ThinkProgress Logo

Climate Progress

The secret to low-water-use, high-efficiency concentrating solar power

By Climate Guest Blogger on Apr 29, 2009 at 9:39 pm

Many readers have expressed interest in learning more about the water consumption of concentrating solar power and how measures to reduce it might impact system efficiency and cost.  After my recent CSP post, “World’s largest solar power plants with thermal storage to be built in Arizona,” Michael Hogan wrote in the comments (here) about a low-water-consuming cooling system he had experience with.  I asked Hogan, a long-time power industry executive and currently the Power Programme Director for the European Climate Foundation (bio here), to write a longer piece for Climate Progress.  Here is what he put together, with links and figures (click to enlarge).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:  If concentrating solar power (“CSP”) is a core climate solution, indirect dry cooling systems (also known as “Heller” systems) will be a crucial enabling technology, since large-scale CSP will be located in desert regions. US power companies have long favored direct dry cooling systems for fossil plants, probably because of the visual impact of Heller systems.  But Heller systems have long experience in certain regions and will probably play an important role in the success of large-scale CSP.  This is due to their higher efficiency, smaller footprints, quieter operation, lower maintenance, higher availability, and more flexible site layout.  Heller systems can reduce water consumption in a CSP plant by 97% with minimal performance impact.  The height of the cooling towers should be less of an issue in remote desert locations, especially since the central tower in power tower facilities will be of comparable height.

Read more

Security

Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’

By Satyam Khanna on Apr 29, 2009 at 9:37 pm

In tonight’s press conference, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked President Obama if he believes “that the previous administration sanctioned torture,” in light of Obama’s recent release of Bush-era torture memos. Obama refrained from saying the Bush administration committed criminal acts, but he said, “I do believe that it [waterboarding] is torture.” The President added that the legal guidance that Bush lawyers provided were a “mistake”:

QUESTION: Do you believe the previous administration sanctioned torture?

OBAMA: I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I think that the — whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.

Watch it:

Although Obama has repeatedly said that waterboarding is torture, his response saying that the “legal rationales” were “a mistake” is important because it discredits 9th Circuit Court Judge Jay Bybee’s recent claim that his flawed OLC memos were legally sound.

Yesterday, Bybee “broke his silence” and talked to the New York Times about his torture memos. While anonymous friends of Bybee said that the former OLC head regretted signing off on the torture memos, Bybee defended his memos as legally “correct“:

[H]e said: “The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.” [...]

“The legal question was and is difficult,” he said. “And the stakes for the country were significant no matter what our opinion. In that context, we gave our best, honest advice, based on our good-faith analysis of the law.”

Obama’s belief that the notorious memoranda written by Judge Bybee were legally flawed add further justification to the need for Bybee to resign his seat on the federal court.

Please join our campaign calling on Congress to begin impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee.

Politics

Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference.

By Amanda Terkel on Apr 29, 2009 at 9:09 pm

In tonight’s press conference, Obama spent nearly a full hour answering questions from reporters, who represented media organizations such as the Detroit News, the Associated Press, BET, and all three cable networks — ABC, NBC, and CBS. One outlet that didn’t get a question? Fox News, whose affiliate was the only network station that decided not to air the prime-time news conference. Obama called on Fox News White House Correspondent Major Garrett in his previous two press conferences.

Politics

Specter’s first vote as a Democrat: No on Obama’s budget.

By Ryan Powers on Apr 29, 2009 at 8:39 pm

In a 53-to-43 vote tonight, the Senate followed the House in passing President Obama’s budget. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the budget resolution, but a number of key Democrats including Sens. Evan Bayh (IN), Robert Byrd (WV), Ben Nelson (NE), and most notably Arlen Specter (PA) voted against it. Just yesterday, Specter reportedly said to Obama, “I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.” The budget resolution that passed tonight allowed for health care reform to be implemented using the budget reconciliation process, which Specter expressed his opposition to yesterday.

