Why Keystone XL is a good fight after all (A Rebuttal). An interesting article was posted by Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine (linked) arguing that Keystone XL (KXL) is the wrong fight for the environmental community to be picking. Instead, he argues, the proposed EPA regulations on coal-fired power plants are a more promising […]
Diluted Bitumen and Pipeline Damage A new report released by the Transportation Research Board examines the prospect of transporting diluted bitumen, the intermediate form of oil produced by tar sands, through oil pipelines. The report finds that diluted bitumen poses no additional risks to pipeline safety than does any other form of crude. That is […]
The Oil Price Cycle Fracking has been on the minds of many people in the media, policy and NGO world for some time now. There are clear concerns about water quality and seismic safety which have yet to be answered. It seems apparent that with, or without, answers to these concerns, fracking is likely to […]
When the sweet smell of progress isn’t so sweet. Nothing wakes you up to the problems of environmental health like learning about an easily avoidable risk factor right under your nose. One of the first things that really caught my attention when I started studying air quality was a paper about the health risks from […]
When two fossil fuels are better than one. Hybrids are a common sight on America’s roads these days. While some models are likely more green-washing than green policy, the principle of hybridization is easy to understand. Have two fuel options available in the same car to the strengths of one compensates for the weaknesses of […]
The Science of Confirmation Bias For anyone who has tried to communicate scientific concepts, confirmation bias is a constant obstacle. People regularly over-emphasize that which agrees with internal values or existing opinions and discount that which does not. As the linked article explains, this has more to do with how the brain organized its information […]
Neonicotinoids, Bees and the Sustainability of Pollinator Services For those who follow environmental or agricultural science, concern over pollination is nothing new. The sudden and unexpected death of honeybee colonies, in a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), has been documented for many years now and a wide range of factors, including viruses, mites, insecticides […]
The life of a graduate student is seldom glamorous or beautiful. Occasionally, though, you get to go to a really beautiful place. For me, this was Squaw Valley in mid-May: What did I do to deserve such a fate? I gave a talk to the California Air Pollution Control Officer’s Association on the subject […]
Last week I helped organize a webinar on Bioenergy in California, presented by the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy. Stephen Kaffka, an expert agronomist with years of experience in the field of bioenergy crops gave an insightful hour-long discussion of the resources available to California for producing energy and fuels […]
By now, everyone is probably thankful that the sequester is no longer on the front page of every media outlet in the U.S. Out of sight is, after all, out of mind. Unfortunately, the impacts of government action are often not felt until months or years after the votes have been cast. One action that […]
Persuasive Science 