World energy use could be slashed over 70% by efficiency alone
Simple changes like installing better building insulation could cut the world’s energy demands by three-quarters, according to a new study.
Discussions about reducing greenhouse gas emissions usually concentrate on cleaner ways of generating energy: that’s because they promise that we can lower emissions without having to change our energy-hungry ways. But whereas new generation techniques take years to come on stream, efficiency can be improved today, with existing technologies and know-how.
To calculate how much energy could be saved through such improvements, Julian Allwood and colleagues at the University of Cambridge analysed the buildings, vehicles and industry around us and applied “best practice” efficiency changes to them.
Changes to homes and buildings included triple-glazing windows and installing 300-millimetre-thick cavity wall insulation, using saucepan lids when cooking on the stove top, eliminating hot-water tanks and reducing the set temperature of washing machines and dishwashers. In transportation, the weight of cars was limited to 300 kilograms.
They found that 73 per cent of global energy use could be saved by introducing such changes.
US Marines Use Solar Power to Cut Forward Operating Base Fuel Use By 90%
While the RAND Corporation says the US military won’t directly benefit from switching to renewable fuels–that is, it’s own operations won’t benefit, even if the nation will–another just released study says otherwise. The Office of Naval Research, in partnership with the Marine Corps, says it has solid evidence of the benefits of switching to renewable energy at forward operating bases.
The argument in favor of using more renewable energy is one that has been made several times before, in the words of Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, chief of naval research,
By doing so there is the potential for the Marine Corps to cut back the number of resupply convoys to these remote locations and save lives by keeping Marines clear of IED attacks. (Science Daily)
Examples from Afghanistan include using solar panels to charge batteries (in the military’s alphabet soup, SPACES or Solar Portable Alternative Energy Systems) the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines have been able to conduct extended patrols without the need for resupply. Using GREENS (Ground Renewable Energy Networks, a photovoltaic battery system) fuel for generators at Marine Corps forward operating bases testing the system was reduced by 90%.
Siemens Plans Record R&D Spending in 2011 to Harness Clean-Energy Demand
Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, plans to raise spending on research and development to 4.5 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in 2011 as it pours more money into its range of energy-saving equipment.
This year’s budget represents a record when adjusted for disposals, and is a 17 percent increase over last year’s 3.85 billion euros, spokesman Ulrich Eberl said in a Jan. 26 phone interview. The budget for wind-energy products has tripled in the past two years, Rene Umlauft, head of Siemens’s renewable energy division, said in an interview.
Siemens has invested “hundreds of millions” of euros in wind energy since entering the industry with an acquisition in 2004, Umlauft said. The division plans to add at least 2,000 employees to its current 7,000-strong force to help work through a 10 billion-euro backlog.
“We are going to spend a lot of money,” Umlauft said.
The German company, based in Munich, is going head to head with General Electric Co. in the market for turbines, products for the renewable energy industry, and scanners and equipment used in healthcare.
GE, Conoco, NRG Commit $300 Million to Venture to Support Clean Energy
General Electric Co., ConocoPhilips and NRG Energy Inc. have committed $300 million in capital to a joint venture that will invest in emerging energy technology companies.
The investment company, Energy Technology Ventures, will back about 30 startups over the next four years, they said in a joint statement today.
Collaborating with other major energy companies “enables us to pool our financial resources and technological expertise – - along with our extensive relationships — to provide more than money to emerging energy technology companies,” Kevin Skillern, managing director and leader of venture capital at GE Energy Financial Services, said in the statement.
The joint venture will focus on companies that are developing technology for renewable energy, smart grid, energy efficiency, oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, emission controls, water and biofuels.
Energy Technology Ventures’ first investments are in Santa Clara, California-based solar photovoltaic cell maker Alta Devices; Centennial, Colorado-based coal-to-methane technology company Ciris Energy Inc. and CoolPlanetBiofuels, a Camarillo, California-based non-food biofuels developer, according to the statement. It did not say how much money it has provided to them.
Extra U.N. climate talks set for April in Bangkok
Climate negotiators from almost 200 nations will hold an extra session in Bangkok in April to try to unblock work on a successor to the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol for slowing global warming, officials said on Friday.
