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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Global gluttony
Green manufacturing could save the economy |
Jon Rynn |
18 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Paul Krugman has been a hero of mine during the long, bleak reign of Bush the Younger, articulating arguments against Bush's philosophy and policies oh these many years. Krugman is one of the leading authorities on international trade, however, and so I was holding my breath, intellectually speaking, waiting to see what would happen when there were global economic troubles. I can exhale, because he's revealed his Panglossian side: our current economic troubles are the ... |
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| Topics: economy (all these topics) |
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Soliciting the House of Saud
Bush and big U.S. banks beg for help from the oil barons |
Tom Philpott |
16 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Bush has been doing some fast talking in the court of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, imploring His Majesty to boost oil production to so that gas prices for U.S. consumers can come down in time for the fall election. As part of his charm offensive, Bush has promised to bolster the dictatorship's arsenal with '900 sophisticated satellite-guided missiles.' He also rattled his tattered saber against Iran, Saudi Arabia's archenemy. While Bush and the King talk bombs, ... |
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| Topics: economy, international politics, energy, oil, politics (all these topics) |
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The elusive green-collar job
With all the upbeat talk about an environmental labor boom, is rhetoric running away from reality? |
Adam Stein |
11 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Someone help me puzzle this out: Proposition 1: A shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency will result in a boom in green-collar jobs -- good service-industry work that can't be outsourced. This proposition is attractive because it holds forth the promise of a grand alliance between greens and the labor movement. See, e.g., Tom Friedman and everyone who posts on Grist. Proposition 2: The optimism over green-collar jobs is a classic example of the make-work bi ... |
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| Topics: climate, economy, energy, energy efficiency, green jobs (all these topics) |
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Miracle grow
Cargill's well-connected fertilizer unit wows Wall Street, dumps on Florida |
Tom Philpott |
11 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| As I wrote last week, the real winners in the ethanol boom aren't corn growers or even ethanol makers (though the latter will do just fine). Rather, it's the companies that make the inputs needed for growing vast quantities of corn. Photo: iStockphoto Monsanto, the world's dominant producer of genetically modified seed traits as well as the No. 1 herbicide maker, demonstrated that principle with its quarterly profit report last week. It harvested quarterly ... |
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| Topics: agriculture, business, economy, industrial ag, politics (all these topics) |
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Investors see opportunity in efficiency and wind
Energy stocks are looking attractive |
Joseph Romm |
10 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following essay is a guest post by Kari Manlove, fellows assistant at the Center for American Progress. ----- CNNmoney.com just released a summary outlook on the solar, wind, biofuel (mainly ethanol), and efficiency industry financial sectors. The two looking most optimistic are wind and efficiency, and thus both sectors are overflowing with opportunity. According to one investment portfolio manager, efficiency investments are reliable and essentially fu ... |
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| Topics: business, economy, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics) |
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Save a tree, hug a Bush
White House to go online with 2009 federal budget |
Kate Sheppard |
10 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| We may never know whether tree-loving or penny-pinching is his primary motivation, but it appears George Bush may finally, actually, maybe be doing something good for the planet: Looking to save $1 million, 20 tons of paper, or close to 500 trees, the White House said today President Bush's 2009 Federal Budget will for the first time be posted online. The E-Budget will be available for downloading at the Office of Management and Budget Web site on Feb. 4. T ... |
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| Topics: economy, politics, waste (all these topics) |
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The key ideas behind Sky Trust
A look at the framing behind the last climate policy proposal |
Guest author |
10 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay by Joe Brewer, a research fellow at the Rockridge Institute. ----- Not long ago, a group of important environmental leaders published an essay on Gristmill -- "Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust" -- about Peter Barnes' Sky Trust proposal. As it happens, Rockridge is about to release an analysis comparing Sky Trust with the Lieberman-Warner bill. We particularly evaluate what we call "cognitive policy," which i ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, economy, politics, international politics (all these topics) |
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The high costs of doing nothing, part I
Spending on adaptation and mitigation now is an investment, spending later is a waste |
Joseph Romm |
09 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. ----- A dirty little secret of climate change is that somebody wants us to pay much higher taxes and higher energy bills. But it's not the advocates of climate action. It's the other guys. Make no mistake: The costs of switching to clean energy and an energy-efficient economy are far less than the costs of doing nothing. A study release ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change adaptation, climate change impacts, climate change mitigation, economy, severe weather (all these topics) |
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WCI and transportation fuels
