TommyWonk

• CBO Reports the Stimulus Is Working

  The Congressional Budget Office yesterday released a report finding that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has had a significant impact on the economy:
  CBO estimates that in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 6:07pm EST
  

• Reorganizing DNREC

  Last year Bill Lee and Charlie Copeland proposed that DNREC be split into two pieces, drawing a line between Natural Resources and Environmental Control. It seemed an odd time to propose creating a new cabinet department, but one can give Lee and Copeland credit for putting forward a substantive [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 6:43am EST
  

• Dubai World Misses a Debt Payment

  Perhaps you thought all of the asset bubbles had burst last year. Not so.
  Dubai World, an investment arm of the government of Dubai, which has been on a spending and building spree for years, missed a big payment to its creditors last week. The Economist reports that Dubai [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 10:12pm EST
  

• Giving Thanks

  We have much to be thankful for.
  Let us show our gratitude by taking care of the earth.
  Photo: Apollo 17, NASA [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 12:01am EST
  

• 1.1 Million Jobs

  The New York Times reports that economists believe that the stimulus package might actually be working:
  But with roughly a quarter of the stimulus money out the door after nine months, the accumulation of hard data and real-life experience has allowed more dispassionate analysts to reach a consensus that [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 6:10pm EST
  

• 3.0 cents/kWh

  Saving energy sounds like a virtuous objective, but could it be genuinely cost effective?
  I've been studying a recent report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) that concludes that energy efficiency is far cheaper than buying power:On the costs of "saving" kilowatt-hours (kWh) through utility ratepayer-funded' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:36pm EST
  

• More on John Carney and DelaWind

  Writing in the News Journal, Aaron Nathans has an update on DelaWind's efforts to build wind power towers for Bluewater Wind. DelaWind, which is now 95 percent owned by Amer Industrial Technologies, expects to create 567 jobs at its Edgemoor plant and another 116 jobs at Evraz Claymont Steel [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:02am EST
  

• "A decade late and billions short"

  Over at the Guardian, I take note of a remarkable mea culpa:
  It was a startling admission from one of the architects of the modern financial system. John Reed, who with Sandy Weill created Citigroup, said the merger was a mistake. What's more, Reed went on to' [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 6:25am EST
  

• Summarizing the Bluewater/NRG Story

  Mark Svenvold has written a useful overview of the NRG purchase of Bluewater Wind in his Daily Finance column, including the history of the procurement process in which the two companies competed with Conectiv for the chance to build a new power plant in Delaware. Svenvold is well versed [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:26am EST
  

• Energy and the Environment in China

  Foreign Policy has published a useful overview of China's environmental problems and progress:
  Bottom line: China might be taking great green steps forward, but it is starting from many steps back. In a reverse of Western environmental history, China is focusing on energy before pollution, adopting some of the [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 7:09am EST
  

• Delaware Environmental Summit Convenes November 14

  Registration remains open for the 2nd Delaware Environmental Summit:
  Saturday, November 14, 2008
  8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
  Wilmington University, Dover
  Objectives:
  1. Support the ongoing advocacy work of Delaware’s environmental organizations.
  2. Enhance the coordination among Delaware’s environmental organizations.
  3. Where needed, foster new collaborative efforts among environmental advocates.
  [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:43am EST
  

• NRG and Bluewater: Is There a Catch?

  Could this be a trick or a ploy? Could NRG have bought Bluewater Wind to somehow control the growth of windpower? Could NRG have bought the windpower football just to pull it away from Charlie Brown?
  I don't think so. NRG VP Drew Murphy yesterday repeatedly' [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 7:05am EST
  

• Bluewater Wind Announcement Today

  Bluewater Wind is making "an important announcement" today in two separate public meetings, upstate and downstate. I'm guessing that Bluewater will announce new financing from a new parent company. Last week, the News Journal published a story that NRG was in talks to buy Bluewater and finance the construction' [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:26am EST
  

• 2nd Delaware Environmental Summit

  I reported on the first Delaware Environmental Summit back in January. Most of Delaware's environmental advocacy organizations came together to discuss priorities and strategy for the year. Now we are organizing a follow up:
  

  The 2nd Delaware Environmental Summit
  Saturday, November 14, 2008
  8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
  Wilmington' [...]

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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 7:06am EST
  

• "Well, someday is here."

  Aaron Nathans reports in the News Journal that Delmarva Power could have killed plans to build the first offshore wind power project in the U.S. when Bluewater Wind failed to deliver a letter of credit last July. Bluewater is looking for a new investor after its highly leveraged parent [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 6:28am EST
  

• Barack Obama, a Year Later

  A year after his election, how popular is Barack Obama?
  I went over to PollingReport.com to take a look at the numbers. Polls asking about job performance doesn't allow us to go back a year, since he was in office yet. But some polls have continued to ask the' [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 7:26am EST
  

• Lester Brown Reports Carbon Emissions Have Dropped

  Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute reports that U.S. carbon emissions have dropped nine percent in the last two years.
  For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 6:22am EST
  

• Will NRG Buy Bluewater Wind?

