carbon policy Archives - Michaels Energy

Jun 01

Does Green Investing Work? Expert Says No

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

I’m just a mechanical systems engineer but assume for a moment that I was a structural or civil engineer, and you asked me what it would take to build a bridge from Los Angeles to Honolulu. We can build anything, including that bridge. If the Golden Gate Bridge could be built in the 1930s, a nuclear submarine in the 1950s, and we put a man on the moon in the 1960s, we can sure as heck build a bridge to Hawaii in the 2020s. The bridge would be easier than zeroing out carbon emissions from the energy sector. See, I’m…

Jan 05

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Water Runs Uphill – I Think Not

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Stimulus, Tax Stuff No Comments

This week – a little diversion into engineering. Go ahead. Shake those goose bumps out. There are three universal laws of thermodynamics but I’m not going to explain them all now or you might fall asleep and hit your head on the table. I will only cover one of them. A law is essentially a theory of something that has never been disproven. One of these laws indicates the direction of all processes. Heat travels from hot to cold. Water runs downhill. However, heat can travel from cold to hot and water can go up hill if you add energy. …