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Last 20 Shows Efficiency: California's Oldtime Energy Religion October has not been a particularly uplifting month on the climate
front of the Green Energy War. The worldwide financial freeze-up has
sent summer soldiers across the globe scurrying for the presumed security
of retreat. Even the nominal master of ceremonies of the UN's
Framework Convention on Climate Change puts it flatly: "If industry is
in a difficult pass, most sensible governments will be reluctant to
impose new costs on them in the form of carbon-emission caps. ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
Feed-In May Ease Southern California SqueezeA surprise announcement
last week by Southern California Edison that it plans to adapt its
2009 Renewable Procurement Plan to include feed-in tariff provisions
for projects under 20 MW in size could be a game changer.
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IEA Report, Pt. 2: Decarbonising GenerationThe climate strategy published
last week by the International Energy Agency, an analytic response to
the commitment made by G8 leaders in 2007 to "seriously consider" GHG
emission reduction targets of 50%, is emphatic about the need to
"decarbonise" the generation of electricity. The IEA identifies three
principle ways to achieve this:
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IEA Report, Pt. 3: Transport Sector Most DifficultThe agenda-setting function of last week's IEA climate report was reinforced by two developments yesterday. First, German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed
US President George Bush's plans for a "major economies" climate summit
held in conjunction with next month's G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan. And
second, a 2050 GHG reduction target of 50% was jointly recommended
by the national science academies of thirteen countries, including all
of the G8 nations as well as Brazil, China, In ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
IEA Report, Pt. 4: Five Weak LinksDepending upon the outcome of next month's Hokkaido G8 summit, especially its "major economies" side event, the IEA's recent climate report
could establish the framework by which the world struggles to develop
the successor agreement to the Kyoto Accord. How useful this will be is
likely to turn on the specificity attached to George Bush's acceptance of a binding target for the US and the meaning of China's and India's embrace (through their national science academies) of a 50% re ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
German Cabinet Bolsters Merkel's Hokkaido StanceCombatants on the climate front of the Green Energy War have long looked to Germany for inspiration. Despite deepening rifts
in Angela Merkel's "grand coalition" government, and some obvious soft
spots in the package, the CO2 reduction measures endorsed by her
cabinet last week will reinforce the German imprint on any progress
which comes out of next month's G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan.
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Stage Set for New Renewables Strategy in UKThis morning's press briefing
by the Prime Minister's Spokesman confirms that the long-awaited UK
Renewable Energy Strategy will be published in two days. The report,
underway for some time, is being rushed forward after a blistering criticism of the Gordon Brown government's performance by a committee of Parliament.
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A Policymaker's Cookbook for Feed-In TariffsThe nature of the Green Energy War varies considerably around the
world, but support for feed-in tariffs is an increasingly common litmus
employed by renewables advocates globally to evaluate the efficacy of
government efforts. Remarkably successful in bringing large amounts of
renewable capacity online in Germany and Spain, the feed-in tariff has
become the preferred policy mechanism
for jurisdictions more intent on tangible results than the creation of
abstract trading instruments, interm ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
EIA Fudges Update to Longterm Oil Price ForecastIn the ocean liner turning process that characterizes a great
nation's change in view of strategic inputs, nimbleness and agility are
more applauded in speeches than observed in practice. Media coverage of yesterday's release
by the US Energy Information Administration of the "highlights section"
of its International Energy Outlook zeroed in on the "high price case"
which sees oil climbing to $186 per barrel, unadjusted for inflation,
in 2030.
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California's Climate Plan Snowball Starts Its RollWading into one of the most self-regarding political cultures on the
planet, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, last week injected a small bit of perspective into California's celebration of the release of the "Draft Scoping Plan" for implementation of its heralded "Global Climate Solutions Act."
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UK Renewables Policy: No 'Rule, Brittania' Just YetBecause the Green Energy War has to date been driven by a proverbial
coalition of the willing -- only the growing number of climate jihadis
and the somewhat smaller sect of renewables zealouts see the subject as
determinative of mankind's fate -- government commitments, with some
notable exceptions, have been long on rhetoric and imagery and short on
tangible performance. "You say you want a revolution," the esteemed
British energy analyst, John Lennon, might say -- "well, yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
UK Renewables, Pt. 2: Churchill or Friedman?The bipolar personality of the electricity chapters in the UK's renewable energy consultation document
is more than simply the kind of literary tic often associated with
government reports written by multiple authors. It vividly illustrates
a deep conflict in the government's policy objectives between meeting
commitments made to the European Union concerning 2020 targets for
renewables and fostering the vision for competitive electricity markets
pioneered by the UK in the 1990s. Lurking in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
Will the UK Require New Coal Plants to Use CCS?With thousands of demonstrators expected
to converge this weekend on Kingsnorth, a powerplant site in Kent where
the German utility E.On hopes to build the first new coal units in
Britain since 1974, a much larger battle is emerging in Parliament that
may force-feed private sector embrace of carbon capture and
sequestration.
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Discount Rates: The Divine Right of EconomistsStrategists in the Green Energy War are forced to make do with the
analytic tools the early years of the 21st Century have made available
to them. How to properly value future costs and future benefits has
long been a conundrum for decisionmakers in all walks of life who are
called upon to choose between alternatives in the present. The "time value of money"
is a truism of economic orthodoxy, but ethicists have always questioned
whether it gives proper attention to the interests o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
Discount Rates, Pt. 2: Why They Matter So MuchPragmatists in the Green Energy War tend to consider natural gas a
necessary transition fuel for electric generation. They are cognizant
of the role quick start, fast ramp gas generation will play in
integrating intermittent wind and solar generation until large scale,
dispatchable demand response and storage technologies become commercial
realities. They embrace the material environmental benefits offered by
modern gas-fired plants when compared to coal, even if only a half-way
step toward ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
So, How Expensive Is US Gasoline Anyway?Strategists attempting to gauge the likely scale and scope of Green
Energy War initiatives after the clamor of the current election cycle
is past may gravitate to the lodestar of gasoline prices. Posted
outside every service station in statutorily prescribed type-size,
these context-less numerals are the primary navigational aids by which
most Americans determine whether energy is a problem or not.
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Enhanced Geothermal: Drill Here, Drill Now?A surefire indicator of hubris in American business is the
misbegotten belief that success in one enterprise is a predictor of
likely success in another, unrelated one. Established companies
periodically flirt with this conceit -- whether for executive ego
gratification, perceived risk diversification, or earnings growth
imperative.
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Enhanced Geothermal: Drill Here, Drill Now, Pt. 2As Albert Einstein famously observed,
"politics is more difficult than physics." The US congressional energy
debate end-game these next two weeks seems destined to prove this out.
At its core is bipartisan recognition of an inchoate, nationwide,
don't-just-stand-there-do-something groundswell. Where this sudden,
tidal upheaval leads in the months ahead is anything but certain.
While empiricism and reason may exert some gravitational pull over
time, for now the p ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
IEA Climate Report: The Relentless Logic of War
Two days after the derailment of the long-awaited climate debate in the US Senate, the International Energy Agency last week issued its how-to-do-it report
on achieving a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The
self-regarding greatest deliberative body in the world got sidetracked
by a demand to have the 491-page bill read out loud. The IEA, energy
think tank to the western nations that make up the OECD (think NATO
without guns), made abundantly clear that achieving even the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache |
Where, Oh Where, Have the CCS Projects Gone?Two dispatches from the carbon capture theater of the Green Energy
War's climate front make clear that to describe current efforts as
being at a standstill might be wildly optimistic.
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