Grist | Topics | 189 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 189
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Californication California plans to cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020	Joseph Romm	26 Jun 2008	Gristmill
How do you return greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 while promoting jobs, competitiveness, and public health? Conservatives in the U.S. Senate think it can't be done. California knows it can. The Air Resources Board has just published their 'Scoping Plan.' How do they cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020? Efficiency, efficiency, renewables, renewables, and even some conservation: Given that the single biggest source of Califo ...
Topics: California, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Climate change ideas for On Day One Day four of the UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration	Ideas for On Day One	26 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration rolls on today with a discussion prompt submitted by On Day One user teiki: A key to the massive use of fossil fuels in the U.S. is gross overconsumption. We use way more than necessary, through a combined dependence on the automobile and an infatuation with big, gas-hungry cars, trucks and SUVs., through wasted energy consumption in our homes and offices in everything from their construction to ...
Topics: climate, energy, energy efficiency, green building, green living (all these topics)

No McCain, no gain GOP candidate calls for energy efficiency in a California speech	Kate Sheppard	24 Jun 2008	Gristmill
John McCain gave yet another address on energy and environmental issues today (the third in the past week, if you're counting), this one focused on energy efficiency, which he says should begin at home with the federal government. 'Energy efficiency is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue,' he told a crowd gathered at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California on Tuesday morning, echoing language from his June 17 energy speech. 'A sm ...
Topics: elections, energy, energy efficiency, John McCain, Muckraker, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

A Stirling idea Development in waste-heat-to-electricity technology	Erik Hoffner	24 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Here's a 200 year old idea with merit: A Stirling engine, modified to capture the waste heat of industrial processes to make electricity. Gar noted Stirling Energy Systems' efforts in this vein to make electricity from solar thermal collectors using a Stirling engine a year ago, but instead of the sun, a startup in my neighborhood, ReGen, is developing a Stirling that will specialize in using the low to moderate heat generated by landfill gas systems, paper mills, stee ...
Topics: cogeneration, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy (all these topics)

Refrigeration without electricity	David Roberts	24 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Here's Adam Grossner's brief TED talk, on his effort to create a refrigerator that doesn't use electricity: (thanks LL!)
Topics: brilliance, energy, energy efficiency, health (all these topics)

The politics of clean energy Considering recycled energy will politically facilitate a national clean energy plan	Sean Casten	18 Jun 2008	Gristmill
There is a tendency to frame the politics of clean energy as a debate between the enlightened, forward thinkers on the coasts and the paleolithic environment-hating coal barons in the Southeast and Midwest. It makes a good sound bite, but confuses the ends and the means. Yes, there are strong vested interests in the coal belt and the rust belt that consistently resist GHG caps and clean energy policy. But so long as we frame the clean energy conversation as a wealth t ...
Topics: business, energy, energy efficiency, fuel efficiency, legislation, state politics (all these topics)

More on the cost of GHG regulation Short-term high gas prices (hopefully) mitigate long-term environmental disasters	Andrew Dessler	18 Jun 2008	Gristmill
I have been reading Sean Casten's post on the economics of carbon pricing with interest. After some thought, here's my take. A carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system will, without question, raise the price of energy, at least in the short term. In the long-term, it may well be that technological developments lead us to new energy sources that turn out to be cheaper than anything we have today. But that's pure speculation. But in the short term, the costs of a c ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, energy efficiency, gas prices (all these topics)

It's not about the fuel The case for fuel-agnostic efficiency	Sean Casten	17 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Those of us who care about energy and environmental policy have a bad habit: the lazy but rhetorically convenient tendency to refer to energy issues as if they were fuel issues. From solar to coal to uranium, we have developed a shorthand that uses these words to describe a whole fuel-chain, from raw fuel extraction/recovery to end-use consumption. But the language is dangerous. What matters is efficiency -- true, fuel-agnostic efficiency, applied equally to every pos ...
Topics: business, energy, energy efficiency, fuel efficiency, legislation (all these topics)

Elder care for the long emergency Cool housing for oldsters	JMG	03 Jun 2008	Gristmill
People who think about how we're going to adapt to lower-energy living arrangements often miss that the U.S. continues to gray rapidly. Given that we've had almost sixty years of radical suburbanization and cross-country relocation, sundering the extended family networks that once provided child and elder care, we're in a pickle when it comes to figuring out how to care for elders.Here's an encouraging story about a new facility that really seems to get it. My question is why we ...
Topics: energy, energy at home, energy efficiency (all these topics)

