Energy

Are Coal Plants even Legal, given dire Climate Impact? German Court rules Planners Must Consider Alternatives

German court rules against coal-fired Datteln 4 plant

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Near-Meltdown is a Lasting Tragedy

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated northeast Japan, taking the lives of more than 18,000 people and triggering one of the worst industrial accidents in history: the crippling breakdown of the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered […]

Climate Crisis

Crazy like a Fox: Spreading false meme of “Flamer” birds killed by Solar Plant is Louie Gohmert’s way of Dividing Environmentalists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mark Twain observed, “All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.” Texas Representative Louie Gohmert isn’t quite ancient enough to have been the object of Twains’ wrath, but he exemplifies the idiocy in public life of […]

Featured

Dear CIA Director Burns: Don’t Listen to the Israelis on Iran– They just want you to fight a war for them

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jonathan Lis at Haaretz reports that the Israeli government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is lobbying the US to get on a war footing with Iran. The Israelis will try to convince CIA director William Burns of their position on Iran in his meetings there on Wednesday. Lis makes 3 […]

Climate Crisis

Top 5 Environmental Impacts of Bipartisan Infastructure Bill, from Electric Vehicles to Electric Grid

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the senate on Tuesday has been criticized by environmentalists for not doing enough for green energy and the environment, it should be pointed out that it is the largest investment in those issues ever in U.S. history. It is to […]

Climate Change

Will the move to Solar-Wind-Battery Accelerate as Natural Gas Spikes 1000% in Europe with long term price rises expected?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Anna Shiryaevskaya, Stephen Stapczynski and Ann Koh at Bloomberg.org report that natural gas prices have risen 1,000 percent in Europe since the pandemic crash of May, 2020. Other parts of the world with more natural gas of their own also saw price increases over the past year, though not on […]

Climate Crisis

Germany’s solar PV expansion soars by over 20%, but incoming Government will need to do more

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – The construction of new solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in Germany has grown by 22 percent in the first half of 2021 but would still have to be three to four times higher to be in line with the country’s climate targets, solar industry group BSW […]

Climate Crisis

Biden’s Moonshot: America’s Cars are going Electric, “Fast!” with Union Labor

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Joe Biden is good at multi-tasking. His announcement on Thursday that he wants 50% of all cars sold in the US in 2030 to be electric or plugin hybrids will appeal to many environmentalists, or at least the electric part will. But the transcript at rev.com/ demonstrates that President Biden […]

Featured

Trump’s Tehran Poison Pill: US Trade Embargo provokes Iranian Attacks in Gulf, Making Return to Nuclear Deal Harder

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The BBC reports that a bitumen tanker, the MV Asphalt Princess, was boarded by nine men on Tuesday and hijacked. It cites unnamed “analysts,” presumably MI6, to the effect that the hijacking was the work of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The MV Asphalt Princess, owned by the United Arab […]