They said that 2011 is likely to mark a slowdown in the overall number of U.N. meetings about climate change after a rush of talks since 2007 failed to come up with a treaty.
“The session…will be held in Bangkok from April 3 to 8,” according to an official who took part in a video conference meeting this week. The Bangkok talks will gather senior government negotiators.
The meeting adds to an existing schedule of a June session in Bonn, Germany and annual talks among environment ministers in Durban, South Africa, at the end of 2011. Another session is likely to be added between Bonn and Durban.
In Mexico last month, ministers agreed steps including a deal to set up a new fund to channel aid to developing nations as well as a goal of limiting any rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times.
Officials say talks in 2011 will try to fill in the details of many of those plans, including greenhouse gas cuts meant to help avert ever more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels predicted by the U.N. panel of climate experts.
Calderon and Zuma urge US to step up on climate change
Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Jacob Zuma of South Africa, hosts of global climate change summits, on Thursday urged the United States to take stronger action on the issue.
In a debate before business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the leaders regretted that their US counterpart Barack Obama had not once mentioned climate change in his State of the Union address this week.
“The world needs action from the United States,” said Calderon, who last month hosted a climate change summit in Cancun at which countries agreed to deep cuts in carbon emissions in order to slow climate change.
Zuma, who has been working with Calderon and will host the next UN-backed climate summit in Durban before the end of the year, agreed, saying: “We need action in the context of what the world has agreed to do.”
Both men agreed Obama faces domestic political opposition to his taking the lead on the emissions cutting agenda, and said they thought him serious about the issue. But both called for faster action from Washington.
UN climate talks in focus at Davos forum
U.S. businesses must do more to pressure Congress to act on climate change and realize that China is “winning the green race,” world leaders and climate change experts said Thursday at the World Economic Forum.
In a panel discussion at Davos, where some 2,500 business leaders and politicans are gathered, U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said China “is going to leave us all in the dust” in the transition toward a more energy-efficient global economy.
The Chinese, she said, “are not doing it just because they want to save the planet. They are doing it because it’s good for the economy.”
European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said it’s time that American businesses realize that “it’s bad business to not be among the front-runners” in that race.
There is serious concern about how to keep the global economy moving forward while, at the same time, ensuring that people in the developing world are not denied a chance to better their lives without contributing to factors that have caused global warming.
Sen. Barrasso to introduce legislation to block Environmental Protection Agency
Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming plans to introduce legislation Monday to preempt the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to regulate carbon emissions, The Daily Caller has learned. It is the latest move by congressional Republicans who view the agency’s rules as a backdoor attempt to implement a cap and trade system.
“Barrasso’s bill stops this backdoor attempt to enact Obama’s cap-and-trade agenda through EPA and the rest of the federal bureaucracy,” said Barrasso spokesperson Emily Lawrimore. “The Barrasso bill restates and reaffirms the will of Congress as the sole authority over federal climate change policy.”
The bill, however, will go beyond just blocking the EPA. It will stop all federal agencies from implementing new energy taxes that could have a negative effect on employment and energy costs.
Barrasso’s bill builds off an amendment introduced last spring by then-Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich that would have blocked the EPA and individual U.S. states from regulating greenhouse gases.
While Voinovich’s amendment and the climate bill it was attached to never passed, Barrasso has used the Voinovich amendment as a template for his standalone bill. According to Lawrimore, the specifics of the bill are still being worked out.
New Mexico Supreme Court Overrules Tea Party Governor Fighting Climate Law
The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that new Tea Party Governor Susana Martinez violated the state constitution when she prevented New Mexico’s democratically-approved rule reducing carbon pollution from being published as codified state law.
Essentially their supreme court said “no one is above the law.”
The lawsuit was filed by the environmental nonprofit New Energy Economy, and reflects growing claims that Gov. Martinez tried to suppress the rule in an attempt to appease major carbon polluters who contributed heavily to her gubernatorial campaign, and that her suppression was arbitrary and illegal. Preventing its publication was not discretionary, the court ruled. According to eyewitnesses, it seemed as if this New Mexico Supreme Court ruling took just 30 minutes to decide.
