By Mary Anne Hitt Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign There is big news out of Nevada that will echo around the nation. Late Monday night the Nevada Assembly passed a bill clearing the path to retire the polluting Reid Gardner coal plant. The bipartisan bill is now headed for an expected signature […]
There have been reports of a huge energy find in the Australian outback. Some outlets are breathlessly reporting the shale oil reserves around the tiny town of Coober Pedy in the Arckaringa region could be worth $20 trillion. But there are a few problems with that idea – starting with the basics: Shale oil means […]
By Taxpayers for Common Sense Golden Fleece Award Goes to Department of Energy for Federal Spending on Small Modular Reactors The federal government is in the process of wasting more than half a billion dollars to pay large, profitable companies for what should be their own expenses for research & development (R&D) and licensing related […]
We live on a giant molten rock hurtling through space. At this time, we do not have any control over the speed or direction of this rock, nor do we even have any significant degree of control over the rock’s inherent characteristics. We are able to live because the outer edge of the rock […]
We’re told over and over again that we just HAVE to approve every imaginable oil and gas project in order to achieve energy independence for America. So how come the minute they get approval, the companies turn around and immediately demand the right to export all that energy? From coal to tar-sands oil to coal […]
They say that green is the new black, but that doesn’t mean you have to get all emo about it. It’s possible to be joyful and celebratory – and smart. As we officially enter the season of holiday cheer, holiday shopping and holiday excess, we can all think about the planet, too… Getting There – Thanksgiving […]
By David Brin Journalist-author and entrepreneur Frank Catalano took advantage of my book tour for Existence, in order to pin me down with questions about everything from sci fi to human destiny, in this interview that first appeared on Geekwire. Frank Catalano (FC): What is right with Science Fiction Today? David Brin (DB): Science Fiction has so flooded into […]
George Mason University announced today the formation of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI), a nationwide public engagement campaign led by former Congressman Bob Inglis that will explore and promote conservative solutions to America’s energy and climate challenges. E&EI will operate from Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C). The initiative, according to its mission, will […]
No matter how much Big Coal tries to reassure us that they’re perfectly safe, this week it became clear that coal trains – to export US coal to China! – should not be part of our clean energy future. Three derailments happened this past week, including one that caused at least two deaths. Why now? […]
Guess what? Coal isn’t just bad for the environment. And bad for our children’s health. And the future of the planet. It turns out that coal is bad for business, too. Go figure. A new report from the Sierra Club takes a look at all the cute little assumptions, subsidies, and glossed-over costs, and points […]
By David Brin As this is being posted, I am at the Annual Future in Review… or FiRe … conference in Laguna Beach, California, a gathering of tech entrepreneurs and venture folk and such, where I am the regular/resident futurist scifi-guy. I’ll be helping run the “CTO Challenge.” This year’s topic – developing a plan to help […]
The good news: Vermont’s fracking ban passed, making it the first state to completely ban the ugly, polluting technique that destroys rural life while encouraging our contry’s continued addiction to fossil fuel. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s first ban on a hotly debated natural gas drilling technique that involves […]
By David Brin I regularly consult with various branches of our “protector caste”… from the military services and homeland security to several unnamed “agencies.” Naturally, I am encouraged by the fact that some of the most serious-minded men and women on the planet are very interested in well-grounded projections of diverse possible futures – not […]
Everyone from Rick Santorum to President Obama say they want to clean up the tax code. It’s full of weird incentives that cost the government some $600 billion every year and often make little, or negative, economic sense. Ezra Klein riffs on a thread started up by David Brooks. “David Bradford, a Princeton economist, has […]
This is last week’s news, a bit, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to cover more and haven’t gotten to. So, here’s a quickie on it: The GOP, in the name of “freedom” tried to kill lightbulb standards established and signed into law under George W. Bush (somewhat sucessfully). The GOP framed it as a […]