Late Night Video — My Water’s On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)

In the tradition of Schoolhouse Rock, Jay Rosen and his graduate school class (Journalism) at NYU teamed up with Pro-Publica to produce this nicely done musical explainer of hydraulic Fracking for natural gas.

Cap and Trade is Not a Tax; or Why Delmarva Dealings Failed His Economics Class

Because in spite of this attempt to invoke this appeal to the authority of a basic economics class (which this person Cato has clearly never had), just claiming that TAXES ARE BAD is just not an argument when dealing with cap and trade. Because cap and trade is not a taxation system, it is [...]

Innovating to Zero

This is a talk by Bill Gates at the TED conference discussing the need and the challenges of getting enough renewable energy to power not only those who are energy rich now, but those who need to be energy rich. He does a nice job here, I think, in contextualizing the problem, then spends a good deal of time talking about Terrapower.

Delaware and 10 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States in Pact to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fuels

This was announced on 12/30 — sorry for the delay is seeing this! You can see the entire Press Release here. The key info:

Gov. Jack Markell joined the governors of 10 other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states today in announcing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the states that underscores their commitment toward developing a regional Low Carbon Fuel Standard in a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuels for vehicles and other uses.

Cap and Trade One Year Anniversary and the World Has Not Come To An End

Oh yes — we already have cap and trade!

It is called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and it is a year old this month. 10 states in the northeast banded together to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the region and installed their own version of a cap and trade program. Every power plant in the area needs to buy allowances to emit greenhouse gasses. Allowances are sold on auction quarterly. At some point, the number of allowances on the market get scaled back — increasing the price of the allowance and sending a signal to the plant that it may be cheaper to reduce their emissions.

Cutting Tax Breaks for Ethanol

Good news that may reduce the incredibly stupid subsidy for corn ethanol:
The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed renewable-fuel standards that could reduce the $3 billion a year in federal tax breaks given to producers of corn-based ethanol. The move sets the stage for a major battle between Midwest grain producers and environmentalists who say the [...]

Offshore Wind: The Rest of the Country is Starting to Notice

The LA Times has an article about a report presented to the 25x’25 summit in Virginia that says that offshore wind could provide more electricity than the US currently uses.
The biggest wind potential lies off the nation’s Atlantic coast, which the Interior report estimates could produce 1,000 gigawatts of electricity — enough to meet a [...]

Municipal Funding of Solar Panels

Now this is innovative and interesting thinking:
The goal behind municipal financing is to eliminate perhaps the largest disincentive to installing solar power systems: the enormous initial cost. Although private financing is available through solar companies, homeowners often balk because they worry that they will not stay in the house long enough to have the investment [...]

Busy Friday Morning?

I am planning on attending the SEU meeting on Friday morning.  Who is with me?
9:00-10:30AM
U of D Perkins Student Center
Kirkwood Room
They will be discussing the Fiscal Agent RFP and getting an update on the Contract Administrator negotiations.  Plus it is fun to see who gets kicked out and who gets to stay when they [...]

Delaware Joins the Climate Prosperity Project

WDEL has audio of Gov. Markell’s announcement here.
The effort to grow a greener economy in Delaware stepped up its profile today with Gov. Markell’s announcement that Delaware is the only state to be invited to join the Climate Prosperity Project. According to the NJ, this group:
The Climate Prosperity Project, sponsored by the Rockefeller Fund [...]

The SEU: New Characters, Same Script

This morning I attended the SEU oversight board’s February meeting.  A few days ago I got an email from the guy responsibe for notifying those of us on the SEU mailing list of impending meetings.  The email included an agenda and the location/time of the meeting.
When I arrived, I asked for and received a copy [...]

John Kowalko to Host Energy Efficiency/Conservation Workshop

John Kowalko is a much better public servant than I can ever hope to be.  He sent me a list of initiatives and services to his constituents last week.  He asked me to get some of it up to get the word out on programs available to help Delawareans deal with issues affecting their lives.  [...]

LiberalGeek Reports From the SEU RFP Meeting

Sorry that I haven’t posted on this earlier, but my weekend was very enjoyable and made a long post difficult to write.  My schedule cleared at work on Thursday so I was able to break away for a few hours to get out to the public comment meeting for the RFP that the SEU is [...]