Posts

May 01, 2013

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3:00 PM | Update to ‘IPCC systematically low-balling climate estimates?’

Four months ago I wrote a post about how several speakers at the AGU 2012 Fall Meeting suggested that the IPCC may be systematically underestimating several key climate change-related parameters (total anthropogenic GHG emissions, Arctic ice melt rates, sea level … Continue reading →

April 18, 2013

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3:00 PM | Quality control in Excel spreadsheets- a serious and universal issue!

Via Paul Krugman’s blog, I’ve been following a fascinating online discussion about the importance of spreadsheet error-checking and independent replication of modeling results in the economic research sector: Holy Coding Error, Batman Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and there are Serious … Continue reading →

April 15, 2013

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2:52 PM | The “future” of clean coal – is not in our future

A new report from the CRS reveals the sad state of what many believe is an impossible venture – “clean coal” that involves capturing the CO2 released as the coal is burned: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/293655-report-federal-clean-coal-power-project-faces-uncertain-future

April 01, 2013

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3:20 PM | IMF report on energy subsidies, implications for a carbon tax & energy security

IMF presents some new analysis of energy subsidies which I have previously wondered about. It is worth looking over: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/27/imf-want-to-fight-climate-change-get-rid-of-1-9-trillion-in-energy-subsidies/ $25/ton as the cost of carbon seems low to me. $502 billion in US energy subsidies including this carbon tax.. I don’t … Continue reading →

March 29, 2013

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3:25 PM | Nice summary of the RFS (and a new blog to follow!)

For those who are confused about RFS, RINs, and other acronyms in my last post, I found a great summary on a new blog that we’ll add to our blogroll. Seems like he is making some nice posts of the … Continue reading →

March 27, 2013

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3:00 PM | CSU’s Dr. Diana Wall wins the Tyler Prize!

A big congratulations to our own Dr. Diana Wall, University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Colorado State University School of Global Environmental Sustainability, on winning the 2013 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement! http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/bc-asr031113.php If you want to learn more … Continue reading →

March 25, 2013

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3:00 PM | Renewable energy companies sustain collateral damage in Washington budget battles

Thanks to Sam for passing along the following article highlighting how Paul Ryan’s House Republican budget document makes an explicit, unsubstantiated attack against two solar energy companies – both of which are alive and well – as examples of wasteful … Continue reading →

March 22, 2013

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3:05 PM | post about RINs, ethanol, etc

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

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3:05 PM | Corn, ethanol, RIN prices, and the blend wall!

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

March 20, 2013

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3:00 PM | More on automotive fuel efficiency

EPA just released a big report on vehicle fuel mileage, summed up in this WonkBlog entry http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/16/cars-in-the-u-s-are-more-fuel-efficient-than-ever-heres-why/ A few comments: A) I’m struck by how response fleet mileage seems to crude oil prices in their figure in point #1. In … Continue reading →

March 18, 2013

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7:08 PM | Ignore Keystone XL, focus on clean coal?

An update to the previous entry on challenges to scientists doing advocacy: Nocera’s latest editorial (A Real Carbon Solution) is about a coal gasification project in Texas that he bills as a fossil-fuel-industry-friendly contribution to combating climate change (as opposed … Continue reading →

March 11, 2013

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5:35 PM | More on scientific neutrality vs. advocacy

The latest salvo in the debate over the relative importance of scientific neutrality versus public advocacy from climate scientists comes from Joe Nocera at the New York Times: A Scientist’s Misguided Crusade The op-ed columnist takes James Hansen, director of … Continue reading →

March 06, 2013

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4:00 PM | For renewables but against biomass? Sounds fishy to me…

Public energy policy discussions tend to be highly polarized between widely divergent worldviews; those that believe climate change is real and that we need aggressive state support in the grand challenge of remaking the world energy economy, versus those that … Continue reading →

March 04, 2013

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4:00 PM | UPDATE on ‘Energy access as a life-or-death issue’

In the comment section following my recent post on Energy access as a life-or-death issue, Paul comments on the plot showing a clear positive correlation between energy use and life expectancy, making the point that correlation does not imply causation. … Continue reading →

February 28, 2013

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4:03 PM | the rebound effect and how energy efficiency may not be the “low hanging fruit”

An interesting paradox: as we conserve more energy, we use more. We pointed out some research in the past on this effect, and some debate about the potential impact of this effect has surfaced in a couple places. First, there … Continue reading →

February 24, 2013

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4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do will all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

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4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do with all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

February 21, 2013

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8:45 PM | Has biofuels led to major land use changes in the US?

