Breakthrough Institute
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Japan’s emissions shot up after Fukushima — but it could have been worse
After the Fukushima disaster, Japan launched a campaign to cut energy use. Businessmen wore relatively skimpy outfits to the office, turned off lights, abstained from air conditioning. But despite those energy efficiency efforts, carbon emissions still went up after the nuclear plant shut down. Aw hell — hot dark rooms full of scantily clad people […]
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Balancing climate pragmatism with moral clarity
The Breakthrough Institute crew has a new report called "Climate Pragmatism." It's got a few reasonable ideas and some not-so-reasonable ones.
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Nisbet is wrong: the forces of climate progress are not as strong as their foes
Who’s the giant in this scenario?In his Climate Shift report, Matt Nisbet purports to compare the lobbying efforts of climate-bill supporters and opponents. He finds that, in 2009, the former spent $394 million and the latter $259 million. In other words, greens and their allies outspent their opponents. “The narrative [that] this is David versus […]
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Why I’ve avoided commenting on Nisbet’s ‘Climate Shift’ report
Last week, Matt Nisbet, an associate professor at American University, released a report called “Climate Shift.” It argued that, contrary to what most people think, pro-climate-bill forces spent more than their opponents, media coverage of climate science has been generally fair, and Al Gore is just as responsible as Republicans for politicizing the subject of […]
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Climate challenge hinges on fueling China with clean and cheap energy
We must make renewables affordable if we ever hope to curb China's steady rise in greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Obama finally pitched an energy tent big enough to attract Republicans
George Will, the conservative columnist who predicted Obama would try to "stroke every erogenous zone in the electorate" with his State of the Union speech, must be smoking a cigarette in bed by now.
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Climate action plan: Innovate first, regulate later
Technology policy -- not carbon caps -- is our best hope for fighting climate change.
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Carbon pricing and technology R&D initiatives in a meaningful national climate policy
A new report presents false substitutes to a carbon pricing policy, which are nonetheless requisite complements to that essential policy.
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National Institutes of Energy needed to fill energy research and development gap
Friday factoids time: The U.S. biomedical and pharmaceutical industry invests between 10-20 percent of revenues in research and development (R&D) and new product development, spending $58.8 billion on R&D in 2007. The U.S. government adds an additional $30 billion per year investment in biomedical R&D through the National Institutes of Health. In contrast, the U.S. […]