2010 and Beyond

The start of my seventh year of blogging on energy and its related environmental concerns coincides with the start of a new decade, unless you're of the traditional school that believes the twenty-teens don't really begin until next January 1. Over the holidays I was struck by the number of retrospectives focused on the amply eventful, but profoundly disappointing decade that was ending. Having spent several years reassuring my readers that we weren't reliving the 1970s, in retrospect I'm not so sure. Yet as bad as the '70s were on so many levels, they gave birth to the '80s, which brought revitalization and tremendous technological developments, and culminated in the end of a Cold War that most of us had considered perpetual. There's cause for guarded optimism about the decade ahead, particularly for energy, which is still in the early stages of a massive transformation. The 'Teens will test the capacity of current energy systems to support a return to rapid economic growth and of new energy technologies to go from niche to mainstream.

I could fill the rest of this posting with grandiose predictions about the next ten years, but instead I want to focus on two stories that could provide early clues about energy in the crucial 2010-2020 period. The first almost escaped notice in the energy retrospectives I read last week. Many of them, including one in the Wall St. Journal, attributed the recovery of oil prices in 2009 mainly to the stabilization of the financial system, yet scarcely mentioned the essential role of OPEC's self-restraint. According to the figures in the latest public version of the International Energy Agency's Oil Market Report, between May 2008 and February 2009 OPEC reduced its output by more than 10%, taking well over 3 million barrels per day (MBD) off the market in response to a 3% drop in global oil demand. Despite the usual cheating on its official quotas, its members have avoided the competition for shares of a shrinking market that crashed oil prices from the $30s to $11/bbl in the mid-1980s and set up a decade of low oil prices.

In the process, OPEC's spare production capacity has expanded from less than 2 MBD to roughly 6 MBD. That's quite a buffer against a big price spike as the economy recovers, though it's also the reason oil isn't drastically cheaper than it is today. While we can't know precisely what would have happened if, for example, Saudi Arabia had tried to squeeze the output of its new, Texas-sized Khurais field into the market on top of its existing sales, it's a good bet that oil wouldn't be trading anywhere near its current $81/bbl. The reason this is relevant for the decade ahead is that OPEC could be forced to accommodate even bigger increases from the production agreements recently signed in Iraq, along with more reliable output from Nigeria, if that country's ceasefire with rebels in the Niger Delta leads to a lasting resolution of the problems there. With many of the world's best onshore oil prospects currently off-limits for anyone else to develop, OPEC's members and their continued cohesion hold one of the main keys to oil prices in this decade.

Meanwhile the growth of renewable energy faces a number of important tests as it expands beyond the scale at which it can be tucked safely out of sight and out of mind. We've already seen large solar projects in California's Mojave Desert--one of the most reliably sunny spots on the planet--canceled or relocated to accommodate concerns about wilderness preservation, and now I read that the long-suffering developers of the Cape Wind project off Cape Cod are at risk of having the project's location declared a Historic Site by the National Park Service. With all due respect to the local tribes that apparently consider Nantucket Sound to be sacred, it's worth recalling some of the other history of the region that ought to bear on such a finding. In its heyday Nantucket Island was the center of the global whaling industry, made possible by a fleet of tall-masted sailing ships that used wind power to harvest a key energy resource of the time, from the slaughter of whales for their oil. It's hard to think of a better way to recognize that history--and in a more environmentally-sound 21st century way--than by putting up offshore wind turbines to harness the wind for direct energy production.

And while the permitting for America's first offshore wind farm drags on interminably, the UK government is expected to announce the results of its Third Round of offshore wind bids this week. The new installations would add 25,000 MW of new capacity to a base of offshore UK wind farms in operation or under construction that is already about four times larger than that contemplated for Nantucket Sound.

Oil prices and the expansion of renewables are only two of many factors that will determine the shape of the world's energy economy in 2020, though they rank high on my list of things to watch as the decade begins. Tight oil supplies and high prices would do a lot to promote energy efficiency and new vehicle technologies, while lower, more stable prices might result in a return to the complacency we saw in the late 1980s and '90s. And although renewable power sources are hardly the only means for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and rendering our steadily-growing energy use more sustainable, much depends on the capability of wind, solar and geothermal power to continue their recent impressive expansion. That's true whether you are banking on cleantech and "green jobs" to turn around the US economy or merely interested in the size of the potential opportunity for our suddenly-ample natural gas supplies. I look forward to sharing my observations about these and other trends in the months and years ahead.

