Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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Was there another breathless announcement of another phony record, and another quiet retraction?
(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide) Objection: In October 2008, Al Gore’s science adviser, James Hansen announced yet another “hottest” month on record. After all the alarmist banner headlines sank in, yet another “correction” quietly contradicted this, and October was not particularly warm after all. This is yet another example […]
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Schwarzenegger mandates 33 percent renewables by 2030
GreenTechMedia reports: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday signed an executive order that would speed up renewable energy development and require 33 percent of utilities’ electrical power to come from renewable sources by 2030. The governor is aiming to use Executive Order S-14-08 to compel two state agencies, the California Energy Commission and the Department […]
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‘Meet the Press’ takes on cars and energy independence
This Sunday, “Meet the Press” was devoted to the auto industry’s travails and to energy independence. (They decided to go totally counterintuitive and have … T. Boone Pickens as a guest. Isn’t that guy’s 15 minutes over yet?) Also, Thomas Friedman was one of the roundtablers. Here’s the video: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1011974&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D27751726%26width%3D400%26height%3D320]
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Harper proposes joint climate pact that would protect Alberta oil sands
The Globe and Mail reported last week: Less than 24 hours after the election of Barack Obama, Canadian cabinet ministers begin calling for a pact that would keep emissions down while protecting Alberta’s oil sands projects This is Canada’s version of “Two tens for a five?” Seriously, Canada, just a couple of days into his […]
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Robert Hirsch suggests ‘keeping relatively quiet’ in near-term about peak oil
The WSJ blog reprints an incredibly dumb “You can’t handle the truth!” memo from uber-peaker Robert Hirsch. Yes, the author of the seminal 2005 study [PDF] funded by the Bush Energy Department on “Peaking of World Oil Production” has written a memo “To The Peak Oil Community,” recommending that group “minimize its effort to awaken […]
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Western lands opened to oil-shale development
The Bush administration on Monday cleared the way for tens of thousands of acres in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to be used for oil-shale development, publishing final rules governing how federal land will be leased for extraction of the expensive, pollute-y, only recently un-banned fuel source. Companies tapping into oil shale will have to pay […]
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The trouble with clean-energy tax credits
Round about the time I got out of college, I (like seemingly everyone else) got a Leatherman — the Swiss Army knife cum pliers cum screwdriver that fit in your pocket. Since I was finally out of the dormitories and in my own apartment, it was handy to have a tool to assemble the odd […]
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BLM opens land near Alaska’s Bristol Bay to development
Some 2 million acres near Alaska’s Bristol Bay will be opened to development for the first time under a plan released Friday by the Bureau of Land Management. The agency’s decision to throw the door open for mining and drilling in the area, which is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, is opposed […]
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Upstream carbon prices will not substantially change downstream carbon-emitting behavior
With apologies to Little Milton. Good news: With the incoming Obama administration, we are finally going to get some sort of a greenhouse gas (GHG) bill. Bad news: We are still having an inane, economically uninformed conversation about GHG policy. Many of the ideas that pass for Serious GHG Policy are silly, not because they […]
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A concentrated solar BACT for new coal?
I recently listed a bunch of Best Available Control Technologies (BACT) for limiting CO2 emissions from new coal plants, following the landmark ruling by the EPA Environmental Appeals Board. But a leading expert on solar thermal baseload power points out that I left out one potential control technology. Under the auspices of the Electric Power […]
