Cheap Solar Provides Some Reason for Climate Optimism
Solar energy is getting really cheap. And that fact could alter the landscape of energy production and the course of climate change in ways we can only begin to imagine today. One of the conundrums of climate change is trying to predict the future. This difficulty in prediction may be especially true with respect to economics and technology. In trying to figure out, for example, whether we have any possibility of stabilizing and ultimately cutting greenhouse g...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Did “GOP” Start to Mean “Grand Old Polluters”?
I'm old enough to remember a time when environmental protection and public health were bipartisan values. Even in the Reagan Administration, there were positive steps such as Reagan's support for the international ozone treaty. As late as 1990, Republicans in the White House and Congress supported major new air pollution legislation. Even George W. Bush had his moments, such as his creation of three big new marine sanctuaries. But today, any pro-environmental action ...
CONTINUE READINGSupporting CleanTech
Good news for the CleanTech sector: One of the world’s most renowned venture capitalists, Vinod Khosla, has raised a $1.05 billion fund, and he’s focusing on clean technology. A co-founder of Sun Microsystems and formerly with venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla has created one of the top five largest funds this year, according to VentureSource. Roughly half of the new fund will be invested in clean technology . . . CleanTech has a lot to offer...
CONTINUE READINGMore Oil and Coal, Less Nature and Clean Air
USA Today reports on a speech Perry is set to deliver about energy issues. It's a humdinger. Here are the main points: •Open federal lands to more energy exploration and production, including ANWAR and lands in the Mountain West - but not the Everglades, a tribute to Florida as a primary state. More offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the southern Atlantic coast. •Approve pipelines to facilitate new energy fields, including the Keystone XL Pipeline....
CONTINUE READINGCall for Nominations: The Five Best Environmental Presidents
About three months ago, my friend Michael Cohen wrote a piece for the Atlantic arguing who were the five best and worst foreign policy presidents of the last century. It got a good bit of well-deserved play in the blogosphere. So what if we tried to do it for environmental policy? The immediate problem is that environmental policy has nowhere near the salience for the nation's chief executive that national security does. This is true practically, politically, and...
CONTINUE READINGThe Rebound Effect (2)
The rebound effect is a worry in terms of the possible environmental impact of increased energy efficiency. But how big a worry, and what can be done about it? There is a lot of controversy about this issue, and the evidence seems to be far from crystal clear. For contrasting views, see these NRDC and Breakthrough Institute posts. Estimating the rebound effect turns out to be difficult. In a 2010 review of the economic literature, two economists said that “ther...
CONTINUE READINGHit-by-Pitches and Climate Denialism
Ann's post regarding the potential effects of climate change on the number of hit batters raises some critical issues on the national pastime. And of course, I'd be delighted to sign up for the field study. But climate deniers already have a ready answer. After all, they will ask: how do we know that the pitchers throwing at hitters is the cause of more hit batters? It could be a conicidence. Maybe it is different types of air currents. Can we prove that it...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and Major League Baseball
In what may be the most serious repercussion yet from predicted temperature rises, NPR is reporting this morning on Professor Richard Larrick's research showing that as temperatures increase, so does the number of batters who get hit by pitches. Moreover, when a batter gets hit by a pitch, retaliation by the opposing team increases in the form of -- you guessed it -- pitchers throwing at hitters. Thus if, as predicted, temperatures rise across the U.S. in coming d...
CONTINUE READINGThe Rebound Effect (Part I)
The rebound effect involves increases in energy use that are paradoxically caused by increased energy efficiency. This effect actually takes three forms. First, when energy use is more efficient, consumers may actually increase some of their energy-using activities. For instance, if lighting is very energy efficient, consumers may be less careful about turning off lights in vacant rooms. Or they may simply use more lights in order to have a brighter room. Second,...
CONTINUE READINGIs Your Coffee Destroying California’s Environment?
If you're looking for the leading anti-environmental organization in California politics, it's not hard to find: it's the California Chamber of Commerce. Like its counterpart at the national level (subject of this outstanding Washington Monthly profile), the state chamber is a reliable water carrier for the interests of the ideological right wing. It provides political cover for the insurance, agribusiness, oil and gas, banking, and other financial services...
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