’

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The death toll from Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine explosion last week has reached a total of 29 miners, the worst coal disaster in 40 years. When the disaster occurred, Massey was contesting millions of dollars in major safety violations levied against the mine. At his Labor Day anti-union […]

Bonn to Cancun … negotiators agree to continue efforts on international global warming

The first global warming negotiations post Copenhagen have just wrapped up here in Bonn (as I discussed here). It was a 3 day session and was mostly focused on establishing the process and expectations for negotiations this year. While there was some complaining about the Copenhagen Accord from some quarters, the complaining was timid compared […]

HFCS, the precautionary principle, and the myth of absolute certainty

This is Part 2 of 2 posts of in-depth analysis into the breakthrough work on High Fructose Corn Syrup and weight gain by Princeton researchers. _______________ How much “proof” do we need that the pervasiveness of cheap, HFCS-sweetened junk is making us ill? As a follow-up to my email exchange with Princeton HFCS study lead […]

The hazards of using toxic coal ash for land development

Following the disastrous spill of a billion gallons of coal ash waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in December 2008, poorly regulated coal ash impoundments like the one that failed have landed in the public spotlight. But other methods of disposing of coal ash waste have gotten less attention — even though they […]

With so much potential for energy efficiency, why is the South so inefficient?

When it comes to energy reform, the American South has often been a deadweight, anchoring the country to the status quo. There are any number reasons why: It’s oil, coal, and nuke country. It’s heavily Republican. Many of the affluent white men who dominate its politics view energy as part of the culture war, another […]

Note to Environmentalists: Economists are on your side

There is a tendency among some environmental writers to dismiss “classical”, “traditional”, “neoliberal”, or “mainstream” economics as somehow inimical to environmental interests.   The problem is that more often than not these writers get the facts wrong.   It’s almost as if the knee-jerk aversion to economics that exists among many environmentalists prevents them from […]