Thought Piece – Page 32 – The Practical Environmentalist

GE, Siemens Vie to Reinvent Manufacturing by Harnessing the Cloud Digital platforms let factories link data on inventories, maintenance, safety
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GE, Siemens Vie to Reinvent Manufacturing by Harnessing the Cloud Digital platforms let factories link data on inventories, maintenance, safety

Communication, Thought Piece

GE, Siemens Vie to Reinvent Manufacturing by Harnessing the Cloud Digital platforms let factories link data on inventories, maintenance, safety

GE, Siemens Vie to Reinvent Manufacturing by Harnessing the Cloud Digital platforms let factories link data on inventories, maintenance, safety hazards By Christopher Alessi Updated March 5, 2017 11:04 a.m. ET 6 COMMENTS FRANKFURT—A battle of industrial titans is shaping up as the Android-versus-iOS of manufacturing. Germany’s Siemens AG and larger U.S. rival General Electric Co. [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:55:50-05:00March 5th, 2017|Categories: Communication, Thought Piece|Tags: Communication, telecommunications|2 Comments

“FCC: I Do Believe We’re on the Eve of Destruction” On the other hand, my headline is “FCC finally set free from Telecom Acts and overregulation”
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“FCC: I Do Believe We’re on the Eve of Destruction” On the other hand, my headline is “FCC finally set free from Telecom Acts and overregulation”

Energy, Thought Piece

“FCC: I Do Believe We’re on the Eve of Destruction” On the other hand, my headline is “FCC finally set free from Telecom Acts and overregulation”

Thought Piece [This editorial piece seems so dated. It invokes all of the old arguments about Baby Bells, cable and telecom regulation from the distant past. Absolutely absent from this piece is any discussion of the future of broadband, telecommunications, technology and the Internet of Things. Is anyone else bothered by the hyperbole and doomsday-itis capture in the [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:50:22-05:00February 28th, 2017|Categories: Energy, Thought Piece|Tags: Energy, telecommunications, utility|Comments Off

A Trumpian Green Shoot Is Broadband: Wireless carriers just zero-rated the internet. Get ready for a revolution in cheap, ubiquitous data.

Thought Piece [Net Neutrality suffers another ignominious defeat at the hands of technology; however, The NY Times and the Wash Post recent Op-Ed pieces on preserving Net Neutrality demonstrate how small bore political thinking has become. Clearly, the importance of broadband and wireless far exceeds the politics of many editorial boards. Steve] A Trumpian Green Shoot Is Broadband [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-03-22T20:42:17-05:00February 26th, 2017|Categories: Thought Piece|Tags: FCC, telecommunications, utility|Comments Off

Carbon Tax/Cap and Trade, both gambits are too complex, too political, too gamable and too inefficient for a world of limited resources and poverty.
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Carbon Tax/Cap and Trade, both gambits are too complex, too political, too gamable and too inefficient for a world of limited resources and poverty.

Thought Piece

Carbon Tax/Cap and Trade, both gambits are too complex, too political, too gamable and too inefficient for a world of limited resources and poverty.

Thought Piece ["Cap and Trade" and "Carbon Tax" gambits are too complex, too political, too gamable and too inefficient for a world of limited resources and poverty. "California’s Cap-and-Trade Bubble, The carbon-credit market sputters, as it also has in Europe." When carbon cap and trade flopped in Europe, liberals blamed design flaws and hailed California’s embryonic program [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-03-22T20:42:17-05:00February 25th, 2017|Categories: Thought Piece|Tags: carbon management, carbon markets, financial analysis|Comments Off

“Staff Opposition Expected To Hamper Pruitt’s Agenda As EPA Administrator” EPA Staff no longer 15,000 dedicated public servants, just a mob
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“Staff Opposition Expected To Hamper Pruitt’s Agenda As EPA Administrator” EPA Staff no longer 15,000 dedicated public servants, just a mob

Energy, Thought Piece

“Staff Opposition Expected To Hamper Pruitt’s Agenda As EPA Administrator” EPA Staff no longer 15,000 dedicated public servants, just a mob

