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  • EPA punts on raising ethanol ‘blend wall’

    I have been following the Great Ethanol Blend Wall fight for some time. In a nutshell, ethanol companies have been struggling mightily during the recession. In response, industry group Growth Energy petitioned the EPA to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol rather than the current 10 percent. This demand also had the […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • December 19 — the day after COP15

    Tens of thousands of modern-day crusaders, charlatans, Nobel laureates, CEOs, quick-buck artists, earnest politicians, and assorted movie extras of every conceivable socio-political-ethnic-economic background will descend on Copenhagen for the next three weeks to participate in an orgy of carbon-bashing and flag-waving. The goal will be to agree on a blueprint — not quite the precise […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • Why buying cheap energy certificates worsens climate change

    Oh…my….God. I just received an email from a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) vendor called Carbon Solutions Group (www.carbonsolutionsgroup.com) that took my already high (but controlled) blood pressure to new heights. RECs represent clean energy and can be purchased by entities wanting to claim to be powered by renewable energy. The gist of the Carbon Solutions […]

    Auden Schendler Technology

  • GoodGuide scanner makes healthy food shopping point and click

    Last year, a colleague suggested I check out a startup with the intriguing, and so-very-California, name of Tao It. Founded by Berkeley professor Dara O’Rourke, Tao It aimed to tap a multiplicity of databases to rank consumer products according to their health and environmental attributes. The idea: If people could instantly learn online whether there […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • A Penny Saved Is…

    California is at it again. State regulators just set energy efficiency standards for new TVs, mostly the big flat panel models that gulp kilowatts. As a result, consumers will save about $8 billion in the next decade in the form of lower electricity bills and carbon pollution will drop equal to removing 100,000 cars from […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • The U.S. Chamber needs to get its story straight

    The U.S. Chamber seems to be going to great lengths these days persuade Congress that it really wants to help pass climate legislation. But a very different message is coming through its blogs, tweets, and unscripted comments. We think everyone should know what else the U.S. Chamber is saying, so we have updated our “WhoDoestheUSChamberRepresent.org” […]

    Peter Altman Technology

  • Winning the clean energy race: a new strategy for American leadership

    By Teryn Norris & Devon Swezey You know the world is changing when the president’s first trip to Asia is defined by a new U.S. foreign policy dubbed “strategic reassurance” – convincing China that the United States has no intention of containing its growing power or endangering its foreign investments. As the New York Times […]

    Teryn Norris Technology

  • Solar’s rapid evolution makes energy planners rethink the grid

    Photo courtesy OZinOH via Flickr California’s ambitious goal of obtaining a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 has spawned a green energy boom with thousands of megawatts of solar, wind, and biomass power plants planned for … the middle of nowhere. And therein lies the elephant in the green room: transmission. Connecting […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • Would You Like Carbon Insurance With That Latte?

    You might not hear that exact question any time soon, but don’t be surprised if companies start shifting carbon risk from their balance sheets to someone else’s, using the time-honored marketplace tool of insurance. And when that happens, expect the price of products to reflect the new reality. China, India, and other emerging economies argue […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • How carbon markets work in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

    With all the hand-wringing over the alleged risk of market manipulation in cap-and-trade, you’d almost forget that the United States already has a carbon cap-and-trade program up and running. But it does. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional program among 10 Northeast states, has been auctioning permits, allowing trading on a secondary market, and even, in […]

    Eric de Place Technology