Generally speaking, if we don’t know what the cause of a given problem is, but we know there is indeed a problem, how do we devise a strategy capable of adequately addressing it?
read more | digg story
October 4, 2008
Sarah Palin on Climate Change: The Causes Don’t Matter
August 1, 2008
Asst. Secretary of Energy Resigns - But Why?
Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner announced his resignation from the Department of Energy on Wednesday. Karsner’s resignation came on the same day as news that Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to extend funding for renewable energy tax credits for the fourth time this summer.
read more | digg story
July 17, 2008
Should President Bush Be Telling Americans to Conserve Gas?
At a Tuesday White House press conference that focused mostly on the current economic downturn, President Bush indicated that he has no intention of calling on Americans to conserve gasoline. The President said it would be presumptive of him to tell American consumers how to behave.But the President did not think it was presumptive to tell American consumers how to behave when he told them to go shopping - twice!
read more | digg story
July 16, 2008
Should President Bush Be Telling Americans to Conserve Gas?
At a Tuesday White House press conference that focused mostly on the current economic downturn, President Bush indicated that he has no intention of calling on Americans to conserve gasoline. The President said it would be "presumptive" to tell American consumers how to behave, yet when it comes telling Americans to go shopping, he doesn't seem to have any problem doing so.
read more | digg story
July 14, 2008
IBM to Prime Pump for Smart-Grid Start-Ups
Although people associate smart grids with digital utility meters, the term covers a range of technologies to make the electricity distribution network more flexible and reliable. For consumers that may mean having an in-home display or Web site that provides real-time information on energy usage.
read more | digg story
IBM to Prime Pump for Smart-Grid Start-Ups
Although people associate smart grids with digital utility meters, the term covers a range of technologies to make the electricity distribution network more flexible and reliable. For consumers that may mean having an in-home display or Web site that provides real-time information on energy usage.
read more | digg story
July 11, 2008
Fuel Prices Spur Aviation Industry to Explore Alternatives
The aviation industry is facing unprecedented growth in fuel costs and growing pressure to curb emission levels. Rolls-Royce and British Airways are the most recent companies to announce a research partnership to explore the viability of alternative fuels.
read more | digg story
DOT Proposes Contest to 'Green' the Jet Fuel Industry
As the aviation industry faces escalating fuel costs and growing pressure to curb emission levels. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said that it will finance a new competition designed to spur innovation in renewable fuels and technologies for the aviation industry. The DOT is giving the X Prize Foundation $500,000 seed money for the prize and the payout may reach as much as $10 million dollars when all is said and done.
read more | digg story
July 9, 2008
Critics Spurn G8 Statement on Climate Change
In a joint communiqué on the Environment and Climate Change, The Group of 8 (G8) has agreed to work toward a goal of cutting the worldwide emissions that cause global warming by at least 50 percent by 2050.
read more | digg story
June 30, 2008
EIA Predicts 50% Increase in World Energy Use by 2030
World marketed energy consumption is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030, according to a new report from the United States Energy Information Agency. Total energy demand in non-OECD countries is projected to increase by 95 percent, while OECD countries are expected to increase consumption by 24 percent.
read more | digg story
June 28, 2008
Cooling Data Centers Could Prevent Massive Electrical Waste
It is estimated that the data storage sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of the U.S. total, or more than the electricity consumed by the nation's color televisions and similar to the amount of electricity consumed by approximately 5.8 million average U.S. households. These numbers are only expected to grow.
read more | digg story
June 24, 2008
Home Depot Launches Massive Recycling Program for CFLs
Home Depot will now accept old compact fluorescent light bulbs at all 1,973 of its stores. The move will create the nation’s most widespread recycling program for CFLs, which contain small amounts of mercury.
read more | digg story
June 21, 2008
Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: The Future of Micro Wind?
Walking the floor of WINDPOWER 2008, the annual conference and trade show for the wind energy industry, one couldn’t help but be transfixed by all of the different types of turbines - at least I couldn’t. The wind turbine has become the iconic symbol of clean, renewable energy. But the classic three-bladed turbine horizontal axis wind turbine, with it's gracefully swooping blades is hardly the only design out there. In fact, the vertical-axis wind turbine is making quite a splash in the world of small and micro wind. Requiring less space and no towers, the vertical axis turbine will undoubtedly become a regular part of clean energy landscapes in the future.
read more | digg story
June 20, 2008
Clean-Energy Tea Leaves Show Choppy Growth
Forecasts for clean-technology adoption all point upward these days, buoyed by high double digits growth rates in sectors like wind and solar power over the past several years. But economic and policy problems have placed a few potholes in front of the fast-growing clean-technology business.
read more | digg story
June 18, 2008
McCain Calls for More Offshore Drilling: When in Houston, right?
