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Over half of the agency’s employees weigh in

Wow. Via jjwfmme in comments, it seems the rank and file at the EPA want to make their feelings about the CO2 issue crystal clear as it enters the Supreme Court:

In an unprecedented action, representatives for more than 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists are calling on Congress to take immediate action against global warming, according to a petition released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). ...

...

The petition signatories represent more than half of the total agency workforce. Addressed to the members of the Senate and House committees overseeing EPA, the petition argues that:

• The Bush administration strategy of "using primarily voluntary and incentive-based programs" to reduce greenhouse gases is not working nor "has [this approach] been effectively carried out;"
• EPA has abdicated its enforcement responsibilities by "failing to investigate coal-electric plants for technical options to control carbon;" and
• "EPA's scientists and engineers [must be able] to speak frankly and directly with Congress and the public regarding climate change, without fear of reprisal."

Here's the full petition (PDF) and a summary (PDF) from the coalition of EPA unions.

There's always been tension between the mid-level career staffers at various federal agencies and the political hacks the Bush administration has appointed to lead them, but this is ridiculous.

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It’s cheaper than photovoltaic

The Guardian had a story yesterday on concentrating solar collectors. They have caught on to something I've been saying for a while: concentrating mirrors and heat engines can produce solar electricity less expensively than photovoltaic cells. Currently, we are able to store heat less expensively than electricity.

Tolls reduce driving, but maybe not enough

On most days, my wife and I commute together by car. And since my kids started a new, out-of-the-way school, our commute has gone from a fairly straightforward 15 minute trip -- mostly in the carpool lanes -- to a congested daily slog that, depending on traffic, can last over 45 minutes.

We definitely pay for our longer commute in higher bills for gas and repairs. But we don't have to pay for the road space -- we drive on the "freeway," after all.

But stuck in rush hour gridlock, among all the other drivers parked on I-5, it strikes me that the term "freeway" is a misnomer. In fact, we do pay a toll to drive on the freeway, especially during rush hour. It's just that we pay with our time, not our money.

Perhaps it doesn't have to be that way.

Some juicy questions at issue

If Justin hasn't sated your hunger for blogging about today's Supreme Court case, check out this series of posts from Jonathan Adler. Lots of good discussion beneath as well.

(NB: below the fold I speak about legal issues, about which my ignorance is boundless. You've been warned.)

They must be supplemented with gov’t intervention

Jason D Scorse agrees with the Reason article arguing that the way to phase out fossil fuels is to tax them -- to make their price reflect some or all of their social costs (referred to by economists as "Pigovian" tax). Fossil fuels will become more expensive, low-carbon technology will become competitive, and everybody will do the "happy happy joy joy" dance.

Unfortunately, a strategy based mainly on price increases will work ineffectively, if at all -- a position for which we have both historical evidence and good theoretical grounding. (This is not to say that Pigovian taxes have no place, but as a supplementary measure, not a primary one.)

And I’m checking it. Twice.

People like to number things. They like to make lists. But I'm always impressed by the seeming randomness with which organizations decide to publish decisive lists. Why choose Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006 to publish your top 100 green campaigners of all time? Why not?!

Not quite at the end of the year and a little late for the turn of the millennium, the U.K. Environment Agency released their "Earthshakers" list today, just in time for ... well, I'm sure it's in time for something.

Do you pod here often?

Speaking of incremental improvements, Grist will be launching a weekly podcast shortly. Before we officially roll it out to the entire Grist audience, I'm hoping you Gristmillians could take a listen and provide some feedback. Specifically, we'd like to make sure that the RSS feed is working, the podcasts are downloading and playing fine, and the sound quality is good.

If you're an iTunes user, click here to find our weekly podcast in the iTunes store. If you'd prefer to use another RSS reader or podcatcher, use this:

http://www.grist.org/rss/weekly_podcast.xml

Please email feedback to me at podcasts [at] grist [dot] org. Thanks, and enjoy!