Category: Environment
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Growing the Green Sector
by James A. Bacon In the 1990s, the “it” sector for state and regional economic development was semiconductors. In the 2000s, it was biotech. Today, it’s the “clean, “green,” or low-carbon sector, defined as businesses that produce goods and services with an environmental benefit. Everybody wants a piece of clean tech these days. And now…
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Where Are the Oil Skimmers?
How inept has the Obama administration been in responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher? Reports from the field suggest that, nearly 70 days into the crisis, the federal response to the oil clean-up is still in disarray. For evidence, we Virginians need look no farther than the port of Norfolk, where the world’s largest…
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Drill, Baby — Maybe
The nation has watched in horror as the oil slick from the British Petroleum rig in the Gulf of Mexico approached the ecologically fragile wetlands of the Louisiana coast, and I found myself among those thinking, “We cannot let this happen in Virginia.” For once, I found myself agreeing with Peter, who wrote in a…
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Cuccinelli Is Right
Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli is absolutely right to file a petition against the Environmental Protection Agency for attempting to regulate greenhouse gases, including carbon dixoide, by means of executive fiat. And he is absolutely right to cite the East Anglia email scandals as justification for questioning the so-called “science” underlying the Intergovernmental Panel on…
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DISPERSAL VS FOCUS
DISPERSED RENEWABLE ENERGY SUPPLIES VS FOCUSED SETTLEMENT PATTERN ENERGY DEMAND Time again to consider things that directly impact humans ability to achieve a sustainable trajectory for their civilization. First, two great items from CNN today: 1. Time has “The Great Recession: America Becomes Thrift Nation.” A lot of great Timesqe poster material. 2. EMR does…
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The Coming Green Boom — and Bubble
Most prophets of doom are a relentlessly dour lot – not only do they tell you why you’re heading straight to oblivion, they scowl at you while they do it. But John Rubino is different. He leavens his gloom mongering with a joke, a grin, and tales of life in Moscow, Idaho, where he skis,…
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The Missing Element in Kaine’s Green Jobs Initiative: Private Capital
Earlier this month, Arlington-based Positive Energy raised $14 million in a second round of venture funding. Positive Energy has developed a software analytics platform that it sells to electric power companies implementing demand-response programs to encourage energy conservation and loading shifting. As the company web site explains, it’s one thing to adopt time-of-use pricing and…
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Two More Environmental Threats Facing Virginia
The Old Dominion is facing two new environmental threats. Battle lines are being drawn regarding a proposed coal-fired electricity plant in Surry County. And pharma giant Merck wants permission to dump several times the levels of allowable pollutants into the Shenandoah River. The new issues come just after Dominion Power has begun contruction of a…
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The Uranium Mining Debate Just Grew a Tentacle
The debate over uranium mining in Pittsylvania County just got more complicated Tuesday after Virginia Beach City Council was informed that Virginia’s largest city would be at risk of mining operations 200 miles away. Director of Public Utilities Thomas Leahy laid out a worst-case scenario: A hurricane or tropical storm could destroy the landfill-like containers…
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Climate Change, Wetlands and Riprap
It’s nice to know that at least one Virginia journalist is doing a capable job of following the local angle on the Global Warming debate. Too bad he isn’t getting published in a Virginia newspaper or periodical. You have to track down a copy of BioScience Magazine to read him. (Even worse, you have to…
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Creeping Socialism in Virginia Agriculture
The steady transformation of the United States economy from a predominantly market-driven economy to a rent-seeking economy proceeds apace. Nowhere is this more evident than in the agricultural sector where, despite rising commodity prices, government accounts for an increasing percentage of industry receipts. The chart above, showing government payments as a percentage of Virginia gross…
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A New Vision to Rally Around: Let’s Become the Algae Capital of the World!
Virginians know more than most people about growing algae: The Chesapeake Bay periodically erupts with algae blooms that wreak havoc on the fragile estuarine ecology. While most of us think of algae as an environmental blight, Old Dominion University researchers want to convert the primitive life form into biodiesel fuel — and make Virginia’s waters…
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Sign of the Times: VCU Hires “Director of Sustainability”
Virginia Commonwealth University has created a new position, director of sustainability, to guide the university toward climate neutrality. Earlier this year, President Eugene Trani had signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, an initiative to reduce the global emission of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by mid-century. Jacek Ghosh, a visiting community scholar…
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Pressure Builds to Halt Coal-Fired Electricity
It’s guys like Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, who make Gov. Timothy M. Kaine look like a moderate on energy and environmental issues. Speaking at the Commonwealth of Virginia Energy and Sustainability Conference in Richmond yesterday, Flavin said the U.S. should stop building coal-burning power plants because they contribute to global warming. “Starting…
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Apostate
Patrick Michaels, former state climatologist, has been excluded from Virginia’s dialogue on climate change on the grounds that the science is settled. But is it really?Patrick Michaels has earned such a reputation as a Global Warming skeptic that many people who follow the climate change debate might be surprised at some of his opinions. Temperatures…