energy Archives - Stable Genius Liberal

2014-10-08

How to Reduce Global Warming for Fun and Profit

We’re not actually so far off from turning emissions into commodities, it turns out. In the United States alone, a number of companies aim to convert waste carbon dioxide into chemicals that can be used to make products we buy every day

The only people who think regulating CO2 will end capitalism are Libertarians and Marxists. Anyone who has an understanding of economics that doesn’t begin and end in the 19th century understands that markets react to regulations in the exact same way they react to everything else. Incentives change, prices adjust, people come up with new ideas that make money.

2014-08-30

Twenty-Two Percent of the World’s Power Now Comes from Renewable Sources

Wind, solar, and other clean energy sources “continued to grow strongly, reaching almost 22 percent of the global mix,” according to the IEA, “compared with 21 percent in 2012 and 18 percent in 2007.”

The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. The carbon age is ending and the fossil fuel industry is going to fight it as hard as they can.

2014-02-13

Patriot Coal Spills Waste 2 Months After Bankruptcy Exit

First Freedom Industries and now Patriot coal. I can’t wait to hear how this is the fault of too much gubmint and how the free market would never let this happen.

2014-01-07

4 states confirm water pollution from drilling

Over the past 10 years, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has led to a boom in oil and natural gas production around the nation. It has reduced imports and led to hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for companies and landowners, but also created pollution fears.

Its called an externality. But I’m sure the right will insist that this problem can only be solved by tax cuts and deregulation.

2013-12-18

For First Time, Anti-Terrorism Law Used to Have Americans Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline Arrested | The Dissenter

In an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, two individuals locked themselves with a bike lock inside one of the multiple revolving doors that lead into the atrium

Anti-terror laws will be abused to toss non-violent left of center activists in jail. It will never be used against right-of-center groups.

2013-06-26

War on coal: A pretty good idea.

the only way to consider new coal-fired plants a remotely plausible undertaking is to completely ignore the social costs of burning the coal. By the same token, simply throwing all my garbage into my neighbor’s back yard could look like a cheap and appealing alternative to proper trash disposal if I were allowed to completely ignore the costs to my neighbor.

Getting rid of direct subsidies and then attacking indirect subsides is all that is need to make wind and solar competitive.

2012-03-22

36 Years Of Data, Not A Shred Of Evidence That Drilling Reduces Gas Prices

In a nutshell, US oil supply to small to effect prices on world market.

2011-05-04

GE’s Immelt wishes he had soft-pedaled green talk | Reuters

If I had one thing to do over again I would not have talked so much about green,“ Immelt said at an event sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Even though I believe in global warming and I believe in the science … it just took on a connotation that was too elitist

From Reuters

It’s a sad day when the CEO of a company has to practically apologize for excepting science because science is too elitist. WTF.

2011-04-23

The Moore’s Law of solar energy

That is changing. Over the last 30 years, researchers have watched as the price of capturing solar energy has dropped exponentially. There’s now frequent talk of a “Moore’s law” in solar energy. In computing, Moore’s law dictates that the number of components that can be placed on a chip doubles every 18 months. More practically speaking, the amount of computing power you can buy for a dollar has roughly doubled every 18 months, for decades. That’s the reason that the phone in your pocket has thousands of times as much memory and ten times as much processing power as a famed Cray 1 supercomputer, while weighing ounces compared to the Cray’s 10,000-pound bulk, fitting in your pocket rather than a large room, and costing tens or hundreds of dollars rather than tens of millions.

If similar dynamics worked in solar power technology, then we would eventually have the solar equivalent of an iPhone — incredibly cheap, mass distributed energy technology that was many times more effective than the giant and centralized technologies it was born from.

From The Moore’s Law of solar energy

And when solar is cheaper, expect the right to demand we increase oil and coal subsidies to save jobs.

2011-01-14

New solar fuel machine mimics plant life

A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun’s energy into fuel.

The machine uses the Sun’s rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.

From BBC News

The big problem with Solar and Wind have always been energy storage. This is an interesting breakthrough.