Free Republic

This is not what President-elect Barack Obama's energy and climate strategists would want to hear. It would be anathema to Al Gore and other assorted luminaries touting renewable energy sources which in one giant swoop will save the world from the “tyranny” of fossil fuels and mitigate global warming. And as if these were not big enough issues, oilman T. Boone Pickens’ grandiose plan for wind farms from Texas to Canada is supposed to bring about a replacement for the natural gas now used for power generation. That move will then lead to energy independence from foreign oil. Too good...

(AFP) – Hundreds of billions more dollars are likely to be needed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by a 2030 target, according to UN estimates published on Friday ahead of global talks on climate change. The report, to be presented at the December 1-12 conference in Poznan, Poland updates 2007 estimates that said investment to mitigate carbon emissions had to be ramped up in the coming years, reaching between 200-210 billion dollars annually in 2030. The goal, in this benchmark scenario, is to reduce levels of global-warming pollution to 25 percent below 2000 levels in 2030. In the new report, the...

The use of ethanol and other renewable fuels supposedly helps gasoline burn cleaner creating less pollution. It also reduces America's reliance upon foreign oil. Last Monday the Environmental Protection Agency increased the amount of renewable automobile fuels required to be sold in the United States next year from 7.8 percent to 10.2 percent of the 138.5 billion gallons of gasoline projected to be consumed. This mandate mainly directs that higher levels of ethanol be mixed with gasoline. The higher standard is required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, a law that requires the increased use of renewable...

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2008) — Engineers and entrepreneurs are rushing to explore alternative sources of efficient and renewable energy in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country. A Rutgers School of Business—Camden professor has strong words of caution as projects involving wind farms and photovoltaic cells proliferate.With the electric-power industry poised for its most dramatic changes in decades, too little thought is being devoted to coordinating these piecemeal initiatives, warns Richard Michelfelder in a recent edition of The Electricity Journal, the leading policy journal for the electric industry.The consequence, he fears, might well be a disastrous overload of the nation’s...

Adding electricity from the wind and the sun could increase the frequency of blackouts and reduce the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid, an industry report says. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says in a report scheduled for release Monday that unless appropriate measures are taken to improve transmission of electricity, rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions by utilities could impair the reliability of the power grid. The corporation is the industry body authorized by the federal government to enforce reliability rules for the interlocking system of electrical power generation and transmission. Such carbon-reduction rules are already in place in...

It looks like the financial wizards at Goldman Sachs are betting that the U.S. government is going to impose a cap-and-trade system for global-warming emissions sooner rather than later, despite the financial crisis shaking up the corridors of power from Wall Street to Washington. Goldman is announcing today that it will partner with Salt Lake City-based carbon-offset project developer Blue Source LLC. The company, backed by big-time private equity investors First Reserve Corp. and Och Ziff Capital Management Group, sells carbon credits. Neither Goldman Sachs or Blue Source would comment on the size of the investment, other than to say...

Yet another profile of wind crusader T. Boone Pickens aired Sunday night — this time on 60 Minutes — and it had the usual details about the 80-year-old former oil baron’s plan to get the U.S. off its addiction to foreign oil. But 60 Minutes did score an interesting tidbit about how much Pickens and his investment firm BP Capital have lost since oil and natural gas prices started dropping in July: $2 billion! The steep drop in oil and gas prices since July has cut the value of Pickens’ hedge fund in half. . . Overall, Pickens and BP...

Just about everyone knows we’ve got to change our way of life to save the planet. Isn’t it a bit odd, then, to find architects doing the same stuff they’ve always done and going around making out that they’re the eco-warriors to end all eco-warriors? Why is it that the same old glass-walled boxes and tower blocks that were invented in the energy-rich sixties and seventies can do the business for the energy-challenged noughties? Architects have discovered the magic of greenwash. The big idea behind contemporary architecture was that the “new century” (meaning the 20th) was all about the latest...

"GE slashes earnings view for 2008, but shares gain" by Marketwatch shows that General Electric is off about 38% from its high of about 42 only a year ago. Furthermore, "GE currently makes about 45% of its earnings from the financial unit, called GE Capital." From where we sit, General Electric's problems are the direct result of a management belief, as exemplified by the company's membership in the Climate Action Partnership, that the company does not have to create genuine value to earn a profit. As described by Kimberly Strassel's "If the Cap Fits: Why our CEOs are warming to...

DEVELOPMENT of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to address the depletion of resources, according to a UN report. Some 2.3 million people around the world already work in alternative energy jobs with half of them in biofuels, said the report. Speedy creation of the jobs will depend on countries implementing and broadening policies including capping emissions of greenhouse gases, and the shifting of subsidies from the oil and natural gas sector, to new energy including wind, solar and geothermal power, it said. "If we do not...

