NewsTrust - Oil and Gas - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Game Over for the Climate

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By James Hansen - May. 11 (Opinion) - 'Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read...that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves 'regardless of what we do.''

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Letters: Shale gas could fracture our renewables policy

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 24 - It beggars belief that fracking is recommended to be extended and earthquakes the only risk taken into account ( Gas fracking gets the green light , 17 April). Other risks are not just theoretical; appalling consequences have already happened on a wide scale in the US. Fracking has been carried out in rural areas where people's off-grid water supplies have been made unusable by pollution. There have been cases where people cannot use water from the tap at the kitchen sink because methane comes with it, with the risk of explosions. Only half the chemical-laden water used in the process is recovered. It is then kept in lagoons on the surface where it is allowed to evaporate volatile toxic chemicals into the air. We cannot afford the risk to our water supplies. We don't have the open spaces which have been affected in the US. Even now we are faced with water restrictions and drought. We don't have the necessary huge quantities of water available to be used and made dirty for ever. The landscape ...

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The Caucus: Romney Misleads on Obama and Energy Prices

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By JOHN M. BRODER - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - In an interview and a Web video, Mitt Romney made misleading or unsubstantiated statements claiming President Obama sought higher gasoline and energy prices.

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Orrin Hatch, fossilized

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Salt Lake Tribune - Mar. 17 - By david folland Published Mar 17, 2012 01:01AM MDT When I read Sen. Orrin Hatch’s op-ed (“Boost U.S. oil production,” Opinion, March 4), it evoked the picture of a man speeding down the freeway with head turned backwards, checking to be sure no one was coming up from behind. Indeed, looking to the past, it would appear that expanding oil exploration, as Hatch asserted, would be the best way to lower gas prices. However, ahead of us lies a serious pileup, and we are going to join the crash if we don’t turn our heads and look forward. That accide... ...

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A better understanding of Iran might save us from catastrophe

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Peter Beaumont - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - As Israel plays up the country's nuclear threat, the west should be seeking active dialogue with Tehran "Actions," said Samuel Johnson in his life of the English poet Abraham Cowley, "are visible." What are secret, Johnson added pointedly, are "motives". In the case of Iran's nuclear programme what we know of Tehran's actions and motives are the following. With some degree of "overall credibility" – according to the 2011 board of governors' report from the International Atomic Energy Agency – we know that Tehran, in all likelihood, made active studies of technologies associated with nuclear weapon design and payload design. By and large, the report believes, that activity ceased in 2003, coincident with the US-led invasion of Iraq. We know, too, because it has been even more visible, that Iran has come close to mastering the nuclear fuel cycle as well, including enrichment of uranium up to 20%. The problem with the present dangerous debate, as it has been framed ever-more closely ...

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Pass the Books. Hold the Oil.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Mar. 10 (Opinion) - Education is a better economic driver than a country’s natural resources.

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Editorial Board: Is the fight against global warming hopeless?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Editorial Board - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - IS THE FIGHT against global warming hopeless? It can seem so. The long-term threat to the climate comes from carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years , locking in higher temperatures for generations. After decades of effort, only about one-tenth of America’s energy mix comes from renewable sources that don’t produce carbon ...

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Stop Keystone pipeline before it's too late

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Ted Turner - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - The purpose of Keystone XL is to bring tar sands crude oil through the United States to Gulf Coast refineries. The route through the United States is actually the oil industry's second choice: Transporting the oil west from Alberta to the Pacific Coast would be shorter and much cheaper, but Canadians concerned about environmental impacts and threats to native people's lands are challenging that route, and with good reason. The existing and potential environmental impacts along the 2,000-mile pipeline route are profound.

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Project to pour water into volcano to make power

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By editor@mercurynews.com (

By Jeff Barnard

Associated Press

) - Jan. 15 - Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.

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Here Comes The Sun

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power. If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.

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Do the China-Pakistan pipeline shuffle

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - By Pepe Escobar - May. 27 (Opinion) - China is adamant that the West "must respect" Pakistan's sovereignty. The message was delivered during Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani's recent four-day visit to Beijing, The Times of India reconstructed the message as a stark warning that: "any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China."

