Albuquerque’s Ed
We’ve got our own version of Ed Begley Jr. here in Albuquerque. My colleague Troy Simpson has been doing a video series of energy saving tips from from Al Zelicoff. This month’s: vampires.
Archive of posts filed under the energy category.
Irrational Exuberance
My modest attempts to understand energy economics have left me unprepared for today’s hundred-dollar-a-barrel milestone. With the U.S. economy teetering on the brink of recession, future demand is expected to be low, which the smarty-pants economists tell me should mean lower oil prices. Yet… Thankfully for my ego, the folks at the Daily Diary of …
You Don’t Need Carbon to Commute
Michael Tobis had a post today about Lance Armstrong’s plans for an 18,000-square-foot bike shop in Austin that seems, at least in part, to be marketed at the bike commuter: “This city is exploding downtown. Are all these people in high rises going to drive everywhere? We have to promote (bike) commuting…” The thing is, …
Comment of the Day
John Mashey, in the bowels of an old thread, had this to say on the incentives and disincentives to rational transit economics: Think about the logical effects of local statutes that a certain amount of parking spaces be provided per resident, worker, or customer. In effect, parking spaces are required, thus spreading buildings further apart, …
Congestion Costs
An interesting post from last month on those hidden costs and benefits of higher gas prices. Turns out, according to some smarty-pants economists, that if the price of gasoline goes up (if, for example, we impose a gas tax), people carpool and ride the bus more, resulting in less congestion and therefore net time savings …
Global Warming and Football
Environment America is raising serious and important questions about the elephant in the room – the impact of global warming no one wants to talk about: National trends from recent seasons suggest that a home field advantage for cold weather teams over their warm weather rivals may truly exist. Environment America pointed to the National …
Bitter Fruit
I am frankly one of those who has celebrated higher oil prices, getting a quiet smile as I see the sign at the corner gas station hit $3 a gallon. Perhaps I wasn’t thinking this through, as Keith Johnson suggests: What’s most striking is the bitter irony. Many proponents of alternative energy have long cheered …
“Dank, cloudy and small”
By way of describing its home island’s lack of suitability as a place to grow biofuels, the Economist in its Jan. 19 issue describes Britain as “dank, cloudy and small.” Makes me want to fly over on one of Sir Richard’s biofuel jets to go on holiday.
Wal-Green
I have no idea how to judge whether this is serious, as opposed to greenwashing, but I do know that Wal-Mart could probably do more than any three of the rest of us combined: “We see customers having to choose between filling up their gas tanks or buying medicine and food and clothes,” ran Mr. …
When Food is Fuel
Keith Bradsher wrote in yesterday’s New York Times about what happens when we start using food for fuel: In some poor countries, desperation is taking hold. Just in the last week, protests have erupted in Pakistan over wheat shortages, and in Indonesia over soybean shortages. Egypt has banned rice exports to keep food at home, …