Since Governor Martinez is actually a former assistant state attorney, the illegality of her action brought up a question in my mind. I asked Mariel Nanasi, the Executive Director of NEE, wouldn’t she know that was illegal? Nanasi laughed as if this was obvious, saying; “pretty much any attorney in that position would know that this suppression was illegal.”
Senator Who Shot Cap-and-Trade Bill in Ad Named to Energy Panel
The Senate committee with primary jurisdiction for U.S. energy policy added Joe Manchin, the former West Virginia governor who won office after using climate-change legislation for target practice in a 2010 ad.
Manchin will join the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, according to an e-mail yesterday from Bill Wicker, a committee spokesman. The panel, led by Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, plans to draft legislation that sets guidelines for how much electricity comes from sources such as coal, natural gas, wind and sun.
West Virginia is the second-biggest coal-producing state after Wyoming, according to Energy Department data. In his commercial, Manchin loads a rifle and fires a single bullet into a copy of the cap-and-trade bill backed by President Barack Obama that would penalize utilities for using coal.
“Manchin getting a seat on the energy committee is just an indication of the role that coal will play in the energy debate in the coming months,” said Tyson Slocum, energy director of the Washington-based advocacy group Public Citizen. “Coal is going to have its say in all of this.”
Freshmen set to mix up Senate Energy debate
The new makeup of the Senate Energy Committee – including a diverse handful of Tea Party and potentially centrist Republicans – raises major questions about whether it’s possible to reach common ground on a key “clean energy” production mandate and other energy initiatives President Barack Obama has called for.
Five freshmen GOP senators have joined the panel, led by members of the Tea Party movement: Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Utah’s Mike Lee. A Democratic freshman, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, is another new member and potential wild card on a panel that in the previous Congress proved more effective than most committees in hammering out deals across party lines.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) – who worked closely with Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) in 2009 to include a renewable power mandate in a broader energy package passed by the committee – left the Senate to become governor. Also gone from the panel is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) – one of four Republicans that gave backing to the energy measure.
It is unclear whether Paul and Lee will veer farther to the right than the men they succeeded both on the panel and in the full Senate – Sens. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah).
Coal-country lawmakers ramp up push against EPA permit veto
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is launching fresh attacks against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its recent decision to block a large mountaintop-removal mining project in West Virginia.
Lawmakers from West Virginia and Ohio introduced a measure Wednesday that would prevent EPA from vetoing Clean Water Act permits that have already been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) sponsored the bill, and co-sponsors include Reps. Nick Rahall (W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.); and Ohio Republicans Bill Johnson and Bob Gibbs.
Coal-industry allies are furious with EPA over its decision this month to veto the Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 mine in West Virginia after the large project won approval from the Corps in 2007. The new bill would apply retroactively to the beginning of this year, thus blocking EPA’s veto of the mine, McKinley’s office said.
“For years, the EPA has been bullying coal companies and the workers they employ,” the freshman Republican said in a statement. He alleges that if EPA is able to overturn Corps’s permits, “dozens of heavily regulated industries and hundreds of thousands of American jobs hang in the balance.”
House Bill Would Curb EPA Veto Power, Restore Revoked Mountaintop Mining Permit
A West Virginia Republican filed a bipartisan House bill yesterday that would prevent U.S. EPA from retroactively vetoing water permits as it did earlier this month, blocking the largest-ever proposed mountaintop coal mine in Appalachia.
Rep. David McKinley’s legislation (H.R. 457 (pdf)) also aims to reverse EPA’s permit veto by setting an effective date of Jan. 1.
At issue is EPA’s Jan. 13 veto of a Clean Water Act permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers to the proposed 2,200-acre Spruce No. 1 mountaintop mine, citing damage the project would do to the environment and nearby West Virginia communities (Greenwire, Jan. 13).
West Virginia’s congressional delegation bristled in the aftermath of EPA’s veto. The coal-mining industry directly employs 31,000 in Appalachian states and produces about 11 percent of the nation’s coal.
Trade Groups Target EPA, Labor Rules
Business groups have targeted the Environmental Protection Agency along with workplace-safety laws in response to requests from congressional Republicans to describe regulations they believe are curbing growth.
The new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), wrote to dozens of trade associations and businesses last month asking them to identify “regulations that negatively impact the economy and jobs.”
