Terry Tamminen

'Cracking the Carbon Code' — Can the movie be far behind?

Here it comes -- a shameless self-promotion for my new book, Cracking the Carbon Code: The Key to Sustainable Profits in the New Economy.

BP Fails to Make Top Ten

Fingers crossed. BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in […]

State emissions registry

When I interviewed Terry Tamminen about (among other things) California’s experience putting together a climate plan, he stressed the importance of putting together a comprehensive inventory of GHG sources: We had pretty good knowledge of emissions from the utilities sector, but it was poor in terms of the agriculture sector, the cement sector, etc. We […]

Political platform has some weak links

For those of you who have not seen it yet, Terry Tamminen has a piece on Grist's soapbox where he shares his ideas for a presidential platform. I have no problems with items 1 through 3. Item 4 needs work:

Replace these vehicles with ones that run on the cleanest fuels available, which today are biofuels, natural gas, and hydrogen.

First, one must contend with the negative environmental issues associated with biofuels before implementing them, not to mention that government isn't smart enough to know which ones should be implemented or how. These biofuels you speak of, Terry, they have big environmental problems of their own. You of all people should be aware of them.

My presidential platform calls for clean air and no war. What about yours?

Grab hold of the political moment. Image: iStockphoto The U.S. appears headed for a bumper crop of 2008 presidential candidates, most of which know they can’t possibly win the nomination, let alone ever be hailed as the chief. So why do they toss in their hats? Many say it’s to ensure the national debate includes […]

Venture capitalist says cellulosic rules

After I ran the section of the interview with Terry Tamminen on ethanol, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla (whom we interviewed here) contacted me and asked to respond. Naturally, I said yes. His response is below the fold. —– Terry Tamminen: Right now, obviously, corn ethanol is not a very good bargain — depending on where […]

There are some good ones

DR: Let’s talk legal issues. I can see the analogy between cigarettes causing lung cancer and burning oil causing asthma. You have a reasonably distinct causal chain. You can reasonably point to knowledge on the part of the oil companies. But when it comes to global warming, you have a long and tenuous causal chain, […]

Schwarzenegger wants more

DR: There’s always an emphasis on personal transportation. How do you kick start public transportation and more dense settlements? Did you guys make steps toward that in California? TT: We did. While Prop 87 was going down in flames a week ago, the $60 billion bond package for California infrastructure was passing, with several billion […]

The first step in international action

DR: If you were emperor for a day — or just president of the U.S. — what would your international approach be? TT: No. 1 is to lead by example. When Tony Blair came can sat down with Arnold and I before the summit, he took us aside and said, "Look, what you are doing […]