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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

We’ve had discussions recently on the amount of subsidies that the fossil fuel industries receive from the federal government here in the U.S. To be sure, there is a great deal of hanky-panky played with these numbers. Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that the accounting method and total number that one chooses is often a function of the case one’s trying to make.

Normally, I simply say that it doesn’t matter; any amount is too much. After all, why on Earth would we want to provide incentive to promote damage to our ecosystems, weaknesses to our national security, lung disease, etc., especially when the subject industry is already the most profitable one on the planet?

But when I read a comment from “Pierre” earlier today: “How much is the ‘polluter not paying’ subsidy worth?” it started me thinking about this. This is a brilliant point, in that there are a ton of subsidies that this whole discussion normally sidesteps:

• The cost of the wars fought to maintain access to oil (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

It’s the 109th anniversary of the first sale made by the Ford Motor Company: a Model A. From that moment, the concept of automobile ownership grew steadily and rapidly in importance in the American psyche; in fact, it expanded to the point that many people felt that their car made a more important statement than their home, their education, or anything else about them.

Fortunately, I think people are beginning to rethink this sad notion. Of course, the environment and our chance for survival within it will benefit greatly from smaller cars – not to mention fewer cars and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Dr. Hugh Donahue reached out to me late last week and discussed the projects he has under way re: generating small amounts of electricity in wearable fabrics. The projects invoke photovoltaics in the form of thread, and also piezoelectricity, i.e., converting the mechanical energy of putting stress on an object (in this case a thread) into electricity.

Below is a paper Hugh just send me; the entire piece with extensive end notes can be downloaded here.   (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I just had a very interesting phone conversation with Robert Rapier, one of the world’s most senior observers of the energy industry. We discussed the piece I wrote the other day called Energy, the Environment and Climate Change, which I based on his article: The Danger of Misinformation about Climate Change. He made a few points that are difficult to argue:

First, there needs to be less rancor about existence and scope of climate change. Scientists with legitimate, unbiased information should have the opportunity to present their findings, regardless of what those findings are.

Again, it’s hard to disagree with this, as long as what you’re NOT talking about is pseudo-science on climate change proffered by those with an agenda. When people realize that they’re being told lies (and yes, this has happened, and continues to happen) they get upset; I’m sympathetic to that. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Robert Hennkens, a regular reader whose presence here I value greatly, introduced me this afternoon to Dr. David Vernon, and asked him to write a piece for us here at 2GreenEnergy, which I’ve reproduced below. I note from his CV that Dr. Vernon holds a BS in Forestry from Penn State, an MA in Botany from Cal State LA, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from Indiana State.  He writes, “PSU Forestry requires courses in economics, finance and business management. I took climatology at Cal State. I have over 100 credits in Life Sciences and 15 in Earth Sciences. I am a member of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science).”

Here’s his article on climate change.  I hope you’ll find it as compelling as I did.

In 1971 I took a class in climatology. The subject of global warming came up. The attempt to measure the average temperature of the world was begun by Isaac Newton and the Royal Society in the 1600s. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

If you’re looking for some critical thinking on our civilization’s use of energy (including renewables) you may want to check out the writings of Ozzie Zehner. 

It’s clear that Zehner has a lot of this correct. In particular, our paradigm for transportation that was forged in the 20th Century will not work in the 21st, and yanking out an internal combustion engine and replacing it with an electric drive train is not an effective response. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

A reader asked that I comment on this fairly euphoric piece, suggesting that the world economy can and will be revived with the aggressive adoption of electric transportation and photovoltaics. Here are a few bits and pieces of my reaction.

• There are quite a number of industry observers who share optimism associated with the economic impact of a huge investment in cleantech. As I wrote here, probably the most visible are Amory Lovins and Jeremy Rifkin, but there are plenty of others.

• For my money, the low-hanging fruit here is not actually renewable energy at all, but (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A reader comments:

We may not engender sufficient change to tip the balance before things become irreversibly critical, but at least it can be said that we gave it our best.

Exactly, my friend. I’m reminded of the heady days of business consulting, with all the pressure of employees/payroll, demanding clients, an ever more demanding partner, frequent travel, etc. One of my favorite things to say in meetings was this: “I can’t promise that we’ll achieve … (a certain goal). But I can tell you this for sure: if we miss it, it won’t be because we didn’t try our best.”

It’s very gratifying to know that there are so many good people who see how horribly wrong things are going with the respect to the environment, and are working hard to get them back on course.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

An old friend from college called this morning to alert me to this documentary on climate change called “Chasing Ice.” Apparently it’s quite artsy; it won an award at the Sundance Film Festival.

I’m sometimes invited to screenings of works like this before they’re released; I’m sure hoping that will be the case here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

Congratulations to Aedan Kernan (2GreenEnergy contributor) and our other friends in the UK. Your fine country received top honors in terms of energy efficiency rankings — #1 out of the 12 nations considered.

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a Washington DC-based non-profit just published its first-ever International Energy Efficiency Scorecard. The report places the U.S. 9th on the list and notes: “(the U.S. has made) limited or little progress toward greater efficiency at the national level.”

As long as Americans can have electricity at 11 cents per kWh and there’s lots of cold beer at the grocery store, the sad truth is that the bulk of us really don’t care. The issue, of course, is that, when one adds in the externalities of generating that electricity, the costs are huge – to every living thing on the planet.

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