General

McCain, Palin Ticket Doesn’t Really Dig Coal

Desperate to score points in a crucial state where they are in the double-digit dumps, the Republican McCain-Palin presidential ticket rolled out their heartfelt support for “clean coal technologies” at…



Loan guarantee gridlock

It’s gridlock on the road to the U.S. nuclear renaissance. Electric companies and consortia – 15 in all so far -- are asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for combined…


Iced in by global warming

Folks, this is a true story. We do not make this stuff up. As the late, great comic Steve Allen used to say, “I kid you not.” An NBC television…


The meaning of Kyoto’s failure

Did the now-irrelevant 1997 Kyoto Protocol reduce global carbon dioxide emissions, or even slow the rate of increase? No, according to Global Carbon Project, established in 2001 to measure worldwide,…


OBE: Energy policy in Washington

OBE: overcome by events. That’s the story of the nation’s energy policy agenda in the wake of the credit collapse of the past several weeks. In short, there likely will…


“Green” gasoline?

Cellulosic ethanol? How about cellulosic gasoline and diesel fuel instead? A research team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison has come up with what may be an economic way…


Where’s Sam Bodman

Where’s Sam? Energy Secretary Sam “The Sham” Bodman has been absent from the discussions in Washington in recent months about energy prices and energy policies. What does this say about…


Thomas (Malthus) Friedman

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman is a Malthusian. That’s clear from his latest book – Hot, Flat and Crowded. As such, he’s a wrong-headed fool, in the camp of…


Buffett buys Constellation

The Wall Street financial crisis hit Baltimore’s main street on Thursday, as Constellation Energy Group agreed to be bought by Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings for $4.7 billion ($26.50 per…


Coal contines to flex its muscles

More evidence that the demise of coal – Al Gore to the contrary notwithstanding – is greatly exaggerated. On Sept. 11, Tulsa-based Alliance Resource Partners announced it will open a…