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South Sudan: Messy Divorce Or Amicable Split?

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AllAfrica - By Yohannes Woldemariam - May. 13 (Opinion) - The history of Sudan is a complex one which can't be reduced to a linear narrative of south versus north,' writes Yohannes Woldemariam. Can South Sudan resolve the sticking points standing in the way of successful secession?

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The Return of 'Drill, Baby, Drill'

Sat, 07 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - May. 07 (Editorial) - With the country again facing $4-a-gallon gasoline, the time would seem ripe for a grown-up conversation on energy. What we are getting instead is a mindless rerun of the drill-baby-drill operatics of the 2008 campaign, when gas was also at $4 a gallon. Then, as now, opportunistic politicians insisted that vastly expanded oil drilling would bring relief at the pump and reduced dependence on foreign oil. Then, as now, these arguments were bogus.

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Jonah Goldberg: Cooling on global warming

Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Jonah Goldberg Vail, CO, Colorado - May. 01 - "What the heck went wrong?" That, apparently, is the question roiling the environmental community as it realizes that the fight against climate change has fizzled. As Brad Plumer writes in the New Republic, everything was ...

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Jonah Goldberg: Cooling on global warming

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - Apr. 26 - The fight against climate change has fizzled, with much of the public not believing or not caring. That's why Obama tries to change the subject to jobs when he talk about energy policy."What the heck went wrong?" That, apparently, is the question roiling the environmental community as it realizes that the fight against climate change has fizzled.

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Pumped up?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By James Surowiecki - Apr. 11 (Opinion) - The U.S. economy has finally started to create jobs at a reasonable clip. Inflation is still low. Corporate profits are healthy, and surveys of business conditions suggest that the recovery is, as the Federal Reserve recently put it, “on a firmer footing.” So are happy days here again? Hardly.

