Word: carbonization
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...good news is that closing the biofuel loophole isn't that complex. All emissions from biofuels should simply be counted as carbon, and companies or countries that get their biofuels from sources that actually reduce greenhouse gases should get credit for those cuts. But politics will be another matter - the biofuel industry already has a lot of weight, especially in the U.S., where environmentalists need the votes of rural and Midwestern representatives in Congress if they are to have any hope of passing a cap-and-trade bill. Challenging the biofuel loophole could effectively scuttle cap-and-trade...
...that may well be a boon. If cap-and-trade were passed with the existing biofuel loophole, it could set up a system that would incentivize the expansion of bioenergy at the expense of the environment and carbon cutting. Certainly the error could be fixed later, after the bill is passed - but by that time the financial interests in favor of biofuels would be even stronger, and would surely resist changes. "If this isn't fixed, you could give companies a very powerful financial incentive to go clear land," says Searchinger, who has briefed members of Congress on his research...
...When it comes to energy, California is not just ahead of the game; it's playing a different game. Its carbon emissions per capita are less than half the U.S. average. And from 2006 to '08, it attracted $3 of every $5 invested in U.S. clean tech - five times as much as the No. 2 state. It's by far the national leader in green jobs, green patents, supply from renewables and savings from efficiency. It's also leading the way toward electric cars, zero-emission homes, advanced biofuels and a smarter grid: its electric utilities plan to install smart...
...pivoting to make the guts of the digitized grid. San Diego's cluster of more than 500 biotech companies is now the world capital of algae-to-fuel experiments, including a new $600 million joint venture between ExxonMobil and Venter's Synthetic Genomics. Khosla's investments include Calera, a carbon-capturing-cement start-up founded by a Stanford expert in medical cement; Amyris, which has Berkeley malaria researchers working to turn sugar into diesel; and Soladigm, which exploits semiconductor-industry expertise to make energy-efficient windows...
...Guido Jouret, who oversees Cisco's emerging technologies, explained this creative destruction when we talked over TelePresence, an ultra-high-definition substitute for the hassle, expense and carbon footprint of business travel. We were 3,000 miles (4,800 km) apart, but I kept forgetting we weren't at the same conference table. One of Steven Spielberg's cinematographers helped Cisco get the illusion of intimacy just right. "California has a very welcoming attitude, but it's a Darwinian society," Jouret said. "Companies come and grow and die, and no one sheds a tear. And there's a real sense...