On Friday, Nov 16, I wrote about the potential impact of applying a “peanut butter spread” sequestration algorithm to the NRC budget. (I spent a few years as a government budget analyst, so I sometimes speak the lingo.) If the accountants at the Office of Management and Budget continue on their proposed path, the NRC…
Peter Diamandis, the head of the X Prize Foundation, recently gave a TED talk titled Abundance is Our Future. It was an inspiring, energetic talk full of optimism for the ability of technology to solve the world’s biggest challenges. In all areas of technology but one, Peter is on target. When it came to his…
I just received the below solar PV advertisement in a mass email. I am certainly glad that I am not a UK resident and taxed to support this kind of generous payments – guaranteed to be a drain on the economy for the next 25 years. Can anyone please help me to understand what must…
The Discovery Channel is teasing a show called Earth 2050: Powering the Future. One of the primary sponsors of the show is the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. Here is a brief teaser about future energy supplies from “renewable” sources of power. On the one hand, it was interesting to note that Discovery had classified…
My new word for the energy sources popularly known as “renewables” is “unreliables”. Though there may be some tiny exceptions, the general characteristic is that they are all diffuse sources that cannot actually be controlled by humans or automated control systems. One of the main reasons that energy has been a huge political topic since…
While driving home after a great Labor Day weekend with friends and family, we ran into scattered showers. My wife helped me figure out the switches that control the timing of the intermittent windshield wipers for both the front and rear windows. (She is the primary driver for our recently purchased family vehicle; I had…
Watch the full episode. See more Colorado State of Mind. On Friday, June 24, 2011, the Colorado State of Mind program aired a discussion about nuclear energy that featured respectful conversation from several different points of view. The impetus for the discussion was to reflect on the implications of the recent Associated Press portrayal of…
The Energy Collective, is an aggregation site that provides a wide variety of views about energy. It is often a place with high quality discussions, but it can also be a site where article placement decisions completely baffle me. Yesterday, I visited The Energy Collective and found out that the best, most visible spot on…
A few days ago, a retired economics professor named John Blackburn and a student named Sam Cunningham who is seeking a Masters of Environmental Management published a paper commissioned by NC Warn, an organization that, in its own words, is “tackling the accelerating crisis posed by climate change — along with the various risks of…
Many of my colleagues in the energy business try to be environmentally correct and do not like to make clear statements that criticize any particular energy source. They especially avoid any hint that they actively oppose the development of the “popular” renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. (Note: At one time, biomass had…