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Drumbeat: March 30, 2011

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:59:55 -0700

Reuters - By Leanan - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - Obama wants to curb U.S. oil imports by a third WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will set an ambitious goal on Wednesday to cut oil imports by a third over 10 years, focusing on energy security amid high gasoline prices that could stall the U.S. economic recovery. Obama will outline his strategy in a speech after spending days explaining U.S.-led military action in Libya, where fighting, accompanied by popular unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, has helped push gasoline prices toward $4 a gallon. WHITE HOUSE FACT SHEET: America's Energy Security Rising prices at the pump affect everybody – workers and farmers; truck drivers and restaurant owners. Businesses see it impact their bottom line. Families feel the pinch when they fill up their tank. For Americans already struggling to get by, it makes life that much harder. That’s why we need to make ourselves more secure and control our energy future by harnessing all of the resources that we have available and embracing a diverse energy portfolio. With an ultimate goal of reducing our dependence on oil, in the near term we must responsibly develop and produce oil and gas at home, while at the same time leveraging cleaner, alternative fuels and increasing efficiency. And beyond our efforts to reduce our dependence on oil, we must focus on expanding cleaner sources of electricity – keeping America on the cutting edge of clean energy technology so that we can build a 21st century clean energy economy and win the future. FACTBOX-Energy issues facing the White House Here are some of the top energy issues the Obama administration faces: Oil Slides on Signs U.S. Supply Rising; Deutsche Bank Raises Price Outlook Oil declined in New York for the fourth time in five days before a U.S. government report that may show stockpiles of the fuel increased to their highest level in more than three months. Futures slid as much as 0.6 percent before an Energy Department report today that may show inventories rose by 1.5 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg survey. The industry- funded American Petroleum Institute said yesterday stockpiles climbed 5.7 million barrels, advancing for the fourth week. A separate report showed confidence among U.S. consumers fell more than forecast in March as fuel costs surged. Record gas prices blamed on peak oil A prominent energy scientist blames record-high gas prices on the approach of peak oil — a point when the world’s oil fields will pump out their maximum amount of oil, then gradually decline. "There's no question that's what's causing it,"says David Hughes, a recently retired geoscientist, who worked with the Geological Survey of Canada for 32 years. His view defies conventional wisdom that turmoil in Libya is to blame. Petrobras Sees Oil Price Advancing for Years Amid Middle East Instability Petroleo Brasileiro SA expects oil to keep rising in coming years after conflicts in Libya and across the Middle East sent the price to above $100 a barrel, Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa said. Deffeyes: Macondo — Fukushima So how does our energy supply look in a post-Macondo, post-Fukushima world? Not so good. Permits are being issued again for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but we have lost almost a year because of the BP Macondo blowout. In the February 14 Current Events, a graph was posted from my book, When Oil Peaked, showing a danger level for crude oil purchases above five percent of Gross Domestic Product. Crude oil prices continue to climb. Gasoline and food cost more as a result. How are we supposed to climb out of this recession when we have BP's boot on our neck? You Saw the Movie; Now Here’s the Book Sooner than we had imagined, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has produced an excellent book. Joel Achenbach’s “A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher,” to be published next week by Simon & Schuster, is a gripping reconstruction of the events of last summer, when the nation was transfixed by that seemingly endless disaster. Manslaughter charges possible for BP execs Manslaughter and perjury are among possible charges that Justice Department investigators are exploring in the early stages of their probe into the Gulf oil spill, people familiar with the inquiry said Tuesday. These people said the Justice Department is not ruling out the possibility of bringing manslaughter charges against companies or managers responsible for the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers. Two-thirds of oil and gas leases in Gulf inactive An Interior Department report to be released Tuesday says more than two-thirds of offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle. According to the report, obtained by The Associated Press, those inactive swaths of the Gulf could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The report also shows that 45 percent of all onshore oil and gas leases are inactive. U.S. Oil Production: Don't Abandon Ship Just Yet Peak Oil has become a grim reality in the United States... And for Alaska, it's downright scary. 2010 was a heart-wrenching year for Alaska. Oil production averaged less than 600,000 barrels per day. It hasn't been that low since 1977 — more than thirty years ago! On Food Riots, Peak Oil and Military Force Here's a fabulous look into the political economy of oil by Andy Lees. His view is that the era of cheap oil is over. But, more than that, natural resources as a whole are increasingly dear. And a world of dwindling natural resources has geopolitical implications when supply and demand are finely balanced. Does Libya's Oil Industry Reflect its Fate? Even if the Libyan war ended tomorrow, energy analysts estimate that the country's production has now dwindled to between 200,000 and 300,000 barrels a day, compared with the 1.6 million pumped before the revolt. The more important statistic, however, is a big zero: That is the amount of oil and gas Libya currently exports, and by extension, the amount of hard currency Gaddafi is currently earning. "It would be very difficult, no, impossible, to export oil from Libya now," says Cliff Kupchan, director of the Eurasia Group in Washington. "And it's hard to see, in any near-term period, them exporting much oil." Jeff Rubin: Regime change not bullish for oil production in Middle East If the Western military intervention in Libya is really being driven by oil, maybe it’s time to think again. History says regime change is never bullish for oil production in the Middle East and even less so for oil exports. Rebels retreat from Libya oil port under attack BREGA, Libya (AP) — Rebels retreated Wednesday