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The Future of Global Climate Policy: Taking Stock of Our Climate Outlook (Part 1)

January 23, 2012 by Matthew Stepp
with 214 views
0

  Significantly limiting humanity’s impact on the global climate is quite simply an enormous task. Unfortunately, thanks to budget austerity and federal gridlock, any hope of implementing sweeping U.S. climate/energy policy has been optimistically pushed back to 2013 or beyond (though some incremental improvement is possible). And... [read more]

Are President Obama’s Policies Causing U.S. Oil Production to Rise?

January 23, 2012 by Robert Rapier
with 966 views
2

Question: What do President Barack Obama and ex-President Jimmy Carter have in common? Answer: Both presided over strong increases in domestic oil production that were a result of decisions made before they took office, as I explain in this post. [read more]

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Archive: "How to Save a Planet On a Budget" Part 3 - Lessons For Cleantech

December 19, 2011 by Amelia Timbers
with 280 views
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This third hour focuses on the venture capital environment for cleantech. Cleantech VC Environment, Moderated by Jesse Jenkins Featuring: Will Coleman, Scott Edward Anderson & Dan Shugar [read more]

Why Some Republicans are Delusional About Oil & Energy Policy

December 12, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 364 views
2

Two Sides of a Coin In a recent video blog about energy politics, I stated that in my opinion each of the major political parties in the U.S. only gets half of the energy picture. Democrats tend to demonize oil usage, with many believing that we can shift to renewables for our energy needs. To be clear, we can — but not in the way they... [read more]

Check Out Our Energy Efficiency Policy Tracker!

October 4, 2011 by Carrie Nash
with 200 views
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Our most recent Policy Tracker is available now, with updates on important energy efficiency policy and building energy code developments from across the Northeast [read more]

Is Western Society Suffering from a Collective Anxiety Attack? OccupyWallStreet may be an Expression of Just That

October 1, 2011 by Tyler Hamilton
with 152 views
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I wrote the post below a week or so ago and thought later I should take it down because it was too negative. In fact, a few people unsubscribed to this blog immediately after I posted it. I do like to use this blog to build hope that there are technologies, policy options, and creative initiatives out there to make the world a more... [read more]

Pull The Highest Lever

September 21, 2011 by Gernot Wagner
with 145 views
0

Individual action won’t do to solve global warming. It needs to be something collective. But what if individual action is all you’ve got? Say you are running a small, grassroots organization with the aim of making a difference in the community. You can do a lot of good by advocating for all the things that matter to the community. Global warming or global overfishing affects your community, but it’s also clear that your individual actions won’t solve the problem. What now? [read more]

TCASE 14: Assessment of Electricity Generation Costs

August 17, 2011 by Barry Brook
with 851 views
3

In the previous TCASE post, I considered how various low-carbon energy technologies meet the following criteria: commercial readiness, scalability, dispatchability, fuel constraints, load access, storage requirements, capacity factor and emissions intensity. Here I consider the next issue: cost of deployment, based on expert... [read more]

The Rolling Urgency Paradox

August 3, 2011 by Michael Tobis
with 215 views
1

We have only ten years to act on climate! Four years ago we only had ten years to act! Ten years ago we only had ten years to act! Twenty years ago, the same!This is very poor messaging, even though in a sense it is true.Let me try to explain how this could be true in some sense. Then maybe we can consider how to say this better.... [read more]

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MPG Ratings for Buildings: The Next Wave of Energy Efficiency

July 29, 2011 by Andrew Burr
with 447 views
3

Similar to MPG ratings on cars, building energy ratings give the market a way to compare and value the energy use of buildings. A major new report highlights the enormous energy-saving potential of government policies that require buildings to be energy rated. [read more]

The Way Back to 280 ppm

July 25, 2011 by Sam Carana
with 518 views
7

Two feebates can separately, yet complimentary, get emissions cut 80% by 2020 and carbon dioxide on the way back to 280 ppm. [read more]

The New Post-Carbon Business Model

June 17, 2011 by David Thorpe
with 346 views
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The idea of providing a service of renewable energy - rather than a simple supply - and reaping a return on investment from selling any surplus generated to the grid, or by claiming the difference between the regular and premium rate, is emerging as the favoured business model for financing the low carbon revolution.The latest example is... [read more]

Anti to Pro Nuclear, and Pro to Anti: who’s changed their mind?

April 15, 2011 by Barry Brook
with 399 views
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Today I was speaking to a colleague about Fukushima and its implications on public attitudes to nuclear as a way to mitigate climate change. After I mentioned George Monbiot’s recent investigative journalism on anti-nuclear claims, he responded by asking: Okay, sure, that’s one person, but conversely, how many pro-nuclear... [read more]

Obama’s Non-Plan For Reducing Oil Dependence

March 30, 2011 by Lou Grinzo
with 285 views
2

Let me begin by addressing the article itself, which commits the fundamental sin of not providing enough hard data to contextualize the news item. According to the US Dept. of Energy’s Annual Energy Review (Table 5.1 Petroleum Overview, 1949-2009, the all-time high for both US oil consumption and oil imports occurred in 2005 (20.802 and 12.549 million barrels[1] per day, respectively, making imports 60% of consumption). [read more]

Obama Energy Press Conference Confusion

March 14, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 300 views
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After listening to the energy portions of the presidential press conference last Friday, I found myself confused about the administration's approach to energy. Although I heard the President defending certain US energy policies, they weren't mainly those of his administration, nor were many of the outcomes he highlighted the result of... [read more]