Grist | Topics | 142 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 142
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
You say you want a revolution ... 'Major discovery' from MIT unpractical, and ignores present advances in solar baseload	Joseph Romm	04 Aug 2008	Gristmill
I have gotten bombarded by too many people asking me if the story headlined above is true. It isn't. Not even close. Science magazine, which published the supposedly 'major discovery' by MIT's Daniel Nocera, headlined their story, 'New Catalyst Marks Major Step in the March Toward Hydrogen Fuel' ($ub. req'd). Doh! But who needs a major step towards hydrogen? And Science seems to be having problems with the laws of physics, as we'll see. I thought I had expla ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, hydrogen, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Efficiency first! Part two The urgency to begin CO2 reduction via efficiency	Guest author	29 Jul 2008	Gristmill
This is a guest post by Ned Ford, Energy Chair of the Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club and a member of the Club's national Global Warming and Energy Committee. Ford has been actively promoting electric utility efficiency strategies since 1983. This is the second in a series (first here). ----- If what you want to do is solve global warming, the core strategy is energy efficiency. Efficiency may have displaced more than half of all the new growth in electr ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Gore's plan is more than 100 percent feasible We can do more than he calls for, but I would settle for Gore's objective	Gar Lipow	21 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Everyone is talking about Gore's proposal to decarbonize electricity over the course of 10 years. Without considering transmission and storage losses, Gore's estimate of $1.5 to 3 trillion would require capital costs of under 37 to 74 cents per annual kWh. Taking those losses into consideration, cost would have to be more in the 28 to 56 cents per kWh range. (Note again these are not cost per watt of capacity. These are costs per annual kWh. They are levelized cos ...
Topics: Al Gore, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, renewable energy (all these topics)

Conservatives and climate change, continued A carbon policy is likely to be less devastating than nature, or oil markets	Ryan Avent	08 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Reihan responds. Let me just say a few more things. First, I described his characterization of carbon pricing as 'insane' based on this: What we need is a $100 billion prize or set of prizes to the person or firm or non-profit entity that can devise a cost-effective means of scrubbing the atmosphere of carbon emissions. This sounds insane, I realize. It is less insane than the far costlier, far less egalitarian regulatory alternative. Just to clarify. Next, Reiha ...
Topics: carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, gas prices, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

We Spend That Before Breakfast Mere $45 trillion needed to tackle climate change, says IEA		06 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 1:26 PM on 06 Jun 2008 A G8-backed goal to halve greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 would take a global clean-technology investment of merely $45 trillion, the International Energy Agency said in a report Friday. That's about 1.1 percent of the world's average annual gross domestic product through 2050; more overwhelmingly, it's also about three times the size of the current U.S. economy. To meet ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, G8, news (all these topics)

Who is being misleading? A Post columnist's defenders can't salvage his poor cap-and-trade logic	Ryan Avent	04 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Tyler Cowen weighs in on the cap-and-trade debate. He focuses on my criticism of Samuelson's seeming failure to understand the relationship between cap-and-trade and a carbon tax: But Samuelson is correct here and Avent is misleading. When there is uncertainty about the location of the social optimum, and uncertainty about elasticities, a carbon tax and cap-and-trade are by no means equivalent. If you see very high costs from setting the binding cap too l ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, messaging (all these topics)

Nukes of hazard The self-limiting future of nuclear power, Part I	Joseph Romm	02 Jun 2008	Gristmill
My analysis on nuclear power for the Center for American Progress Action Fund is finally finished and online. I think you will find it useful because it has many links to primary sources and tries to avoid the typical discussions by nuclear proponents and opponents, focusing instead on the rapidly escalating cost of nuclear power. My point in this paper is not to say nuclear power will play no role in the fight to stay below 450 ppm of atmospheric CO2 concentrations ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, nuclear power (all these topics)

Energy outage Senate Energy Committee members wring their hands about the cost of climate action	Kate Sheppard	20 May 2008	Gristmill
The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee held a hearing this morning on the economic effects of global climate change legislation, and as expected, it was largely devoted to stoking fears about the potential costs of meaningful action. 'On the extremes, models have been used to show that legislation will have massive disruptions to the economy and cause widespread unemployment,' Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said in his opening remarks. 'They hav ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics (all these topics)

