Climate Technology
All Stories
-
Duke Energy: We can ‘decarbonize’ without painful electricity price hikes
Major coal utilities are now publicly endorsing electricity decarbonization, an all but unimaginable position even 12 months ago. And although Duke is a member of USCAP, which was the basis of Waxman-Markey, it remains remarkable that the company has joined the call for strong climate action (see How does Duke CEO Jim Rogers sleep at […]
-
What the financial collapse can teach us about the food system
In a recent New Yorker, Nick Paumgarten published a lucid, entertaining essay on the financial collapse. Titled “The Death of Kings,” it focuses on the hedge-fund managers, stock gurus, and private-equity wizards who reaped billions from the credit bubble.Is Big Ag running the food system into the ground the same way Wall Street wrecked the […]
-
Ban Ki-moon’s speech at World Business Summit on Climate Change
The following is the text of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s May 24 speech at the World Business Summit on Climate Change (as released by the UN). Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening of the World Business Summit on Climate Change.UN Photo/Eskinder DebebeSECRETERY-GENERAL BAN: I am delighted to be here. Perhaps more important, I am glad […]
-
Critique of auto standards misses how they save consumers money compared to gas taxes
Robert Stavins thinks an increased gasoline tax or cap-and-trade would make Obama’s tougher auto efficiency standards redundant. This offers an excellent illustration of how even economists who are not market fundamentalists can miss the way well-designed regulation improves economic efficiency. Yes, cap-and-trade or a rising gasoline tax will reduce driving and gasoline use. But because […]
-
Fighting Coal in the Rockies
Fighting for the Waxman-Markey climate bill may be sexy and hip (and worthwhile), but here in the Roaring Fork and Vail Valleys of Colorado, without much fanfare, we are engaged in some trench fighting to solve climate change. A view from one of the ski lifts at Vail in Colorado.Courtesy Pravin8 via FlickrThe battle: trying to elect […]
-
AFL-CIO’s John Sweeney endorses approach of Waxman-Markey climate and clean energy bill
For those who know the history, the relationship between the environmental movement and the labor movement has been cool, at best, for a long time. But the two groups have been talking to each other much more in recent years and have come to a better understanding of how to work together. The environmental movement […]
-
Planting green moles in corporate America
On the 28th floor of a San Francisco skyscraper, a cadre of 26 young men and women called the Climate Corps is being briefed. They won’t be planting trees or serving as Al Gore’s cap-and-trade shock troops. Rather, these are MBAs on a mission to infiltrate the Fortune 500 and help them save … money […]
-
Climate change lobbying dominated by ten firms
This post by Marianne Lavelle and Matthew Lewis is reprinted with the permission of The Center for Public Integrity.—– Hundreds of lobbyists are cramming into Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building this week for the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s mark-up of landmark legislation to curb global warming through a complex cap-and-trade system. […]
-
Auto industry’s litigation strategy may have backfired in showrooms
Telling it like it is: President Obama meets with auto industry executives Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room of the White House before moving to the Rose Garden to announce new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks.Official White House Photo by Pete Souza None of the employees at Turlock Auto Plaza in California’s smoggy […]
-
Republican counter-strategy on climate: Revenge!
How much smaller can the climate denial tent get? We’re about to find out. With companies as diverse as Nike, Johnson & Johnson and Ford Motor Company having joined the call for comprehensive clean energy & climate legislation, the Republican Party has come up with its counter-strategy: “To fight bill, GOP turns on business,” declares […]