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A fickle way to plan our energy future

It was James Madison who feared that the U.S. House of Representatives would act with "fickleness and passion." He fully expected the Senate to act "with more wisdom than the popular branch."

Earlier this year the House of Representatives passed a game-changing energy bill, HR 2454, also known as the Clean Energy & Security Act of 2009. The bill passed with little debate and a consensus that most members voting had not even bothered to read its 1,500 pages.

Let us all hope that the Senate will live up to President Madison's expectations, take the time to read it and then either modify or reject this deeply flawed legislation.

A primer on Renewable Energy Certificates

Brian C. Murray, director for economic analysis at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, answers your questions about the economic consequences of a changing climate and the costs and benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through public policies.

Q: The sellers of Renewable Energy Certificates claim that you can cause energy that would otherwise be generated using fossil fuels to be generated from renewable energy sources by purchasing their certificates to subsidize the renewable energy generation so that it costs no more than energy generated using fossil fuels. By purchasing such certificates for as much electricity as you use, you can insure that there will be no net increase of carbon dioxide created in the atmosphere as a result of your electricity consumption, even if your electricity is generated locally from fossil fuels.

Scientists test trees' ability to combat more carbon dioxide

In a corner of Duke Forest, rings of white towers rise above the green canopy of the pine forest like futuristic monuments.

Day and night, thousands of pounds of odorless carbon-dioxide gas spews from the towers in computer-controlled streams. The goal is to simulate a forest with greenhouse gas levels that approximate the levels predicted by 2050.

For 13 years, researchers have been using the Blackwood section of Duke Forest near Chapel Hill as a laboratory to explore whether forests will grow fast enough in the future to help control predicted increases of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. Trees absorb carbon dioxide through tiny pores in their leaves and store carbon in wood, bark, leaves and soil.

Dissent on fixing the climate

A climate treaty will not emerge from next month's Copenhagen conference. That's good news because the delay will allow climate change science to catch up to the theology.

The religious characterization isn't mine. It comes from University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner, in their new book "Superfreakonomics." The authors are taking a lot of human-generated heat these days for their reasoned examination of geo-engineering - environmental manipulation to produce a desired outcome - as another weapon to combat global warming.

The backlash is revealing. It demonstrates that climate change advocacy isn't based on a desire to find science-based solutions to a warmer planet, but is propelled by a political agenda designed to eradicate fossil fuels from the world's economy.

How big is your carbon footprint?

Alot of factors have converged recently to draw attention to conservation. Al Gore's film about the dangers of global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," came out last week. Some people are driving less because of rising gas prices. And many Americans are concerned about relying too much on foreign oil.

Are worries about our high use of energy -- specifically from fossil fuels -- justified? Absolutely, many scientists say. Burning fossil fuels for energy emits carbon dioxide, adding to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The warming of the Earth could have shattering effects: rising oceans, worsening tropical storms and falling agriculture production, leading to food shortages.

How to cut our reliance on fossil fuels is the source of vigorous debate among American policymakers. Some are looking for a way to make it more profitable for investors and private companies to tackle the problem. They would like government to provide incentives and take other steps to increase the use of cleaner energy