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fossil fuels

The Fossil Fuel-Economic Complex: Something's Going to Give

May 6, 2012 by Nathanael Baker
with 672 views
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Photo by joiseyshowaa via Flickr

Despite all the political rhetoric, the bottom line hasn't changed: Carbon emissions are increasing in every corner of the planet. This is largely due to the fact that the global economy is so unequivocally tied to fossil fuel consumption.In 2009, a drop in emissions left casual observers optimistic that the transition from a carbon-... [read more]

Using Solar/Wind to Fuel the Oil Industry

March 9, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 302 views
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Oil industry executives attending the 2012 East Texas Oilfield Expo this week are getting the chance to view a rather unusual exhibitor. Progress Solar Solutions is on hand, demonstrating how its solar/wind light tower can help cut costs and reduce emissions at oil field operations. You might think, as I did, that... [read more]

How Much Hot Air is there in Renewables?

February 10, 2012 by Benjamin Lack
with 284 views
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NewScientist’s January 28 issue is likely to unsettle clean energy advocates – but it is worth the read.The cover article, “Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever,” posits that even renewable energy can warm the planet, and eventually change climate, if we continue to ratchet up power production to serve our ever increasing... [read more]

UN panel urges phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies

January 31, 2012 by Jake Schmidt
with 529 views
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Why the UN recommends phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and moving to low carbon energy production. Think anyone will remember this by the time Rio+22 happens? [read more]

Pollution Has A Price, Just Not For The Polluter

August 17, 2011 by Gernot Wagner
with 199 views
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We’ve known at least since Robert F. Kennedy’s first speech as a presidential candidate that gross domestic product “measures everything…except that which makes life worth living”. While it’s tough to quantify the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, we do have ways to quantify the impact of pollution and could, in theory, amend GDP to account for its costs. [read more]

Germany’s Grand Energy Experiment

July 29, 2011 by Barry Brook
with 1,840 views
9

 Most readers of BNC know the story — after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the German government announced that Germany would phase out all of its nuclear generation capacity by 2022. In almost the same period, Germany also aims to cut its national greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels (by 2020). Their emissions have already... [read more]

Democrats and Energy Policy

May 23, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 262 views
5

An Energy Epiphany I have often thought that if all domestic oil production and refining ceased in this country for a month, we would see an energy epiphany in the U.S. the likes of which we have never seen. Such an event would really drive home our dependence on petroleum products. In fact, this essay started as an introduction to a... [read more]

Are Oil and Gas Renewable?

April 28, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 811 views
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A long-time reader of this blog sent me a link to a New York Times article highlighting the diverse scientific pursuits of Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University, among which is the exploration of the "deep carbon cycle". Although much is known about the behavior of carbon in the first seven miles or so of the earth's crust into which... [read more]

Setting the Ethanol Record Straight

June 17, 2010 by Robert Rapier
with 382 views
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Based on my Site Meter, it appears that a lot of new readers are stopping by because of my recent inclusion in the Top 10 list of ethanol enemies. Because the article presents a highly inaccurate view of my position, I issued a quick and concise rebuttal to the baseless claims. But perhaps this is a good time to review my paradigm,... [read more]

Subsidies: You pays your money and you takes your choice

April 15, 2010 by Gil Friend
with 234 views
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As you know, I think and speak a lot about subsidies, and their impacts in market distortion as well as environmental & social damage. Data unfortunately is hard to come by, so please let me know any good sources you know of. Two suggested to me today: Earthtrack, and the Global Subsidies Initiative which says (in their Policy Brief... [read more]

America’s hidden power bill - Examining federal energy tax expenditures

April 14, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 138 views
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Center for American Progress’s Richard W. Caperton and Sima J. Gandhi have put together an excellent report on the remarkable waste of taxpayer’s dollars on perverse subsidies for the profitable fossil fuel industry. I am reposting the executive summary: The most important day of the year for the many energy companies that receive... [read more]

Think Renewables Need Huge Subsidies? Federal Energy Subsidies Visualized

March 8, 2010 by Tim Hurst
with 538 views
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Source: Environmental Law Institute One of the most persistent arguments coming from those who oppose renewable energy subsidies is that they could never stand on their own without government intervention and that we should let the market decide which electricity source is best. A complete analysis of the problems with that argument... [read more]

The New World Energy Order

January 22, 2010 by Big Gav
with 89 views
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The CFR journal Foreign Affairs has a look at the evolving global energy environment - worrying about energy security and global warming but remaining uncomfortably blase about peak oil - The New Energy Order. The last decade has seen an extraordinary shift in expectations for the world energy system. After a long era of excess capacity... [read more]

Black & Veatch: Future looks carbonated

January 15, 2010 by Todd Woody
with 294 views
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Could we really be as dependent on fossil fuels in 2034 as we are today? In The New York TImes on Friday, I write about a projection from energy consultants Black & Veatch that sees fossil fuels continuing to play a dominant role in the United States a quarter century from now: A quarter century from now the United States’... [read more]

Is the Effort to Shut Down Vermont Yankee a Modern Day Witch Hunt?

January 4, 2010 by Rod Adams
with 165 views
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A frequent contributor to the discussion threads here on Atomic Insights shared the following observation about the battle over Vermont Yankee. I think it deserves more attention than it will get buried in a separate commenting system. I would be interested in hearing from you; especially if you have a personal connection to the... [read more]