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. …
Via Andy Revkin, we learn about the opening of China’s first coal-to-liquids plant. This is an important development, because of the very real possibility that relatively abundant coal could become a substitute for dwindling petroleum supplies – a happy prospect for cheap global energy, not so much for the climate. Choose the economic and environmental …
Add up the savings (ad gated): And refrigerator coils. All that dust that collects on them drives up your electric bill by making the fridge less efficient. “How many of you have cleaned your refrigerator coils?” asks Angela Sylvestre, a volunteer helping with the energy-saving project. Every hand in the room goes up, accompanied by …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Kids are Great Edition’ »
From the Economist: Coal’s share in global energy will continue to climb because of its relative cheapness and abundance, especially in the two largest coal-producing/consuming countries, the US and China. In the US, more coal-fired than gas-fired power plants will come on stream in the next two years. Globally, demand for coal will rise by …
Continue reading ‘Why I Am Skeptical About Successful Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures’ »
Sooner or later the neo-Malthusians – those who grasp the fundamental difficulty posed by exponential population growth in collision with a fixed resource base – will turn out to be right. The problem is that, thus far, they have repeatedly turned out to be wrong. Today’s example comes (via Tyler Cowen) from a piece by …
Economist James Hamilton, in his recent NBER paper, argues for economists’ inherent inability to predict oil prices. Luckily, we have Ana Anaya: “Gas prices will definitely go up, I have to tell you,” she said. “I’m sorry to say.” (ht Somegye)