energy efficiency
-
![]()
![]()
Umbra on turning down the heat
Dear Umbra, Many of my friends are environmentally minded and do lots of things to try to have a smaller carbon footprint. Yet when I tell people I turn my heat down when I leave the house even for an hour or two, and that I turn it down to 50 at night, they say, […]
-
Public investment and regulation can be main means to green
In the face of economic catastrophe, yesterday’s controversial assertion has become today’s conventional economic wisdom. That lack of regulation is one root of the current depression is not only the view of liberals and moderates, but also of sensible conservatives. And the need for public investment to fight the depression is no longer in doubt […]
-
The real truth about stabilizing at 350 ppm
To James Hansen (and his fellow 350 ppm-ers): You make a compelling case we must ultimately return atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. But you have made an uncompelling case about how President-elect Obama should go about achieving 350 ppm in your new draft essay "Tell […]
-
Union of Concerned Scientists offers tip to buy most energy-efficient TV
If you watch TV, then you know that the country will switch to High-Definition TV sometime in February. Those with old-school cathode ray tubes may be tempted to use this milestone to “upgrade” to a flat-screen. If that describes you or someone you know, then this Greentip from the Union of Concerned Scientists may be […]
-
The trouble with clean-energy tax credits
Round about the time I got out of college, I (like seemingly everyone else) got a Leatherman — the Swiss Army knife cum pliers cum screwdriver that fit in your pocket. Since I was finally out of the dormitories and in my own apartment, it was handy to have a tool to assemble the odd […]
-
Will Democrats take the votes but ignore the voters in increasingly powerful Northern Virginia?
Northern Virginia voters solidified their reputation Nov. 4 as a virtual factory for Democratic victories. Collectively, the Virginia suburbs of D.C. broke for Obama in numbers exceeding 60 percent. The margin is comparable to such liberal bastions as California and New York. Given the results, and given that 1 in 3 Virginia voters now lives […]
-
NYT gets goofy on cap-and-trade
An NYT piece on Obama’s priorities manages to get two things wrong on energy policy, both in a short section written by John Broder. First, the overall point is wrong. Broder tries to draw a contrast between "an earlier proposal," Obama’s cap-and-trade program, and what Obama is "now emphasizing," big investments in renewables, energy efficiency, […]
-
New report suggests that half of U.S. states could meet their energy needs with in-state resources
The New Rules Project just released a comprehensive new report containing some interesting results: The data in this report, while preliminary, suggest that at least half of the fifty states could meet all their internal energy needs from renewable energy generated inside their borders, and the vast majority could meet a significant percentage. And these […]
-
The Economist blows it on the Green New Deal
The Economist is probably the smartest newsweekly going, so it’s pretty stunning how bad this editorial is. It shows an almost willful disengagement with Obama’s proposals. The editorial argues that the newly popular idea of a Green New Deal is misguided. Yes, we need to address climate change. Yes, we need public spending to stimulate […]
