San Antonio: New Economy Leader or Nuclear Guinea Pig?

San Antonio’s new Mayor Julian Castro, in office just three months, has inherited a dilemma. The nation’s 7th largest city is suffering from almost 8% unemployment. With limited resources, the Mayor and City Council are searching for ways to create local jobs. At the same time, the City, through its municipal utility City Public Service (CPS), is burning through hundreds of millions of dollars on just paperwork, to prepare to spend billions on a new nuclear power plant project some 200 miles away at Bay City, TX.

ODAC Newsletter – Sept 18

This week saw further oil discoveries in the Santos Basin and off the coast of Ghana, extending a run of sizeable finds in recent weeks. Following much breathless reporting of such discoveries, it was good to them put into context by solid analysis from Morgan Stanley and Bank Macquarie…

Climate & environment – Sept 16

-The Royal Society’s Report on Geoengineering the Climate: Geoengineering or Geopiracy?
-Forget about 2050, we’re blowing the carbon budget now
-Red Snow Warning
-Scientists find CO2 link to Antarctic ice cap origin
-A triumph for man, a disaster for mankind
-Climate change will damage your health
-New York City Girds Itself for Heat and Rising Seas
-Staff in carbon footprint trial face £100 fines for high emissions

Renewables & efficiency – Sept 16

-State predicts bright future for jobs in solar energy
-German Geothermal Project Leads to Second Thoughts After the Earth Rumbles
-Trees could be the ultimate in green power
-Renewables Transition 3: The Precautionary Principle
-Hawaii Tries Green Tools in Remaking Power Grids
-Schwarzenegger orders more renewable energy — his way

The first peak oil recession: Interview with Steven Kopits

Steven Kopits, who runs the New York office of Douglas Westwood, was in Denver last week. He talked about his latest paper on peak oil and the economy with Steve Andrews and will share related remarks at the ASPO-USA conference next month. Steve popped a few questions:…

CERA Says World Has Peaked, Buffett Calls Capitalism a Ponzi Scheme

The trend in media this decade has been for the gritty, non-politically correct analysis and muckraking to be primarily found on the internet. The content of conventional media is largely confined to a narrow band around conventional institutional views…As we live through growing disconnects between perception and reality, the abstract and the concrete, and the aware and the blissful, I thought an imaginary press conference among some conventional luminaries might highlight some truths via its juxtaposition.