Weathervane

Mar15

Monday's Reads

NYT: A new report finds health care costs are adding up in California as air pollution is making people sick and costing insurers nearly $200 million a year in hospital costs.

FT: The Copenhagen blame game continues as new details emerge about China’s role in the outcome of the conference.

NYT: Basic tools to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings with simple retrofits—like caulk and insulation—are almost entirely manufactured in the USA.

ClimateWire via NYT: Stopping payments to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2008 saved U.S. taxpayers some $600 million.

Reuters: According to a new survey, Australia's pension funds industry, the fifth largest in the world, is dragging its feet on climate change risk when making investment decisions.

FT: Peak oil: fact or fiction?

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-15-10 | 0 Comments

Mar11

Thursday's Reads

Morning Reads

Grist: Dave Roberts explains the Rural Energy Savings Program and why it may lead to lower energy bills, new jobs and broader support for comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

FT: Is it time to start taking stock of water’s role in energy production?

Reuters: French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to push the G20 to impose a tax on financial transactions to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations fight climate change.

NYT: An international group of scientists will review the practices and procedures behind the IPCC’s report on global climate change to assess where improvements can be made in the future. Andrew Revkin has his take on the measure here.

WSJ: Editorial takes Obama administration to task for not acting broadly enough, quickly enough to expand domestic oil exploration and nuclear power generation.

And Nathan Richardson reminds us that (contrary to the opinion of Gar Lipow) a price on carbon is the best way to make any emissions reduction progress, at the Progressive Fix.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-11-10 | 0 Comments

Mar10

Wednesday's Reads

Morning Reads

NYT: China and India have officially agreed to “associate” themselves with the international climate deal reached last December in Copenhagen. The two developing nations are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases on the planet.

ClimateWire via NYT: With unknown effects on overall human health and well being, climate change could soon reach further into the insurance industry.

Reuters: Senators are hoping a rebranding of cap and trade can get the legislation renewed support in Congress and among the American people. Meanwhile, the president continues to push for the climate control action.

Reuters: Action in the voluntary carbon market is leaving something to be desired.

Grist: So getting the price of carbon right is important in achieving emissions reductions at an affordable price, but is it the only thing to worry about?

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-10-10 | 0 Comments

Mar09

Tuesday's Reads

Morning Reads

NYT: New research from Stanford University is attempting to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions that go into imports and exports to help policymakers decide which countries should bear the responsibility for the pollution.

Reuters: South Korea is taking a new approach to public transit, debuting wire-free transportation technology that borrows from electric toothbrushes and razors to power buses and cars.

NYT: What can the rest of the world learn from Spain’s failed solar energy boom?

Bloomberg: The same day the EPA released its final consideration of the Bush-era Johnson memo, Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency has no plans to set up its own cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gases.

ClimateWire via NYT: A look at what issues may pull fence-sitting senators on board as whips work to wrangle every last vote for comprehensive climate and energy legislation in the Senate.

Grist: Are policies that incentivize behavioral changes a silver bullet for energy policy?

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-09-10 | 0 Comments

Mar08

Monday's Reads

Morning Reads

ClimateWire via NYT: Will geography give the Great Plains an unfair advantage in wind power generation?

Grist: Why not implement tools that have worked in the past to gain the momentum and political support required by Congress to address climate change?

WSJ: A recap of last week’s ECO:nomics conference and some insights into what the future may be at the intersection of energy, environment and finance.

And on the heels of new research that suggests melting undersea permafrost could be releasing stores of methane into the atmosphere, some further analysis from TNR and DotEarth.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-08-10 | 0 Comments

Mar05

Friday's Reads

Morning Reads

NYT: According to emerging research from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, degrading undersea permafrost off in the Arctic Sea could lead to a dangerous increase in emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 25 times the heat of carbon dioxide. This and other research underscores the importance of monitoring pollutants beyond carbon dioxide, as Bradford Plumer explains at the Vine.

WaPo: Editorial points to the changes consumers made when gas prices spiked in 2008 as evidence that a fuel tax could be a positive step toward American emissions reductions.

AFP: Victims of Hurricane Katrina have filed a class action lawsuit against greenhouse gas emitting multinational corporations. According to the filing, “operation of energy, fossil fuels, and chemical industries in the United States caused the emission of greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming” and the increase in global surface air and water temperatures “in turn caused a rise in sea levels and added to the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina, which combined to destroy the plaintiffs’ private property, as well as public property useful to them.”

