Articles by David Roberts

Energy bill supporters

Hey look, I found some expressions of support for the energy bill. See if you can discern a theme.

“Quiet places are the think tank of the soul.”

Here's an interesting story in the Seattle Times about a professional sound recorder struggling to preserve the little quiet spot he found in Olympic Nat'l Park.

Uninterrupted natural quiet is so rare Hempton thinks many people under the age of 30 have never heard it. "Whenever someone tells me they know a quiet place, I figure they have an undiagnosed hearing impairment, or they weren't really listening. Most people believe they know what natural quiet is, but they have not had the experience; it is not the same thing as sitting in an empty theater, a church, a library.

"We spend our lives in containers. Cars. Buildings. Planes. Natural quiet is in open, living space. It's alive."

Many feigned regret, but ultimately the pork pulled them in

I've written about negative reactions to the energy bill from mainstream green groups, the Apollo Alliance, newspaper editorial boards, and libertarians. I'm sure I could find more -- denunciations of the special-interest-giveaway fest are thick on the ground.

What about the converse, though: Who is reacting positively to this bill? Who will defend it?

The industries that directly benefit from the manifold subsidies and tax breaks, of course (see, e.g., the Nuclear Energy Institute). And the majority Republicans, who receive copious contributions from those industries and who will no doubt receive credit for "getting things done" (see, e.g., Domenici). But who else?

Well, how about that other party ... what's the name again? Demo-something?

Why did enough Dems support this bill to get it through? And are they happy about it? I investigate.

Stuff to read

Two interesting pieces up tonight from people who should be in bed.

Makower's got a long and pleasingly wonky post up on Environmental Strategies for Industrial Development, a new report from Alliance to Save Energy that discusses ways industry and government can work together to lower the cost of regulatory compliance. It's partly by simplifying regs and party through benchmarking " common air, water, and waste management functions" and sharing ways to improve them, thereby cutting waste and reducing the need for regs. Hott!

Meanwhile, Cascio hopes peak oil will be like the Y2K bug -- nope, not the way you're thinking. He says Y2K was a real problem that, thanks to shrill and apocalyptic warnings, got solved before it wreaked destruction. So here's to shrill and apocalyptic warnings!

Oh, and one more, from yesterday: An interview with Cory Doctorow (co-proprietor of BoingBoing and advocate for the Electronic Frontier Foundation), also on WC, about "copyfight" and the international struggle for reasonable intellectual property laws. Too many people think of copyright law as a niche concern -- something that only concerns filesharing teenagers -- but it is in fact enormously important. If we want poor countries to develop in a more humane and green way than we did, it's vital they be able to share what Doctorow calls "knowledge goods" -- science, practical techniques, information. Lots of good stuff in here.

Update [2005-8-1 23:21:33 by Dave Roberts]: Here's a layman's intro to copyfight.