Fracking

The successful Irish anti-fracking struggle offers key insights on community power building for anti-extraction movements all over the world. Jamie Gorman

Climate Crisis

Tax Cuts for the Rich, Fracking and Harsh Discipline undid UK’s Liz Truss, in Warning to Conservative Parties Everywhere

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford (Special to Informed Comment) – The British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced to step down on Thursday 20th October only after 44 days in office, making her tenure the shortest in British history. It is important to point out that she was elected by only 81,326 Tory members and not by nearly 50 […]

Batteries

It is now Cheaper to Switch from Coal directly to Wind and Solar than to Natural Gas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Matthew Gray at Transition Zero writes that it is now cheaper in North America and Europe to switch from coal plants directly to wind, solar, battery renewable energy sources than it is to switch to methane (“natural”) gas. TZ figures transition costs in expenditure of carbon dioxide, and finds that […]

Climate Crisis

Industrialized Nations must stop Producing Fossil Fuels by 2034 to keep Climate from Going Tropical and Chaotic

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scientists Dan Calverley and Kevin Anderson at Manchester University have brought out a new report looking hard at what would have to be done for us to have a 50/50 chance of keeping the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface to 2.7 degrees F. (1.5C) over preindustrial […]

Climate Crisis

Harvard study links fracking to early death risk for seniors

Sustainability Times

By Laureen Fagan: ( Sustainability Times) – Most people know it as fracking, a process of drilling for gas and oil using methods like hydraulic fracturing to inject water or chemicals into rock layers so that the fossil fuels can be extracted. It’s long been opposed by climate activists, but now a new study suggests […]

Climate Crisis

Conflict with Russia is Raising your Gasoline Bill; an Electric Car is the Answer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reporters pressed White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Wednesday about the likelihood that any Russian military engagement in Ukraine will raise petroleum prices further. Ensuing US sanctions on Russia would keep some of its petroleum off the market, as has already happened to Iran, at a time when demand is […]

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 […]

Climate Crisis

Kamala Harris’s best Zingers and Pence’s worst Lies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Pence-Harris debate was what disagreements among normal people might look like, as opposed to the weird behavior of Trump in the first presidential debate. While pundits are saying that it lacked fireworks, that is not true if you define fireworks as policy disagreement as opposed to mud wrestling. The […]

Featured

“A Seller’s Market for Bankruptcy Talent:” The Beginning of the End of Methane-Producing Fracking?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the price of West Texas Intermediate petroleum fell below $30 a barrel for the first time in four years. Elliot Smith at CNBC reports that BP CFO Brian Gilvary is braced for petroleum demand actually to contract in 2020. This prediction is very bad news for US fracking […]