Climate Technology
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Our peak oil future? Electric vehicle startup unveils Chinese-made, $45K ‘economy’ car
Open one of those minimalist black boxes that contain a shiny new iPod and you’re greeted by five words — “Designed by Apple in California.” In much smaller print would be the phrase “Made in China.” Will Americans warm to a Chinese-built car when they can buy a domestic EV like the Chevy Volt for […]
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GM sells Hummer to China — the second mistake by those clueless new owners?
China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company has agreed to buy the Hummer brand from GM for less than $500 million, according to a source familiar with the transaction -- well off its peak value of a decade ago.
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Nobelist Krugman slams Reaganite Feldstein on global warming economics
Nobel prize-winning NYT columnist Paul Krugman has been doing some terrific writing on the economics of climate action (see Climate action “now might actually help the economy recover from its current slump” by giving “businesses a reason to invest in new equipment and facilities” and Krugman strongly endorses Waxman-Markey). Now he has turned his attention […]
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Advice for the Chinese manufacturer who just bought Hummer
Tough enough to drive over the Great Wall?GM.comI can’t say as I know exactly what’s going through the minds of the top executives at Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. who have reportedly just purchased the Hummer brand from GM. I’ll say one thing, though. I’m pretty sure they’re not Peak Oilers. Still, give […]
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Offsets are still counterfeit carbon credits
The arguments in favor of counterfeit carbon credits still fail no matter how often they are repeated Common talking points(TP) and replies(R) TP) Cap-and-trade will be too expensive if we don’t do offsets. And then we need a higher cap! R) Counterfeit carbon credits are just a back door way to raise the cap. It […]
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Has Obama saved Detroit from itself — or is that simply impossible?
You’re all gonna own a part of GM, so please, fellow owners, let me know what you think! Readers of Climate Progress understand two inescapable realities that the overwhelming majority of policymakers, the status quo media, and the car companies (with one exception) do not: Peak oil is inevitably going to drive up gasoline prices […]
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With green home venture, Sierra Club mixes profits with passion
Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / GristIt’s not unusual these days for big green groups to get in bed with business, but one of the oldest and most-respected environmental organizations — the Sierra Club — is going them one better by getting into business itself. The San Francisco-based Sierra Club has launched a for-profit online […]
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University president quits Massey board after green group campaign
After a 14-week campaign by green groups, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee stepped down from the board of directors of mountaintop-removal mining company Massey Energy today. Ohio Citizen Action, then Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, Earthjustice, and Friends of the Earth, said that Gee’s relationship with Massey worked against his school’s efforts to develop […]
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So how much would a $20/ton carbon price really cost?
First I said that we shouldn’t confuse wealth transfers with economic pain. Then I said that a $20/ton carbon price works out to a 1.4 cent/kWh rate increase. Astute readers may have noticed a disconnect. (Isn’t 1.4 cents/kWh economic pain?) Which brings me to the third and final part of this little series. Carbon prices […]
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Lockheed-Martin to build large CSP plant with thermal storage in Arizona
What is the best evidence that concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) aka solar baseload is indeed a core climate solution with big near-term — and very big medium-term — promise? One of the country’s biggest companies, Lockheed-Martin, with 2008 sales of $42.7 billion, has jumped into the race to build the biggest CSP plant with […]