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Energy & Environment

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May 27, 2013

Geoengineering: Our Last Hope? - Clive Hamilton, New York Times

CANBERRA, Australia — THE concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere recently surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time in three million years. ...

May 22, 2013

America No Longer Leads in Nuclear Tech. - William Tucker, RCPolitics

In a recent announcement, Westinghouse Nuclear and the China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. declared a joint venture to develop small modular reactors -- submarine-...

May 20, 2013

Keystone: Another Step on the March to Disaster - E. Kolbert, New Yorker

A lot of what’s known about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be traced back to a chemist named Charles David Keeling, who, in 1958, persuaded the U.S. Weather Bureau to...

May 18, 2013

Why 'Justice' Movements Tend to Fail - Chris Foreman, Breakthrough Inst.

The banner that was unfurled in front of the Protea Hotel Edward in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011 is as good a place to start as any to grasp what much of the internatio...

May 15, 2013

Tapping Undiscovered Resources for Higher Ed - Lindsay & Davis, RCPolicy

Nearly everyone knows that college tuitions have been skyrocketing. Over the past quarter-century, tuitions have jumped 440 percent, nearly twice the rate of health care and thre...

May 14, 2013

Cutting CO2 Emissions Isn't Enough - Lawrence Krauss, Slate

We have to invest in technology to remove the CO2 already in the atmosphere....

April 23, 2013

BP's Oil Spill Coverup Worked - Mark Hertsgaard, Grist

“It’s as safe as Dawn dishwashing liquid.” That’s what Jamie Griffin says the BP man told her about the smelly, rainbow-streaked gunk coating the floor of...

April 18, 2013

How Bullets Can Harm the Environment - Michael Todd, Pacific Standard

The old rejoinder in the gun control debate that “guns don’t kill people, bullets kill people” takes on added resonance when the lead from ammo that didn’t ...

April 12, 2013

Why Obama's EPA Pick Drives GOP Crazy - C. Davenport, Nat'l Journal

Gina McCarthy, Obama's pick to head EPA, gets grilled on climate change, regulations, and even instant messaging....

April 10, 2013

Greenpeace vs. Logging in Canada - Jon Entine, Forbes

Three years ago, executives from a variety of groups that can’t stand being in the room with one another—forest companies, corporations that use forestry products and...

April 4, 2013

The Death of Peak Oil - James Hamilton, Econbrowser

"Peak oil is dead," Rob Wile declared last week. Colin Sullivan says it has "gone the way of the Flat Earth Society", writing...

April 4, 2013

Keystone XL: The Pipeline to Disaster - James Hansen, Los Angeles Times

If Obama OKs the Keystone XL, it will exacerbate global warming and put the U.S. on the hook for spills and environmental degradation, all in service to one of the planet's dirti...

April 2, 2013

Obama Holds Three Trump Cards, But Will He Play Them? - Joel Kotkin, NG

With the stock market hitting new highs, and unemployment easing, albeit slightly, President Obama can now seize his moment....

April 2, 2013

States Show the Folly of Energy Mandates - Norquist & Gleason, Politico

With the Keystone XL pipeline on its way to final approval and President Obama’s picks to head the Departments of Energy and Interior announced, deep-pocketed environmental...

April 1, 2013

California's Too Broke for New Tunnel Plans - S. Greenhut, Bloomberg

California’s political leaders believe that their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases will slow climate change around the globe. Now they want to tackle a Herculean environme...

March 30, 2013

GOP Will Exploit the New EPA Gas Rule - C. Davenport, National Journal

The Obama administration today rolled out a controversial new regulation for gasoline that could raise costs at the pump—only slightly, but enough to ignite immediate p...

March 29, 2013

The U.S. Is Exporting Coal Pollution - Kieran Cooke, Scientific American

U.S. coal giants' exports to Europe and Asia are up, and with that global greenhouse gas emissions rise, even if U.S. emissions are falling...

March 25, 2013

The Environmental Effects of Sequestration - Sierra Club

When Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 in the midst of the debt-ceiling crisis and crushing gridlock, it was a small compromise, delaying economic catastrophe by kicki...

March 18, 2013

Earth Hour Is a Bad, Counterproductive Idea - Bjorn Lomborg, Slate

On the evening of March 23, 1.3 billion people will go without light at 8:30—and at 9:30, and at 10:30, and for the rest of the night—just like every other night of ...

March 8, 2013

CRS Study: U.S. Oil and Gas Production Up Despite Obama - The Hill

February 28, 2013

6 Environmentally-Damaging Effects of Sequestration - Z. Mohammed, MoJo

Unless Congress takes immediate action, thedreaded sequester will take effect on Friday and automatic spending cuts, amounting to $85 billion, will take effect....

February 27, 2013

Obama Can Just Cut Power Plant Emissions - Becker & Gerstenzang, NYT

February 26, 2013

Low-Tax, Energy-Rich Red States Lead the Way - Joel Kotkin, WSJ

In the wake of the 2012 presidential election, some political commentators have written political obituaries of the "red" or conservative-leaning states, envisioning a brave new ...

February 23, 2013

License to Drill: Modernize Oil & Natural Gas Export Licensing - Cato

 Revolutionary extraction technologies have helped increase the supply of fossil fuels in the United States, driving down prices, spurring economic activity, and potentially...

February 23, 2013

Photos: EPA's Idea of Transparency - William Yeatman, Global Warming

First, it was 1,200 emails of the Washington Post daily headlines, Google alerts of everything written about the Environmental Protection Agency on a given day and a compendium ...

February 21, 2013

State of the Environment: Evaluating Progress - K. Hartnett White, TPPF

Thank you Chairman Harris and fellow members of the Environment Subcommittee for the opportunity to testify on the critically important but far too neglected topic of this hearin...

