Energy

By Roger Bales and Brandi McKuin | – Climate change and water scarcity are front and center in the western U.S. The region’s climate is warming, a severe multi-year drought is underway and groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many locations. Western states are pursuing many strategies to adapt to these stresses and prepare for […]

Climate Crisis

Biden Plans for US to Jump into Electric Vehicles with Both Feet, in a Hurry

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The White House issued a fact sheet Thursday on how President Biden intends to move the US vehicle fleet to electric in short order, using money already appropriated for his jobs plan. Biden is ahead of world trends in his ambitions. The UN’s International Energy Agency predicts that the current […]

Batteries

Delivery Trucks are beginning to go electric: And swappable Batteries Help

The Conversation

By Gail Broadbent and Graciela Metternicht | – Australia’s trucking industry is making moves to go electric. The latest development — a system for using swappable batteries instead of time-consuming recharge stations for long-haul trucks between Sydney and Brisbane — shows how this transition is gathering momentum. There will be clear socio-economic, environmental and health-related […]

Batteries

It Can be Done: California Briefly reaches 94.5% Renewable Electricity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sammy Roth at the LA Times/ Boiling Point Newsletter reports that California’s main power grid was powered for several hours last Saturday by 90% renewables. For just four seconds that day, the grid, which covers 4/5s of the state, reached 94.5% generation by green energy. California is the world’s fifth […]

Climate Crisis

Carbon Capture doesn’t Exist and Planting Trees won’t Solve Climate Emergency: Time to bite the Bullet and stop Burning Coal and Oil

The Conversation

By James Dyke, Robert Watson and Wolfgang Knorr | – Sometimes realisation comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow. The sense of confusion that things cannot be made to […]

Climate Crisis

Methane Menace and Global Heating: Why President Biden is wrong and Fracking must be Banned

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When running for office, Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would not ban hydraulic fracturing or fracking. This environmentally disastrous method of extracting petroleum and natural gas from shale rock beneath the earth involves pumping water down there under enormous pressure to break up the rocks and release the […]

Germany

Greentech is 15% of German Economy, and its Market Volume will Double in 10 Years to $1 Trillion

Clean Energy Wire

By Kerstine Appunn | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Experts from Germany’s environment ministry expect the global market for environmental technologies to grow by more than seven percent annually in the next ten years. The German sector is developing even more dynamically with average annual growth of more than eight percent, the environment […]

Climate Crisis

New US climate pledge: Cut emissions 50% this decade, but can Biden make it happen?

The Conversation

By Morgan Bazilian and David Victor | – President Joe Biden announced an ambitious new national climate target at a livestreamed summit of world leaders on April 22, 2021. He pledged to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by the end of this decade and aim for net zero emissions by 2050. The new goal […]

Climate Crisis

A big Effing Deal: On Eve of Climate Summit, news that Biden will cut US C02 Emissions 50% by 2030

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Matthew Daly at the Associated Press reports that President Biden will announce at Thursday’s virtual international Climate Summit that the US will commit to reducing its annual carbon dioxide emissions by half of the 2005 peak by 2030. Joe Biden famously used an expletive to describe the passage of […]