NewsTrust - Green Technology - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

A world of change in 287 days

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Eugene Robinson - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - The columnist evaluates the successes and shortcomings of President Obama's first 287 days in office. Obama could have been quicker to close Guantanamo, tougher on Wall Street, more willing to investigate possible transgressions by the Bush administration, and bolder in pursuing health care reform. But his achievements have included preventing a nationwide depression, renouncing torture, working diligently to close Guantanamo, keeping the Iraq withdrawal on schedule, nominating the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court, touting cooperation with the Muslim world, embracing a multi-lateralist foreign policy, accepting climate change, and investing in green jobs and education. Most important, he has brought America to the brink of legislation to make health insurance an entitlement for all Americans.

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China leaving US behind in green energy

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Joan Fitzgerald - Oct. 22 (Opinion) - Though aspects of it may violate the WTO, China has a coherent industrial policy to capture global leadership, while US initiatives are fragmented. China recognized that the real economic development potential in renewable energy is in manufacturing, which comprises 70 -75 percent of the jobs in solar, and now has more than 100 solar companies that account for one-third of global solar component production.

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Clean-energy transition promises brighter economic prospects

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Dean Allen, Maud Daudon - Oct. 22 (Opinion) - WITH the introduction of the Clean Energy Jobs bill in September, the U.S. Senate began work on repowering America's economy with a comprehensive climate and energy policy. As Washington business leaders involved in building our local clean-energy economy, we're delighted to see the other Washington moving ahead to restore American leadership in the most dynamic sector of the new economy.

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Beyond GDP: We need a dashboard for the whole economy

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Scientist - Oct. 21 (Editorial) - From stock markets to measuring GDP, conventional economics is in a mess.

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Green Inc.: Apple Resigns From Chamber Over Climate

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Kate Galbraith - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - Apple became the latest company to resign from the United States Chamber of Commerce, citing climate issues.

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PG&E partnering on 'Smart Grid'

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Chuck Reed,Chris Johns - Oct. 05 (Opinion) - many utilities are competing for these funds [the $4.5 billion in funding set aside for ...grid projects in the american recoery and reinvestment act] but only a few have a winning combination of strong technology, community partners and a project that pushes the frontiers of current practice.

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Some Bad Climate News and Some Good

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Sep. 16 (Editorial) - Though a bill limiting greenhouse gas emissions has been put on the back burner, all is not lost. The E. P. A. is rolling out emissions rules for the automotive industry.

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Finally, investors are choosing green industry

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Jose Mercury News - Sep. 07 (Editorial) - Every report, study and prediction about Silicon Valley's economy in this downturn has mapped the path to recovery in green: clean tech, renewable energy and good middle-income jobs, like installing solar panels, that can't be outsourced.

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Feed-in Tariffs for Solar Continue To Spread

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Felicity Barringer - Jul. 22 (Opinion) - Variations on the policy that jumpstarted Germany’s decade-long boom in rooftop solar systems are taking root in more cities in the United States. The policy, called a feed-in tariff, offers small-scale producers of solar energy long-term contracts (usually at above-market rates) for the electricity they sell.

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Climate Loopholes

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 21 (Editorial) - In the last-minute wheeling and dealing of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, the House bill acquired two ways to evade compliance that the Senate must fix.

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Green jobs must mean good jobs that respect labor

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Rick Bender, Tom Chamberlain - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - in March 2007, SolarWorld purchased a facility in Hillsboro, Ore. The company was lured there in part by $43 million in tax breaks and public subsidies. SolarWorld jumped at this opportunity to move its operation to a new facility. But at the same time, they adamantly rejected requests by the Machinist Union to remain neutral in any efforts to unionize the Oregon work force. New employees at the Hillsboro facility were offered much lower pay than the unionized Washington workers, inferior benefits, no job protections and work shifts that varied between 12-hour graveyard and 12-hour day shifts.

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The Climate-Industrial Complex

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Bjorn Lombord - May. 21 (Opinion) - Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets.

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Moore’s Law and the Law of More

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Apr. 25 (Opinion) - “Right now we’re paying a huge price — a tax — for everyone trying to achieve more in an unsustainable way. But the ‘More Tax’ is not imposed by the U.S. government. It is a tax imposed by the market and will continue rising indefinitely as more and more people want more and more stuff. It will steadily drive up gasoline prices, home heating prices and factory electricity prices. But because this ‘More Tax’ is set by the market and not the government, many opponents contend that there’s nothing to be done: ‘Oh, $4.50 a gallon gasoline — that’s just the market at work. We can’t do anything about that.’ And then all that tax money out of your pocket goes to enrich oil companies and petro-dictators.

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To Save the Earth, Start With Data

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Alex Madrigal - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - You can't cast a stone without hitting a list of tips to save the planet, but few of them come with any hard data on how hand-washing your dishes will save polar bears. And all those companies "going green" just to do something on Earth Day could be hurting the cause, not helping.

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Environment Justice, Blacks and the Green Movement

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Root - By Kai Wright - Apr. 22 (Opinion) - "Polar bears will not be the biggest victims of global warming," Ellis-Lamkins said. "People will be the biggest victims—ourselves, our children and grandchildren. And as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, it will be poor people and people of color who are hit hardest."

