Energetics Cliff Notes: Friday Edition

The week that was: offshore drilling, CAFE standards, mountaintop removal. Looks like I started this blog just in time...

• In retrospect, this is the best political analysis of the administration's decision to lift the ban on offshore drilling [via the Daily Dish].
• Over at the Energy Collective, blogger Dave Rochlin explains why units matter, the magnitude of the CAFE standards decision, and the potential principal-agent complications of decreasing the cost of driving.
• Policy implications of the EPA's decision to scale back (NOT eliminate) MTR [.pdf].
• Climate skepticism is high and the shift to renewable energy is slow in the Arab world.
• A potential breakthrough in battery technology?
• Greenpeace's report on Koch Industries' funding of climate denial [.pdf].
• In the continuing saga of speculation on what the KGL bill will include, Grist breaks the story that tax revenues from a gasoline tax may "go towards tax credits and incentives for the budding US tar sands industry."
• Here's why Californians don't have to care about offshore drilling.
• The White House will buy the first 100 Chevy Volts to come off the line.
• Scientific American asks "what is the right price for carbon?"
• Finally, the energy implications of cloud computing (cool stuff).