Tim Hurst’s Recent Comments

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  Have fun, Sarah. I covered Rothbury for Green Options last year and was impressed with their sustainability efforts, but also saw room for improvement. Unfortunately, after my extended-Bonnaroo trip, I can't squeeze Rothbury into the Summer calendar this year.

   

  Looking forward to hearing your reports!

  On Rothbury Music Festival rocks sustainability mission posted 4 months, 1 week ago 1 Response

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  I guess I'm not seeing the insanely cluttered, hideous and hard to navigate site redesign as some of the others. I think it looks and feels great.

  Congratulations to everyone at grist for being our beacon in the smog for the last 10 years.

  On Welcome to the new Grist! posted 7 months, 1 week ago 106 Responses

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  That One

  Thanks, Kate. Quality recap on the enviro-crux of this debate.

  Tim Hurst
  
  ecopolitology
  
  Red, Green, and Blue

  On Obama and McCain asked directly about climate change at debate posted 1 year, 1 month ago 8 Responses

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  Industrial Capacity

  Jon, you make an excellent point about European and Asian industrial capacity and what that can mean in terms of building a sustainable economy.

  We could be taking advantage of that same industrial infrastructure and history in the American Midwest where the lagging auto industry is not operating anywhere near full capacity. The Federal Govt needs to mobilize this sleeping industrial giant to start producing the trains, subway cars and the other infrastructure we need now.

  Tim Hurst ecopolitology Red, Green, and Blue>

  On Lessons from Europe and Japan posted 1 year, 4 months ago 10 Responses

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  Ratcheting FITs

  Yes, feed-in tariffs usually have a ratcheting component to encourage companies to make their technologies increasingly efficient. In the German case, the ratcheting component was recently accelerated to appease the conservative wing of the Christian Democrats and to prevent what some warned would be a spike in future electricity bills.

  Under the current feed-in tariff system, the rate paid to solar power providers declines 5 percent annually for rooftop installations, and 6.5 percent for free-field installations, beginning on January 1, 2009.

  But the Ministry of the Environment recently released a draft proposal to accelerate the tariff reductions to 7 percent annual reductions for rooftop and 8.5 percent for free-field.

  And while the feed-in for solar PV is being ratcheted back, the tariff for onshore wind farms will be increased from EUR 7.9 to 9.2 cents/kilowatt-hour (kWh). The tariff for offshore wind will go up to EUR 13 cents/kWh (Renewable Energy World).

  Tim Hurst ecopolitology

  On A UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration posted 1 year, 4 months ago 13 Responses