NY Times opinion from Tom Friedman

He points out the current energy bill has no incentives for wind/solar while keeping the tax credits for oil/gas.

As an economist, he points out this does exactly the opposite of what we want by creating a disincentive against solar and wind.

While there is talk that the credits will return, even this delay has caused problems for the wind and solar industry.

If this situation is not resolved by the summer, then the solar industry is in trouble.  The wind folks have already had their tax credits disrupted in the past, and have been able to survive such disruptions.  Anyone who is vulnerable to such nonsense already went out of business.

CNN Money article on how GE is going to be looking for different sources of energy

It's good that they're looking.

The challenge will be how far afield will they explore? GE has nuclear, they have coal, wind, hydro, solar. Some areas are more profitable than others, some areas are easier than others.

So where will they focus their efforts?  And what type of company will they need to purchase in order to have a total solution?

They may be only one of several companies, but they are GE, and it is not a small thing to understand which direction this gorilla is heading.

Salon's article on how melting polar ice has cause previously locked toxins to be released into the ecosystem.

Polar ice melt does cause changes in the ecosystem during the freeze/thaw process.

Another area to be aware of is the permafrost that is melting, and again releasing greenhouse gases that were locked away for years, into the atmosphere.  This is more than just a few buildings shifting with the loss of permafrost.  This is a full scale change in the local environment.

Now some countries will gain more useful land as global warming continues. Others will lose land to desert, increased by severe climate conditions that punish plant life as it tries to grow.

Unfortunately the winners in global warming are the wealthier nations, while the poor will simply suffer more.

The idea of locking away the CO2 into another solid form has been around for a while.  The chemistry is known, the challenge was getting a process that was not energy intensive as well.  A catalyst that is not used up in the process would be ideal.  If that is what this article is saying then this would be a viable way to lock up CO2 instead of putting it into the atmosphere.  Also, by locking it away in a chemical compound, instead of burying it into ground, or putting it under pressure deep in the ocean, this prevents the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The challenge of carbon sequestration has always been how to verify/validate that the CO2 is actually locked away.  People have claimed that trees lock away carbon.  But for how long?  The carbon is released when the tree dies, unless the tree is buried.  Do we reward countries that have forests, and punish countries that have land which emits carbon into the atmosphere?

30 Electric Cars

Some of these are scams.  But the idea of the electric vehicle is very powerful.

The cost of running these vehicles should be low, on a per mile basis.  But the energy storage technology is the key.  Range is needed to provide peace of mind.  When the driver is no longer afraid of constantly running out of energy,

A real electric vehicle fleet will be fantastic on reducing the carbon footprint of transportation.  The criticism that the carbon from an electric plant would still end up in the air does not consider the efficiency of a generator vs all the gasoline engines and the emissions

CNN bit on greenwashing in the travel industry.

Greenwashing, trying to appear being green without doing anything substantive.

Many companies have been accused of this, and in the travel industry we are seeing being green as a differentiator.

Some things are real, others are not.

At 1CO2, we have gone and made sure the carbon credits we purchase are real.  Gold standard carbon credits have greater validation/verification than the cheaper ones.

Really?!?

This is the best Europe could come up with? Building Coal plants

After all the movement towards alternate energy, they concede when prices for coal are seen as much lower than everything else.

This presumes that the cost of carbon won't increase, or that the cost of coal will stay low.

But it is probably a mistake.  I find it hard to believe that Italy doesn't have enough sun.

April 21-23

Gold box: new deals include a 12 pack of compact Fluorescent bulbs for today.

Great to see Amazon take a role in greening up purchases.

I was on a panel this weekend for the University of Maryland's Universities at Shady Grove e Generation entrepreneur event.

It was great to see the activity of students try to understand and do more for environmental entrepreneurism

Michael Pollan's article in the NY Times magazine.

Pollan, the one who wrote In Defense of Food.

You can guess his answer.  It's going to be hard, but worth it.  We should "bother" to fight climate change.
It's a nice article and shows where Pollan is coming from.  This website is one way to green up your purchases.  Passing the secret along is also a step forward.