Climate-change activists are focused on Copenhagen, site in 6 months of worldwide climate discussions, and well we should. Read more »

In my opinion, Cuba will be a bad example of anything for the foreseeable future, and perhaps as long as I live. It has been exploited by dictators and superpowers for decades, and, and the resulting distortions are all the more intense because it is an island, and a small island at that. Read more »

I've been wasting my time parrying with a high school acquaintance on Facebook the past couple of days, after he posted something about how stupid it is that bankrupt companies will be forced to make small, unsafe (but high-mileage) cars that nobody wants. Read more »

By a party-line vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected an attempt to tie any limits on carbon in the US to the same limits in India and China. 

First off, it's good it failed. However... Read more »

I have finally found a legitimate use for coal, which I've consistently derided as evil crap whose only supporters are coerced by direct economic benefit. I don't claim much cleverness in my "discovery," since others have understood it for a while:

Coal is a bargaining chip, or, as Kenneth Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, puts it, "a universal fig leaf."

In a story in Scientific American, he is quoted as saying, Read more »

In an unusual fit of negativity, I opined recently that "they" would probably screw up the Waxman/Markey energy bill, and it appears to be struggling, either because I was right or because I contributed some bad juju to it. Read more »

Tom Friedman's column yesterday was filed from Costa Rica, perhaps the globe's best example of how to prosper without exploiting native resources.

You're no doubt familiar with Costa Rica's many wonders, both natural and governmental. In a country roughly the size of West Virginia, it has rainforest, an active volcano, and both Caribbean and Pacific shores. It has decades of stable, democratic leadership, a literacy rate above 90 percent, and protects more than a quarter of its land for conservation. Read more »

A week ago Friday, David Frum was among the guests on Bill Maher's HBO show, and one of the topics they skirmished on was energy. Frum talked about how expensive wind and solar are, which he said precludes moving toward them.

Maher's response was right on: So what's the alternative? Business is great and we all die? Unfortunately, the conversation went elsewhere, and Frum never responded, but that's an answer I'd really like to hear from the other side. Read more »

One of this week's "Daily Show" outrage clip packages referenced duplicity in Congress, quoting solons (about 5 minutes in) complaining on how unfair some rule is and then showing how they defended the same rule years before, when their party ruled.

I didn't see it until after I read the summary of the Waxman/Markey climate bill introduced on Tuesday, but I think it helps explain, at least in a spiritual sense, why I haven't been able to muster much enthusiasm for what appears to be a very good starting point.

The bill has four sections, focusing on clean energy, energy efficiency, global climate change, and the transition away from current practices, and I like what it tries to accomplish, despite the sham funds for coal-related carbon capture and sequestration, which is just pouring money down a dry hole, as far as I'm concerned.

I know it's about pluralism, and understand that that money is going to buy the support of coal-state representatives. At least the nuclear lobby is less powerful, and less geo-centric, so they didn't need to pander to them, too; the bill doesn't even mention the word.

So why don't I love it? I think it's bullshit fatigue.  Read more »

I suspect this isn't the last time you'll hear Oct. 24 in a conversation about global climate change. it has been designated by a worldwide consortium of activists who want to send a message to the politicians who'll gather six weeks later in Copenhagen for the final round of talks to replace the Kyoto accords as the world's declared intentions to address global climate change. Read more »