Our tails get in the way The problems and principles of energy descent	Sharon Astyk	15 May 2008	Gristmill
'How did you get there, Roo?' asked Piglet. 'On Tigger's back! �And Tiggers can't climb downwards, because their tails get in the way, only upwards, and Tigger forgot about that when we started, and he's only just remembered. �So we've got to stay here for ever and ever -- unless we go higher. �What did you say, Tigger? �Oh, Tigger says if we go higher we shan't be able to see Piglet's house so well, so we're going to stop here.' -- A.A. Milne, 'The House At Pooh Corn ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, climate science, energy, fossil fuels (all these topics)

Details matter: Winner-picking and social engineering Lieberman Warner criticism, Part 3	Sean Casten	29 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is the third in a five-part series exploring the details of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. See also part 1 and part 2. Let's do a thought experiment. Imagine that tomorrow morning, you wake up, reach in your pocket, and find that you suddenly have billions of dollars of cash. Before you have a moment to celebrate, you also realize that you are lying in the middle of an interstate, and there is a big truck coming. What do you do? (a) Issue an RFP ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Details matter: Small sticks and no carrots Lieberman-Warner criticism, Part 2	Sean Casten	25 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is the second in a five-part series exploring the details of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. See part 1 here. With atmospheric GHG concentrations rising at a frightening rate, we need a full court press to change directions, using every possible tool at our disposal. From an economic perspective, this means that we not only need to impose financial penalties on polluters, but also provide financial incentives for those who act to lower GHG emissions. ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Is 450 ppm (or less) politically possible? Part 2 The 14 wedges needed to stabilize emissions	Joseph Romm	23 Apr 2008	Gristmill
In this post I will lay out 'the solution' to global warming, focusing primarily on the 14 'stabilization wedges.' Part 1 argued that stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at 450 ppm is not politically possible today, but that it is certainly achievable from an economic and technological perspective. It would require some 14 of Princeton's 'stabilization wedges' -- strategies and/or technologies that over a period of a few decades each reduce glo ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy (all these topics)

Sneak peek at Time's cover story Mag's green issue exalts cap-and-trade	Joseph Romm	17 Apr 2008	Gristmill
I now seem to be on some media distribution list to gin up early PR. Green publicists of the world, bring it on! Here are links to key stories (plus some summaries, from Time): This Week's Cover Features a Green Border -- Only the Second Issue in TIME's 85-Year History Without the Trademarked Red Border (New York, April 17, 2008) -- In this week's issue, TIME managing editor Richard Stengel writes in his Letter to Readers, 'This is our latest environment ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, international politics, magazines, politics (all these topics)

'Bombshell'? Really? RPJr.'s latest achievement in getting huge news coverage for saying very little	David Roberts	03 Apr 2008	Gristmill
I don't want to get too far into the kerfuffle over the Nature commentary from Pielke Jr. et al. Just a few quick and I guess fairly cynical thoughts: The trend toward "spontaneous" technology development and efficiency has been going on for centuries, only to pause during the last few years thanks to a burst of new dirty coal plants in the developing world. The whole commentary is premised on the idea that this is the new norm -- that "spontaneous&quo ...
Topics: climate, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, energy, energy efficiency, tech (all these topics)

Breaking the U.S.-China suicide pact William Chandler's recommendations on how we can cooperate to lower emissions	Joseph Romm	28 Mar 2008	Gristmill
William Chandler, director of the Carnegie Energy and Climate Program, has borrowed my phrase for the title of his new study: 'Breaking the Suicide Pact: U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change.' It begins: Together, China and the United States produce 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Their actions to curb or expand energy consumption will determine whether efforts to stop global climate change succeed or fail. If these two nations act to curb emissions, ...
Topics: China, climate, climate change mitigation, economy, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, international politics, United States (all these topics)

What's wrong with the WCI? The Western Climate Initiative's first proposal ducks biggest climate problem	Eric de Place	07 Mar 2008	Gristmill
The Western Climate Initiative is a path-breaking effort. Insufficient federal progress prompted seven states and two provinces to join together to reduce climate pollution by means of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program. It's a momentous opportunity, and many folks have been working hard to ensure that it's a success. Unfortunately, there's now cause for serious concern. Yesterday evening, WCI released its draft proposal (PDF). It proposes an initial cap that ...
Topics: Big Oil, business, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, legislation, Oregon, Washington (all these topics)

Adventures in carbon pricing California continues to innovate on the climate front, but still gets smoked by perky B.C.	Adam Stein	21 Feb 2008	Gristmill
A national carbon tax in the U.S. appears increasingly unlikely, but all sorts of interesting experiments in emissions pricing are underway regionally. First: the California Assembly this week votes on the California Clean Car Discount Act, a 'feebate' system that imposes a direct charge on sales of gas guzzlers and uses the funds to reward buyers of fuel sippers. The way it works it pretty simple. If you buy a Chevy Tahoe, you'll have to pony up a $2,500 fee, which wi ...
Topics: British Columbia, California, Canada, carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics)

