SmartBlogs for AGC SmartBrief
Transition talk: Leon's den
Grist | 51 minutes ago
By Kate Sheppard Obama is poised to nominate Leon Panetta to head the CIA, according to news reports today. Panetta is a long-time advocate for ocean protection, though he's not likely to get much sway in this area as CIA chief. Panetta has been the chair and commissioner of the Pew Oceans Commission since 2003. In 2005, Pew joined with the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy to create the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, which Panetta now co-chairs. He is also the former director of the Monter...
The thin line between technical solutions and social innovations
Grist | 51 minutes ago
By Gar LipowCommenter Pangolin made a point about the cost of ground source heat pumps, an energy-saving technology, in his comment about Hansen's open letter: "If I cluster installation of my geo-exchange systems (4 homes) I can realize significant savings in the greatest cost of the system, the drilling for the ground loop. If I bundle systems into neighborhood or block thermal-service units unit costs go down again." Just so. To take an extreme example, a neighbor of mine had a ground s...
The dumbest headline of 2009
Grist | 51 minutes ago
By Joseph RommOn the very first day of 2009, the L. A. Timesran a story that already seems a lock to win the year's dumbest headline award. And dumbest subhead: "Recent moves by lame-duck officials, though frustrating to environmentalists, offer the president-elect time and political cover to deliberately craft rules on emissions, energy lobbyists say."Yes, the LAT thinks that accelerating new coal plant construction, greenhouse-gas emissions, and the wanton destruction of the planet's ...
Lost in translation?
Grist | 51 minutes ago
By Joseph RommAn AP report is generating headlines around the world: Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy ... According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicl...
Decoupling comes to Virginia
Grist | 3 hours 53 minutes ago
By David RobertsThis is cool news:December 23, 2008 -- The Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) today approved the Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) proposed conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. The plan calls for new energy conservation programs, coupled with a revenue adjustment mechanism, designed to assist customers in managing their energy costs. As part of the plan, VNG will provide $6.6 million over three years in new conservation initiatives. VNG projects that custome...
Will conservatives be Obama's 'best allies' in the climate fight?
Grist | 3 hours 53 minutes ago
By David RobertsIn last weekend's New York Times, conservatives Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) and Arthur Laffer had an op-ed claiming that a revenue-neutral "tax shift" would make conservatives "the new administration's best allies on climate change." Color me skeptical. Laffer, of course, is a conservative legend, an economist whose curve has given a great many mendacious right-wing legislators intellectual cover in the war on taxes. Inglis is best known for telling Mitt Romney that Mormons a...
The soil crisis
Grist | 3 hours 53 minutes ago
By Tom PhilpottThere's an idea out there that reforming U.S. food policy simply can not be a priority for the Obama administration. We're enmeshed in two wars (three, if you count what our dear Israeli friends are up to in the Gaza Strip), the economy is crumbling, and climate change is accelerating. Under these conditions, how can Obama possibly busy himself with something as trivial as food? The president-elect himself seems to buy into this line of reasoning. By nominating a corn-belt pol ...
Stimulating discussion
Grist | 3 hours 53 minutes ago
By Kate SheppardAttention in Washington is focused on an economic stimulus plan, which will be the first major agenda item for the new Congress that convenes tomorrow, and for the new president when he's sworn in on Jan. 20. But how green will the stimulus package be?In his radio/YouTube address on Saturday, Obama said his proposal -- dubbed the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" -- would create 3 million new jobs, 80 percent of them in the private sector, including jobs in the renewab...
The third degree
Grist | 3 hours 53 minutes ago
By Andrew DesslerA friend of mine from college emailed me the other day and expressed some skepticism about the connection between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. It occurred to me that it would make a good topic for my next post. So here is the reasoning that has led me to conclude that business-as-usual carbon dioxide emissions will lead to temperature increases over the next century of around 3 degrees C. First, it has been known for over 150 years that adding carbon dioxide...
For a 'change we can believe in,' dump industrial agriculture
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Jim GoodmanWith the arrival of 2009, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes nearly a billion people a day go hungry worldwide. While India supplies Switzerland with 80 percent of its wheat, 350 million Indians are food-insecure. Rice prices have nearly tripled since early 2007 because, according to the International Rice Research Institute, rice-growing land is being lost to industrialization, urbanization, and shifts to grain crops for animal feed.Yet, acc...
Something new under the sun
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Joseph RommThe world's biggest solar tower will open early this year in Spain. The race for leadership in the next generation of solar power is taking off.The U.K. Guardianreports that in the desert 20 miles outside Seville, the Spanish company Abengoa will be deploying over 1,000 sun-tracking mirrors -- each "about half the size of a tennis court" -- to superheat water to 260°C to drive a steam turbine and generate 20MW of electricity.Concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, as it ...
