Energy

Fears over possible nuclear reactor meltdowns have complicated Japan’s attempt to recover from the tsunami that hit northern prefectures on Friday. Japan, which has no oil or gas of its own, gets about a third of its electricity from nuclear power as a result of a government push to build nuclear reactors after the energy […]

Energy

BP Platform Blow-Out was covered up in Azerbaijan: Wikileaks

Juan Cole

The Guardian reports from US State Department cables released by Wikileaks that the oil and gas giant, BP, experienced a platform disaster in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan in September, 2008, very similar to last summer’s Deep Water Horizon platform explosion. BP was reported to have covered up the details of the catastrophe even from […]

Afghanistan

Dec. 6: Top Ten New Wikileaks on Greater Middle East

Juan Cole

Here are this weekend’s top ten Wikileaks revelations for the Greater Middle East: The US and India wanted to slap United Nations sanctions on Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his group, Jama’at al-Da’wa, for terrorism. But Pakistan asked China to block this move at the UN, and Beijing complied. The Jama`at is widely considered a front […]

Energy

Google imagines an Atlantic Wind Grid

Juan Cole

One of the problems with new green energy installations is the need to funnel the power, facility by facility, into the existing electricity grid. Google is trying to resolve that problem on the Atlantic seaboard by starting with an “Atlantic Wind Connection” that “will be able to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines.” Networking the […]

Afghanistan

Engaging the Muslim World Out in Paperback

Juan Cole

Today is the official publication date for the paperback edition of my most recent book, Engaging the Muslim World. Click here to purchase It is somewhat revised, taking some of the stories into 2010. Here is a link to David Sanger’s generous review of the book in the New York Times.

Energy

Worst Reporting on Green Energy of the Week

Juan Cole

This week’s award for bad environmental reporting goes to John Spear of the Toronto Star for his article on the cost of wind power in Ontario “when we don’t need it.” Spear manages to write the entire article as though the only comparison between wind power and other energy should be about the conventional pricing, […]

Energy

Nakhai: Bushehr Plant Going Hot

Juan Cole

Nuclear engineer Behrad Nakhai writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment A brief overview of Bushehr nuclear power plant startup (Simplified) Finally, nuclear fuel loading of Bushehr nuclear power plant started on Saturday 21 August 2010, aided by the Russians. In technology, Russia has always trailed US, although they have somehow been able to […]

Energy

Portugal’s Green Energy Revolution and the true Cost of Gas, Coal and Oil

Juan Cole

Don’t miss Elisabeth Rosenthal’s important and well-written piece at NYT on Portugal’s energy policy. With remarkable clarity given the potentially technical subject matter, she explains exactly how the Portuguese government went from generating 17% of its electricity from alternative sources a few years ago to 45% today. (That is electricity, not all energy; so they’re […]

Energy

Take that, Dennis Miller; Climate Change is Real and Dangerous

Juan Cole

I have a bone to pick with comic Dennis Miller. We all know about his famous shift to the political right after the September 11 attacks. Although I can remember an interview in which he said it went back further, to when he used to hear liberals complain about Mayor Rudolph Giuliani´s law and order […]