Climate Climate & Energy
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Priorities
From earth2tech: In the last two days, the Department of Energy has announced $24 million worth of new investments in solar energy while also revealing it’s putting a whopping $340 million into yet more clean coal research. In conjunction with the funding announcements, the DOE says it’s "committed to … developing the technologies that will […]
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More ideas for a post-oil society
This is the fifth in a series on how we can build an energy future based on our best science and no longer critically dependent upon exhaustible and polluting fossil fuels. Promoting battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles Governments can play a key role in promoting electric vehicles by buying electric vehicles en masse and […]
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New England ISO’s forward capacity market
A guest post by a writer with more than 30 years in energy and the environment with government, private industry, and the nation’s leading think tanks. He currently works for the federal government and will be blogging in anonymity until he leaves public service. — One of the more serious structural flaws in energy policy […]
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Journalists need to evaluate strength of scientific consensus
One of the biggest problems in the climate change debate is the fact that many people out there fail to understand the finer points of “scientific consensus.” For an example of this misunderstanding, see Ron Rosenbaum’s recent article in Slate. (h/t Dot Earth.) His article trots out one of the staples of the denial industry: […]
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Leaking underground storage tanks make fun acronym, pose health threat
Hundreds of underground fuel tanks owned by the federal government could be leaking hazardous materials into drinking water, according to an Associated Press investigation. Of particular concern are steel tanks buried in the Cold War era, which are highly likely to have rusted and be leaking. One million gallons of water can be contaminated by […]
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Arctic sea ice declines sharply in August
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that in the first 10 days of August, Arctic sea ice extent declined one million kilometers. Sea ice is now disappearing on a daily basis nearly 50 percent faster than it typically does this time of year. So the race is on again to see whether […]
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U.S. scouts out territory in Arctic; ice-cover loss could be worst ever
U.S. scientists will head to the Arctic this week on a quest to map the ocean floor, and will collaborate with Canada on a surveying trip in September. The two nations — and their Arctic-bordering compatriots Russia, Denmark, and Norway — are scrambling to measure their respective continental shelves, with an eye to claiming as […]
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Toward the post-oil society
This is the fourth in a series on how we can build an energy future based on our best science and no longer critically dependent upon exhaustible and polluting fossil fuels. The tripartite approach allows our society to cut oil demand and dependence substantially within a decade, much more quickly than a sole reliance on […]
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Global warming unleashes ‘world’s largest land predators’ on humans
It could be the premise of a new horror movie — based on an all-too-true story. We have “a new and unusual threat: a polar bear stuck on land due to climate change”: Five scientists studying shorebirds in northern Alaska had to themselves take flight after a polar bear showed up at a time of […]
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W. Va. governor Manchin subsidizes his own state’s economic irrelevance with liquid coal subsidies
I’ve written before about the economic and environmental nightmare that is liquid coal. If I were a governor and an energy company proposed opening a liquid coal plant in my state, I would marshal every resource available to fight it off. You get a few dozen jobs in the short-term; in the long-term, you get […]
