The Energy Bills – First, before we get to the reading opportunities, there are rumors in the blogosphere that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are going to offer up the renewable portfolio standard and renewable tax credits as sacrificial lambs to the gods of fossil fuel and nuclear power. See Bye, bye, Ms. Renewable Pie from the excellent “Grist Mill” and News Alert: If You Love Renewable Energy, It’s Time to Freak Out from the “Huffington Post.” The American Wind Energy Assn. is so concerned that it’s sending out an action alert asking people to tell their Senators to keep these critical components of a progressive energy bill in!
Pelosi has said publicly that she wants this legislation voted on soon. See Pelosi to push for vote on energy bill from UPI. As always, stay tuned.
World Energy Picture – The International Energy Agency issued their annual report this past week on the state of the world’s energy. In the executive summary, we learn that demand for energy is continuing to rise steeply, driven in large part by the wildly burgeoning economies of India and China, and that “the world faces a fossil energy future to 2030.”
The “Financial Times” has a really useful ongoing, “in-depth” section on energy security, and they covered the IEA story this week: IEA sounds alarm over huge energy demands. They also reported that the Asian energy focus shifts to renewables going “well beyond the International Energy Agency’s expectations.” Let’s hope so.
The “FT” – which I must say is an extraordinary news organization – has still more coverage of energy in this special report. (You can register for a finite number of articles for free, or an unlimited amount for a fee – go here.) The special report has over 20 articles on everything from wind to nukes, and covering areas from India, Russia and China to Venezuela and the Middle East.
Tar Sands – The incomparable Betsy Kolbert has an article in this week’s “New Yorker,” Unconventional Crude on Canada’s tar-sand boom.
Biofuels – Meanwhile, back at the “FT,” there was a compelling little op-ed by the director of the Center for International Development at Harvard, Ricardo Hausman, saying how “biofuels are set to transform the global economy.” You can see his op-ed and sign up to ask him a question online this coming week if you go here.
“The Business of Green” – The “NY Times” had a special section this past week that has a number of great articles on, among other things, a carbon tax versus cap-and-trade (something I’ve been covering here recently), nanoscience and energy, and nimbyism on nuclear waste. Finally, there’s also now a blog on the Business of Green from the “NYT’s” sister paper, the “International Herald Tribune,” and Dot Earth from the Times reporter, Andrew Revkin.
(I referenced Revkin and his new blog in Important Miscellany, my post from Oct. 31.)
There’s lots and lots of great reading out there. Set aside a couple of hours and settle in to catch up on some of this material.
