Latest Articles
-
Eric Corey Freed extrapolates on his recommendations in the NYT
Monday I wrote “Ignore NYT’s Green Home column.” I was critical both of the author Julie Scelfo and Eric Corey Freed, the author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. But having corresponded with Freed, it seems that his recommendations were taken somewhat out of context. He in fact provided a rough list of 20 […]
-
First DOE loan guarantee goes to solar
Today the Department of Energy announced its first energy loan guarantee. It’s going to … Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels. What’s the phrase? Oh, right: elections have consequences.
-
Southern Company embraces the only affordable way to ‘capture’ emissions at a coal plant today
The best and cheapest near-term strategy for reducing coal plant CO2 emissions without forcing utilities to simply walk away from their entire capital investment is to replace that coal with biomass (see here). Today, Energy Daily ($ub. req’d) reports on the huge — but little covered — news from one of the nation’s biggest carbon […]
-
![]()
![]()
From Wings to Wrappers
On a wing and a prayer It’s a car … it’s a plane … it’s the Terrafugia Transition. Part car and part airplane, this hybrid combines the best of two pollutey products into one scary contraption. We’re sure it’ll take off! (Click below to see the next item in this week’s Grist List — or […]
-
Let’s call a gas tax the ‘All-American Energy-Independence Assessment’
Whether they are called “revenue enhancements” or “user charges,” fear of the political consequences of taxes restricts debate on energy and environmental policy options in Washington. In a March 7 post on “green jobs,” in which I argued that it is not always best to try to address two challenges with a single policy instrument, […]
-
How cap-and-rebate brings about carbon reductions
David Roberts asks: Who, in this scenario [carbon revenue rebated to consumers], has any new incentive to shift to low-carbon electricity or efficiency? Short answer: everyone. Let’s say I’m your utility, and I raise your energy prices so that, at present rate of consumption, your bill will rise to $50,000 per year. Pretend that energy […]
-
U.S. groups desert precautionary principle, 53 to 6
After ducking the matter for a decade, U.S. environmental organizations finally pulled together a climate policy, but the National Call to Action on Global Warming issued by 53 organizations on March 5 is a mistake and should be reconsidered. The National Call contains key elements that have been startlingly absent from our efforts to date […]
-
![]()
![]()
Michelle Obama to Oprah: There will be a White house veggie garden
It’s official, because it’s been etched in the pages of our most sacred national chronicle. No, not the Federal Register — I’m talking about O Magazine. Here’s the scoop: the Obamas will plant a veggie garden in the White House lawn. The First Lady of the United States told the Queen of the Universe as […]
-
Big Oil [hearts] biofuels
Update [2009-3-19 12:37:25 by Tom Philpott]:Also on the theme of Big Oil loving biofuels: Valero Energy, the largest U.S. oil refiner, just snapped up seven ethanol plants from bankrupt ethanol maker Verasun for $1 billion. To get the plants, Valero beat out corn-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland, which had bid $700 million. ——————- From Reuters: […]
-
The DOE’s annual biofuels conference doesn’t inspire confidence
Team Ethanol got together recently at the Department of Energy for Biomass 2009: Fueling Our Future — a conference on all things biofuel. Needless to say, they’re still singing the same old song. More subsidies, a higher blend wall (a cheer that USDA Chief Tom Vilsack knows well) and much crowing over the promise of […]
