Energy | Grist

Don't staple a pink slip to their diploma

5,400 students currently training for solar jobs in California 0
Posted 5 months ago
At least 5,400 Californians are training to enter the solar industry with one of 27 solar training service providers, according to a survey we just conducted.
The issue is not growth or no growth, but a better world

Growing a better world 5
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
Questioning growth has been the obsessive focus of many for decades. Questioners make important points. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been, at best, a very rough proxy for wellbeing, often not even that. For this and other reasons many liberals, progressives, and leftists consider a "steady state economy" part of building a good society. For all that critics of growth get right, they focus in the end on the wrong thing, on growth rather than waste.
A walk through the week's climate news

The Climate Post: Insider baseball on Waxman-Markey, outsider baseball on Hawaiian solar power 3
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
For those mercifully far enough away not to know, the “Capital beltway” is a looping highway, Interstate 495, the way many metro Washington residents ride to work. “Inside the beltway” isn’t coincident with Washington, DC. It also connotes a mythical place unrestrained by geography, a state of mind where consequential details of legislation attract and hold attention, sometimes for years on end. Whether you work inside or outside the beltway determines whether you think there was climate news this week in the capital, and by extension, Bonn.
Energy Department changes tune on peak oil

It’s official—the era of cheap oil is over 44
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Every summer, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy issues its International Energy Outlook (IEO) -- a jam-packed compendium of data and analysis on the evolving world energy equation.
Brookings: Fears that cap and trade will hurt farmers are baseless 4
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
A new economic study reveals that concerns a cap on global warming pollution could hurt American agriculture are unfounded. As the Waxman-Markey green economy legislation (H.R. 2454) moves toward passage in the House of Representatives, the farm lobby and rural officials have questioned the bill's costs to farmers.
Goldman Sachs: Oil’s going to $85 by year end 0
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Oil hit $67 a barrel yesterday, driven by the perception the global economy may have hit bottom, among other factors. Goldman Sachs raised its end of 2009 oil price forecast to $85 a barrel from $65.
Ad-ing to the chorus

‘Jobs of the Future’ ad pressures GOP to support climate bill 0
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
The progressive group Americans United for Change unveiled a new TV ad today that seeks to put pressure on Republicans to support President Obama’s energy plan.
Stand By Me

BC voters back carbon tax 1
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Carbon emissions met its first big electoral test this week, as British Columbia voters rewarded BC premier Gordon Campbell, who last July instituted North America's first major carbon tax, with a third four-year term.
the view from the blend wall

Resistance grows to increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline 3
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
The ethanol lobby may still be reeling in the subsidies, but it doesn't seem to be having any luck dealing with their other obsession, the so-called "blend wall," i.e. the legally prescribed limit to the amount of ethanol that can be mixed into gasoline. The NYT has a nice summary of the mounting scientific and industry backlash against ethanol lobbyist Growth Energy's EPA petition to raise the blend wall from 10% to 15%.
The Sherrod Brown test

Finding consensus on climate policy 1
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago
For advocates of immediate and strong climate and clean energy legislation, there's one man we should all be paying close attention to: Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
Moving on up

Progressive coalition spends $250,000 on ads for a green energy bill 0
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago
A coalition of labor, environmental, and progressive groups is putting up a quarter of a million dollars for a TV ad campaign promoting national clean-energy and climate legislation.
Every job can be green, part two 4
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Part two of my chapter, "Green jobs in a sustainable economy," published recently in the book "Mandate for Change."
Cleaning Up

First quarter cleantech VC funding hits $1 billion — green stimulus funds soar to $400 billion 1
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Clean tech venture capital funding in the first quarter of 2009 hit $1 billion, according to “findings released today by the Cleantech Group in cooperation with Deloitte.”
We Cement to Do That

Does carbon-eating cement deserve the hype? 0
Posted 8 months ago
I am trying to identify the plausible CO2-mitigation strategies that are scalable — that can comprise at least a half a wedge.
Job offer

Obama gives best clean energy and global warming solutions job to Cathy Zoi 0
Posted 8 months ago
Cathy Zoi, CEO of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) under Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Obama on clean energy future 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
A video about energy efficiency set to M.I.A.‘s ‘Paper Planes’ 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
Exxon redux

The ocean does represent a major source of energy, just not the one you’re thinking of 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
In the minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez poured 10.8 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The spill turned pristine spruce-lined waters into a sticky death trap for countless animals, including a quarter of a million birds.
'Green' lines for 'clean' coal?

We need responsible planning for electrical transmission lines 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of activity surrounding new transmission lines. With hearings and legislation in Washington, D.C. and multi-state transmission corridor projects on the drawing board, there are a lot of questions.
Lessons from the Exxon Valdez

Twenty years after the biggest oil spill in the U.S., we still have a lot to learn 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
Tuesday marks 20 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped nearly 11 million of gallons of crude oil into Alaskan waters, resulting in the most severe impacts on the environment of any spill anywhere. I was there and will attest to the graveness of the situation then, and now -- my memories of that day are graphic. I boarded the tanker a few hours after the spill began to enforce clean-up standards. The pungent, toxic smell of the oil is still fresh in my memory today ...