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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In correspondence to a close personal friend who happens to be a supporter of  Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, I wrote:

Btw, I know you don’t watch Fox News outside of Bill O’Reilly, and that’s a good thing.  Just for grins, I watched a few minutes of Greta van Susteren late last night.  Here’s her interview with the Reverend Franklin Graham, the point of which is that Obama is a Muslim, and that this explains why he’s doing nothing about ISIS, and, by extension, how his secretly held religious tenets put all Americans at risk.  An excerpt: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Despite Wanton Corruption and Political Theater, Environmentalism's Star Is Rising A reader sent me this regarding my apology for having referred to habitual viewers of Fox News as “idiots”:  Congratulations on your apology.  It was well written and sincere.  However, I can’t see how you can say Bill O’Reilly (from Fox News) is neither “fairness nor truth” when he always has two guests representing an issue: one of liberal persuasion and the other conservative.  Also RealClearPolitics.com has editorials and articles from both sides.  Please tell me where you get your news, and I’ll check it out.

You’re right in that, on the surface, both of these sources feature both sides, though RealClearPolitics, focused as it is on conservative intellectuals, is clearly right of center. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

If we do anything well here, it’s providing a platform on which to discuss the “big ideas” in energy and the environment. Sure, I feel confident that I’ve identified a few solid ideas on a fairly narrow set of clean energy investment opportunities like the Brazilian hydrokinetics deal I mentioned here, but most of our content attempts to stimulate discussion on the world of energy and the environment “at 50,000 feet,” as they say.

To that end, let me offer this: a piece from Bloomberg that makes certain statements about where the world is going on what is arguably its most import topic of conversation, i.e., coming together and dealing with the global output of greenhouse gas emissions and the resultant disruption in our climate. Those of you who may have believed that the subject was hopeless may take some comfort there.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I just received an email that began: I have a hunch that carbon can be removed from the atmosphere by biology.  But the devil is in the details and it is really hard work to figure out what a given piece of land is doing as far as carbon (inflow and outflow).

I respond:

I hope your hunch turns out to be correct, but I think the devil will ask you to nail down the broad strokes before he starts worrying about the details.

I can help you with a few basics, though. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Fox News Viewers: I’m SorryI regret referring to Fox News viewers as “idiots” in the post linked above. Obviously, I’m not a fan of the franchise and what is often called its “politics of hate and exclusion,”  and I unapologetically do think its followers would do well to look elsewhere and seek out sources of information that are more based on fairness and truth. But what I wrote here was reckless, irresponsible, and insensitive.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Skeptical Re: Clean Energy ConceptFrom someone who found me online just now:

We propose our “Vapor Drive” Generator with these features: Patented Novel design of 25-50KW Generator- FEATURES: No Fossil fuel, No Emissions, Quiet -Operating expense $20/Month, Size of a 20Cu Ft Refrigerator designed for 20Yr life. Seek investment of $3-4 Million. Following mutual NDAs please request Executive Summary which further describes our Invention and request.

I respond:

Please send me some non-confidential info on it. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

How Will Big Oil Manage To Continue Its Profit Stream?It won’t.

Many people hypothesize that Big Oil will go down the same road that Big Tobacco has been travelling over the last 50 years, i.e., hunker down, ignore the contempt of civilization, and use its vast wealth and power to focus the most aggressive legal tactics imaginable on ensuring it can continue its profit-streams indefinitely. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Replacing Every Watt of Earth’s Power Consumption with Renewable EnergyFrequent commenter Peter Buck asks, “Craig – when you say the sun supplies 6000 times what we use, does that mean “if the entire surface of the world were covered with solar cells”? If so, I despair. If not, exactly what is meant and where does that figure come from?”

Yes, that’s essentially what it means.  (It’s a bit more complicated than that due to the reflection of energy back into space from the atmosphere and from the Earth’s surface, the absorption rates of different wavelengths, etc.)  Taking all this scientific stuff into account, we’re receiving 23,000 terawatts, though that’s still about 1500 times more than all seven billion of us are using (16 TW).      (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Kissinger Mao

American history contains a few examples of “the worm turning” (** see below) i.e., cases in which a downtrodden group successfully defeated the source of their oppression and changed the course of oppression accordingly. The most obvious, of course, was the American Revolution itself, but one should also consider the Emancipation, women’s suffrage, and the Civil Rights Act. I also include the end of the war in Vietnam, which, according to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (pictured), came about simply as a result of the enormous upwelling of popular support for the anti-war movement of the day. “If it weren’t for the opposition to war from the common American,” Kissinger said recently, “we’d still be there.”  (emphasis mine) (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

Brazil Still Passionate about “Small” HydrokineticsAs part of my quest to help a colleague find an investor for his small hydrokinetics projects in Brazil, he and I have frequent conversations about the strength of the overall market.  In that vein, he just sent me this piece in a recent publication on the subject:

Feb 12, 2015 (SeeNews) – Brazilian electricity sector watchdog Aneel on Tuesday allowed Perola Energetica SA, a subsidiary of Brookfield Energia Renovavel SA, to acquire two small-scale hydropower projects of a total 46 MW from Silea Participacoes Ltda and partners.Perola will acquire 100% of Phoenix Geracao de Energia SA, responsible for the Verde 4A project, and Savana Geracao de Energia SA, which owns Verde 4, both located in Mato Grosso do Sul state. (more…)

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