Climate Climate & Energy
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World Bank bombs with decision to fund South African coal plant
Today the World Bank approved a loan to build the fourth largest power plant in the world. The project is to be financed with a $3 billion loan to Eskom — the South African electricity company — and is the largest coal-plant loan in the Bank history. The 4,800-megawatt Medupi power plant would emit 25 […]
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Northwest mountain towns become home efficiency lab
The American pet-food industry spends more on research and development each year than the American utility industry does, according to a mind-blowing line in Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. In most competitive industries, companies spend perhaps 8 to 10 percent of total revenues on R&D. Utilities, which don’t have to compete with each other, […]
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Revkin wants to talk ‘energy quest’ not ‘climate crisis’
Andy Revkin’s Dot Earth blog on the New York Times site has moved from the science section to the opinion section, to reflect Revkin’s shift from a veteran staff reporter to a freelancer. He kicks things off at his new digs by explaining why he prefers to think about a collective “energy quest” rather than […]
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Solar PV in Los Angeles: The emperor has no clothes, says UCLA
The Los Angeles Business Council released a hard-hitting report on the future of solar photovoltaics in southern California at its annual sustainability summit on Tuesday. The blockbuster report could have profound repercussions on renewable energy policy not only in Los Angeles, but also in California. In unusually clear and concise language, the report, written by […]
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Another tragic iceberg awaiting Massey’s titanic violations: Brushy Fork Dam
Hope must die last in the coalfields, as our prayers go out to the families of the missing four coal miners and the 25 killed in the recent Montcoal mining disaster in West Virginia. But as heroic rescue teams attempt to reach the missing miners, another potential disaster instigated by reckless Massey Energy regulatory violations […]
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Weather Channel asks, "July in April?"
CP: So it’s friggin’ hot in DC and much of the country. Audience: How hot is it? CP: It’s so hot that: I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin’. The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up. I saw squirrels fanning their nuts. Even meteorologists are doing stories about human-caused […]
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I'm speaking Friday at Dartmouth on nukes and climate
For all you New Englanders, the details on the “Second Annual Great Issues in Energy Symposium” are here and below: Friday, April 9, 2010, 3:00–5:15pm Spanos AuditoriumReception immediately followingFree and open to the public An informed view of societal energy challenges and possible responsive measures requires understanding nuclear energy and related issues. While construction of a […]
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Scientific models predict continued decline in Washington Post circulation
OK, the Washington Post’s circulation will probably keep declining even in the unlikely event their coverage of global warming improves. But my headline is at least as scientific as the WP’s latest climate piece “Scientists’ use of computer models to predict climate change is under attack.” Memo to WashPost: Scientists use of computer models to predict/project climate change […]
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Don Blankenship’s record of profits over safety: ‘Coal pays the bills’
Cross-posted from The Wonk Room. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.After the worst coal mining disaster in at least 25 years, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is facing long-overdue scrutiny for his record of putting coal profits over fundamental safety and health concerns. Blankenship, a right-wing activist millionaire who sits on the boards of the U.S. […]
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Hansen calls climate change "predominant moral issue of the 21st century," slams Congress
UPDATE: Hansen just won The Sophie Prize (see below). The country’s top climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, writes in HuffPost: The predominant moral issue of the 21st century, almost surely, will be climate change, comparable to Nazism faced by Churchill in the 20th century and slavery faced by Lincoln in the 19th century. Our fossil fuel […]