Turning CO2 into gasoline A new way to waste energy	Joseph Romm	21 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Last week, the NYT's Andy Revkin blogged about a federal laboratory that says it can take atmospheric carbon dioxide and turn it into gasoline: One selling point with Los Alamos's 'Green Freedom' concept, and similar ones, is that reusing the carbon atoms in the captured CO2 molecules as a fuel ingredient avoids the need to find huge repositories for the greenhouse gas. The only problem with that exciting statement is that it is almost certainly not true, a ...
Topics: carbon sequestration, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, oil (all these topics)

Taking charge of energy prices Our chance to escape the tightening fossil-fuel vise	Alan Durning	20 Feb 2008	Gristmill
With or without climate policies, energy prices seem set to rise. The question is, Who will get the money? Auctioned cap-and-trade gives us the opportunity to take charge of price increases and share the benefits widely -- even while we safeguard the climate and stimulate local jobs. Big chances like this don't come along often! To see what a golden opportunity this is, we've got to briefly review recent fossil-fuel price increases. Energy prices have been risin ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, fossil fuels, oil (all these topics)

Hell, no, we won't, um, participate in a pollution permit trading system! Cali EJ groups reject cap-and-trade in strong terms	David Roberts	20 Feb 2008	Gristmill
A big coalition of environmental justice groups in California just came out with a strong statement opposing a cap-and-trade system and urging "fees" (i.e., taxes) instead. (Here's L.A. Times' coverage.) Their points are fairly familiar. Most of the opposition seems to be based on the well-documented failures of the European trading system -- which, as far as I know, every U.S. legislator is aware of. There's also something about the revenue from auction not ...
Topics: California, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental justice (all these topics)

Tax-and-rebate vs. auction-and-rebate The major differences between carbon pricing plans are political	Gar Lipow	19 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Putting a price on carbon is probably an unavoidable part of phasing out fossil fuels to fight global warming and air pollution. For years, Peter Barnes has advocated a brilliant means of mitigating many of the harmful economic side effects: take the revenue from carbon taxes or auctions and rebate it back to the people, dividing it equally among each citizen. Barnes advocates doing this via an auctioned permit system. However,the same thing could be done with a car ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, politics (all these topics)

A compulsive ... nontruth-teller John McCain avoids using the word 'mandatory' when discussing cap-and-trade	Joseph Romm	14 Feb 2008	Gristmill
When will the media stop calling McCain a straight-talker and realize he is a pathological doubletalker? I realize the 'L' word is frowned upon in politics, so instead of using that word, which, in any case, doesn't do justice to the full range of doubletalk in the political arena -- let's just imagine there is an agreed-upon objective scale from 1 to 10 of veracity (with 5 being half-true) that goes something like this: (10) Fred Thompson, December 2007: 'I' ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, elections, energy, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

Get it right the first time Carl Pope of the Sierra Club lays out a blueprint for an effective climate bill	Guest author	14 Feb 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. ----- There are moments when a choice of pathways shapes the future -- and makes success either feasible or impossible. In light of the fact that all of the remaining leading presidential candidates call for some kind of action on global warming, and the Lieberman-Warner bill is already working its way through the Senate, almost everyone recognizes that sometime in the n ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental movement, legislation, politics (all these topics)

A post-energy-bill agenda Twelve simple things green groups can do about climate change	Ken Ward	12 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Hey, environmentalists! You passed the energy bill -- what're you gonna do now? Here are 12 things that could be undertaken with present resources: 1. Use The Flood Threat. Our climate story should be about the civilization-busting and mass extinction threat of Greenland and Antarctic ice-shelf break-up and rapid sea-level rise. This simple and honest story is far more powerful than the shifting laundry list of climate impacts we now put forward. The fatal flaw ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics)

Cap-and-trade and fairness for working families A second opportunity to make climate pricing fair	Alan Durning	07 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Climate policy offers an enormous opportunity not only to undo our fossil-fuel addiction and build a stable energy future, but also to reverse the natural unfairness of climate change itself. I've said it before: energy prices are going up no matter what, with or without climate policy. But smart policy can turn rising costs into broadly shared benefits. It can shield working families, fund a shift to a clean future of new technologies, compact communities, and a tr ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics (all these topics)

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