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Introduction to the Problem

I would like to say that after watching the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car”; I was so mad I could light my fireplace with the palm of my hand. But there are a few things that I feel I need to set straight. First, the Electric car is not dead…..just wounded. The “Volt” by Chevrolet is still being made, just not set to be sold to the common “Joe” until 2011. The $4000 tax credit the documentary stated is actually $7,500.


“Electric vehicle” advocates, like me, often feel powerless against huge oil companies, monstrous auto manufacturers, and the federal government. Taking on big industry and/or the government can seem to be a daunting task. But when it comes to EV technology, the US Department of Energy, “Big Oil” and “Big Automotive” have been openly colluding under the auspices of the "Freedom car". As part of their grand scheme, they want to convert much of the transportation industry to hydrogen. Hydrogen funding outstrips all other funding for “Freedom car” to date. But thanks to author and electrical engineer Nerves Cefo, there is something we can do to get EV's back into the mainstream of auto manufacturing. We must demand that the government release the patents on the large capacity NiMH batteries that powered Saturn's EV-1 and Toyota's RAV4-EV, both 100% electric cars. The Toyota’s are still on the road because unlike the EV-1s, they were not destroyed. But Chevron Oil Company still holds the patent on their batteries so no one else can manufacture them. Personally, if someone said I could buy an EV that got 100 miles or more and did not have an internal combustion engine, no transmission, virtually no maintenance, no emissions, no gas and had a battery that lasted the life of the vehicle, I would go buy one tomorrow…..regardless of the price!

The large capacity NiMH batteries used in the Toyota RAV4-EVs and the Saturn EV-1s have the best track record of any electric car battery. They are fully recyclable, road tested and have the longest life cycle. Many of the RAV4-EVs are still on the road today getting 100 miles + per charge. Unfortunately, while they released some of the patents on NiMH batteries for smaller batteries (some used in the Toyota Prius's), the patents for the large capacity NiMH batteries are still held by Chevron, Oil Company.



President Obama is making good on his promise to spearhead the EV revolution. During a visit to Southern California Edison’s Pomona EV test facility, he launched a $2.4 billion competitive grant program for US battery makers.

It’s all part of the Obama administration’s plan to get one million plus in hybrids on the road by 2015.

Obama at a Town Hall Meeting in Los Angeles, California - March 19, 2009. Photos: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Here’s a quote from the LA Times article By Maeve Reston:

Obama unveils $2.4-billion grant program to aid electric cars

“Even as our economy has been transformed by new forms of technology, our electric grid looks largely the same as it did half a century ago,” Obama said. “So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy.” The president renewed his commitment to doubling the country’s supply of renewable energy over the next few years — including spending $11 billion upgrading the nation’s power grid to ease the delivery of renewable energy across the country, and $15 million to help develop green technologies such as solar and wind power, and new coal technologies. As a receptive audience of engineers and workers cheered his plans, Obama pledged to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, and highlighted his offer of up to $7,500 in tax credits for Americans who purchase electric vehicles. The new $2.4-billion grant program, which would be part of his recovery program, would ask companies to compete for federal money to increase the manufacturing of batteries and parts used in the electric cars.

Later that evening, Obama answered questions during a Town Hall Meeting that took place at Miguel Contreras Learning Center, in Los Angeles, California, where he warned us about the energy dinosaurs that would be opposing the new plan:

“…if we are going to make a serious investment in clean energy, well, that requires that we phase out dirty energy. And that requires that we stop subsidizing certain things and instead subsidize other things. Somebody is not going to be happy about that because they’ve been getting the subsidies, so they will start running ads on television saying this is a terrible energy plan.”



(Published by Paul Scott on June 23, 2009)

There are three Auto companies that are still in the E.V. business besides the Chevy “Volt”. Three EV pioneers, Tesla, Nissan and Ford, are receiving loans from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Totaling $8 billion, the funds will be used to manufacture efficient vehicles and electric drive components.

In Tesla’s case, they’ll receive a total of $465 million to set up their factory in Southern California for the production of their hot Model S. This car has generated a lot of interest given its superb styling, performance and efficiency. The price point of $57K makes it affordable for a large segment of the population. Part of the money will be used to set up a production line for their battery packs and electric drive trains to be sold to other manufacturers such as their new partner, Daimler.



