Energy
Who Is Ernest Moniz?
And why should you care? Moniz is a nuclear physics professor at MIT, the director of the MIT energy project, and at least according to a lot of reports, President Obama’s first choice to head the Energy Department. Anything not to like about that? Well, lots of environmentalists don’t seem to. The Daily Beast reports …
Continue reading “Who Is Ernest Moniz?”
CONTINUE READINGNewsflashes from the B-School
You might think that business schools would take the same views of policy as the Chamber of Commerce, but that’s not necessarily true. The Haas School here at Berkeley has a very interesting energy blog. I don’t always find their conclusions congenial but they’re always interesting. Here are some recent posts: Information and energy use. …
Continue reading “Newsflashes from the B-School”
CONTINUE READINGThe Ever-Growing Crisis Over the Nation’s Nuclear Waste Non-Solution
The Associated Press reports that six underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State are leaking a witches’ brew of high-level nuclear wastes into the soil that threatens regional groundwater supplies. This news highlights a crisis of national proportions that has for too long gone unaddressed. Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear …
Continue reading “The Ever-Growing Crisis Over the Nation’s Nuclear Waste Non-Solution”
CONTINUE READINGCasting a Shadow on the Future of Shale Gas
Current projections for shale oil and gas are huge. But are they realistic? An article in the February 21 issue of Nature suggests that these projections may be too optimistic: Wells decline rapidly within a few years. Those in the top five US plays typically produced 80–95% less gas after three years. In my view, the …
Continue reading “Casting a Shadow on the Future of Shale Gas”
CONTINUE READINGRubio Resigns: Was CEQA “Reform” Just About Fracking?
With the news that CEQA “reform” champion and State Senator Michael Rubio resigned today to lobby for Chevron, I have to wonder if his push for CEQA reform was really just to benefit oil and gas fracking. Sure, CEQA reform proponents liked to trumpet how a weakening of the law will help businesses and infill …
Continue reading “Rubio Resigns: Was CEQA “Reform” Just About Fracking?”
CONTINUE READINGStill More About the Keystone XL Pipeline
I am opposed to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Nonetheless, I find myself somewhat in disagreement with my blogging neighbor Jonathan Zasloff on this one, and somewhat in agreement with Joe Nocera. Yes, as Nocera argues, as long as there is demand for oil, energy producers will keep looking for new supplies to …
Continue reading “Still More About the Keystone XL Pipeline”
CONTINUE READINGWhy is Each Sequel Worse Than the Last?
Some movie franchises last way too long: Friday the 13th, Rocky, Nightmare on Elm Street. Each new film is worse than the last, and they’re all worse than the original, which wasn’t so great itself. The GOP war on energy=efficient light bulbs has the same characteristic — you wish someone would just drive a stake through …
Continue reading “Why is Each Sequel Worse Than the Last?”
CONTINUE READINGSanders/Boxer carbon tax
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer released today a pair of bills meant to increase the price of carbon in the United States. (Bill summary; carbon tax bill; fuel subsidies bill) The “Climate Protection Act of 2013” would impose a fee of $20 per ton (carbon or methane equivalent) on coal, petroleum, natural gas and …
Continue reading “Sanders/Boxer carbon tax”
CONTINUE READINGThe State of the Union — Energy and Climate Change
A very lengthy discussion of energy– some good language on energy efficiency and renewables, some not-so-good language about oil, but with an overall emphasis on technological innovation. Here’s what the President said about climate change: And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen. …
Continue reading “The State of the Union — Energy and Climate Change”
CONTINUE READINGIs California Fracking Regulation Out of Focus?
I’ve long been skeptical of the push that some on the left have made to ban hydraulic fracturing of natural gas. From an environmental perspective, I’d much rather have a natural gas-based fuel mix than one based on coal, and in any event, if there is that much money in the ground, people are going …
Continue reading “Is California Fracking Regulation Out of Focus?”
CONTINUE READING