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Videos from PowerShift

The PowerShift youth climate conference, which has been going on in D.C. all weekend, is, from all reports, kicking ass. Our own Brian Beutler is there and will be writing a report shortly. For now, the best place to read about the ongoing events is the blog Its Getting Hot In Here. Here are some […]

Hillary’s energy plan expected today

Over the course of Monday and Tuesday, Hillary Clinton is going to introduce her new energy plan — "Powering America’s Future: New Energy, New Jobs” — with a few speeches and briefings. I will, naturally, be covering it like a static-clingy blanket. If anyone out there in blog land runs across interesting links or documents […]

Working with cities to create markets for green products

My first impression of Clinton was that he’d just woken up, or that he was under the weather. He had a little bedhead, his voice was a bit croaky, and he was speaking slowly. This definitely wasn’t the virtuoso Clinton of the 1998 SOTU. The fireworks were mostly muted, though there were a few flashes […]

Pollution prevention and preparing for the future

The final part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) discusses pollution prevention.

I think the discussion still holds up, and as you can see, I am no Johnny-come-lately to the global warming issue. What is particularly sad about the Bush administration, is that while they eschew the anti-clean-technology rhetoric of Reagan and Gingrich -- indeed claim to be pro-clean-technology, they have gutted some of the best clean tech and energy efficiency programs. In particular, they have slashed the budget for the Energy Department's major pollution prevention effort, the Industries of the Future program (described briefly in the article), and the president has proposed zeroing it out entirely.

This administration's energy and climate policy make the final sentence of this article, sadly, as true as ever: "Only a misbegotten ideology could conceive a blunder of such potentially historic proportions."

Here is what we wrote:

The renewables revolution

After the introduction and an explanation of "The Coming Oil Crisis" and "Abandoning the Solution," the next part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) is a discussion of the "The Renewables Revolution."

One of the great energy tragedies of the 1980s is that President Reagan gutted the renewable energy R&D budget (and the entire clean energy budget) -- a stunning 90% cut in key technologies -- just as America was assuming technological and marketplace leadership in core areas like wind and solar power.

One of the great energy tragedies of the 1990s is that the Gingrich Congress blocked the Clinton administration's efforts to significantly ramp up renewable and clean energy funding, which could have restored U.S. leadership in technologies that even then were obviously going to be the foundation of major job-creating industries in the coming century.

Here is what we wrote on renewables:

Abandoning the solution

After the introduction and an explanation of "The Coming Oil Crisis," the next part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) begins the discussion of the technology-based solution -- and how the Congress is working to block it. Yes, long before Shellenberger & Nordhaus claim to have pioneered the positive technology message that everyone else supposedly never tried, many of us were waging a public death-match (without their help) to save those technologies -- especially since the Gingrich Congress was dead set against a regulatory approach, such as tougher fuel economy standards.

Even back in 1996, we understood the promise of cellulosic ethanol and hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles -- though after years of trying, we could never get Detroit to give them any more than lip service. Back in the mid-1990s, I still had some optimism for hydrogen fuel cell cars -- but the inability to make key breakthroughs over the past 10 years, and the realities of the alternative fuels market, have since persuaded me it is a dead end, especially from the perspective of global warming.

Here is what we wrote:

More evidence that industrial ag is destroying the planet

From an ecological standpoint, the fundamental problem with U.S. farm policy dating back to the ’70s is that it rewards farmers for maximizing yield at all cost. Encouraged to produce as much as possible, all the time, farmers have few incentives to conserve resources or protect water, air, or soil quality. The federal government’s dizzying […]

Iraqi catches shark, blames America

... in Iraq, a shark was found 160 miles from the sea in an irrigation canal that joins the Euphrates River. "I believe America is behind this matter," said the Iraqi who netted it ...

... the seasonal growth of water hyacinth disrupted local fishing activities along the coast of Lagos in Nigeria. The plant can grow rapidly enough to choke waterways overnight ...

... Turkish academics decided to establish the country's first rehabilitation center for sea turtles ...

... salmon fishing on Oregon's Rogue River was poor this season ...

... the New England Fishery Management Council decided not to end its scallop season on Nov. 1, a move usually made to protect sea turtles off the eastern U.S. coast ...

... an ocean quahog clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland was thought to be the oldest living creature ever discovered. The clam was nicknamed Ming in reference to the Chinese dynasty that was in power at the time of its birth 405 to 410 years ago. The clam died when the researchers counted its rings ...

The coming oil crisis

After the introduction, the next part of "Mideast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) predicted in 1996 that we would have an oil crisis in ten years, and that we would be in a weak position to respond if Congress succeeded in gutting our clean energy programs.

That may seem obvious now, but oil prices were low in the mid-1990s -- in the previous three years, oil prices had averaged about $16 a barrel -- and only a few oil/security analysts (whom we cite) were raising alarms.

This prediction proved to be right in the main, and I am especially proud of the final paragraph in this section, where we made what was, at the time, a fairly original geostrategic argument that has been proven all-too-true. Here is what we wrote:

Friday music blogging: Against Me!

A long day of speeches, hearings, and post-hearing drinking has left me exhausted, but never fear, Friday Music Blogging fan(s), I won’t let you down. This band, Against Me!, is huge in the punk/emo/whatever scene. Normally I stay far away from that particular genre, but there are rare occasions (see: Fugazi) when a band in […]