The Republican party has lurched from claiming that climate change doesn’t exist (including Trump’s claim that it is a Chinese hoax), to admitting that it does exist but that it is not caused by humans, to just attacking it as a job killer. What they are really doing is “picking winners and losers” by trying […]
A few gas stations in Michigan have lowered their price to below $1/gallon. Thanks Obama! Actually, I’m serious about thanking Obama. After all, his agreement with Iran has paved the way for them to start selling their oil, which is driving prices down. Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world.
At the UN climate conference in Paris, Obama spoke forcefully about the need to make the accords legally binding, to hold countries accountable. This is new and exciting, and has energized the negotiations there. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress scheduled votes on Tuesday to strike down rules that reduce carbon emissions. Once again, they are […]
While we were all being distracted by the debates and other nonsense, something terrible happened that you probably didn’t hear squat about. Republicans just killed the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and they did it in a sneaky, back-room way. If there were an actual vote to reauthorize the fund, it would probably pass […]
Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn is the second-highest ranking member of the House energy committee. This is a key committee evaluating the dangers of, and alternatives to, fossil fuels. And yet, in a documentary about to be released by the BBC, Blackburn was asked what scientific evidence would persuade her that climate change was a threat. […]
Here’s something interesting from a source I would not have expected. A new comprehensive report from Citibank (the third largest bank in the US) found that taking climate change seriously and doing something now to lower carbon pollution will save the world $1.8 trillion through the year 2040. Not acting, on the other hand, will […]
Most of the electricity in Hawaii is generated using petroleum, but their power generation facilities are old and are not keeping up with population growth. As a result, last year Hawaiians paid around 36 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to the US average of 12 cents/kwh. The plan was to convert to using LNG (liquefied […]
Ten years ago, Dubya signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included massive giveaways to the oil, gas, and nuclear industries. But the most infamous part of the law became commonly known as the “Halliburton Loophole” (named after the corporation led by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president). Indeed, the law was championed by […]
The price of oil just dropped to a 6 year low, $43.08 a barrel. This was caused by a surge in output. Much of the added output was from Iran, and was made possible by the expected approval of the proposed nuclear deal. Sanctions have long restricted Iran’s allowed oil output. So Republicans opposing the […]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a working paper that attempts to quantify the total cost of subsidies we pay for fossil fuels. This includes not just direct payments and tax breaks for energy companies, but also the cost of “externalities” like cleaning up after oil spills and health costs directly attributable to the […]
Yes, today is the day that we all “spring forward”. The theory at least is that we are lowering our use of energy. Indeed, they do call it “Daylight Savings Time”, and it isn’t daylight we are saving, it is (supposedly) energy. With the high cost of energy, that could be a good thing. Except […]
The new Republican-controlled Senate immediately started paying back their largest campaign donors – the oil companies – by pushing for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Ironically, the beneficiaries of Keystone are mainly Canadian companies, but with our new rules that allow political contributions to remain completely anonymous, it is no surprise that there would […]
Michele Bachmann may be leaving Congress, but she just had to make one last silly gesture. She took to Twitter this week and posted a photo of herself standing under a gasoline station sign with the caption “$2 gas, anyone?” Just in case you didn’t get the message, conservative writer Mollie Hemingway retweeted it with […]
So in the aftermath of the midterm election, some emboldened Republicans are making plans. For example, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) has said that impeachment “would be a consideration” if Obama moves forward with executive action to solve our immigration problems. In addition, Republicans have said that they will force the approval of the Keystone XL […]
Yesterday’s post was an amazing video showing how climate change deniers cast doubt on the science when there really is not any significant scientific doubt. But there are many other ways that propaganda is used by the climate deniers. For example, in 2012 the New York Times (the poster child for the supposed left-wing media) […]
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