Let ’em build in LA

Economist Edward Glaeser (based on work he’s done with Matthew Kahn) argues in the LA Times for the environmental benefits of relaxing anti-growth measures in Southern California’s temperate climes: Much of America struggles with cold winters and hot summers. Making such difficult climates comfortable for humans requires a lot of energy. By contrast, much of …

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Feed-In Tariffs

An analysis last year by Gilbert Metcalf, of Tufts University, concluded that feed-tariffs – essentially a mandated price for utilities’ purchase of renewable energy – is the most effective tool encouraging investment: The review of the European and US experience provides a number of lessons to guide future renewables policy in the United States. First, …

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It’s the Food

Stehfest et al. in Climatic Change: A global transition to a low meat-diet as recommended for health reasons would reduce the mitigation costs to achieve a 450 ppm CO2-eq. stabilisation target by about 50% in 2050 compared to the reference case. Dietary changes could therefore not only create substantial benefits for human health and global land …

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Gas Dropoff Thingie Has Legs

In today’s edition of Ask Inskstain, reader Scot wonders: Have we got updated U.S. gasoline figures to see if the $4.00/gallon dropoff, uh…thingie, continues to have legs? Great question, Scot! Gasoline consumption in the United States continues to lag. As for the other gas thingie, the post-July decline in gas prices is finally over:

Japanese Driving Less

It’s not just us: Japan, the world’s third-largest oil user, said gasoline sales in the country fell the most in more than half a century as record prices prompted motorists to drive less. Sales fell 4.2 percent in 2008 to 57.3 million kiloliters (15.1 billion gallons), the biggest drop since the trade ministry started collecting …

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Sasol Tightens Belt

Sasol, my bellweather for the future of non-traditional fossil fuels (they’re the South African company that’s a world leader in coal-to-liquids) is retrenching, according to Bloomberg: A recent deterioration in market conditions means Sasol now expects “a moderate reduction in earnings” for the year ending June 30, compared with a previous forecast of “robust growth”, …

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On the Possibility of Climate Change Action

Ryan Avent: I have become increasingly pessimistic about our ability to address the climate change crisis. The dynamics are simply deadly — the most dangerous effects begin arriving after it’s too late to do anything about them — which leaves as our great hope the chance that a strong enough intellectual argument can be made …

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