Using University of Michigan buildings as batteries
The Michigan Engineer News Center, feat. Johanna Mathieu and Ian Hiskens
Michigan researchers and staff are testing how to use the immense thermal energy of large buildings as theoretical battery packs. The goal is to help the nation’s grid better accommodate renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
Q&A: Michigan economist discusses the market forces pushing electric vehicles, clean energy
Midwest Energy News, feat. Ellen Hughes-Cromwick
After serving 18 years as chief global economist at Ford Motor Co. and then as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick brings a market-driven perspective to the way energy use and transportation could mitigate the impacts of climate change.
A carbon tax would not cause too much grief at the gas pump
University of Michigan News, feat. John DeCicco
A new report from the University of Michigan Energy Survey offers insight into how American consumers would react to a carbon tax.
A tax of $40 per ton of carbon—which adds 36 cents per gallon to the price of gasoline—still leaves more than 90 percent of U.S. consumers inside their comfort zones for fuel prices and travel choices.
A new report from the University of Michigan Energy Survey offers insight into how American consumers would react to a carbon tax. A tax of $40 per ton of carbon — which adds 36¢ per gallon to the price of gasoline — still leaves more than 90% of U.S. consumers inside their comfort zones for fuel prices and travel choices. But the report, based on asking consumers how much they feel they can afford to pay for fuel, also finds that much greater pressure would be felt by consumers in the lower third of the distribution by household income.
Hundreds of experiments have suggested that biodiversity fosters healthier, more productive ecosystems. But many experts doubted that results from small-scale experiments would hold up in real-world ecosystems where nature is most unpredictable and complex.
- Our thoughts are with the people of Texas as they struggle to recover from the ravages of Hurricane Harvey. The recovery has begun; the road ahead is long and arduous.
- The concentration of energy assets in the area hit by the hurricane adds to the challenges, though many have displayed remarkable resilience.
Barry Rabe, an environmental policy professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said past extreme weather events have not moved the needle much on the public’s perception of climate change.
“People are extremely confident, increasingly so, one way or the other on this. And it’s not clear that past singular weather disasters have had an enduring effect,” Rabe said, citing polling data from past disasters.
Energy exchange traded funds have exploded in recent years.
In principle, this is a positive development because it has made investing in the energy sector less expensive, thereby providing more funds for capital spending in the sector.
Most recently, investors are voting with their purse: year-to- date returns on “alt energy” bets are in the plus column.
Red team-blue team? Debating climate science should not be a cage match
The Conversation, feat. Richard Rood
Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has called for a “red team-blue team” review to challenge the science behind climate change. “The American people deserve an honest, open, transparent discussion about this supposed threat to this country,” he said on a radio show, adding he hoped to hold the exercise in the fall.