Climate Progress

Hiatt Stands By His Man, Accuses Critics Of George Will Of ‘Trying To Shut Him Down’

By Brad Johnson on Apr 29, 2009 at 7:45 pm

Fred HiattFred Hiatt, the opinion page editor of the Washington Post, is sticking to his guns in defense of George Will’s egregiously mendacious global warming columns. In an online chat today, Hiatt repeated his claim that Will’s lies were just “inferences,” and lashed out at Will’s critics:

Boston: This doesn’t relate to Obama but would you care to address the whole George Will global warming column controversy? Is there any concern that lax standards for accuracy hurts the prestige of The Post opinion page more generally?

Fred Hiatt: Happy to, because we don’t have lax standards for accuracy. He addressed the factual challenges to his column in detail in a later column. In general we do careful fact checking. What people have mostly objected to is not that his data are wrong but that he draws wrong inferences. I would think folks would be eager to engage in the debate, given how sure they are of their case, rather than trying to shut him down.

When faced with an opportunity to restore the Washington Post’s besmirched reputation, Hiatt instead slung mud. The reality is that Hiatt does have “lax standards for accuracy,” and Will’s errors were both errors of fact and of “inference.” Will, of course, did not address “the factual challenges to his column in detail in a later column” — he added new errors. It’s bizarre that Hiatt is worried for Will’s ability to reach an audience — the man is one of the most widely syndicated columnists in one of the most prominent newspapers in the land, with a weekly appearance on national television. From the beginning, critics have been calling on the Washington Post to run a correction — something that, to this day, Hiatt refuses to do.

(HT: Media Matters)

Update

The Way Things Break, Get Energy Smart Now, and The Loom have more commentary.

Politics

Sands: Bybee should resign to maintain international credibility of U.S. federal courts.

By Ben Armbruster on Apr 29, 2009 at 7:29 pm

impeachbybee.jpgThe Washington Post reported over the weekend that anonymous friends of Judge Jay Bybee said that he had been apologetic for authoring Bush-era memos that legally justified torture. However, The New York Times reports today that Bybee contradicted the Post’s report. “I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct,” Bybee said. NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed international lawyer Philippe Sands and asked him to respond to Bybee’s most recent defense. Sands said that the American federal courts, where Bybee currently sits, “are immensely respected institutions” internationally and that Bybee should resign to preserve their credibility:

SANDS: I think the braver and more honorable thing to do would have been to recognize that he fell into error and I have to say, reading that [New York Times] interview, for the first time I felt really very strongly that this is not a gentleman who really ought to be sitting on the bench of a U.S. federal court.

I mean, sitting here in London, I have to tell you; U.S. federal courts are immensely respected institutions. It’s not a political thing it’s not a left, right thing. These are hugely important courts that our English courts look to, that foreign courts look to and the idea that a lawyer who signed off on waterbording and still thinks today that it is not torture should sit on such a court is frankly distressing and I would say even shocking.

Please join our campaign calling on Congress to begin impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee.

Economy

Conrad Hits GOP’s Small Business Claim: Under Your Definition, Dick Cheney Is A Small Business Owner

By Pat Garofalo on Apr 29, 2009 at 6:45 pm

ap090427020970One of the right wing’s favorite pieces of misinformation regarding President Obama’s budget is that the tax increases he plans to enact on the top two income tax brackets will destroy small businesses. The New York Times’ Caucus blog noted that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) “moved aggressively on Wednesday to counter Republican complaints” in a very original manner:

To prove the Democrats’ point – that only a minute portion of actual small business owners would face a tax increase under the budget plan – Mr. Conrad displayed a poster on the Senate floor featuring a large photograph of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney, who has been vocally critical of the Obama administration, would qualify as a small business owner under the Republicans’ definition, Mr. Conrad said, even though only about $180,000 of Mr. Cheney’s more than $3 million in income in 2007 came from small business interests.

Conrad then “let loose a final dagger“: “I would say, that’s a tortured definition,” he said.

