December 3, 2013 – The World Bank and the United Nations last month held a news conference to tout their plan to raise big bucks — $600 billion or so — for electrification in developing countries (and energy efficiency in the developed world, although that’s a dubious proposition). When the bank’s Jim Yong Kim and [...]
Cows get little respect these days. Except, of course, when cow is in the form of a two-inch-thick steak cooked medium-well and served still sizzling from the grill. Others prefer their beef served in a sack passed through a window. Either way, your favorite serving of beef is under attack. First came the revelation that [...]
Do you remember the many predictions in past years that oil production has peaked world-wide and we will soon deplete this natural resource? M. King Hubbert, a petroleum engineer with the Shell Research Lab, developed his theory of Peak Oil in 1956, predicting U.S. production of oil would peak between 1965 and 1970 and thereafter [...]
Washington, D.C., 15 November 2013 — The literature about the development of the atomic bomb, its use against Japan, and subsequent developments, is extensive and rich (including my own book, “Too Dumb to Meter”). But a new book by Graham Farmelo — “Churchill’s Bomb: A Hidden Story of Science, War, and Politics” — provides new [...]
Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2013 — Attempting to deflect continuing charges that its upcoming policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions don’t have popular support in the country, the Environmental Protection Agency this week wrapped up a series of 11 meetings around the country, which the agency has billed as “listening sessions.” The Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune [...]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has put forward three excuses to justify its increasing regulatory authority over the natural gas, an authority that was specifically given to the States in the 2008 Energy Policy Act. The first was the excuse that fracking has caused pollution of potable water wells. After years of searching, the [...]
On August 9, 2013, President Obama signed into law the “Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013” (the “Act”). This legislation, passed with overwhelming support in the House and Senate, streamlines the regulatory approval process for certain hydroelectric power (“hydropower”) projects. Perhaps more importantly, the Act reflects bipartisan recognition of the benefits of hydropower. According to [...]
Washington, D.C., October 30, 2013 — The evidence that the South American coast country of Chile is going heavily for wind power is evident at every major port, from Arica in the desert north to Puerto Montt in the Patagonian temperate rainforest in the south. That’s my observation from a three-week trip by sea down [...]
In February 2013 I wrote an editorial entitled “Where’s the Warming?” My argument was that the IPCC was facing a significant problem in writing the then-upcoming AR5 because the most recent global temperature data was showing a drop in global average temperatures contrary to its computer model results. One of the reviewers of the draft [...]
The cost of producing electricity by natural gas and coal finished 2012 in a dead heat and future cost trends are very difficult to predict. One can read the projections (not predictions) by the U.S. Energy Information Administration and find evidence that coal is disadvantaged based on the rising cost of environmental compliance but the [...]