“Energy independence” has been the Republican energy policy since 1974-
Americans have a bad case of Alzheimer’s when it come to knowledge or remembrance of energy policy. Politicians usually give them a couple shots of rhetorical whiskey to make their memory even worse. This is my effort to help folks remember.
Gasoline prices spiked in the United States for the first [...]
Continue Reading →If you listened to President Obama’s State of the Union Address you may have noticed that the President had some things to say about how this administration values public land:
[...] I’m directing my administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public lands to power 3 million homes.
For groups working to [...]
Continue Reading →The effort to list the Greater Sage-grouse via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been an uphill battle. However, even as the end-game has yet to be realized, the effort itself has been remarkably successful at prompting bureaucratic backflips and a whole lot of paper-shuffling to accommodate consideration of the species. Unfortunately, many of the existing and developing [...]
Continue Reading →Like so many alternative energies, the negative side effects are enormous-
People are getting wise to corn ethanol for fuel. It depletes the food supply both directly by using corn for energy fuel and indirectly by raising the price of corn and so increasing the demand for corn substitutes and their price too. It increases [...]
Continue Reading →Pattern Energy Group will not build 2000 acre wind farm near Sacramento-
Plans for a 2000 acre (3 1/2 square mile) wind farm NW of Sacramento have been scrapped because of its probable bad effects on the local bird population. The wind farm, which would capture enough energy for 100 megawatts of electricity had [...]
Continue Reading →What a turnaround in the space of 3 years!
In 2008 I took a 2 week trip to the headwaters of the famed North Fork of the Flathead River in B.C. to say goodbye to one of North America’s premier fish and wildlife areas, not to mention its incredible beauty.
Huge open pit coal mines, [...]
Continue Reading →The “99%” beats international oil lobby for the time being!
The #Occupy movement — Americans figuring out they they are being pushed, stolen from, and disrespected by the top 1% is beginning to score victories, and today a big one came, although it is not yet permanent. It could evaporate after the 2012 election, but [...]
Continue Reading →People just won’t be quiet about this oil company slash at the planet and America-
Developing the Alberta tar sands keeps getting more and more controversial. First it was the pits and the megaloads, but now the anger has shifted to the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring the said-to-be toxic syncrude from Alberta to [...]
Continue Reading →Highway 12 application is not abandoned, but might be dead for practical purposes-
Imperial oil, which is the Canadian version of Exxon-Mobil, has underscored what may be their abandonment of their controversial efforts to truck gigantic loads (hence “megaload”) up the scenic, narrow Clearwater and Lochsa River canyons into Montana and from there a controversial [...]
Continue Reading →European Commission’s plans to class fuel tar sand fuels as “highly polluting”
Canada isn’t happy at all about the EU’s plan to classify all tar sand development as “highly polluting.” Such a classification does have teeth. It is more than an insult.
Environmental groups are happy because this development in Canada is in fact extremely [...]
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