Gas Prices on EARTH Magazine

Geologic Column: Saving the World? Or Just Saving Money?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

It all started with a reporter.

I had just signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which pledges that my university will try to decrease its carbon footprint and develop a plan to become carbon neutral, when a reporter from the local newspaper challenged my personal credentials, my knowledge of and commitment to the environment. Forget my background as an earth scientist, the many years I taught environmental geology, the summers I worked at a conservation-education camp. He wanted to know what kind of car I drove.

Around the world in the Solar Taxi

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Swiss schoolteacher Louis Palmer stands beside his brainchild, the Solar Taxi (half car, half trailer bearing solar cells). Carolyn Gramling

There's really plenty of legroom. But no air conditioning. Carolyn Gramling

The car's interior. No frills, but fairly comfy. Carolyn Gramling

Nine square meters of solar cells, mounted on a trailer towed behind the car, power the battery. It's enough to keep the car rolling for 100 kilometers a day. Carolyn Gramling

The Solar Taxi gets under way. Carolyn Gramling

We can build it. We have the technology.

One thing you can say about the Solar Taxi is that it’s eye-catching. I showed pictures of it from a press conference Wednesday to my co-worker. “Hey, I saw that on the street this morning and wondered what it was,” she says. “That’s the solar car?”

Congress lets bans on outer continental shelf drilling expire

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

In July, President Bush lifted the executive ban on outer continental shelf (OCS) drilling, putting pressure on Congress to follow suit.

Houston avoids worst of Ike; gas prices jump

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Hurricane Ike made landfall as a strong Category-2 hurricane early Saturday morning, with sustained winds of 170 kph (110 mph), just shy of a Category 3 storm. NOAA

Hurricane Ike roared into southeastern Texas early Saturday morning as a strong Category-2 storm, with 170 kilometer-per-hour (110 mph) winds. But due to a last-minute veer to the east, the populous region between Galveston and Houston narrowly avoided the worst of the storm.

With falling oil prices, short-sellers may win big

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Standard Oil 'blue barrel' U.S. Department of Energy

Blogging on EARTH

We all heard it this summer: national politicians blasting speculators for driving up oil prices. Journalists and academics may never sort out the actual significance of speculators in this regard. But those same speculators have likely lost big time the last several weeks, says James Hamilton, an economist at the University of San Diego.