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The wind money windfall in Sherman County, Oregon
Residents of Oregon's Sherman County used to hate on the strong winds endemic to the area. But now they pull in $590 per year, per household, just for tolerating the wind and the many wind turbines marring their viewshed. It’s like the oil payout for living in Alaska, only it’s not blood money from cannibalizing […]
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Canada omitted 20 percent increase in oil-sands emissions from U.N. report
Canada reported to the United Nations that the country's greenhouse-gas emissions were dropping, down 6 percent in the last year. But the government left out one teensy little detail in its report. The emissions from the oil-sands industry, which extracts hard-to-reach oil from tar sands, increased by 20 percent in 2009. Pollution from the oil […]
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Why is the United States so obsessed with nuclear power?
Why aren’t Americans more freaked out about the possibility of a nuclear accident? Photo: MikeThis is part one in a series on the United States and nuclear power. Read parts two, three, and four. After the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima, as a German living in the U.S., I often get asked these days: What’s going […]
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Obama administration overseeing explosion in renewables on public land
The Bush administration issued more than 40,000 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands, but approved zero solar projects (even though they received 300 applications). In contrast, in 2010 alone the Bureau of Land Management approved 9 solar projects representing 3,682 megawatts of electric power, reports Climate Central. Why the difference? According to […]
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Gas-price spikes burden the American economy while benefiting oil companies
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The struggles of families and businesses over the past seven years are linked directly to high profits for oil companies due to high energy-price volatility. A new report [PDF] from the Center for American Progress (CAP) finds that families and businesses are exposed to massive price swings for the vast […]
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Military could use climate-killing ‘liquid coal’
By law, the U.S. military can't use fuels that have a worse climate impact than conventional oil. An amendment to a major military spending bill would rescind that law, allowing the U.S. military to buy oil made from, for example, West Virginia Sen. Joe "I literally put a bullet in the climate bill" Manchin's forthcoming […]
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Pro-fracking ad accidentally reveals dangers of fracking
ExxonMobil has been running full-page ads that make underground hydraulic fracturing operations — the same ones responsible for massive environmental problems all over the U.S. — look about as threatening as a World Book encyclopedia illustration of a water pipe. The ads highlight the multiple layers of steel and concrete used to protect shallow aquifers. Too […]
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State by state, appliance standards save money, create jobs, and protect the environment
This post was written by Rachel Gold, policy analyst for research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and a contributing author at the ACEEE blog. Since the 1980s, energy-efficiency appliance standards have been saving consumers money and creating jobs throughout the U.S. These standards translate into savings when new, energy-efficient equipment is purchased, […]
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Critical List: U.S. imported less than 50 percent of its oil in 2010
We're off foreign oil! More or less. One price we'll pay for that: ads with blue skies and green fields and a man with a reassuring voice saying that natural gas is totally, totally safe. The price of renewable energy will go down. So naturally, you should bet against its success. Unless you're a venture […]
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Michigan to grid operator: We prefer to generate our own renewable energy
Michigan would rather pay a little more for energy if it’s better for the local economy.Photo: Alex GorzenThis post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. The large transmission authority serving the upper Midwest — the Midwest Independent System Operator — has plans for new high-voltage transmission […]
