NuEnergen

NuEnergen Execs meet with N.Y. Governor Pataki

Ex-Governor George Pataki and Senior Adviser John Cahill have recently joined the law firm of Chadborne & Park, LLP to focus their efforts on energy and environmental issues facing global 2000 companies. NuEnergen executives Kevin Hamilton and Sandy Hamilton recently met with the Governor and John Cahill to discuss various issues surrounding Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the impending U.S. Cap & Trade policy debates.
During his tenure as New York's Chief Executive, Pataki advanced award-winning, cutting edge policies in the renewable energy and environmental fields. This included the protection of over 1 million acres of open space, the adoption of the progressive Regional Green House Gas initiative, the implementation of the nations first green building tax credit and other policies that helped propel N.Y. to the forefront in addressing Climate Change.

North Pole is on Thin Ice

It's interesting as to why some stories get traction in the mainstream media and why some don't. In online science discussions, the fate of this years summer sea ice has been the focus of a significant debate of expert prediction skills.  However, none of these efforts made it on to the Today program. Instead, a rather casual article in the UK based Independent that showed the latest thickness data and quoted Mark Serreze as saying that the "area around the North Pole had 50/50 odds of being completely ice free this summer", has taken off across the media.

The key issue is that since last year's dramatic summer ice anomaly, the winter ice that formed in that newly opened water is relatively thin (around 1 meter), compared to multi-year ice (3 meters or so). This new ice formed quite close to the Pole, and with the prevailing winds and currents (which push ice from Siberia towards Greenland) is now over the Pole itself. Given that only 30% of first year ice survives the summer, the chances that there will be significant open water at the pole itself is high. 

The actuality will depend on the winds and the vagaries of Arctic weather - but it certainly bears watching. Ironically, you will be able to see what happens only if it doesn't happen (from these web cams near the North Pole station). 

This is very different from the notorious story in the New York Times back in August 2000. In that case, the report was of the presence of some open water at the pole - which as the correction stated, is not that uncommon as ice floes and leads interact. What is being discussed here is large expanses of almost completely ice-free water. That would indeed be unprecedented since we've started tracking it.

Worldwide CO2 Market shows Dramatic Growth

Consulting firm Point Carbon indicated today that the global carbon market has generated almost as much money in the first half of 2008 as it did in all of 2007.

The company said 1.8 gigatons of CO2 equivalent was traded globally in the first half of this year, worth more than $59 billion US dollars, compared with $62 billion for all of 2007. The aggregate worth of transactions in the first half of this year is already 94% of the value for all 2007 transactions, in large part because of a "notably higher" average carbon prices.

Point Carbon said that 70% of the 1.8 Gt CO2e traded thus far in 2008 was transacted within the EU Emissions Trading Zones, up from 61% over the same period in 2007.

In addition, Point Carbon said several new markets and market segments have been introduced, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the U.S. , the trading scheme in Alberta, CA and the upcoming Austrailian federal Emissions Trading scheme.