Results for: “no free lunch in our energy options”

During my interview last week with Alan Colmes (embedded below), a few points were discussed that warrant some elaboration. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com The first is the conversion from winter to summer gasoline, which I have written about in more detail at Why Summer Gasoline Means Higher Prices. Just to be clear, this is an underlying reason that gasoline prices rise at this time every year, but it is not the reason that gas prices are higher today than they were at this time last year. We started the year at a higher level for other reasons, but summer gasoline explains why — even if you took the geopolitical factors out of the equation — that gasoline prices will normally rise… Continue»

Land Usage and Wildlife vs. Carbon Emissions If I had to describe the theme of my upcoming book with just one phrase, it would be “There is no free lunch in our energy options.” Sometimes the costs are obvious, as when an oil spill occurs or a nuclear accident happens. Other times, the costs are not so obvious, but the trade-offs are always there. Some people have insisted to me that there really aren’t too many trade-offs with solar power, but a new story in the Los Angeles Times highlights a few of them: Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power project will soon be a humming city with 24-hour lighting, a wastewater processing facility… Continue»

Thanks to a reader for bringing this to my attention. Vinod Khosla (VK) just did a lengthy interview at the Milken Institute 2009 Global Conference. The interview was conducted by Elizabeth Corcoran (EC) of Forbes. You can see the video of the interview here: Milken: Khosla on the Shift to Renewable Energy I am going to listen to the interview, transcribe it, and comment on interesting/controversial exchanges. (If a transcript of this interview exists already, I haven’t seen it). I will strive to be as accurate as possible, but may paraphrase lengthy questions and answers. I will also try to provide links to all of the companies VK mentions. Any comments I make will be preceded by “RR” and will… Continue»

Just enough quiet time this morning (still suffering jet lag and waking up at 4 a.m.) to knock out an essay. I told my daughter last night that I plan to keep writing, but I don’t plan to do it on their time. I will do it early in the morning, at lunch, or when the rest of the family is occupied with something. But I like writing too much to stop. I read an article yesterday in The Detroit News: Energy bill may gouge consumers The article was written by Mark J. Perry, an economics and finance professor at the University of Michigan, and discusses the pending energy legislation. There was been so much to write about on this… Continue»