Please enjoy today’s energy debate watch, a collection of news stories and perspectives about energy, environment and climate related issues. These articles are provided to keep Terra Rossa readers informed about the current public energy debate but are not intended to express the views of the blog. Let us know your thoughts on these articles or tell us about other current items of interest in the comment thread below.
Strong CAFE needed
Washington Post, 06.20.07
WHEN IT COMES to corporate average fuel economy standards — CAFE — the Senate’s massive energy bill strikes a reasonable position. All cars and light trucks, up to 10,000 pounds, should have a CAFE of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Each year after that until 2030, CAFE would increase 4 percent over the previous year. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) are pushing a weaker alternative that is expected to be voted on today. It deserves to fail.
_____________________________________
Pork, the new green meat
Wall Street Journal, 06.20.07
Al Gore (among many others) deserves a hand for conjuring up the present mood of public acquiescence to legislative proposals aimed at global warming. Over to you, Congress: Whether we face a climate crisis, we certainly now face a climate pork crisis.
_____________________________________
China overtakes US as top CO2 emitter: Dutch agency
Washington Post, 06.20.07
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - China has overtaken the United States as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because of surging energy use amid an economic boom, a Dutch government-funded agency said on Wednesday.
_____________________________________
New ways to monitor your energy use
Wall Street Journal, 06.19.07
Peter and Suzanne Price haven’t paid a monthly electricity bill since June 2006, but not because they’re living off the grid. They’re participating in a pilot program in Sacramento, Calif., that lets them buy electricity on a prepaid basis.
_____________________________________
Crunch time on energy
New York Times, 06.19.07
The Senate will tell us this week whether it really wants to do something about oil dependency and global warming or if it is just fooling around.
_____________________________________
Energy woes
USA Today, 06.19.07
Now that food prices are jumping in part because so much of the nation’s corn crop is being diverted to ethanol production, the latest bright idea in Washington is to turn coal into car fuels.
_____________________________________
Times and facts have changed; ditch the coal plan
Tallahassee Democrat, 06.19.07
A recent editorial in the Democrat correctly notes that since the 2005 coal referendum, circumstances and cost estimates regarding the Taylor Energy Center have changed. This is an understatement.
_____________________________________
Democrats press plan to channel billions in oil subsidies to renewable fuels
New York Times, 06.18.07
WASHINGTON, June 16 — Senate Democrats are seeking a major reversal of energy tax policies that would take billions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits from the oil industry to underwrite renewable fuels.
_____________________________________
Energy legislation aims to curb nation’s reliance on foreign oil
Investor’s Business Daily, 06.15.07
Congress is moving toward approving a sweeping energy bill this week that will require carmakers to drive up fuel economy of their vehicles and force the power industry to switch over to alternative energy sources.
_____________________________________
Global warming to multiply world’s refugee burden
Washington Post, 06.18.07
BEIRUT (Reuters) - If rising sea levels force the people of the Maldive Islands to seek new homes, who will look after them in a world already turning warier of refugees? The daunting prospect of mass population movements set off by climate change and environmental disasters poses an imminent new challenge that no one has yet figured out how to meet.
_____________________________________
Coal-to-liquid Boondoggle
Washington Post, 06.18.07
COAL-TO-LIQUID fuel is being touted in the Senate energy debate as a key to overcoming America’s dependence on foreign fuel. The argument is understandable, considering that the United States sits atop the largest coal reserves in the world, by one estimate a 200- to 450-year supply. But unanswered questions and environmental concerns raise the prospect that the price for this brand of energy independence may be too high.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Alternative Energy Technology, Climate Change, Eco-Business Strategies, Energy Debate Watch Articles, International Environmental News, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:17 pm
You might wnt to google “Polar cities” and see the ftuure…
June 25th, 2007 at 12:58 am
I may get kicked off here as I am Democrat, but my view is that we should all be relieved that we were able to get a majority vote to reject both the coal to liquids amendmendments.
What good is it to have a 400 year supply of something that will destroy our civilization in 150. We can and must move to green energy, theres a ton of exciting prospects for real alternatives.
Its almost as if God is testing us. We found out about the dangers of the hole in the Ozone layer just in time to stop destroying ourselves by peeling off our atmosphere. Imagine if we had been using those chemicals in the 1800s say, before we could really do scientific stratospheric measurement. We’d be extinct now.
And now we know JUST IN TIME (I hope) that we must change how we power our civilization or CO2 levels will change our world faster than in any previous natural climate change, like 250 million years ago. And to think we can survive while all around us are going extinct is foolish. We are part of a complex web of life that is interdependant.
June 26th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Susan dear, I’m sure nobody will kick you off, but we may believe that you have aquired your global warming beliefs from the MSM (main stream media) which explains why you are a democrat. Also you state that our ‘web of life’ is interdependent. If that were true, then how is it that humans can and do live in every part of the planet, be it desert, tundra, jungle, mountain, swamp, or plane ?
Nevertheless, please explain how the human race is doomed by increased CO2.
Then, what can you or we do about it and how ?
I have proposed that a machine be developed that randomly collects CO2 from the air, and removes the C and drops it in a drum, and releases the O2 which will help patch that pesky ozone hole. However, I have no clue how this machine would work.