Climate Climate & Energy

Mine’s lighter than yours

When society embraces vehicle fuel efficiency as a goal, hordes of smart people converge on it and try to outdo each other. The same thing will happen when we seriously go after electrical efficiency — a wave of precocious, egotistical young people that haven’t been told what can’t be done will chase after it trying […]

Poll shows 86 percent of public wants a five-year halt on new coal plants

Shortly before the July 4 holiday, Opinion Research Corporation released a poll entitled "Opinions About Gas Prices and U.S. Energy Independence" [PDF] which shows -- drum roll please -- that the public, by a three-to-one margin, is either "very angry" or "somewhat angry" about gasoline prices.

While gas prices grabbed the headlines, the poll also happened to ask a number of questions about coal, and the answers were both interesting and surprising: The percentage of people who said they opposed new coal plants was actually higher than the percentage expressing outrage over gas prices. When asked whether "America should commit to a five-year moratorium on new coal-fired plants," the response was:

The Freakonomists weigh in on the effects of warming

Manzian (as in Jim Manzi) climate policy skepticism stems in part from a fairly simple idea: The cost of legislation is unlikely to be justified given likely savings from averted warming effects. In other words, warming, in the short-term, just isn’t going to cost that much. But what does that mean? Well, for one thing, […]

How local building codes can be adapted to meet the 2030 Challenge right now

Compared to cutting-edge technologies -- nanotechnology, coal with carbon capture and sequestration, biomimicry -- building codes seem downright stodgy and, dare I say it?, boring. Yet, much to the surprise of many, building codes are fast becoming the Titans in the battle against climate change. Able to fell with a single blow the giants on the other side of the battlefield -- out-of-control greenhouse-gas emissions, thoughtless energy consumption, and gross energy inefficiency -- building codes are beginning to look pretty darn sexy in their own right.

His energy plan is half brilliant, half dumb

The Phone Call
based on a true story

Major cable network: What do you think of T. Boone Pickens' latest energy plan?

Me: Half of it is great -- the big push on wind power. Heck, even the Bush administration says wind power could be 20 percent of U.S. electricity. But the notion that we would use the wind power to free up natural gas in order to fuel a transition to natural gas vehicles makes no sense. Why would we go to the trouble of switching our vehicle fleet from running on one expensive fossil fuel to another expensive fossil fuel? Any freed up natural gas should be used to displace coal ...

Major cable network: I was hoping you liked the whole plan. That way we could use you on the show ... You don't have any ideas of who might like the whole thing?

Dave heads to where the hills are alive

Listen Play "Prelude," from The Sound of Music On Wednesday, I leave for Salzburg, Austria, where — thanks to the generosity of a Knight Foundation Fellowship — I will be attending a session of the Salzburg Global Seminar on "Combating Climate Change at Local and Regional Levels: Sustainable Strategies, Renewable Energy." I am of course […]

Texas oilman unveils Pickens Plan to avert U.S. energy crisis

T. Boone Pickens. Photo: University of Texas America has a problem, and T. Boone Pickens has a solution. “U.S. dependency on foreign oil has reached an economic crisis point,” says the infamous Texas oilman, who in response has unveiled The Pickens Plan. The 80-year-old billionaire proposes that private investors fund the construction of thousands of […]

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and eco-problem solver, chats about his plans to save the world

Jeffrey Sachs speaks at the University of North Carolina. Photo: Kevin Tsui Jeffrey Sachs — the renowned economist who devised a grand plan in 2005 to rid the world of poverty — is now focused on an even broader ambition: saving the planet and all of us who call it home. His new book, Common […]

G8 nations agree to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050 (sort of)

At this year’s Group of Eight meeting in Japan, the world’s richest nations more or less agreed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 50 percent by 2050. While the agreement is notable since it means President Bush has budged ever-so-slightly on the climate issue, the group’s statement on the cuts is little more than a carefully worded […]

No easy explanation for continued price increases in the oil markets

At the end of last year I predicted that the price of oil would go down; so far I have been terribly wrong. My prediction, shared by many other economists and energy experts, was premised on a reasonable assumption: Since the world was headed for an economic slowdown, brought about the housing bubble and the financial crisis, global demand for energy would likely moderate, putting downward pressure on prices. While it was a sensible prediction, I am happy that no one took me up on my bet.

So what happened?