Energy | Grist

Sugar Crash

Of car crashes and Snickers bars 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
How many Snickers bars does it take to power a car crash? The answer shows that when it comes to energy, our common sense is just plain dumb.
How to Make Green Conferences Feel Less Like Capital Punishment

Sustainability conferences can be boring and terrible 3
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Sustainability conferences are now so ubiquitious that you can't swing a cat without hitting one. But I find myself massively dissatisfied by most (though not all) events, which typically bore the crap out of me.
Van Jones explains the “double, triple, quadruple” benefits of clean energy investment 0
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
But is it working?

Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes—and questions 2
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The sight of car buyers back in showrooms these past two weeks has raised hopes that U.S. consumers are ready, primed by government stimulus, to spend again. But questions remain.
The three amigos take on climate change

Obama, Calderon, and Harper talk up vision for ‘low-carbon North America’ 1
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
At a North American summit Monday in Guadalajara, Mexico, U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper released a statement on climate change.
Everyone's got a lobbyist

Tally of interests on climate bill tops a thousand 0
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
More than 460 new businesses and interest groups jumped into lobbying Congress on global warming in the weeks before the House neared its historic vote on climate change legislation, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of just-disclosed lobbying records shows.
The more we get together, the happier we'll be

Obama tells China the “ravages of climate change” demand cooperation 1
Posted 4 months ago
In a speech to head off the first meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue in Washington, D.C between the United States and China this morning, President Obama talks Chinese spending.
Sarah “Four Pinocchios” Palin - a conservative leader on energy issues?

Palin on Energy: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Response 0
Posted 4 months ago
Recall that Palin, who quit her governorship Sunday, is so ignorant of energy, so practiced at repeating falsehoods, that in September, during the campaign, the Washington Post itself gave her its highest (which is to say lowest) rating of "Four Pinocchios."
My Three Suns

Solar Power, Yes We Did! (& Will!) 1
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
The outlook for all three categories of solar power in the United States is bright, according to a new study by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).
even the desert can be green

Recipe for green jobs 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
In this economy, every state wants jobs. Green jobs are popular, but frankly, they’ll take them in any color.
Lithium: Are “blood batteries” next? 3
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
The lithium story and the complex social, economic, and political disputes it could engender in Bolivia should flag for us an important consideration in the fight against climate change: trying to do right by climate change and energy security might trigger unforeseen conflicts.
what's it wirth to you?

Timothy Wirth, natural-gas advocate, takes gas industry to task 3
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
In a blunt speech before the Colorado Oil and Gas Association last week, Timothy Wirth, a former Colorado Democratic senator and Under Secretary of State for global affairs in the Clinton administration, warned industry leaders that they need to pay attention to the environmental and climate concerns that are shaping national policy, or risk being left behind.
34 Nobel winners write Obama about lack of support for energy R&D in climate/energy bill 1
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Concerned about the lack of stable and specific funding for energy research and development in the ACES bill, 34 Nobel Prize laureates have written to President Obama asking him to urge Congress to send him a bill that commits to the $15 billion for R&D that the president originally proposed.
The (Re)Making of a Petro-State

Will Iraq be a global gas pump? 1
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
In a world of shrinking energy reserves, is Iraq finally fated to become what it was going to be anyway, even before the chaos and catastrophe set in: a giant gas pump for an energy-starved planet?
Twenty ideas that could save the world 3
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
We hear endlessly about the havoc unabated climate change will wreak, about long-term emissions targets and diplomatic wrangling over who will commit to them. But the countless ingenious ideas for tackling the problem emanating from universities, thinktanks, front rooms and sheds across the planet get rather less attention. So the Guardian teamed up with the Manchester International Festival to mount a search for the best of them.
Green jobs: debunking the debunkers 5
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
In response to my recent article digging into green jobs, a reader sent me a copy of a March paper by Andrew Morriss et al at University of Illinois that attempts to debunk green jobs myths. While I see major flaws in most green jobs papers I read, many of the myths cited by this paper are irrelevant to what I consider the most important questions.
A walk through the week's climate news

The Climate Post: Has the political climate changed? 7
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
First things first: The U.S. House of Representatives last week narrowly voted to overhaul the nation's energy economy by limiting industrial greenhouse gas emissions, boosting efficiency, and developing renewable electricity sources. The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act would limit, or "cap," annual pollution and allow industry to buy and sell, or "trade," credits in a new and tightly regulated commodity market. The vote, 219-212, sends an equivocal message to the Senate, where advocates face an even tougher sell. Eight Republicans voted with the majority and 44 Democrats broke with their party leaders.
Follow the money

Southern Company dominates the climate lobbying scene 3
Posted 5 months ago By David Donald, Marianne Lavelle
Southern Company, the nation's largest electric power generator, also had the largest force of lobbyists among the hundreds of businesses and interest groups that were seeking to influence the landmark climate change legislation that just passed the House.
Next on climate: Improve Waxman-Markey innovation provisions in Senate 0
Posted 5 months ago
Few aspects of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill matter more than the insufficient degree to which it applies future revenue to clean energy innovation. Quite simply, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) makes only a modest start toward promoting the technology breakthroughs that will make clean energy cheap, reduce carbon emissions, and create thousands of cleantech jobs.
Science being used as an excuse to balance budgets

Seattle and Berkeley drop biodiesel 0
Posted 5 months ago
Here's a King 5 News video clip and here is a short article from the online Seattle PI, demonstrating how much easier it is to believe science when there's money involved.