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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Is Obama's climate plan missing something?
The Washington Post lamely attacks Obama's climate ideas |
Joseph Romm |
27 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby, in an absurdly titled column, 'Obama's Missing Ideas,' proves once again that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Obama's ideas about climate solutions are probably the very last place one can find something missing. Obama has a terrific climate plan, full of winning ideas, as I have blogged many times. Yet Mallaby claims that 'good ideas are actually quite scarce. Just take a look at climate change.' Mallaby's 'case' is based ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, climate, elections, energy, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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A new marketplace for trading GHG permits
A chat with Philip V. Adams of the World Green Exchange auction system |
Mark Pawlosky |
26 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last week, World Energy Exchange, an online energy trading platform, officially launched a new marketplace for renewable-energy certificates and greenhouse-gas permits. The World Green Exchange employs an auction system -- think eBay -- to bring buyers and sellers together. In theory, auctions create a more transparent marketplace and drive out cost inefficiencies by directly connecting the buyer and seller and removing the middleman. Philip V. Adams. ... |
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| Topics: business, carbon trading, climate, energy (all these topics) |
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NBC on ABEC
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David Roberts |
25 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Via ThinkProgress comes this segment on NBC Nightly News: Obviously I am totally unable to judge these things with any sort of objectivity. All I see is a huge, wealthy, politically connected industry using propaganda techniques to push a dirty facility on a community that is so poor and desperate that it's willing to sell its children's health for a short-term economic boost. Naturally NBC's not going to say that. Still, they do a fairly decent job putting the re ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, coal, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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Wasting time
A safety valve in Lieberman-Warner is senseless |
Joseph Romm |
23 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I see no point whatsoever in passing a climate bill this year that includes a safety valve. I have blogged on this before, but it bears repeating as we appear to be getting to the endgame negotiations in the Senate on the Lieberman-Warner bill. Bottom line: If you want to get a 60% to 80% greenhouse gas cut in four decades, you just can't waste time with safety valves. We need to get to a price of $30 to $40 a ton for carbon dioxide as soon as possible -- and if ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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Lutz strikes back
GM exec defends calling climate change a 'crock of shit' |
David Roberts |
22 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A couple weeks back, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, at a roundtable with reporters, casually mentioned that he thinks global warming is a "crock of shit." (His point was that it makes sense to develop an all-electric vehicle either way.) Lots and lots of people, mainly bloggers, got in a huge uproar about it. Yesterday, Lutz wrote a defiant post on GM's blog addressing the controversy. His point is that it doesn't matter a bit what his personal beliefs are; wha ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, climate change skepticism, electric vehicles, energy (all these topics) |
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Tasty hatin'
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David Roberts |
22 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| All you Lieberman-Warner haters will not want to miss David Sassoon's "The 10 Dominoes Toppling Lieberman-Warner." |
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| Topics: climate, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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It's the economics, stupid
How to make the case against coal |
Sean Casten |
22 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Synapse Energy Economics has recently put together a report for NRDC that ought to be required reading for anyone who objects to dirty or expensive power (e.g., coal-fired, central station power). The report, entitled 'The Risks of Participating in the AMPGS Coal Plant' (PDF), is ostensibly only about a specific 960MW plant that AMP wants to build in Ohio. But their report speaks volumes about the larger economic and environmental challenges to coal-fired central station ... |
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| Topics: climate, coal, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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McCain vs. Hillary vs. Obama vs. Bingaman, Bernie, and Boxer
What makes a good climate change plan? |
Adam Stein |
21 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| 'Tis the season for climate plan meta-analysis. I get asked a lot about the presidential candidates' environmental bona fides, which has led me to put together the following long, dense, and absolutely riveting primer on what to look for in a good climate change plan. These principles apply to cap-and-trade style programs, because that's what all the presidential candidates are proposing. 1. Go deep The 'cap' part of cap-and-trade refers to the emissions level manda ... |
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| Topics: climate, elections, energy, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: British Columbia, California, Canada, carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: carbon sequestration, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, oil (all these topics) |
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Making lemonade out of lemons ... out of lemonade
Scientists suggest transforming atmospheric CO2 into gasoline |
Tia Ghose |
20 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| An article published in The New York Times today describes a proposal to use carbon in the atmosphere to make gasoline. The principle itself is quite simple -- similar ideas have been proposed before. According to the article: Air would be blown over a liquid solution of potassium carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide would then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would turn it into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel. T ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, nuclear power (all these topics) |
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Presidential campaign footprints under scrutiny