Why the West should worry about transportation emissions |
Eric de Place |
08 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Well, Clark and I are traveling to Portland for a batch of meetings related to the Western Climate Initiative. On the off chance that you'll miss us, I thought I'd share some of what we're working on with WCI. Our biggest obsession right now is transportation fuels. Namely, we believe it's critically important that transportation fuels be covered by an 'upstream' cap in the first phase of the program. Here's more: Why should the WCI cover transportation fuel ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, economy, energy, politics, public transportation (all these topics) |
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Gnashing my teeth over globalization
Can economic democracy make the global economy more sustainable? |
Jon Rynn |
07 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Worried about more coal plants, carbon emissions from transportation, and a crumbling infrastructure? Evidence provided by several recent reports point to one of the least explored causes of these problems: globalization, that is, the transfer of manufacturing capacity from developed to developing countries, particularly China. The mechanisms differ. The U.S. and Europe, which could manufacture using environmentally benign techniques, instead use old, polluting techn ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, China, climate, coal, economy, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, United States (all these topics) |
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Moving money in the economy
More on climate policy in the Dem debate |
David Roberts |
06 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Responding to some of the comments on Dot Earth: Obama is right that a cap-and-trade program with 100 percent auctioned permits would be the functional equivalent of a carbon tax. Yes that does, in Richardson's rather daft phrase, "take money out of the economy," in the sense that any tax does. Happily, the other half of Obama's plan is to plow the money right back into the economy, reducing the financial hit on the working class, supporting renewable energ ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, economy, elections, Hillary Clinton, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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Bad combo
Cheap coal and $100 oil |
Tom Philpott |
04 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Amid vague talk of how $100/barrel oil might represent a kind of sea change, inspiring corporations and individuals to lower their carbon footprints, the smart money is betting on another direction: the burning of more coal.That's a harrowing trend. As NASA climatologist James Hanson recently put it:Coal will determine whether we continue to increase climate change or slow the human impact ... Increased fossil fuel CO2 in the air today, compared to the pre-industrial at ... |
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| Topics: climate, coal, economy, energy, oil (all these topics) |
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Greening the Export-Import bank
Ex-Im to finance more clean energy exports |
Joseph Romm |
03 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The appropriations omnibus bill just passed through Congress 'recommends that the Export-Import Bank provide 10 percent of its financing capacity to promote the export of clean energy products and services.' This was a recommendation by many groups, including the Center for American Progress: Having supported more than $400 billion dollars of U.S. exports during the past 70 years, the Export-Import Bank is one of the most powerful tools at the U.S. government's ... |
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| Topics: economy, energy, legislation, politics, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Barnes answers questions about the Sky Trust
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David Roberts |
03 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I hope everyone read the essay from Peter Barnes et al that we published last night. If you're interested in the notion of an atmospheric trust, you might also check out Dot Earth today, where Barnes answers questions from readers. |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, economy, international politics, politics (all these topics) |
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One-hundred-dollar oil
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Andrew Dessler |
03 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The Oil Drum had a few comments yesterday on $100 oil: Today, someone in the NYMEX pit session paid $100.00 per barrel for front month crude oil. (Logical for it to happen during a TOD holiday short staff period). Despite the talking head rationale for today's $4 rally, the underlying reasons for the 8 year+ climb in crude are geologic in nature. $100 oil in itself is no big deal -- its 1% higher than $99 oil. But it serves as a milestone reminder that the future i ... |
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| Topics: economy, energy, oil (all these topics) |
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Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust
A system to control climate change and reduce poverty |
Guest author |
02 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay by Peter Barnes of the Tomales Bay Institute, Robert Costanza of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, Paul Hawken of the Natural Capital Institute, David Orr of the Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, Elinor Ostrom of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, Alvaro Umaņa of the InterAmerican Development Bank, and Oran Young of the Donald Bren School of E ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, economy, politics, international politics, cap-and-dividend (all these topics) |
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China, coal, and the U.S. economy
More evidence that we're exporting massive carbon emissions |
Tom Philpott |
02 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last month, President Bush signed into law an energy bill most remarkable for its timidity with regard to climate change. According to sometime Gristmill contributor Peter Montague of Rachel's Democracy & Health News, the 2007 Energy Act will reduce U.S. carbon emissions by just 4.7 percent by 2030 -- clearly not nearly enough to avoid risking dire climate change. (Montague leans on this study (PDF) for his calculation.) Given that we're quietly moving our most c ... |
