U.S. Energy Policy Creating a New Generation of Dr. Strangeloves

By Alice Slater, June 8, 2010

President Eisenhower is well-remembered for warning the public in his final address to the nation to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence . . . by the military-industrial complex.” But it is little known that Eisenhower, in that same speech further cautioned that “we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

In May, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steve Chu announced that 42 university-led nuclear research and development projects would receive $38 million through the Department of Energy’s “Nuclear Energy University Program” designed to help advance nuclear education and develop the next generations of nuclear technologies. "We are taking action to restart the nuclear industry as part of a broad approach to cut carbon pollution and create new clean energy jobs," said Secretary Chu. "These projects will help us develop the nuclear technologies of the future and move our domestic nuclear industry forward."

Read on here: www.fpif.org/blog/energy_policy_creating_a_new_generation_of_dr_strangeloves

By Alberto Salazar
August 2009

The entire region of Central America is highly vulnerable to Climate Change due to its varied geographical conditions, great biodiversity and poverty. Besides, the lack of promotion of clean energy technology in this region is likely to cause a dramatic jump in the total emissions for the decades to come. In countries like Cuba, Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic, the energy services are behind population growth and to date they represent a promising market to many potential providers. The case of Mexico is particularly important in the region, due to the size of its economy, its stage of development and the size of its population (109 million). Several mitigation studies have appeared recently, showing that the mitigation potential of the country is high. The German Federal Environment Agency presented a proposal in which Mexico could reduce 39% its GHG emissions from energy, transport and industry, with respect to the "business as usual" scenario, by 2020; the Energy Revolution scenario for Mexico (Greenpeace) states that, by 2050, it could lower its level of energy emissions to 60% less than the level of 2005.

Alberto Salazar collaborates with Unión de Cientìficos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS) in Energy and Climate Change and teaches at Universidad Anáhuac México Sur (UAS).

January 2008

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Sustainable Energy: Shifting the Paradigm - by Alice Slater

Today's dominant world energy systems, relying on fossil, nuclear and biofuels, endanger the very existence of humanity. The world is faced with a crisis that requires a total transformation in the way we create energy, shifting to sustainable energy that flows freely from the sun, the wind, the tides, and the center of the earth. Accelerating weather catastrophes - tsunamis, hurricanes, drought, the melting of the polar ice caps - underline the urgency to heed the scientific consensus that we are endangering our very survival on the planet with the continued use of carbon-based fuels …

read on

See also at the Energy Sustainability Weblog

For information on the Preparatory Conference for the Foundation of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) check here
and
The World Council for Renewable Energy www.wcre.org