Since then, President Barack Obama announced a review of all regulations, and said in the State of the Union address that “when we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them.”
Responding to Mr. Issa’s call, groups representing the petroleum, manufacturing, construction, paper, chemical and farming industries, as well as small and minority businesses, all criticized the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases.
Republicans have said that they will make all of the responses public by mid-February, along with their assessment of regulations that should be jettison or changed.
Soot Crackdown Lags as EPA Wrestles Other Deadlines
U.S. EPA’s air division has made headlines under President Obama for its push to limit greenhouse gases and toxic pollution, but the busy office is running late with new limits on asthma-inducing soot, close observers of the rulemaking process say.
The Obama administration is nearing a decision point on particulate matter (PM), a pollution cocktail that includes run-of-the-mill dust and the chemical-laden soot that is released when fossil fuels are burned. When the current limits were put in place under President Clinton, the changes prompted an intense backlash from lobbyists and Republicans on Capitol Hill — a debate that will likely be reprised should the Obama administration decide to act.
EPA has said it will decide by next month whether health concerns justify any changes to the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulates.
The soot standards apply from coast to coast, setting a cap on the acceptable amount of dust and soot in the air that Americans breathe. State and local agencies are required to take action when the air in their neck of the woods isn’t clean enough.
U.S. refiner settles Clean Air Act issue
The second-largest petroleum refinery in the United States agreed to pay millions of dollars in damages for Clean Air Act violations, U.S. regulators said.
Hovensa LLC, which owns the second-largest petroleum refinery in the United States, agreed to pay $5.3 million in civil penalties and invest more than $700 million in pollution control equipment to settle Clean Air Act violations at its facility in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S Justice Department announced.
“This is another major step in our efforts, alongside EPA, to bring the petroleum refining sector into compliance with our nation’s environmental laws,” Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division of the Department of Justice, said in a statement.
The federal complaint accused Hovensa of making modifications to its refinery that led to increased emissions without getting the approval from the government as required by the Clean Air Act.
The investments made by Hovensa under the deal will result in the removal of more than 8,000 tons of harmful chemicals that lead to acid rain and smog.
The settlement is the 105th for the EPA, which the regulatory agency said indicates that more than 90 percent of the refining capacity in the United States is under agreements with the government to reduce their emissions.
The St. Croix facility is one of the largest in the world, refining more than 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
JPMorgan Says OPEC Acts to Slow Oil, May Raise Later
OPEC will have to raise oil prices in coming years to maximize revenue even as it acts to quell crude’s rally toward $100 a barrel in the short term, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Indications that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are raising output unilaterally are the first signs of a response to rising prices, said analysts at the second-largest U.S. bank by assets. Crude fell to a five-week low Jan. 24 after Ali al-Naimi, the oil minister of OPEC’s biggest member, Saudi Arabia, said the 12-member group will boost supply this year.
“The producer group does not want oil prices to rise too high, too quickly,” JPMorgan analysts, led by New York-based Lawrence Eagles, said in a monthly report dated yesterday. “But we believe the group has little option but to incrementally raise prices over the coming years to maximize the revenue from each barrel of oil produced.”
Exxon: Global Gasoline Demand To Fall Over 20 Yrs
There will be 400 million more cars on the world’s roads 20 years from now, yet gasoline consumption will decline, according to a projection from Exxon Mobil Corp. in its long-term energy outlook released Thursday.
The world’s biggest investor-owned oil and gas company expects energy use overall will grow 35 percent by 2030, But that growth would be three times higher if people used as much energy per capita as they do now.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in projections of gasoline demand. People in developing countries, especially China, will drive millions of more cars and gas demand will grow, but the cars will be more efficient than those of the past.
Meanwhile, improvements in fuel efficiency in the U.S. and Europe will create a drop in demand that more than matches Asia’s growth. Demand for fuel for passenger vehicles will decline by 20 percent in the U.S. and by one third in Europe by 2030.
Meanwhile, improvements in fuel efficiency in the U.S. and Europe will create a drop in demand that more than matches Asia’s growth. Demand for fuel for passenger vehicles will decline by 20 percent in the U.S. and by one third in Europe by 2030.
