Articles by David Roberts

Wind and intermittency

A while back I raised the problem of intermittency -- the fact that solar and wind power depend on the sun shining and the wind blowing, neither of which happens continuously -- and asked if anybody knew about ways of storing energy generated during peak sun/wind and releasing it into the grid during lulls.

Ask, and ye shall receive: There's a piece in Spectrum called "Taking Wind Mainstream" that directly addresses the issue. It contains all sorts of stuff I didn't know and has me feeling downright optimistic.

It begins:

Canada opts for empty symbolism

It's official: Canada wants to join the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Climate Change. The APPCC, for those not familiar, is less a climate treaty (the term "non-binding" is the first clue) than another "free" trade treaty whereby North American nuclear and coal companies lock in developing-world markets.

By creating the APPCC "alternative," Bush has gone beyond neglecting Kyoto to actively pulling participants away from it.

Obama’s new book

It's not strictly environmental, but I thought readers would be interested to see this preview of Barack Obama's new book, The Audacity of Hope (available Oct. 2006). This should give you an idea of the theme:

CEI ad reviews

Tim Lambert rounds up some reviews of the pro-CO2 ads from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Funny.