Rebuklear The latest sorties in the war over nuclear power	David Roberts	01 Jun 2008	Gristmill
There have been several good entries in the never-ending nuclear debate lately. I'm pulling several together into one post, so all the vicious arguing can center in one comment thread. Fun! In a long, detailed, and devastating cover story in The Nation, Christian Parenti asks, 'What Nuclear Renaissance?' Peeling away the hype and PR, he discovers that there's much less than meets the eye: This much seems clear: a handful of firms might soak up huge federal subsidi ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency, lying liars, nuclear power, renewable energy (all these topics)

Recycled Energy on NPR Castens implement Phase II of global domination plan	David Roberts	22 May 2008	Gristmill
On my morning commute, I always listen to music. Maybe two or three times in the last couple of years, I've listened to NPR instead, but it's rare. This morning, though, on a whim, I flipped over to hear if there was any primary news. And what is literally the very first thing I hear? "One Chicago entrepreneur thinks this waste energy can be captured to reduce costs and lower greenhouse gases." Hey, that sounds familiar! Yup, it's Tom Casten, father of our ...
Topics: business, energy, energy efficiency, greenish companies (all these topics)

Something everyone can be the Saudi Arabia of ACEEE on the carbon-free energy source no one talks about	David Roberts	19 May 2008	Gristmill
What if there were a source of carbon-free energy that in a single year in the U.S. drew $300 billion in private investment, supported 1.6 million jobs, and generated 1.7 quads of energy, roughly equivalent to the total energy required to run 40 mid-sized coal plants? We would drill anywhere, dig up anything, go to war with anyone for that kind of energy, right? But the source is efficiency, so we don't much talk about it, we don't make it a central focus of ener ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency (all these topics)

Life after coal We can't wait for new nukes, so what do we do now?	Joseph Romm	09 May 2008	Gristmill
Suppose the leaders of this country were wise enough to put a moratorium on traditional coal (the most urgent climate policy needed, as discussed here)? How will we meet our steadily growing demand for carbon-free power over the next decade? And to get on the 450 ppm path, we don't just need to stop U.S. emissions from rising -- we should return to 1990 levels (or lower) by 2020. Nuclear Nuclear is an obvious possibility, beloved of conservative Francophiles like McC ...
Topics: coal, energy, energy efficiency, nuclear power, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics)

Impossible emission force Emission prices don't reduce consumption sufficiently	Gar Lipow	01 May 2008	Gristmill
Recently, I pointed out that emission prices do in fact get passed along to consumers. However, it's important to add that making low carbon alternatives cheaper won't by itself ensure that they are adopted. My online book Cooling It! No Hair Shirt Solutions to Global Warming documents numerous profitable-but-overlooked energy-saving alternatives. Numerous other people have pointed out the same thing. The Rocky Mountain Institute produces megabytes of examples. Economi ...
Topics: climate, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Another way of 'picking winners' Output-based carbon regulations ignore critical types of efficiency	Gar Lipow	30 Apr 2008	Gristmill
'Output-based standards' are getting credit around here as a politically impractical but sensible proposal. David described them as 'relentlessly efficient.' I'm sure relentless efficiency was the intent, but in fact it is very much a way of picking winners, of rewarding one particular type of efficiency at expense of others. The idea is that within industries, a standard will be set for maximum emissions per useful BTU delivered. So if you are heating tomatoes as part ...
Topics: climate, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

New bulb on the block Spendy mercury-free LED bulb supposedly lasts 50,000 hours	JMG	24 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Somewhere, in school or on the job, every engineer learns about tradeoffs -- that there is no free lunch, and that, once a design is at all reasonable, gains in one dimension come at the cost of compromises in others. The shorthand statement of this is the pithy evergreen in design classes: 'Good, fast, and cheap. Pick two!' There's a new bulb out: a 13-watt LED array bulb with an integral diffuser, so you don't see the annoying space-craft look of little tiny rows of LE ...
Topics: energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green living, green products (all these topics)