  One can almost hear the synapses clicking wildly as environmentalists across the state succumb to acute cognitive dissonance. The News Journal reports that NRG Energy, Inc., owner of the Indian River power plant, is in "serious negotiations" to buy a majority stake in Bluewater Wind.
  Bluewater has been [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 9:57am EDT
  

• John Carney and DelaWind

  I wrote back in May about former Lt. Gov. John Carney's involvement in a project called DelaWind, which was formed to build wind towers for Bluewater Wind and other wind power projects. With some trying to stoke some controversy over Carney’s role in the venture, I thought it would' [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 12:16pm EDT
  

• The President Visits Dover Air Force Base

  President Obama flew to Dover Air Force Base in the middle of the night to pay his respects to the Americans killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
  

  The New York Times reports that the family of Army Sergeant Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Indiana [...]

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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 7:21am EDT
  

• Investing in Our Energy Future

  Little more than a year after General Motors closed the Boxwood Road plant, Fisker Automotive announced plans to buy the facility and retool it to build plug in hybrid cars. Henrik Fisker stood with Vice President Joe Biden and Governor Jack Markell to make the announcement. Fisker will buy the [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 5:23pm EDT
  

• The High Line

  The High Line, New York City's newest and most unusual park, is situated on an abandoned elevated rail line that snakes through Chelsea. It seemed more like conceptual art when it was first proposed, but has proved to be a smashing success. Thousands of residents and tourists crowded the' [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 9:33am EDT
  

• The Underrated Jack Markell

  Chris Cillizza, who writes The Fix for the Washington Post, asked readers to vote for the most underrated governor from six relatively small states, and our own Jack Markell came in first, just ahead of John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) and Mike Beebe (D-Arkansas). I don't know that the results' [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 7:04am EDT
  

• "The stupidest costume known to humankind"

  Monday's bogus press conference, purportedly from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was perpetrated by a group of pranksters called the Yes Men, who followed up yesterday by bouncing around the Capitol in “SurvivaBalls,” which they call “the stupidest costume known to humankind.”
  There's plenty of stupidity [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 5:00pm EDT
  

• U.S. Chamber U-Turn on Climate Change a Hoax

  It seems I was not alone in being taken in by this. Talking Points Memo reports that the announcement that the announcement that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was doing a 180 degree turn on climate change was a hoax that took in the New York Times and other [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 12:59pm EDT
  

• Citizens for Clean Power on the Indian River Power Plant

  Citizens for Clean Power (CCP), which has been fighting to clean up the Indian River power plant, issued this statement this morning on the Order to reduce emissions from the coal plant:
  For the first time, DNREC acknowledges a connection between emissions from the Indian River plant and increased asthma, [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 10:14am EDT
  

• DNREC Orders Emissions Reductions at Indian River Power Plant

  NRG’s Indian River power plant near Millsboro has been the perennial number one on Delaware's air pollution hit parade. That is due to change under the terms of a Secretary's Order announced yesterday. According to the Order, NRG has agreed to close the plant's two oldest and dirtiest units, and' [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 8:36am EDT
  

• Why Offshore Wind Lags on the West Coast

  Kate Galbraith of the New York Times Green Inc. blog last week took a look at why the West Coast isn't seeing as much interest in offshore wind power as the East Coast:
  The main problem, experts say, is topography. Whereas the continental shelf extends for miles off the' [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 4:07pm EDT
  

• John Kerry and Lindsey Graham on Climate Change

  The pairing of names on an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times bode well for the prospects for action on global warming. John Kerry and Lindsey Graham say they “agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security,” and that Congress can and should act: [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 2:02pm EDT
  

• Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

  The announcement that Barack Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize sent his more vociferous opponents into paroxysms of furor not seen since Chicago lost its bid to host the Olympics a week ago. Media Matters has the rundown on right wing rage over the award. Glenn Beck [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 5:13pm EDT
  

• Mike Castle and the Nutcases

  Mike Castle's announcement that he is running for the Senate is the political story of the moment, and I suppose I have to weigh in on the subject or risk suspension of my license to blog.
  Castle is portrayed as a moderate, which means he doesn't belong to the nutcase [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 7:04pm EDT
  

• Energy and the Environment in Maryland and Delaware

  I'm back from my two day mini lecture tour through Maryland and Delaware. On Saturday afternoon, I gave a talk on the economics of renewable energy with Scott Donnelly from the Eastern Shore Sierra Club at the Maryland Sierra Club's jamboree. It may seem strange that any outdoor types would [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 8:24pm EDT
  

• TommyWonk on Tour

  On Saturday afternoon, I will giving a talk as part of the Maryland Sierra Club's biannual jamboree near Annapolis. The topic will be the economics of renewable energy. Joining me will be Scott Donnelly from the Eastern Shore Sierra Club, who advocating for Maryland to get plugged into offshore' [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 7:05am EDT
  

• Progress on Climate Change in Washington

  Yesterday, John Kerry and Barbara Boxer introduced the American Jobs and American Power Act, while the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from the country's largest factories and power plants.
  The question of global warming is dividing the business community, a subject I' [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 8:19pm EDT
  

• "The carbon-based free lunch is over."

