Sun Down, Sun Up
There is bad news and there is good news about efforts to promote distributed solar energy development in the United States. On balance, the long-term perspective seems to be improving. Greenwire reports that the California Solar Initiative, the states ambitious program to encourage photovoltaic installations on homes and businesses, has lost some steam, lately. Builders of new homes filed 139 rebate applications in January, and 159 in February. These numbers are...
CONTINUE READINGThe Dodgers v. Urbanism: NoCal 1, SoCal 0?
I hate to admit this with a bunch of co-bloggers from the Bay Area, but I think that the northerners have one here. Ever since my Grandpa told me stories about dodging trolleys outside Ebbets Field, and then took me to the Dodgers' 1972 Oldtimers' Day, when they retired the numbers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Sandy Koufax, I've pretty much been hooked on the team. For a few years in the late 90's, I left, because they were owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is the...
CONTINUE READINGPollution sniffing robofish
Monitoring has always been a big challenge both for enforcement of water pollution laws and for understanding the effect of pollution on aquatic ecosystems. Now a group of scientists in the UK may have an answer: robotic fish the size of seals which can swim around on their own, equipped with chemical detectors to sense pollution and wi-fi capability to communicate their data in real time. Plus they look really cool swimming. Of course, there has to be a catch: they cost...
CONTINUE READINGSave Us From Ourselves
I often have conversations about climate change with those who believe that the crux of the problem lies with the individual. To put it somewhat differently, these individualists believe that we can't solve the climate problem without individual change and that the possibilities for such change are all around us. People should use less electricity, take more public transporation, consume less, live more simply and so on and we'll be on our way to dramatically reduce...
CONTINUE READINGFinally
Having finally shaken off the various and sundry anonymous holds that had been placed on the nominations, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Jane Lubchenco to be the administrator of NOAA and John Holdren to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Washington Post has a nice article about Lubchenco, why she took the job, and how she plans to keep her carbon footprint small in DC....
CONTINUE READINGGot oil?
According to research compiled by the staff at The Oil Drum, we may have hit peak oil production in 2008. Many experts predicted that peak oil would happen sometime around now, although perhaps not for another decade or so. If this research is correct, then we should expect a corresponding decrease in the supply of oil in the measurable future. While the jury may still be out on this particular study, our "Party like it's 1899" mentality when it comes to oil will sure...
CONTINUE READINGDiFi defends the Desert Tortoise
As one example of the growing conflict over use of sensitive lands for renewable energy projects (Ann recently blogged about this tension here), check out Sen. Feinstein's letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking that the BLM suspend consideration of proposed leases on federal lands near Joshua Tree National Park being considered for solar energy fields. "While I strongly support renewable energy," she writes, "it is critical that these projects move forward�...
CONTINUE READINGShouldn’t Conservatives Be Environmentalists?
It seems to me that the answer is yes, contrary to popular opinion. There are several varieties of conservatism, but in my view each of them should resonate with at least some aspects of environmental protection. Let's start with social conservatives. What does it mean to have a "culture of life"? Shouldn't it mean objecting when companies emit pollution that causes large numbers of deaths, just to make a little extra money? It's true that the company doesn't ...
CONTINUE READINGTwo New EPA Nominees
The President announced two new EPA choices: Cynthia Giles as chief of enforcement, and Michele DePass as EPA's assistant administrator for international affairs. Cynthia Giles is a Berkeley Law grad. She is currently the vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island Advocacy Center, focusing on state and regional programs to combat climate change. She previously headed the Bureau of Resource Protection at the Massachusetts De...
CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy and Economic Stimulus: Better Luck This Time Around
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, better known as the economic stimulus package, throws 11 billion dollars at infrastructure development to support renewable energy, particularly improvement and expansion of transmission grids. It's characterized as a win-win scenario, getting people back to work while smoothing the way for substantially less carbon-intensive energy generation. That's quite a difference from what happened the last time we had an economic ...
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