Exxon’s long-term energy analysis, updated and released to the public every year, paints a picture of what Bill Colton, vice president, Corporate Strategic Planning called a “tale of two worlds.”
In developed countries like the U.S., Japan, and the nations of Europe, demand for energy will stay flat even as economic activity increases by 60 percent. In developing countries like China, India and Brazil, demand for energy will rise more than 70 percent as more and more people gain access to electricity and transportation
China to import more fuels despite clean energy drive
* Net coal imports to continue growing after record purchases
* Power use to grow at a slower pace of 9 pct this yr
* Starts building 20 GW hydropower this yr, 10 pct of total
* Adding one-third of wind power capacity in 2011
BEIJING, Jan 28 (Reuters) – China will ramp up conventional fuel imports and production to power its economy in 2011 despite accelerating efforts to develop clean, renewable and alternative energy.
The National Energy Administration (NEA) estimated on Friday that energy demand in the world’s second largest economy will increase steadily but the growth could moderate from last year.
It did not provide an estimate of overall energy demand this year or energy used last year.
“China’s net coal imports hit 146 million tonnes in 2010. It could keep increasing in 2011,” Wang Siqiang, deputy head of general affairs department under the NEA, said in a quarterly press conference.
“Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Columbia and Russia will continue increasing their percentages of exports to China along with their rising coal output in 2011.”
Burning ambitions: What is good news for miners is bad news for the environment
IN RICH countries, where people worry about air quality and debate ways of pricing carbon emissions, coal is deeply unfashionable. Elsewhere demand for the dirty rocks has never been stronger. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons world consumption will increase by a fifth over the next 25 years, assuming governments stick to their current climate-change policies. A new age of coal is upon us.
The IEA estimates that China, which generates more than 70% of its electricity with coal, will build 600 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power capacity in the next quarter-century””as much as is currently generated with coal in America, Japan and the European Union put together. Nomura, a Japanese bank, thinks that may be an underestimate. It reckons China will add some 500GW of coal-fired power by as early as 2015, and will more than double its current generating capacity by 2020. It expects Indian coal-fired power generation to grow too””though more slowly.
Even developing countries with vast quantities of coal under home soil will find themselves unable to dig it out quickly enough to meet demand. China, the world’s biggest coal producer by some distance, has turned to foreign suppliers over the past couple of years and is likely to rely on them even more in future. Its voracious appetite for energy and steel means it will need at least 5-7% more coal each year. Citigroup reckons China will import 233m tonnes in 2011. As Daniel Brebner of Deutsche Bank points out, that is considerably more than the annual capacity of Richards Bay in South Africa or Newcastle in Australia, the world’s biggest coal ports.
Energy proposal interests producers
President Barack Obama’s proposed clean energy mandate has more appeal to Iowa industries and electric utilities than do caps on greenhouse gases, but they’ll still be wary of any new policy that could increase power costs.
Obama is calling for the nation to get 80 percent of its power from clean sources by 2035, about double the current level, according to the White House. Nuclear energy and natural gas would count toward the target, as well as wind, solar and clean-coal technology.
The proposal is an alternative to the plan Obama pushed unsuccessfully in the last Congress to cap greenhouse gases and require emitters to buy pollution permits, a provision that Iowa utilities said would force large rate increases. But any kind of power mandate still faces stiff Republican resistance in Congress.
It probably won’t help sell the proposal that it’s coming on top of new environmental regulations that affect utilities.
Europe’s Cap-and-Trade Suspended
The first generation of any innovation””be it a new mobile phone or computer system””always comes with glitches and flaws. But still it’s tough not to feel frustrated this week by news that Europe’s carbon trading market–the first of its kind, and designed as a model for cap-and-trade schemes around the world–has been closed following a digital heist that saw an estimated $38 million of carbon credits stolen.
Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was set up in 2005 to help modernize the continent’s greenhouse-gas emitting industries, and therefore reduce Europe’s carbon footprint. From the outset, companies were either allocated free carbon credits or bought them””if they exceeded their emissions quotas they were forced to buy certificates from companies that managed to reduce their carbon output through efficiency measures. On paper, the scheme has been a success: ETS now covers some 12,000 installations in a $100 billion-a-year market.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Good list of efficiency steps, and as a builder I’m not surprised.
