CARBON ALLEY: NEW ENERGY’S CUTTING EDGE

This lengthy, superb piece of reporting is by the author of OIL ON THE BRAIN, Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline. It is too rich to effectively be deconstructed, but here is a gesture toward what is in it.

Start-up U; With global warming breathing down our necks, energy is hot. And at Berkeley, green ideals are teaming up with that other green—money.
Lisa Margonelli, September/October 2007 (California)

WHO
Steven Chu, University of California at Berkeley (UCB) Nobel prize winning physicist/head, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Chris Somerville, likely head, Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI); Severin Borenstein, professor of Economics and Public Policy, UCB; Dan Kammen, professor, head of Renewable and Approprioate energy Laboratory (RAEL) and head of Energy Resources Group (ERG), UCB; Jay Keasling, head, Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI); Merrian Fuller, co-chair, Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative (BERC); Cal Climate Action Partnership (CalCAP)

While Silicon Valley was a narrow, entirely computer-oriented boom, Carbon Alley prides itself in being multidisciplinary.

WHAT
This piece is a superb look by a distinguished journalist at 2 things: (1) Cutting edge programs in New Energy at UC Berkeley cumulatively nicknamed “Carbon Alley” that are evolving into something with the force of Silicon Valley in the 1990s; (2) The potential compromise of academic integrity that can come to a university with the infusion of big money from private sources.

WHEN
Carbon Alley is described as the 21st century answer to the 1990s’ Silicon Valley.

WHERE
Berkeley, California, and environs. Sacramento is the California state capital.

BP gets a lot of greenwashing for creating this research opportunity. What worries purists is that it may get intellectual property worth a whole lot more.

WHY
- The most identifiable accomplishment of Carbon Alley so far is the legislation coming out of Sacramento during Governor Schwarzenegger’s tenure, especially California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that aims to have the state obtaining 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32) that calls for the state to reduce its emissions to the 1990 level by 2020.
- The new “double greens” of Carbon Alley are committed to environmental innovation AND entrepreneurial success.
- Oil giant BP and UC Berkeley are working out the final details of a $500 million research grant that will create the EBI if campus consciences do not convince the powers-that-be that such corporate influence is dangerous for academic integrity.

The state will continue to reap rewards from its finest public institution.

QUOTES
- Margonelli: “Californians have lived through booms in gold, aerospace, computer hardware, software, the Internet, and biotech industries, so we’re willing to believe in the next one, even if it’s a complicated bet on clean tech. Now, the federal government is also willing to back the bet.”
- Chu: “Moving fast is better than maintaining purity. Monasteries are good places, but they’re not good for science.”
- Somerville: “We’re not running out of fossil fuels, we’re running out climate…Climate is the sole driver for biofuels…”
- Kammen: “This issue won’t come to a head until a patent says that one approach is better…That’s where we’ll know. Over the next ten years there will be an ongoing battle over open and transparent research. We have the ability to police this. Will we use it or cop out?”