Climate Climate & Energy
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Safety is for extremists
“Senator Obama will tell you, as the extreme environmentalists do, [nuclear power] has to be safe.” — Sen. John McCain, at the 15 Oct. 2008 presidential debate
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How the new European carbon standard could backfire
Last week’s action by the European Parliament to adopt the “Schwarzenegger clause” as a requirement for new coal plants built after 2015 shows the danger of locking in well-intentioned half-measures. The Schwarzenegger clause is a California regulatory requirement that emerged out of SB 1368, enacted in 2006 and rightly hailed at that time as a […]
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EDF’s and MIT’s magical thinking on carbon caps and oil
Last week I critiqued EDF’s pointless video/graphics competition (see here). The contest is pointless because a carbon cap can’t cure our oil addiction. Indeed, under any plausible cap, U.S. oil consumption rises. Gernot Wagner, an economist at Environmental Defense Fund, responded with a post here: “‘Bizarre’? No. Tough? Yes: Joseph Romm’s critique of EDF’s contest […]
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Bad data analysis by University of Alabama scientists set old myth in motion
Denier talking points are harder to kill than vampires. They keep rising from the dead no matter how many times scientists try to drive a stake through their heart. Sometimes they take on a slightly different form, like a relentless, indestructible liquid-metal android assassin from the future that constantly switches appearance in an effort to […]
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Joseph Romm’s critique of EDF’s contest is misguided
This post was originally published on Environmental Economics. —– Joe Romm’s analysis is mostly spot on — and if a post starts like this, you already know what comes next. This time he responds to a $10,000 contest organized by EDF (yep, my employer) that asks for submissions to help explain: “What is a carbon […]
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Deregulation and inequality are bad for both the economy and the environment
Now that financial apocalypse has been (possibly) delayed a few weeks, let’s focus on the mortgage crisis and see what it teaches us about financial regulations in general. Mortgages once were great investments. When lenders were highly regulated and careful never to lend more than the underlying value of homes, mortgages provided a higher return […]
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A point of no return as alarming as the tundra feedback
A new study in Nature Geoscience ($ub. req’d, abstract below) projects that “a warming of 4 degrees C causes a 40 percent loss of soil organic carbon from the shallow peat and 86 percent from the deep peat” of Northern peatlands. And that amplifying carbon cycle feedback is dangerous for three reasons: The northern peatlands […]
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Report envisions various scenarios for global economy in 2030
What will our world look like in 2030? It depends on global response to climate change, says British think tank Forum for the Future, laying out five possible scenarios in a new report. Will we enjoy the “Energy Efficiency” scenario, where staying on the cutting edge of innovation keeps the low-carbon economy strong? Or will […]
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The financial crisis could open up new opportunities for sustainability thinking
It’s official: we haven’t had a financial crisis like this since at least 1603, and commentators here in the U.K. seem to agree that things can never be the same again. Capitalism, if not in question, will be a very different beast from now on. Think donkey on short leash. It’s all a bit frightening, […]
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Utilities moving in on distributed generation solar markets
There’s a new phenomenon afoot. Across the U.S., utilities are getting involved in distributed generation solar markets like never before. In March, Southern California Edison submitted an application to the California Public Utilities Commission to install 250 to 500 MW of solar photovoltaics, in projects of 1 to 3 MW, on leased rooftops distributed throughout […]
