I’ve said this any number of times: Environmental protection is much more about public health than it is about the natural environment. Every time you hear somebody tear down the EPA or some other environmental protection agency, just remember that sometimes they may be the only thing standing between you and lung disease, cancer and […]
(Here’s a great graphic from DOE’s Energy Information Administration that shows how we deploy energy in the US. Gas is a big factor.) I caught this comprehensive but succinct item at the NYT recently: Time to Tap the Bounty of U.S. Natural Gas. It lays out the fact of the astonishing ballooning of new, proven […]
The Financial Times had another blockbuster special report on energy out a couple of weeks back. Some highlights: US policy: A nation in thrall to the power of oil in which we learn that federal policy has been generally a failure for decades – no news there, I’m afraid. “The only really successful federal policy […]
In a move that signals a huge departure from standard practice, the Indian government announced plans to move closer to market-driven fuel prices.
I attended this recent biannual conference examining key and emerging environmental issues in the EPA Region 2 area. It was organized by Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law (CCCL). There was a lot of interesting discussion of climate change and air pollution, including some of the critically important ins and outs of litigation […]
The Rolling Stones knew it years ago.* Now we’re catching up. I’ve written about natural gas a few times, basically to the effect that it’s got enormous potential as a transition fuel for many purposes as we wend our way, sooner rather than later, toward a renewable future. This is what the prophetic Barry Commoner […]
To borrow a catchphrase from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, yes, we most certainly can eliminate coal-fired power plants. Knowing what we know, we know that we should, and sooner rather than later. I’ve decried the many harmful impacts of coal mining and burning to public health, communities and the environment here on numerous occasions. See […]
I don’t write about fossil fuels much here because I consider them, well, to be fossils. The fossil fuel industries are rather large dinosaurs lumbering to their long, drawn-out deaths as the earth continues to get hotter. It’s a scene from “Fantasia.” Unfortunately, so is my vision. Coal, oil and gas are going to be […]
With abject apologies to the Bard, this is just a note on the potentially enormous question of how much do we want to get at the vast amounts of shale gas available, worldwide, and what price is there to be paid. I’ve written about the implications for greenhouse gas reductions in exploiting the enormous reserves […]
There is a potentially dramatic change in the location and availability of natural gas globally. If all comes to pass as predicted, it would alter the geopolitical power of some countries like Russia, while lessening American, and possibly Chinese, Indian, and European, dependence on foreign oil and gas. Unlike normal natural gas, which is often found […]
That’s what the overwhelming verdict is because of new extraction methods for accessing natural gas from shale. I’ve written recently about the rising star of natural gas as a powerful tool in battling the climate crisis: see Natural Gas – to Cut GHG Emissions, Natural Gas in the Senate and The Gas Industry at the […]
In yet another useful special report at the “Financial Times” – this one today on the gas industry – there are two articles on the theme of what I was talking about recently in which natural gas is being positioned as a “transition” fuel to the low-carbon future. (See Natural Gas – to Cut GHG […]
I wrote recently about some solid policy analysis that would move the US off its massive dependency on coal for electricity toward a greater reliance on natural gas – until renewables fully kick into their potential. (Limitless, not incidentally.) A few days after my post, there was a depressing article in the “NY Times” about […]
Barry Commoner wrote The Politics of Energy in 1979. In it, he called for a transition to renewables – with natural gas as the bridge to the future. 30 years later this still sounds pretty good. One difference, of course, is that we’re so much farther along on renewables than perhaps even Dr. Commoner could’ve dreamed. A […]
The European Union plans to announce today that it sees possible disruptions for its gas supplies from Russia via Ukraine, a liklihood we identified earlier this year. What’s worse, Gazprom is now demanding $230 in debt payments from Belarus, another key gas transit route to western Europe. The payments from Belarus may stem from a […]