Week in review – energy, water & food edition

by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
Policy analyses
MIT economist shows weakness in social cost of carbon [link]
Very good  article: How the war on coal is transforming the global climate debate. [link]
David Rose on climate policy, coal and solar energy in India [link]
Good overview on advances in global carbon pricing [link]
What would Ronald Reagan do about climate change? [link]
A few thoughts on the finding that CAFE standards yield little or no rebound effects [link]
Cutting soot and methane distracts from 2C goal, says Oxford scientist Myles Allen [link]
How do electric utilities make money? [link]
Fossil fuels
Coal exports: Is Obama Shipping Away His Commitment to #Climate Change? [link]
Riyadh can’t pump the gas it needs, so it has to rely on oil to produce electricity. [link]
What do we do with all these dead coal-fired power plants? [link]
Obama opens thousands more acres of public land to coal mining [link]  …
Can natural gas set us on a path to a safer climate or is a bridge to nowhere? [link]
Climate benefits of a #NaturalGasBridge ‘unlikely to be significant’ [link]
ExxonMobil CEO  on renewable energy: ‘We choose not to lose money on purpose’  [link]
Alternative and renewable energy
Very good overview – Meltdown or Mother Lode: The New Truth About Nuclear Power [link]  …
How corn ethanol is worse for climate change the the Keystone pipeline [link]
EIA: Renewable energy in the US. Hydro/wood/biofuels dominate. Wind/solar smaller but rising fast. [link]
The developing world is beating the U.S. at clean energy [link]
Overview of energy storage [link]
The heat is on, as Australia plumbs the depths #geothermal #energy [link]
Is there a limit to the amount of wind and solar a power system can handle? [link]
MIT Report: Climate change could mean lights out at some power plants [link]
Water 
Obama announces a new rule limiting water pollution: [link]
Obama’s new clean water rules; crushing disappointment to clean water advocates [link]
Did EPA Collude With Eco-Activists To Push A Federal Water Takeover? [link]
Desalination and wastewater recycling are 2 technological solutions to drought proven at scale in Israel [link]
The the Federal gov’t fuels the West’s water crisis by spending $1 billion to grow cotton in the desert. [link]   …
How to save California’s precious groundwater [link]
Managing flood risk [link]
Looking for Leapfrogs: Where’s the Evidence That Poor Countries Are Leapfrogging Fossil Fuels? [link]  …
Food
France is making it illegal for supermarkets to throw away edible food: [link]
Drones, satellites, leveling and monitoring– how to increase #irrigation efficiency: [link]
EPA proposes restrictions on pesticide spraying at times when honeybees are pollinating: [link]
 
 Filed under: Week in review

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