Opening The Power Box: The Race To Store In-Vehicle Electricity Lightly

With the economy now dominating the headlines both generally and in the US presidential campaign, it is worth pointing out that the business, science, and policy worlds are still thinking hard about energy.

Aimed at reducing both oil dependency and GHG emissions, both the Obama and McCain teams have plans for clean cars, as the New York Times outlines

Both candidates are in favor of plug-in hybrid cars, and the Times points out that the key to improving the battery-only range of hybrids is, astonishingly enough, the batteries...Read more

This article first appeared in the Ecologist in November 2008

Financial vs. Ecological Crash

During the past weeks the world media have been transfixed by the convulsions of the US and global financial system. At stake are billions in bailouts and trillions in derivatives. The viability of banks and currencies is threatened, and ultimately the savings and investments of hundreds of millions of ordinary people.

Meanwhile, the news from the environmental front is just as terrifying: this past summer saw the second-highest Arctic icecap melt rate (after last year’s record), and Russian scientists observed the large-scale release of methane (a super-potent greenhouse gas) from thawing...Read more

Photo credit - flickr/markal

Keep up to date on energy issues with Post Carbon Institute's commentary feature. Staff, Fellows and guest contributors post short, daily responses to the news of the day. Below are a couple of recent highlights. Be sure to visit our commentaries page regularly for more.

	Obama Will Need Energy Realism, Not More Economic Alchemy Julian Darley • October 21, 2008 America and the world wakes this morning to a landscape of new possibilities. We also wake up to a daunting list of problems... Read more
	Nine Percent Richard Heinberg • October 27, 2008 The Financial Times has leaked the results of the International Energy Agency's long-awaited study... Read more
	Climate+Water+Food=? Asher Miller • October 30, 2008 I was relieved to learn that here in the greater San Francisco Bay Area we're finally... Read more

Of creeping emergencies and Alaskan bellwethers

Chemical emergency. Dam Failure. Earthquake. Fire. Flood. Hazardous Material emergency. Heat emergency. Hurricane. Landslide. Nuclear emergency. Terrorism. Thunderstorm. Tornado. Tsunami. Volcano. Wildfire. Winter Storm. A scary list, but it's too late for Halloween, so what is it?

It's a list of types of disasters on the FEMA website, disasters they plan for in their mission to "reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters." But what happens when the disaster is not a hundred-year storm, but instead the intersection of ordinary winter weather, a struggling economy, and depleted energy supplies? When it's not just one region or city in a state of emergency, but households across the colder parts of the United States facing what the EIA estimates will be a 15% increase in heating expenditures over last year compounded by ever-rising unemployment?...Read more.

Photo credit - flickr/headur

Conserving Heat

A major challenge facing communities as winter approaches is the rising cost of heating in the face of rising fuel costs and increasing economic hardship. The Washington County Peak Oil group in Oregon have put together some useful resources for people trying to make positive changes on a personal level and to help other relocalization groups working on smart energy use in their community.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Last month, Caren Black and Christopher Padden of the Titanic Lifeboat Academy in Astoria, Oregon, celebrated their second annual Green Fest, for which they pledged to spend the entire month off the grid, with only 1 tank of gas, and no purchases, and invited others to do the same. Once again, they challenged themselves to test their Local Quotient: how well they could do living on just what what was there in their local environment. Following up on our feature in the October Relocalize Newsletter, Caren Black reflects on their month spent focused on ways to drastically reduce their energy consumption:

"Each year during October we challenge ourselves and our friends and our community to simplify life, pare down to the basics and rediscover what’s truly important to us. This year I realized that lessons learned this way easily become permanent. Cutting back seemed “no big deal” because we’d never really returned to the way we were living before last October..." wrote Caren Black...Read more

A selection of articles appearing at Energy Bulletin.

Thinking about Heating and Cooling Differently

by Sharon Astyk, from Casaubon's Book, August 13, 2008

Today’s posts will focus on heating and cooling and how to deal with these issues. If you live in the north, heating is probably a growing anxiety for you, because of the rapid rise in cost of nearly every method of heating. Oil prices are now effectively prohibitive for poor and working families - with 100 or 125 gallon minimum deliveries and no credit extended, many households that rely on heating oil (disproportionately in the Northeast) simply won’t be able to afford to heat their houses at all with conventional methods. Gas prices are expected to rise steadily, and besides the rising cost of electricity, there’s the question of whether heavy reliance...Read more

Photo credit: flickr/Mr. Thomas



Disaster in progress: North America's home heating transition

by Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights, April 20, 2008

With natural gas prices creeping higher on a daily basis, some homeowners dependent on natural gas for heat are starting to look for cheaper alternatives. In my area the outdoor wood burning furnace which is designed to supplement existing home heating has become a major source of friction among suburban residents.

The main complaint is the smoke produced by these furnaces as they heat water that is then pumped to the owner's house where a heat exchanger disperses the heat. A loophole in U. S. Environmental Protection Agency rules... Read more

Photo credit: flickr/Travis S.



Retrofitting For Passive Solar
by Douglas J E Barnes, Permaculture Reflections, January 22, 2007

The following is a write up of a seminar given at Noah’s Café in Tokyo. The focus of the seminar was suggesting potential retrofits to the café to reduce the heating costs. More will be written on passive solar design in the future, but for the purposes of this article, we will just look at enough to understand how to retrofit existing buildings.

In cold climates, 20% of the economy can be dedicated in one way or another to keeping warm. For areas below the Arctic Circle, this need not be the case. On a sunny winter’s day at 45°N (or south) latitude, there is around 957 Wh/m2 available to us for heating… if we use it. This is almost equivalent to the energy used by running a 1000W hairdryer for one hour falling on every square metre... Read more

Post Carbon Institute Speakers Schedule

The Conference on Michigan's Future: Energy, Economy & Environment
November 14 - 16, 2008, Crystal Mountain Resort, Thompsonville, MI
The Conference on Michigan's Future: Energy, Economy and Environment looks at how rising oil and energy costs are crippling Michigan's economy and proposes solutions to prepare Michigan for the economy of tomorrow. Confirmed speakers include: Richard Heinberg - Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow

3rd Biennial Organic Connections Conference
November 16 - 18, 2008, Grand Salon, TCU Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Featured Speakers: Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, Joel Salatin, “Everything I Want to do is Illegal”, and “You Can Farm”, Xingji Xia, the first organic inspector in China, and Martin Ent, University of Manitoba

H2Oil: Mixing Oil and Water
November 18, 2008, at the Chicago History Museum
Water shortages in the western and southern states; the rising cost of gasoline; the backlash against bottled water - these are just some of the myriad ways in which oil and water have become resources under stress. This opening program will feature Richard Heinberg, author and Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, in conversation with Steve Edwards of Chicago Public Radio.

New England Religious Leaders Summit on the Energy, Climate & Economic Crisis
November 20, 2008 - Plymouth Congregational Church, Framingham, Massachusetts
Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg will present via webcast at the New England Religious Leaders Summit on Energy, Climate and & Economic Crisis. Also speaking will be Bill McKibben, internationally-known author on climate issues who will speak on his new global initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Featured Events

Van Jones - The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
Monday, November 17, 7pm, Santa Rosa, CA
Local activist and author Van Jones offers a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country—the failing economy and environmental degradation. Provocative, personal, and deeply inspiring, this will undoubtedly be a transformative event!