I’m at the TEDxOilSpill event in Washington DC, which has just broken for lunch. (What’s the diet of very smart people—and the journalists who listen to them? Roast beef sandwiches.) The first half of the conference focused first on communicating just what’s happening down in the Gulf—both from people on the ground, including …
Energy
TED Takes on the Oil Spill
I’m in Washington DC today to attend the TEDxOilSpill conference. As I wrote in an earlier post, TED is a California-based nonprofits that puts on conferences that connect very smart—and sometimes very wealthy—together to discuss outside the box approaches to global problems. And if there’s one problem that needs some outside the box …
Protesting the Oil Spill with Hands Across the Sand
Greens used to be great when it came to protesting—top of the table. Activists could chain themselves to trees—or just live in one, like the devoted Julia Butterfly Hill—to protest logging. Anti-nuclear protesters were able to capitalize on the legacy of Three Mile Island, helping to end the construction of new plants. Lois …
Storm Seems Likely to Miss Spill—But Politics Won’t Stop Onshore
Bad news good news. The bad news is that the tropical depression that had been forming in the Caribbean has now officially become a tropical storm—named Alex—the first of what’s likely to be many in a rough season. The storm may even strengthen to become a minimal hurricane by the time it makes landfall. The good news is that it’s …
Stormy Days for the Oil Spill?
It doesn’t take much to disrupt the jury-rigged system BP has designed to contain some of the oil spewing into the Gulf. Just a few days ago an underwater remote operated vehicle bumped into a venting system, requiring BP to remove the containment cap for about half a day—during which time oil flowed from the well virtually …
Still Failing to Size the Spill: BP Mendacity Watch #2
Remember the line Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman? “Every word she says is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.” I’m beginning to think those words may apply to BP as well. I’ve written before about the company’s habit of not just downplaying the extent of the oil gushing from its blown well in the Gulf, but repeatedly telling …
Assessing the Health Impacts of the Spill
It’s link day! I have a story on the main page about the possible human health impacts of the spill—and the difficulty in tracking those effects. As I’ve written before, the scariest impacts could be to the psyches of Gulf residents—especially as this slow-motion disaster moves on and on.
Washington Slows Down Sand Berms in Louisiana
Billy Nungesser is mad. This by itself is not unusual—as the president of Plaquemines parish in southeastern Louisiana, Nungesser has been dealing with the oil spill since day one, and since maybe day two he’s been angry with BP and the federal government’s sluggish response to the catastrophe. Nungesser—a constant presence by …
Europe’s Austerity Hits Renewable Energy
A troubling first sign that Europe’s fiscal crisis will hit the renewable energy sector emerged in Italy this week when the country’s austerity budget halted a practice whereby the government acted as a buyer of last resort for “green certificates” issued to support development of clean energy projects.
The Wall Street Journal …
Underwater Accident Leaves the Oil Spill Uncapped
Over the past week or so, as BP has blunted the Gulf spill by channeling more and more of the oil into containers on the surface, it’s been easy to think that the accident could be managed, even if sealing the well has proved impossible so far. But the challenge of working 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the ocean means that a …