Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Blogging for a sustainable energy future.

Get Energy Smart!  NOW! header image 4

Entries from November 2011

OIRA: White House’s Open Door to Lobbyists to Gut EPA Regs+

November 30th, 2011 · 1 Comment

This guest post comes from a scientist who finds himself to be a Fish Out of Water. Industry lobbyists have unlimited access to the White House to gut health, safety and environmental regulations proposed by the EPA and other regulatory agencies. A secretive, little known part of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, […]

[Read more →]

Tags: analysis · economics · environmental · environmental economics · Obama Administration

Debunk me! “Lean, mean and easy to read …”

November 29th, 2011 · 14 Comments

Human society being what it is, we live in a world filled with myths. Count Dracula lives forever and drinks blood. Monsters hide under the bed. NASA faked the Apollo missions and the astronauts were actually in a desert film studio rather than on the mooon. The world’s scientists are conspiring to falsify data about […]

[Read more →]

Tags: research · science

The power of incrementalism? And the colossal commute …

November 26th, 2011 · Comments Off on The power of incrementalism? And the colossal commute …

As the carbon count goes higher, inexorably, globally and the world community suffers from mounting challenges due to climate chaos, the value of incremental individual change can seem meaningless.  So what if a household figures out how to save 500 kilowatt hours a year and $50 by installing cfl light bulbs (or by using LED […]

[Read more →]

Tags: analysis · Energy

Satter and Eilperin failure to demonstrate learning

November 22nd, 2011 · 11 Comments

When delivered, on a silver platter, an opportunity to demonstrate learning and fulfill the Fourth Estate’s essential role of fostering a more informed public, Associate Press reporter Raphael Satter and Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin trip over themselves in a rush to press and disseminate deceptive truthiness rather than engage in truthful reporting. Satter seems […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Energy

“ClimateGate” redux: An opportunity to show learning …

November 22nd, 2011 · 4 Comments

There is a term out there in common use: lessons learned.  The term, in fact, is fundamentally flawed: we should speak in terms of “lessons identified” (pdf).   Years ago, a British Army general explained to me that the United Kingdom (U.K.) has a “lessons identified” rather than “lessons learned” program. “We identify lessons, only […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Energy

Warming led to Huge Fires & Ecosystem Collapse @ the End Permian

November 19th, 2011 · 1 Comment

This guest post from scientist FishOutOfWater looks at the what might be the closest event in Earth’s history to what humanity, through its ever mounting carbon emissions, is rapidly heading the planet to … The most precise study yet of the the earth’s most catastrophic extinction event, the end Permian, found that warming caused by […]

[Read more →]

Tags: climate change · Energy · guest post · science

Going toe-to-toe in a Congressional Hearing …

November 18th, 2011 · 2 Comments

For amazing watching in terms of a Congressional hearing, start at 31 minutes and 15 seconds at this CSPAN video ( of the House Natural Resources Committee Hearing: Artic Refuge: Jobs, Energy and Deficit Reduction. This hearing was the D response panel to a Republican effort to push drilling in ANWR with fanciful (and falsified) […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Congress

The Sports Analogy for Clean Energy: Abandon all hope or fight with confidence …

November 17th, 2011 · 1 Comment

In sports, the ‘psych’ game often can have as much — if not more — importance than actual physical engagement. Come to the starting line positively certain that you’re going to lose and, well, you’re likely to be watching others’ butts crossing the finish line. And, even worse, be so despondent that you don’t even […]

[Read more →]

Tags: department of energy · Energy

“The Denial Tango” …

November 11th, 2011 · 1 Comment

As with the United States, Australia has faced a Murdoch media and fossil foolish driven effort to turn the nation’s back on science. In the face of this machine effort, not only has the Australian government adopted a carbon tax that will help turn the nation toward a more sustainable future but the Aussies have […]

[Read more →]

Tags: climate delayers · climate zombies · environmental · global warming deniers

A “China Syndrome” … in a different twist …

November 10th, 2011 · Comments Off on A “China Syndrome” … in a different twist …

No, not a nuclear meltdown but a different form of nuclear option. For many, one of the painful elements of European cap and trade along with other arenas enabling and funding carbon offsets is how it creates opportunity for gamemanship that exaggerate positive impacts and wastes resources. One arena where this has seemed to be […]

[Read more →]

Tags: 2008 Presidential Election · 2012 Presidential Election · 746 · climate change · energy efficiency · environmental · Global Warming · global warming deniers · government energy policy