Smarter Energy

Defining the Problem

2010-08-10T13:22:00.002-04:00

What caused the Gulf oil spill? To describe how it happened is easy enough. Most people generally agree with the following series of events. On April 20, 2010, a huge fire erupted on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 and injuring 17 others. The fire was most likely caused when a large pocket of methane gas came up the pipes from the underwater well and exploded on the rig. After

The Seduction of Innovation

2010-08-02T12:43:00.001-04:00

Innovation is the watchword of our day. Listen to pundits on radios and televisions and you’ll hear a consistent message. We need innovative responses to urban poverty, the U.S. economy, and medical care. Name a hot topic, and you can find prominent spokespeople advocating the value of more innovation. Innovation has become our society’s default response to addressing social problems. This is

Getting to the Heart of Climate Science Debates

2010-06-30T12:51:00.003-04:00

The public release of a series of emails between climate scientists in November of 2009 created a widespread controversy. In and of itself, this is quite fascinating. In our anti-intellectual age, the fact that the correspondence of a small group of nerds became a topic of widespread debate is surprising, to say the least. For several weeks, the personal lives of climate

A Weightier Analogy

2008-11-18T22:29:00.013-05:00

Americans, we are being told, are energy addicts. Even George Bush has declared that Americans are addicted to oil. With the surge of interest in energy resulting from high gasoline prices, the energy addiction analogy is all over the newspapers, television, and Internet.Analogies are important. They help us make sense of a complex world. By framing issues in familiar ways, they tell us what

A Holiday from Sanity

2008-05-07T23:01:00.003-04:00

We should call recent proposals for a “gas tax holiday” what they are: a holiday from sound thinking, responsible governance, and any tenable solution to our widespread energy problems. Or, as Thomas Friedman has recently written, it is just plain “dumb.”It may not have been a great surprise when John McCain recommended that the government suspend its tax on gasoline (18.4 cents per gallon) for

The Nuclear Lesson

2008-04-20T18:50:00.006-04:00

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine just announced an ambitious new energy plan designed to reduce the state’s carbon dioxide emissions. Many are supportive of New Jersey’s efforts, in particular its goals to derive 20% of its power from renewable sources and to decrease overall consumption. However, one part of the plan has caused considerable consternation: the recommendation that New Jersey

The Return of the King

2008-01-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

King Coal ruled the nineteenth century. Marx and Engels were on to something when they identified the dark and satanic mills of England as emblematic of a new era. The ability of coal to provide heat, power steam engines, and forge iron enabled the rise of an industrial society that would forever change the world. Coal disappeared from the popular imagination during the twentieth century. Oil

Carbon Caps

2007-11-07T10:59:00.000-05:00

Carbon caps are coming. The pressure for some form of regulation of greenhouse gases in America has reached a critical threshold. The question is no longer if we will have such regulation, but what form it will take.To review the basic economics, carbon dioxide emissions can be thought of as an externality, or a cost to society that is not paid by the manufacturer or the consumer. There are

Missing the Point

2007-10-24T12:28:00.000-04:00

Georgia has just declared a state of emergency. The reason? Water, or more accurately, a lack thereof. The state’s governor, Sonny Perdue, issued the order this past Saturday and is hoping to receive federal help in alleviating the crisis.Why is Perdue requesting government help? Because he is blaming the problem on federal bureaucracy. Back in the 1980s, the state reached an agreement with the

Bio-fuels and Human Rights

2007-10-12T13:11:00.000-04:00

Brazilian ethanol produced from sugar cane is one of the most promising stories in renewable energy technologies. For those committed to shifting away from fossil fuel dependence, the idea that we can grow an oil substitute is a very attractive idea. Moreover, Brazilian sugar cane ethanol is an established industry that offers a far better return on investment than American corn ethanol.So,

The Moral of the Moa

2007-09-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

About 800 years ago, a group of traveling settlers came across an ideal new home. The group was the Maori, the place was New Zealand, and the reason it was such a lucky find was the presence of moa. Moa were large, flightless, and defenseless birds—up to 3.5 meters tall and 250 kilograms—that offered the Maori an abundance of tasty, nutrient-rich, and easy food.[1]The Maori responded to their

The False Idol of Energy Independence

2007-06-27T11:26:00.000-04:00

U.S. energy independence is a false god upon whose altar many of our energy experts worship. We should reject this approach because it does not tackle the most pressing energy problems, is not a sustainable solution, and will not generate long-term security for the United States.Energy independence advocates recommend that the United States pursue policies that seek to eliminate the importation

The Prices Others Pay - April 24, 2007

2007-05-06T13:05:00.001-04:00

The widespread use of fossil fuel energy has transformed the world, with mixed results. However, it is essential to realize how one-sided both the benefits and the costs of world energy use have been. In broad strokes, those in the industrialized West have gained much, while those in developing nations have borne most of the burdens.Two world-historical events show this pattern clearly, one

The Corn Confusion - April 7, 2007

2007-05-06T12:25:00.000-04:00

Corn ethanol is not the answer to the critical energy challenges facing the world today. Current efforts to develop corn ethanol risk devoting scarce resources towards an energy approach that offers marginal returns. Instead of pandering to interest politics and focusing on energy independence to the exclusion of climate change issues, we need to devote our energy investments towards more

Crude Thinking - May 5, 2007

2007-05-06T12:23:00.000-04:00

Oil dominates the headlines. Of all the energy sources we use in our world, oil is the most visible. It has been clearly linked to geopolitical struggles, questions over its continuing supply, and global warming. These are real problems and they deserve our attention. However, focusing on oil to the exclusion of other energy sources is crude thinking. It blinds us to the full range of issues