All the positive things I’ve described here at the blog regarding business practices, technological breakthroughs, and political developments are very much in train. They signal, in my mind, real hope for the future. I don’t, however, want to live with rose-colored glasses obscuring my vision. We’re heading into a tempest now. The world economic crisis […]
Unless you’ve been away on a several-month long vacation in another solar system, you know all about the incredible turmoil we’ve been experiencing in the world stock and money markets and in the “real economy.” Now that the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” with the “Troubled Asset Relief Program” at its core, has been […]
I will never tell you that I can predict what Congress is going to do. Based on everything I've been reading for several weeks from every economist in sight who's been asked, I thought the vast majority of the members of the House of Representatives would've figured it out. And sometimes you just do the […]
I've mentioned the question of the renewable energy tax credits any number of times at this blog, most recently on September 21 and 24 below. Well, the House, not surprisingly, did not embrace the Senate's bill from September 23. For one thing, the Senate bill, somewhat out of left field and only to placate Republican […]
I sat in on some of the exciting sessions of the FPA's annual World Leadership Forum (WLF) this week. If you're interested in the recent developments in the financial industry and the bigger picture of the "geoeconomy," there were two panels of experts discussing some of the ins and outs of those issues which you […]
Well, the Senate, after Republicans blocked a vote eight times previously, passed a tax package yesterday that includes the extension of the various credits for renewables. See this from Reuters and this from Bloomberg. The vote was a breathtaking 92-3. The draft legislation does pare away billions in oil and gas industry tax breaks in […]
Congress might be a little preoccupied this week with saving the world from the consequences of the overleveraged, unregulated excesses of the financial industry, nevertheless, they may actually make time to find a way to create a package of tax credits that will bolster the renewables industry, keeping its incredible recent momentum going. Senate to […]
Permafrost , I wrote about the problem of thawing permafrost here recently. One group of researchers in Canada, at least, believes that permafrost is more "stubborn" than previously thought and will melt more slowly than predicted. See this story from AFP. The qualification in this is that the uppermost layers of permafrost may degrade as […]
There are two important reports just out on energy efficiency. One is from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the other is from American Physical Society. There is also a major building energy conservation program getting underway in the UK. (I have written about the critical subject of energy efficiency here, here and here since […]
In my review of a really great read, Cape Wind, I mentioned Bluewater Wind's proposal for Delaware waters. There was an informative story in yesterday's "NY Times" magazine on this project: Wind-Power Politics. It's got some great inside politics on how the Bluewater project forged ahead, was sideswiped by some key state legislators working with […]
I am not going to say a lot here about how Governor Palin and the Republicans are treating the climate change issue at this point. I looked at McCain and Obama back in June. It is very interesting to note, though, that Palin's entry in the race has generated a huge amount of ink, and […]
Green Jobs , A report out yesterday from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and commissioned by the Center for American Progress, says that a $100 billion, two-year national investment in renewable energy, mass transportation, and a "smart grid" for electricity, would yield two million new jobs, with a […]
I wrote recently here about the (really) enormous carbon sequestration potential of the terra preta approach to soil enrichment for agriculture. Well, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the earth already has sequestered many billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane over time. The bad news is that as the world warms, the […]
Google and EGS , This press release from Google, Google.org invests more than $10 million in breakthrough geothermal energy technology, describes their participation in fostering a new approach: Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Working with two companies and SMU's Geothermal Lab, they hope to bring EGS into full flower soon. As I have pointed out before, […]
I wrote recently about some truly exciting developments in soil reclamation with enormous potential for agriculture. (See The Earth.) There is great news in much of this if we pay attention and give these low-tech, largely low-energy-intensive approaches the focus they deserve. The (really) bad news is that although fertilizers have increased agricultural output over […]