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Top 10 Tech Cars of 2009

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

IEEE Spectrum - By John Voelcker - Apr. 06 (Review) - If necessity really is the mother of invention, then surely the auto industry is on the verge of an era of blinding brilliance. Times are that bad.

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When green has shades of gray

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - Mar. 28 (Editorial) - Green energy advocates and land preservationists in California are on opposite sides of a proposal to place solar-mirror fields in the Mojave Desert. The dispute is reminiscent of the battle over wind power in Nantucket Sound - a clash of competing "goods" where all the players wear green hats.

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Seeds of Revival in Wind and Solar?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Kate Galbraith - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - After several gloomy months, experts say that the stimulus package is beginning — just beginning — to revive interest in wind and solar power.

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President's trip to Canada defines critical carbon moment

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By James E. Hansen - Feb. 17 (Opinion) - The Canadian media are full of speculation that the Canadian government will push for special treatment and protections from global warming regulation of its fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions -- the tar sands oil development in Alberta, where much of Canada's oil is derived. Such protection would be disastrous for life on our planet. The tar sands of Canada constitute one of our planet's greatest threats. They are a double-barreled threat. First, producing oil from tar sands emits two to three times the global warming pollution of conventional oil. But the process also diminishes one of the best carbon reduction tools on the planet -- Canada's Boreal Forest.

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Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Amory Lovins - Feb. 09 (Opinion) - If I told you, “Many people need computing services, so we’d better build more mainframe computer centers where you can come run your computing task,” you’d probably reply, “We did that in the 1960’s, but now we use networked PC’s.”

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Invest in clean energy

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Chicago Tribune - By Ted Turner - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - As someone who has financially invested in solar power, I have been asked a lot lately whether the country's economic troubles will imperil our nation's transition to cleaner, low-carbon energy sources. The assumption behind the question, of course, is that clean energy is a luxury we can no longer afford. Further, it suggests that investment in clean energy, and the technologies needed to deliver it, only makes sense when oil and gas prices are high. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it's this misconception that for the past three decades has given us a reactive energy policy and left us more dependent on foreign oil. Moving away from dirty and inefficient power sources is utterly essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and to the security and health of the planet. It will also be the business opportunity of the 21st Century.

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The Net-Zero Gas Tax

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Weekly Standard - By Charles Krauthammer - Dec. 27 (Opinion) - Americans have a deep and understandable aversion to gasoline taxes. In a culture more single-mindedly devoted to individual freedom than any other, tampering with access to the open road is met with visceral opposition. That's why earnest efforts to alter American driving habits take the form of regulation of the auto companies--the better to hide the hand of government and protect politicians from the inevitable popular backlash. But it's not just love of the car. America is a nation of continental expanses. Distances between population centers can be vast. The mass-transit mini-car culture of Europe just doesn't work in big sky country. This combination of geography and romance is the principal reason gas taxes are so astonishingly low in America. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. In Britain, as in much of Europe, the tax approaches $4 per gallon--more than 20 times the federal levy here. Savvy politicians (i.e., those who succeed in getting themselves elected president) know this and tread carefully. Ronald Reagan managed a 5-cent increase. So did Bush 41. Bill Clinton needed a big fight to get a 4.3-cent increase. The lesson has been widely learned. No one with national ambitions proposes a major gas tax. Indeed, this summer featured the absurd spectacle of two leading presidential candidates (John McCain and Hillary Clinton) seriously proposing a temporary gas tax suspension.

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Economic Stimulus Doesn't Have to Mean Ecological Disaster

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Andy Lipkis - Dec. 22 (Opinion) - In his Nov. 24 Op-Ed article, " Depression-era projects, again," Bill Boyarsky outlines some good reasons for Los Angeles residents to support President-elect Barack Obama's plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects. We need the employment, and our city needs rebuilding. It's true that the "New New Deal" offers a fantastic opportunity to rebuild for the future, but this opportunity also contains real dangers. If we don't make careful choices about what kind of infrastructure we build, we will be hardening in concrete the ecological mistakes of our past. Listening closely to the conversation about the projects that are on the table, you soon realize that many have been waiting on the shelf for years. They are old. The problem with old projects is they often reflect a paradigm that is more than 100 years old. They inadvertently waste resources and pollute, leaving huge downstream costs in public health and national security.

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Some Carbon Candor

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - Dec. 05 (Editorial) - Liberal interest groups, think tanks, lobbyists, bloggers and other nuisances are inundating the incoming Obama Administration with advice, but James Hansen recently managed to say something interesting. Namely, the famous NASA scientist had the nerve to expose some of the global-warming fantasies widespread among children and politicians.

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The New Greens Like It Big

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Newsweek - By David Victor - Dec. 04 (Opinion) - Whereas the old view of green tech was based on many small, decentralized sources of power and a green economy that harnessed the power of the marketplace, the new version will rely more heavily on regulation and subsidies. It will also embrace the wisdom, true in most of the energy business, that bigger is better for weathering economic storms.

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