Can the same old anti-government regulation talking points of the last 30 years of GOP corporate shilling win the war(s) we find ourselves in now? Removing subsidies for the old energy economy wouldn't be enough to win this time around. Subsidies need to be diverted to the new energy economy. The "free" market could choose which path to follow if those paths actually existed. But to open those paths, like plugin hybrids, government needs to set standards and order millions of units of these vehicles in order to spur mass production.   more »

Composters unite! Digest your hot waste first. Generate clean backup power for a renewable grid in the process. You'll still have plenty of compost, fed with the biodigestor fertilizer. This also eliminates the pathogen problem. That first germ killing biodigestion process. These latest pandemics originate in interspecies manure/food stream intake and the development of resistant mutated strains of pathogens that migrate from species to species. Bird flu to humans for instance.   more »

This makes all the days trail running to get ready even better. A little bit of every trail infuses through the psyche into every other trail. Pretty soon the trail becomes your real life, and your "real" life a detour from the trail.    more »

Barack notices Pollan's NYT article on food and ag policy, that's great. But the connections between food, ag, and energy must be better transmitted up the political food chain.   more »

I awoke to her first policy speech, on special needs children like her 13 year old nephew and her infant son Trig. It's shocking to see this much dumb, even with the experience of 8 years of the gibberisher in chief.   more »

This job creation out on the west coast shows the way to economic recovery. California solar companies are short of installers. Jobs are being created faster than they can be filled. Obama can make that green job wave wash over the whole nation. The template is there, it is working in California. Ground source heating/cooling, solar cogeneration panels for roof installation, wind farms on farms, offshore floating wave/wind and desalinization systems, biogas systems on farms hooked to distributed solid oxide fuel cell/turbine power plants, and plugin hybrids.   more »

On a clip featured in the latest "Daily Show" (link to follow when it's up on the net) we find out that we are still "real" americans, according to the McCain campaign! Oh lucky us, we here in northern Wisconsin, along with the Minnesota Iron Range residents, and those in a few other regions, have been labeled "real" americans, because McCain still has a marginal chance to win here. We are still "pro-america america". I guess if/when Obama wins, that will make all of america anti-american. Yep.   more »

Yes, Sarah takes the stage from Tina. A fitting media tribute to Palin, the skit is written to make her look great. Just like the applause for McCain at the Al Smith dinner, to put it in palinese, "Thi(a)nks, but no thi(a)nks (sic)."   more »

Cellulosic ethanol is the go-to excuse for the built in drawbacks of biomass guzzling. The governor of Iowa said in a town meeting here recently that McCain opposing farm state ethanol subsidies was like dissing maple syrup in Vermont. Political suicide. He did however recognize farm biogas as a potent energy source.   more »

This objection to nuclear power always tends to slip by. Even with a new generation of mass produced modular nukes, it still takes water to run the steam turbines. Water we don't have. All the water conservation efforts possible are necessary just to stop the depletion of aquifers and rivers, nothing is left over for nuclear power except desalination.   more »

$700 billion is the yearly "defense" budget of the US. $700 billion is the bailout cash reserve. $700 billion per year is the US bill for foreign oil. Why not use the 700 billion over 10 years to eliminate those oil imports? And the need for oil wars over that oil supply?   more »

So you want to buy into the next Google? Follow every rumor about these Silicon Valley venture capitalists. My feeling is that the better the correction, the more old line corporations that are slaughtered, the better the boom will be.   more »

Mental deficit leads to mental recession. With Palin as chief energy strategist we would raise the mental deficit astronomically.   more »

Nuclear is Great, As Long As I’m Not Near The Waste
Midway through the interview he’s asked: “What about the transportation?  Would you be comfortable with nuclear waste coming through Arizona on its way, you know going through Phoenix, on its way to uh Yucca Mountain?”

To which McCain shakes his head, gulps a little and responds, “No, I would not. No I would not.”

McCain says he wants 45 new nuclear plants, but it would take 10 times that number to power his unlimited gas guzzling future.  To replace coal and natural gas for electricity and heating and process coal, shale oil, and tar sands into oil.

And now we find out that most of the nuclear plant components are made offshore, no new jobs in nuclear manufacturing.  No way to transport and store the waste.  Was Palin the "expert" who advised him on this energy plan?

"The rules on Yucca Mountain are especially critical given that some in Congress, including Sen. McCain, are calling for an explosion in nuclear construction that would generate the need for a new Yucca Mountain every 17 to 24 years."