Energy

BP spill lawsuit complaint and link to early analysis

Here’s the complaint in the newly-filed lawsuit the United States filed against BP today, which I summarized earlier in this post. And NRDC’s David Pettit has written an interesting blog post with some initial thoughts about timing and choice of defendants in the lawsuit.

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U.S. sues BP, eight other defendants for violations of Oil Pollution Act in Deepwater Horizon blowout

Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging that BP, Transocean, and seven other firms caused or contributed to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill earlier this year.  The lawsuit seeks response costs, natural resource damages, and economic damages under the …

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Oceans: the biggest loser from our international failure to address greenhouse gas emissions?

In this op-ed from Monday’s Los Angeles Times, UC San Diego scientists Tony Haymet and Andrew Dickson succinctly and directly summarizes the threat that ocean acidification poses to our world, and plead for reductions in carbon emissions.  (My colleagues have blogged about ocean acidification before, here and here among other places.)   Unfortunately, as my …

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Black Friday Reflections on Happiness, Consumption, and Sustainability

As discussed in a fascinating new book by Derek Bok, psychologists have been busily researching a new set of issues relating to happiness. As a result of this research, psychologists are beginning to develop a deeper understanding of the factors that control well-being. Well-being is a multi-dimensional concept that includes objective factors such as health, …

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Green Housing, High-Tech Aspirations

For some holiday-time green inspiration, be sure to check out Lumenhaus, a dynamic new housing concept developed by Virginia Tech grad students, and currently on display in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

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Buidlings and Energy Efficiency — Just Being New Isn’t Enough

Newer buildings in California put more of a strain on the electric grid than do older buildings.  That is the apparent conclusion of a new paper written by Howard Chong through UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas.  The strain comes in the form of a greater “temperature response” – an increase in temperature on a …

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Actual Conservative Climate Change Policy!

After all the talk over the last two weeks, here it is: Fresh off a big victory over the GOP establishment on earmarks, conservative GOP senators are opening up a new front in the battle on government spending that could be similar to the earmarks standoff: They are calling on Congress to let billions in …

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The Perks of FERC’s Work

Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a ruling that could have a profound effect on the amount of small and medium-sized solar energy generation that states can achieve. Called “distributed generation” or “localized generation,” this type of renewable energy has tremendous potential to be generated from the rooftops of our existing buildings …

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Dim Bulbs

It’s good to know that there’s still someone who isn’t afraid to stand up for the use of obsolete technologies and the right of every citizen to overpay for electricity.

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So much for “consensus climate solutions”

Our friend Jon Adler has taken many of us and most progressives to task for not pursuing “consensus solutions” to climate change.  What might these consensus climate solutions be?  Well, Jon insists that it would look something like a revenue-neutral carbon tax (such as is proposed by the superb Carbon Tax Center) instead of a …

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