Showing posts with label coal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coal. Show all posts

Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution Review

Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution
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Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution ReviewA lot of people are hoping that we can innovate our way into an energy and environmentally-secure future. The question is: How on earth are we going to do this? Experts on science, government and innovation policy, Charles Weiss and William Bonvillian explore the role of government in bringing on this energy innovation in their new book, Structuring An Energy Technology Revolution. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I am acquainted with the second author. On the other hand, maybe I should also say that like thousands of other Americans I can't help but cheer when I see the value of my Exxon stock go up.)
I found Structuring An Energy Technology Revolution to be a great book. Weiss and Bonvillian, lay out a very plausible and detailed roadmap towards the goal of energy independence and environmental health. In their vision, government, industry and universities collaborate to foster new energy technologies. Think DARPA and the IT revolution on B vitamins, if not steroids. One of their most intriguing ideas (out of many) is that of technology neutrality. Here "no single technology has any special claim on support." (Structuring An Energy Technology Revolution, p.14). Instead, if I understand them correctly, technologies at different stages of development receive research or implementation support depending on their technoeconomic merit. The idea is to nurture an energy innovation environment that speeds up the creation and marketing of new energy technologies. Including the downstream costs or "externalities" of all energy products in the equation is a notable way of leveling the playing field.
Establishing an effective innovation system for energy technology is no easy task. It has to supply sufficient alternatives to the old-style use of fossil fuels, be hospitable to private investment, and not be a boondoggle for bureaucrats or vested interests. This will take considerable political will. It is clear that this political discipline has to come from an informed public. To give us the information we need is the mission of this far-seeing work. Structuring An Energy Technology Revolution shows us how our already intertwined government, science and business communities could actually begin to solve these problems. Will they? Will we step up? I highly recommend this book. Beautifully written, the authors' broad grasp and effective presentation of these complexities gives us an almost panoramic view of the subject with the insider's command of details. If you're at all serious about following or shaping our economic, energy and environmental future, this book is necessary reading.
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Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Revised and Updated Edition Review

Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Revised and Updated Edition
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Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Revised and Updated Edition ReviewAndrew Nikiforuk has done us all a great favour in writing this impassioned book about the Alberta Tar Sands and the social, environmental and political devestation they are causing. Mr. Stephen Harper has revealed himself as the Dick Cheney of Canada, a scheming figure, intellectually in debt to the carbon fuels industry, with great personal integrity and a passionate contempt for democracy, especially parlimentry democracy.
Mr. Nikiforuk begins his book with XXII propositions (I will not repeat them all here) which are a strong call to action for anyone concerned with the environment, Canadian society and politics and the people of the Athabasca. He follows this with a detailed history of the tar sands development and its impacts. Bitumen is a very dirty and inefficent fuel and that we are turning to it as an alternative shows how far we have gone down the road of carbon degredation. Nikiforuk points out that integrating the North American energy market around fossil fuels will effectively remove what ever political independence Canada has (a long time goal of the Harper Conservatives) and will reconstitute Canada as a client energy slave of the US. It will make it impossible for Canada to meet any international agreements on carbon reduction (another goal of the Harper Conservatives) and lock Canada into a path of declining international relevance as the world moves into a post-carbon economy and a devestated landscape.
After reading this book I went over to Google Maps and cruised around the Fort McMurray and the enviromental disaster in the making is already clearly visible.
This book reinforces how important it is to stop Harper and his carbon fueled political machine. At the very least, the tar sands projects should be forced to carry the full cost of all of their externalities - carbon footprint, land restoration, impact on wildlife, social impact ... If these costs were fully factored in it is doubtful that there would be much development in the tar sands. Instead, the federal and Alberta governments are selling out the Canadian tax payer for short term gain, though most of the gain will go to a very few Canadians and Americans. The rest of the world will suffer from carbon emmissions and the loss of a wonderful river and wilderness.
I suspect that our grand children will ask us in horror and disbelief why we thought that burning complex and beautiful hydrocarbons was a good way to create energy when we had so many other options available.Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Revised and Updated Edition Overview

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