How cool is your county? Counties lead on global warming as federal feuding continues	Josh Dorner	23 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Here in D.C., we're deadlocked (thanks largely to Republicans beholden to Big Oil) over no-brainers like taking back $13.5 billion in giveaways to Big Oil in order to fund the extension of key clean energy tax incentives and forestall a crash in the renewable energy industry. Meanwhile, cities, states, and counties continue to take the lead in putting in place the kind of progressive, innovative policy solutions that we can only dream of at the federal level for the t ...
Topics: energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, local politics, politics, Sierra Club (all these topics)

Generate energy locally; recycle whenever possible A Pollan-esque energy objective in six words ... and then some	Sean Casten	23 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Perhaps the single most important thing we can do to drive up our energy efficiency, lower energy costs, and bolster the overall reliability of our energy infrastructure is to overhaul our electric sector's regulatory model to move generation away from big, remote plants and toward local generation. From solar to CHP, we have a panoply of technologies, fuels, and companies who would participate in such a shift. Less understood is that our regulatory model creates o ...
Topics: electricity grid, energy, energy efficiency, placemaking, urban planning (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)

Don't Spray It On long, hot showers	Umbra Fisk	02 Apr 2008	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, The biggest waster of energy in our house right now is our 15-year-old daughter, whose never-ending daily showers must surely be responsible for warming the planet another half-degree. No matter how loudly we bang on the bathroom door and scream for her to stop, she showers on -- 20, 30 minutes at a time. And yes, we have a low-flow showerhead and our water heater is set to 120 degrees. Is there any kind of device -- one t ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, green living, parenting, water conflicts (all these topics)

The Fine Print Software calculates eco-impact of printers and copiers		26 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 4:54 PM on 26 Mar 2008 Xerox is offering a new software calculator to help companies reduce the energy suckage of printers, copiers, and other newfangled technology. The calculator will consider factors including type of print cartridge, print color, speed, number of pages printed per month, and Energy Star rating, then create bar graphs demonstrating energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and solid waste produced fr ...
Topics: business, energy, energy efficiency, greening biz operations, news, tech (all these topics)

Sachs gets it wrong Since when is regulation optimal?	Sean Casten	25 Mar 2008	Gristmill
I like Jeffrey Sachs, and I generally agree with what he has to say about poverty, health, and the obligations of the rich to look after the poor. But he gets it dead wrong in the current Scientific American: Even with a cutback in wasteful energy spending, our current technologies cannot support both a decline in carbon dioxide emissions and an expanding global economy. Says who? Why can't we find ways to dramatically lower our primary energy use per dollar of GD ...
Topics: coal, economy, energy, energy efficiency, fossil fuels, natural gas, oil (all these topics)

Doing the math Are solar incentives a subsidy for the rich?	Guest author	12 Mar 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Tom Konrad, a financial analyst specializing in renewable energy and energy efficiency companies, a freelance writer, and a contributor to AltEnergyStocks.com. ----- One of the most common arguments against incentives to help people buy solar panels for their homes is that they are a subsidy for the rich, paid for by everyone. The argument is that only the rich can buy a photovoltaic system, which, even with subsidies, costs thousa ...
Topics: energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

Yet another perk of energy-efficient buildings Car plant cuts energy costs $627,000 with two-month payback -- with DOE help	Joseph Romm	09 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Economic models greatly overestimate the cost of carbon mitigation, in large part because economists simply don't believe (and hence don't model) that the economy has lots of high-return energy efficiency opportunities. In their theory, the economy is always operating near efficiency. Reality is very different than economic models. I have never visited a factory or commercial buildings that didn't have huge energy-saving opportunities, many of which also increase ...
Topics: business, cars, Department of Energy, economy, energy, energy efficiency (all these topics)

Introducing the Lawnba Solar-powered lawnmower cuts grass unsupervised	Sarah van Schagen	07 Mar 2008	Gristmill
OK, it's not really called a Lawnba. But it's still cool: The zero-emissions Husqvarna Automower Solar Hybrid is the world's first solar/electric hybrid robot lawnmower. ... The lawnmower uses the same amount of energy as a standard light bulb and is made from 90 percent recyclable materials. ... The mower cuts the grass with small blades in an irregular pattern, leaving a fine mulch that does not need raking and acts as fertiliser for the lawn ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency, gardening, green living, green products, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

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