You forgot one thing: microprocessor based hotel room energy management controls. By not blasting the HVAC when there’s no one in the room, the hotel can save 35% on energy, most of it daytime peak rates. The whole world uses them except here in the US. Disclosure: I’m a wholesale dealer/distributor, at mike.greenframe@gmail.com
re: “World energy use could be slashed over 70% by efficiency alone”
One word: Nice!
Driving to work right now I pass a new supermarket going up through all the ice and falling snow we’ve had.
Here in Sweden insulation is a requirement, not a nice to have.
They are putting the outside walls up on the steel frame and roof they have been just finished.
It consists of 6″ of insulation sandwiched between two metal sheets.
Contrast the same in the UK and you’ll see a skin of stamped steel with no insulation.
It doesn’t take much to think it through.
re: “World energy use could be slashed over 70% by efficiency alone”
Throw in behavior change and that figure could go over 100.
United States of Corruption
In a classic case of Orwellian re-framing of debate in order to control an agenda through propaganda, the definition of dirty energy as those producing waste while operating has been changed to “clean.” So the status quo, including most disadvantages and harmful effects, remain intact as uranium and fossil materials extraction and conversion to poisons is planned for global increase.
War is Peace. Matter (mined from the lithosphere) is Energy. We are Sane. America is a Democracy. The Treasury and Budget are under control.
There is an upside to the collapse of the world…
Will climate change burst the global ‘food bubble’?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jan/28/climate-change-food-bubble
upside. “People generally are not directly concerned with rising carbon dioxide levels. It’s very abstract, you can’t see it or taste it. But people understand rising food prices, and those prices are among the most politically sensitive issues.”
Will food be the prompt for the world to take the action science tells us is needed to live sustainably on this planet? He makes a compelling argument.
Meanwhile, as Australia continues to bask in the warm glow of USA’s greenhouse gas emissions, tropical cyclone Anthony has intensified and is expected to cross Queensland’s coast on Sunday night. It is expected to be followed within a week by a category 4 or 5 (!) cyclone currently forming off the coast of Fiji and heading straight for Queensland. On the other side of the country we have cyclone Bianca lining up for a direct hit on the capital city of Perth on Sunday morning.
I hearby coin the phrase “Brown Sunday” .
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/29/3124683.htm
Now now Vic. You forget all that heat accumulated in the centre being driven by winds towards the south. Temperatures of 40+ in the southern capitals tomorrow.
That’s just summer – seeing as we’re not heading for any heatwave records – but it does highlight just how exceptional the weather is. Especially cyclone conditions near Perth. That is *not* a common event.
The collapse of Europe’s emissions trading scheme ought, I believe, to be welcomed. If we go down the market road to nowhere we will just tie our fate to the dubious ‘integrity’ of the finance industry grifters who will dominate this scheme, and its clones elsewhere. Trading emissions will just become another market for speculation, market rigging, lavish ‘fees’ and ‘bonuses’ for the insiders, derivative creation and all the other forms of malfeasance that have brought us successive asset bubbles and bubble collapses in recent years. The essence of these markets is that prices must fluctuate, often wildly, because that is where the speculators make their ‘killings’. A slowly rising price, with as much certainty as possible, is required for the investments needed to bring carbon-free energy sources to industry. But that is the antithesis of what the financiers prefer, and price volatility will be further exacerbated by derivatives that allow even more highly leveraged bets on future prices. We have already seen the nascent market in ‘carbon off-sets’ bedeviled by the usual chicanery and fraud one expects from ‘the markets’. A tax, slowly rising at a known rate, hypothecated to rebates for low earners and to research and development of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency is, in my opinion, markedly superior, more so in that it keeps the banksters’ grubby paws out of the honey pot.
Spinoza on President Obama’s Strategy
In his classic book, ‘Ethics’, Spinoza points out that the sort of harmony that is commonly born of fear, is without trust. And, that fear arises from weakness of mind, and therefore does not pertain to the exercise of reason.
(See Point XVI in Part IV of ‘Ethics’.)
Whether or not I’m interpreting Spinoza precisely on all counts, there is at least some truth in what he seems to be saying.
