This guest post by the very thoughtful BruceMcF focuses on the public transit / rail version of the need to look beyond stove-pipes to full values for a true cost-benefit analysis. Just like so many fossil fuel costs are externalized (pollution, whether causing cancers or climate change), so too are many transit benefits. Those investing […]
Entries Tagged as 'analysis'
A Train Running A Profit is Charging Too Much
January 25th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Tags: analysis · Energy · trains · transportation
McKinsey’s systematic under valuing of the value of efficiency
January 9th, 2010 · 7 Comments
Economy versus the Environment. This is a slogan for many when they consider the challenges of dealing with Climate Change and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2007, McKinsey issued Reducing US Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? that provided a a significant contribution to this discussion. McKinsey’s conclusion: at an […]
Tags: analysis · climate change · Energy · energy efficiency · Global Warming
Guardian asserts conspiracy to hide the Peak
November 10th, 2009 · Comments Off on Guardian asserts conspiracy to hide the Peak
The global economy’s life-blood (even if it has been on life support) truly doesn’t flow through the CAC 40 or Wall Street, but is pumped from the ground and into our chemical plants, manufacturing processes, and transportation. We should, as a global society, be working to “keep the grease in the ground” for a variety […]
Tags: analysis · Energy · government energy policy · oil · peak oil · politics
Cancer on the Brain … and a perspective on healthcare
November 5th, 2009 · 1 Comment
My father-in-law has brain cancer. He is a good man. He is the type whose hands are (sadly too often) filled at the end of a stroll with trash he picked up on the way. He has helped others in need, whether friends (doing all too many renovation and repair projects) to strangers (a pencil […]
Fellow Univ of Chicago Professor Owns Super Freaky Economist Levitt
October 30th, 2009 · 2 Comments
Professor Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Louis Block Professor in the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago Geosciences, has published An Open Letter to Steven Levitt, the nation’s Super Freakiest Economist. To put it simply, Pierrehumbert owns Levitt. By now there have been many detailed dissections of everything that is wrong with the treatment of climate […]
Tags: analysis · climate change · Energy · Global Warming
Valuing demand destruction … critical to understanding value of clean energy action
October 28th, 2009 · 8 Comments
There are many things being lost in the discussion of the cost-benefit equation when it comes to mitigating global warming. When doing cost-benefit analyses, organizations like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are constrained to consider just one quadrant of what could be considered (in simplified form) the four-quadrant cost-benefit analysis […]
Tags: analysis · cap and trade · carbon tax · climate change · climate legislation · Congress · Energy · environmental · Global Warming · government energy policy
Myth of Cooling Globe shattered by AP-sponsored ‘blind’ test
October 26th, 2009 · 8 Comments
Just over the weekend, my inbox was filled with a discussion attacking climate science with assertions that “none of the models predicted the current cooling period” and, therefore, the entire concept of Global Warming rests on very shaky grounds. Sigh … Those involved in that discussion have now received links to an excellent article by […]
Tags: analysis · climate change · climate delayers · Congress · Energy · energy efficiency · environmental · Global Warming · global warming deniers · government energy policy · politics · renewable energy
Senator Alexander “believes an inconvenient reality …”
October 26th, 2009 · Comments Off on Senator Alexander “believes an inconvenient reality …”
Earlier this afternoon, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) held a press call to discuss climate legislation. There were those who were holding their breath, seeing Alexander as moving toward supporting the legislation if it met his desires when it came to nuclear power development. Based on this press event, it seems that they might be holding […]
Tags: analysis · cap and trade · climate change · Congress · Energy
EPA fails to think in four quadrants: Valuing Climate Legislation
October 24th, 2009 · 7 Comments
Much noise is made over varying calculations associated with climate legislation. There is the disinformation fed from fossil foolish interests misrepresenting the situation. And, there are official studies from government institutions like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that seek to do honest analysis but which are working within financial and […]
Tags: analysis · climate change · climate legislation · Energy · Global Warming · government energy policy
CBO, Media in Need of Remedial Science Classes
October 17th, 2009 · 3 Comments
The incisive Natasha Chart of Campaign for America’s Future has a must read discussion of the standard economist’s failures when considering large scale, complex social and environmental issues like climate change. It’s remarkable how often economists ignore physical reality. Whether they’re suggesting that economies can act as perpetual motion machines or suggesting that resource availability […]
Tags: analysis · climate change · climate legislation · Congress · financial policy · Global Warming