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, …
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 …
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:
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 …
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”, …
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 …
Continue reading ‘On the Possibility of Climate Change Action’ »
Nothin’ like a good economic collapse to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. From Bloomberg: Oil demand will fall for a second year, the first back-to-back contractions since 1983, as a deepening recession erodes consumer spending, the International Energy Agency said.
Tim Haab on the question of which is better, a fuel consumption-based or mileage-based motoring tax: The answer comes down to one simple question: What is the goal? If the goal is revenue generation then a mileage tax makes sense. If the goal is fuel efficiency then a gas tax makes sense. If the goal …
Despite the weirdness, 2008 was a good year to be in the coal production game in the United States. But don’t expect the fun and games to continue. From EIA today: A significant increase in coal exports in 2008 contributed to a 2.8-percent increase in coal production. Production is expected to fall in 2009 by …
I see John Whitehead hunched over his keyboard preparing his riposte to this, from the Romer-Bernstein analysis of the job creation prospects in the Obama stimulus package: Recent research by Robert Pollin and Jeannette Wicks-Lim (available at http://www.peri.umass.edu/green_jobs) suggests that investments in green energy will create jobs that generally pay well above the typical wage. …