Climate Climate & Energy

Interview with smart grid expert Steve Pullins, part one

For nearly 30 years, Steve Pullins has worked in and around the utility industry, in capacities ranging from systems engineering to project development to high-level consulting. He currently works at SAIC, where he heads the Modern Grid Initiative for the National Energy Technology Laboratory. I spoke with him at the Discover Brilliant conference in Sep. […]

A guest essay from Peter Montague raises questions about the rush to sequestration

The following is a guest essay from Peter Montague, executive director of the Environmental Research Foundation. —– In response to a relentless stream of bad news about global warming, a cluster of major industries has formed a loose partnership with big environmental groups, prestigious universities, philanthropic foundations, and the U.S. federal government — all promoting […]

Kansas newspaper parodies coal industry attack ad

Remember the xenophobic attack ads the coal industry ran against Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius? The ones funded by energy giants Sunflower and Peabody? The ones they subsequently refused to apologize for? The Kansas newspaper Wichita Eagle, rather than indulging in the outraged harumphing featured on sites like, uh, this one, decided to go the parody […]

Climate change skeptics fall for hoax paper

UPDATE: I have to put this up top, because it’s so deliciously delightful. Turns out Rush Limbaugh fell for this scam, hook, line, and sinker. He bought it because he misunderstood a warning from notorious skeptic crank Roy Spencer — he thought Spencer was calling climate change, not the paper, a hoax. Spencer subsequently apologized […]

Wind power installations set to soar 63 percent this year

Some good energy news:

US wind power installations are projected to jump 63 percent this year amid concern about global warming and rising fuel prices, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The US wind industry is on track to complete a total of 4,000 megawatts worth of installations in 2007, or about enough to power 1 million average homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association [AWEA].

Tip o' the hat to state renewable energy standards and the federal production tax credit.

You can get more details from the AWEA website, including the third-quarter market report. Here are some state highlights:

• Texas again added the largest amount of new wind power generation (600 MW).
• Colorado installed 264 MW and now ranks as the state with the sixth-largest amount of wind power generation.
• Washington, with 140 MW of new wind capacity, pulls ahead of Minnesota into fourth place.

So yes, climate progress does occur, when the government works at it.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Portland, Ore., will pay builders to build green

Portland, Ore., has unveiled an innovative plan to slash greenhouse-gas emissions. The city will require an energy-efficiency inspection of new homes, then levy a tax on builders who have merely complied with Oregon’s efficiency requirements. Builders who construct homes 30 percent more efficient than the state building code requires will escape the fee; those who […]

Waterways downstream from oil sands are full o’ toxins, says study

Fish, water, and sediment downstream from the gigantic oil sands projects in Alberta are chock-full of carcinogens and other toxins, says a new study. While the research does not make a direct link between the oil sands, the toxins, and presumed health consequences, the largely Native residents of downstream community Fort Chipewyan have long suspected […]

The youth climate movement proves itself at Power Shift

Van Jones gets youth activists riled up at Power Shift rally. Photo: Fritz Myer About 5,500 people, most under the age of 21, traveled from all over the country to the unremarkable suburb of College Park, Md., this past weekend to take part in the largest climate-change conference and rally in U.S. history. At Power […]

Oil companies target the fragile Arctic continental shelf for oil drilling

You’re probably against drilling in the Alaskan Refuge, but what you really ought to be worried about is offshore drilling on Alaska’s continental shelf, which isn’t protected by law or by close attention from environmentalists — and where the likelihood and impact of accidents are far worse. Read Peter Matthiessen’s definitive piece in The Nation: […]

Some signs of another mitigation alternative emerging

There has certainly been a great deal of discussion of carbon taxes and various cap-and-trade and cap-and-auction frameworks among environmentalists. Recently, Nordhaus and Shellenberger used the term "public investment" as another mitigation strategy, a term which seems to refer mostly to research and development.

However, another alternative is direct governmental construction of the various means of transforming economies toward sustainability -- what might be called public reconstruction. I thought I'd share three quotes from well-known writers that seem to be moving in this direction.