Energy
Giving Nuclear Power a Blue Ribbon
In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama did not equivocate on the topic of nuclear power. He talked about the importance of green jobs, and then added, “But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation …
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CONTINUE READINGWho’ll Stop the Rain?
Maybe the City of Los Angeles. I complained a couple of weeks ago that during the (rare) times when the Southland gets a downpour, all the water get sent out to sea ASAP, even though cistern technology exists that could conserve water, reduce pollution, and reduce the costs of purchasing it from elsewhere. Well, as …
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CONTINUE READINGChina, Energy and the Economy
The New York Times reported — with seeming alarm — this weekend that China is now leading the world in the manufacture of wind turbines and solar panels. Yet shouldn’t we view this news as good for efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Action by the U.S. to reduce emissions, while absolutely necessary for geopolitical …
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CONTINUE READINGRiding the Energy Efficiency Wave
At the “Beyond Copenhagen Conference” at Berkeley yesterday, one of the clear messages was that energy efficiency is one of the most feasible routes forward on climate change. Energy efficiency has great interest not only to U.S. consumers, but also to countries like China that are concerned about energy security. The energy security issue is …
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CONTINUE READINGObama’s SOTU speech on climate change
Last night, President Obama devoted a chunk of his state of the union speech to climate change and energy issues. He focused on the economic benefits of making our society more energy efficient and bringing more renewable power on-line, particularly the job-creation potential. Surprisingly, he didn’t mention the national security benefits of reducing our dependence …
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CONTINUE READINGPriming the Political Pump for Climate Legislation
Dan, Rick, and Jonathan have all discussed the implications of the political events of the last week for climate change policy. Certainly, it seems clear that both from a vote-counting perspective and from a political momentum perspective, the special election last week made passage of a climate change bill through the Senate generally harder. And …
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CONTINUE READINGA Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall — and Then Get Wasted
A friend from New York, recently transplanted to Los Angeles, has watched aghast as, again and again, weather reporters have greeted any local rainfall more than 1″ with feverish STORMWATCH headlines. That said, the Southland got hit with quite a storm these last 48 hours. “Well,” say most Angelenos unaccustomed to precipitation. “At least we …
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CONTINUE READINGMoving Forward With Cap-and-Trade in California
In 2006, the California Legislature enacted the Landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which authorized–but did not compel–the California Air Resources Board to adopt a cap-and-trade program as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce state greenhouse gas emissions. A year ago, CARB adopted its AB 32 “Scoping Plan,” in which it commits to …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Supreme Court Backs Off on Consumer Protection and (Maybe) the Environment
In a decision issued last week, the U.S. Supreme Court continued to chip away at consumer protections embedded in the Federal Power Act, and it is the environment that ultimately may take the biggest hit. First, let’s consider those consumer protections. The Federal Power Act requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to ensure that …
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CONTINUE READINGUS-India Climate Dialogue Agenda I: A TRIPS Protocol
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away — well, no, actually two months ago in Washington, DC, President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Singh inked something called the US-India Climate Dialogue. It was a pretty transparent attempt to salvage something from the fact that India would never agree to binding emissions cuts (and …
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