General

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., October 17, 2011 – To describe Progress Energy’s Crystal River nuclear power plant on Florida’s west coast as a problem unit is a substantial understatement. Commissioned in 1977, the 838-MW Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor has been one of nuclear’s Poor Pitiful Pearls for the past few years. Currently, […]

By Carl Zichella Oct. 5, 2011 — The Obama administration’s Rapid Response Team for Transmission (RRTT), today announced a plan to accelerate the permitting and construction of seven transmission lines that are forecast to create thousands of operational and construction jobs. These projects are intended to serve as pilot demonstrations of streamlined federal permitting and […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 29, 2011 — A story in the Wall Street Journal recently – about a Chinese wind firm pirating U.S.-owned software that controls wind turbines – reminded me of how, in the 1980s, China stole a coal mine from legendary U.S.-Russian oilman Armand Hammer. The moral of the story, for […]

By Steven Aftergood Updated below When the Central Intelligence Agency established a Center on Climate Change and National Security in 2009, it drew fierce opposition from congressional Republicans who disputed the need for an intelligence initiative on this topic.  But now there is a different, and possibly better, reason to doubt the value of the Center:  It […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 20, 2011 — Having failed to implement the provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act aimed at facilitating interstate electric transmission, the Department of Energy now wants to punt the problem to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Whether FERC wants this political black spot isn’t clear, but in any […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 16, 2011 — Add another prominent name to the list of know-nothing, scientifically illiterate skeptics of the conventional wisdom about global warming. Ivar Giaever, co-winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in physics, has resigned as a Fellow from the American Physical Society over the scientific group’s political position on […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 12, 2011, 9:30 a.m. — There are multiple reports this morning of an explosion at the French nuclear site at Marcoule. According to the BBC, one person has been killed and four injured. Few details are available. This morning’s New York Times said French nuclear regulators had confirmed the […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington D.C., September 9, 2011 — Pondering the collapse of solar PV manufacturer Solyndra and the earlier business failures of Evergreen Solar and SpectraWatt, all recipients of Department of Energy loan guarantees, several points seem clear to me. The first is that the Obama administration has made a mistake by investing economic […]

By John Egan Lafayette, Colo., September 5, 2011 — “A live electric wire just fell on a bus full of senior citizens—what do you do?” No, that wasn’t a line from Dennis Hopper in the movie Speed. In fact, it was an interview question I was asked when I was being interviewed to become a […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 25, 2011 — A year ago, a peer-reviewed report in Science magazine concluded that a warmer planet over the past decade has led to drought that has reduced plant production and threatened worldwide food security. Today, a new, peer-reviewed study in the same journal argues that the results in […]