Despite the fact that he supported a moratorium on offshore drilling during his previous run for the White House and he has opposed opening up drilling in the past, McCain called for lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling yesterday in Houston. But what did you expect he would say in Houston?
read more | digg story
June 11, 2008
Republicans Block Windfall Profits Tax on Big Oil Companies
With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats wanted the U.S. government to throttle back on the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies. But with the White House threatening a veto of the bill, the Senate voted 51-43 to close debate, well shy of the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
read more | digg story
June 2, 2008
Windpower 2008: A Texas-Sized Conference
My first day at the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA)** annual conference and exhibition in Houston has given me one more nugget of evidence that things are just a little bigger in Texas. WINDPOWER 2008 is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees over the course of the four-day event - up from 7,000 attendees at the 2007 event in Los Angeles.
The massive 1/4 mile long exhibition floor at the George R. Brown Convention Center includes displays from some 770 exhibitors, ranging from wind turbine, and component manufacturers, to wind energy financiers, wind farm siting professionals, and construction/maintenace equipment vendors (to name just a few).
The activity on the floor of the exhibition hall is only a part of WINDPOWER 2008 as the conference program will feature 300 speakers and moderators, 150 poster presentations, and over 50 panel sessions. The panel topics are organized into six daily tracks: Finance, Wind Power Growth, Resource Assesment, Key Issues, Wind at the Epicenter, and my personal favorite, Policy.
It is plainly clear to myself, and anyone attending this year's event in Houston, that wind energy is big business - a far cry from the days where wind energy was seen as a fringe power source only being harness by a few rural landowners and aging off-grid hippies.
It seems fitting that AWEA's biggest conference to date takes place in here in Texas. Why? Texas has installed more wind energy and is planning more transmission infrastructure in the U.S. than any other U.S. state. Add to that, Houston's position as a leader in the oil and gas industry, and you have what seems like a good fit. I just wish it wasn't so humid.
It is quite clear to me, and anyone else attending this year's event in Houston that wind energy is big business - a far cry from the days where it was seen as a fringe power source only being harnessed by a few rural landowners and aging off-grid hippies. Wind energy has finally come of age.
Stay tuned to ecopolitology and Green Options for more conference updates throughout the week.
**Very special thanks to the folks at AWEA for their generous support, which has afforded me the opportunity to attend this excellent event and report back to you all about all of the goings on.
May 30, 2008
Germans Debate Renewable Energy Supports
Conservatives call into question highly successful feed-in tariff
[Originally posted at Red, Green, and Blue on 5.19.08] There is a reason that Germany has half of the world's installed solar generating capacity, and it is not the Northern European country's boundless sunshine. Renewable energy capacity has achieved such tremendous growth because of the German government’s aggressive energy policy.
The policy vehicle responsible for the rapid acceleration of the country's renewable energy capacity, known as a feed-in tariff (FIT), guarantees a fixed-rate of return for homeowners and farmers who install solar, wind, small hydro, biomass, and methane capturing systems and sell their surplus electricity back to the grid. Germany has Europe's highest feed-in tariffs, allowing consumers to earn around 40 euro cents ($0.62) per kWh compared to paying retail rates of 18 euro cents per kWh after taxes and support fees.
Electricity generated through Germany's feed-in law produces about 50 terawatt-hours (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity per year, or nearly 15% of German electricity consumption (1). This adds an average of only 1.01 euros ($1.69) a month to a typical home electricity bill.
Bu, despite the law's success, conservatives in the German Bundestag want to ratchet back the incentives that support renewable energy development. 
Joachim Pfeiffer, a Member of Parliament who is drafting the plan to cut incentives, says solar power could end up adding 8 euros ($12.32) to a monthly electricity bill, “which would alienate even the most green-minded.”
Opposition to Feed-in Tariff is Not New
But calls for paring back the renewable energy feed-in tariff are nothing new, according to wind energy expert Paul Gipe. Gipe, an outspoken advocate of the FIT and has written extensively on on the subject wrote in an email, "The FDP and the conservative (utility) wing of the CDU have wanted to ratchet back the tariffs all along [and] It's unlikely they will succeed."
