By Avelino Maestas on Mar 28, 2008 in Campaign Finance, Congress, Energy, Steve Pearce | 0 Comments
One of the great perks of working for the Sunlight Foundation is finding out about great new tools for increasing transparency in the political process. These tools range from OpenSecrets, which allows you to find out how money is impacting the electoral process, to Open Congress, where you can find info on the latest bills.
Sometimes, [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Feb 7, 2008 in Climate, Congress, Economy, Energy, Pete Domenici | 0 Comments
While reading this The Hill article on the Senate’s efforts to pass a broader economic stimulus package, I was surprised to see Sen. Pete Domenici listed as one of the Republicans voting for cloture. Then, I remembered that energy efficiency tax credits were part of the package (more here at TAPPED) . Domenici, if you [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Jan 28, 2008 in Energy, Environment, Jeff Bingaman | 0 Comments
Thanks to Stoller for the tip.
By Avelino Maestas on Dec 4, 2007 in Congress, Energy, Pete Domenici | 1 Comment
To add to what LP said about the energy bill, it’s worth noting that the proposed Renewable Energy Standard falls short of what New Mexico has already adopted:
In March 2007, New Mexico passed SB 418, which directs investor-owned utilities to generate 20% of total retail sales to New Mexico customers from renewable energy resources by [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Dec 1, 2007 in Climate, Energy, Environment, Media | 0 Comments
I’m catching up on some of my feed reading (sorry John, open government is trumping science these days) and started checking the backlog of posts at Waterblogged. That led me to this article on China’s Three Gorges Damn. The plain language is striking:
The Three Gorges Dam, then, lies at the uncomfortable center of China’s energy [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Nov 18, 2007 in Economy, Energy | 0 Comments
Via Jalopnik (via Consumerist):
The Marathon station on Fort near Springwells dropped its price to $2.93. That angered Jawad Bazzi, whose regular gas was priced at $2.96.
Bazzi walked across the street with a couple of employees to confront the Marathon owner and his posse.
The groups argued, then began throwing punches. One of Bazzi’s employees hit a [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Sep 28, 2007 in Climate, Energy, Environment, Food | 0 Comments
Two weeks ago, in a post on biofuels, I mentioned the effects that increased corn production for ethanol is having on other crops, particularly wheat. Kevin Drum offers his own (much more concise) analysis of the situation:
Let’s see: (a) environmentally speaking, corn ethanol is a pretty dodgy idea, (b) we’re subsidizing it anyway to the [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Sep 14, 2007 in Energy, Environment | 0 Comments
A couple of items today on biofuels. First, from Grist, is a report out from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing that such fuels will remain firmly within the subsidized realm for quite some time:
Then there’s this bit: The analyst doubts cellulosic can be “commercially economical” enough to get beyond 250 million gallons by 2013. [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Sep 4, 2007 in 2008 Pres Watch, Bill Richardson, Energy, Environment | 0 Comments
Today in Salon, Amanda Griscom Little interviews Gov. Bill Richardson about his energy plan:
Bill Richardson likes to play up his image as a horse-ridin’, gun-totin’ man of the Wild West, but don’t be distracted by the cowboy swagger — the Democratic governor of New Mexico also has a serious policy wonk side. That was on [...]
By Avelino Maestas on Jun 19, 2007 in Climate, Congress, Daybook, Energy, Environment, Jeff Bingaman, Pete Domenici | 4 Comments
Borrowing a page from John’s playbook, here’s a bit of what’s going on with me right now1:
Reading: I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns last night. Like Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s first novel, Suns is set in Afghanistan, and the author again does an incredible job of inserting the reader into the culture and setting. Indeed, [...]
By Avelino Maestas on May 21, 2007 in Energy, Photography | 3 Comments
We’ve received call after call the past seven days as Silver City/Grant County residents wonder about the cost of gas. According to AAA New Mexico, our state has enjoyed new record highs every day for the past sixteen days (the state average is $3.38 per gallon for regular unleaded). Under the current administration, rising gas [...]
By Avelino Maestas on May 17, 2007 in 2008 Pres Watch, Bill Richardson, Climate, Energy | 0 Comments
Matt Yglesias, just entering his stride blogging for The Atlantic, has a post online regarding a recent energy/climate policy speech by Gov. Bill Richardson:
I particularly liked his insistence on the idea that most people underplay the role of transportation and land use policy in the energy puzzle. This was appealing because it’s what I already [...]