politics

At a UK Royal Society symposium last week, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, was as blunt on the reality of climate science as he was critical of those who deny it.[read more]

Ben Franklin, the first American genius, achieved fame and notoriety for his electricity research, which included that famous kite-flying experiment.  But did you know that he first described the concept of treating energy efficiency as an energy resource?  He memorably stated “A penny saved is a penny earned,” back in the...[read more]

Two Sides of a Coin In a recent video blog about energy politics, I stated that in my opinion each of the major political parties in the U.S. only gets half of the energy picture. Democrats tend to demonize oil usage, with many believing that we can shift to renewables for our energy needs. To be clear, we can — but not in the way they...[read more]

Election year politics ensure that Solyndra is going to get at least a full news cycle's worth of attention. Here are some interesting facts to consider as the Solyndra kerfluffle builds steam: Solyndra was a very small piece of the policy picture - Solyndra's $535M loan is just 1.2% of the total $38.6B loan guarantees issued by DOE. (...[read more]

Normally, consumers consider falling oil and gasoline prices to be good news. They have to pay less to fill up their tanks. And if the reason for that is that oil supplies are increasing at a rate faster than demand is increasing, it can indeed be a good situation for consumers, and good for the economy.[read more]

Cross-posted from Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog I have been following closely, but not writing much on, the debate in Australia over Julia Gillard's proposed carbon tax.  How it plays out will be fascinating to watch and will provide as much a lesson in Australian politics as anything to do with climate policy. This report from The...[read more]

Once again, we have a bulletin from The Dept. of the Blindingly Obvious: The U.S. probably won’t take significant steps to curb climate change until an environmental disaster sways public view and prompts political action, Robert Stavins of Harvard University said. “It’s unlikely that the U.S. is going to take serious action on climate...[read more]

Last Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal, a plan that would strip federal funding for energy innovation. If enacted, the budget would seriously threaten the country's clean energy competitiveness and damage innovation, the engine of economic growth. The following is excerpted...[read more]

From the very first days of this site, eight years ago, I’ve been focused on the goal of “educating and activating the mainstream public”. My effort was initially concerned almost entirely with peak oil, as I came into this room via the “energy” door, not the “environment” door, but I’ve long ago learned enough to conclude that while...[read more]

 What will the civil war in Libya, revolution in Egypt and political turmoil elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa mean for the U.S. economy, energy prices and the environment? If you’d like to hear the insights of a couple of smart energy experts, join me on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET for a free webinar organized by The Energy...[read more]

As I noted in a previous blog (in conjunction with just about all of my colleagues), the Continuing Resolution currently being debated in the House means deep cuts for a disturbing amount of energy and environmental programs.  One especially problematic cut would reduce the DOE’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E...[read more]

Join the forum discussion on this post  Now that it seems that the mainstream media has finally caught on to the fact that something went terribly awry at Range Fuels, it is time for me to close the book on them. This will be my last Range Fuels story, but I think there is a lesson to be learned here. Waiting Until The Fat Lady...[read more]

Pike Research issued a report earlier this week highlighting consumer attitudes toward Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, a financing method for making energy efficient home improvements that has been largely squashed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but which, the report shows, may be in a position to rise from the ashes....[read more]

It’s about politics. It’s about votes. It may be about a lack of need for the power, or a true concern about lakebed impacts. But one thing for certain is that the Ontario government’s misguided decision to halt all offshore wind development until further study is not about unfounded concerns over the health impacts on people, as much as...[read more]

This article was written by Suzanne Goldenberg, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 15th September 2010 17.02 UTCOnly one of the 48 Republicans seeking a seat in the Senate has dared to stand on the side of climate science or support climate change legislation – and he was knocked out of the running yesterday.The losing climate realist, Mike...[read more]