November 25th, 2009

Are small cars doomed to fail in the American market?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 6:05 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, biofuel, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, mass transit, petroleum

Tags: Car, Harry Fuller

Some auto industry analysts are warning that small, fuel efficient cars are NOT going to dominate the U.S. market. Does that mean failure for the GM Volt, Detroit’s first plug-in car, next year? Here’s a look at the potential for success or failure of smaller cars in the U.S. market. There seems no questions that the single most important factor in determining how big we drive: gasoline prices.

November 25th, 2009

Copenhagen will hear first U.S. pledge to cut emissions

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:14 pm

Categories: air pollution, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, mass transit, nuclear power, petroleum, renewable energy, solar, venture capital, wind

Tags: China, India, Barack Obama, Copenhagen, Harry Fuller

President Obama will speak at the Copenhagen climate talks on December 9. Six U.S. cabinet secretaries and head of the EPA will attend the full conference.

Obama’s presence will be early in the meeting, before the nitty-gritty negotiations talk place. That has alreasdy drawn sniping from other nations. There will be much argument in the U.S. over the potential cost of cutting emissions if that actually becomes more than a talking point and is enacted as law or regulation.

Obama will pledge the U.S. will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17%, that’s taking the 2005 level and reducing it before 2020. That 17% is the exact number in the energy and climate bill passed by the House last spring, Waxman-Markey. The bills debated in Senate committees actually have a slightly higher level of cuts.

One of the key debate points in the U.S. Congress: will India and China make any cuts or will the U.S. act alone and thus hamper American industry in competing with India and China? At this point China says it will NOT offer up binding emission cuts as most of the damage to the climate has come from developed nations.

In addition many under-developed nations at Copenhagen are going to be looking for payments from wealthier nations. Nominally this would go to developing alternative energy and energy efficiency, within the usual limits of each country’s corruption level which can vary widely.

Overall this will be encouraging to alternative energy firms and their investors. Today the Cleantech Stock index was up. The NASDAQ Clean Edge Index has been climbing for the past two quarters.

This could also put the focus of many environmental groups on China and India. Perhaps boycotts? Both nations are heavily dependent on exports to Europe and the U.S.

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November 23rd, 2009

Chinese wallboard gets a dirty bill of health

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:32 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, air pollution, building, environmental health, federal government, housing

Tags: U.S., Health Care, Vertical Industries, Benefits, Healthcare, Human Resources, Harry Fuller

Some Chinese wallboard imported after Hurricane Katrina is giving off toxic fumes. Numerous lawsuits are already underway.

The feds have just confirmed what we already knew.
The investigators concluded that both formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide are exuding from the wallboard, especially when it’s damp. There may be sixty thousand homes in the southern U.S. with the imported, dangerous wallboard. It corrodes metal, and is unhealthy for inhabitants. Imported wallboard is now unregulated in the U.S. Currently there are no requirements on content of imported wallboard or its possible health hazards.

November 23rd, 2009

U.S. will propose emissions reduction before Copehagen talks

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 12:13 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, environmental health, federal government, law & politics

Tags: Greenhouse Gas Emission, U.S. Congress, Greenhouse Gas, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, House, Harry Fuller

The international conference on global warming will begin December 7th in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before that time the U.S. government will make a proposal about specific targets for emission reductions. This will be a complete reversal of the American official stance of the past nine years.

No legislation will have passed through Congress before December 7, so the White House position will be necessarily “nuanced” to take into account the tender feelings of the Congress. The House has passed a bill that calls for a 17% greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020. The bills being bandied about the Senate set a slightly more aggressive goal. But like much in Washington it’s all smoke and vapor, until it’s real. And there’ll be no official energy and climate legislation out of this Congress this calendar year. The Senate now expects to talk energy in the spring. Assuming the healthcare bill doesn’t prove fatal. (Just kidding.)

Meanwhile, the EPA is back there studying and preparing. The EPA has already said it will begin to curtail emissions from major American industries, having declared CO2 emissions a public health hazard.

November 21st, 2009

American cars giving slightly more miles per gallon

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:12 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, petroleum

Tags: Car, Emission, Carbon Dioxide, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Harry Fuller

The avergae MPG of cars driven by Americans continues to edge up. According to the EPA, average MPG hit 21 in 2008. It’s up nearly 2 MPG since 2004.

High gas prices and then the cash for clunkers program are expected to keep the MPG moving up this year. CO2 emissions have also been fallling since 2004. That year marked a turnaround in the U.S. The EPA reports CO2 emissions increased and fuel efficiency decreased in the United States from 1987 to 2004.

MOST EFFICIENT

Honda again leads in fuel efficiency on American highways, says the EPA. Next come Hyundai-Kia and then Toyota. VW finished fourth in fleet efficiency. Both GM and Ford showed fuel efficiency gains.

