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Tag Archives: energy

US energy flowchart

Today I saw an interesting chart: This is a useful illustration because it clearly shows the main energy sources and users in the US, as well as separating the total energy used and wasted. The original is from LLNL, I saw the link at Ars Technica.

Comparing cars to lightbulbs

I ran across the paper ‘Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings’. The authors conducted a survey to study how perceptions of energy use compares to the actual use of various appliances and transportation methods. For the appliances, they had people compare energy used to the power a 100 W lightbulb consumes in one hour. [...]

Trade deficit

Which half of the US trade deficit is easier to shrink? Probably petroleum. I don’t see much of a chance of major changes in the deficit in goods, but it is easy to significantly reduce the amount of oil consumed.

GM 512 hybrid

Since they are in the business of selling gasoline-powered automobiles, the manufacturers understandably are reluctant to come out and publicly announce the obvious solution to air-poisoning by the gasoline engine: Get rid of the gasoline engine. On the other hand, every member of the industry is actively engaged in trying to do just that. –W.E. [...]

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–And How it can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman

I finally got around to reading Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Friedman is one of the few columnists that I read on a regular basis and the book is on an interesting subject, so I was expecting to enjoy reading it. I didn’t. While I don’t agree with all his ideas, the main [...]

Energy efficiency in China

This is from a month ago, but I think it needs to be fresh in everyone’s minds. New York Times: China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules You should also read Thomas L. Friedman’s latest editorial. It is past time for Americans to get serious about energy efficiency.

Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How by S. David Freeman

I read this several months ago, but didn’t finish the review until now. This is a hard review to write because Freeman has so many good quotes. I saved 3400 words of quotes from this book. Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How by S. David Freeman is an excellent book by an [...]

Population growth and resource usage

One important issue not receiving enough attention is efficiency increases forced by population growth. The Earth is a finite system: resources do not grow as population does. This means that to maintain the same results (standard of living, &c.) as population grows, efficiency must increase. This is important for issues such as land use, food [...]

Better Place

This week David Pogue did a good story for CBS about Better Place, a company trying to do what I have been talking about for years. This is a modernized version of the old Edison-Ford electric car plan of the 1910s. I hope more car companies join Nissan and Renault in this project. Now is [...]

Why I support Fort Wayne’s light pollution ordinance

I wrote this in response to Tim Pape–my city councilman–who asked that I explain my reasoning for supporting the light pollution ordinance. It passed, but it seems that most people in Fort Wayne oppose it. I think the opposition exists for three reasons: A significant fraction of Fort Wayne is anti-government, not just anti-bad-government. This [...]