Climate Climate & Energy
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BLM backs off from plan to allow oil drilling near Utah national parks
The Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday partially backed off from unpopular plans to open land near Utah national parks to oil and gas drilling. BLM deferred leasing about one-third of the 93 tracts that the National Park Service had objected could contaminate parks with noise, water, and air pollution; the rest will still go […]
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You know your regulatory incentives are perverse when …
… a drop in electricity demand signals an enormous crisis for the industry responsible for powering America. I do not want a publicly supported monopoly industry whose health depends on rising greenhouse-gas emissions. Pretty sure we should be aiming the other way.
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Like the interstate system, a new electrical grid would revolutionize power transmission
Cross posted at the NDN blog. —– Should the federal government build or incent others to build a new electron superhighway? In other words, a backbone for a 21st century electrical grid? At NDN’s recent event on clean infrastructure, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) asked precisely that question, and it’s one more and more energy leaders […]
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L.A. will go big with solar power under mayor’s plan
Los Angeles will source one-tenth of its energy from solar power by 2020 under a plan unveiled Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Considering the town’s many celebrities, a plan to tap star power is certainly forthcoming.
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Revkin ‘n’ Romm
Over on Dot Earth, Andy Revkin has an interesting Q&A with Joe Romm pivoting off Romm’s letter to James Hansen. Joe says this about cap-and-trade: I don’t see that as the first strategy anymore, as I said in my Nature Online article. The latest science suggests that national and global climate policy is seriously misdirected. […]
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Science/IEA: World oil crunch looming?
Science magazine has a major “news focus” piece ($ub. req’d) arguing the peak is nigh: Even those who believe there’s plenty of oil left in the ground to meet rising demand are warning that the final crisis could come uncomfortably soon. Although price spikes and drops may recur for years, says [IEA] economist Fatih Birol, […]
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Big Auto can’t sue Rhode Island over car emissions standards, judge rules
Big Auto cannot sue to keep Rhode Island from enforcing tighter vehicle emissions standards, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres said, essentially, that pending cases were pointless and a waste of time, seeing as automakers have already lost similar battles in California and Vermont.
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Beltway paper runs two of the dumbest stories of the decade on climate science
See David Roberts’s follow-up post on this topic. — Today brings two of the most jaw-droppingly moronic stories I’ve ever seen, both in Politico, both written by Erika Lovley, who one can only assume is either the most dimwitted, gullible reporter in D.C. or … um, I can’t think of another explanation. Remember those articles […]
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‘Second generation’ or not, biofuels contribute to Peak Soil
The Seattle Times has another story peddling the fantasy that there are "second generation biofuels" that magically appear without use of energy, land, or water (not to mention subsidies). The most revealing comment in the piece pushes that idea that biologic systems generate "waste," and that "waste" is a huge resource that’s going unused. Apparently […]
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Do we ‘have to’ keep using coal?
This AFP analysis distills crusty conventional wisdom: "coal-fired power plants, which generate about half of US electricity and 40 percent of US greenhouse gas output, will have to be the backbone of America’s power grid for decades because US coal is plentiful and relatively cheap." This is wrong on so many levels that its levels […]
