biofuels
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In State of the Union, Obama panders to conservatives on ‘clean energy’
I’m never sure how to write these reaction pieces to the State of the Union. I’m far past the point when my reactions bear any relation to Normal People’s. By all indications, Normal People loved Obama’s speech — instapolls showed positive reactions. Reviews from the punditocracy seem generally positive as well. Hell, Chris Matthews forgot […]
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All Aboard the Biomass Bandwagon
(Photo credit cindy47452 via the Flickr Creative Commons license). Cross Posted from Biodiversivist Books extolling the wonders of the coming hydrogen economy turned out to be works of fiction, as have several books about food-based biofuels. In fact, entire books have been written specifically to critique what is found in such books. Are we about […]
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Cellulosic ethanol: time to ‘party like it’s 2014’?
Cellulosic ethanol, after 30 years of R&D (much of it on the public dime), is ready to deliver on its promises. No longer perpetually five years away from commercial viability, the technology has come into its own. Unlike pretender energy sources like wind and solar, cellulosic is the “‘shovel-ready,’ ‘fire when ready’ technology for short-term […]
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A report on stimulus investments in clean energy and the jobs they create
On Tuesday, the Vice President’s office will send Obama a progress report on “The Transformation to A Clean Energy Economy” (PDF). It’s a wide-angle assessment of the stimulus spending that has gone to clean energy projects, the private capital that has been leveraged by those investments, and the jobs that will be saved or created […]
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Exxon’s man in Copenhagen
Brian Flannery.Photo: Jonathan HiskesI tracked down Brian Flannery today. He’s the top climate advisor for ExxonMobil, a veteran of international climate talks, and a bona fide villain in the eyes of environmental groups. That’s largely due to Exxon’s funding of front groups that sow misinformation about the urgency of climate change. Today Flannery was wearing […]
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Environmental education in Guinea Bissau
The Presidential Palace. The Presidential Palace in Guinea Bissau lies derelict and burnt out. You can walk amongst the shards of broken crockery, blackened banisters, and singed carpets. Its empty rooms are a fitting metaphor for this failing state. Teachers in the public sector have not been paid in years. Portuguese, the official language, is […]
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Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp
Corn harvest in Iowa. Would you like that in your Big Mac, your gas tank, or both?Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS. What do industrially produced meat and corn-based ethanol have in common? Well, they both thrive on the assumption that it’s good idea to devote vast swaths of land to an incredibly resource-intensive crop–corn–and then […]
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Fixing the bioenergy accounting loophole
A group of prominent ecologists and climate scientists have an important article coming out in tomorrow’s issue of Science, in which they call for “fixing a critical climate accounting error.” The error is ignoring a significant source of global warming pollution related to using biomass for energy (“bioenergy”). I know that most people’s eyes glaze […]
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Two new documentaries — ‘Crude’ and ‘Fuel’ — examine two sides of our petroleum problem
Two new documentaries show the damaging effects of the world’s addiction to oil, each film from its own unique angle. Crude, which opened in New York on Sept. 9, traces the story of a lawsuit brought by 30,000 rural Ecuadorians against Chevron, which denies responsibility for turning their traditional rainforest home into a dumping ground […]
