Risk Management

atmospheric CO2

Our goal to be avoided, 450 ppm, is now feeling a bit close for comfort, given we are already at 400 ppm and 300 ppm was only passed under the previous British monarch.[read more]

fracking/shutterstock

Complaints by both sides over the Obama administration’s newly updated draft of fracking rules on public and Indian lands signals the Interior Department has found enough common ground to raise the bar on drilling operations.[read more]

arctic drilling risks

New policy emphasizes U.S. security interests in the Arctic. That makes sense in the light of the Arctic’s international significance. But the administration’s plan makes the mistake of equating security with drilling for oil in the region.[read more]

Alberta Tar Sands

Time for a tar sands reality check.Here's the top 10 reasons Canada needs to rethink their unrelenting desire to expand tar sands operations.[read more]

rendering of Belo Monte Dam

Large hydropower projects are the bedrock of clean energy production, by virtue of their sheer size and reliance upon natural rainfall. But climate change's effects on rain patterns could affect new hydropower projects.[read more]

electric car/shutterstock

Even if there is enough lithium to displace the 1 billion internal combustion engine cars that now pollute the earth with electric cars, it is the electronic waste problem that should dominate the question.[read more]

wind farm/shutterstock

How many people support renewables or nuclear energy, or for that matter fracking? A closer to look at polls shows that support numbers should be treated with caution.[read more]

Nuclear energy costs

 

On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times published a lengthy piece that argues the two reactor installation proposed for Levy County, Florida is a more expensive option than a natural gas power plant.[read more]

natural gas/shutterstock

Natural gas is a fuel for electricity generation that serves as a bridge to a Smart Grid that fully integrates renewables and energy storage into the energy portfolio.[read more]

LNG tanker

President Obama is preparing to decide how much liquified natural gas (LNG) from the the U.S. boom in shale natural gas production it makes sense to export. Economically and geopolitically a lot hangs in the balance.[read more]

rising carbon costs/shutterstock

If the prospect of serious limits on greenhouse gas emissions translates into a real risk of stranded assets for fossil fuel companies, carbon may become the next housing bubble.[read more]

fracking and water

David Biello over at Scientific American had a story in 2011 that looked at research establishing a link between methane contamination in well water and nearby hydraulic fracturing of shale rock.[read more]

proposed Spectra natural gas pipeline

A new pipeline promises new natural gas supplies for New York City. Some tout the economic and environmental benefits that will come from it. Others decry the potential problems it brings.[read more]

investment risks/shutterstock

The data are being requested to shine a light on how oil and gas companies are managing environmental risks and community impacts in their fracking operations.[read more]

Kewaunee nuclear power station

Shortly after 11 AM on Tuesday, May 8, 2013, the operators at Dominion Resources’ Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station opened the plant’s output breaker, disconnecting the turbine generator from the grid for the last time.[read more]