There’s nothing here about the energy balance, which is worrisome when you read the details of the process. But, presuming that is OK, then this might be attractive. Like all petro-alternatives, the problem is scale—most people have no feel for the sorts of immense quantities of oil we blow through every day and, therefore, no [...]

In one sense, a rather quiet month. Mostly looking over the shoulder at recent events while waiting for the big event in Antarctica, where it is only the equivalent of the northern May. And for the report of thousands of climate scientist on the ice down there trying to figure out what’s going on. The [...]

Nothing but a way for corporations to appear to be responding to the concerns (the climate crisis and the looming peak oil problem for Big Oil and the carmakers, the Surgeon General’s report for Big Tobacco) without changing a goddamned thing or letting go of a single dollar.

One place where Oregon is lagging behind other states is in implementing soft technologies for energy conservation, tools that help people know when it’s most helpful to minimize energy use. Chicago and now Maryland (see story excerpt below) have let people get “time of day” power rates so that they are rewarded for using power [...]

BlueOregon has a post about the latest attempt to throw tax dollars at the wrong people working on the wrong part of the wrong problem statement. Meanwhile, we still have a few remaining shards of a once-proud (and widely envied) rail system that haven’t completely decayed — oops, wait, there goes another piece in SW [...]

The wind turbines tower above the rolling landscape, icons of the renewable age, eerily white and whispering with each rotation of the huge blades. And swirling around the arms of these futuristic giants are the winds of the west, swift and relentless, buffeting the skyline of Portland and whistling past the Bridge of the Gods [...]

The EV-1 was the first battery-powered electric car made by General Motors, in production from 1996 through 1999, although only available in California and Arizona under a lease program. Despite positive feedback from customers, the EV-1 program was cancelled in 2003 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, documented in the 2006 film “Who Killed the Electric Car?“. [...]

 This is what “sustainable biofuels” look like — the rape of the rain forest, the extinction of the orang-utan, and the conversion of billions of tons of carbon trapped in peat into atmospheric greenhouse gas — all subsidized in the name of “green fuels.”

Today, the AP reported on our Gov’s status regarding LNG terminals, storage facilities and pipelines (see below). To learn more about this item, please see our action alert. Governor open to liquefied natural gas plants Kulongoski says Oregon could benefit from them The Associated Press November 30, 2007 ASTORIA — Gov. Ted Kulongoski is open [...]

Coming to Portland recently was the easiest move I’ve made in a…well, let’s say it’s been my easiest move ever. It’s a friendly big city, which is rare. People reach out and encourage new ideas, helping out with advice when asked, jump at the chance to collaborate over coffee.  Also, I’m finding that Portland lives up [...]