Alternative Energy Research Highlighted at Vancouver Engineering Conference « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.

Other than one lady in the audience who interpreted my message as part of a right-wing conspiracy to thwart saving the Earth from evil corporations bent on destroying it (OK, so I’m exaggerating), the audience was largely sympathetic to the outrageous minority view that climate might be able to (gasp!) change all by itself.

U.S. Department of Energy - 600 New Lights Bulbs to Improve Energy Efficiency at DOE | DOE Blog

Starting in September, the Department of Energy has been steadily replacing all 600 light fixtures [What was the total cost of doing this?] under our Washington, D.C., Forrestal North Building canopy with state of the art Light Emitting Diode (LED) fixtures. Every new bulb now uses just 23 watts instead of 205 watts. That translates into almost half a million kilowatts hours saved every year. and will cut annual energy consumption at the Department of Energy Headquarters by about 1%.

Michael Levi's Blog » Blog Archive » Is Gas Just as Bad as Coal?

In particular, some commenters (responding to a reprint of the piece over at Mother Jones) have raised the question of whether, once you include emissions not only from power generation but also from production and distribution, gas might actually be just as bad as coal. They point to an analysis (just updated earlier this week) by Cornell professor Robert Howarth claiming that when you account for the whole “lifecycle” of natural gas – particularly the release of methane into the atmosphere – it’s actually worse than coal.