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| Topics: business, China, coal, economy, energy (all these topics) |
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Notable quotable
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David Roberts |
22 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| 'Current economic growth, 11.5 percent or above 11 percent, is too fast and at too high a cost ... The government should curb economic growth within a reasonable range that is compatible with energy and resource supply and without causing more imbalance.' -- Han Yongwen, secretary general of China's National Development and Reform Commission |
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| Topics: China, economy, quotables (all these topics) |
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The truth everyone knows, but no one says
Is it only OK to talk about limiting population after it's too late? |
JMG |
18 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Sam Smith, inimitable editor of The Progressive Review, perhaps the world's first progressive blog (if you count its days as a print publication), reports that even he finds it difficult to bring up discussions of population. I have experienced something like what Smith talks about, where even mentioning Bartlett (who has been campaigning against exponential population growth for decades) is enough to get you called nasty names by liberals and "anti-life" by church ... |
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| Topics: economy, population (all these topics) |
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'Economic prediction' is an oxymoron
Economists cannot predict the future |
biodiversivist |
17 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| For those of you who have not seen this presentation given at the American Association for the Advancement of Science humor session earlier this year, I highly recommend it. Of all the posts I've seen on the Gristmill on the subject of economics, this one by Sean Casten most closely reflects my views. In this post, Jerry Taylor from the CATO Institute tells us about the worst case scenario from a study done by Dr. Martin Parry, the lead author of the most recent ... |
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| Topics: greenhouse-gas emissions, climate, economy (all these topics) |
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Growing pains
Why ecology explains growth, and economists don't |
Jon Rynn |
14 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Recently there have been a number of discussions concerning economic growth and global warming. Some have argued that the effort to prevent as much global warming as possible will incur unacceptable costs to the global economy in terms of growth. Others have argued that growth is causing global warming. I want to argue that neoclassical economics is badly designed to help with this debate. The two main problems, in my opinion, are that economics does not see the econo ... |
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| Topics: climate, economy (all these topics) |
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Time for some rehab
Agriculture is drunk on corn-based ethanol |
Thomas Dobbs |
14 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Thomas Dobbs is Professor Emeritus of Economics at South Dakota State University, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow. ----- American agriculture is becoming addicted to corn-based ethanol, and the economic and environmental effects of this addiction call for some intervention! The explosive growth in U.S. ethanol production from corn is having worldwide ramifications. December 6 articles in The Economist ('Cheap no more' ... |
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| Topics: legislation, ag subsidies, ag policy, politics, food, economy, ethanol, biofuels, agriculture (all these topics) |
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Australians R Us!
No country in the world is more like the U.S., so where's our national climate-change leader? |
Guest author |
14 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from Mike Tidwell, who is the author, most recently, of The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities. ----- Kevin Rudd. Photo: AP / Rob Griffith Culturally, politically, and spiritually, what country in the world is most like the United States? It's not Canada and it's sure not Great Britain. The answer is Australia. Ask anyone who's been there. It just feels like America th ... |
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| Topics: economy, elections, politics, climate, Australia (all these topics) |
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On science vs. economics
Cato's Jerry Taylor responds to Michael Tobis |
Guest author |
12 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The following post is by Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. It is a reply to a post by Michael Tobis entitled 'Should economics rule?'----- "Should Economics Rule?" Well, I take it that Michael means to suggest that someone out there -- in this case, me -- would contend that economic analysis should dictate climate policy. I do not hold that opinion. For a brief defense of my position, see my post on the matter at the Ca ... |
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| Topics: climate, economy, scientific research (all these topics) |
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CNBC energy bill debate with Dan Weiss
The economic benefits of going green |
Joseph Romm |
12 Dec 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Earlier this week, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, Dan Weiss, went on CNBC to discuss 'the economic benefits of going green' as it relates to the energy bill currently in Congress. Weiss, a strong advocate of the clean energy provisions, went head to head with Max Schultz of the Manhattan Institute, whose sole platform was costs. The unjustifiably controversial renewable portfolio standard was the heart of the ... |
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| Topics: renewable energy, energy, climate, legislation, politics, economy, energy efficiency (all these topics) |
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