An article in today’s Houston Chronicle, “Debate Flares over How to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” compares the relative merits of a carbon tax and cap-and-trade. We will be hearing a lot about these two approaches in the weeks and months ahead.
But the Chronicle article did not consider the other major alternative: neither a tax nor a cap-and-trade program.…
Continue Reading[A scientist was addressing a luncheon gathering and mentioned that the sun would burn out in 4 billion years. A woman in the front, alarmed, asked him to repeat the number, which he did. “Thank goodness!” she exclaimed, “I thought you said ‘million'” Traditional physicist joke.]
Many of those writing on oil markets, energy security, commodity prices, and energy policy often cite, with great authority, the fact that “X is finite.” This can be seen both in the general press, such as the recent story in the New York Times on Abu Dhabi’s effort to diversify away from oil revenue, and in more detailed reports, such as the one written for the Army: “Energy Trends and Their Implication for US Army Installations.”
In the words of Vijay Vaitheeswaran of the Economist, “So what?” …
Continue ReadingInvestment in energy-efficient light bulbs would, in 5 years, save more than 5 times as much energy as an equal investment in a wind turbine would produce in 20 years.
This fact is clearly demonstrated with simple arithmetic!…
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