Weekly Review - November 12, 2010

Cost Competitiveness

• The What
• Biofuels are poised to become cost competitive with traditional forms of fuel as soon as 2012.

• Why You Care
• With so much attention on the potential limitations facing electric cars, it is interesting to see that biofuel may be transforming our auto industry instead. I am more partial to electric cars because they stand to help speed up the adoption of smart grid technologies as well as wind energy, but at least this is progress.

Politics

• The What
• There is a lot of focus on the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, especially with his focus on a ‘cleaner coal’ and nuclear power.

• Why You Care
• I am still adamant that the new congress has a chance to see the economic benefits of alternative energy. However, it is becoming more and more apparent that things like cap-and-trade legislation are dead in the water at the moment.

Time Change

• The What
• Majority of people ‘fell back’ this past week, leading it to be (temporarily) lighter out in the morning in the Northern Hemisphere and darker earlier in the afternoon.

• Why You Care
• If you are like anyone I have talked to in the past week, you are extremely annoyed about it getting dark around 5, but look at it this way – It is going to be so much worse when it starts to get dark at 4! (Yayyyyy)

Sustainabili-City Posts

Here are the posts since the last Weekly Review that you may have missed:

• Tidal Energy Is Making Important Strides
• Climate Change Is Real, Dummy
• The Importance Of Sustainable Food Markets
• Does Sustainability Mean Sacrificing Aesthetic Value?

Overview

It was a pretty slow week in terms of new developments in the alternative energy industry and sustainable markets, mainly because the news has been dominated by the political landscape.

It is easy to get sucked into the political storm that is happening right now and allow you to adopt a defeatist attitude about the future of alternative energies, transmission, and sustainable movements such as high-speed rail – however I would caution against that.

Even though the political climate has been causing a lot of poor speculation about near-term developments of alt. energy & co., these things still stand to create a lot of jobs and make a lot of money. As soon as politicians stop setting up smokescreens to distract people from the issues, these markets will open up again and receive the attention that they deserve – it is only a matter of time (sooner than later, please).