Ed Ring

From the DOE online reference, CO2 Emissions Report, Table 1, you will see that in 1999 in the USA there were nearly 1.8 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from the burning of coal to create electricity, which yielded nearly 1.9 million kilowatt-hours of power.  This means in that year in the USA, for each megawatt-hour of coal-fired electric power, there were .95 tons of CO2 ejected into the atmosphere.  It is likely the global efficiency of coal-fired electricity plants in the USA in 2008 exceeds this standard, but for the sake of a numerically clear argument suppose for every megawatt-hour of coal-fired power, 1.0 ton of CO2 enters the atmosphere. Currently the United States emits about 6.0...

In a story today in the Los Angeles Times entitled "To slow global warming, install white roofs," author Margot Roosevelt reports on a recent study that concludes, if you take it at face value, that all we have to do is paint all of our urban rooftops and pavements white and "the global cooling effect would be massive." "According to Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a 1,000-square-foot roof -- the average size on an American home -- offsets 10 metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere if dark-colored shingles or coatings are replaced with white material...  Globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement accounts for about 35%. If all were switched to reflective material in 100 major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases." It would be interesting to understand exactly what Akbari means by...

Even if California "only" ends up with 25% renewable electricity within the next decade or two, there is going to be a staggering amount of investment pouring into wind and solar power, and with intermittant sources of energy, massive storage infrastructure is just as necessary as the generating infrastructure. In our analysis of Prop. 7, California's Proposition 7, the initiative that calls for 50% renewable energy by 2025, we estimated compliance would require about 500 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity generating capacity per day. For wind power, based on installation costs of $2.5 million per megawatt ($2.5 billion per gigawatt), and yields of 17.5%, this would require a total investment of nearly $300...

In a post last week entitled "Debate vs. Demonization" we questioned the tendency on the part of global warming alarmists to demonize anyone who wishes to question the reality, the scope, the causes, or the prescriptions for global warming.  We referenced one recent exchange between Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., a renowned climatologist who has raised such questions, and one of his detractors.  In this exchange, the person who had attacked Pielke made the following statement: "At the risk of talking science, Dr. Pielke takes specific exception to my reporting of the average global temperature over the past 10 years. I hate to get into duelling graphics, in part because it would encourage people to think that...

At the risk, yet again, at incurring the wrath of the true believers, it is time to continue the debate regarding the cause of climate trends, and indeed, the direction of the trends themselves.  But conducting a debate on this most sensitive issue invites more than civil debate.  The issue of climate change has been succesfully framed as a moral issue, and debate is no longer politically correct.  To persist in debating this issue, despite mounting evidence - both scientific and economic - that debate is vital, is to risk being marginalized and demonized.  Our favorite climate website, www.climatesci.org, is operated by Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr., a climatologist at the University of Colorado.  We...

As the cleantech revolution gathers momentum and environmentalist values command unprecedented influence on policy, it is more important than ever to have a vigorous global dialogue as to what constitutes clean technology, and what constitutes a legitimate continuum of environmentalist values. How these questions are answered will have profound impact on the nature and speed of economic growth, as well as the quality of our lives and the quantity of our individual rights and freedoms. There are two fundamental assumptions that govern environmental values today: (1) use of fossil fuel should be phased out as soon as possible, and (2) resource scarcity is an inevitable...

Does that get your attention?  It should, because when that happens, the Silicon Valley will become the sister city of Detroit, with the only difference being Detroit gave way to union power fifty years earlier, and is still paying the price.  Silicon Valley is a meritocracy, and as long as it stays that way it has a chance to maintain its high-tech dominance. Unions in 21st Century America are not nearly the same creature they were fifty years ago.  Back then unions legitimately fought for rights and benefits that have now largely become institutionalized - safe workplaces, reasonable work hours, competitive pay.  Back then American heavy industry enjoyed nearly a monopoly position, and as a result businesses such as the Detroit automakers could afford to grant generous concessions to unions - including pension benefits whose financial sustainability relied on the assumption...

There is nothing wrong with encouraging clean, renewable, domestically produced energy.  But California's proposition 7 "would, if approved, require California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025" (ref. Ballotpedia).  Currently California's public utilities are mandated to generate 25% of their electricity by 2025, and this is an ambitious goal.  Just getting to 25% renewable electricity by 2025 would require more than doubling renewable power generation in California.  Getting to 50% by that time would require renewable power generation in California to nearly quintuple. To understand why accomplishing such an ambitious goal is not necessarily practical, you don't have to be an economist or a renewable power expert.  You simply need to take a look at the current cost for renewable power technology.  While you're at it, write off hydropower, which...

Today the Olympic Games began in burgeoning, triumphant China.  And today the Russians rumbled again, questioning the notion that their settlers of 200 years or more, unmoved and in contiguous lands, constitute a diaspora.  What significance will this day hold for posterity?  China displaying the ascendancy that has been her destiny, or Russia, wounded and dismembered in the wake of their cold war defeat, swollen with carbon revenue and resurgent as well, reminding us of their resiliency and resolve? post resumes below image Pelecanus occidentalis From a strategic standpoint, Russia's concern with Ossetia is more to do with the plight of ethnic Russians everywhere...

A few days ago we got an email from a proponent of Algae farming to produce biodiesel.  He referenced a study from 1998 sponsored by NREL entitled "Biodiesel from Algae."  Referencing the study, the writer stated, "Spanning almost two decades of research, this article covers the prospect of large scale production of biodiesel using relatively simple techniques. Although already a decade out of date, the information contained within is extremely timely..."  He then quoted from the study directly: Didymosphenia geminata, microscopic algae once scarce, but now in many streams and rivers of North America (Photo: US EPA) "The ASP regularly revisited the question of available resources for...