Nissan will receive $1.6 billion to build EV and battery factories in Tennessee. Having experienced the drive train for their new EV, I am very pleased that this will enable them to ramp up quickly to 150,000 EVs annually. This car will appeal to a larger segment of the population given its price of around $30K.

Ford is the big surprise for me. They’re getting the lion’s share of the money at $5.9 billion. They’ll use it to increase the efficiency of several of their cars and trucks. I assume some will go toward building their new EV with the help of Canadian parts supplier, Magna.

This announcement assures that large numbers of electric vehicles will be available to U.S. customers starting late next year and growing rapidly soon after. Additionally, tens of thousands of jobs will be created.

There will more announcements to come. I’m betting that Bright Automotive in Indiana will be on the next list of recipients.

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Electric Cars

Aren't they pretty! All charged up and ready to go on battery power alone.

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2009: Energy Year in Review

As I was considering this year-end summary, it struck me that 2009 seemed to span more than a single year. It began with the economy plummeting with no obvious bottom in sight and energy demand falling with it. Later, as the financial system stabilized and the psychological impact of stimulus efforts in the US, China and the EU took hold, markets began to recover and the nascent depression became a nasty recession that apparently ended in the 3rd quarter. However, in a reversal of last year's dynamic, energy was mostly driven by the economy, instead of the former driving the latter. And unlike 2008, when oil grabbed the most headlines, the big energy stories of this year concerned natural gas and renewables, along with efforts to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that accompany most energy use.

For oil prices, 2009 was certainly two years in one: A weak first half in which the price of West Texas Intermediate Crude averaged just under $52 per barrel, and a much more stable second half averaging around $72. Nor did prices exhibit anything like their volatility of 2008, which started in the $90s, peaked near $150, and ended in the $40s after a dip to the low $30s. By comparison, 2009 looked more like a continuation of 2006 or 2007, as if 2008 never happened, but with the primary focus inverted from concerns about supply to worries about demand. It'll be a few months before the final figures are in, but it appears that global oil demand was down by 2% vs. 2007, with demand in the US off by a whopping 10% through September.

The impact of weaker demand on the refining sector was particularly severe, compressing margins and forcing the permanent closure of at least one major US refinery. The average US gasoline price for the year was nearly $0.90 per gallon lower than in '08, saving the average driver around $35 per month. The even larger savings in the first half probably constituted the most meaningful stimulus that most consumers were seeing at that point.

If the oil news centered on weak demand and OPEC's efforts to restrain supply, for natural gas it mainly highlighted the remarkable resurgence of US gas production, thanks to the shale gas revolution. If this trend can be sustained it has significant implications for the entire economy and for the emissions we produce. It also poses a serious dilemma for environmentalists, because the shale gas bubble and its benefits for climate change would evaporate if the drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing were to be banned or severely restricted. Also at stake is the potential revival of the US petrochemical industry, which relies much more heavily than its foreign competitors on natural gas as a feedstock, instead of oil. The jobs involved might not be exactly "green", but they are certainly desirable ones, in the sense of providing above-average wages. Government regulation of gas drilling and other aspects of the energy industry will be the trend to watch next year.

Speaking of government influence, it was crucial to the survival of the renewable energy industry in 2009. Aside from the strong vote of confidence and hefty financial commitment to renewables embodied in the stimulus bill, government grants to renewable energy developers stood in for the frozen "tax equity" market on which developers had previously relied to help finance wind farms and other facilities. US wind power capacity is on track to grow by around 28% this year to roughly 33,000 MW, though even at this impressive level it will still contribute just 2% of net electricity generation, for which the bigger story this year was the more than 10% drop in coal consumption, mainly at the expense of lower demand and higher gas-fired generation. Solar power is growing by leaps and bounds, though it still has a ways to go to catch up with wind and has already started to attract a similarly mixed reception as it moves beyond rooftops into utility-scale installations.

