Energy

Middle East Monitor | – – Iran’s feud with the US is set to get worse after Tehran announced yesterday that it will start reporting foreign currency amounts in euros rather than US dollars, as part of the country’s effort to reduce its reliance on the American currency due to political tension with Washington. Central […]

Petroleum

Why Electric Cars are Better: Massive Keystone Pipeline Oil Leak Twice as bad as Thought

contributors

TeleSur | – – The spill gave further ammunition to environmental groups and other U.S. opponents of another pipeline the company has proposed, the long-delayed Keystone XL. The Keystone crude oil pipeline leak in November in rural South Dakota was nearly double the original estimate, making it one of the largest U.S. inland spills since […]

Green Energy

Solar is taking over the World and China is taking over Solar

contributors

By Frédéric Simon | EURACTIV.com | – – Solar power dominated a global ranking of new renewable energy investments “like never before” last year, with China accounting for more than half of the world’s new capacity, the UN said on Thursday (5 April). Investments in Europe, on the other hand, recorded a massive drop. The […]

Featured

Three Countries show how Near a 100% Green Grid is

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The aspiration for a 100% green electricity grid is no longer a dream. It is regularly being achieved in the real world for weeks or months on end. This development is absolutely crucial, since burning fossil fuels at the rate we are burning them is rapidly […]

Denialism

How Trump’s Gutting of Tailpipe Standards will make China Auto Leader Worldwide

contributors

By Greg Dotson | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration on Monday, April 2, took steps to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, the move could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the […]

China

Wind & Solar Rising: Has world disillusionment with Nuclear Power reached China?

contributors

The Qinshan nuclear power plant in Zhejiang province (Image: baike) By Feng Hao | (China Dialogue) | – – Slowing demand for electricity and competition from renewables have halted new reactor approvals, writes Feng Hao Globally, the outlook for new, large nuclear reactors is gloomy, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook. […]

China

China met Carbon Intensity Goals 3 Years Early, but it Isn’t Nearly Enough

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I am not a fundamentalist in any other area of life. But I am a carbon dioxide fundamentalist. Well, you can add methane and some other gases. The point is that CO2 emissions is the only issue that matters in speaking of climate change. It is […]

China

Could China oil Exchange & Green Energy pull the plug on the Dollar?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kate Duguid at Reuters reports the alarm at UBS that China’s new oil futures exchange will hurt the standing of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. That development in turn would start the reverse snowball down the hill, with the dollar falling against other currencies, […]

Climate Change

Budget Bill: Even GOP Congress defies Trump on Green Energy Funding

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Emma Foehringer Merchant at Greentech Media reports that the GOP Congress defied Trump’s priorities on green energy almost across the board. She notes the following: $2.32 bn.– The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) $353 mn. — the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) $6.3 […]