Climate Climate & Energy

Doom and gloom gets it wrong again

Sure looks that way from the available evidence. It's comforting that, yet again, the doom and gloom crowd gets it wrong. Now, onto dealing with carbon emissions ...

Coal is still the enemy of the human race

When I talked to Rep. Jay Inslee, he specifically asked me to emphasize to readers the distinction between coal gasification (that is, producing electricity in IGCC coal plants) and coal-to-liquids (that is, producing liquid diesel fuel from coal via the Fischer-Tropsch process). The former might some day be environmentally tolerable, if accompanied by carbon sequestration. […]

What Goes Up Must Keep Going Up

Draft of U.S. government report says greenhouse-gas emissions on the rise A leaked draft of a U.S. government report shows that officials expect greenhouse-gas emissions to keep climbing under President Bush’s watch. The U.S. Climate Action Report — which was due to the U.N. over a year ago and comes with its own ironicalicious acronym […]

The green projects you don’t hear about

While the world wonders how much energy it takes Al Gore to trim his nose hairs, real progress is being made all over this gall dang country toward embracing green energy — and not only in Moneyville. Just today, two quiet examples from on-the-rebound Massachusetts cities blipped across my radar screen. Worcester is aiming to […]

Yes We Ken

London mayor unveils comprehensive climate-change plan London Mayor Ken Livingstone unveiled a Climate Change Action Plan yesterday in hopes of making the English capital the greenest city in the world. Under the scheme, London will switch 25 percent of its power supply to local generation, and businesses that invest in green technology will earn merit […]

Sealed With a Miss

Federal inspectors find hundreds of coal-mine safety violations Coal miners across the country are working in unsafe conditions, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. As if spending the day in methane-filled caverns wasn’t dangerous enough, inspectors have found hundreds of unsafe seals, the walls built to block off mined-out areas. Two major […]

Texas Fold ‘Em

TXU Corp. board accepts biggest buyout offer in U.S. history The white-hot controversy over 11 proposed coal plants in Texas has taken on a new hue. The board of TXU Corp., which has kicked up an anti-coal firestorm among businesses, politicians, and citizens, voted yesterday to accept the largest leveraged buyout offer in U.S. history […]

It’s not the view: it’s the vision

The most likely candidate for becoming the U.S.'s first offshore wind farm reached another permitting milestone by filing its Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) on February 15 with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Office. It's now available, and it's meaty.

Now That’s a Bald Spot

Demand for air conditioning in developing countries hurts ozone Remember when Britney had just broken up with K-Fed, and she seemed happy and healthy and getting her life back on track, and then things … took a turn for the worse? Let us draw a slightly strained analogy to the ozone layer. As ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons […]

A message from Kenya and Biopact

Over on the Biopact website -- probably the best website for up-to-date international news on bio-energy science and markets -- they have posted an interesting commentary, based on a BBC interview, on how small Kenyan farmers, Mr. Peter Ndivo and Mr. Samuel Mauthike, are affected by the confusion engendered by concepts such as "carbon footprints," "fair trade," and "food miles."

Biopact's message? Buy your vegetables and fruits locally, if you must, but please allow developing countries to supply your biofuels.