Energy

UC Berkeley / UCLA Law Conference on Local Government Climate Change Policies

The UC Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law are holding a free public conference at UC Berkeley on Friday, December 2nd to discuss local government climate change policies.  Conference speakers include some of the state’s top policy, business, and environmental leaders, who will report on promising ways that cities and counties can address climate change …

CONTINUE READING

Who Killed the Ozone Rule?

It seems that Bill Daley did: Obama’s surprise move to block an ozone regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) followed immense pressure from industry trade associations, which made numerous personal appeals to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.  Daley met with the heads of several business groups more than two weeks before Obama …

CONTINUE READING

The Problematic Pipeline Approval Process

The State Department has announced that its Inspector General will be looking into the process for approval of the controversial pipeline.  There are certainly reasons to worry about the integrity of the process.  The State Department held public hearings, but turns out to have no plan for actually considering the comments; in the meantime, it …

CONTINUE READING

Lisa Jackson Speech

Following up on Holly’s post, here is video of the speech.  (And no, contrary to a rumor in the blogosphere, she didn’t call conservative critics “jack-booted thugs.”  Instead, as you’ll see, she commented that they used this term about EPA.) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcNeR6-EEGc]

CONTINUE READING

Deploying Large-Scale Solar on Marginal Agricultural Land: A New Berkeley / UCLA White Paper

With California committed to achieving 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, some solar and wind developers are rushing to propose large-scale installations on California farmland.  These sites can be attractive because they are close to existing transmission lines and substations and have good sun exposure.  However, proposed projects on farmland tend …

CONTINUE READING

Dealing with Escalating Global Resource Demands

Matthew Yglisias has a generally free market orientation and doesn’t usually focus on environmental issues.  He recently had a very interesting posting, however, about a problem that U.S. policymakers need to start thinking about: Over time, we’ve seen more and more countries engage in spurts of “catch-up” growth in which they rapidly narrow the gap …

CONTINUE READING

Supporting 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, …

CONTINUE READING

More 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 …

CONTINUE READING

The 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 …

CONTINUE READING

The 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 …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING