Green Options » Economist

New Fuel Economy Standards are Not Counterproductive

Nick Chambers — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:19:19 +0000

Listening to NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday, there was a segment in which some environmentalists lamented Obama’s new fuel economy standards as being a small drop in the bucket for what needs to be done to solve our climate problems.

While this is true, two comments made by Harvard University Professor, Robert Stavins, during that segment struck me as weird and based in something less than reality — a kind of academic fantasy if you will. At the time, I was driving and the comments slid out of my mind. But last night an old friend from college brought it up again in a Facebook thread and it got me thinking more in depth about it.

A Plea to Paul Krugman for Help

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:36:27 +0000

Why isn’t Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman the Secretary of the Treasury? More and more people are starting to ask that question. Jonathan Mann, the creator of Rock Cookie Bottom, writes a song every single day; last week he wrote this catchy and moving plea to NY Times columnist Krugman to come to the aid of our nation’s scorched and pillaged economy .

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Tech Today or Tech Tomorrow? Energy Debate 2

Michelle Bennett — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:30:22 +0000

This is Part Two on a debate by The Economist. The official debate concluded earlier this week, but you can still vote and leave comments or critique. The question was:

“Can we solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations?”

Though we often envision debates as pitting two opponents against each other, hopefully in an intense battle of wit and wordsmithing, this one was not so. Both sides found themselves agreeing with each other more often than not, and parried with points on implementation.