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Jon Stewart interviews an oil analyst, who basically blows it

A couple days ago, Jon Stewart interviewed Peter Tertzakian, author of A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World. (You can watch the interview here.)

I haven't read the book, so I don't know what Tertzakian's general outlook is, but I can tell you that on television his outlook is boooring. It's highly unfortunate: The Daily Show reaches an extremely influential demographic, and the peak-oil issue desperately needs a higher profile on the cultural scene. A Daily Show interview is not the time for measured analysis; it's the time to be funny and flamboyant and, OK, a little alarmist. We need people to pay attention.

But Tertzakian was soporific, droning on about energy "break points" and how we've weathered the previous ones pretty well, and how even though there's no obvious alternative, we'll muddle through, blah blah zzzz ... I suspect he hasn't been on TV much.

My one substantive critique was that he referred several times to the lack of an alternative energy source that could scale to oil's breadth and depth. But what the public needs to understand is that we don't need a single, silver-bullet alternative. What can replace oil is a diversity of small-scale sources (wind, solar, biothermal, hydro, cogeneration) appropriate to local conditions. We need to replace a single, concentrated source of power -- both physical and political power -- with a decentralized multiplicity of sources. This will be a boon -- again, both physically and politically.

I wish everyone talking publicly about oil could at least get on the same page on that one talking point.

An excerpt from Missing Mountains, a new book about mountaintop-removal mining

Missing Mountains, Wind Publications, 220 pgs., 2005. In August of 2002, Amanda Moore, a lawyer for the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, took on what she thought was a cut-and-dried legal matter for Granville Lee Burke, a resident of Chopping Branch Hollow in eastern Kentucky. Earlier that year, a flood that wreaked havoc throughout the hollow […]

Plan the rockingest party ever to celebrate Kyoto’s first birthday

It seems like just yesterday that the Kyoto Protocol came into force, only to languish in toothless uncertainty as major powers including the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K. sought to tank it in various ways. But it’s been a whole year! Can you believe it? Party like Bush signed on. Photo: stock.xchng. Yes, today […]

Wattage

Two good posts on theWatt: One reveals which U.S. state uses the most wind energy; the other reveals how and what energy the U.S. is projected to use up until 2030.

In other news, sorry for the relative blogging drought from yours truly. I've been busy with other Gristly duties, and also working on the index-card manifesto. I'll be back soon.

Mountaintop-removal mining devastates Appalachia, but residents fight back

Most folks know coal mining is a dirty and dangerous business, triggering everything from miner’s lung to deadly accidents. But the mountaintop-removal mining increasingly common in Appalachia poses dangers not just to miners but to whole communities already struggling to get by. In recent years, this hugely destructive process — whereby the tops of mountains […]

Gas taxes are OK, but they aren’t a silver bullet

The basic point of this NYT piece is pretty good: The idea of coupling a gasoline-tax increase with a cut in payroll taxes deserves a much closer look. It makes sense as policy -- gas taxes should be higher, and a payroll tax cut could help soften the blow. Plus, pairing a tax increase with a tax cut seems to draw far broader political support than a straight-out hike in gas taxes:

The gasoline tax-cum-rebate proposal enjoys extremely broad support. Liberals favor it. Environmentalists favor it. The conservative Nobel laureate Gary S. Becker has endorsed it, as has the antitax crusader Grover Norquist. President Bush's former chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, has advanced it repeatedly.

OK, so it's a good idea. But I can't help myself -- I'm going to pick some nits.

Mercury

L.A. Weekly environment writer Judith Lewis has a good piece up regarding the recent Greenpeace-initiated mercury test. It begins like this:

When Greenpeace USA released the interim results of its National Mercury Testing Project last week, two ironies jumped out: One is that the same administration that conferred legal rights on the unborn fetus has so far refused to regulate emissions of a toxin known to damage fetal brains in the womb. The other is that while California's clean-air laws keep coal-fired power plants outside the state's borders, its residents have not escaped coal's toxic effects, which drift to us all the way from China. You might say the tuna have come home to roost.

Send your pic to the UCS HybridCenter!

I am an impostor. Here I am writing a weekly car column, and I don't even have a car. I don't really know anything about cars. I can't even be trusted on car color: I consistently refer to my parents' "green Honda" despite unanimous opinion from all other viewers that it is, in fact, gray. You will be getting no in-depth analysis of hybrid technology from me, no this-engine-will-kick-that-engine's-ass. Nope, this column will focus on, well, whatever car-related item tickles my fancy on Thursdays as I'm desperately throwing together putting the finishing touches on the Wheel Deal.

Today's Wheel Deal is about community and love. Because even if you're ambivalent about cars, you gotta love love.

HybridCenter.org, a project of the Union of Concerned Scientists, has launched the Earth Day Challenge -- because what the environmental community needs is more challenges. Just kidding. Anyway, as concerned scientist Scott Nathanson says, "Ford might have Kermit to plug its Escape Hybrid, but we've got Bill Nye the Science Guy!" And he ain't lyin'. Bill Nye is plugging the plug-ins like only an overdramatic science guy in a powder-blue coat can.

By the way, my brother's friend's mom used to clean Bill Nye the Science Guy's house. True story. Would you like my autograph?

Anyway, the Earth Day Challenge is cool. They're trying to get 1,000 hybrid owners to send pictures and/or testimonials to the site by Earth Day (April 22). Hybrid-less individuals can participate as "hybrid enthusiasts." Aww ... feel the love!

Coming up next week: I don't know yet, but you know it'll be, um, super-duper awesome. If you've got a super-duper awesome idea, send me an email: emailE=('skraybill@' + 'grist.org') document.write('' + emailE + '') . I'll take "totally wicked" ideas too, but if your idea is merely "rad," perhaps you should keep it to yourself.

Oh My Gnarly Clemenceau

French prez orders asbestos-laden ship returned to France You thought disposing of your old computer was a hassle? Just wait ’til you try to get rid of your old warship. French President Jacques Chirac was lauded by green groups yesterday when he ordered the 50-year-old warship Clemenceau to return to France from India, where it […]

What the Bleep Do They Know!?

NOAA scientists join NASA’s with accounts of global-warming censorship Government censorship: It’s what’s for dinner. Some climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whose views on global warming contradict Bush administration policy say they’re being prevented from giving particular interviews or being closely monitored by press handlers. A recent NOAA press release claiming […]