Thought Piece [Below, see examples of a federal agency who has become extra-legal, unaccountable to anyone but itself, and a former Administrator who seems to be encouraging open dissent from the 15,000 current EPA government employees under the guise of a sense of moral superiority, while disregarding the democratic process. "some EPA staffers joined an anti-Pruitt [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:50:22-05:00February 24th, 2017|Categories: Energy, Thought Piece|Tags: Efficiency, Energy, utility|Comments Off

“Scott Pruitt Signals Dramatic Shift in EPA Priorities, In speech before employees, the new chief emphasized giving business certainty about rules”
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“Scott Pruitt Signals Dramatic Shift in EPA Priorities, In speech before employees, the new chief emphasized giving business certainty about rules”

Energy, Thought Piece

“Scott Pruitt Signals Dramatic Shift in EPA Priorities, In speech before employees, the new chief emphasized giving business certainty about rules”

Thought Piece [The thought of the EPA becoming a more humble agency is very appealing: More a practical environmentalist with a more balanced agenda rather than a crusader who had become highly politicized, ideological and self-righteous, with a flare for creating rules and laws on their own. I expect that Scott Pruitt is a promoter of some financial and business certainty in a world [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:50:22-05:00February 22nd, 2017|Categories: Energy, Thought Piece|Tags: Efficiency, Energy, utility|Comments Off

“Gina McCarthy outlines EPA accomplishments” She Proves EPA-ism Had Become Just Another Immodest, Preachy Religious Type. So Righteous!
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“Gina McCarthy outlines EPA accomplishments” She Proves EPA-ism Had Become Just Another Immodest, Preachy Religious Type. So Righteous!

Energy, Environment, Thought Piece

“Gina McCarthy outlines EPA accomplishments” She Proves EPA-ism Had Become Just Another Immodest, Preachy Religious Type. So Righteous!

Thought Piece [But of course Gina has just taken a position at Harvard and I suspect that her self-righteousness will make her become vocal and visual from time to time. As for writing about her activist agency over the last four years, historians and reporters are much more likely to write about her "accomplishments," clear eyed and all, [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:53:36-05:00February 21st, 2017|Categories: Energy, Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: Energy, Environmental, science, utility|Comments Off

Point: Neil Gorsuch Should be Confirmed to the Supreme Court—Counterpoint: Gorsuch Could Make It Harder to Address Climate Change
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Point: Neil Gorsuch Should be Confirmed to the Supreme Court—Counterpoint: Gorsuch Could Make It Harder to Address Climate Change

Thought Piece

Point: Neil Gorsuch Should be Confirmed to the Supreme Court—Counterpoint: Gorsuch Could Make It Harder to Address Climate Change

Thought Piece [Unsurprisingly, I favor the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch, but I thought that I should post the Point/Counterpoint arguments. While I have started to become really irritated by equivocal words---like "might,' "could," "possibly," et al---in discussions about our environmental future, I think both sides of this debate over the next Justice of the Supreme Court must be heard. [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-03-22T20:42:17-05:00February 20th, 2017|Categories: Thought Piece|Comments Off

Scott Pruitt’s Back-to-Basics Agenda for the EPA: to follow his statutory mandate—clean air and water—and to respect states’ rights.

Thought Piece [This interview by Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal on February 17 is worth reading. Secretary Pruitt reveals himself to be less of a counter-revolutionary or theologian; and, more of a legal scholar and environmentalist with an understanding of economics. He believes the previous EPA "didn’t bother with statutes. They displaced Congress, disregarded the [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-04-03T22:53:36-05:00February 19th, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: Environmental|Comments Off

Dr. Judith Curry speaks out on climate science’s fatal flaw – the failure to explore and understand uncertainty
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Dr. Judith Curry speaks out on climate science’s fatal flaw – the failure to explore and understand uncertainty

Thought Piece

Dr. Judith Curry speaks out on climate science’s fatal flaw – the failure to explore and understand uncertainty

Thought Piece [Judy need no introduction nor any of my comments. Steve] Dr. Judith Curry speaks out on climate science’s fatal flaw – the failure to explore and understand uncertainty Dr. Judith Curry conducted an interview on British radio on February 6th addressing, among many topics, how the politicalization of climate science created and driven by the [...]

By Stephen Heins|2017-02-28T14:35:24-05:00February 10th, 2017|Categories: Thought Piece|11 Comments