  So says John W. Rowe, CEO of Exelon, one of the nation's largest utilities. The New York Times reports that Exelon is the latest company to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the organization's opposition to climate change legislation. Rowe doesn't think that the end of free carbon' [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 7:23am EDT
  

• Fossil Fuel Subisidies Exceed Support for Renewable Eenrgy

  For those convinced that renewable energy can't work without subsidies, Dave Roberts at Grist points to a notable finding. The Environmental Law Institute has released a study that shows that fossil fuel subsidies far exceeded support for renewable energy over from 2002 to 2008:Grist also' [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 6:56am EDT
  

• The Obscure Dr. Carlin

  Economists have a hard time agreeing with each other. So why is the story that an obscure economist disagrees with climate scientists such a big deal?
  Alan Carlin has toiled in obscurity for years as an analyst in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics. Even though his work [...]
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  Posted: September 26, 2009, 4:25pm EDT
  

• The G20 and Financial Reform

  The Guardian yesterday posted my thoughts on the G20 discussions on the need for financial oversight reform. G20 leaders are looking at reining in the outlandish pay packages that rewarded banker for taking on excessive risk. But the most important task facing regulators is getting on top of the [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 7:29am EDT
  

• Saving Energy with Smart Home Energy Controls

  Critics of energy conservation efforts are quick to predict that cap and trade legislation or state energy efficiency standards will lead to higher utility bills or worse rationing. But smart conservation technology can save consumers money while reducing their bills. The New York Times blog, Green Inc. describes how [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 6:54am EDT
  

• Is the Earth Actually Cooling?

  Opponents of action on climate change are doing their worst to interpret the data to obfuscate the unmistakable trend of global warming. Today, their bamboozlement made it into the newspaper of record. The canard that global temperatures are somehow stabilizing or even cooling off was repeated in the New [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 6:56am EDT
  

• Assateague Island

  A few days of camping in Assateague State Park gave me plenty of time and inspiration to ponder nature in all its power and fragility. Assateague Island is a thin strip of sand that stands up to the relentless pounding of the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean. [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 4:49pm EDT
  

• Tracking Trash with Electronic Tags

  Think of it as part archeology research and part material handling analysis.
  The New York Times highlights a project to track 3,000 pieces of trash with electronic tags and map them as they end up in landfills, rivers or recycling facilities.
  
  We're used to' [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 8:06am EDT
  

• Health Externalities of the Food Industry

  A reader last night offered this comment on my post on Big Food and Big Insurance:
  I read this at 8:00 am and have been thinking about it all day.Well, there's nothing I like so much as readers who think, so let's take a closer look at the environmental [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 6:32pm EDT
  

• Michael Pollan on Big Food and Big Insurance

  Last week, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Michael Pollan that connects the dots between health policy and food policy:
  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.” Not all of these [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 7:10am EDT
  

• Rob Robinson in the 37th House District

  Saturday's special election in the 37th House District presents a clear choice when it comes to environmental, energy and land use issues.
  Ruth Briggs King, the Republican candidate, works for the Sussex County Association of Realtors and talks about protecting property rights, a phrase used to argue against environmental and' [...]
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  Posted: September 11, 2009, 6:41am EDT
  

• Chad Tolman on Climate Change

  The News Journal today published an op-ed by Chad Tolman on climate change. Chad may be Delaware's number one advocate for reversing global warming. He's a physical chemist who has studied the subject extensively, so he knows the subject in great detail. I have listened to him describe arcane [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 6:42am EDT
  

• Should Education Be Compulsory?

  The furor over Barack Obama's address to our nation's schoolchildren seems silly, even in a season noted for inanity. But could the critics have a point? Could Obama be using his seemingly innocuous speech to schoolchildren to indoctrinate them? Obama's supporters point out that the stay-in-school message shouldn't be' [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 12:31pm EDT
  

• Energy Savings at the Dover Air Force Base

  The News Journal reports that the Dover Air Force Base is using stimulus funds to create big savings in energy efficiency:
  DOVER -- Some $25 million in federal stimulus money has been issued for a major energy efficiency project at Dover Air Force Base -- including the retirement [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 9:44pm EDT
  

• Not Dead Yet

  Friends, family and acquaintances have been inquiring into my well being since my name popped up in a list of abandoned accounts published by ING Direct in the News Journal yesterday and today. Happily, I'm not dead yet, and have confirmed that my savings account is intact and not going' [...]
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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 9:37pm EDT
  

• Waxman-Markey Would Cost Delawareans $3.20 a Month

  Yesterday, I took note of a Washington Post/ABC News poll that shows that 58 percent of the public would support action on climate change if it cost no more than $10 month.
  According to analysis performed by M.J. Bradley & Associates, an environmental consulting firm, the average increase in [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 4:53pm EDT