Climate Energy
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More than 100 tar-sands activists politely arrested in polite Canadian protest
On Monday, at least 400 protestors stormed -- or, more accurately, walked gently up to and tapped on the shoulder -- the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. Over 100 people were arrested, charged with trespassing, and barred from coming near the parliament building for a year. But everybody was REALLY, REALLY POLITE about it.
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'The Quest' questioned
A read of Daniel Yergin's new book, The Quest, reveals holes in his arguments, mostly centered around his discussion of peak oil.
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The myth of the free market
The oil, gas, and nuclear industries have enjoyed huge federal subsidies for a century, all of which have far outpaced investment in renewable energy.
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BP will be messing up Australia next
The Great Australian Bight has all of the hallmarks of a place you really don't want to mess with — incredible marine diversity, endangered whales, awesome natural beauty. But the Australian government decided that this would also be a good place to let BP prospect for oil, and gave the company a tax break to ease their way on that project.
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Republicans pursued clean energy loans, too — and good for them!
The GOP now decries energy loans that they begged for a few years ago. This is hypocrisy, but remember that pursuing such loans is a good thing.
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Even the Bush administration wouldn’t touch tar-sands oil
Even if the Obama administration approves the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadians won't be able to sell the carbon-intensive tar-sands oil to one very big energy consumer: the Obama administration. Back in 2007, the federal government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, passed a law that forbade it from buying oil that's dirtier than conventional oil. And tar-sands oil is.
The Canadian government has been trying for years to wiggle its way around that restriction. The U.S Chamber of Commerce has also tried to free the Department of Defense from its shackles. -
Critical List: Crowdsourcing carbon solutions; New Yorkers regret drilling leases
The Maldives are going to crowdsource their carbon-cutting plan. (They’re asking international experts, not just letting any citizen drive policy. Not sure how that would work in the Maldives, but in the U.S. you’d get a lot of “shine lamps on solar panels for infinite energy!”)
Should the new poster child for global warming be the city mayor who has to deal with unexpected weather extremes?
Usually you hear about buyer's remorse, but New Yorkers are having sellers' remorse about turning over drilling rights to natural gas companies. -
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Tax expenditures: a boring thing you should be outraged about
In budget terms, tax expenditures may look the same as simple government spending, but the political differences are enormously important.
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Kind of a big deal: $1.6 billion coming for energy efficiency projects
Pension funds and big businesses plan to sink money into energy-retrofit programs, which create jobs and present an excellent climate solution.
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Germany is spending its climate change money on coal plants
Germany is raiding its clean energy piggybank to pay for dirty coal. The country is looking to withdraw millions of euros from a fund for promoting clean energy and climate change mitigation, and wants to spend that money on new coal-fired power plants.
