fossil fuels
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Direct subsidies to fossil fuels are the tip of the (melting) iceberg
In recent years, energy subsidies have risen to become a first-tier political issue. Lots of folks are thinking and talking about them, which is absolutely a Good Thing. However, the discussion has remained narrow and legalistic in a way that obscures some larger realities. The usual question that gets asked is, who gets more direct […]
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Jay Inslee, candidate for WA governor, chats with Grist about clean energy and coal ports
Last Friday, I visited Washington state’s first certified solar PV manufacturing plant with Rep. Jay Inslee (D), who in June declared that he’s running for governor in 2012. Inslee, who has represented Washington’s 1st District for 12 years, is one of Congress’s few true clean energy enthusiasts; he even co-wrote a book on the […]
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Energy prices haven’t budged in 50 years — but oil is crazy expensive
Americans pay about the same as they did in 1960 for most forms of energy, says this infographic produced by the home energy audit folks at WellHome. Except for oil, which is now on average even more crazy-expensive than it was during the oil crisis of the 1970's, when people were ready to bash each […]
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U.S. might meet its climate targets — by accident
How bad is the economy? So bad that we might actually meet our greenhouse gas emissions targets, laid out in 2009 at Copenhagen, by accident.
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Mr. Morriss gets acquainted with Irish Confetti
Merriam-Webster: Irish Confetti – “A rock or brick used as a missile.” We recently wrote about professional clean energy critic Andrew Morriss being schooled by Center for American Progress’s Kate Gordon before a friendly crowd at the fossil industry-funded CATO Institute. Back in April, Mr. Morriss couldn’t answer Ms. Gordon’s inconvenient points about the huge government welfare checks […]
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New wave of revelations about Koch Industries' unethical, illegal behavior
Koch Industries, the privately held petrochemical giant whose corporate personality can best be described as obsessive-compulsively evil, is at it again!
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Navy Secretary says getting off fossil fuels is just like ditching sail power
Ray Mabus, Secretary of the U.S. Navy, has a refreshing historical perspective on the Navy's efforts to end its dependence on our increasingly expensive and environmentally destructive supplies of oil. From a speech he recently gave at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0:
In the 1850s, we went from sail to coal. In the early 19th century, we went from coal to oil, and in the 1950s, we pioneered nuclear.
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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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Graph: The embarrassingly paltry sums government gives renewable energy
Click here for a larger version of this image.