Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – At its meeting in Vienna yesterday, the enlarged “+” version of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC+) decided to increase output by only 100,000 barrels per day, a vanishingly small amount that will have no impact on lowering gasoline prices and which does US President Joe Biden virtually no […]

Climate Crisis

Angry White Guys in Big-Ass Pickups: Climate Change and Fragile Masculinity

Tomdispatch

By Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – In the United States during 16 months in 2020 and 2021, vehicles rammed into groups of protesters at least 139 times, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Three victims died and at least 100 were injured. Consider that a new level of all-American barbarity, thanks to the […]

Climate Crisis

Top 3 Reasons Coal Power is Doomed to a quick Disappearance, and the Supreme Court Can’t Save It

The Conversation

By Rebecca J. Davis, Stephen F. Austin State University | – The U.S. coal industry chalked up a rare win this summer when the Supreme Court issued a ruling limiting the government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. But that doesn’t mean coal-fired power plants will make a comeback. As an economist, […]

Climate Crisis

Red States Turning Green: Louisiana Republicans Plan 5 Gigs of Offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico, with Interior Dept. Blessing

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration’s attempt to get 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030 initially focused on the Atlantic coast, where New York has jumped in with both feet to plan ambitious such wind farms. One of them will come online in as early as two years from now, in […]

Climate Crisis

Germany: Löwenbräu, other Beer Brands to be Made with Wind and Solar as Russian Gas Turns Unreliable

Clean Energy Wire

By Hannah Naylor | – inFranken.de / Süddeutsche Zeitung ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Bavarian breweries concerned about possible gas shortages are developing contingency plans to avoid a complete halt of beer production, reports regional news website inFranken.de. Munich breweries are considering switching to other energy sources, such as oil or renewables, but these […]

Climate Crisis

Why Britain’s 104°F (40°C) Heatwave was made many Times more Likely by Humans burning Fossil Fuels

The Conversation

By Ben Clark, University of Oxford; Friederike Otto, Imperial College London; and Luke Harrington, University of Waikato | – (The Conversation) – Every heatwave occurring today is made more likely and intense by human-caused climate change. Early estimates by the UK Met Office suggest that days over 40°C [104°F] have become ten times more likely […]

Climate Crisis

The Enduring Tyranny of Oil: War, Inflation, and Soaring World Temperatures

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It may seem hard to believe, but only 15 years ago many of us were talking confidently about “peak oil” — the moment of maximum global oil output after which, with world reserves dwindling, its use would begin an irreversible decline. Then along came hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the very […]

Climate Crisis

Are New Mexico’s Megafires so extreme they Mark a New era? Welcome to the Pyrocene

William deBuys

By William deBuys | – ( Tomdispatch.org) – Firefighters don’t normally allude to early English epics, but in a briefing on the massive Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in northern New Mexico, a top field chief said, “It’s like Beowulf: it’s not the thing you fear, it is the mother of the thing you fear.” He […]

Climate Crisis

Biden, Speaking of “Climate Emergency” and National Security, Pledges Executive Orders to Combat Global Heating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would use executive orders and appeal to emergency measures in addressing what he caled the “climate crisis,” deploying among other tools the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He announced, “And in the coming weeks, I’m going to use the power I have […]