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Do hybrids use more energy in their lifecycle than other cars?

What to make of this news from the Eugene, OR Register-Guard?

In a report that's sure to be controversial, CNW Marketing Research ... concludes ... that, even though hybrid cars use less fuel, they require more energy - and are therefore worse for the environment - than conventional cars because their design and manufacture are more complex and the costs of disposal or recycling are higher for their batteries, electric motors and other specialized components. [Emphasis added.]

Hybrids use more energy throughout their lifecycle than regular cars? Can this possibly be true?

Color me skeptical: I think there's very good reason not to take the study too seriously -- at least, not until the authors can answer some tough questions about what their study implies.

Good Mennonite, and Good Luck

Discovery of oil in Belize leads to craziness all around A few years ago, a Mennonite farmer in Belize dug a well looking for water and found something else entirely: Black gold. Texas tea. Oil, that is, in a country where it had never before been discovered. This brought on a private firm, which hit […]

How Not to Prove Your Innocence

BP under criminal investigation for oil pipeline problems in Alaska When your massively profitable oil company is under criminal investigation by the U.S. government for possible violations of the Clean Water Act, it’s not a good idea to spill tens of thousands of gallons of crude onto the Alaskan tundra. So oopsie at BP. Turns […]

Hungry for Justice

Police arrest peaceful Indian anti-dam activist for hunger striking Demonstrations against dams in India’s Narmada Valley yesterday brought the heavy hand of police, who roughed up protestors and arrested India’s most famous environmentalist eight days into a hunger strike on charges of — get this — attempting suicide. Medha Patkar’s fast started when officials began […]

American Prospect on a green economy

I haven't read all (or even most) of it yet, but I feel obliged to direct you to a special edition of American Prospect on the subject of a post-petroleum economy. Much of it is behind a subscription wall (go ahead, subscribe), but David Morris' piece on the carbohydrate economy is free to read, and a mind-blower. At least it blew my mind a little. I'm still processing it -- may post something later.

What’s your Burley score?

Alan Durning wants to know: What's your Burley score?

The Burley in question is an old bike trailer. The Durning family uses it when they walk around their neighborhood, to carry groceries, broken vacuum cleaners, whatever. (Their car was recently totaled.) They can get about a mile from home comfortably, towing the Burley.

Within a mile of the Durning household are 248 businesses. That's his Burley score: 248.

What's yours?

(Check out Alan's post for instructions on calculating your score. Mine happens to be identical to his, since apparently we live mere blocks from one another.)

McGavick: Alaska’s choice for Washington

Supporters of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge loathe Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, their most tenacious and successful foe. And no one loathes her more than the Alaskan Congressional delegation.

In a week or so, they are holding a big fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick, who's challenging Cantwell in November:

Yipee, we’re all gonna die!

All you biocentrists have a new hero.

Particularly amusing was this understated student evaluation:

Though I agree that conservation biology is of utmost importance to the world, I do not think that preaching that 90 percent of the human population should die of Ebola is the most effective means of encouraging conservation awareness.

(via Drudge)

Update [2006-4-5 12:39:2 by David Roberts]: Well, dammit. I had a bad feeling about posting this, but it seemed like the kind of juicy thing that would start discussion. Now it seems I was a dupe. Via Andrew Sullivan, I see that the big stink being raised over this professor was started by an anti-evolutionist kook, and that the professor's words have been twisted and stripped of context. Let this be a lesson to all of you (OK, to me) about the dangers of speed blogging. Pharyngula has more.

Milloy’s attempt to fight the zeitgeist falls on its face

You many have heard a while back about a new mutual fund -- the Free Enterprise Action Fund -- headed by Junk Science proprietor and legendary hack Steven Milloy. Milloy started the fund as a way to counter what he sees as the pernicious influence of so-called socially responsible investment (SRI) initiatives, which are (obviously!) nothing more than fronts for capitalism-hatin' lefty special-interest groups. The fund launches shareholder initiatives at places like Goldman Sachs and GE demanding that the companies stop saving energy and cutting back greenhouse-gas emissions. Seriously.

Anyhoo, we didn't cover this in Daily Grist or here, 'cause really, why give cranks the attention they so desperately seek?

However, Tim Lambert has a hilarious post up today reviewing the financial performance of the fund. It is, to say the least, less than stellar.

Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

New scheme for OPEC would make Venezuela’s oil reserves world’s largest

There's some big stuff happening in Venezuela these days. In an interview with the BBC, President Hugo Chavez announced a bid that could change the entire world oil situation. He wants OPEC to set its long-term oil target price at $50/barrel. Why? At $50, large portions of Venezuela's copious heavy crude in the Orinoco Tar Sands become economically viable, and Venezuela's official oil reserves automatically skyrocket to 312 billion barrels -- surpassing Saudi Arabia's 262 billion, currently the world's largest.

This would raise OPEC's production quotas, bring in a bucketload of new revenue to the Venezuelan government (which just renegotiated more favorable terms with several oil companies, and seized oil fields from two companies that refused to cooperate), and dramatically increase the country's influence and Chavez's stature.

The best summary I've seen is this one from Motley Fool: