Jul/090
The Coming Carbon Bubble
I’ve been thinking that the next boom and bust cycle for Wall Street will likely be the Green Bubble. Here’s an article that supports this theory – but centered around carbon trading.
“…The U.S. carbon market is barely out of the womb, and there are already a whole slew of variables that could knock it into disarray. If the administration can keep its eye on the ball when it comes to regulation and not be distracted by the sweet nothings the i-banking community is sure to be whispering in its ear, CO2 will grow into a stable and well-adjusted market. If not, we’re looking at our next problem child [aka Carbon Bubble!]. Hope for the best—but don’t exhale just yet.”
Jul/090
The Dirty War Against Clean Coal
Here’s an interesting Op-Ed from the New York Times.
Ask EcoGeek Summarizes:
1. FutureGen, a federal program to design a zero-emission clean coal power plant is not going to work for two main reasons:
- Zero-emission clean coal technology doesn’t exist, and might take a really long time to get here
- Huge, politically charged federal research projects like these have not historically accomplished anything
2, If the government is going to support some kind of clean coal, it should support IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle), for three reasons:
- IGCC technology already exists
- Once Washington passes a cap-and-trade law of some kind, the cost of carbon will make IGCC cost-competitive
- To generate the same amount of electricity as regular coal plants, IGCC plants use only one third of the coal, which means they naturally cut GHG emissions by two thirds
An important take away message is that when people throw around the term “clean coal”, they may be referring to different things. Here we see two distinct technologies – one theoretical, nonexistent technology that promises zero emissions by sequestering all the carbon dioxide underground, and another, existing technology which squeezes more power out of less coal by gasifying it first (this also makes it easier to sequester the CO2, but we’re not even getting into that now).