Tag archives for clean energy
U.S. Oil Reserves Higher Than Previously Thought
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on May 2, 2013 According to a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment, two formations in the central United States hold three times the amount of natural gas and two times the amount of oil than the federal government previously estimated. Concentrated in the Dakotas and Montana, the Bakken and Three Forks formations are expected to hold 7.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil and…
Studies Link Warming to Increased Weather Extremes
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on March 28, 2013 A new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds global temperatures to be one of the best predictors of hurricane activity. In fact, the PNAS study found that a one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in global temperatures could multiply the frequency of Katrina-like storms by two to seven times. In the Arctic, melting sea ice—which reached its sixth lowest…
Climate Change Back on Political Radar after Sandy, Election
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 8, 2012 In his re-election victory speech, President Barack Obama finally touched on a seldom-mentioned issue of the campaign—climate change: “We want our children to live in an America … that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” Whether or not Hurricane Sandy can be attributed to climate change, the storm’s devastating flooding brought…
Motivation at Mohonk
Posted by Shari Sant Plummer on October 26, 2012 
“Sometimes you’re in a rut so deep you think it’s a groove” said Annie Leonard at the 25th Annual Environmental Grantmakers Association Retreat held at the Mohonk Mountain House in October. The conversation centered on how to ramp up our efforts and fight smarter on every level to change the environmental trajectory, preferably to one that…
Romney, Obama Make History with Failure to Mention Climate Change in Last Debate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 25, 2012 The final foreign-policy-focused presidential debate made history Monday when candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama failed to mention climate change. Despite historic drought and record melting of Arctic sea ice, failure to visit the topic marked the first time since the 1980s climate change hasn’t come up in a presidential debate. Some argued the climate should have come up, as almost every major international issue—food prices, military operations and…
Federal Court Tosses EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor’ Pollution Rule
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 23, 2012 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week threw out the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which set stricter limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants in 28 states and the District of Columbia. In a 2–1 ruling, the panel held the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the…
More than 100 Coal Plants Shutting—But How Much Difference Will It Make?
Posted by Mason Inman on March 8, 2012 After public pressure, Chicago will shut two aging coal-fired power plants, and the owner of one of the power plants, Midwest Generation, may shut its other four coal plants in Illinois. Since the start of 2010, more than 100 coal plants have been slated for early retirement. A major reason for coal plants shutting has been public opposition to…
Leaked Documents Describe Plan to Push Climate Change Denial in Schools
Posted by Mason Inman on February 16, 2012 Leaked documents purportedly from the nonprofit Heartland Institute include efforts to cast doubt on climate science. The site DeSmog Blog received the documents from an anonymous informant calling himself “Heartland Insider.” The Heartland Institute gave mixed responses to the documents, calling them both “stolen” and “fake,” but only specifically calling one document, titled “2012 Heartland…
Oil, Gasoline Prices Hit All-Time Highs in 2011—and May Continue Rising
Posted by Mason Inman on January 12, 2012 Average prices of oil and gasoline at the pump reached an all-time high in 2011, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, averaged $111 a barrel—the first time it broke $100 for a whole year. In some ways, these records snuck up on Americans, since there was no extreme…
Pleas, Hard Lines, and Accusations of Bad Faith Negotiations at Climate Talks
Posted by Mason Inman on December 1, 2011 In Durban, South Africa, the latest round of United Nations climate negotiations opened with a plea from South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, for countries to look beyond national interests. So far, however, the talks have been marked by many of the same divisions that plagued earlier meets. A coalition of environmental groups—including the Natural Resources Defense…
Only Five Years Left to Make Transition to Low-Carbon Infrastructure
Posted by Mason Inman on November 10, 2011 The infrastructure built over the next five years could “lock in” enough emissions to push the world past its target for limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest annual update of energy trends, World Energy Outlook. The Agency is “increasingly pessimistic” about the prospect for dealing with climate change, said deputy…
California Adopts Cap-and-Trade System, Serves as Greenhouse Guinea Pig
Posted by Mason Inman on October 27, 2011 After a unanimous vote by the California Air Resources Board, the state adopted the most comprehensive cap-and-trade system in the country, a key part of a 2006 global warming law that had yet to be implemented. The system will cover 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and allows businesses to counterbalance up to…
Cutting Oil Use Should Be Focus of U.S. Energy Research, New Roadmap Says
Posted by Mason Inman on September 29, 2011 A major study modeled after goal-setting reports from the Departments of Defense and State, the first Quadrennial Technology Review by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), called for a shift in energy research and development priorities to reduce America’s dependence on oil. “Reliance on oil is the greatest immediate threat to U.S. economic and national security…
Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies May Be the Way to Jumpstart Climate Finance
Posted by Mason Inman on September 22, 2011 A leaked World Bank document, due to be presented at the G20 meeting in November, proposes that rich countries eliminate their fossil fuel subsidies and instead contribute the money to climate aid for poor countries to help with green energy and adaptation measures. The paper also said donor countries are unlikely to come up with the…
Ending Oil Tax Breaks Could Pay For New Jobs—and Some May Be Green
Posted by Mason Inman on September 15, 2011 President Obama unveiled a new job creation plan in a major speech to Congress last week and follow-up speeches this week, in which he called for an end to tax breaks for oil and gas companies to bring in an additional $32 billion over 10 years to pay for increased government spending. Earlier this year, Obama called…
Scrambling to Head Off Power Outages Caused by Heat Waves, Rapid Growth, and Disaster
Posted by Mason Inman on August 18, 2011 Texas has suffered through the worst drought and one of the worst heat waves on record, pushing electricity use to a record high in an attempt to cope. Texas is the state with the largest installed wind capacity, and recently installed wind farms came through to boost the state’s electricity generation just in time. However, even this jump was…
As Markets Dive, Clean Energy Stocks Hit by “Triple Whammy”
Posted by Mason Inman on August 11, 2011 The stock market took a beating this week, after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. bonds—but clean tech stocks have been falling even faster than the market as a whole. Shares in clean energy companies have been hit by a “triple whammy”—producing too much capacity for the demand, problems with government debt, and…
China Aims to Become Solar Powerhouse with New Subsidies
Posted by Mason Inman on August 4, 2011 China is already the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, but now it is making a move to become a major solar energy consumer as well, with a nationwide feed-in tariff to pay people or businesses a subsidy for electricity they produce with solar panels. This follows on the heels of the country’s wind energy feed-in tariff in…
Debt Ceiling Impasse Could Hit Clean Energy Hard
Posted by Mason Inman on July 28, 2011 Clean energy could be among the hardest-hit sectors if the U.S. government does not raise the debt ceiling and then defaults on the national debt. If there is a default, it could hurt in direct ways, by stopping payments for cash grants and loan guarantees that support many renewables projects. It could also hit innovation, by putting the Department…
OPEC Discord May Be “the Beginning of the End” of the Oil Cartel
Posted by Mason Inman on June 9, 2011 With oil prices high, the International Energy Agency (IEA) last month made a rare plea for the world to produce more oil. So the latest meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where they set their production quotas, was closely watched. After a rancorous meeting, most member countries refused to raise quotas. Before the…
