oil
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Me, talking politics and oil subsidies [VIDEO]
Yesterday, I was on The Alyona Show, a sharp public affairs talk show run, oddly enough, by Russia Today. The topic was the politics around oil subsidies. Here’s the clip: I don’t have a ton to add, but here’s one point I was pondering on the bus this morning. You often hear people (like me!) […]
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Will gas prices turn America into Europe?
If you thought driving sporty little fuel-efficient vehicles and living a reasonable distance from work was strictly an affectation of Continentals who kiss their ladies down there, we've got news for you: Turns out these behaviors can be induced in any population, whatever the likelihood that its colors will run, simply by increasing the cost […]
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Learn about oil prices through the magic of rap
Kids these days, with their "emo" and their "MySpace" and their "sexting"! How do you "get down" verbally to show you're "hep"? How about a rap music song! Actually, while the apparent vogue of rap-based explainers is a little weird, we can't complain too much about this one, since it brought us the line "oil's […]
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Senate Republicans filibuster to protect oil-industry subsidies — after getting gusher of oil money
Cross-posted from Think Progress. On Tuesday night, Republicans in the Senate filibustered the majority’s attempt to repeal $21 billion in subsidies for the big five oil companies — the same companies that made over $30 billion in profits in just the first three months of 2011. While three out of four Americans believe ExxonMobil and […]
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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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Lessons from PFC Restrepo’s Mother
The incredibly brave work of the U.S. Special Forces team that killed Osama bin Laden brought some badly needed, uplifting news. It gave Americans welcome, if temporary, relief from steady news of American lives lost in the Middle East. You can really feel that weight of the sacrifice our people are making to defend America […]
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Keystone pipeline spilled tar-sands oil 11 times in past year. Do we really want to supersize it?
The routes of the existing and proposed Keystone pipelines. Image: RL MillerThe State Department is currently weighing whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar-sands oil some 2,000 miles southward, from Alberta, Canada, to Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. It would be an expansion of the now-operational Keystone pipeline that goes as […]
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Saudi Arabia scrambling to get off own oil, build 5 gigawatts of solar power by 2020
What do you do when you're basically a giant welfare state whose stability depends on keeping the money tap open, yet your population is set to double and your electricity consumption to triple by 2032? If you're Saudi Arabia, the answer is build renewable energy as fast as you can. The first volley is a […]
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Students successfully rally to juxtapose Exxon arch-nemesis with Exxon CEO as commencement speaker
The CEO of America's largest and most profitable company is invited to be the commencement speaker at one of the country's oldest technological universities — you would think everyone would be pumped! But no, the students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute responded to the secret deal to bring the head of WPI mega-donor Exxon Mobile to […]