A couple weeks ago I beat up electric automobiles for being overpriced and unpractical due to their short driving ranges and cripplingly long charge times. This week I present a saner approach to substantial energy and emissions reductions. The electric car is the equivalent of installing renewable energy sources before making conventional systems and technologies as efficient as possible in buildings. Like buildings, we can cost effectively cut personal transportation energy consumption substantially, without sacrificing anything with readily available technologies - rather than pouring gobs of money into technologies that are just five years away from prime time; like they…
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Back in the day when I was in the nuclear Navy, Greenpeace was not so infrequently pulling stunts like running their zodiacs up on the top of submarine hulls to make their unfounded statements of radiation releases to the environment. Since 9/11, you can bet they stopped this practice. Even back in the early 1990s the hatch was guarded by a burly guy sporting a short barrel shotgun with the largest shell chamber I’ve ever seen. Stopping power. The fact is, the US Navy runs the cleanest nuclear plants in the world with thousands of operating reactor YEARS and not…
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One of the downsides of the surging awareness and growth in energy efficiency and renewable energy, in my opinion, are all the Johnny Come Lately energy services arms of giant corporations. Companies include Lockheed Martin, United Technologies, Eaton, and Chevron. These giants have revenues of $45 Billion, $53 Billion, $12 Billion and a meager $176 Billion, respectively. Poor Chevron’s revenue dropped from $275 Billion from the year prior. Maybe they should focus on their core business and leave the energy saving to the rest of us. Among these, only measly Eaton isn’t in the Fortune 100 (Eaton comes in at…
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"There should be a place for these -- someplace that isn't going to impact families quite so much." This was a quote regarding wind turbines from a woman in the Wall Street Journal article Renewable Energy, Meet the New Nimby. I laughed out loud for a while when I read this California has a mandate for 33% renewable energy consumption by 2020. New York: 25% by 2013. Oregon: 25% by 2025. These states and similar ones have meager interim targets and/or have meager portfolios today. Some serious ramp up is required. However, it seems people claim to want it but…
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