Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1110

Energy and Global Warming News for August 31st: Natural gas is beating up on coal, TVA to idle nine coal plants; Details about road-embedded solar cells

Natural gas is beating up on coal

Coal has always been cheap and dirty. And the dirty part was justifiable because it was so cheap. Now, gas prices are dropping, threatening coal's dominance in the North American energy market. Which means gas could take over before coal gets a chance to clean up its act.

Natural gas dropped in price last week, trading at under $4 per million British thermal units-the unit used to measure energy output. The price is competitive with coal on a Btu basis...

WashPost on Climategate, Cuccinelli witch hunt, IPCC review: "The overblown critique of climate science that emerged early this year continues to underwhelm."

The new review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's by the InterAcademy Council offers some useful suggestions for improving the IPCC process and its reports.  Most of these are not new suggestions, see "The IPCC lowballs likely impacts with its instantly out-of-date reports and is clearly clueless on messaging — should it be booted or just rebooted?"

In any case, as I wrote three years ago, I don't think that continuing the IPCC process will have any meaningful impact...

New poll: Americans want EPA action on climate

Our guest blogger is CAP's Daniel J. Weiss.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) wants to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from undertaking any efforts to reduce global warming pollution from stationary sources or additional reductions from vehicles for two years.   This would actually be a four year delay in pollution reductions because it takes two years for EPA to propose and finalize reduction standards.  This misguided bill puts public health in jeopardy, a risk we simply can't...

USGS report: Asian glacier retreat, driven by climate change, "increases the likelihood of outburst floods that threaten life and property in nearby areas" - Rapid melting threatens water supplies to millions

Many of Asia's glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change.

This retreat impacts water supplies to millions of people, increases the likelihood of outburst floods that threaten life and property in nearby areas, and contributes to sea-level rise.

Talk about your well-timed studies — see "One-fifth of Pakistan is under water."

The U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with 39 international scientists — "the most knowledgeable glaciologists for each geographic region covered" — on "

New climate disinformer fad: Ocean acidification denial

As oceanic CO2 rises, pH falls.

The burning of billions of tons of fossil fuels every year is altering our planet — not only by making our atmosphere trap more heat, but also by changing the chemistry of the ocean.  For background, see 2010 Nature Geoscience study: Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.

Since ocean acidification is one of the most dangerous and best-documented impacts we face on our current...

Breaking: Judge rules against Cuccinelli's witch-hunt aimed at Michael Mann and climate science

An Albemarle  County Circuit Court  judge has ruled that the Virginia attorney general's office has not demonstrated a "reason to believe" that the University of Virginia has documents and materials that are relevant to its investigation into possible fraud by former U. Va. climate science professor Michael Mann.

In a six-page decision, Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. also ruled that the attorney general also has not sufficiently "stated the nature of the conduct" believed to constitute possible...

Energy and Global Warming News for August 30th: Coal-ash dump sites contaminate drinking water; Biofuels companies buy African land, cause food-output loss, deforestation; A Kindle equals 22 books

Study: Drinking water polluted by coal-ash dump sites

A new study identifies 39 additional coal-ash dump sites in 21 states that pollute drinking water with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.

The analysis comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins regional hearings on whether to regulate coal ash waste from coal-fired power plants. It will hold the first of seven hearings Monday in Arlington, Va. A public comment period ends Nov. 19.

"This is a huge and very real public health i...

Prop 23's Anita Mangels wants you to know that greenhouse gases are 'emissions,' not 'pollutants'

Anita Mangels, spokesperson for California's Yes on 23 campaign, wants to get the message out that greenhouse gases emitted from oil refineries, coal plants, and motor vehicles are not "pollutants," just "emissions." Mangels is working to suspend California's landmark global warming legislation, AB 32, on behalf of the Texas oil company-funded Proposition 23 campaign.

Brad Johnson interview Mangels in this WR cross-post.

In a gracious telephone interview with the Wonk Room, Mangels...

What's the difference between climate science and climate journalism? - The former is self-correcting, the latter has become self-destructive

So New York Times blogger Andy Revkin has written perhaps his worst post yet.  The blogosphere and my inbox are filled with the most amazing rebukes I've seen from scientists and others, which I'm reposting here, including Steve Easterbrook's, "When did ignorance become a badge of honour for journalists?"

Revkin's guilt-by-(distant)-association piece, "On Harvard Misconduct, Climate Research and Trust," betrays a remarkable lack of understanding of the scientific process.  And what is most...

Climate Progress at four years: Why I blog

From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books….

I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts….

– George Orwell, "Why I write"

I joined the new media because the old media have...