Other supporters of the German feed-in tariff point to the unparalleled growth in renewable energy capacity reason enough to maintain the system as it currently stands. "The general target is to mobilise all renewable options, producing a renewable energy mix and reducing the dependency on conventional energy over time," says Hermann Scheer, one of the principal drivers behind Germany’s renewable resurgence.
So far, 15% of Germany's energy comes from renewables, an increase of 11% in just eight years. "We could increase the speed of this growth if it weren't for the barriers we're facing at local and regional levels," says Scheer.
Importantly, Gipe did add that the CDU could grant some concessions by throttling back on the proposed offshore tariffs "which are widely seen as a gift to the utility companies."
I would argue that it would be foolish for Germany to nip the most successful renewable energy policy this planet has ever seen in the bud. Especially with the certain increase in demand for electricity, and the rising pressures on the coal-industry in Germany, Germans may be better off absorbing a slight increase in their electricity bills that is calculable, as opposed to drastic increases used to offset certain shortages.
Other posts about feed-in tariffs and German energy policy:
- "Illinois: Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff Introduced in House of Representatives"
- "High Winds + Wind Farms = Falling Electricity Prices"
- "Germany to Phase Out Coal Industry; U.S. to Not"
Photo: Jeff Poskanzer via Flickr under a Creative Commons License
May 25, 2008
Red, Green, and Blue Named 'Red Hot Blog of the Day'
I am pleased and humbled to announce that the good folks over at RedOrbit have named Green Options' environmental politics blog, Red, Green, and Blue as the ‘Red Hot Blog of the Day‘ for May 23, 2008. As many of you already know, I've been the lead writer at Red, Green, and Blue since its inception in the Spring of 2008. I am proud of the place we have carved out within the niche thus far, and I look forward to the places it will go in the future.
RedOrbit provides mountains of wide-ranging content contained covering the vast ideological spectrums of space, science, health, and technology. Launched in in 2003, RedOrbit averages over 5 million unique visitors per month, “with subject matter a bit more intellectually oriented than most” (I love that last part).
May 22, 2008
MMS Overwhelmed by 40,000+ Comments on Cape Wind
Agency permanently extends comment period for alt. energy leases
[Originally posted at Red, Green, and Blue on May 5, 2008] In the fall of 2001, Jim Gordon of Energy Management Inc. (EMI) announced his intentions to build a 420 megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts - the nation's first. Now, the long permitting process that was made even longer by powerful opposition groups, is nearing resolution...finally.
More than 40,000 individuals and organizations have submitted comments on an environmental review of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, according to an article in the Cape Cod Times.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the lead federal agency to review Cape Wind Associates' plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. Originally, the comments were set to be released last Friday, but officials at the Minerals Management Service postponed the release to give agency staffers more time to organize the overwhelming public response to the proposed wind farm.
As a result of the scoping process' popularity, the MMS announced that they would be preemptively extending the comment period for all of the remaining "Alternative Energy Leases" from 30 to 60 days.
The final number of public comments submitted on the agency's Cape Wind draft environmental report has yet to be tallied. But it is quite telling that an earlier 2005 report on the same project issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers produced one-tenth the number of comments than this one indicates that MMS did something right since taking over the review of Cape Wind from the Army Corps as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (As an aside, I think it also says something about the Corps of Engineers' ability to adequately conduct a thorough public scoping process).
Opponents remain critical; supporters remain confident
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the project's most vocal opponent, enlisted 40 experts to review the report. The hired guns produced a 3,000-page critique of the Cape Wind proposal. One theme of critique coming from private scientists as well as public ones, was that the report's information on migratory birds and fishery habitats where the project would be located is inadequate. "At the very least, the (report) should explain why recommended studies and analyses were not conducted and the ramifications of not having that information," Michael Bartlett, supervisor for the New England Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Despite the criticisms of the MMS report, the vast majority of comments submitted will be in favor of the project, predicted Mark Rodgers, Communications Director for Cape Wind Associates.
A record of decision from the agency indicating approval or disapproval of the Cape Wind project is expected to be released sometime in the winter. And only then will this long, arduous journey be over...right?
Other Posts Related to the Cape Wind Project:
"The Politicos Chiming in On Cape Wind" :: sustainablog (8/2005)
"(D)emocracy: Tell the Feds What You Think About Cape Wind" :: Planetsave (2/2008)
"Survey Finds Overwhelming Support for Cape Wind" :: ecopolitology (8/2007)
"Breaking: MMS Report Favorable on Cape Wind" :: sustainablog (1/2008)
"Cape Wind Opponent to Step Down" :: sustainablog (1/2008)
Photo: © Kamil Sobócki | Dreamstime.com
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