The book of green
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By David RobertsFox News on the "green bible":(thanks LL!)
Markey time
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Joseph RommCongressional QuarterlyOnline reported last week:The two senior House Democrats with jurisdiction over energy and telecommunications policies could swap gavels in the 111th Congress, with potentially dramatic implications for the shape of climate change legislation expected next year.Since 2007, Rick Boucher of Virginia, the Energy and Commerce Committee's fourth-ranking Democrat, has led the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, which has taken the lead role in crafting legislat...
Transition talk: Richardson out
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Kate SheppardBill Richardson has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post of commerce secretary. The New Mexico governor says he is concerned that a grand jury investigation into a company that has done business with his state might delay the confirmation process.Obama tapped Richardson to head the Commerce Department last month, to the delight of enviros who praised his strong record on climate and energy issues."Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted p...
Cape Wind in '09?
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Erik HoffnerThe final environmental impact statement on Cape Wind was supposed to hit the press in December, but it's been put back another month thanks to the delay tactics of the 'antis' in Congress, this time notably Rep Jim Oberstar (D-Minn) who was recently singled out in Grist as an outstanding advocate for progressive stances on energy and transit, but only in Minnesota, I guess. The Providence Journal takes him and those he probably acted on behalf of to task here: This is anothe...
Obama's radio address, 03 Jan 2008: renewable energy, no transit
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By David RobertsObama's radio address, on the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," mentions doubling renewable energy and energy efficiency renovations; it does not mention public transit. Lots of bipartisan talk, in the runup to the great kickoff of Jan. 20.
Climate Central
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Maywa MontenegroWhat do Weather Channel seductress Heidi Cullen, Steven "wedge" Pacala, former TIME writer Michael Lemonick, soon-to-be NOAA head Jane Lubchenco, and Grist founding board member Ben Strauss have in common?They're all part of an new project called Climate Central. It was mentioned briefly in this recent post about Lubchenco, but it's so interesting and innovative that it merits further digital ink -- which I was going to provide myself, but Curtis Brainard of the C...
Got resolutions?
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Adam SteinNew Year's resolutions, as we all know, are almost entirely pointless -- made in one breath, forgotten in the next. So in that spirit of general futility, I offer a few ideas for green resolutions that, either through novelty or just ease of use, may inspire more than a passing commitment. Please leave your own ideas below.Idea #1: help make "livable streets" a reality in your community All politics is local, said Tip O'Neill, but most of us still don't pay much atte...
Granholm expectations
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By David RobertsFor several years Michigan has been pursuing a dual-track energy strategy: more coal plants and more clean energy. But as forecasts show demand slacking, energy imports draining the budget, and power plant costs rising, the calculus may be shifting.Keith Schneider reports that Gov. Jennifer Granholm is on the verge of a big announcement:Senior Granholm administration officials declined to be specific about what they said would be a "major statement," but indicated the governor...
The Lisa of our concerns
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Kate SheppardLisa Jackson.Depending on who you ask, Lisa Jackson is either the best or worst thing that ever happened to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which she led from February 2006 to November 2008.For the most part, New Jersey's biggest environmental groups praise her work on climate change and celebrate her nomination to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But she also has a passionate and vocal group of detractors, mainly people who have worked on ...
Oh noes! The Asians haz our lithium ionz!
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Adam SteinAmerican lithium-ion battery makers, including giants like 3M, are banding together to try to extract a few billion dollars from Congress so they can build a shiny battery manufacturing plant that, for whatever reason, they aren't willing to spend their own money on. This latest handout request is a fairly dubious idea that is nevertheless likely to appeal to a lot of people on grounds of both economic nationalism and a vague aura of environmental goodness. Whatever you think ...
Askin' Hansen
Grist | 6 hours 45 minutes ago
By Ken JohnsonFollowing are two questions for James Hansen and Grist readers, relating to Hansen's tax-and-dividend proposal in his recent policy recommendations to Obama:1. Would it not be advantageous to use dividends to give consumers an equity stake and interest in decarbonization? This could be achieved by investing carbon tax revenue in renewable energy and clean technologies in exchange for equity, and distributing equity shares to the public on an equitable per-capita basis. The sh...
What are SmartBlogs?
SmartBrief's simple blog reader, designed for the busy executive, does the work so you don't have to. "SmartBlogs" delivers in real time the influential voices of must-read industry bloggers, hand-selected and maintained by our expert editors. Be sure to bookmark this page and visit often.
Selected blogs for this industry includes:
Grist
Gristmill: A blogful of leafy green commentary