Climate Climate & Energy
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Jack Spadaro Needs to Rescue MSHA and OSM
Jack Spadaro is a singular figure in the mining world. With nearly 40 years of experience as a mine safety engineer and expert, Spadaro is one of those very rare government regulators who is revered alike by miners and coalfield citizens for his meticulous commitment to safety, health and environmental standards in the coalfields. On […]
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Solar roadways
Randomly stumbled across this Solar Roadways idea yesterday. Doubt it will ever happen, but it’s a pretty nifty notion. AutoblogGreen also has a couple of posts on it: an introduction and an update from last year. See also Green Car Congress.
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Supreme Court decisions bode well for global warming-related preemption cases
In the tricky legal world of “preemption” — the principle that federal law “preempts,” or trumps, state law — two recent Supreme Court decisions bode well for ongoing, seemingly unrelated global warming litigation. The first of these decisions, Altria Group, Inc et al. v. Good et al., concerned a class-action lawsuit brought by smokers in […]
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On cap-and-trade, Evan Bayh follows Smokey Joe Barton’s and Rupert Murdoch’s agenda
Originally published on the Wonk Room. On Hardball yesterday, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) worried that a cap-and-trade system to prevent catastrophic global warming and drive green economic development might “suck money” and jobs away from coal-intensive states: Cap and trade, you’ll probably need 60 votes because it affects so many states economically that if you […]
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French government interested in solar because it uses less water than nukes
A year or so ago, I spoke at a solar conference in France — a country that produces 78 percent of its electricity with nukes. A couple of folks told me that the government’s interest in solar stemmed from the fact that during the previous summer’s heat wave, river levels dropped to the point that […]
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Drinking water: Toilet to tap — get used to it!
In the future, your drinking water is going to be recycled from your toilet — believe it. As the population grows and global warming drives desertification and the loss of the inland glaciers (see here), fresh water will become increasingly in short supply. As the AFP reported recently: Surging population growth, climate change, reckless irrigation […]
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Reducing emissions isn’t an economy killer
I am a little boggled by this comment in the New Yorker, by David Owen. It’s written from the perspective of someone who seems to be bothered by the threat of climate change, but who repeatedly makes the exact argument embraced by power and oil companies everywhere — slow climate change if you will, but […]
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Cap-and-rebate is more robust in the face of carbon high prices
The other day, I used the fanciful example of $50,000-utility bills to illustrate how cap-and-rebate schemes can inspire energy efficiency and conservation. The numbers were deliberately exaggerated, but they highlight one of the features of cap-and-rebate that I like: the robustness of the system in the face of higher carbon prices. The political battle over […]
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George Monbiot cautions against grasping for environmental miracle cures
George Monbiot is the best environmental writer in English. On biochar: Whenever you hear the word miracle, you know there’s trouble just around the corner. But however many times they lead to disappointment or disaster, the newspapers never tire of promoting miracle cures, miracle crops, miracle fuels and miracle financial instruments. We have a bottomless […]
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The ocean does represent a major source of energy, just not the one you’re thinking of
In the minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez poured 10.8 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The spill turned pristine spruce-lined waters into a sticky death trap for countless animals, including a quarter of a million birds. Yet two decades later, the lessons of Exxon Valdez have not […]
