Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Current U.S. energy policy is, in fact, a hodgepodge of disconnected policies designed for specific constituencies with no coherent goal. What never gets asked and answered definitively in the policy debate is this: What should our ultimate goal be and when should we aim to achieve it?
•Giant investment bank taken over by hippie alarmists •Fossil Fuels Divestment Fever: Canadian Students, Doctors Launch New Campaign •Republican Mayor Leads City To First-Ever Solar Energy Mandate •New Research Confirms Global Warming Has Accelerated •Why Russian doomsday climate predictions may prove prophetic •Carbon in Worst Quarter Since 2011 Set for Rescue Vote
•Study: Shale Gas Fracking Taints Rivers in Pennsylvania •Fracking ‘linked to biggest Oklahoma earthquake’ •Fracking communities should get incentives, says minister •US shale gas to heat British homes within five years
•You’ll Never Guess Which U.S. State Could Be Fossil-Fuel-Free by 2050 •Can we shift to renewable energy? Yes. As to how… •Los Angeles set to ditch coal power •The Worst Way to Measure Energy Efficiency
•Hydrocarbons and Depletion: Shale gas technology to the rescue? •The great oil swindle •Shale Monster •Lord Browne promises to invest ‘whatever it takes’ in UK fracking •Ban Hydraulic Fracturing in New Mexico
Within the next decade, Germany will have shifted from a coal- and nuclear-powered economy to a thriving, decentralized system with power from renewable sources. This transformation, writes John Mathews, will not only make a real reduction in global carbon emissions. It is leading to a democratization of economic power that is unprecedented in the industrial world.
•Will EDF become the Barbra Streisand of climate protest? •US Generals warn of climate change dangers •Is climate change next for GOP? •Michael Grunwald, Time Magazine •China Carbon Tax May Spur U.S. Climate Debate, CMIA Says •EU lawmakers back suspension of airline carbon payments
•Shale Gas and Tight Oil: Boom? Bust? Or Just a Petering Out? •ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, Part 3 – The Bad Idea of Fracking, with Sandra Steingraber (audio) •Germany moves to allow controversial shale gas drilling •Colorado Will Sue Fort Collins Over Fracking Ban •Shale falls short for US energy security •"Frackademia" – MIT’s Ernest Moniz, Obama’s Top Candidate for Energy Secretary, Oversees Pro-Industry-Funded Research
•12 Insights on Germany’s Energiewende •A decarb target is good for the economy, good for the environment and good for gas •Isn’t it ethical to use less heating? •Big shifts ahead in Chinese energy consumption •Sunrise in the desert
When peak oil first came to widespread public attention some 10 or 15 years ago, there was some debate about whether peak oil was the solution to climate change caused by carbon emissions.
•Report questions long-term productivity of gas wells in Barnett Shale•Town Sued After Barring Debate on Gas Extraction at Meetings•PwC: Shale oil surge poses threat to renewables•Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon•NY fracking decision faces further delay on health study
Exclusively social problems have a way of being addressed—if they are addressed at all—over many decades. Problems such as climate change and resource depletion will not wait for that kind of schedule.
