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Whatever its other costs and bennies, ethanol is no biggie on global warming

A new study (found via Tidepool, and reported here in the Des Moines Register) claims that U.S. taxpayers will pay somewhere between $5.1 billion and $6.8 billion dollars this year to subsidize ethanol production. That's works out to, oh, around a buck and a half per gallon of gasoline equivalent, on top of the sales price of the fuel.

As far as I can tell, the authors have done a pretty credible job of tallying up the various costs of ethanol subsidies -- not just the federal tax credits, but also farm subsidies, accelerated depreciation allowances for capital investments, and even state-level ethanol promotion programs.

Still, I don't think this is the last word on the matter. Not by a long shot. A complete assessment of the issue would look even farther afield, and tally a far wider swath of costs, as well as benefits.

And when I do that, I see billions and billions of dollars, on both the plus and minus sides of the ledger. But the climate-change benefits of ethanol? Not so big.

From Wild Men to Wild Nights

The end is derriere When counting down the days ’til certain apocalypse, it’s best to stay distracted. Thankfully, the Nevada Wilderness Project and University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse Progressives are both unveiling eco-themed nudie calendars for 2007. Naked rugged wild men or naked earnest coeds? We pick both. (Email for .) Photo: Nevada Wilderness Project Reborn identity […]

From the show Weeds

Showtime's semi-hit show Weeds is about Nancy Botwin, a suburban stay-at-home mother of two boys who, after the death of her husband, turns to selling marijuana to make ends meet. Soon she starts growing too.

I'm in the midst of watching the second season. With some partners, Nancy's just developed a new strain (dubbed "MILF weed" by Snoop Dogg himself) and started selling it. Cash is pouring in, so Nancy goes on a shopping spree. Here's a short clip of what it looks like:

Will it really be green this time?

So how do you feed the poorest? The Gates and Rockefeller Foundations have an answer but skeptics abound.

Morgan Bang for the Buck

Morgan Stanley will invest $3 billion in carbon trading and offset projects Investment giant Morgan Stanley announced today that it will invest $3 billion in carbon trading and offset projects over the next five years. Expecting a rush to purchase offsets as the Kyoto Protocol’s 2012 deadline approaches, the bank is playing the middleperson — […]

Crazed, Greedy Drilling in Texas? You Don’t Say

Natural-gas drilling booms in Fort Worth Forth Worth, Texas, lies atop a huge natural-gas field, and thus is at the center of the biggest urban drilling boom in the U.S. today. The city has leased more than 2,400 acres of public land for natural-gas development; over 600 wells have cropped up in the last year […]

We Will Rebury You

Bush and Putin may look to store radwaste at site of Russian nuclear catastrophe Besides the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the deadliest nuclear catastrophe in history happened … no, not at Chernobyl, but in Chelyabinsk, Russia. In the mid-20th century, three disasters in the area spread contamination from a nuke-weapons complex, but the news […]

‘Mauna Loa is a volcano’ — CO2 rise is measured on top of a volcano!

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: CO2 levels are recorded on top of Mauna Loa ... a volcano! No wonder the levels are so high.

(image courtesty of Global Warming Art)

Who’s on your team?

A sport for the wonky, competitive folks out there.

Fantasy Congress.

My heart goes pitter-patter.

‘There is no evidence’ — Yes, there is

(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide)

Objection: Despite what the computer models tell us, there is actually no evidence of significant global warming.

Answer: Global warming is not an output of computer models; it is a conclusion based on observations of a great many global indicators. By far the most straightforward evidence is the actual surface temperature record. While there are places -- in England, for example -- that have records going back several centuries, the two major global temperature analyses can only go back around 150 years due to their requirements for both quantity and distribution of temperature recording stations.

These are the two most reputable globally and seasonally averaged temperature trend analyses: