Articles by David Roberts

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:

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).