Chilly in Baltimore: Energy Efficiency and Wind Power
I heard an interesting story on NPR today about "district cooling" in which a company in Baltimore uses ice to produce chilled water, which is transported to a number of building in the city for supplemental cooling. What really struck me as cool about this (sorry about the pun) is the fact that this system essentially "stores" power produced by wind turbines. Here's how: The ice used at the facility is produced at night when energy costs are lowest, and coincident...
CONTINUE READINGMountaintop Removal: Incompatible with Climate Solutions and Incompatible with the Environment
Monday thousands of people converged on Washington, D.C. for the Appalachia Rising Rally to protest mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. Activists dumped 1,000 pounds of Appalachia dirt on EPA's front lawn before marching on the White House. At a sit-in at PNC bank, four people were arrested while protesting that bank's financing of MTR coal mining. About a hundred more, including Dr. James Hansen, retired coal miners, and Appalachian residents, were arrested ...
CONTINUE READINGNanotechnology Regulation: The Future Is Here, Almost….Maybe
Apart from the reporting requirements in Berkeley, California, there is little public health or environmental regulation in the United States directed specifically at nanotechnology. But in California, that may soon change. In draft regulations released this month as part of its Green Chemistry Initiative, the Department of Toxic Substances Control specifically branded nanomaterials as chemicals subject to regulation. The regulations will establish an extensive pro...
CONTINUE READINGSuccess in Restoring the Ozone Layer, Mixed News for Climate Change
The good news is that the ozone layer is recovering. The reason it's recovering is because the international community agreed -- in the Montreal Protocol -- to phase out harmful chemicals that were depleting the layer and causing huge holes in it. That's the conclusion of 300 scientists who recently issued a "Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2010." Nevertheless, the springtime hole in the ozone layer above the Antartic continues to appear just as it...
CONTINUE READINGIt’s All About the Feedback
A fairly common reaction to climate science is to wonder how changes in the concentration of a trace gas can have a substantial effect on the world's climate. As it turns out, this is exactly the right question to ask. There's a great post at RealClimate working through the logic. The direct effect of increased CO2 is small. But we know that the earth's climate has changed substantially over its history. Neither the changes of CO2 or of solar radiation are nearl...
CONTINUE READINGProp 23: Spinning the Poll Numbers
A new email blast from the California Jobs Initiative trumpets: "Brand new Los Angeles Times poll puts Yes on 23 in the LEAD!" That's true, sort of. Or at least it has what Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness." The LA Times story is headlined: "Proposition 23 poll shows a dead heat among California voters." As shown by the pie graph, the split is 40% yes, 38% no. That's within the 3.3% margin of error. Apparently, these are actually not encouraging numbers for...
CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman, Prop 23, and AB 32
Meg Whitman takes the position that Prop 23 is wrong, but she says that she'll suspend California's keystone climate legislation,AB 32, for a year if she's elected. The Berkeley White Paper on Prop 23 takes a different view than she does of the economic impact of Prop 23. Her proposal, which takes advantage of an escape hatch provision within AB 32 itself, is narrower and more closely related to the current economic situation than the much more sweeping approach taken ...
CONTINUE READINGAir Resources Board Does Some Punting On SB 375 Targets
As I blogged, the California Air Resources Board yesterday set greenhouse gas targets for the eighteen metropolitan regions in the state, which these regions must try to meet through a land use and transportation planning process. The Board basically split the difference of what the staff recommended. For the four largest regions, staff wanted 5-10% per capita reductions. The Board went with seven percent. If you believe real estate developers, the world as we know...
CONTINUE READINGOne More Try This Year for a National Renewable Electricity Standard
Is something, in terms of a federal renewable standard, better than nothing? There is new talk of setting a national renewable electricity standard before this session of Congress ends, due to the introduction of S.3813, this week. This Bingaman-sponsored bill echoes an earlier proposal that can best be described as imposing a standard of modest proportions. While California aims for 20% renewable electricity by the end of this year and 33% by 2020, the Bingaman bill pr...
CONTINUE READINGThe Myth of SB 375
Today is a big day for SB 375, California's much-heralded land use and transportation law. The Air Resources Board is setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for each metropolitan region covered by the law. The regions then have to develop a plan to meet these targets through comprehensive land use and transportation planning. That means reorganizing transportation and land use planning to make sure people don't have to drive so much and can live near transit, services,...
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