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What a huge news day, what with the advance on state aid and marriage equality and everything else. Actually lots I didn’t get around to writing about today, some of which I’ll save for tomorrow:
• Lots of good responses from lawmakers to the overturning of Prop 8 in district court, but the President’s is a big nothingburger: White House spokesman Shin Inouye said, “The President has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory. He will continue to promote equality for LGBT Americans.” Ugh. I agree with Nate Silver: Obama will look silly for opposing gay marriage in 20-30 years. Oh yeah, and happy birthday, Mr. President.
• Disregard the typo, but this is the first I’ve heard that the state fiscal aid bill would indeed slash $500 million (not billion) in Race to the Top funding. And yet Barack Obama, whose advisers promised a veto if RttT was slashed before, said nothing about this in his approving message. Looks like the brinksmanship lost (though I have to confirm this).
• Obama spoke at an AFL-CIO event today and asked the members to hang with him, despite their frustrations. He vowed to keep fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, the first time he’s mentioned it in almost a year. He also touted the House Democrats’ new manufacturing agenda, which include many White House investment priorities.
• Missouri, as expected, passed an initiative challenging the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, with 71% of the vote. Claire McCaskill responded by saying “Message received,” though I don’t think that means she’s on the repeal bandwagon or anything. This was largely a symbolic vote. Meanwhile, plaintiffs in the health care repeal lawsuits keep losing elections.
• Looks like Google and Verizon have teamed up to sell out the mobile Web, and allow content discrimination on it. Upshot here is that mobile phones are increasingly the Web device of choice, particularly for minorities, who presumably can access a phone easier and more cheaply than a computer.
• State governments are adding straight pay cuts on top of furloughs for state workers. These only reduce consumer spending and roll back economic recovery. And this kind of insecurity in private and public-sector jobs can explain the sharp increase in the nation’s savings rate.
• The ACLU and CCR got their license from the Treasury Department so they can defend Anwar al-Awlaki in a case challenging the government’s authority to undertake extra-judicial assassinations on American citizens.
• House Democrats begin to organize for the elections. Their superior strategies are probably good for a point or two overall.
• Joe Klein is pretty good here talking about Iraq. Hopefully he can bring the same moral authority to Afghanistan, where Pakistan’s leader says the world is losing.
• Is USAID training Sri Lankans to become offshore IT workers? In this economy?
• There’s definitely a deal in the works from Mitch McConnell to move some judges, but whether the President agrees to it is another matter.
• Tim Geithner got a little partisan today in a speech at CAP.
• What do you know, coal miners don’t appreciate the guy running to be their Senator beg off safety rules for coal miners. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work the way it does in Rand Paul’s head, where workers can simply choose not to work at an unsafe mine. The word “monopoly” ring a bell?
• ABC is standing strongly behind Christiane Amanpour in the face of Tom Shales’ baseless attacks. Good.
• Marriage equality, Pete Hoekstra loses an election, and now, will the DoJ sue Joe Arpaio? This day is getting better and better!
• Fascinating story about Los Angeles-area efforts to stop long-term chronic homelessness.
• Forgot to hit this when it happened, but yes, the war on pot brownies is ridiculous. Congress is still out of their minds when it comes to the drug war. The fact that Mexico’s President is having an adult conversation about legalization doesn’t seem to matter.
• The Pentagon will have its revenge on Rolling Stone stringer Michael Hastings, who ended up writing the article that took out Stanley McChrystal.
• Shorter nutjob Republicans: biking is like the UN.
• Great news on new solar power technology. Last week it was revealed that solar is now cheaper than nuclear.
• Michael Steele hitting up ambassadors for chats is just hilarity personified.
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David, where was this: “Last week it was revealed that solar is now cheaper than nuclear.”? The link did a comparison re oil and it is good news(I just think of all the cars parked in the sun while their drivers are at work).
Re “State governments are adding straight pay cuts on top of furloughs for state workers. “; I wonder if this applies to private employers: “The payments were allowed because during furlough weeks, federal law requires the state to temporarily classify most salaried workers as hourly employees so their pay can legally be reduced.”
It was a NYT piece, I couldn’t find it at the moment of writing. But wait, here’s the study!
http://www.fastcompany.com/1675672/is-solar-power-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-energy
Thanks David. But when the author writes “A long-lasting nuclear plant will most likely generate more energy per dollar invested than a solar plant ever could.” one has to really wonder about the title and writing.
BUT I’m sure the ‘new solar technology’ wasn’t part of the assessment and when the concept is integrated into heat sinks as energy storage and white roofs, sure would reduce a lot of oil usage.
1) It’s the U.S. that needs to legalize drugs, not Mexico. Their legalization for personal use has not made a dent, because it’s trafficking to the U.S. that is causing all the violence.
2) I’m surprised and impressed that Pelosi is calling the House back into session. What’s next–a real energy bill?
The paper on the new solar technology is titled, “Photon-enhanced thermionic emission for solar concentrator systems.” The abstract describes describes lab results (a “proposed technology”) and “theoretical conversion efficiency” rather than a working system. That’s a far cry from “solar is cheaper than nuclear.” This might eventually lead to better power plants, but there’s a huge distance between this lab result and working power plants. The proposed technology operates at 200° C (nearly 400° F), and requires an auxiliary mechanical engine to achieve its full efficiency, which will make for a fairly complex and expensive system.
The Duke report is a position paper from an environmentalist organization, written in opposition to building more nuclear plants in North Carolina, not an engineering report. Especially, it glosses over the issue of energy storage–how to store electricity derived from solar and wind energy, for use when neither is available. It also ignores the direct use of solar energy in buildings, and the low cost of coal.
The storage technologies necessary are more formally called “grid-scale energy storage technologies.” They are getting renewed funding from the ARRA. This seems to have been the work of Secretary of Energy Chu, who may be Obama’s best cabinet appointment. However, again, this is not existing technology, though there are some promising research approaches.
Folks, I’m sorry. I hate being a wet blanket. Understand that I support renewable energy technology–I work in the field, in fact. But these are research projects, and there’s years and work before any of them will be production technologies, even if all necessary funding was available.
Haven’t we had enough false hope?