November 17th, 2009

Cap and trade controversial in Australia

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:54 am

Categories: Blogroll, European Union, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy, research

Tags: Cap-and-Trade, Harry Fuller

It’s not only in the U.S. that cap and trade (CAT) is a controversial approach to try to lower greenhouse gas emissions. A report written in Australia, and critical of CAT, has sparked a battle over censorship. Finally the report’s author and the leading science agency in Australia have reached a compromise that will allow publication there.

Currently there are CAT schemes in place in the European Union and among the northeastern states in the U.S. Here’s the website for RGGI which administers CAT across ten states in the northeastern section of the U.S.

Japan’s current government is looking at introducting CAT in the next two years. Some major metro areas of China have long had carbon trading schmes in place. But there is no national emissions regulation or CAT in China.

November 16th, 2009

How we think, and perhaps lie, about the oil supply

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:30 am

Categories: Europe, biofuel, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy, research

Tags: International Energy Agency, Aleklett, Leadership, Government, Management, Harry Fuller

I recently blogged about one oil expert claiming the world’s oil supply is less than officially admitted. In the most recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), it’s clear what they are worried about: economic panic.

The IEA warns that continued rising oil prices could stymie economic growth on a wide scale. Oil prices have risen 80% this year from their low point after the economic woes that were openly recognized late in 2008. Crude is still less than $80 per barrel, far below the record prices of $140 or more a couple years back.

The U.S. and China rank #1 and #2 in national oil consumption.

DON’T TRUST THE IEA

A group of European academics are warning their governments to not trust the IEA oil supply figures. Without directly referencing the recent whistleblower who says the IEA is cooking the books, these scientists and engineers say the oil supply and production numbers have been “politicized.” That’s polite talk for corrupted and dishonest. The academics go on to say the world production of oil will actually decline between now and 2030, not increase as much as the IEA continues to project.

Here is where you can find this report on “Peak of the Oil Age.” The leader author is Kjell Aleklett of Uppsala University. Aleklett is president of ASPO, Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO).

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November 16th, 2009

Asia-Pacific leaders: no final deal in Copenhagen

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:51 am

Categories: Blogroll, China, Europe, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, global warming, law & politics

Tags: Leader, Copenhagen, Asia-Pacific, Leadership, Management, Harry Fuller

Here’s the word from the Singapore meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders which includes Japan and the U.S. There’ll be plenty of global warming talk at the Copehagen talks beginning December 7. There will be no binding deal reached. That situation will be reinforced when President Obama meets with China’s President Hu.

Meanwhile, Copehagen’s hosting a pre-meeting meeting. Forty major countries have sent their environmental ministers or lead negotiators. Think of the carbon footprint of all those jets. Couldn’t they do a Skype conference call?

This week’s pre-meeting meetings are closed to the media in Copenhagen, but there’ll likely be plenty of publicity by those trying to pressure others to do what they want. As you might expect, some Europeans are reporting that the delaying tactics leading up to Copenhagen and no agreement…why that’s due to the fact that the U.S. Senate has not passed a climate and energy bill.

There is a distinct gulf between what rich nations and poor nations are looking for. As often is the case, the money part of any agreement is proving to be the toughest part. Who pays whom to stop polluting the one atmosphere we have?

November 15th, 2009

U.S. and China to talk global warming

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:09 am

Categories: Blogroll, China, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, law & politics

Tags: China, Copenhagen, Global Warming, Government, Harry Fuller

The Copenhagen climate talks are less than four weeks away. President Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao will meet soon for their own two-way climate talk. They are the world’s two leading CO2 emitters and two major nations that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The stance of China and the U.S. when they arrive in Copenhagen could prove crucial to any attempt to craft a widely acceptable agreement on global warming.

Hu, of course, has a great deal of unilateral power in China. No Congress, no lobbyists, many of China’s major companies are owned largely by the Chinese government. China’s sovereign wealth fund is a huge investment force across the globe. In Washington it is clear no climate and energy bill will be voted on by the U.S. Senate before Copenhagen talks convene December 7. Still not clear: will President Obama personally appear in Copenhagen? Would it matter if he did?

November 12th, 2009

Could be a trend--million Energy Star homes

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 12:27 pm

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, building, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, housing

Tags: Home, Harry Fuller

The EPA says there are now a million Energy Star homes in the U.S.

TEXAS CITIES LEAD

The top two cities in the nation for Energy Star ratings: Houston and Dallas. Then come Vegas, Phoenix and L.A. Partly this is the advantage of having a recent building boom. But it also shows the widely recognized advantages of an energy-efficient home.

Chicago and Minneapolis with their northerly climate did not even make the top twenty list of U.S. cities.

Says the EPA: “More than 1 million ENERGY STAR® homes have been built in the United States since the program first began labeling homes in 1995. Thanks to the dedication of our partners, families living in ENERGY STAR qualified homes will save more than $270 million this year on their utility bills, while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 370,000 vehicles.”

Here’s Heather’s recent blog on the PA’s Energy Star program.