Stacy Feldman's Climate Chronicles

CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Jeff Rubin recently analyzed the explosion in shipping costs in the steel sector from triple-digit oil prices and came away with some thoughts (pdf) about which nation will prosper the most:

Soaring transport costs, first on importing iron to China and then exporting finished steel overseas, have already more than eroded the wage advantage and suddenly rendered Chinese-made steel uncompetitive in the US market.

In other words: Chinese steel manufacturing production is coming to America, along with the sector’s long-lost wages. That's promising news for the US Steelworkers of America, says Rubin, and a telling sign of things to come. The numbers:

China’s steel exports to the US are now falling by more than 20% on a year-over year basis—the worst performance in almost a decade. While many might attribute this decline to the slowdown in the US economy, it is noteworthy that US domestic steel production has risen by almost 10% during the same period.

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It’s becoming increasingly clear that the American public has been had.

The Bush-Cheney administration has used China as its #1 excuse for not joining Kyoto and for all subsequent inaction on fighting global climate change. The world's top carbon polluter is not building a clean energy economy -- the US argument goes -- so why should we?

Now we can see how factually wrong that was, and how derelict. The Climate Group has released new data on China’s "Clean Revolution," and here's what the authors predict:

"In the move to a low carbon economy, we believe that China will no longer be a developing country following where others have led, but a pioneer leading the way."

Steve Howard, CEO, The Climate Group
Changhua Wu, Greater China Director, The Climate Group

The evidence, from the report:

Touting US coal as cheap and abundant is a favorite pastime of fans of coal expansion.

Want proof that it’s not true? Just look at this shocking new data from the Energy Information Administration on the costs of Appalachian coal, parsed here by Appalachian Voices.

It’s hard to know where to start: maybe that Central Appalachian coal, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of US coal production, has zoomed suddenly to nearly $140 ton. In 2007, prices were at $40 ton. That represents a jump of 350% in a single year.

Why does the latest poll by the Pew Research Center report that drilling for domestic oil has jumped to the top of Americans' energy priorities? Maybe because Pew didn’t ask respondents if they want the nation to invest in clean energy and efficient cars, instead.

So suggests this poll (pdf) by Belden Russonello & Stewart, released last week.

Have a look at its striking results. Renewable energy was listed as an energy solution, and guess what? Americans chose it over drilling by an overwhelming 76 percent to 19 percent.

Here’s the exact question posed by Belden:

Can Andy Grove light a fire under America’s sleepy electric car effort?

At the first annual Plug-In 2008 Conference, the former Intel chief called on America to convert ten million of its clunkiest, most gas-hungry SUVs, pickups and minivans into plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

Timeframe? Four years.

If Grove had his way, he'd go on to retrofit the remaining 80 million or so US gas-guzzlers to PHEVs through a combination of conversion and new product -- a move that would cut the nation’s imported oil needs in half.

Big, big, big job.

Last week, the U.S. EPA released a grim, 284-page study (pdf) that concluded that climate change will cause "substantial" threats to the health of the American public.

And yet, one week prior to the report’s release, the agency ruled that it will not regulate harmful greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, ignoring its own warnings that emissions will endanger the public welfare.

It shouldn’t have. Excerpts from the EPA’s own findings:

Most folks by now know about China’s wind power boom. At the end of 2007, the nation's installed base of wind energy was just over six gigawatts. By the end of 2008, it will climb to ten gigawatts. By 2010, experts predict 20 gigawatts. And by 2020, 100 gigawatts.

That’s more than all of the world's wind power today, which stands at 94 gigawatts.

But here’s the thing that’s really striking: China is gaining speed as the global leader in the manufacture of wind power parts, too. Indeed, its equipment may feed the whole planet's appetite for wind energy one day.

Think toys, but healthier.

As rumored, New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is pouring $1.5 billion into an offshore wind farm in Germany that will power half a million homes and avert 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions.

It’s being billed as one of the largest wind projects in the North Sea and should spawn a heap of German "green collar" jobs. Says the Blackstone Group:

It is planned to source all technical expertise and substantially all materials from within Germany.

Why would Blackstone choose Germany for its mammoth project? In the company's own words:

Wow. From the AP:

Russian scientists are evacuating a research station built on an Arctic ice floe because global warming has melted the ice to a fraction of its original size, a spokesman said.

The 21-person polar research crew has lived on The North Pole-35 station since September 2007. Their expected departure date was late August 2008.

But.

The evacuation of the drifting station has been pushed up to this week, said Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg...

because of global warming.

Here's the stunning melt, by the numbers:

While you’re reading about the US economy’s tumble into recession, think about this: The US coal industry -- which powers half of America and is currently riding a sizable export boom -- has been hemorrhaging home-grown jobs for decades.

From a new report by the Worldwatch Institute:

In the United States, coal output rose by almost one third during the past two decades, yet employment has been cut in half.

The US coal industry employs about 80,000 individuals -- and dropping.

Meanwhile, renewable energy, which provides just six percent of US electricity needs, employed 200,000 people directly in ’06, and another 246,000 indirectly. And that's just a sliver of the sector’s potential.