Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Today, as enthusiasm for a carbon tax wanes, climate proposals like cap-and-ration that directly target the fossil-fuel industry while protecting everyone’s access to energy are gaining broader support.
American coal country has seen hard days as utilities abandon coal for cheaper, less carbon-intensive natural gas and renewables. The Trump administration, trying to make good on a campaign promise to rejuvenate the coal industry, is attempting yet again to revive demand for coal by labeling coal-fired power plants as essential to national security.
A new Harvard University study finds that world methane emissions have recently spiked, and that the US appears to be the site of most of the increase.
Over the weekend The New York Times published what could very well be the dumbest column Thomas Friedman has ever written.
•Here’s Why The Carbon Regulations EPA Will Announce Monday Are So Important •A guide to Obama’s new rules to cut carbon emissions from power plants •EPA unveils far-reaching climate plan targeting power plants •Obama’s New Plan To Fight Climate Change Is A Really Big Deal
LNG exports have become a hot-button issue and enmeshed with the fate of an energy efficiency bill and a vote on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Despite all the hype about our supposed 100-year reserve of natural gas our natural gas industry has not been doing very well of late.
If the US could supply Europe with large amounts of fuel, that would reduce the Continent’s dependency on Russia while depriving Putin of needed revenues.
For nearly four decades, every American president has promoted alternative fuel vehicles as a way to secure the country’s energy independence.
Historically high temperatures in recent years have been accompanied by droughts and extreme heat waves, more wildfires than usual, and several intense storms that caused power and fuel disruptions for millions of people. These trends are expected to continue, which could further impact energy systems critical to the nation’s economy.
The USA’s Secretary of Energy, the Nobel Prizewinner Steven Chu, has decided to leave Washington and return to California. His thoughts about his past four years as Secretary of Energy were given in a letter to the employees of the Department of Energy. Before we look a little more closely at that letter I would like to remind you that there were many of us who had great hopes when he was first appointed – at last a person with a scientific background would control the USA’s Department of Energy. Today there are many who are disappointed. There are those who think that the transition to renewable energy was a flop. They think that the money invested in that did not give the expected return, but there are certainly more who think that the investment was much too small. But in a political situation where a Democrat President has the will but the Republicans have the keys to the treasure chest maybe it could not be otherwise.
A midweek update.
