I've written about the growing evidence that biofuels are becoming increasingly recognized as a menace to the environment, not the boon they were once thought to be. In Are Biofuels A Bummer? in February, I reported on a couple of recent studies showing how pressure on land use from biofuel production was creating the deleterious […]
… Not with a bang but a whimper."* I revisited congestion pricing in New York City recently. (See Congestion Pricing Redux from April 1 below.) Well, after having been recommended by the NY City Council, with the support of scores of municipal good government, environmental, labor and business groups, it sailed up the Hudson River […]
I'm killing two birds with one stone here (even though I'm a vegetarian). I'm going to highlight some of the more important recent stories I've not gotten to while pointing out some of the blogs I consider to be in the top tier. Gore kick starts sweeping program to slash U.S. carbon emissions is a […]
A truly classic quote, as reported in the Year in Review, came from Fred Krupp, influential president of the Environmental Defense Fund, in referring to the White House talks on climate change in September: "It was a lost opportunity. America needs to lead, and we can lead, but now the spotlight shifts to the Congress […]
I wrote about congestion pricing in the Big Apple here and here back in August and July. London, Stockholm and Singapore each have made it a big hit in their towns, and now they're trying to bring it to Broadway. Well, it took another positive step yesterday when the NYC City Council approved a plan […]
Yesterday, all over the world, people turned out the lights to dramatize their concerns about global warming. See this video from the Earth Hour folks: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9_c5K7Jdw9E” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] See also this slideshow, courtesy of Yahoo and Reuters.
I headed up to Columbia University this past week to check out the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet 08 conference. As usual, I couldn’t devote as much time as I would’ve liked to the conference sessions, but I came away with a few good insights nonetheless. Thursday, I attended a press briefing with Jeffrey […]
I have been remiss, in the extreme, in my blogging. I'm going tomorrow to what should prove to be an exciting conference, State of the Planet 08, at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. I will report on that soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of tidbits to keep you fed, if not […]
Man, I am a sucker for innovation, for using your head to come up with designs and systems that mimic nature and produce real energy and real energy savings. I’ve been reading a new book on renewable energy and alternative fuels and there’s some wild stuff in there: algae grown using carbon dioxide from power […]
I really do love the coverage in the “Financial Times.” It goes deeper than a lot of sources to give you stories that really mean something, rather than just the latest media frenzy over some political brouhaha or celebrity gossip. It also lives in the critical interface between commerce, public policy and international relations. (You […]
According to CoalSpeak, The Official CoalRegion Dictionary, the above term refers to “tuberculosis, or some virulent strain of TB. Consumption was a common word for tuberculosis many years ago (“consuming’ the lung tissue). “Galloping’ refers to the speed at which the disease progresses.” Ironic, perhaps, that I’m using this term to illustrate one of the […]
Solar Thermal , One of the pleasures of teaching a class on climate change is that students come up with some interesting, stimulating things. In papers recently submitted on renewables, and in following up with a little web surfing, I've come across some further information worth sharing here. I've also been reading a new book, […]
It's been a year since the Foreign Policy Association and I started this blog. There have been 140 posts before today covering a range of topics from developments in legislation, to international relations, to renewable energy, to all sorts of business initiatives, and much more. It's been an education for me and, I hope, for […]
The Heartland Institute organized a gathering of the clans this week in New York City. Skeptics of various shades and stripes sat in on panel discussions and heard speakers make pronouncements along a spectrum of opinion. "Registration for the event exceeded 550" according to one of several press releases I received. I had hoped to […]
The House of Representatives has passed another version of the energy tax package that failed to make it into the energy law passed in December or into the economic stimulus package that became law earlier this month. (See this and this from June on the Senate's failure on the tax portion and also see "Economic […]