David O. Williams highlights what’s likely to be one of the central struggles in managing our twin energy and water problems – the water needed if oil shale is going to be tapped to head off peak oil. Peak water, in other words, collides with peak oil: But numerous studies have indicated full-scale commercial oil …
I haven’t had enough brainshare lately to track energy issues the way I was last spring and summer when thinking about $4 gasoline was such a teachable moment, but on popping in over at the EIA this evening, I note that we New Mexicans are continuing our frugal ways: By my quick calculation, consumption in …
My Albuquerque Journal colleague Mike Coleman has a post this morning that illustrates the complexity of the science-politics-policy interface surrounding the cap-and-trade legislation now slogging through Congress. It’s about Harry Teague, a newly elected conservative Democrat from New Mexico who represents a very conservative district with a strong oil and gas component to its economy. …
Does solar energy have a water problem? That’s the question I tried to address in this story (sub. req. sorta) over at the day job: Look at any map of U.S. solar energy resources, and you will see a band stretching from southern New Mexico across Arizona and into California that shows promise. Solar energy …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Solar Water Edition’ »
I’ve got this energy-water hammer, and they all look like nails right now. Today’s nail is jatropha, one of the next-gen bio-energy darlings. Or not: Jatropha, a biofuel crop favoured for its ability to grow in areas not suitable for food, may be about to become less popular. A new Dutch study shows it uses …
I recently finished up a piece at the day job on the connection between water and energy, and perhaps as a result, everywhere I turn these days I’m seeing stories on the linkage. Today’s example comes from Cynthia Barnett: Matthew Cohen, a professor in UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation, and post-doctoral researcher Jason …
My Albuquerque Journal colleague Mike Coleman has a nice example in today’s paper (might be behind paywall, a bit of a crapshoot there) of the horse trading now underway in an attempt to win passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill: Rep. Harry Teague, a southern New Mexico Democrat, this week persuaded the authors of a …
Continue reading ‘Waxman-Markey Horse Trading, a Case Study’ »
On counting to 60 votes in the U.S. Senate.
I just got a new cell phone. When I unplugged it after its first charge, the phone’s screen displayed a message reminding me to unplug the charger to save energy when not in use. Yes!
“The Saudi Arabia of X” is a common new energy meme that has been applied, among many things, to the oil shales of the western United States. But its invocation requires some significant arm-waving over the question of water, as this report by Jeremy Miller points out: But it is water – or more specifically, …
Continue reading ‘“insufficient water to meet needs”, energy edition’ »