Meanwhile, another big renewable energy sector was kept on life support by the steadily-expanding US Renewable Fuel Standard and a 30-year-old subsidy that has outlived its usefulness. Despite this support and an import tariff designed to confine that subsidy to US producers, 2009 continued the previous year's trend of ethanol suppliers going bust. It also saw the largest of the previous year's ethanol bankruptcies progress to liquidation, as most of VeraSun's facilities were ultimately absorbed by independent refining giant Valero, which also became an active investor in next-generation biofuel technology. Yet in spite of its continued growth and the unwavering support of federal and state governments, corn-based ethanol is hurtling toward a collision with the 10% limit on blending it into a shrinking gasoline pool--a limit that ethanol supporters want to have raised to 15%, regardless of the consequences for consumers. An even bigger problem lurks for corn ethanol, which has lately been promoted for its contributions to reducing emissions. The evidence is mounting that on a global basis its emissions might even be worse than from the petroleum products it displaces. The greater our commitment to addressing climate change and sustainability, the larger the contradictions of corn ethanol will loom.

And that brings us to Copenhagen, which served as the year's great energy anti-climax. While the outcome is being touted as a "Big Step Forward," the session in Denmark failed spectacularly to deliver the expected culmination of the two-year timeline set at Bali and built upon in a series of interim meetings. Instead of a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Accord looks like a joint promise to make a list of independent targets--a promise that was only purchased with commitments for future aid that may never materialize, or that may only come at the expense of existing forms of aid to the developing world. With action on climate legislation in the US Congress stalled for now--for good reasons, in my view--that was probably all that could realistically be accomplished. Yet it still falls short of any objective metrics for judging the session, and indeed the entire Conference of the Parties (COP) process. I wouldn't be surprised to see the COP marginalized by the Major Economies Forum, an initiative that adds the EU central government to the group of large emitters first convened by the previous administration. When the COP manifests the dysfunctionality of the UN General Assembly, then climate change needs its own version of the Security Council to get things done.

Neither Copenhagen nor Climategate spells the end of action on climate change, but they might just mark a turning point toward a more pragmatic and less dogmatic set of responses, perhaps along the lines of a compromise being floated in the US Senate that would consider the contributions of all forms of energy to a more secure energy future with lower emissions. That aligns with the gradual replacement of a narrative of oil scarcity by one of natural gas abundance and the deft use of renewables, with a much stronger emphasis on efficiency and conservation, which still look like the low-hanging fruit for both energy security and climate change.

Barring major events, this will be my last posting for the year. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.

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Changes to Energy Outlook Comment System

As I noted at the end of last Tuesday's posting, Haloscan, the comment system I've relied on for this blog since 2004, is being discontinued. After searching for alternatives that would both provide a simple interface for new comments and preserve the thousands of old comments here, I've decided to upgrade to Echo, the successor to Haloscan. The migration of old comments could take several days, though new comments should be in Echo format starting immediately.

I intend to customize the comment interface to make it as easy as possible for you to say what's on your mind. That might not be quite as simple as with Haloscan, which had flaws and quirks of its own. At a minimum, you may have to choose between inputting some information to show up as other than "Guest" or logging in with a "social media" account such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I'll do what I can to make this all seamless, including allowing comments to appear before they've been moderated, as before. In the meantime I'll ask for your patience while I sort out any bugs. Hopefully, the biggest change to get used to will be seeing the newest comment at the top of the thread instead of the bottom, and everything else will be an improvement. I look forward to your continued feedback on my postings, and on how the new comment system works.

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To Bury CO2 or Recycle It

While not the most powerful of the greenhouse gases produced by humanity, CO2 is certainly the most prevalent, if you don't count water vapor. To a very large extent, addressing climate change depends on three main strategies for dealing with the excess CO2 our activities emit: avoiding its creation by switching to other energy sources, such as renewables or nuclear power; capturing and storing it in trees, other vegetation or underground; and recycling it into useful fuels and products. Most of the work to date on the third option has focused on biofuels, which employ photosynthesis to convert CO2 into vegetable oils or fermentable sugars. However, another strategy now attracting interest involves non-photosynthetic pathways for turning CO2 back into hydrocarbons. If practical, this approach has much to recommend it, though the laws of Thermodynamics suggest it will always require more energy than the resulting fuels can deliver when used. A recent conversation with the CEO and CTO of Carbon Sciences, Inc., a start-up pursuing CO2-to-fuel technology, shed some interesting light on the subject.

