Energy

Read it and Weep, Moscow Mitch: 100 MW of Solar to be bought by Kentucky Coal-Country Utilities for Toyota

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The East Kentucky utilities Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric have applied for permission from state regulators to buy electricity from a 100-megawatt solar facility. The utilities, which ordinarily purvey power from dirty coal (80% of their generation), were pressured by Toyota and Dow, who in turn are trying […]

Featured

Wind Power Surging Globally and In U.S. despite Trump’s Opposition, Replacing Coal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and humanity needs to ban it yesterday if we are to keep the earth from becoming a hellhole. Among all the horrible things Trump has done, trying to stand in the way of a rapid transition to green energy is probably the most consequential […]

Climate Crisis

We have a Decade to Slash Carbon Emissions: After That it Gets Harder and much Hotter

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson | – (Foreign Policy in Focus) – In the climate talks to come, we need more youth, indigenous, and civil society groups — and fewer oil companies. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in October 2018 that we have 12 years to keep global temperatures increases at 1.5 degrees Celsius or […]

United Kingdom

We Can Do it: In 10 Years, even Tory Britain Dumped Coal and went to 21% Wind

The Conversation

By Grant Wilson, Iain Staffell and Noah Godfrey | – In 2010, Great Britain generated 75% of its electricity from coal and natural gas. But by the end of the decade*, these fossil fuels accounted for just 40%, with coal generation collapsing from the decade’s peak of 41% in 2012 to under 2% in 2019. […]

Brazil

Soleimani’s Killing is a Global Event: Brazil’s Politicians, Oil Markets Shaken by Mideast Instability

Tori Avila

Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Recently, after the American military action that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Bagdad, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that “Brazil supports any action against terrorism around the world, and so should the entire international community”, and also that “the country has absolutely no intentions to take advantage […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Soleimani Assassination: It’s All about the Oil

Reese Erlich

(48Hills.org) – Reese Erlich, who has reported from the region for 20 years, sorts out the impact of Trump’s drone attack that killed a popular Iranian general. On Jan. 2 a US drone fired a missile on a car caravan leaving the Baghdad airport, killing Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani and leaders of Iraqi militia […]

Environment

Polluter’s Paradise: How Oil Companies Avoided Environmental Accountability After 10.8 Million Gallons Spilled

ProPublica

By Joan Meiners, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate This article was produced by ProPublica in partnership with The Times-Picayune and The Advocate, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. ( ProPublica ) – Louisiana still hasn’t finished investigating 540 oil spills after Hurricane Katrina. The state is likely leaving millions of dollars […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis and Carbon: Six Positive Developments in 2019

The Conversation

By Heather Alberro, Dénes Csala, Hannah Cloke, Marc Hudson, Mark Maslin, and Richard Hodgkins | – The climate breakdown continues. Over the past year, The Conversation has covered fires in the Amazon, melting glaciers in the Andes and Greenland, record CO₂ emissions, and temperatures so hot they’re pushing the human body to its thermal limits. […]

Featured

Massive new 1.5 Gigawatt Solar Farm in Upper Egypt is Visible from Space

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Aidan Lewis at Reuters reports that Egypt has just opened the 1.5 gigawatt Benban solar plant near the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan (pop. 339,000). It is part of a $2.1 billion development project. The plant, one of the largest in the world, was inauguarated on December 12. It may […]