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GOP candidate calls for energy efficiency in a California speech

John McCain gave yet another address on energy and environmental issues today (the third in the past week, if you’re counting), this one focused on energy efficiency, which he says should begin at home with the federal government. “Energy efficiency is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue,” he told a crowd […]

Home Depot will collect CFLs for recycling

Home Depot announced Tuesday that it will collect compact fluorescent light bulbs and send them off to be recycled. The home-improvement behemoth hopes the new program will keep the bulbs, which contain a small amount of mercury, out of household trash and recycling bins. IKEA also collects CFLs for recycling but doesn’t have the market […]

New flicks feature green themes

Photo: rpb1001 The oppressive heat of global warming got you headed to your local air-conditioned movie theater? No? It’s just the popcorn? Well, either way, you may end up seeing a blockbuster with an environmental theme. Lately there’s been a bumper crop of eco-stuff hitting the big screen or making its way there soon. For […]

My kingdom for a so-called expert

Sam Stein goes looking for an energy expert who will endorse John McCain’s contention that oil drilling will provide short-term price relief. You can guess the rest.

Saudi Arabia to host summit on high gas prices

Since when do we deal with our addiction by going to summits hosted by drug suppliers? Yet here is the Washington Post:

"Saudi Arabian Oil Summit Hopes to Isolate Cause of Price Rise"

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, June 21 -- Leaders from oil-producing and oil-consuming nations will meet here Sunday to try to pinpoint the reasons behind the rise in oil prices, which have doubled over the past year, and to find ways to bring them down.

Development in waste-heat-to-electricity technology

Here's a 200 year old idea with merit: A Stirling engine, modified to capture the waste heat of industrial processes to make electricity. Gar noted Stirling Energy Systems' efforts in this vein to make electricity from solar thermal collectors using a Stirling engine a year ago, but instead of the sun, a startup in my neighborhood, ReGen, is developing a Stirling that will specialize in using the low to moderate heat generated by landfill gas systems, paper mills, steel mills, chemical and petroleum refining facilities, glass ovens, cement plants, and similar locations:

Increasing oil production will not substitute as energy solution

Originally posted on the NDN Blog.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia did what everyone -- including George W. Bush on bended knee -- has been asking it to do for months: agree to increase production. Prices closed up a dollar. The Saudi move and its non-impact on the market shows just how tight supplies remain. While it was designed in large part to offset declines in Nigerian production due to rebel violence in the oil-rich, poverty-stricken Niger Delta, it might have sent a psychological signal of easing supplies but it did not.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, another panel of oil traders told Chair Dingell's House Energy and Commerce Oversight subcommittee that speculation is driving up oil prices and tighter oversight of commodities futures markets could lower prices. Staffers released data to the effect that 70 percent of trades are now speculative, up from 30 percent not long ago.

Tokyo set to pass citywide cap-and-trade bill

Tokyo, Japan, is on track to pass a bill on Wednesday that would limit the amount of greenhouse gases big companies in the city could emit, making it the first such mandatory program in the country. The city’s 1,300 largest emitters are responsible for some 20 percent of Tokyo’s total greenhouse-gas emissions. The bill aims […]

U.S. Supreme Court rejects asbestos company’s appeal, clearing way for trial

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from asbestos company W.R. Grace, clearing the way for a long-awaited criminal trial to begin. The company and six of its executives were indicted in 2005 on charges of violating the Clean Air Act by allegedly releasing asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from a mine in Libby, Mont., between […]

Refrigeration without electricity

Here’s Adam Grossner’s brief TED talk, on his effort to create a refrigerator that doesn’t use electricity: (thanks LL!)