ClimateWire via NYT: A carbon capture and sequestration project in West Virginia is ready to take its operations to the next level, according to the project’s top official.

Reuters: Business leaders in energy say they are looking to Congress to better define the shape of possible climate control programs so they can better plan for the future. But—from WSJ—at least one major corporation isn’t waiting on Washington. Meanwhile, Kim Strassel is nervous carbon control will get in through the back door, as insurance regulators are working to factor the risks of a warming planet into their modeling.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-05-10 | 0 Comments

Mar04

Thursday's Reads

Morning Reads

NYT: Reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, as framed in the Obama administration’s plan for emissions reductions, will necessarily drive the cost of gas up. According to researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Americans could see gas prices hit $7 a gallon under some scenarios.

Reuters: A new report from European Union officials shows that biofuels may be doing more harm than good for the planet, leading to detrimental crop shifting and deforestation.

WaPo: Further legislative attempts to curb the EPA’s progress on regulating GHGs are expected today as Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-WVa., will introduce legislation to impose a two-year moratorium on the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants and other stationary emitters.

GreenWire via NYT: Testifying before the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was called upon to clarify her statements about the role the EPA could play in greenhouse gas emission regulation. The administrator said she feels this policy will not be an either/or moment and that even if Congress creates a plan, the EPA will certainly have a role in carrying out the policies.

FT: Though it’s not as well off as it could be, the carbon trading market isn’t in terrible shape, according to industry experts.

And, from NYT, Krugman does his best to clarify climate policy with economic models.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-04-10 | 0 Comments

Mar03

Wednesday's Reads

Morning Reads

ClimateWire via NYT: Sens. Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are kicking around the idea levying a carbon fee on the oil industry in their climate and energy bill. The approach, which has support from three major oil producers, would address a big industry concern with the House’s approach to climate control and also open up possible votes from senators who may have passed on a sweeping economy-wide emissions cap.

Meanwhile, the heads of several key utility companies say they’re willing to be regulated ahead of the rest of the economy, as long as they don’t end up paying alone.

NYT: A look at what’s being done to restore the—rightly or wrongly—tarnished reputation of climate scientists and their work.

Reuters: Productivity at the next U.N. meeting on climate change will depend on using existing mechanisms to deliver short-term adaptation and mitigation funding to developing nations while working on a new system to deliver long-term financial support, according to climate chief Yvo de Boer.

WaPo: President Obama is doubling down on his plans to create jobs and lower energy costs through programs that improve energy efficiency across the nation. Despite recent reports that efforts launched last year have failed to create the jobs they promised, the administration is confident this push will help as many as 3 million homeowners improve efficiency and lower energy bills.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-03-10 | 0 Comments

Mar02

Tuesday's Reads

Morning Reads

GreenWire via NYT: House Republicans are expected to today denounce with a formal resolution the EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. And with this editorial, WSJ gets behind the movement to slow the EPA.

Grist: Dave Roberts on the fine line Senate climate backers must walk to move legislation forward (and why it makes for a complicated relationship with the House’s climate bill). Reuters brings you a look at what could shake out of Senate plans and FT on the political feasibility of any such combinations.

NYT: Europe’s forests are facing growing challenges from a changing climate, according to a new European Union report.

And, from the Pew Center’s Climate Compass, a reminder to make the distinction between the IPCC and climate science itself.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-02-10 | 0 Comments

Mar01

Monday's Reads

Morning Reads

ClimateWire via NYT:Sens. Kerry, Graham and Liberman are expected to share a draft of their plan for comprehensive climate and energy legislation with fence-sitting senators and several interests groups this week. And while the wheels are turing on a Kerry-Graham-Lieberman plan, according to WaPo, debate is simmering about other carbon control regimes, like cap and dividend.

ClimateWire via NYT: The PR campaign is underway to change the image of Canada's abundant and carbon-intensive oil sands.

WaPo: Editorial throws its weight behind natural gas and its possibilities as a low-carbon bridge fuel.

FT: Problems with the viability of biofuels are no longer uniquely American.

What caught your eye today? Let us know.

Published: Mar-01-10 | 0 Comments

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