Tag Archives: carbon
U.S. Carbon Tax Talk on the Rebound
It might only apply to industry emissions and nary a Republican would dare admit to seriously considering it, but talk of a possible carbon tax is making the rounds in political Washington and elsewhere. Think about it. A carbon tax does not lack for support among mainstream energy and fiscal policy experts; it has drawn [...]
$1B Carbon Capture Plant Comes to Norway
Norway opened a $1 billion carbon capture and storage plant, Technology Centre Mongstad, the largest in the world. The project, a joint venture between the Norwegian government and oil companies Statoil, Shell and Sasol, has had cost over-runs and delays since it was announced in 2006 for a 2010 launch. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg calls [...]
FUTUREWATCH: Carbon Nanosponges That Soak Up Oil
Some of the greatest environmental disasters due to human activity is oil spilled over the ocean’s surface and wrecking marine ecosystems. The infamous images of the oil spill that was caused in the Middle East during the early 90’s and marine life soaked and chocked to death in a layer of thick black oil have [...]
Cap and Trade Auctions Could Reap Billions for California
The state of California stands to raise billions of dollars annually — and as much as $14 billion a year by 2015 — after it launches its ambitious carbon cap-and-trade system later this year. According to a report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the auctioning of CO2 pollution credits, which will begin this fall, [...]
Global Carbon Market: Growth This Year But 2013 Looking Weak
As reported in Commodities Now, the carbon market will grow in 2012 and then fall in 2013. According to analysis by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, despite depressed prices, the volume of carbon traded globally will grow by 13 percent in 2012, reaching 9.5 Gt CO2e. Most of this year’s growth in volumes will come from [...]
Australia Passes Carbon Tax!
Australia passed carbon tax legislation today! The landmark law, passed in the Senate today, makes Australia the first major economy to put a tax on carbon. The lower house passed the law in mid-October. Taxing carbon will greatly increase energy efficiency and provide incentives for polluters to shift to renewable energy and replace outdated technology. It will provide the certainty corporations need [...]
Japan Postpones Carbon Emissions Trading Plan
Japan’s national cap-and-trade plan, due to go into effect in 2013, hasbeen postponed or even scrapped because of intense lobbyingby powerful business interests and because the measure has yet to makeheadway in other key countries. Business interests are against the plan because it would put them at adisadvantage compared to peers operating in countries without suchregulations. They warned Japan would lose jobs [...]
MIT Researchers Develop Green Carbon Nanotubes
The size, strength and electrical properties of carbon nanotubeshave made them an indispensable ingredient in electronics, medicine andother fields. However, the process commonly used to produce carbonnanotubes may release several hundred tons of chemicals and greenhousegases into the atmosphere each year. While manufacturing CNTs (carbon nanotubes) using current technology manufacturers combine hydrogen with a feedstock [...]
Should the EPA regulate Carbon Dioxide Emissions?
Is carbon dioxide a pollutant like lead, mercury, and particulates? Should the EPA regulate it as a result? These two questions are verytough to answer due to both the legality and the complexity of thecarbon dioxide issue. In particular, carbon dioxide is a source thatcomes from many different sources and EPA regulation might beproblematic for some [...]
Jigar Shah and the Carbon War Room
Jigar Shah is the CEO of the Carbon War Room in Washington DC, the non-profit brainchild of Sir Richard Branson that brings to bear the tools of free-market capitalism to forward the aimsof sustainability in some terrifically clever ways. Perhaps the feature of the Carbon War Room that jumps out immediately is its grasp on [...]
SunPower joins Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) $SPWRA
San Jose-based SunPower has become one of the first solar power companies to submit a response to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent not-for-profit organization that compiles andkeeps the world’s largest database of primary corporate climate changeinformation. The company said that in 2009 its global operations generated 328metric tons of CO2 equivalent per megawatt [...]
A Breakthrough in Capturing and Storing Carbon Dioxide?
Researchers from MIT seem to have come up with a breakthrough for how to store and capture carbon dioxide, and it does not appear that it willescape into the atmosphere. MIT researchers report "We have shown a much safer way of disposing C02 than previouslybelieved, because a large portion—maybe all—of the CO2 will be trappedin small [...]