In reality, only 1.9 percent of taxpayers with small business income file in the top two income brackets, and many of those individuals don’t have employees or earn their income through passive investments. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has pointed out that “the $84 of income President Bush received in 2001 from a passive investment in an oil and gas company made him a ‘small-business owner’.”

Politics

Gingrich: After Specter’s Departure, A New ‘Contract With America’ Sounds Like A ‘Very Good Idea’

By Amanda Terkel on Apr 29, 2009 at 6:33 pm

One of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s lasting legacies was his 1994 conservative revolution where he and other Republicans made a so-called “Contract with America.” Over time, the public learned that the real “contract” conservatives were making was with K Street lobbyists who lined the pockets of the right-wing with hefty contributions, helped them maintain power, and were in turn rewarded with undue (and corrupting) influence over policy-making. Leaders of the Republican revolution — such as Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert — left office surrounded by ethics scandals.

Last night, Gingrich — who often tries to find “new, bold” ideas in decades-old proposals — went on Fox News and agreed with Sean Hannity that what America now needs is a new “Contract with America”:

HANNITY: Now look, I’ve been urging a new Contract with America. By the way, and I give you all the credit for the original Contract. … Republicans can be the Party of national security, the can now be the party of fiscal responsibility, of energy independence, free market solution, the American dream. Very simple, but they’ve got to put their name on a piece of paper and they’ve got to promise people, because they made mistakes when t hey were in power. Is that a good idea? Do you think maybe —

GINGRICH: Well, look, I think it’s a very good idea for September of 2010 and I do think the one thing that Senator Specter has done tonight is he’s clarified a lot more decisively that the Republican Party is going to be the Party of lower taxes, less spending, smaller bureaucracy, less power in Washington.

Both Gingrich and Hannity also cheered the fact that the Republican party was becoming more narrowly focused. Gingrich said that Specter “has changed the equation clearly, because it makes the Republican Party a more clearly conservative and significant Party.” Watch it:

Indeed, as Specter himself said yesterday, the GOP has pushed out moderates and “moved far to the right.” RNC Chairman Michael Steele had called for punishing Specter for straying from strict party discipline, and a chorus of hard-right conservatives have been viciously trashing the senator for months.

Last summer, Gingrich also launched his 527 organization American Solutions, which, like his Contract with America — had a flashy slogan about helping the American public while actually serving the interests of lobbyists.

Transcript: Read more

Related Posts

Yglesias

David Leonhardt’s Obama Interview

By Matthew Yglesias on Apr 29, 2009 at 6:25 pm

I don’t think there’s anything earth-shattering in this interview, but it is worth reading if only to take a moment to savor the fact that we have a president who can speak intelligently about a range of policy issues. I also think it’s near that David Leonhardt and the NYT have inserted some HTML “footnotes” into the interview to give some of the facts and specific context that tend to slip out of view when people are talking.

The one thing I would really take issue with here is that I think Obama is unduly optimistic about the idea that we can keep the financial industry basically as is, but regulate it “better.” The pre-crash state of regulation had a lot to do with the political clout and prestige of the institutions in question. If you keep the same institutions in place, I worry that they’ll swiftly recapture the regulators.

Politics

Palin to American Choppers: ‘You’ve got that patriotism in you that people just so respect. Thank you for that.’

By Amanda Terkel on Apr 29, 2009 at 5:47 pm

Thursday episode of “American Chopper” on TLC features an interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), who is leaning against a bear skin in her office. Hosts Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. are visiting Alaska to create a bike to help commemorate Alaska’s 50th anniversary of statehood. Some highlights from the interview:

Q: So you snowmobile?
PALIN: Oh yeah. Snow machine. Yes.
Q: What kind of snowmobile do you got?
PALIN: We’ve got an Arctic Cat. We’ve got a couple of different kinds. Race machines. I inherit whatever Todd rejects from the year prior. … We love those motor sports.

PALIN: You do so many good things for some of the other states, also. You’ve got that patriotism in you that people just so respect. Thank you for that.

ThinkProgress obtained a copy of the interview. Watch it here:

Older

Switch to Mobile
ThinkProgress Signup Overlay Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress

Sign Up