Nobel Conference Blog » James Dontje

Coal-Fired Utilities Ponder Carbon Risk and Future Plans

James Dontje — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:22:21 +0000

As governments wrestle with the implications of carbon emissions and global warming, electric utilities dependent on coal-fired power plants are pondering their response to the situation and probable future carbon regulation. With 50-60% percent of the nation’s electricity coming from coal, the question is a huge one for utilities. The cheapest plants to operate are the oldest and dirtiest, so utilities have generally been reluctant bring plants up to the latest standards. Now they have to consider carbon risk in their future plans and weigh the possibility that what looked like a good investment in a coal-fired power plant in 2007 will turn out to be a bad ideas in a future where coal use is taxed or otherwise affected by regulation.

What role should coal play in our energy future?

OECD Warns Biofuel “Medicine” No Cure

James Dontje — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:40:41 +0000

Just in time for the Nobel Conference, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has fired a warning shot across the bows of the growing biofuels flotilla. The OECD, a consortium of market-based democratic governments, noted that biofuel development has been driven by a desire to develop markets for surplus agriculture production without proper attention to the most economical and environmentally successful places and ways to produce biofuels. As a result, biofuel production may be less sustainable than fossil fuel options.Â In the short term, biofuels development has led to tensions between food and fuel production reflected in commodity prices according to the OECD, while the long term results will be increased environmental degradation.

What should biofuel policy be?