Confused Washington Times disses McCain and Obama on lack of carbon offsets |
Joseph Romm |
20 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In a bizarre twist, the conservative Washington Times, which would normally be critical of fuzzy environmental strategies like carbon offsets, is actually attacking the candidates for not offsetting all their campaign emissions. Opening with an absurd headline, 'Green crusades lot of talk,' the Times writes: Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have called for strict mandatory limits to control greenhouse gases but they aren't leading by example -- each has failed ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, carbon offsets, climate, elections, energy, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, fossil fuels, oil (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: California, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental justice (all these topics) |
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Weasel of the week
Tim Kaine burns national ambitions in coal furnace |
Glenn Hurowitz |
19 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Virginia's Democratic governor Tim Kaine, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee, seems to be flushing his ambitions for national office down the toilet by actively working to build yet another coal-fired power plant for one of his biggest campaign donors. Tim Kaine. Photo: virginia.gov Kaine has tried to present himself as a green, forward-thinking governor by proposing a 'Virginia Energy Plan' he claimed would reduce greenhouse-gas emis ... |
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| Topics: climate, coal, elections, energy, politics, presidential race 08, Virginia (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, politics (all these topics) |
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ILSR, spinning like a top
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JMG |
19 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is really, really sad. A group, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has done stalwart work on relocalizing the economy, has let their pro-local passion overcome their principles. Now they simply embarass themselves, beating the drums for corn ethanol, using flackery techniques that would do any corporate PR shop proud. Let's start in: New Anti-Ethanol Studies Reach Wrong Conclusion on Greenhouse Gases Wow, quite a headline, about not one but two studie ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, biofuels, climate, energy, ethanol (all these topics) |
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The subsidy tease, part III
A solar grand plan |
Joseph Romm |
15 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. ----- A recent issue of Scientific American featured a 'Solar Grand Plan.' Its authors described a way for the United States to obtain nearly 100 percent of its electricity and 90 percent of its total energy, including transportation, from solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal resources by end-of-century. Electricity would cost a comfortable 5 cen ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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John McCain and climate change
How strong is McCain's commitment to fighting global warming? |
David Roberts |
15 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following post was first published on Passing Through, The Nation's guest blog, where I will be posting all month. Though recession and war are probably higher on the public's immediate priority list, there is no challenge of greater historical consequence facing the next U.S. president than the climate crisis. It is vitally important that the next chief executive enter the Oval Office committed to decisive and sustained action. He or she will need a firm g ... |
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| Topics: climate, elections, energy, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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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' ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, elections, energy, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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The subsidy tease, part II
Renewable energy incentives were stripped from the energy bill; what should be done next? |
Joseph Romm |
14 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. ----- The energy bill passed by Congress last December originally contained a beneficial, if temporary, set of financial incentives to spur the growth of renewable energy technologies in the United States. The bill included a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) that would require states to acquire part of their electric power from r ... |
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| Topics: climate, economy, energy, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Why a climate bill in 2008? Part II
Delay makes environmental catastrophe more likely |
Tony Kreindler |
14 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is the second in a series; the first is here. We've covered two reasons Environmental Defense is pushing for passage of climate legislation in 2008 -- the politics will be very much the same in 2009, and we don't want to gamble away a good bill on the chance of a perfect one someday. Today I'll look at a third reason: The price of waiting, even a year or two, is simply too high. Carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they've been in 6 ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental movement, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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Solutions
When 'hand wringing' isn't enough |
Adam Browning |
13 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| If you are worried about Lake Mead drying up, think that reduced snowpack due to climate change might have something to do with it, and are looking for some answers, you could do a lot worse than listen to David Berry of the Western Resource Advocates. I always do, and he's never steered me wrong. See his timely 'Clean Electric Energy Strategy for Arizona' (PDF). |
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| Topics: Arizona, climate, energy, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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The subsidy tease, part I
Congress needs to stop flirting with the renewable energy industry |
Joseph Romm |
13 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. ----- When it comes to relationships, Congress is a big tease. Or so it must seem to the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries. Just when they think they're about to go to the altar with the federal government, Congress becomes the runaway bride. Everyone who's anyone acknowledges that energy efficiency and renewable energy a ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, energy, innovation, legislation, politics, renewable energy, tech (all these topics) |
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