coal posts, articles, and infographics

Because That's Where the Emissions Are

January 16, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 165 views

Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency released its tabulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large facilities in the US. In perusing the data I couldn't help thinking of the quote attributed to Willie Sutton concerning why he robbed banks. Even if he never actually said, "Because that's where the money is," the simple logic of... [read more]

Terry Engelder on the Federal Role in the Shale Gas Revolution

January 6, 2012 by Breakthrough Institute
with 223 views

As a part of the Breakthrough Institute's in-depth investigation of shale gas extraction and the role of the federal government in the development of many of the key enabling technologies, we interviewed Terry Engelder, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and one of Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers. Dr. Engelder has authored... [read more]

“We can’t wait” … The President Stands Up to Fossil Interests

December 14, 2011 by A Siegel
with 361 views

President Barack Obama might finally have crystalized to a core message that, honestly, should have been core from the election through today.We cannot wait …- To address the health care inequities, costs, and shortfalls- To foster a more honest engagement between the financial community (Wall Street) and the citizenry (Main Street)- To... [read more]

Will Britain Exceed Its Carbon Reduction Targets? Post 2

December 9, 2011 by David Thorpe
with 147 views

This is the second of two posts that examine the UK's claims and efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. Its conclusion: the UK must stop burning coal to win the battle to cut carbon emissions. The Government claimed last week in its Carbon Plan that it is on track to meet its carbon reduction target, but this is contradicted by other... [read more]

Our Shifting Energy Diet

November 28, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 332 views

It's fairly easy to agree on the desirability of shifting our energy diet away from fossil fuels and toward more renewable or sustainable sources, but it's much harder to agree on the time scale involved. While recognizing the great potential of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar and geothermal power, along with advanced,... [read more]

Success Slipping Away?

November 18, 2011 by David Hone
with 135 views

Very recently the US Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) released new estimates for global and national emissions for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 – i.e. the key years in terms of the drop in emissions and first signs of recovery. The US figure is a real good news / bad news story. The rise from 2009 to 2010 was over 200 million tpa, which on the one hand indicates some recovery in the economy, but on the other puts significant pressure on the ability of the US to reduce emissions by 17% by 2020. [read more]

Case Study: Boulder Colorado Takes Action On Climate Change

November 7, 2011 by Tom Plant
with 403 views

On November 1, Boulder Colorado became the first community in the country to authorize separation from their incumbent utility based on that utility's reliance on coal generation. Through this vote, Boulder has chosen to stop talking about climate change and move those intentions into action by tying utility performance to reductions in greenhouse gases. [read more]

Methane: When Agendas Trump Facts

September 27, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 420 views

Actually, the lessons were learned from the media’s reporting — and the reactions to that reporting — of a recent paper on climate change. The paper I am talking about is a study by Tom Wigley, who is a senior research associate at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The title of the study is Coal to Gas: The Influence of Methane Leakage. [read more]

Will Coal Get A Warning Label?

September 21, 2011 by Tyler Caine
with 673 views

The drive to stem the use of coal for power production in the U.S. has gained considerable traction over the past decade. According to some sources, coal power holds the title of the single largest source of air pollution in the country while its supply chain contaminates every resource that it touches. Removing coal from our energy... [read more]

3 Studies Confirm Shale Gas Is Not Worse Than Coal

August 31, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 1,383 views

For most of this year the enormous potential of shale gas has been clouded by controversy over its alleged climate impact. This began with the draft and later the leaked pre-publication version of a paper from a Cornell professor suggesting that the greenhouse gas emissions from gas were no better than those from coal and might even be... [read more]

Can Old Coal Plants Be Replaced With Energy Efficiency?

August 22, 2011 by Neal Elliot
with 428 views

Over the past year, the utility industry has experienced significant angst over pending updates to utility environmental regulations. Of particular concern is the question of whether to invest in plant updates to comply with these regulations or to retire these plants altogether and replace this capacity with new (and most likely... [read more]

Nuclear Risk Insurance

August 22, 2011 by Barry Brook
with 360 views

It is often said by the anti-nuclearists that the commercial nuclear energy industry “can’t get insurance” against the risks of nuclear or radiological accidents, or that it is “uninsurable”. This is simply garbage, a myth, a load of baloney that gets exclaimed backwards and forwards between the anti-nuclearists, without any of them ever bothering to actually check the facts or do the research. It’s simply a meme, one of many nonsense pseudo-fact memes that persist in the community of people who are really just devout believers that nuclear energy is bad. [read more]

Pollution Has A Price, Just Not For The Polluter

August 17, 2011 by Gernot Wagner
with 197 views

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]

Decarbonise SA, Brave New Climate Visit The Atomic Show

August 16, 2011 by Rod Adams
with 135 views

Open coal wagonsOn August 13, 2011, I braved the 13.5 hour time difference between Adelaide, South Australia and Lynchburg, VA to record an interview with Ben Heard, the force behind Decarbonise SA and Dr. Barry Brook, the well respected climate scientist who blogs at Brave New Climate. Aside: I used the phrase “braved the time... [read more]

Energy Transition and America's Future: Interview with Gregor MacDonald

August 5, 2011 by Scott Edward Anderson
with 345 views

For those of you who follow Gregor MacDonald (@gregormacdonald) on Twitter or read his excellent blog, Gregor.us, or were fortunate enough to catch his subscription-only newsletter and weekly web-TV program while it lasted on StockTwits, you know Gregor represents a thoughtful, studied voice on energy transition and possesses a macroview of the global economy. [read more]