President Obama seems to be trying to motivate us to become more “competitive”, and to pursue a clean energy transition, mainly by means of a fear that China and India will eat our lunch if we don’t. Fear. “We need to do this, or else!”
That sort of “appeal” and argument does not build much trust or excitement. It might — MIGHT — build some degree of limited short-term cooperation, but without a POSITIVE and ATTRACTIVE VISION, it may well fall flat. Indeed, to me it feels flat and discouraging already. People should be provided with a positive, genuinely good, and attractive vision and reasons why we should aspire to do what we should do. Let’s not be told, mainly, that we should do things out of fear and in order not to be left behind in a seemingly endless competitive race to … where? Instead, let’s help each other understand why we can feel better, and WILL feel better, about ourselves and our human-ness if we work together towards a cleaner, healthier, more green, more sustainable, more just, more sensible future for EVERYONE in the world. Vision is not the same as fear.
Also, fear and anxiety are not very conducive to creativity and excellent thinking. So, I think that there are some distinct disadvantages associated with working mainly from a “competition” and “fear”-based argument. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t name and talk about the problems we need to face and address. Indeed, we should. We must. But, the bulk of our motivation, if we want our motivation to be healthy and lasting and creativity-inducing, should derive from a genuinely positive vision and an appeal to human potential and ideals. Our motivation will be hollow, I think, and not robust, if it must primarily come from the “do this or else” fear-based standpoint. Have we resigned ourselves to the idea that we (in the U.S.) will only do things if we’re afraid that China will eat our lunch if we don’t do them? Have we resigned ourselves to the idea that we will only do things out of some felt need to be “Number One”, and to what other end? The whole thing, it seems to me, is saddening and hollow.
In any case, Spinoza’s point — about trust and etc. — has some truth to it.
Be Well,
Jeff
Jeff #9, I’d comment on Obama’s intentions and future prospects, but my last four posts outlining my theory of his Presidency and its course have all been removed, so I’ll save my breath.
The weather records keep toppling here in Australia. Must be some form of coal-karma.
A small town in the “red centre” has endured a string of 9 days of temperatures above 42C (108F). The previous record was 6 days.
Fancy that, in the middle of a strong La Nina which has actually brought cooler temperatures to the continent.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/29/3124776.htm
Good piece on efficiency, but maybe they should have stuck with changes that are realistic in the near term. As they seem to acknowledge to some degree, things like 300 kilogram cars are unlikely to be mainstream anytime soon. And I’m not sure I trust Big Oil projections of significantly reduced fuel demand in developed nations and steadily growing nuclear power. Who needs any extra effort toward an accelerated transition from fossil fuels with projections like that, eh?
Ice loss from Greenlan upgraded to 600Gt according to GRACE data.
http://www.skepticalscience.com/Latest-GRACE-data-record-ice-loss-in-2010.html
Good article on potential of efficiency and why I think Passive House should be a candidate as a Core Climate Solution – BUT A VERY IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION IS NEEDED!
Contrary to what was stated in the article, folks can open the windows in winter and we will still get such drastic energy savings – no need to lock people up! The Passive House Institute has done extensive testing on occupied projects and found that there is a curve of efficiency results due to occupant actions for sure – but because the buildings work so well the range of efficiency is still very tight and over a given population you still achieve the 90% reduction in heating and cooling demand and up to 70% in overall energy demand. This is very important! People can live normal lives in these very well built buildings – and we can be serious about saving the climate!
The question, as always, is about scaling up – Passive House Institute U.S. (www.passivehouse.us) and the National Passive House Alliance (on which i’m privileged to be a founding board member http://www.phalliance.com) are rolling out training for professionals – we need an army of builders, architects and engineers to really make it a reality. We also need regulations that, if not demand it, help create significant demand for it.
If we are able to roll out retrofits and new construction to PH standards we would be making huge contributions to energy savings (40% of ALL ENERGY is consumed by building operations!) I’d like to see it even get it’s own wedge or two! :)
I’ve not commented much here on Climate Progress in the last year because I’m up to my eyeballs in this effort. I’m currently completing a Passive House retrofit in Brooklyn Heights among a range of organizing activities (www.nypassivehouse.org) – if anyone is interested in finding out more send me an email – link through my name.
