Energy
Climate Change
Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut
The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
Commentary
Environmentalists Oppose Mojave Desert Solar Power
Environmental groups advocating for land conservation and protection of endangered species are lining up in opposition to measures to expedite solar energy projects on federal lands, particularly in the Mojave Desert, announced by Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar on June 29. Loss of Water, Habitat With solar power plants having ...
Business & Economics
Unions using environmental rules to block non-union plants
Following The New York Times piece exposing greenmail – a union tactic to hijack green construction and implement wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on energy related projects in California (“Labor Sees Green in Solar Plants in California: A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants,” 6/19) ...
Business & Economics
A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants
SACRAMENTO — When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk. By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed ...
Commentary
Is Big Oil a crusader against greenhouse gases?
Over the past eight years, which industry has invested the most to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases? You might be thinking of windmills or solar panels. Or maybe those folks who are trying to make energy out of pond scum … er, algae. But according to a new industry-funded ...
Blackouts
Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution
Earth Day is fast approaching, yet despite the awareness this day brings, most people are powering their computers with electricity from coal-burning power plants, delivered by “dumb” networks. Change is long overdue, and it’s not a difficult matter. The electricity grid’s basic structure hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison came ...
Business & Economics
U.S. can’t afford Obama’s plans or the taxes that go with them
The pork-laden “stimulus” bill that President Obama recently signed contained more than $100 billion in new government health-care spending. If the president and his congressional allies have their way, though, that’s just the beginning of a vast expansion of government funded health care. Two recent studies from the nonpartisan Congressional ...
Energy
Green Jobs?
As I wrote back in 2007, “Investing in renewable energy will provide a clean source of power and create an explosion of new jobs. In late September [2007], this claim attracted the attention of the U.S. Senate Energy and Public Works Committee and its chair, Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer. ...
Commentary
Is it about time to pull the plug on windpower? Can taxpayers afford another ethanol boondoggle?
Home Energy Savings, December 31, 2008 Yahoo Answers, December 31, 2008 Resolved Question: Is it about time to pull the plug on windpower? Can taxpayers afford another ethanol boondoggle? “According to a recent report by the National Renewable Technology Laboratory (DOE), wind energy could account for 20 percent of the ...
Commentary
Don’t give electric cars the inside track
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Oregon Governor Vetoes Bipartisan Subsidy Cut
The Oregon state legislature passed a bill reducing runaway renewable energy subsidies in an effort to help balance the state budget, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) killed the bill with a veto. Now Oregon, which already faced a budget shortfall, may have to find an additional $50 million in its ...
Environmentalists Oppose Mojave Desert Solar Power
Environmental groups advocating for land conservation and protection of endangered species are lining up in opposition to measures to expedite solar energy projects on federal lands, particularly in the Mojave Desert, announced by Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar on June 29. Loss of Water, Habitat With solar power plants having ...
Unions using environmental rules to block non-union plants
Following The New York Times piece exposing greenmail – a union tactic to hijack green construction and implement wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on energy related projects in California (“Labor Sees Green in Solar Plants in California: A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants,” 6/19) ...
A Move to Put the Union Label on Solar Power Plants
SACRAMENTO — When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk. By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed ...
Is Big Oil a crusader against greenhouse gases?
Over the past eight years, which industry has invested the most to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases? You might be thinking of windmills or solar panels. Or maybe those folks who are trying to make energy out of pond scum … er, algae. But according to a new industry-funded ...
Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution
Earth Day is fast approaching, yet despite the awareness this day brings, most people are powering their computers with electricity from coal-burning power plants, delivered by “dumb” networks. Change is long overdue, and it’s not a difficult matter. The electricity grid’s basic structure hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison came ...
U.S. can’t afford Obama’s plans or the taxes that go with them
The pork-laden “stimulus” bill that President Obama recently signed contained more than $100 billion in new government health-care spending. If the president and his congressional allies have their way, though, that’s just the beginning of a vast expansion of government funded health care. Two recent studies from the nonpartisan Congressional ...
Green Jobs?
As I wrote back in 2007, “Investing in renewable energy will provide a clean source of power and create an explosion of new jobs. In late September [2007], this claim attracted the attention of the U.S. Senate Energy and Public Works Committee and its chair, Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer. ...
Is it about time to pull the plug on windpower? Can taxpayers afford another ethanol boondoggle?
Home Energy Savings, December 31, 2008 Yahoo Answers, December 31, 2008 Resolved Question: Is it about time to pull the plug on windpower? Can taxpayers afford another ethanol boondoggle? “According to a recent report by the National Renewable Technology Laboratory (DOE), wind energy could account for 20 percent of the ...
Don’t give electric cars the inside track
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