The magnitude of global emissions of CO2 makes managing them a daunting prospect. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), which creates an artificial carbon cycle, has garnered much political and financial support in the last year, though it is still in the development stage and faces significant hurdles. CO2-to-fuel conversion offers another interesting option, because it could either work in parallel to CCS to enhance the reduction of emissions from fossil-fuel power plants and other stationary sources, or in competition with sequestration as an outlet for the captured CO2 from such facilities. If the resulting synthetic fuel displaced a like quantity of petroleum, natural gas or coal, the effect on the atmosphere would be largely equivalent to CCS and likely better than conventional biofuels, which appear to result in substantial non-combustion releases of CO2 and other GHGs. Fuels produced from recycled CO2 could finesse many of the NUMBY concerns about CCS while beating corn ethanol and some biodiesel on overall "green-ness" and compatibility with existing fuel infrastructure and transportation fleets. So why aren't we already doing this?

The answer is simple. When we burn the carbon compounds found in fossil fuels, they produce CO2 and a specific quantity of energy that is unique for each molecule. Turning CO2 back into the original fuel compound requires the input of that same amount of energy--that's from the First Law of Thermodynamics--and in practice a bit more, thanks to the Second Law. Chemists have known for a long time that CO2 could be converted into fuel and chemicals, but outside the laboratory this wasn't regarded as useful, because it inherently consumed more energy than it could return. Biofuels get caught up in this same conundrum, though in their case much of the energy required is supplied by the sun, rather than from other fuels and energy inputs we must produce. So I was quite intrigued when I received an email inviting a conversation with the CEO of Carbon Sciences, the start-up I mentioned earlier, which claims to have solved this problem using "biocatalysts", nanotechnology, and a unique multi-step process.

The company's website includes animation showing how this would work, though from my perspective it omits the key factor: where does the energy come from to drive the process? Catalysts and enzymes can reduce the threshold for the reaction to take place and improve its speed--the reaction kinetics, in engineering terms--so that what would otherwise take nature years or millennia to produce can be accomplished in a commercially-practical interval. However, catalysts can't alter the basic energy requirement of the reaction. What is the source of that energy?

My discussion with Carbon Sciences' CEO Byron Elton and Chief Technology Officer Naveed Aslam, Ph.D. assuaged my immediate concern that this was yet another perpetual motion machine dressed up with technical jargon and fancy graphics. They struck me as pragmatic and realistic about the challenges they face, though with the customary optimism required for entrepreneurial risk-taking. Dr. Aslam clarified that their process for converting CO2 to methanol for later conversion into hydrocarbons or petrochemicals involves a hydrogen-and-energy carrier molecule that must be regenerated from a "sacrificial substrate." That substrate effectively provides the energy required for uplifting the CO2, which is at a very low energy state, and acts as the fuel source for the whole sequence. The value of the entire CO2-to-fuel process in energy, economic and emissions terms thus hinges on the characteristics, cost and supply potential of this energy-donating material.

The process developed by Carbon Sciences can apparently use a variety of substances for this purpose, which is fortunate. Initial laboratory tests apparently involved glucose, a commercially-available sugar, but the company is now using another, undisclosed feedstock because of their concerns that glucose supplies couldn't keep up with a large-scale CO2-to-fuel industry without affecting food prices. Dr. Aslam indicated that in the long run they would likely use a mineral-based compound that was widely available. Without knowing the specific chemical involved, it's impossible to assess the overall energy balance, lifecycle emissions, or usefulness of the process, but I at least came away with a sense that Mr. Elton and Dr. Aslam understand the constraints involved very well.

And while the global supply of CO2 certainly looks large enough, it has to be provided in the right form: highly concentrated and free of contaminants that could degrade their catalyst or retard the reaction rate. That is a very different requirement from biofuels that extract their CO2 from the air, and it would put CO2-to-fuel in direct competition with carbon sequestration and enhanced oil recovery, which also effectively produces incremental fuel from CO2. It's not obvious to me which technology will advance the fastest, offer the largest overall CO2 reduction, or the most attractive economics. Markets are usually the best way to sort that out, if given the right signals.

Nor are Carbon Sciences the only ones working on this problem. A team at Sandia Laboratory has been developing a "Sunshine to Petrol" system using CO2 and concentrated sunlight, while the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-e) is looking into a variety of novel ways to convert CO2 into fuel without photosynthesis.

