Solve Climate: Daily Climate News and Opinion

Mr. Pickens’ Half-Right Plan

Bill Becker — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:20:26 -0700

It does our heart good to see an oil tycoon spend his money to tell the truth. There’s too little of that today. But T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil billionaire, is investing $58 billion on a television ad campaign (Youtube) to explain that we can’t drill our way out of the current energy crisis.

Instead, he says, we should build wind farms from Texas to North Dakota, and install the transmission lines necessary to move the power to where we need it. That will liberate natural gas from its most common current use – generating electricity – and allow us to use it to power our vehicles, Pickens says.

He’s right about the wind part and wrong about the best use of natural gas.

Former Intel Chief to America: Convert 10 Million SUVs to Plug-Ins by 2012

Stacy Feldman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:12:12 -0700

Can Andy Grove light a fire under America’s sleepy electric car effort?

At the first annual Plug-In 2008 Conference, the former Intel chief called on America to convert ten million of its clunkiest, most gas-hungry SUVs, pickups and minivans into plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

Timeframe? Four years.

If Grove had his way, he'd go on to retrofit the remaining 80 million or so US gas-guzzlers to PHEVs through a combination of conversion and new product -- a move that would cut the nation’s imported oil needs in half.

Big, big, big job.

Breakthrough: New Silicon Solutions Promise Cheap Solar Energy

David McClellan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:00:28 -0700

The brass ring for solar energy has long been "grid parity," or delivering electricity to the grid at the prevailing local price. But the solar photovoltaic (PV) march toward parity has been delayed, ironically, by the sector's own surging popularity.

The main reason? Supply of the raw material, crystalline silicon, hasn't kept up with skyrocketing PV demand, resulting in severe shortages and high prices. But with new factories and new technology on the horizon, the supply shortage may end soon, which means the prices could drop like a rock. Or maybe not.

Confused? Read on...

What Will the Cheney and Bush Grandchildren Think?

Bill Becker — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:11:40 -0700

You've thrown the worst fear... that can ever be hurled... afraid to bring children... into the world... and for threatening my baby... unborn and unnamed... you ain't worth the blood that runs in your veins... Let me ask you one question... is your money that good... will it buy you forgiveness... do you think that it could?... I think you will find... when your death takes its toll... all the money you made will never buy back your soul...

Bob Dylan, "Masters of War"

In May 2007, the White House published a photograph of Lynne and Dick Cheney proudly introducing their sixth grandchild to the world. The question is: When Samuel David Cheney grows up, how proud will he be of his grandfather?

A year later, the White House published photos of President George W. Bush with his daughter, Jenna, at her wedding - the first of the Bush twins to take a husband. The question is: When they come of age, what will Jenna’s yet-unborn children think of their grandfather?

EPA's Own Warnings Can’t Turn U.S. Climate Denial into Action

Stacy Feldman — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:00:09 -0700

Last week, the U.S. EPA released a grim, 284-page study (pdf) that concluded that climate change will cause "substantial" threats to the health of the American public.

And yet, one week prior to the report’s release, the agency ruled that it will not regulate harmful greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, ignoring its own warnings that emissions will endanger the public welfare.

It shouldn’t have. Excerpts from the EPA’s own findings:

U.S. Energy Policy: Welcome to Hog Heaven, Part II

Bill Becker — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:22:16 -0700

Let’s face it: The Bush Administration has made a mess of things. It is now clear, if it hasn’t been all along, that by the time George Bush leaves office, the White House will have wasted eight years of leadership on the Mother of All Issues.

If those eight years are a profound disappointment looking backward, then they are a profound tragedy looking forward. The head of the IPCC is spreading the message that the world community has seven short years to act decisively to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. John Holdren is among the prestigious U.S. scientists who now say more openly that the affects of climate change already are upon us. Dr. Jim Hansen now estimates that atmospheric concentrations of carbon must level off at 350 ppm, nearly 30 percent lower than everyone thought was needed to keep climate change at "safe" levels. Anyone who’s paying attention sees that the impacts of global warming are occurring much faster than predicted.

If this year’s weather extremes are a sample of climate change, how much worse will they be 10 years, 20 years or 30 years from now, as today’s rising and accumulating emissions take their toll?

World’s Wind Power Parts: Now Made in China

Stacy Feldman — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:39:17 -0700

Most folks by now know about China’s wind power boom. At the end of 2007, the nation's installed base of wind energy was just over six gigawatts. By the end of 2008, it will climb to ten gigawatts. By 2010, experts predict 20 gigawatts. And by 2020, 100 gigawatts.

That’s more than all of the world's wind power today, which stands at 94 gigawatts.

But here’s the thing that’s really striking: China is gaining speed as the global leader in the manufacture of wind power parts, too. Indeed, its equipment may feed the whole planet's appetite for wind energy one day.

Think toys, but healthier.

Altair Nanotechnology's Battery: Faster, Cooler, More Efficient

David McClellan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:04:47 -0700

The advance of battery technology is getting a boost from a Reno-based company called Altairnano whose specialty is nanotechnology. The firm has developed a battery whose negative electrode -- the anode -- is made from nanoscale titanium.

The advantage? Less electrical resistance so the battery can handle higher current loads -- and less loss of energy to waste heat, which translates into greater efficiency.

The battery is being put to the test by a car company, a global power company and the US Navy for three separate applications, all of which save energy and reduce CO2 emissions: as the battery inside a plug-in electric vehicle, as a storage and grid regulation device to complement wind and solar energy and as a replacement for back-up diesel generators on warships.

It's worth keeping an eye on developments. Here's the latest.

U.S. Energy Policy: Welcome to Hog Heaven, Part I

Bill Becker — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:28:50 -0700

When it comes to energy policy, Amory Lovins has proven again and again that he's a pretty smart guy. At the moment, nothing seems more insightful than one of Amory’s comments in the May/June issue of Mother Jones.

Asked what energy policies the next president should champion, Lovins was skeptical. He believes energy policy will continue to be made not at the national level, but by communities and states. "With modest exceptions," Lovins said, "our federal energy policy is really a large trough arranged by the hogs for their convenience."

Right now, the hogs are eating very, very well. With voters struggling from record prices for gasoline and all of the products made from petroleum and with no end in sight, the oil companies are pushing for more leases to drill for more oil on more public lands. President Bush, Big Oil’s special friend in the White House, is pushing for more drilling, too, as are a number of people in Congress. At the moment, most Democrats on the Hill seem to be holding fast against this strategy – but there’s an election coming up.

The fallacious idea is that we can drill our way out of the petroleum problem if only the tree-huggers get out of the way. That argument already has been debunked in several places.

Even T. Boone Pickens, who has decided he’s made enough money in oil, is purchasing television air time to say that drilling isn’t the answer (Youtube).

But two points are worth repeating.

German Clean Energy Tax Credit Attracts Big Money from US Firm

Stacy Feldman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:00:51 -0700

As rumored, New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is pouring $1.5 billion into an offshore wind farm in Germany that will power half a million homes and avert 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions.

It’s being billed as one of the largest wind projects in the North Sea and should spawn a heap of German "green collar" jobs. Says the Blackstone Group:

It is planned to source all technical expertise and substantially all materials from within Germany.

Why would Blackstone choose Germany for its mammoth project? In the company's own words: