Uncategorized

Is a smart guy

Earlier today I had a nice long chat with Terry Tamminen, who until recently was Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental advisor.

It's safe to say that Tamminen is one of the most influential figures in environmental policy in the country, though he's not widely known. Through his friendship and professional association with Schwarzenegger, he helped develop a whole range of innovative policies, including the biggie: AB 32, California's greenhouse-gas reduction bill. (See also the low-emissions-vehicles regulations that got the state sued by automakers.)

Time for the feds to step in

My previous post about CyberTran described a mass transit system that is highly energy efficient compared to conventional transit, and is inexpensive enough, and supports small stations well enough, to work in suburbs as well as cities.

Some readers were disappointed to find that CyberTran is not currently running anywhere -- that it is still experimental.

Hope you weren’t planning a protest

If there's one creature that animal-rights activists should not try to save (and should instead attempt to quietly euthanize), it's a lame duck.

The House of Representatives on Monday passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, extending current federal law to specifically criminalize not only interfering with "animal enterprises" -- a commercial or academic enterprise that uses or sells animals or animal products for profit, food or fiber production, agriculture, research, or testing -- but also interfering with organizations that do business with "animal enterprises," such as their lawyers or insurance companies.

As AP says:

Violators could be sentenced up to a year in jail for economic damages of less than $10,000, and up to five years in prison if a threat produced a "reasonable fear" of bodily harm. Prison sentences of up to 10 years could result if someone is actually injured.

Press coverage of climate change is … changing

Am I the only one who senses a remarkable shift -- or, really, three shifts -- in how the press is covering climate change?

You’ll never guess

Carbon neutral.

How Sunpower plans to do it

Sunpower, a darling of the investor community, has the highest efficiency solar cells on the market. If you are interested in how they think they can reduce costs by 50% by 2012 and thereby reach grid parity -- that is to say, the point where solar is cost effective without subsidies -- listen here.

Snow says Bush has made climate a priority. Yeah, right.

"[T]he President has made dealing with climate change a priority for this administration," said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow at yesterday's briefing.

Meanwhile, a German group has ranked 56 nations according to their efforts to fight climate change. Yes, look way down the list [PDF]:  

Sea bass smuggler cops a plea in Miami

In September 2005, U.S. prosecutors brought criminal charges against Antonio Vidal Pego and the Uruguayan company Fadilur for trying to bring Chilean sea bass into Miami without proper documentation.

Although this case may have lacked the pizazz necessary to inspire a Law & Order episode, it was, in fact, a very big deal. This indictment was the first ever for the illegal importation and sale of Chilean sea bass. Yesterday was another groundbreaker, with the first ever guilty pleas for pirate fishing (coming from Vidal and Fadilur).

Public transit that would work in Houston

No, mass transit is not just for cities like Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. CyberTran^[1] is a form of mass transit suitable for most parts of the nation, from suburbs to the densest parts of Manhattan. It is not so much a new system as an overlooked one. The advantages:

• It offers 24-hour availability.
• Your journey time is about the same as in a car.
• Your rail-car is ready when you are.
• You never need to stand.
• Stops are near your home and your final destination.
• You can read the paper during your trip.

No magic is involved.

Greens get giddy over election results, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: A Green Party Still Giddy After All These Hours Heart of a Howard In Toilets Is the Preservation of the […]