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Refining Fault

Green groups sue EPA over refinery emissions rules Yet again, environmental groups are suing the U.S. EPA for issuing rules the enviros say will increase pollution. In the old days, refineries and other industrial plants were required to submit a malfunction contingency plan to the EPA; under a rule that went into effect in April, […]

An Irritating Truth

EIA predicts world will continue to guzzle energy According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, growing public consciousness of the impending worldwide energy crisis is going to … well, have basically no effect at all. World energy demand will surge 71 percent between 2003 to 2030, predicted the EIA yesterday, and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions […]

All the Right Moves

Grist needs more help getting a move on If you’ve been following our saga over the last week or so, you know that Grist is about to make two big moves: the physical kind, which will land us in a new office space, and the, uh, metaphysical kind, which will lead to all kinds of […]

Umbra on replacing light bulbs

Dear Umbra, I am reluctant to switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs because that means tossing out not only used-but-still-working incandescent bulbs, but also the brand-new bulbs I have waiting in the closet. Is it really a positive effect overall when we’re reducing our carbon emissions but adding to landfills? Julie Pittsburgh, Pa. Dearest Julie, […]

CFLs

Leonard Lin crunches the numbers and finds that if the government started a program to replace every lightbulb in every household with a CFL bulb, the American people would save $4.1 billion in electrical bills and enough power to replace a nuclear power plant. (via kottke)

In other news, Mr. Luna is still plugging away at his bright idea.

Nature and allergies

Want to make sure your kids don't have bad allergies? Take them out into messy, dirty nature.

Disposable everything. Really. Everything.

A few days ago, Stephen Hawking declared that the only hope for future human survival is space colonies. Specifically, Hawking said:

It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species ... Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.

Now, I'm glad to add Hawking to the list of geniuses (genii?) who are scared witless about global warming. But is this how desperate we are, that the only choice is a reverse-Battlestar Galactica?

Energy bills proliferating (and sucking)

I can't decide whether to be heartened or depressed beyond reason by this NYT story on the recent flurry of energy-related bills in Congress. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut down refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region last summer, speeding the rise of gasoline costs, House members have introduced 267 energy-related bills and senators have introduced 210, according to an analysis by the Senate energy committee.

On one hand, it's nice that the energy issue is rising in importance and that legislators are paying attention.

On the other, the vast majority of the proposed bills are awful. Worse yet, the few that actually have a chance of passing are among the worst:

Random thought of the day

In talking with Anthony Flint and reading Big Coal, a parallel occurred to me.

I asked Flint about the historical roots of single-use development -- the kind that separated out residential areas and led to the sprawl we now know and love. He told me that such zoning measures were originally passed by progressives, in an effort to move the dirty, disease-causing elements of urban life -- e.g., slaughterhouses and factories -- away from where people live. It was concern for the health of the underclass that led to single-use development.

Similarly, when coal turbines were first developed, one business model was to build them small and make them residential appliances (to sell machines rather than electricity, in effect). But the early turbines were dirty. So eventually, savvy businessfolk moved the turbines far out of town and made them huge.

Early on in America's industrial development, the impetus was to separate and spread out the various functions of human community, because the industrial functions were filthy and unhealthy. But we got stuck with that dissipation.

A principal part of this century's environmental fight is to reintegrate and condense the functions of human community.

Mackey v. Pollan

Foodie journalist Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (review here; interview with Pollan here) makes some disturbing points about the increasingly industrial character of organic agriculture. It uses as its exemplar of "industrial organic" the burgeoning Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey took quite a bit of umbrage at that, and responded with a long, passionate letter about the work his store has done to nurture the organic movement and local agriculture.

On his blog (which is stupidly behind the NYT $elect wall), Pollan responds at some length.

Both letters are interesting reading, but the dispute basically boils down to Mackey saying "we do buy local" and Pollan saying "it doesn't really seem that way, but I sure hope you move in that direction." They are more or less in agreement on the direction things need to go.

I thought this point by Pollan was apt: