energy
Rates Can be Deceiving
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008This article recently brought up an excellent point on how some rates can be deceiving, and even reduce the likelihood that we will make the right decision. The example involved comparing impressions of fuel efficiency in miles per gallon versus gallons per mile, or gallons per ten thousand miles. While identifying the better of two […]
A First Step Towards the Hydrogen Economy ?
Monday, June 30th, 2008Recent news has highlighted the opening of the first commercial hydrogen fueling station in California. For people who lease hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (the most common user) or some kind of hydrogen combusion engine, they now have one public place in the state of California where they can refuel their vehicles. A few others already […]
Deep Water Offshore Wind Energy
Monday, June 9th, 2008Drilling for Oil is not the only Potential Energy Producing Activity Offshore
While “green” or renewable energy technologies are often seen as the rival against traditional fossil fuel technologies in some kind of epic battle, they can actually sometimes enhance and support each other. Recent news from wind power companies suggests that they may be able […]
Space Solar Power, The Next Leapfrog Technology ?
Monday, June 2nd, 2008Recently, this article on CNN.com revisits the idea of collecting solar power in space and beaming it down to Earth. With such a large world demand for energy expected in the next 20 to 50 years, and declining costs for access to space, could this be the time for this science fiction technology to become […]
Energy Efficiency: Good News onto Deaf Ears ?
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008Energy efficiency is a wonderful investment both for businesses and consumers often paying far better returns than the stock and bond markets. If so, then why don’t we take advantage of it? Increases in efficiency can reduce energy consumption for the same or increasing amount of output. All the while, pollution is reduced and money […]
CAFE Standards and Speed Limits, Round 2
Thursday, May 15th, 2008In this earlier article on the new CAFE standards, I found that depending on the assumptions made for the number of future miles driven, restricting the speed limit to 55 miles per hour would be a more cost effective and more energy efficient solution than changing the CAFE standard. That analysis only considered the total […]
Landfills as an Energy Source
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008As landfills which hold municipal solid waste are closed the emissions from decay of the material in the landfill becomes a pollutant. That pollutant can either contribute to smog and the increase in greenhouse gases, or it can be used as an energy source. A free, environmentally friendly fuel, potentially harmful if released, is not […]
Defining Sustainable Technology
Friday, May 9th, 2008Sustainable technology is an idea that may produce a new level of real progress around the world. But often today, the term is more of a marketing badge that may or may not prove to be true when put to the test. I have written before about sustainable technology and some of the problems with […]
A Way Out of the Politics of Climate Change, Part 5
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Stay Focused on the Big picture
This is the fifth article in a five part series.
In this series, we have been outlining a evidence-based, constructive method to address the issue of climate change. While using this method doesn’t eliminate any disputes, it does change them from one of attacking philosophies, which are not easily changed, […]
A Way Out of the Politics of Climate Change, Part 2
Monday, April 21st, 2008A Root Cause Analysis on the “Failure Mode” of Changing (Increasing or Decreasing) Temperatures.
This is the second article of a five part series.
In the last article I outlined our functional model of the Earth. According to that model to explain why the current temperature of earth is the way it is, we have a primary […]
A Way Out of the Politics of Climate Change, Part 1
Thursday, April 17th, 2008A Risk Assessment Approach to Climate Change Policy
This is the first article of a five part series.
It is difficult to find a more hotly debated public policy issue today than the one about potential regulatory actions related to global climate change. Much of this debate is emotional focused on various groups’ attitudes toward government action […]
CAFE Vehicle Standards Compared to Speed Limits
Monday, April 14th, 2008What would more effectively reduce pollution from small vehicles?
Recently, there was a significant political argument in the United States about the costs and benefits of increasing the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Increased efficiency, the argument went, would reduce the consumption of fuel, and therefore help restrain fuel prices, also reducing pollution from vehicles […]
Distributed or Centralized Solar Energy: Costs and Benefits
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Excuse me, are you going to use all that Sun in one place?
Given present-day concerns about energy independence, pollution control, and energy price stability, solar energy is often touted as one of the (at least partial) solutions to that problem. Solar energy involves making electricity or other useable energy out of light from the […]
The Challenge of Sustaining Sustainable Technology
Monday, April 7th, 2008One small step forward…
While I was serving as a teacher in the small town of Kankalabé (population: ~5000), Guinea in West Africa, the European Union financed a project to install a running water system in that town. The project, of limited benefit, was soon sabotaged and has since been nothing but a monument to unrealized […]