Okay. President Obama talked about jobs, about energy, about jobs, about climate, and about jobs. Did we mention jobs? As President, it’s not his job to make everybody happy. But it helps if he wins over more than 51 percent. Some folks were definitely happy. Steven Cohen, Executive Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia [...]
Is There an Alternative to Storing Nuclear Waste in Your Backyard?
January 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
What’s going on with Nuclear Energy? Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a new panel this morning to take a microscope to the future of nuclear power in America. The bi-partisan group will be headed by Lee Hamilton (a Democrat with ties to the intelligence community) and Brent Scowcroft (a Republican with ties to the intelligence [...]
Take Your Algae News With a Grain of Salt
January 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
A study released this week says Algae fuels may not be worth it. But critics point out that the study’s data were old – some more than ten years old. It’s a picture-perfect example of how when it comes to arguments over renewable energy, it’s always good to check your sources. The Study Bearing the difficult [...]
Putting a Price on Nature
January 27, 2010 By 1 Comment
DOE Takes Baby Steps on Geothermal and Earthquakes
January 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
What’s the real scoop on Geothermal and earthquakes? Despite a NY Times report that has been picked up by other outlets, (for instance, here and here), the Department of Energy (DOE) is not initiating any major new regulations for Geothermal projects. What they have done: building on the experience at The Geysers geothermal field in California, they [...]
Kerry and Graham Renew Bipartisan Energy on Climate Bill
January 26, 2010 By 4 Comments
With Scott Brown’s Senate win pushing health care to the back burner, Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham are blazing the bipartisan trail toward Senate adoption of an energy reform and climate change bill.
Looking Beyond 2050 – Some Interesting and Disturbing Trends
January 25, 2010 By 21 Comments
Fertility rates are declining around the world and most of what is written about this trend casts it in a positive light. The cover story of last November’s Economist magazine carried the headline: “Falling Fertility – How the Population Problem is Solving Itself.” It claimed that countries like China are enjoying a “demographic dividend” over [...]
SCOTUS likes corporate campaign cash – like the Big Coal money that has tainted WV
January 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
When it ruled in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court said it was unlikely that allowing a tsunami of corporate cash to inundate the electoral system would be a problem. Corruption? What Corruption? “This Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance [...]
Geothermal Pitches Wall Street
January 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Representatives of the Geothermal Energy Association had their largest schmooze-fest ever in New York Thursday (Jan. 14). They met with Wall Street financiers, had lunch with politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Mayor Bloomberg declared “New York City Geothermal Energy Day”, and at the end of the day they even got to ring the closing [...]
Avatar, Vietnam, and the War on the Trees
January 14, 2010 By 3 Comments
(Originally appeared at Tenthmil.com) One thing the blockbuster film “Avatar” showed in glorious, graphic 3D: In war, no matter who wins, the forest nearly always loses. There goes the neighborhood In the normal course of life, average folks tend to be conservationists. Why shouldn’t they? Just like the Na’vi of “Avatar”, most human societies throughout history developed [...]
