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Finally some mainstream focus on efficiency

I’ve had my issues with NYT columnist Nic Kristof in the past, but he’s knocking them out of the park on climate change. His latest hits exactly the right notes. Check it out: Concern about greenhouse gases and reliance on imported oil usually leads to a focus on the supply side of the energy equation, […]

a man with a microbe on mission

At 29, David Berry MD, a PhD, and now, title as Young Innovator of the Year in MIT's Tech Review magazine.

So what makes Berry so hot? He's the brains behind LS9, the California-based company working on "renewable petroleum."

Berry's goal was nothing less than "to develop a novel and far-reaching solution to the energy problem." In col­laboration with genomics researcher George Church of Harvard Medi­cal School and plant biologist Chris Somerville of Stanford University, Berry and his Flagship colleagues set out to do something that had never been attempted commercially: using the tools of synthetic biology to make microörganisms that produce something like petroleum. Berry assumed responsibility for proving that the infant company, dubbed LS9, could produce a biofuel that was renewable, better than corn-derived ethanol, and cost-­competitive with ­fossil-based fuels.

I understand that Chris Somerville -- a leading figure in the plant biology field -- is also at work on plants that are genetically engineered to produce biodegradable plastics. Now if they could just integrate that idea with these petroleum-producing microbes, we'd really have something to celebrate.

BioWillie pens a biodiesel book

Willie Nelson is talking about biodiesel again. This time in book form, and the result is On the Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and the Future of the Family Farm. The 90-some-page pocket-size book (it’s like a li’l Willie you can carry with you everywhere!) is divided into two parts: the past (or the history of […]

Not your father’s Old Coal

In thinking and responding to posts about the latest EPRI propaganda, a couple questions came to mind. Questions I'm a bit embarrassed I hadn't thought of before, so I pose them to you now:

1. If coal isn't cheap, is there any reason to build it?
2. If we're willing to pay 12 cents/kWh for baseload power, would you preferentially pay it to coal?

Those may seem odd questions to ask, but follow me through the math.

Temptation

Just a few days ago I met with a potential client who very much wanted me to design a rural green home on the edge of a wetland. He would have to compensate for the damage the home would do by funding the planting of native flora to help restore another wetland.

I declined even though it would have been interesting and lucrative. I am fully aware that he will just hire someone else and besmirch the wetland anyway. This happens to me on occasion. I refuse to design rural homes or cabins, especially off-grid ones, purely out of a sense of self-righteous indignation. They are sores on the face of the planet. I don't really blame those who are chasing their eco-fantasy, and I don't really blame those who will eventually do the designs for them, I just don't want to participate in the rape of the planet any more than necessary.

But today, I got the following email:

Keeping the air conditioners running in muggy Pennsylvania

Just back from visiting the family in Pennsylvania, where temperatures were hitting the high 90s. It was the kind of sticky, muggy, oppressively hot weather that reminds me why I live in the cool corner that is the Pacific Northwest.

As air conditioners were blasting away everywhere and lights were flickering, I was thinking that grid operators must be calling on every demand-response resource they could.

Back into post-vacation action, I came across an Aug. 10 release [PDF] from PJM Interconnect that confirmed it. The power grid was on emergency status and PJM, in fact, drew a record demand response -- 1,945 megawatts -- equal to a fair-sized city.

PJM also reduced voltage in the overall system by 1,000 MW, explaining those flickers. So I actually lived through the scenario with which I opened "Adventures in the smart grid no. 2." Damned glad they kept those air conditioners on.

Hmmm …

James Connaughton says George W. Bush wants to be an "honest broker" on global warming. Sound familiar?

NYC debates grass v. artificial turf on playing fields

This NYT piece is interesting in that oh-I-never-thought-of-that sort of way. Grass playing fields are — in New York City, at least — an endangered species: To avoid the ignominy of being trampled underfoot, the grass fields need to be idle all winter, and once a week the rest of the year. As a result, […]

And at what temperature Greenland’s ice sheet will melt

Climate tipping points have been the subject of much debate and confusion. Now Professor Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia has published a very good piece, "Tipping points in the Earth System," giving some intellectual substance to the notion.

Not surprisingly, the tipping point Prof. Lenton worries about most is the disintegration of Greenland's ice sheet. He told The Guardian:

We know that ice sheets in the last ice age collapsed faster than any current models can capture, so our models are known to be too sluggish.

Friday music blogging: Jens Lekman

Today we bring you a Swedish singer-songwriter named Jens Lekman. On the surface, Lekman’s music is a bit of a throwback: mannered, melodic, occasionally orchestral pop, delivered with a precise baritone. It wouldn’t be out of place alongside Frank Sinatra. But listen a little closer and you hear a deadpan wit, a post-ironic self-effacement that […]