Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Recently, I posted a video and a narrative explanation about a critical accounting error that threatens to turn climate legislation into a big incentive for deforestation. Put as simply as possible, the House climate bill and the Boxer-Kerry Senate bill...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Last Monday, I posted a video about a critical accounting error that threatens to turn climate legislation into a big incentive for deforestation. Here’s a narrative version of the same description. If you’ve seen the video this should sound and...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Loni Kemp won a Farm Foundation contest for an essay laying out a greener biofuel tax credit. Today in DC, this reward was given with appropriate fan fair. Jeremy Martin at UCS also deserves lots of credit for helping to shape this idea. Here now for your reading pleasure is a short summary of how I would like to see the biofuel tax credits reformed based on all of Loni and Jeremy’s great work.
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Last Thursday, Science published a very important article by a group of prominent scientists and ecologist about a common error in accounting for carbon from biomass and bioenergy. This might seem really boring at first but it's critically important to...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Yesterday, the Farm Foundation announced the winning essays for it's 30-Year Challenge Policy Competition. One of two winners in the "Climate Change" category is Loni Kemp of Kemp Consulting, whose winning essay is titled: Greener Biofuels Tax Credits: A Policy...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
On Friday, the Government Accountability Office released a major report largely about the risks of expanded corn ethanol: Biofuels: Potential Effects and Challenges of Required Increases in Production and Use. Unfortunately, as the report points out, beyond lifecycle GHG emissions,...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
On Friday, EPA released the findings of four independent peer-review panels that assessed the Agency's approach to measuring the lifecycle GHG emissions of different types of biofuels. All of the reviewers agreed that emissions from land-use change is an important...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
What do Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, and NRDC and nearly 42 other odd bedfellows have in common? We all want sound science rather than sloppy politics to dictate...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Nuclear Weapons, Waste and Energy , Solving Global Warming
On Wednesday, the American Enterprise Institute will be holding a little pep rally for nuclear power. In the event description, they make the following standard disparaging remark about renewables, suggesting that nuclear is the option that can scale: Yet renewable...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
In today's Science, David Tilman, Robert Socolow, Jonathan A. Foley, Jason Hill, Eric Larson, Lee Lynd, Stephen Pacala, John Reilly, Tim Searchinger, Chris Somerville, and Robert Williams join up to write a very helpful, clear-headed statement (summary, full version requires...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
So Exxon announced a $600 million investment in algae biofuels today. The company reported profits over $45 billion last year, and this investment will be spread out over 5 or 6 years. Furthermore, half of it will go for in...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
The day I went on vacation (June 26th), the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill. It was an exciting way to kick off a break but came with the bitter-sweet knowledge that concessions wrung by Rep....
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Yesterday, Representatives Waxman and Peterson announced that they have reached a deal that secures Peterson's support for the climate bill. Outlines of the deal are still coming out, but it clearly implements a five year delay in accounting for emissions...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
As I've written about over the last few weeks (here and here), our ability to require biofuels to actually be better than oil is under intense attack in the context of the climate bill and also under the budget appropriations...
Posted by Nathanael Greene in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Last week I wrote about the danger of industry-backed changes to the Waxman-Markey climate bill that could, perversely, incentivize deforestation and increase global warming emissions. Comparing the current bill language to the drastically weaker alternative advocated by Agriculture Committee Chairman...
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