“China will add some 500GW of coal-fired power by as early as 2015, and will more than double its current generating capacity by 2020.”
That light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming at us. It is a stinger missile called China.
John McCormick
Will Obama’s ‘Sputnik moment’ fly?
China’s economic rise poses challenges, but comparisons to the U.S.-Soviet space race may be risky.
One of those categories that Obama highlighted is research in solar power, but the same could be said more broadly about American support for renewable energy and research and development in general.
Unlike the Soviet Union and Japan, which in the ’80s was the bogeyman for the U.S. economy, China’s huge and more open markets represent a double-edged sword as American companies aggressively expand in the world’s most populous and second-largest economy.
“Because it has so much potential, the technology will go to where the markets are,” said Tom Gage, chief executive of AC Propulsion Inc., a San Dimas maker of high-tech batteries and drive systems for electric vehicles.
He should know. Gage’s firm is building a second, much bigger plant in China, attracted by real estate benefits, tax breaks and the promise of product purchases by opportunistic officials eager for American technology.
“The directive is clearly understood at the provincial and the local levels that they need to promote the EV industry,” Gage said, referring to electric vehicles.
Gage, who isn’t planning research and development in China, said he was encouraged by Obama’s speech but hoped it would be followed up with concrete policy steps. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-china-sputnik-20110130,0,5940908.story?page=2
John McCormick said “That light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming at us. It is a stinger missile called China.”
Nice metaphor ; )
Imagine if the weight of cars was limited to 75 pounds instead of 660 pounds!
Response to: “World energy use could be slashed over 70% by efficiency alone . . . In transportation, the weight of cars was limited to 300 kilograms.”
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1736
For thirty days and thirty nights the rain fell in unending torrents. By the end of the biblical deluge, rivers of water ten feet deep flowed through the streets of Sacramento, and an astounding 29.28 inches of rain had fallen on San Francisco.
If the planet continues to warm, as expected, the odds of such an event will at least double by 2100, due to the extra moisture increased evaporation from the oceans will add to the air. A group of scientists, emergency managers, and policy makers gathered in Sacramento, California earlier this month to discuss how the state might respond to a repeat of the 1862 rain event–the ARkStorm Scenario. The “AR” stands for “Atmospheric River”, the “k” for 1,000 (like a 1-in-1000 year event), and of course “ARkStorm” is meant to summon visions of biblical-scale deluge, similar to the great flood of 1862. The team’s final report envisions the most expensive disaster in world history, with direct damages and loss of economic activity amounting to $725 billion.
Revised Figures Show Federal Economists Understate the Cost of Climate Impacts
* Published: January 26th, 2011
By Douglas Fischer, Dailyclimate.org and Nicole Heller, Climate Central
Preliminary analysis suggests impacts from climate change could run twice as high as previous estimates, potentially giving regulators more firepower to justify emissions-cutting regulations.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/revised-figures-show-federal-economists-understate-the-cost-of-climate/
Food for thought….food prices cause commodity price rise
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/930742–egypt-chaos-could-push-oil-to-100-a-barrel
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery was up 40 cents at $89.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract shot up $3.70, or 4.3 per cent, to settle at $89.34 on Friday.
Amid the instability in Egypt, jittery traders have pulled money from stocks to buy oil, gold and the dollar, which are considered less risky in uncertain times.
The uprising in Egypt follows protests this month that forced out the president of Tunisia, who fled to Saudi Arabia. Anti-government protests have also rocked Lebanon and Yemen.
Even if the unrest doesn’t spread to a major oil producer in Africa or the Middle East, “the risks are still high as Egypt plays a key role in the global oil markets” because of the Suez Canal and Suez-Mediterranean pipeline which are major conduits for Persian Gulf oil to reach Europe and North America, according to Monday’s Schork Report on the energy markets.
Routes and pipelines passing through Egypt carry 2 million barrels of crude a day, said analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Just as the saying in Cricket,EACH RUN SAVED IS EACH RUN EARNED and so also in ENERGY,EACH KILOWATTHOUR SAVED IS EACH KILOWATTHOUR GENERATED.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India