Bush appears in embroidered lab coat

Man, oh man. Its sunday - just spent a fruitless hour working on an environmental geochemistry problem set, but now its time to take a break and do something fun. There are a couple of neat little news peices on energy and utilities which you might want to check out. People often don't catch the more subtle articles about utilities - but, like the one from the New York Times below, they can be very influential.

The New York Times published an article entitled, "In Big Buyout, Utility to Limit New Coal Plants" by Felicity Barringer and Andrew Ross Sorkin on February 25th. (Check out: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/business/25coal.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin) They put it in the business section, which means that a lot of college students may have skipped right over it (note: despite appearences, the business section is often a good place to look for news...) The gist of the article is that TXU Corporation, a large company being bought by private equity firms, will cancel the manufacture of 8 of its 11 planned coal factories in order to appease two environmental groups, Environmental Defense and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). I am always interested when the news specifically mentions activism as the impetus when a business will change its plans - for some reason it seems like a lot of the time people are unwilling to give grassroots activism the credit it deserves. Additionally, ED and NRDC are known as two of the more conservative of the environmental activist groups out there (there was no mention of the Sierrra Club or Greenpeace). If you are interested, check out the ED website devoted to its campaign against TXU (http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=596&campaign=583).
I did an internship at Greenpeace a few years ago, and I learned a lot about how environmental activist groups plan their campaigns. For example, ED and NRDC chose TXU because it is one of the largest corporations in the field, and at a vulnerable stage right now - a buyout. it is a good time to target this corporation because they will be especially wary of negative publicity. Secondly, ED and NRDC paid for an advertisement (see the link below) which puts a great deal of pressure on TXU. It is always useful in a campaign to target a specific enemy, preferably a person or a well-known corporation, rather than an issue, such as dirty coal plants.



Anyways, we have been following the ethanol debates pretty closely on this blog (well, to be fair, ethanol has gotten a ton of press lately). So check out "Bush Makes a Pitch for Amber Waves of Homegrown Fuel" by Edmund Andrews, published on Febraury 23, 2007 in the New York Times. You all can make up your own minds about ethanol, but be sure to read between the lines in the article, particularly paying attention to cellulosic ethanol. Also, notice the patriotic rhetoric being used to push ethanol, and remember that it is still a corporation-dominated industry. Also, the picture below made me laugh (it appeared in this article). Bush had his name stitched into the white lab coat he is wearing. !!!!!!!!




Anyways, I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend.

Emily