olderDallas Mayor Laura Miller Needs a Good Book to Fight Coal Plants
There was a short mention in Dallas Morning News' Quick (pg. 19 - January 22, 2007 - pdf) about what Mayor Laura Miller is reading. Admirably, she's working down a New York Times list of the greatest American novels published during the last 25 years. But she's also reading The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer R. Weart, to "expand my knowledge base as I challenge the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Texas." Interesting. I think I would have chosen Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce. But that's me.
So here's my question: keeping in mind the goal to become educated on the environmental impact of coal plants, what book would you recommend that Mayor Laura Miller read? Or did she pick the right one? Comments are open.
She should read my blog and Jetson Green, of course!
More seriously, Jared Diamond's Collapse would light a fire under anyone who wonders why we bother... and Natural Capitalism by Amory Lovins and Paul Hawkin for ideas on the way forward.
Posted by: Tom Konrad | January 22, 2007 at 11:28 PM
How about plain old wikipedia?
Posted by: Jiltedcitizen | January 23, 2007 at 06:32 AM
If she wants solutions and alternatives to Coal she should start with "Energy Storage a Nontechnical Guide" by Richard Baxter.
About half the generating capacity in Texas is for summer air conditioning. With massive deployment of "Thermal Energy Storage" TES, Texas could postpone building a new power plant for a long time and maybe never. Renewable sources of power also need TES to act as a thermal battery.
TES not only stores energy but also increases energy efficiency for all three segments of electric power, end user, transmission/distribution and generation.
Combining the return from all three segments make TES the best invesment, but government must get involved to coordinate and combine the return on TES investment.
Posted by: Mike Glover | January 23, 2007 at 11:20 AM