If you’re looking for yet another example of how greedy pigs have worked around a well-meaning attempt to protect the environment, you’re in luck.
I believe that government can, and in fact, must help in driving environmental reform, but it’s not an easy task – even in the absence of corruption. Without some level of decency on the part of the private sector, it may be impossible.
I brought an associate to make a brief presentation to my friends at Eos Energy Storage yesterday. As I’ve mentioned, Eos represents a breakthrough in zinc-air batteries that will soon culminate in electrical storage at $160 / kilowatt-hour, about one-third of what we’re paying now for lithium-ion. Eos chairman Michael Oster, its president Steve Hellman, and I have become “fast friends” by virtue of the interest I’ve taken in the company and its work, and the efforts I’ve taken to find them an appropriate set of strategic partners. (more…)
Having a car in the New York area definitely feels like the wrong tool for the job, but there are times it’s unavoidable, e.g., when one also has appointments in the periphery of the area that aren’t well served by train. Driving also has the side benefit of allowing me to listen to Fordham University’s radio station, WFUV, 90.7 FM, by my wits the nation’s very best offering of folk-rock singer-songwriters.
During a break from the music, I learned that a certain neighborhood in Brooklyn had won an award for the borough’s “greenest block.” What a clever idea for a contest. Wouldn’t it be terrific to have all our citizens encouraging one another to grow our own food, use less energy, and lessen our impact on the natural environment?
It’s only mid-evening here in New York City — still before 11. I’m sure there are thousands of people within a mile-or-so radius of where I’m sitting right now who are planning their fun for the night. I’m not one of them; I feel like something of a punk admitting this in the city that never sleeps, but I’m dog-tired after a long day.
And what a great day it was for those of us who hope for world-changing energy solutions in OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion), low-cost energy storage (a breakthrough in zinc-air batteries), and waste-to-energy (pyrolysis of huge streams of construction and demolition waste). Pulling together investors with great business concepts takes a bit of hard work and patience, but the rewards are considerable.
Three great meetings with people who, over the last couple of years, I’ve come to know, trust, admire, and like. Could have been a lot worse. 🙂
I’ll fall asleep watching the Olympics; home tomorrow.
As legendary environmentalist Paul Hawken points out in the lecture to which I referred here, there are now over 200,000 groups on the planet devoted to causes within the umbrella of sustainability and humanitarianism. So, when we contemplate the challenges we face in bringing the concept of eco-consciousness to a population of over seven billion, we should certainly never feel that we’re trying to do it alone.
Having said that, there are huge interests that would prefer that you and I knock off our attempts to change the world, and go back to our assigned positions as cogs in the wheel, robotically doing our jobs in the workplace, quietly contributing to their profits in much the same way that our forebears did at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, these interests are spending a fortune to keep us riveted in our positions as consumers, ravenously hungry for better or newer “stuff” of all types.
If you think this is a rash and paranoid generalization, or that it’s fallacious to assign human-like thoughts and motivations to the inanimate corporations that enjoy an ever-increasing control over our lives, here are a few things you may wish to think about: (more…)
I was in a meeting this morning in which the subject of myth-busting on energy issues arose. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which there exists a great deal of misinformation, both deliberate and accidental, on the subject. I try not to get too bent out of shape about this; it is, after all, a fairly complicated subject with dozens of different vectors pushing and pulling the discussion in various directions simultaneously.
One of the myths in today’s meeting came from a memo I happened to see from an extremely senior U.S. Marine Corp leader, a Ph.D., who teaches at a university local to where I sit writing this in Washington D.C. The memo extolled the virtue of fracking, and suggested that size and growth rate of the U.S.reserves means that America can and should use fracking for gas and tight oil to achieve energy independence by 2020.
In the first place, the figures the gentleman quoted are a considerable exaggeration – but that’s not the real issue. The glaring part is this: here’s a well-educated person taking a doctrinaire pro-fossil-fuel position without even mentioning the externalities. (more…)
I landed in Washington DC late last night. Just came back from a little jog; I certainly wasn’t alone out there. I guess the concept is get out and back before the humidity starts to kick in hard.
I’m off to meet Dennis McGinn at ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy) for breakfast. I’m looking forward to this; I’m always impressed with people who:
a) Rise to the top of their fields (Dennis was a vice admiral in the US Navy).
b) Have an unflaggingly calm and professional demeanor, even in the face of combative behavior on the part of others, and some potentially heated conversations.
I’m not 100% sure how to dress. This is one of the two or three most formal cities in the U.S., and I brought a suit and a couple of ties, but they seem out of place in August.
Climatologist James Hansen released a report today that suggests that the probability that this summer’s extreme weather events are caused by anything other than human-caused climate change is extremely low. It comes on the heels of Bill McKibben’s recent article pointing out that mean global temperature have exceeded the 20th Century average for 327 consecutive months, a phenomenon that would occur by chance with a probability of one in 3.7 * 10^99, a number which is larger than the number of stars in the universe. It’s also just a couple of days after Richard Muller, previously perhaps the most famous denier of human-caused climate change, reversed his position. (more…)
I had a wonderful conversation with WindStream CEO Dan Bates this morning at his home in Manhattan Beach,CA, during which I actually touched this unique micro-wind product, and came to understand the reasoning behind a great number of its cooler design features.
As I was explaining to my wife after the meeting on my drive to the airport, micro-wind can be tricky business. Success in this space has been elusive; there have been many dozens of attempts to drive down the costs to make the product affordable, but they have come at the expense of quality. Thus the unkind moniker of “snake oil” that is so commonly associated with the industry.
Having looked at WindStream and so many of the competitive approaches, I think these guys have cracked the code.
Today’s the start of an action-packed week, beginning with a visit to see Dan Bates, CEO of WindStream, during which I’ll be able to really get to know this micro-wind product at a much more intimate level. From there, it’s off to handy little Burbank airport for a flight to Washington DC, we’re I’m having breakfast with Dennis McGinn, president of ACORE, the American Council on Renewable Energy on Tuesday morning.
Then, it’s north to Philadelphia and New York, home Thursday night, in time for the Clean Business Investment Summit on Friday.
I’ll try to make numerous posts along the way. The Amtrak rides will provide some opportunity. The train’s great. Eco-friendly and relaxing, it’s an office on wheels.
