Climate Energy
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Senate refuses to sign ‘We Heart Offshore Drilling’ petition
Well, here's one piece of good news coming out of D.C.: The Senate — including five Republicans — voted to reject a bill that would have expanded offshore drilling. Of course, that might be because there are already plenty of new drilling permits being issued (53 shallow-water permits under the new post-Gulf spill regulations), so […]
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A look inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
This video shows the status of restoration work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, two months after the plant's safety systems first failed (and a week after the TEPCO power company officially confirmed that the plant was in meltdown). Offices are still littered with debris from the earthquake damage, and workers wear gas masks and […]
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West Virginia’s new coal-to-gasoline plant will produce dirtiest fuel known to humanity
Well hello there, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin! The last time we checked in with you, you were literally putting a bullet into climate change legislation. And today you're celebrating the opening of a new plant that will turn coal into gasoline, which is pretty much the single worst possible technology we could pursue if […]
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No nukes, no problem? Germany’s race for a renewable future
Germany plans to phase out all of its entire nuclear power within 11 years.Photo: Andy RudorferCross-posted from RenewableEnergyWorld.com. This post was coauthored by Wilson Rickerson, CEO of Meister Consultants Group, who leads the company’s international energy and climate work. During the last several years, there has been talk of a global “renaissance of nuclear energy.” […]
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Six irrational ideas about oil and gas prices debunked
Let’s give these cuckoo ideas a reality check.Photo: Jeremy BrooksCross-posted from New Deal 2.0. It’s not pretty when several irrational ideas collide. On May 12, the Senate conducted a hearing to discuss the removal of a $2 billion per year tax break for the top five oil companies. The New York Times called the testimony […]
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Ending Big Oil’s tax holiday
Will Congress finally end government handouts for Big Oil?Cross-posted from the Center for American Progress. The Senate plans to vote tonight on the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act — legislation that would eliminate $21 billion of tax loopholes over the next decade for the five largest oil companies. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob […]
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Cuts to U.K. solar incentive may spread economic benefits more widely
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. A proposed revision to the United Kingdom’s feed-in tariff program may have created an uproar, but it may also help spread the economic benefits of solar more widely. The proposed changes, announced in March, would reduce solar […]
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Obama’s oil plan shows he still doesn’t get post-truth politics
In his weekly address, Obama once again promoted an energy plan that centrally involves increased domestic drilling for oil and gas. You can read the ugly details at The New York Times or Politico. Here’s the political thinking that informs this move: Gas prices are rising and people are angry. Republicans and conservative Dems are […]
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Scholastic’s pro-coal curriculum pulled from schools
Scholastic, the children's book publisher, took a big pile of money from the American Coal Foundation and turned it into a curriculum for 4th graders that (surprise!) didn't mention any of the drawbacks of coal. Now Scholastic is all sorry it pimped out America's kids to the industry that quite possibly cares least about their […]
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Is Obama’s call for more drilling bad messaging or cynical policy?
One thing we know for certain — more domestic drilling starting now will have exactly the same impact on prices that the increased domestic drilling in the last two years had. Zilch. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has been making that precise point for years now. Even the media has started to report on this: […]
