http://www.grinzo.com/energy News, statistics, commentary and activism Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:02:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The responses to the G8's climate... what? pledges? agreements in principle? rumors of an agreement to pledge a principle? continue to roll in, with Fred Pearce having easily the most interesting one I've seen so far, on Short Sharp Science, which is NewScientist.com's blog: G8 emissions pledge ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/09/the-g8-the-fat-lady-co2-and-you/ In which Lou attempts valiantly to tie off a gaggle of loose ends without sounding even less coherent than normal... I've revamped the Energy and Environment Clocks stuff with a new color scheme and new home page for the entire project. The home page will always have links to all ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/09/brain-dump/ There's an undeniable fact that overhangs peak oil, climate chaos, and probably a few hundred other issues one could name. Far worse than being merely an "inconvenient truth" or a "nasty reality", it's the issue that stands between humanity and the action needed to deal with those problems. ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/08/cognitive-gaps/ When the US Dept. of Energy recently released the latest edition of its Annual Energy Review, that naturally included updated versions of their "flow diagrams", which are still the most useful set of graphics I've seen for understanding the sources and uses of all energy, coal, petroleum, natural gas, and ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/07/gotw-electricity-flow-diagram/ I know, you've heard it all before from me and at least a few others: The energy/water nexus is going to bite us hard, and it's already started. You need water to make electricity (for the most part) and you need energy to provide water. Climate chaos can ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/07/energywater-nexus-bites-us-again/ I find it astonishing how few people realize what predictions like this one (Gulf Times: Oil reserves ‘sufficient for 42 years’) really mean: The proven global oil reserves of 1,258bn barrels, excluding Canadian oil sands, are enough for 42 years at the 2008 production rates, a BP review said. On the same ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/06/remaining-oil-reserves/ I've just uploaded beta version 0.0.1 of "Lou's Energy and Environmental Clock". It's now a fully self-contained HTML + CSS + JavaScript page, which means it should (he typed nervously) run on Windows, Linux, Macs, or any other system that has browser released in this century. Get it here. This version ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/02/energy-clock-is-back/ NYISO (New York Independent System Operator has released Alternate Route: Electrifying the Transportation Sector: Potential Impacts of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles on New York State’s Electricity System [17 page, 277KB PDF]. From the executive summary: Plug-in Electric Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) represent a new stage in the evolution of hybrid electric ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/01/document-alert-ny-and-phevs/ Laurel Graefe, a senior economic researcher working for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has written an excellent overview of peak oil, "The Peak Oil Debate" [16page, 1.6MB PDF]. I consider this a must-read piece, as much for armchair oil experts as beginners, and as much for who published this as ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/01/the-fed-and-peak-oil/ MIT has made the copious material from its symposium in March regarding CCS (carbon capture and storage) available: Retro-Fitting of Coal-Fired Power Plants for CO2 Emissions Reductions. That page has 31 PDFs (according to DownloadThemAll), enough that I won't even pretend that I've had a chance to read them all--yet. Note that ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/07/01/document-alert-mit-and-ccs/ Just in case you thought all that chatter about permafrost wasn't scary enough, we now have an indication that (everyone repeat after me) it's worse than we thought. In this case I'm happy to say that it's not a new sign that what's up there is melting any faster ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/30/permafrost-permafrost-2/ One of the "magic numbers" in energy and environmental issues is 2C, as in we can only allow 2C degrees of warming over pre-industrial levels before we trigger truly nasty consequences. I'm sure that like me, most people reading this site have seen this number quoted endlessly. But where did ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/30/two-degrees-of-separation/ Graph(s) of the week: Carbon emissions, measured in absolute yearly amounts and per capita levels, from the web site of CDIAC (Carbon dioxide Information Analysis Center), perhaps the most interesting and important US government site that not enough energy and environmental geeks know about. One of these graphs is ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/29/gotw-per-capita-and-yearly-carbon-emissions/ Yes, it's true, my fellow geeks: The US Dept. of Energy has just released the Annual Energy Review 2008, the Bible of US energy statistics. It's 446 pages of graphs and tables, with very little space squandered on artwork and, you know, words. The home page of the report is here, where ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/26/merry-energy-geek-christmas/ One of the enduring themes of this site is that we risk making very costly errors if we over-compartmenalize our perceptions. This is why I so often argue against the idea that we can pick one of the Twin Terrors (climate chaos and peak oil) and say, "This is ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/26/ozone-and-co2/ We all know that Americans waste a lot of gasoline because of congestion. Well, this is one of those times when what we all know is actually true: The Texas Transportation Institute studies congestion in 85 urban areas throughout the United States each year. According to their latest study, the ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/25/gotw-fuel-wasted-by-congestion/ We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. -- John W. Gardner The quote above came to mind when I read 'Worst Case' Scenario: New Report Says World Is Warming Faster than Thought: Two degrees -- that value has long been the guideline for international climate ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/23/climate-chaos-indeed/ See It’s all about energy for a pretty decent, concise summary of alternatives: The global energy scene is currently dominated by two overriding concerns that strongly affect decisions on energy development priorities: security of supply and climate change. Worldwide, renewable energy is still dominated by the ”old” renewables: hydropower and traditional biomass. ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/23/overview-of-energy-sources/ Frequent readers of this site know the speech by heart: A warming climate means dramatic shifts in where and when fresh water is available for any purpose, most notably direct human use, agriculture, and electricity generation. One of the greatest potential impacts of this shift, worldwide, is triggered by ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/23/energywater-nexus-patagonia/ I've been struggling for the last few days to make sense of the recent NOAA news regarding atmospheric levels of CO2 and methane, plus a handful of other items, including where I now think we might or might not be headed headed in terms of climate chaos. The impetus for this ... http://www.grinzo.com/energy/index.php/2009/06/22/life-in-the-metricene/