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Entries from May 2009

“If you like it, put a cap on it!”

May 28th, 2009 · Comments Off on “If you like it, put a cap on it!”

Courtesy of CCAN.

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Tags: Energy

Climate Legislation … What is the right approach?

May 28th, 2009 · 7 Comments

Al Gore says supports it. Paul Krugman says support it. Two Nobel Prize Winners. Who am I to question them? That is a question received, in more than one space, when it comes to the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act. Well, with all due respect to the infallibility of a Nobel Prize […]

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Tags: analysis · cap and trade · carbon offsets · carbon tax · catastrophic climate change

Coal-Industry Investors Bullish on Waxman-Markey?

May 26th, 2009 · Comments Off on Coal-Industry Investors Bullish on Waxman-Markey?

Let’s be clear: coal is a killer. Despite the fantasies that coal industry advocates and astroturf organizations like to sell about “clean coal“, coal is a killer in the near term (asthma, black lung, etc), mid-term (mercury), and long term (climate change). While coal has had a powerful role in powering the globe from poverty […]

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Tags: coal

Pac NW Has Renewable Energy – Now

May 25th, 2009 · Comments Off on Pac NW Has Renewable Energy – Now

With a look at his area’s opportunities for augmenting low-GHG power from hydropower, a guest post from Badger from the Pacific Northwest. Driving around Washington State and Oregon this weekend, I saw more examples of how the Pacific Northwest is leading in installing renewable energy systems, not only in the future, but right now, with […]

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Tags: Energy

16 Times Louder

May 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment

This evening, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act out for consideration by the rest of the House. This bill is filled with good … and bad elements. It has strong provisions for improving energy efficiency in the United States, a weak renewable energy standard, and […]

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Tags: climate change · Congress · Energy · energy efficiency · environmental · global warming deniers · politics

A Coal Subsidy Act?

May 21st, 2009 · 6 Comments

The House Energy and Commerce Committee looks poised to vote on the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act later today. As this bill has developed, from an already compromised draft bill through massive compromising to reach a bill submission to committee markups, it has reached the point as to whether it is more […]

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Tags: Energy · politics

Valuing Cutting Oil Dependency: And the new auto standard deal

May 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The announced deal to strengthen auto mileage standards, aiming for a fleet average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, has many implications. One of these is, quite clearly, reduced oil use. According to President Obama we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five […]

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Tags: analysis · energy efficiency

George Will writes, Will-ful Disdain for Facts

May 19th, 2009 · 5 Comments

George Will has a pattern for Will-ful disdain for facts if they get in the way with his ideological agenda. Will’s latest column is filled with disdain directed at Secretary of Transportation Roy Lahood. Very briefly, two examples of factual errors. Will-ful disdain for truth: “Does [LaHood] think 0.01 percent of Americans will ever regularly […]

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Tags: Energy · journalism

Top Energy Economist Slotted for Energy Information Administration

May 19th, 2009 · Comments Off on Top Energy Economist Slotted for Energy Information Administration

The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the repository for the reference case analysis for US energy usage and projections.  Sometimes constrained politically and bureaucratically, their analyses have often seem highly fossil-fuel friendly and undervaluing of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Considering that record, last week’s announcement of the Obama Administration nominee to […]

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Tags: energy information administration

Making Global Warming Controversial in Public School Classrooms

May 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

A guest post from “loblolly” in which “A retired science teacher looks at subtle and not so subtle efforts by the oil and coal industry and global warming deniers to subvert environmental education in the public schools, by spreading doubt and making teaching about global warming a controversial topic in public school classrooms.” Received from […]

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Tags: bjorn lomborg · catastrophic climate change · climate change · climate delayers · Global Warming · global warming deniers