Latest Articles
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Bush admin appeals ruling on mercury cap-and-trade plan
The Bush administration has appealed a court ruling that struck down the U.S. EPA’s controversial mercury cap-and-trade plan. The earlier ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found the EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it enacted the mercury rule in 2005. The cap-and-trade system allowed dirtier power plants […]
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Does additionality matter?
The first follow-up to my recent post on carbon policy details.
First, a note to non-carbon-wonks: "Additionality" is a term of art in the world of carbon policy. It describes the degree to which a given activity causes additional carbon reductions -- the idea being that we shouldn't pay for carbon reductions that were going to occur anyway. As a fantastic oversimplification, suppose your car broke down and you had to ride your bike to work. The principle of additionality says you shouldn't be paid for the carbon you didn't emit. (You would have ridden anyway -- what choice did you have?) But if there's an increment of money that would tip you over into getting rid of your car and always riding your bike, that's additional.
Theoretically, great idea. Practically? Stupid.
To understand why, go back to the test I posited in my earlier post: Does the metric increase or decrease the rate at which we invest capital to lower GHG emissions?
The answer for additionality is not what you'd expect, for rather subtle reasons.
First off, let's note a couple truths:
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Please don’t use incandescent bulbs for heating
Please.
As Andrew Leonard writes in his "How the World Works" blog, this all began with a column by ...Toronto Star energy reporter Tyler Hamilton that itself had summarized the conclusions of a study raising questions about whether it always makes sense to replace incandescent light bulbs with CFLs. The nub of the argument was that in some cases the heat generated by the incandescent light bulbs could be useful.
Tyler is a friend of mine and a great reporter, so I sent him an email explaining why this is not true, which was not written for publication. Then Leonard himself summarized the column on his blog. So, as Leonard explains:
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Cost of solar cells may be driven down dramatically
Well lookie here! A series of manufacturing process improvements could make the cost of electricity from silicon-based solar cells comparable to today’s prices for coal generation within about four years, according to a company emerging out of stealth today. The company, 1366 Technologies, will be using technologies developed in MIT labs to reduce the manufacturing […]
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‘Heart-healthy’ pork from pigs with bad hearts
I live for this sort of stuff: Guys in white lab coats got to tinkering with pig DNA, hoping to conjure up pork rich in “heart-healthy” omega-3 fatty acids. Here’s what they did: A team from the University of Pittsburgh a first transferred the roundworm gene–fat-1–to pig foetal cells. After that, a team from the […]
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A roundup of news snippets
• Americans cut back on driving in 2007 for the first time in 20 years. • Merrill Lynch launches a global carbon index. • London Mayor Ken Livingstone gets jiggy with greenness in his reelection campaign. • Canada’s annual seal hunt starts Friday.
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Software calculates eco-impact of printers and copiers
Xerox is offering a new software calculator to help companies reduce the energy suckage of printers, copiers, and other newfangled technology. The calculator will consider factors including type of print cartridge, print color, speed, number of pages printed per month, and Energy Star rating, then create bar graphs demonstrating energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and solid […]
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Notable quotable(s)
“I am convinced that if we work at it, we will be able to convince India and China that it is in their interest to be part of a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” — John McCain, March 2008 “One of the things I would do if I were President would be to […]
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Canada says no to ethanol waste as cow feed, and more
In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. Back in January, a high USDA official made a pair of statements that say a lot about how we regulate industrial food production here in the United States. On the one hand, he admitted to a journalist that feeding cows high levels […]
