Climate Climate & Energy
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GM flack misuses Thomas Kuhn’s philosophy of science (!) to defend Lutz climate skepticism
As I’ve said before, I don’t care if GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz doesn’t believe that human beings are causing climate change. It’s GM’s behavior that deserves our scorn, not the mental states of their executives. But (per Kate below) the defense of Lutz offered by GM’s Tom Wilkinson cannot stand. God knows what a […]
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Madam I’m Adam
Adam the first: Credit crunch could take shine off efficiency improvements Adam the second: … it’s a great time to be in the efficiency business. Explain yourselves, Adams!
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Taking the red tape out of green power
Adam Stein predicts that the financial meltdown will cool the ardor for carbon legislation, and I agree. But that doesn’t mean that policymakers will throw up their hands. Here are my predictions. One, the framing will shift from making fossil fuels more expensive (e.g. putting a price on carbon, a carbon tax, etc.) to making […]
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Hott policy primer
Sightline has a new report out: “Cap and Trade 101: A Climate Policy Primer.” It’s a plainspoken introduction that explains: • The cap, the trade: How cap and trade works • How to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness of a cap and trade system • What about offsets? • What happens to energy prices […]
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Credit crunch could take shine off efficiency improvements
I previously noted that the financial crisis is likely to be very bad news for renewable energy developers dependent upon access to credit for their cash-hungry projects. Geoffrey Styles points out that a credit crunch will also affect consumer-driven efficiency improvements: If consumers can’t obtain attractive financing for more efficient appliances, heating systems, or rooftop […]
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Summer ice in the Arctic has recovered–Was the Arctic ice retreat a climate anomaly?
(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide) Objection: Sea ice at the north pole recovered a whopping 9.4 percent from 2007 to 2008 despite the doom and gloom predictions of the alarmists. Yet another wheel falls off the global warming bandwagon. Answer: It is true that the minimum summer ice extent […]
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The one clean-tech breakthrough that could lead to a core climate solution: Thermoelectricity
The buzzwords of the day: TE with high TZ. The world doesn’t need a major technology breakthrough to cost-effectively cut carbon emissions in half by mid-century. Indeed, most such breakthroughs would be difficult to deploy fast enough and on a large enough scale to make a large difference in that time frame. Other key medium-term […]
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A little noted provision of the new Farm Bill
The federal Farm Bill that was passed and signed into law in June contains a little noted provision directing the USDA to establish a framework that would facilitate participation of farmers and landowners in emerging environmental services markets. At a time when the American market system seems to be collapsing all around us, how should […]
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Two reasons climate/energy policy assessments frequently undercount benefits
I forgot two other things I wanted to note about the CARB study showing that California’s climate program will positively benefit the economy and public health. First, and crucially, the press release notes that "the bulk of the economic benefits are the result of investments in energy efficiency that more than pay for themselves over […]
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Climate-wise, August was a pretty dull month
Last month, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center reported, “the globally-averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was … the ninth warmest for the January-July year-to-date period” (out of 129 years), as I reported here. The first seven months of the year were +0.45°C (+0.81°F) warmer than the 1961-1990 average. Now here’s the shocking news. The […]
