The Attraction of Going Green

Editor's Note

June / July 2006 By: Bob Cochnar Volume 4 Number 3

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The emergence of global environmentalism as one of the most dynamic and influential social movements of our times is not just because there is evidence that the earth may be warming. It is a much deeper response to what the brilliant Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells describes as the emergence of a globalized information age and the accompanying loosening of our ideological and cultural moorings.

Will Hutton
The (London) Observer

For a time, it seemed as if only tree huggers demonstrated sincere concern over the environment and the accompanying energy issues, which of course include America's dependence on foreign oil.

Of late, however, the subject is a hot button, perhaps exacerbated by the rising fuel prices in the U. S. (which, by the way, are still considerably lower than Europe's).

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman made the administration's position clear when he said that "keeping America competitive requires abundant and affordable energy. Affordable energy requires technologies that will provide clean, reliable and economic solutions to the energy problems that confront us."

The national energy laboratories haven't been waiting for cues from Washington. They have been engaged in renewable energy research and methods to develop clean-burning fossil fuels for decades, with more than a few positive results.

In this issue, we review what a number of federal labs have been doing and how this research can transfer to the commercial sector efficiently and effectively. The work by any measure is impressive—€”and far-ranging.

According to the report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Page 16), wind power, solar and bioenergy each have tremendous potential and are, finally, reaching the point where the economics are about right. That's why you've been reading about wind farms coming on line and solar-panel breakthroughs as well as multi-million gallon ethanol plants. The public sector (including venture capitalists) is taking notice.

Of particular interest is ongoing coal research at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories (Pages 21 and 23). We've got plenty of coal reserves; unfortunately, burning coal also means spewing tons of deadly carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The labs are finding ways to corral the carbon and turn coal into a clean fuel.

None of these promising advances are likely to happen tomorrow; research takes time—€”and money. The private sector, before leaping into the unknown, needs to be reasonably sure that their decisions ultimately affect their bottom lines positively.

The conclusion is practically universal: we're all living on the same fragile planet.

You should be aware of an organization called the Federal Laboratory Consortium, appropriately named since it represents more than 700 federal laboratories (did you have any idea there were that many?), charged with, among other things, providing information about federally funded technologies to help businesses and investors put them to work in the marketplace. Technology transfer, in other words. Our article begins on Page 25.

Our new name, Innovation, seems to have met with general applause, especially from those who were never sure what TechComm meant. We're happy about that since the unwritten rule is that magazines can change their names but once, or face dire consequences (just kidding).