Albany, N.Y. (AP) -- Connecticut and nine other northeastern states this week will take steps to check global warming by conducting the nation's first carbon auction. Environmental groups, energy producers, and government leaders will be watching closely as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative sells carbon credits in the first of a series of quarterly online auctions. The cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program, which aims to hold carbon dioxide emissions steady through 2014 and then gradually reduce them, is widely viewed as a model for future programs around the globe. The approach is patterned after the acid rain-reducing program targeting sulfur...

Excerpt of first source: Chicago Climate Exchange Names Founding Members Leaders from Automotive, Chemical, Commercial Real Estate, Environmental Services,Electric Power Generation, Electronics, Forest Products, Municipal, Pharmaceutical and Semiconductor Sectors to join North American Voluntary Private Sector Program to Reduce and Trade Greenhouse Gases (CSRwire) CHICAGO,IL - Efforts to develop market-based solutions to global warming reach a milestone today as leading U.S. and international companies and the City of Chicago announce they will be the Founding Members of Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®), a voluntary cap-and-trade program for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions. In an unprecedented voluntary action, these entities have...

MUMBAI (AFP) — The global economic downturn and the crisis in the US financial markets offers the chance for investment in green energy, former US vice-president Al Gore said Thursday. Central banks have thrown billions of dollars at the global credit storm, which has seen stock markets plunge and scalped big banks exposed to the ongoing effects of last year's collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market. Speaking via satellite-link at the launch of Live Earth India concert, where proceeds will go to solar energy projects, the environmental campaigner said the world was at a turning point. Asked by AFP...

Al Gore’s carbon trading business GIM was banked with Lehman Bros. It will be interesting to see how this will play in the future but I suspect that this increases the risk of participating in Carbon trading. Merrill Lynch, was also deeply involved in this business. Last year Lehman Brothers released a long and highly publicized report about climate change in which they preached about decarbonization, trying to make their investors keep getting high profits from the Kyoto carbon trade scheme and the support of huge public subventions. All that, of course, with the applause of the usual choir...

(Credits benefiting industry will expire unless Congress acts) Washington - Green is in these days. From large-scale wind farms to solar panels on homes, schools and businesses, the renewable-energy industry is experiencing rapid growth in Wisconsin and elsewhere. But that growth could stall next year if lawmakers in Washington fail to extend key energy tax credits that have helped fuel a rise in wind and solar power across the country in recent years. With just two weeks to go before Congress’ targeted adjournment, renewable-energy officials worry the tax credits will lapse amid election-year politics and partisan bickering. Democrats want to...

“The moment I read that paper,” the wind entrepreneur Peter Mandelstam recalled, “I knew in my gut where my next wind project would be.” I was having lunch with Mandelstam last fall to discuss offshore wind in general and how he and his tiny company, Bluewater Wind, came to focus on Delaware as a likely place for a nascent and beleaguered offshore wind industry to establish itself. Mandelstam had been running late all morning. I knew this because I received a half-dozen messages on my cellphone from members of his staff, who relayed his oncoming approach like air-traffic controllers guiding...

T. Boone Pickens, Scam Artist, Given Eminent Domain Authority in Texas!By Cary Wesberry • August 2, 2008 All-around jerk T. Boone Pickens has managed to swindle Texas into giving him eminent domain powers.  The State Legislature changed State Law allowing two residents in Roberts County to vote and create a municipal water district, thereby giving them the power to confiscate private property.  The two voters were Pickens’ wife and manager of his ranch.   Regardless of T. Boone Pickens, those responsible for this abomination in my State Legislature need to be held responsible for their probable criminal activity in working behind the backs of the People...

tax for y'all

A leading General Motors executive has called for government loans of up to $50bn to help American car markers build more fuel-efficient cars. Bob Lutz, GM's vice-chairman, warned that major US car manufacturers need the money to re-tool their factories and are unlikely to be able to raise enough capital alone due to tight credit markets. Mr Lutz's comments come against background of ongoing talks between leading US car makers and politicians in recent weeks over enhanced government backing to enable a shift to greener production. The three major US car manufacturers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, are working with the...

For Barack Obama, climate change is change we can believe in. Speakers at the Democrats’ convention this week, by and large, have taken as dim a view of fossil fuels as the Iraq war. If you were quaffing your brew at each mention of "alternative energy" from the podium, you’d have a lot of recycling to do by now. The green theme climaxes tonight, with environmental hero Al Gore setting the stage for the candidate’s address. Since he launched his campaign, Obama has offered remarkably detailed proposals and demonstrated fluency in the language of energy and carbon. He promises a...