Democracy is such a powerful idea that it appears capable of surviving even when the most powerful forces of Earth are trying so desperately to destroy it. It seems that this Monday, our leaders will have the opportunity to nullify a law, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that was made almost five years ago, that currently enables U.S.-based corporations to spend as much as they wish to influence our elections. (more…)
In particular, I see many disparate ingredients coming together simultaneously that are making clean energy, wind in particular, extremely inexpensive. (more…)
Question: Actually, this is a bonus “double question.” Earlier today the California Public Utilities Commission levied a fine against Pacific Gas and Electric, the power company that serves most of the northern part of the state and a bunch of the rest of the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. The penalty was based on the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, a city just south of San Francisco, that destroyed an entire neighborhood, killing eight people and injuring 58. Here are your two questions: 1) How large was the fine? 2) How many separate violations were found?
Relevance: Whenever a company, perhaps a utility like PG&E, or perhaps a DoD mega-contractor like Northrup Grumman, is caught having committed gross violations of the law, particularly when, as in this case, it smashes the public trust to bits, the very first thing it does is invest heavily in an extremely aggressive public relations campaign in an attempt to deal with the rebuke it’s brought on itself through its dishonesty. Here’s one of PG&E’s latest PR blasts, stressing its ostensible heartfelt concern for public safety, in the wake (here’s a hint at the second question) of literally thousands of safety violations that have been rolling along for years before they finally resulted in this catastrophe. If you can think of anything more revoltingly insincere than this series of advertisements–or, if you think I’m over-reacting–I hope you’ll enter a comment here.
I’ve often mentioned that car ownership, the defining paradigm of transportation in the 20th Century, may be on its way out. A great number of events are conspiring to make this happen—one of which is urban planning to support walking and bicycling.
In the main, I’m not a fan of crowdfunding in this space—for the same reason that VCs tend to avoid the subject: it’s capital intensive. You think you’re going to raise a billion dollars a hundred dollars at a clip? Wrong. (more…)
Deutsche Post DHL is the result of the privatization of Germany’s post office and its merger with parcel and logistics giant DHL; its operations around the globe generate annual revenues exceeding 51 billion Euros. Last week, Deutsche Post DHL passed a new milestone of its environmental protection program called “GoGreen” — more than 60 percent of its global electricity demand is now generated from renewable sources. (more…)
The advocacy group for molten sale thorium reactors I came across recently is composed of some really smart people who understand the mechanisms behind climate disruption very well. But astonishingly, many members of the group see solar and wind as unwanted competition. One wrote to the group the other day that he sees the need to promote solar only “because you get more points giving credit to the opposition.”
Seriously? It’s hard to understand how a person can be both super-smart and incredibly childish. People who are honestly concerned about climate disruption and other forms of environmental degradation associated with fossil fuels need to view all potentially cost-effective forms of low-carbon energy as friends, not enemies. I would have hoped it went without saying that advocates of renewable energy face enough challenges from the Koch Brothers and other selfish, malicious pigs; we don’t need to be fighting one another.
Democracy is such a powerful idea that it appears capable of surviving even when the most powerful forces of Earth are trying so desperately to destroy it. It seems that this Monday, our leaders will have the opportunity to nullify a law, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that was made almost five years ago, that currently enables U.S.-based corporations to spend as much as they wish to influence our elections. (more…)
