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Climate Change

A Familiar Ring to the Cap-and-Trade Grudge Match in Australia

A partisan divide, climate change doubters ridiculed by by environmental advocates, concerns about the global competitive impact of being a carbon control leader, and uncertainties surrounding market function, pricing and cost to consumers… Sound familiar?

Now imagine it all in Paul Hogan’s accent instead of in the halls of the Capitol, and you have the Australian debate over cap-and-trade legislation.

NYT runs a story that gives evidence of one of the major obstacles to getting real global energy reform, the “you first” problem.

The story notes, “Conservatives say [the country] should not commit itself to any target before the world’s biggest emitters — China and the United States — lay their cards on the table, and a successor to the Kyoto agreement, which expires in 2012, is reached.”

06/23/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Waxman-Markey: DOA (Dead on Arrival)?

written by Joe Walsh

Several recent pieces – led by David Roberts’ posting at Grist – report that “the worst kept secret in DC” is that there’s “no way” the Senate is passing a climate bill this year.

Surprised? After all, as Roberts and Bradford Plumer at TNR point out, energy reform was once Obama’s “number one priority.” Is it conceivable that a President with 65+ approvals and the iconic status of Obama could fail to get his number one priority through Senate that has a fillibuster-proof majority from his own party, less than six months after taking office?

06/12/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Waxman-Markey’s Chevron Redux?

written by Joe Walsh

There’s been a lot out there in the ether about how Waxman-Markey (and climate change legislation in general) has been a windfall for lobbyists, fighting both to keep the government’s hands off of utilities and others’ CO2 emissions on the status quo side and scrambling for the subsidies and other dollars on the green tech side.

The Washington Post (WaPo) opened just such a story this week with an anecdote about Rep Gene Green’s (D-TX) amendment changing the word “sources” to the words “emission points.” WaPo notes “that tiny bit of editing might one day give petroleum refiners valuable rights to emit carbon dioxide when it otherwise might not have been allowed.

06/09/2009 0 comment

Renewable Energy

Carbon Sequestration – an optimal clean technology?

written by Sharon Bunkin

While coal-fueled power plants are directly responsible for roughly one-third of our CO2 emissions, the DOE indicates that coal is expected to dominate our domestic power generation at least for the next 25 years. Globally, the increased demand for coal-fueled electricity will translate into a 57% rise in related CO2 emissions by 2030 according to the IEA.

One technology that attempts to solve the CO2 emissions crisis is carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Generally speaking, CCS captures the CO2 emissions from coal power plants and other industrial sites and injects the CO2 into underground porous rock formations in hopes of permanent sequestration.

05/27/2009 7 comments

Water & Conservation

Climate Change: Time to get the muck out

written by Jeff Kart

This is kind of backward. States have banned phosphorus fertilizers for lawns, because the phosphorus runs off the landscape, into rivers and streams, and breeds algal blooms and muck. Ever visited a beach visited by muck? It’s not a vacation.

But here comes some new warnings: Climate change can cause more phosphorus to leach from the soil. I can see the conflicts now: People who want thicker lawns vs. people who want to relax in the sweet, sweet sugar sand.

The argument for phosphorus bans has been the need to keep beaches free of dead algae, and the fact that soil in places like Michigan already contains enough natural phosphorus to grow a decent lawn.

But climate change predictions include more heavy rainstorms, with soil being rewetted more frequently. Apparently, this rewetting means an increase in phosphorus that leaches from the soil and into our waterways.

And this is about more than the beach.

04/16/2009 8 comments

Renewable Energy

Climate Change, the Stimulus Bill, and how CleanTech will benefit

written by Mackinnon Lawrence

With less than a year left before the international community reconvenes to tackle climate change in Copenhagen this December, many unanswered questions remain. Chief among them is whether the US can begin to patch together a flurry of legislation targeting reduced greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions in time to signal a renewed commitment to leading the international community on environmental issues. Doing so will focus the spotlight on China, which together with the US, accounts for 40% of the world’s GHG emissions.

02/19/2009 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Carbon Emissions – no effect on climate change?

written by Ian Thomson

I recently reconnected with an old friend from high school; over lunch today we discussed the pessimism of yesterday’s International Energy Agency report. We both saw the human race as a deft and resourceful bunch, and agreed that humans, like cockroaches, would manage to survive most of the impacts of climate change. What that world might look like should we survive could be a far cry from what we know now. I think that the mature approach is to do what we can to make the transition to sustainable energy and transportation solutions before our backs are against the wall.

11/13/2008 13 comments

Renewable Energy

Sir Nicholas Stern: “A toast to the end of the Bush Era…”

written by

“A toast to the end of the Bush Era…” That was the first sentence of an amazing presentation held by Sir Nicholas Stern in São Paulo at the Federation of the Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) on Tuesday this week. In less than an hour, Dr. Stern discoursed on his mighty report “The Stern Review”.

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Released in 2006 on behalf of the United Kingdom, “The Stern Review” is a 700-page document that stands by the conversion of our economy into a new low-carbon one. In short, the report proposes that the climate changes under a “business-as-usual” scenario will consume about 20% of the worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with adaptation and mitigation initiatives costing about 1.5% in the same period.

In a very casual yet direct manner, Dr. Stern reaffirmed his opinion for the need of an economical transformation into a low-carbon system. According to him, a high-carbon economy, one based on petrol and non-sustainable processes, must be re-evaluated immediately. He talked about the “Bush Legacy” – high-carbon products without long-term responsibility – and how to replace this outdated model. One of the most controversial of Dr. Stern’s proposals is the pricing of carbon within the products and services. In other words, it would be similar to establishing a “carbon tax” on the system.

11/08/2008 3 comments

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