The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in a case regarding whether the Obama administration acted within its authority when it used the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions – carbon dioxide specifically – as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Unable to advance their climate change mitigation strategy in Congress, the administration has… Keep reading →
Shale gas revolution will result in cleaner electricity generation mix Coal is slowly retreating as natural gas and renewables gain market share in the electric power generation. That is old news. What is new is the accelerating speed in a sector not known for moving fast. The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Energy Outlook projections,… Keep reading →
A huge coal ash spill was discovered on February 2 at the Duke Energy power plant in North Carolina that has caused significant damage to the Dan River. The spill was caused when a storm drain pipe that runs underneath the 27-acre containment pond sprung a leak and allowed 82,000 tons of ash mixed 27… Keep reading →
As the dust settles from the weeklong for the Chinese New Year, complete with fireworks, here are some of the top environmental issues to watch in the Year of the Horse. Provincial leadership Local governments combating rising rates of pollution and a dissatisfied populace are not waiting for Beijing to take action. Provinces are limiting… Keep reading →
EIA’s latest Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) projects a 56 percent increase in natural gas production by 2040, overtaking coal as the largest share of U.S. electric power generation. On December 16, 2013, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the AEO 2014 Early Release Overview presenting updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2040. The AEO… Keep reading →
The Audubon Society is upset with a US Department of Interior decision to allow wind farm operators to obtain permit extensions allowing accidental bird death or injury for up to 30 years. Interior says the permit extensions provide regulatory certainty to wind developers, but Audubon thinks the move fails to balance “the need for conservation… Keep reading →
The March 2011 Fukushima accident destroyed four and shuttered most (currently all) of Japan’s 54 nuclear plants. Japan replaced nuclear energy with discomfort, sacrifice, and costly fossil fuels, because utility oligopolies suppressed renewable competitors and national energy efficiency languished. Two and a half years later, power reserves, though easing, remain tight, fuel bills exorbitant, and… Keep reading →
In the United States, coal is facing hard times. The welcome, though unexpected expansion of unconventional natural gas resources and production in North America has made natural gas the economically attractive fuel choice for new electricity generating power plants and, in many cases, has replaced older existing coal fired plants. From 2003 to 2013 coal’s… Keep reading →
A new study says it traces two-thirds of industrial emissions from fossil fuels burned over the last 150 years to just 90 entities – many of these the oil and gas companies that extracted the fossil fuels in the first place. A press release accompanying the study suggests that these companies bear the responsibility for climate… Keep reading →
The intragency panel price per ton of carbon incorporated into the Environmental Protection Agency’s microwave rule seems to set the standard, or at least the starting point, for the federal government’s estimate of the social cost of carbon. Benjamin Zycher, visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has argued that that cost “fails”. Zycher hosted… Keep reading →
