Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
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Obama's radio address, 03 Jan 2008: renewable energy, no transit
Obama's radio address, on the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," mentions doubling renewable energy and energy efficiency renovations; it does not mention public transit. Lots of bipartisan talk, in the runup to the great kickoff of Jan. 20.
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Friday music blogging: Murs
ListenPlay "The Science," by MursMurs is a prolific underground rapper out of L.A. He's been around for over 15 years now, as part of at least five hip-hop groups and, recently, as a solo artist. He's something of a legend in the indie rap world.
His latest album, Murs for President, is a doozy. In particular, this song, "The Science," seems to sum up basically everything there is to know about rap. I guess there aren't many hip-hop fans around here, but this one's worth listening to for the lyrics alone.
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Dynegy pulls out of coal-fired power plant partnership
Today Dynegy announced the dissolution of its partnership with LS Energy, formed in 2006. The goal of the partnership was the construction of up to eight new coal-fired power plants -- as part of its dissolution, Dynegy has abandoned plans for six of the eight.
Here's the key bit from the release:
"The development landscape has changed significantly since we agreed to enter into the development joint venture with LS Power in the fall of 2006," said Bruce A. Williamson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dynegy Inc. "Today, the development of new generation is increasingly marked by barriers to entry including external credit and regulatory factors that make development much more uncertain. In light of these market circumstances, Dynegy has elected to focus development activities and investments around our own portfolio where we control the option to develop and can manage the costs being incurred more closely."
One of those "factors" that has made the development of new (coal) generation "uncertain" is called grassroots organizing. Along with its nonprofit partners, the Sierra Club organized a campaign targeting Dynegy, with protests and rallies that drew unwelcome attention to its plans.
Another little piece of good news in the anti-coal fight.