Energy
Obama’s Progressive Tax and Energy Policy
Though the budget released yesterday by the Obama Administration was short on details, it was long on big pronouncements that fundamentally shift federal policy in important areas. On the climate change front, the budget for the first time reveals the administration’s thinking on how it would distribute money raised from allowances issued under a proposed …
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CONTINUE READINGPresident Obama’s Remarks on Energy Tonight
“It begins with energy. “We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing …
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CONTINUE READINGBlowing Off Steam: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Clean Water Act
The Entergy case, which is now before the Supreme Court, involves EPA regulation of power plant’s cooling systems. This is an important environmental issue because the cheapest systems kill acquatic life in the front-end intake process and then raise the temperature of water bodies in the back-end discharge. More broadly, the case raises questions about whether …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Ray LaHood Trying to Subsidize Gas Guzzlers?
We finally see Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (R-IL) emerge from his undisclosed location, and the result isn’t pretty: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn _ an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it …
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CONTINUE READINGHip Hip Hoo—-Wait A Minute …..
Two recent announcements seem to offer reason for good cheer on the renewable energy front. But in each instance, it pays to read a little deeper and maybe keep the cork in the champagne a bit longer. The first came in the form of a California Public Utilities Commission report that concluded that there are …
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CONTINUE READINGObama on Transportation, Land Use and Energy Use
Stunning news from the White House: we actually have a US president who understands the connection between land use patterns and energy use. Obama’s stimulus bill was weak on spending for transit projects (as opposed to highway projects). But that was because it was a bill about jobs, and more highway projects just happened to …
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CONTINUE READINGA Tale of Two Cities
The old adage is that all politics is local. So is much, if not all, environmental policy-making. Recent reports from two American cities vividly demonstrate the wide gulf that often separates local efforts to adopt sustainable environmental and energy policies. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reports the City of Boulder, Colorado’s groundbreaking …
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CONTINUE READINGA Glimpse Inside the Stimulus Bill
Although the stimuls bill passed last week, there still doesn’t seem to be a lot of detailed information about its exact provisions. It does appear, however, that the final legislation has considerable benefits for clean energy, as CNN details
CONTINUE READINGThe future of coal-fired electric power
Tomorrow’s New York Times has an interesting article on the future of coal-fired electric power in the United States. Coal is responsible for fully 20% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “Clean coal,” meaning coal plants that result in no net emissions of carbon dioxide, would be possible only …
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CONTINUE READINGDo as I say, not as I do
Scientists are often in the news complaining that governments are not doing enough to solve environmental problems, especially the problem of climate change. But some scientific stonethrowers own houses may be made of glass. In the latest issue of Environmental Science and Technology, staff scientist Evan Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory writes that the …
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