One of religion’s longstanding problems is the immutability of scripture – the inevitable struggle over the inability of a fixed text to respond to changing conditions. You can see this as Jews try to keep the Sabbath, and in modern fundementalists’ struggle over shellfish. I was thinking deeply about this issue today on my bike …
Thanks for all the help from Inkstain readers – here, in private conversations and over on my Journal blog. My story on the Pickens plan is up. It’s by no means comprehensive, and I decided to zero in on two issues. The need for transmission capacity to take advantage of wind resources. This is an …
Staci Matlock’s tale in yesterday’s Santa Fe New Mexican of trying to figure out who it really is that wants to pump water from the Plains of San Agustin makes fascinating reading: Who owns Augustine Plains Ranch remains a mystery, even to the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, hired to represent several of the protestants. …
Bloomberg had a significant story a week ago that I missed regarding Chinese coal-to-liquid efforts. This is something I’ve been watching closely, reasoning that there is a price point at which CTL becomes economical as a substitute liquid transportation fuel, and that we’re likely to see a strong shift in that direction as soon as …
Going all econ wonk on the T. Boone Plan
From my colleague Lloyd Jojola, further evidence that rising gasoline prices are changing behavior: ABQ Ride reported today that there were 1,000,126 passenger boardings in August 2008, the first time ridership has exceeded 1 million for a single month.
In the Bulletin of th Atomic Scientists, of all places, Kurt Zenz House makes an articulate argument for why expanded domestic oil drilling is both a good idea and matters very little: What we’re watching is the thread of a decent argument–that when oil prices are very high, the United States should expand oil exploration …
I’ve been tasked to do some a story for the Journal on T. Boone Pickens’ energy ideas. Y’all are smart about this sort of thing. Open thread: what are the central issues?
on the unsurprising fact that we use less water when it rains (unsurprising but nevertheless a demonstration that we’re paying attention, and not just blindly watering our bermuda grass) T. Boone is bringing his wind-powered carnival to Albuquerque next week
No power, no printing presses, but they keep on publishing. There is no more heroic news organization than the New Orleans Times-Picayune.