Public policy « The Cost of Energy

EU and the airline carbon tax

By Lou, on February 19th, 2012%

Sometimes I think the sole purpose of humanity is to fill the universe with stupid arguments.

The latest phenomenon to bring that particularly absurd image to mind is the growing slap fight over the EU’s attempt to impose a carbon tax on all flights beginning or ending there.

Countries Consider Retaliation for Europe’s Airline Emissions Fee:

China, the United . . . → Read More: EU and the airline carbon tax

Age of US light vehicles

By Lou, on February 18th, 2012%

Vehicle Technologies Program: Fact #715: February 20, 2012 The Average Age of Light Vehicles Continues to Rise:

The average age for cars and light trucks continues to rise as consumers hold onto their vehicles longer. Between 1995 and 2011, the average age for cars increased by 32% from 8.4 years to 11.1 years. For light trucks, the . . . → Read More: Age of US light vehicles

Doc alert: Greenhouse gases and low-carbon electricity

By Lou, on February 16th, 2012%

Greenhouse gases, climate change and the transition from coal to low-carbon electricity (emphasis added):

Letter

A transition from the global system of coal-based electricity generation to low-greenhouse-gas-emission energy technologies is required to mitigate climate change in the long term. The use of current infrastructure to build this new low-emission system necessitates additional emissions of greenhouse gases, and the . . . → Read More: Doc alert: Greenhouse gases and low-carbon electricity

Americans have no sense of urgency about global warming

By Lou, on January 24th, 2012%

Pew survey finds US public ranks economy as highest priority policy issue, global warming as lowest:

The US public is giving the highest priority to economic issues, according to the findings of the Pew Research Center For The People & The Press January 2012 Political Survey. 86% say that strengthening the economy should be a top priority . . . → Read More: Americans have no sense of urgency about global warming

Keystone XL is a lesson waiting to be learned

By Lou, on January 18th, 2012%

If you’re at all plugged into the enviro news via Twitter, RSS feeds, or even blogs (how quaint!), you probably know that the hot news is that President Obama is set to reject the application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. As with almost anything that’s triggered this much emotion and clash of wills (or . . . → Read More: Keystone XL is a lesson waiting to be learned

A shortcut to restraining climate change?

By Lou, on January 13th, 2012%

My RSS news feeds are simply bursting at the seams with the news that scientists have figured out that by concentrating on non-CO2 greenhouse-effect emissions we can get a pretty big and speedy bang for the buck. Can we slow down the victory parade for just a moment and think about this?

A pretty representative article . . . → Read More: A shortcut to restraining climate change?

Yet another battery breakthrough

By Lou, on January 7th, 2012%

If you could wave your handy dandy magic wand and create a single technological breakthrough that would make a huge impact on our intertwined climate and energy challenges, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something better than a killer battery. Find a way to make a battery pack that greatly exceeds the range . . . → Read More: Yet another battery breakthrough

Scrubbing CO2

By Lou, on January 6th, 2012%

If you’re itching for a new example of, “this sounds great, but…”, then I’ve got a real winner we can ponder, as described in the article, Carbon dioxide super-scubber? Potential good news in global warming fight.:

Using cheap, readily available materials, a team of chemists has developed a new compound for drawing carbon dioxide out of the . . . → Read More: Scrubbing CO2

Metricene, again

By Lou, on January 3rd, 2012%

I have to admit that when I read the WaPo piece, Spaceship Earth: A new view of environmentalism, it pegged the needle on my frustration index. Why, might you ask? The title sounds like a metaphor I’d use, after all. That’s precisely the problem, as the piece says:

More and more environmentalists and scientists . . . → Read More: Metricene, again

Doc alert: Response to climate change in NY State

By Lou, on December 27th, 2011%

NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Authority) has published Report 11-18 Response to Climate Change in New York State.

You can download the synthesis report, i.e. the short version, the long version, or individual chapters from the page linked above. The short version is about 9.8MB and 60 pages, while the long version is . . . → Read More: Doc alert: Response to climate change in NY State