It's important to note that Carbon Sciences' conversion technology is still at an early phase of development--lab-scale, rather than demonstration-scale. "Milliliters per day" won't solve our energy or emissions problems, but if this can be scaled up to many thousands of barrels per day with a cheap and readily-available source of chemical energy and a suitable supply of CO2, it has the potential to deliver fuels that are 100% compatible with our current infrastructure and vehicle fleets. That's a big advantage, and it would certainly explain the interest that Carbon Sciences has apparently been getting from large energy firms. I was told that Carbon Sciences hopes to develop a commercially-attractive package by the third quarter of 2010 and are exploring a "strategic partnership" to take the process--and the company--to the next phase. They have also applied for DOE technology funding under the category of "Innovative Concepts for Beneficial Uses of CO2". I will be watching their progress with great interest.

Since I don't expect to post again until next week, I'd like to wish my readers a Merry Christmas and happy Boxing Day.

I also have a housekeeping matter to bring to your attention. Haloscan, the comment system I have used since 2004, is being discontinued. I must decide by Monday whether to switch to Haloscan's successor, Echo, use Blogger's comment feature, or find another comment platform. Although I will do my best to ensure the migration of the many thousands of comments you've left here, I can't guarantee it. If there are any you'd like to refer to again, I encourage you to copy them to another medium.

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Climategate: Mountain or Molehill?

While the Copenhagen delegates, which now include many heads of state, wrangle about transparency and the size and funding of the pot of money that will be required to assist the developing world in mitigating its emissions and adapting to further climate change, another debate over transparency is brewing. Its range of potential outcomes is wide. At one end it entails a collision between science and the law--two less compatible spheres would be hard to imagine--over the issues raised by the emails and data leaked from the University of East Anglia. At the other extreme concerns about "Climategate" will gradually fade from our consciousness in the manner of Tiger Woods's fall from grace, but perhaps not without raising some interesting questions along the way.

To appreciate how matters might unfold, check out an op-ed in today's Wall St. Journal from Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, a climate scientist on the receiving end of some of those barbed emails revealed by the leak. In addition to calling into question the neutrality of the peer review process that underpins the science upon which the Copenhagen talks and any agreement that comes out of them are based, he provides a hint at the form that future legal challenges to the enforcement of such an agreement, or of rules arising from the EPA's recent endangerment finding, might take. These allegations are serious, particularly when you consider that Dr. Philip D. Jones, until this month the head of the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia, was also one of two Coordinating Lead Authors of Chapter 3 of the Fourth Assessment Review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.) That chapter (very large file) deals with actual observations of "surface and atmospheric climate change", including the temperature data. That makes him a key gatekeeper of the consensus.

I only ran across that connection, because I've been following a side debate concerning how actual temperature measurements at thousands of locations around the world over the last century have been tabulated. The barely civil online point-counterpoint between an anonymous blogger at The Economist and the proprietor of a well-known climate skeptic website gives a flavor for this complex topic. Along the way I was surprised to learn how frequently the actual temperature readings are adjusted, interpolated, and in some cases discarded. This involves many assumptions that I'm not qualified to question, though I am left with the conclusion that recent temperature trends fall into much the same category as the pre-measurement historical temperatures reconstructed from proxies such as tree rings. In other words, the familiar temperature trend graphs reflect mainly analysis, not primary data. That puts us all in the position of having to trust that this analysis was done properly and neutrally, and unfortunately that is precisely the trust that the leaked emails have undermined.

In a recent New York Times op-ed, Stewart Brand, an iconic figure and an acquaintance from my former work with Global Business Network when I was at Texaco, proposed a useful taxonomy for our reactions to climate change. He suggested four categories into which those with an opinion on the subject fall: Denialists, Skeptics, Warners, and Calamatists. The views of those in the first and last categories aren't likely to alter much, no matter what science and further evidence reveal about the climate. What they see reinforces pre-existing mindsets. The Skeptics and the Warners, on the other hand, are part of a legitimate scientific debate and are both amenable to adapting their views to new evidence.

I consider myself mainly a Warner in Stewart's terms, having consistently expounded the risks of climate change both in this blog and elsewhere, but I am still willing to give both sides of the argument a fair hearing. I want to see Climategate addressed openly and objectively. If the science turns out to be flawed because of bias and improper manipulation, we need to know that and correct the flaws. If the actual science is unaffected, but the means by which it has been conducted requires reform, then we need to address that as well, because if we don't the public's confidence in its findings won't be high enough to act on them. And I'd rather see this hashed out in an open scientific forum held by a body such as the AAAS and involving many disciplines outside climate science as a true jury of peers, than to see it resolved by litigation, which is where this all could be headed if scientists respond by shrugging it off or circling their wagons.

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