California , The Golden State has a population of 37 million folks or so. That's around Kenya's or Poland's population. According to which source you use, California, if it were an independent nation, would have the seventh, eighth, or tenth largest economy in the world. California is responsible for 13% of the United States' gross […]
What a great yarn! A smart, successful, committed energy entrepreneur comes along with a solid project to provide enough zero-emission, renewable energy to supply, on a good day, all the stationary power needs of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and, if you had plug-in vehicles, a good bit of the surface transportation needs as […]
(photo courtesy of Kaveh Sardari) Dr. James Hansen is both an icon and a working scientist at the forefront of global warming research. He's a world-renowned physicist and an impassioned activist. He's soft spoken and hard hitting. Hansen is the director of an important US government lab, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and has […]
As I said on Friday, there is so much going on. Here are some more salient items for you. Jim Rogers , I quoted the Duke Energy CEO here a while back. In the Sunday "NY Times Magazine," there's a profile of the head of the nation's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Why has he […]
Here are two videos I saw the other day at the estimable DeSmogBlog. Have fun with these. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/PLZ-hvVVGmY” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/snPdEl0Duoo” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
There really are a ton of stories out there. Here’s a sampling: Cars – I’ve written recently about electric cars and other exciting initiatives. There are more developments on the automotive front. Mitsubishi and Peugeot have entered into an alliance to supply key components for electric vehicles and may build their own as well. See […]
I have to admit, back in December I didn't think that Barack Obama would be the nominee of the Democratic Party. I predicted then, in my year in review, that either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards would be the nominee, and the eventual next President. (I also predicted that Bill Richardson, a very good man […]
Okay, so a lot of scientists and engineers are working on CCS. That's clear. The question is: Will their hard work and expertise translate into a viable, affordable mechanism for eliminating, or even curtailing the massive, climate-altering impact of the carbon dioxide that spews inexorably, interminably from the world's thousands of coal-fired power plants? Remember, […]
I wrote a couple of weeks ago here on clean coal technology. First of all, let me explain that I am not rooting against the possibility of finding some way to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and other sources. It's just that there is so much reliance on coal now, and […]
The leading scientists of 13 nations yesterday called for significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The science academies of the G8 plus those of Brazil, Mexico, India, China and South Africa issued a joint statement on "Climate Change Adaptation and the Transition to a Low Carbon Society." See this from Reuters. The statement targets the […]
I'm sorry to report that the backers of renewable energy tax credit legislation today failed to get enough votes to get a vote on the legislation itself, H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008. This is getting tired. I reported yesterday on the continued blossoming of activity in renewables. However, things […]
Offshore in Britain , The UK's Crown Estate is looking to create up to 25 GW of offshore wind in the next dozen years. Okay. What is the Crown Estate? It is the British monarchy's real property and enterprises, and it is managed separately from government properties. Here's the story from CarbonFree. The Crown Estate […]
As expected, the climate change bill died in the Senate because of an inability to invoke cloture. See this from the AP. You didn't have to be a seer to predict this. See my item on this under "Melange" from May 3 below. Don't worry, though. We'll get this done in 2009. Early.
BofA Leader Wants Government to Help , Ken Lewis, the CEO of the Bank of America, ranked 12 in the Fortune 500 and with about $1.3 trillion in assets, had a terrific op-ed in the "FT" today. In it he notes the critical importance of government's role in "working to build a new economic future […]
Senate on Climate Change , In the US, the Senate began debate yesterday on legislation to address climate change. The "SF Chronicle" reports here that the opponents and proponents were so eager to start bare knuckling over the bill that they voted 74-14 to proceed to debate. The bill "would require about 2,100 major U.S. […]