Climate Climate & Energy
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Are we banking too much on BP’s relief wells?
It seems so long ago that we had those brief, crazy flings with “junk shots,” “kill shots,” and “top kills.” Those were engineers doing improv. But there was always a net: Engineers know relief wells, we’re told, and once the two wells currently being drilled are finished in August, the problem will be solved. Now, […]
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Report: Coal Industry Harms TN and WV More Than It Helps
Two reports released this week reveal that when it comes to the bottom line of state budgets, the coal industry costs Tennessee and West Virginia more than it provides. These reports are among the first to examine actual revenues and expenditures related to coal industry employment, taxes and subsidies in Tennessee and West Virginia. Downstream […]
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Gulf oil spill: A timeline of the estimates
The image says it all, I think: As has been remarked elsewhere, if the latest low-end estimate is accurate — that the leak is spewing approximately 2.5 million gallons per day — then the rupture is emitting as much oil about every 4 days as the Exxon Valdez did in total. Here’s the timeline: April 20: […]
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What Obama Did Not Say: BP Gulf Disaster Is Biggest Cut In A Bleeding Earth
The morning after President Barack Obama called for a “national mission” in pursuit of a clean energy economy the BP blowout gushes oil into the Gulf at the new estimated rate of 60,000 barrels a day. And though the president said “we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy -– because […]
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Four BP-style extreme energy nightmares to come
The Gulf nightmare.Photo: Department of EnergyThis essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. On June 15, in their testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the chief executives of America’s leading oil companies argued that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was an aberration […]
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Energy Independence Is America's Most Elusive Technological Goal
In calling for a new “national mission” to achieve energy independence during his Oval Office address last week, President Obama was clearly seeking inspiration from his predecessors, a number of whom actually achieved the big technological goals they’d pursued. At various inflection points in the nation’s history, presidents managed to cross the country with a […]
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Rejoice! Grist cracks “Top Ten Ethanol Enemies” list
The writing life can be a rocky one. You slog it out in the trenches daily, trying to make a living and a difference. Progress can be slow, or nonexistent. And then you get an honor! And your dim worldview brightens. Such was my delight yesterday, when news came via Twitter and the Corn Corps […]
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What's Next for Climate Change Negotiations?
COP 15 and the Copenhagen Accord were widely criticized and a successor Protocol by 2010 is unlikely. Regardless of what happens at Cancun, climate change will be addressed in one form or another. Prior to Copenhagen, the Bali Action Plan proposed several objectives; only “limiting global temperature increase to 1.5-2° Celsius” appeared in the […]
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60 Percent of U.S. Tidal Marshes Threatened By BP Oil Slick
New data released by NOAA shows that the massive BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is already contaminating one major protected North American Marine Ecoregion, containing more than 60 percent of America’s tidal marshes. The slick also threatens to impact at least two more Ecoregions in the near future. The site of the […]
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Behind Obama's Speech: a stale strategy and a value vacuum
If in the wake of the President’s flaccid oval office speech there are still any doubts lingering in anyone’s mind about whether the administration is planning to use the spill as a chance to unleash a game-changing energy policy strategy, a recent DNC oil-spill messaging briefing should put them to rest. The report, compiled by […]