And is the land that is being converted from grassland to corn and soy the “marginal land” that people take about growing dedicated bioenergy crops? A new article in PNAS this week seems to answer “yes” to both these questions. … Continue reading →

Wright, C. & Wimberly, M. (2013). Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215404110

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February 15, 2013

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4:00 PM | Energy access as a life-or-death issue

We’ve devoted a fair amount of space on this blog to issues of energy access in developing countries, including examining whether Clean Development Mechanism projects are being preferentially established in the countries with the lowest energy access (apparently not), and … Continue reading →

February 07, 2013

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7:41 PM | updates on the court challenge to the RFS: minimal long-term impact

I like how this post by Judy Endres explains the recent court ruling “overturning part of the RFS”. The devil is in the details: Although the court rejected EPA’s approach favoring overestimation of projected cellulosic biofuel production, the RFS itself, … Continue reading →

February 05, 2013

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4:00 PM | The RFS- basket case, or just a few years ahead of it’s time?

When Congress established the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) through the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, one of the primary goals was to grow the fledgling cellulosic ethanol sector from laboratory scale up to an industry surpassing corn ethanol, via … Continue reading →

February 01, 2013

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5:49 PM | comparing original RFS volumes with revised volumes (some perspective)

Today the EPA released revised mandated amounts of biofuel to be blended under the RFS legislation. To put these numbers in perspective I have taken the original requirements for cellulosic in the 2007 law and compared to the revised amounts … Continue reading →

January 28, 2013

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4:00 PM | Colorado goes cellulosic!

Via Paul, and article in Biofuels Digest highlighting how our local corn ethanol plant (Front Range Energy in Windsor, CO) will soon be transitioning to cellulose-derived sugars for a fraction of its feedstock: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/01/16/sugar-rush-sweetwater-front-range-ink-100m-cellulosic-biofuels-deal/ This is a very exciting development! … Continue reading →

January 21, 2013

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4:00 PM | Assisted migration- ecosystem protection versus unintended consequences

This morning, just a quick post to highlight some of the work being done over at the Early Career Ecologists blog. I found their recent entry on assisted migration fascinating: http://earlycareerecologists.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/trees-on-the-move-debating-assisted-migration-in-climate-change-mitigation/ The idea is simple- if climate in many places … Continue reading →

January 09, 2013

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4:00 PM | Can scientists be simultaneously ‘engaged’ and non-partisan?

I find myself very irked reading Roger Pielke Jr.’s take on a recent op-ed piece in Nature on the need for scientists, and more importantly, scientific institutions, to project an image of non-partisanship and being ‘above the fray’ in public … Continue reading →

January 07, 2013

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4:00 PM | Pb and crime?

It seems like much of the interest in the environmental impact of energy systems these days is focused entirely on greenhouse gas emissions (or maybe that’s me being biased by my own research? . However, a recent piece in Mother … Continue reading →

January 02, 2013

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4:00 PM | The EIA Energy Outlook seriously bums me out

The US Energy Information Administration, a great source for all kinds of domestic energy use data, just released a preview of their Annual Energy Outlook 2013, as written up by Biomass Magazine: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/8392/eia-releases-annual-energy-outlook-2013-reference-case Of specific interest to those of us … Continue reading →

December 22, 2012

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5:26 PM | US military allowed to continue biofuels collaborations

I posted on a bill this summer trying to stop the US military from trying to reduce their long term energy costs by partnering with biofuels companies. The US military consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels in the US, often … Continue reading →

December 13, 2012

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4:04 PM | thoughtful opinions on the major questions w/ the future of biofuels..

Some insightful and honest opinions about some of the major questions about the future of biofuels. Def worth the 5 min read.. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/12/13/15-burning-questions-and-answers-for-biofuels-in-2013/

December 06, 2012

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10:49 PM | IPCC systematically low-balling climate estimates?

I’ve had the great opportunity to spend the week at the American Geophysical Union annual conference in San Francisco. It’s apparently the largest annual scientific conference in the world (with ~20,000 registered attendees this year!), covering a vast array of … Continue reading →