Ethanol and World Hunger
A new report, based on intensive modeling, raises serious concerns about the impact of first-generation biofuels such as corn ethanol. The picture for second-generation fuels, such as the cellulosic ethanol now being researched at the Energy Bioscences Institute, is much better. Note, however, that the source is somewhat suspect -- the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). The report certainly shouldn't be taken as gospel, but it at least should provide...
CONTINUE READINGCool Cars For California
Those California environmental regulators: there they go again... This past week, California's Air Resources Board adopted first-ever regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include sun-reflecting window glass for all cars and light trucks sold within the state. The new rules take effect in 2014. It turns out that conventional vehicle windows waste a lot of energy. Existing windows allow substantial amounts of the sun's heat to enter the vehicle; motorists run thei...
CONTINUE READINGClearing Title (and Rain Forest)
On Friday, the day Waxman-Markey passed the U.S. House, another significant legal development took place -- one that may also bear on climate change. President Lula of Brazil signed a bill providing legal title to squatters on Amazon land. Opponents argue that it will spark speculation in Amazonian property and increase deforestation....
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental law humor
Clean Water Act mavens may recall the controversy about a year ago when the Army Corps of Engineers determined that the Los Angeles River was not navigable, and therefore did not fall under federal CWA jurisdiction (LA Times story here). A Corps biologist responded by kayaking the river on her day off to prove it was in fact navigable, and was threatened with suspension for her trouble. (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility took up the biologist's cause and ...
CONTINUE READINGBiodiversity-friendly seawalls
Seawalls as typically constructed are smooth, vertical structures, beautiful to an engineer's eye but unappealing to tidal creatures looking for the more complex physical structure typical of a rocky shore. A new paper (Oecologia, subscription required) out of the University of Sydney shows that engineering and ecology need not be at odds, however. The authors describe an experiment in which engineers and ecologists, working together, designed a sea wall which incorpor...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Bill Passes House!
The Waxman-Markey bill narrowly passed the House yesterday. This is a historic achievement. As Cara reported yesterday, there are some real qualms about whether the bill is strong enough -- and particularly about its heavy reliance on offsets. Environmentalists have never liked offsets, partly because they lessen the technology-forcing effect of emissions controls and partly because enforcement and monitoring can be problematic. Waxman-Markey certainly isn't the ...
CONTINUE READINGMove Over, Summer of Love. It’s Time for Power Flower
We tend to think of renewable power as coming in two sizes: single home-sized photovoltaic arrays, or big, remotely-located power plants. Thus, we pour incentive dollars on solar homes, and place a tremendous emphasis on building large new transmission lines. Perhaps it is time to review this approach, and consider what we can do to promote modestly-sized renewable-based generators that can serve more than one customer. There are many options for siting such facili...
CONTINUE READINGClimate bill up for a vote
Looks like the House leadership is taking its chances on a vote on Waxman-Markey's climate bill today or tomorrow, despite some uncertainty about the outcome. And not all environmentalists are hoping for a victory -- in addition to worries about biofuel lifecycle emissions that Jonathan discussed earlier, there's concern over the recent deal Waxman and Markey struck with the Agricultural Committee to relocate the power to regulate farm and forestry offsets from EPA ...
CONTINUE READINGThe costs and benefits of coal
It was widely reported earlier this week that outspoken NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 30 others were arrested at a West Virginia coal operation where they were protesting mountaintop removal mining. The protesters were met at the mine by several hundred counter-protesters, described by the Charleston Gazette as "miners and family members" defending their jobs. A report by scientists at West Virginia University, published in the peer-reviewed journal Public...
CONTINUE READINGNew EPA air toxics report presents sobering assessment of cancer risk
A new U.S. EPA report released today presents a scary picture of our exposure to hazardous pollutants in our air. The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment for 2002, which analyzed health data based on chronic exposure to air toxics for 124 pollutants for which those data are available. (The assessment's name is potentially confusing; the report analyzed data from 2002.) The most important take-home message: over 2 million Americans live in census tracts where expo...
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