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I Get the Nic Out of You

California deems secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant Californians may soon breathe a little easier than the rest of us, now that the state has become the first in the nation to classify secondhand tobacco smoke as a toxic air pollutant. In a 6-0 vote on Thursday, the state Air Resources Board put secondhand smoke […]

Kernel Ganders

Ethanol decent on efficiency but not on greenhouse gases, study finds The heated debate over biofuels took another sharp turn this week: New research in the journal Science claims that replacing fossil fuels with corn-based ethanol is energy-efficient (contrary to some previous studies), but doesn’t do much to cut greenhouse-gas pollution. Researchers from UC-Berkeley determined […]

Re-Spent, Ye Sinners

Bush admin plans to fund new dawn for nuclear power Like an atomic Dr. Frankenstein determined to reanimate the corpse of the civilian nuclear-power industry, the Bush administration intends to allot $250 million in fiscal year 2007 to researching new ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel — technology largely abandoned in the 1970s as too […]

Snowmen march against global warming

The Onion: always funny.

(via Kit Stolz)

LNG island

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is, at least in the minds of many large monied interests, the fuel of the future. But LNG terminals face NIMBY opposition as fierce as the kind that's stymied new nuke plants. What to do?

How about ... a fake island!

A $1 billion plan for a liquefied natural gas terminal on a 53-acre man-made island in the Atlantic Ocean between Long Island and New Jersey was unveiled Thursday by a new company.

Creative.

Science says: Ethanol good on energy, not so much on environment

The "Findings" column on WaPo has this cryptic tidbit:

Ethanol -- alcohol produced from corn or other plants -- is more energy-efficient than some experts had realized, and it is time to start developing it as an alternative to fossil fuels, researchers said yesterday.

Although some critics have said the push for ethanol is based on faulty science and mostly benefits the farm lobby, several reviews and commentaries published today in Science argue otherwise.

"We find that ethanol can, if it is made correctly, contribute significantly to both energy and environmental goals. However, the current way of producing ethanol with corn probably only meets energy goals," said Alexander Farrell of the University of California at Berkeley. [my emphasis]

That sent me to Science, but of course I can't read it without a subscription. It does have this short description of the week's contents:

And it just might save us

This is a great story demonstrating how new technology just might get us out of this mess. Coincidentally, I saw the coolest flashlight in a hardware store yesterday. It had a wind up crank instead of batteries and diodes instead of a light bulb. You wind it up for one minute to get about an hour of really bright light. It also had a red and white flashing emergency mode. I bought two and mounted them on my hybrid electric bike, which now looks like a cheap Las Vegas light show on wheels. Cars pull over to let me pass. (Well, not actually pull over. Or let me pass. But they do see me coming!)

Improve your community over coffee

Via Inhabitat and BLDGBLOG comes word of the Ben Franklin Coffeehouse Challenge. It's sponsored by Starbucks, and goes like this: You get together with some folks at your neighborhood, um, Starbucks, and talk about what changes you'd like to see in your community -- more parks and bike paths, less graffiti, whatevs. You keep meeting while you shape it up into a real plan, and then you submit it to the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. The plans are reviewed, a winner is chosen, and Starbucks funds the winning plan to the tune of $3000.

Right now it's only for the "Delaware Valley/Central PA" area, and let's face it, $3000 is pretty dinky, but maybe if it's a big success it will spread around and Starbucks will up the ante.

A pretty neat idea, all around.

Bush admin won’t be sad to see her go

Nikki Tinsley, the tenacious inspector general at the EPA, stepped down today. She's been something of a thorn in the side of the Bush administration, publicly lambasting its weak clean-air enforcement and calling its mercury-emissions rules a sop to industry -- all while maintaining a reputation for integrity and professionalism. I'm sure they're not sorry to see her go.

In her resignation letter she raised concerns over anemic funding for the National Defense Authorization Act, worrying that it would become "increasingly difficult to convince career employees to accept IG appointments in the future." I'm sure that's a totally unintended effect -- nobody loves independent oversight more than the Bush administration.

Update [2006-1-26 16:6:55 by David Roberts]: Oh, hey, look at that: Judith Lewis already blogged about this, and has some good links -- including a link to Tinsley's whole resignation letter (PDF).

More Gore

Al Gore had "a most excellent time" at Sundance, and if press coverage is any indication, he is well on his way to shaking his image as a stiff automaton. Check this out:

He is wearing earth tones again. He seems jolly. He brought Tipper and the kids. He is attending parties and posing for pictures with his fans and enjoying macaroni and cheese at the Discovery Channel soiree. He's palling around with Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," who says, "Al is a funny guy." But he is also a very serious guy who believes humans may have only 10 years left to save the planet from turning into a total frying pan.

If I were Al Gore's 2008 presidential campaign manager -- not that he's running! -- reading stuff like that would put a big fat grin on my face.