February 19, 2013

Opposing Keystone XL Won't Save the Environment - Joe Nocera, NYT

After much back and forth, James E. Hansen and I had agreed on a date to meet. Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is the scientist most close...

February 15, 2013

Are Environmentalists Wrong About Keystone XL? - Elana Schor, Atlantic

Focusing on how it would contribute to emissions overshadows the large risk of spills -- and diverts attention from more effective ways to cut down on carbon....

February 14, 2013

How NYC Could Cut Energy Use by 90 Percent - Will Oremus, Slate

A shockingly simple blueprint for big cities to save the planet without wrecking the economy....

February 9, 2013

Big Coal's Days Are Numbered - Brooke Jarvis, Rolling Stone

You wouldn't have guessed it from all the theatrics of the 2012 election – like when Mitt Romney, who once stood in front of a coal-fired power plant and announced, "That plan...

February 8, 2013

Higher Oil Taxes Would Lift the Economy - Levi & Ahn, Bloomberg

 President Barack Obama this week reaffirmed his desire to tackle the U.S. budget deficit through “a balanced mix of spending cuts and more tax reform.” As lawmake...

February 8, 2013

Keystone XL Would Be a Boost for the U.S. - K. Rosario, Heritage Action

President Obama talks the talk when it comes to promoting job creation and economic growth, but he has not walked the walk, especially with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline.&nb...

February 8, 2013

Obama's Nominee for Interior Secretary Is a Radical - K. Strassel, WSJ

In naming Sally Jewell as Interior secretary, President Obama lauded the REI boss as a woman who "knows the link between conservation and good jobs." Tell that to Kevin Lunny....

February 8, 2013

A Carbon Tax is Pro-Growth Environmentalism - Adele Morris, Brookings

In his recent inaugural address, President Obama promised that “we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children...

February 1, 2013

Taxing Energy Use: A Graphical Analysis - OECD

The taxation of different sources and uses of energy (particularly those that give rise to emissions of greenhouse gases) will play a key role in governments’ efforts to mi...

January 30, 2013

Energy Solution: Natural Gas Vehicles - Julia Pyper, Scientific American

Fueling cars and trucks with natural gas may help reduce oil dependence even more than electric cars...

January 25, 2013

2012 Cost Analysis of the New Energy Economy - William Yeatman, CEI

 From January 2007 to January 2011, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter (D) pushed through the General Assembly a legislative package of 57 bills known collectively as the New Ene...

January 18, 2013

10 Environmental Priorities - Weiss & Weidman, CAP

When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, there was a long list of incomplete or ignored clean energy and public health measures from the George W. Bush administra...

January 15, 2013

Three Chances for Obama to Shape His Legacy - Gerald Seib, WS Journal

One week away from President Barack Obama's second inaugural, the logical question to ask is: What's it all about?...

January 15, 2013

Nuclear Energy Is Still the Solution to Climate Change - K. Kloor, Slate

After Fukushima, is nuclear energy still the best way to fight climate change?...

January 12, 2013

Obama Should Move Forward with New Fuel Standards - Sierra Club

Here at the Sierra Club, we tend to believe that if you have the power to drastically reduce air pollution and save lives, you should use it....

January 11, 2013

Disease, Biodiversity, and the Wealth of Nations - Alex Berezow, RCScience

 One of the foundational books of modern economics is An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. Smith elaborates on topics ranging from cur...

January 4, 2013

Wind Tax Credit Will Close Coal Plants & Lower Pollution - Sierra Club

At 10:30 PM on New Year's Day, the House of Representatives passed the bill negotiated between Senate Republicans and the White House to address the "fiscal cliff." That package...

January 2, 2013

What Smart Energy Policy Would Look Like - D. DesRosiers, Wash. Times

December 24, 2012

Don't Cut Off the U.S. Natural Gas Boom - Robert Samuelson, Wash. Post

Let’s not smother the shale-gas boom. It is the crown jewel of the disappointing economic recovery. Why tamper with success? Yet, there are those who argue that benefits o...

December 22, 2012

Energy Independence Is a Fool's Goal - Michael Levi, New York Times

The International Energy Agency recently confirmed what market watchers have been saying for a year: oil and gas production in the United States is surging and is expected to cont...

December 21, 2012

More Progress Toward Moving Beyond Coal - Sierra Club

2012 has been a remarkable year. While millions of us were touched by the effects of coal pollution -- from contaminated waterways in Appalachia, to kids struggling with asthma n...

June 4, 2013

Billionaire Activist Targets Obama Supporters in Anti-Keystone Effort

June 4, 2013

Interior to Reveal Plans for Offshore Wind Leases

June 1, 2013

Rand Paul Preaches Sustainability

June 1, 2013

Green Groups to Obama: Designate Lands to Stop Drilling

May 30, 2013

Obama: No Patience for Climate Change Skeptics

May 29, 2013

ENVIRONMENT

May 29, 2013

Former EPA Chief Lisa Jackson Taking a Job at Apple

May 28, 2013

Gas Prices Spike in Midwest

May 23, 2013

House Passes Bill Approving Keystone XL Pipeline

May 23, 2013

Tesla Pays Back Loan Early

May 22, 2013

White House Threatens Veto of Bill to Bypass Obama on Keystone

May 17, 2013

Admin. Unveils Fracking Rules

May 17, 2013

Senate Confirms Ernest Moniz

May 15, 2013

Natural Gas Exports Question Looms Large Over Washington

May 14, 2013

ENERGY

May 14, 2013

IEA: North American Oil to Dominate World Supply Growth