Emissions

The massive floods in the Midwest in the past month have been devastating in many ways, but one thing Midwesterners won’t have to worry about is generating electricity from their coal-fired power plants. Inventories at plants along the river are high, limiting the impact from potential interuptions to barging down the river from coal producing states like West Virginia and Indiana to coal consuming states like Kentucky and Tennessee. Keep reading →


New terms are always emerging in the energy business. With GE‘s recent deployment of eight Aero LMS100 turbine-generators in a California natural gas plant intended to act as a partner to renewables by ramping up and down extremely quickly, “wind firming” is the latest term that has emerged in the generation business.

The CPV Sentinel’s eight turbines can reach peak capacity in 10 minutes and are therefore part of “wind firming” because they provide a back-up system for intermittent generation sources such as wind and solar. Keep reading →


The World Bank has lost no time in acting on its partnership with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, announced at their annual conference last week.

“The World Bank will suggest a global levy on jet and shipping fuel in recommendations to G20 governments later this year on raising climate finance,” World Bank Special Envoy for Climate Change Andrew Steer told Reuters in an interview on Sunday after the C40 Conference. The World Bank confirmed the proposal for Breaking Energy. Keep reading →

With the publication of Power Hungry, Robert Bryce continues in his established tradition of in-depth research and bluntly presented findings. He’s not known around the Internet, or in policy circles, as weak-kneed, or easily swayed. On the policy front, Bryce doesn’t tend to mince words. He is an equal opportunity critic, pointing out the mistakes of concepts and practices on all sides of the political spectrum.

Review of: Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
By: Robert Bryce, Managing Editor, Energy Tribune
Public Affairs, 2010, 394 pages
Keep reading →


Coal, once the unchallenged king of Pennsylvania power generation, is set for further erosion in its market share as environmental regulations tighten and abundant natural gas becomes an increasingly attractive alternative for utilities.

The black gold now accounts for less than half the power generated in Pennsylvania, down from 92% in 1969, and the industry likely won’t be able to stop the slide despite growing demand from steelmakers in Europe and Asia. Keep reading →


The World Bank is wielding its biggest weapon in combating urban emissions: Data.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced this morning that the group would be officially partnered with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group headed by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. A data-aggregation master, the World Bank will give the C40 group critical help in collecting data from its member cities and providing a sense of uniformity to the collection of international members. Keep reading →

Wind energy is becoming a popular option even in parts of the world where oil production remains a dominant part of the economy. Tunisia, like distant Texas, is set to become a premier producer of wind power that it could sell to Spanish utilities to meet government requirement.

The World Bank is often criticized by both donor countries and those it lends to, and in this video the Bank defends itself by highlighting the potential benefits from establishing a wind power industry in a developing country. It echoes the lessons project managers took from a solar project in Morocco, also highlighted here. Keep reading →

Live-tweeting from #C40 Summit in Sao Paulo: Mayor #Bloomberg on C40 Cities reports: “In God we trust, but everyone else has to bring data” @c40cities @AOLenergy


With President Obama promising to end tax breaks to oil companies and invest in clean energy for the future, it may seem that state and particularly city governments have little room to maneuver.

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, chaired by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is trying to illustrate just how powerful cities can be. The group released two reports on Tuesday that record detailed information about greenhouse (GHG) emissions in 42 participating cities across the globe and shows the impact of specific actions from mayors on those numbers (see full selected data graphs below). Keep reading →


Governor Chris Christie withdrew his state’s participation in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) late last week.

Last year, NJ earned $65 million from the emissions auctions and some politicians think that Christie should now give that money back: Keep reading →

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