Latest Articles
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Robert Novak does it on purpose
A recent Gristmill post discussed an op-ed by Robert Novak on climate change.
One argument Novak makes against environmental regulations is that they're extremely expensive. Turns out when Novak's not outing CIA agents, he's getting his facts wrong.
Novak says:
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that [the McCain-Lieberman climate bill] would reduce gross domestic product by $776 billion annually.
However, if you read the report he quotes you'll see that $776 billion is the cumulative and undiscounted cost of the program. $776 billion is not the cost per year.
The report actually says:
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Good stuff
Here’s the line-up from Friday night’s episode of the Charlie Rose Show: Segment 1: The pursuit of alternative energy and breakthroughs in green technology with John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems, and K.R. Sridhar of Bloom Energy. Segment 2: A conversation about developments in the internet and the […]
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The year, alphabetically
When it comes to global warming and the environment, everything seemed to change in 2006 -- at least in terms of public awareness. Here's an A-to-Z accounting of just some of those changes:
A is for An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's scientific but surprisingly human documentary on the threat of climate change, which was expected to take in at most $6-7 million at the box office but went on to gross over $45 million, the biggest documentary of the year and the third-largest of all time.
B is for biofuels, which went from becoming a hippies-only fringe product to a highlight of the State of the Union address. To date, Washington has been focused mostly on ethanol, but other fuels requiring much less fossil energy to produce are coming to the fore and proving surprisingly popular. Or as the bumper sticker says: "Biodiesel: No war required."
C is for California, which set a new standard for pollution control by passing a bipartisan package of bills designed to cut tailpipe greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent by 2016 (and many other measures). For this, Iain Murray, a fossil fuel-funded think tank writer for the far-right National Review, declared: "It is hard to escape the conclusion ... that what California has done is to decide to join the Third World."
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New report indicates
Here's an amusingly giddy account of a recent report released by CIA types: "National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency."
Oil Drum covered it back when it came out, but if you haven't had a look, do check it out. It's a significant sign of intellectual life in the halls of power.
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60 groups fight for modest energy efficiency budget
Wow, this is sad:
In a letter sent today to the Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriations, 60 business, environmental, and faith-based organizations urged Congress to reject the White House Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy's renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. Instead, they called for full funding of the cross-section of sustainable energy programs up to the levels authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct).
Talk about fighting for scraps.
Read the full letter (PDF). They're haggling over millions of dollars. A single Pentagon weapons program could cover all these expenses 100 times over. Priorities ...
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WTF?
I am shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that not a single Gristmill post appeared in the top ten posts of 2006. What about my classic post on cogeneration? The kids went crazy over that one!
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In the NYT and Sierra
Congrats to The New York Times for its excellent "Energy Challenge" series, which Revkin tells me will be an ongoing concern for the paper into the new year. It's packed with info and marks the decisive mainstreaming of this debate.
That said, I'm not sure the reader forum is working for me. Surely there's a better way of presenting this stuff than a single vertical column of comments -- as of right now, 412 comments. It's a bit overwhelming.
Anyway, while I'm passing out kudos, check out the latest issue of Sierra Magazine as well. It's also about "Energizing America." It hypes energy efficiency and bashes ethanol and nuclear power, and that's aces in my book.
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Global warming is one of his top priorities
You probably heard that John Edwards has officially declared his candidacy for president. Here are his top five priorities:
- Provide moral leadership in the world
- Strengthen our middle class and end poverty
- Guarantee universal health care for every American
- Lead the fight against global warming
- Get America and other countries off our addiction to oil
Edwards, who's been working primarily on poverty since the 2004 election, announced in the 9th Ward of New Orleans. Here's the video:
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Hog wash
The sub-heading of this great new Rolling Stone piece says it all:
"America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat."
Oh, and one more nice fact: Hogs in America produce three times more excrement than all us humans combined.
