Frequent commenter and colleague Tim Kingston sent me this piece about the burden that environmentalism places on the poor and asks: Are things really this bad in CA?
I respond:
Of course, a tax on our consumption of energy hits the poor hardest. (more…)
Here’s another in a series of fairly sophisticated discussions on the LCA (lifecycle analysis) of electric vehicles versus internal combustion engines, showing the exact fallacies in the reports that conclude that EVs are worse for the environment.
At the end of the day, however, it really comes down to how EVs are charged, and it’s unclear if the author of this article understands this fully. From his comments about solar and wind, he seems to think that the average grid mix is important here, and that’s false. What matters is the typical response to incremental load onto the grid in the middle of the night when we charge our cars. If that’s met with coal, the results are far worse than if it’s met with anything else.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, is shuttering eight coal-fired boilers at plants in Alabama and Kentucky, and more reductions could be in store over the next few years. At issue, apparently, is the high cost of retrofitting these plants with modern technology to minimize emissions.
I can understand that it’s emotionally hard to close plants and displace workers. (more…)
My colleague Stuart Smits, who’s all over the financial world as it applies to solar energy, just sent me this piece on SolarCity’s sales of asset-backed securities at 4.8% (far less than was expected), and wrote tersely, “A very big deal.”
Though I’m not a finance guy, it’s clear that anything that lowers the cost of capital associated with expanding the world of solar is very good news, in that it means lower levelized cost of energy and power-purchase agreements at lower rates, i.e., more competitive with fossil fuels.
The 2014 Clean Business Investment Summit (which we abbreviate CBIS and pronounce “C-Biz”) held its first planning meeting this morning. I’ve been proud of the role I’ve played here (member of the Board of Advisors) since I joined in 2010, chiefly because this event, held in late summer, has been fairly effective in helping cleantech start-ups raise the seed capital they need to go forward. (more…)
Yesterday was the birthday of St. Augustine (354 CE). I remember laughing out loud when I came across this in his “Confessions” (ca. 400 CE) in a “History of Philosophy” class in college:
‘What did God do before he made heaven and earth?’ I do not give the answer that someone is said to have given, evading by a joke the force of the objection: ‘He was preparing hell for those prying into such deep subjects.’ I do not answer in this way. I would rather respond, ‘I do not know.’
I’m with you, Augustine. I think it’s up to all of us to figure out what’s going on here – including the notion, for those who believe in the Supreme Being, of what a loving God asks from the race of people He created. I happen to like what a friend of mine told me recently: “I view God, the Creator, as the Supreme Artist. How can we expect Him to regard humankind, defecating, as we are, on His artwork?”
I urge readers to check out today’s issue of “The Writer’s Almanac,” in particular the article on the anniversary of the first street car in New York City (in 1832). To me, it calls upon two important ideas, the first, obviously, is the concept of mass transit, and how important it has been to local residents and visitors, even in the early 19th Century. Why anyone in “The City” would want to own a car is beyond me. (more…)
The benefits of the so-called “green” cleaning has long been discussed in certain society and professional circles mostly by people, who work for different cleaning companies and people who provide households and specialized businesses with a variety of detergents, but also by a great number of housewives, who really care about the health and well-being of their families. (more…)
It’s clear that inductive charging will someday replace the “plugging in” experience for the EV driver. Qualcomm’s purchase of Halo a few years ago was a clear signal to me that this idea has some real push behind it, as I haven’t seen Qualcomm make too many mistakes in backing technologies that are poised to explode.
Having said that, I don’t believe the jive (and I’ve heard it a great deal) that most people will shun electric transportation because they refuse to handle a physical plug; I see very little evidence of that. What I do see is (more…)
Solar energy continues to gain traction as a mainstream idea for both homeowners and businesses alike. The rush to move to sustainable and green energy has begun to become entrenched deeper in America; who happens to be far behind the green movement as opposed to European countries. Although solar technology has been around for decades, most Americans have relied on the electric grid and fossil fuels to power their homes; with the costs of powering homes and businesses rising, the quest to access efficient, cheap and unlimited power is growing. (more…)
