Regulatory Illusion
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico briefly focused attention on how the oil and gas industry exploits public resources with little or no accountability.
energy-reality
Gas Hydrates: A dangerously large source of unconventional carbons
Commercially exploiting gas hydrates on any significant scale may prove to be extremely challenging—but if successful,it would prolong our dependency on fossil fuels and contribute to ever-growing greenhouse gas emissions.
Backing the Front
When Gloria Flora took the helm of Lewis & Clark National Forest in Montana in 1995, she found priceless wildlands threatened by oil and gas speculators. Defying convention, she declared the area off-limits to oil and gas development, adding a definitive new twist to the interplay between community groups, the fossil fuel industry,and the government that is playing out in surprising ways.
River Killers
Destroying wild rivers to generate electricity is a false solution to humanity’s need for energy, with extremely high costs to individuals, communities, and ecosystems.
Malevolent and Malignant Threats
Malevolent threats to national security are the product of human choice, such as terrorists choosing to attack our electricity grid or oil production facilities in the Middle East.Malignant threats are associated with the collapse of a complex system
Our Global Ponzi Scheme
Since the principal advisors to government are economists, we need either economists who can think like ecologists or more ecological advisors. Otherwise, market behavior—including its failure to include the indirect costs of goods and services, to value nature’s services, and to respect sustainable-yield thresholds—will cause the destruction of the economy’s natural support systems, and our global Ponzi scheme will fall apart.
When Risk Assessment is Risky: Predicting the Effects of Technology
Each new technology, regardless of benefits,brings its own risks. In many complex situations where there are multiple questions with poorly constrained answers, it is folly to expect that we can use formal risk assessments to guide current actions.
Distributed Renewable Generation
Industrial-scale wind and solar power projects can produce significant quantities of renewable energy,but distributed renewable energy generation–particularly rooftop photovoltaic installations–can achieve the same objective much faster without the environmental harm and at lower cost.
Energy Return on Investment
EROI studies for most energy resources show a decline, indicating that depletion has been more important than technological improvements over time.
Tar Sands, Pipelines and the Threat to First Nations
The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, would travel straight through sensitive watersheds, temperate rainforests, and millennia-old communities of First Nations peoples.
The Landscape of Energy
The next decades will witness a global battle between geologic depletion and technological advancement, as modern society demands ever-increasing quantities of energy from an aging fossil fuel supply and a nascent renewable energy sector.