from the key Libyan oil port of Ras Lanouf along the coastal road leading to the capital Tripoli after they came under heavy shelling from ground forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi. Air power won't seal win for Libyan rebels Libyan rebel forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes were fighting their way toward Tripoli on Tuesday but air power alone will not topple the stronghold of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, military experts said. Experts said the untrained and poorly equipped rebels will need arms, training and air attacks to oust Gadhafi militarily. Can Qaddafi cling to power if oil runs out? The lineups at Western Libya's gas stations are an ominous warning. Once oil reserves drop to critically low levels, Qaddafi's government will have to turn off power stations and even the oil-fired pumps that keep water flowing. The loyalty of his supporters is being tested in a small way as they line up for gas. Wait until they can no longer fill a glass of water at the kitchen tap. Zenga zenga, Mr Obama Obama's selective intervention in Libya is tarnishing the American image even more in the Arab world. Assad Faces a Critical Moment as Syrians Seek Freedoms, Multiparty System Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may offer to lift the nation’s emergency law today in response to deadly protests that pose the most serious challenge to his rule since he inherited power from his father in 2000. Syrian president blames protests on 'conspirators' DAMASCUS, Syria – Syrian President Bashar Assad has blamed a wave of protests on "conspirators" who are trying to destroy the country. Assad is giving his first address to the nation since the protests erupted in this tightly controlled Arab country. Will Yemen protests boost Al Qaeda? Yemen protesters say Saleh has overstated the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to get US aid. But the group stands to benefit from major upheaval. Bahrain’s protest movement fades beneath government suppression Bahrain has turned into a fearful abode of sectarian division, fueled by a Sunni-led government. Karzai blasts US troops for gruesome Afghan deaths KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's president on Wednesday condemned the actions of a group of U.S. soldiers charged with murder in the deaths of three unarmed Afghans and said they killed for entertainment, after taking drugs. It was Hamid Karzai's first public mention of the actions of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade who have been charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths of the three men in southern Afghanistan. His condemnation came a few days after Rolling Stone magazine published a series of graphic photos showing the soldiers posing next to the dead bodies. The German news magazine Der Spiegel had previously published three of them. Tullow Oil says Total, CNOOC buy Uganda assets LONDON (AFP) – Anglo-Irish energy firm Tullow Oil said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell part of its Uganda assets to France's Total and China's CNOOC for a total of $1.8 billion pounds ($2.9 billion). The announcement should clear the way for a $10-billion refinery in the oil-rich Lake Albert region of the east African country. Next Nigeria leader must progress fragile oil recovery (Reuters) - Nigeria's next president will need to ensure an amnesty programme is sustained in the restive Niger Delta and energy reforms are passed if he is to avoid watching an oil sector relapse from its fragile recovery. Statoil Postpones U.K. Oil Investment After Tax Hike STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil ASA has postponed more than $10 billion of investments in the U.K. following a recent tax hike on oil production. Japan struggles to contain radiation Engineers using sandbags and water pumps continued their fight Tuesday to keep radiation-contaminated water from Japan's imperiled nuclear plant from flowing into the sea. Setbacks mount in Japan at leaking nuclear plant TOKYO – Setbacks mounted Wednesday in the crisis over Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with nearby seawater testing at its highest radiation levels yet and the president of the plant operator checking into a hospital with hypertension. Nearly three weeks after a March 11 tsunami engulfed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out power to the cooling system that keeps nuclear fuel rods from overheating, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still struggling to bring the facility in northeastern Japan under control. Tepco's Damaged Reactors May Take 30 Years, $12 Billion to Scrap Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. Fukushima Governor Sato Slams Japan's Handling of Nuclear Reactor Disaster Fukushima Prefecture, epicenter of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, accused Japan’s central government of sowing confusion and hampering recovery efforts through poor communication. Tokyo Electric Says Reactor Crisis Response Was ‘Best Possible’ Tokyo Electric Power Co. for the first time defended its response to the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, with Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata rejecting claims the utility was slow to react. 4 of 6 Daiichi reactors can’t be fixed; Tokyo Electric president hospitalized TOKYO--Four out of six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were damaged beyond repair in Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, the chairman of the Tokyo Electric Power company said Wednesday. Marine Life Faces Threat From Runoff The announcement by Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy that high levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in seawater near the crippled nuclear reactors raises the prospect that radiation could enter the food chain. No threat from Japanese radiation spread across US WASHINGTON – Traces of radioactive material from the endangered Japanese nuclear plant are being detected from coast to coast in the United States and in Iceland, but amounts continue to be far below levels that would cause health problems. The development of super-sensitive equipment to detect radiation is both a blessing and a curse, allowing scientists to monitor materials released in nuclear accidents, but also causing unnecessary worry, said Kathryn Higley, director of the nuclear engineering and radiation health physics at Oregon State University. Japan orders immediate safety upgrade at nuclear plants (Reuters) - Japan ordered an immediate safety upgrade at its 55 nuclear power plants on Wednesday in its first acknowledgement that standards were inadequate when an earthquake and tsunami wrecked a facility nearly three weeks ago, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. Toyota rationing parts to dealers to avert hoarding The parts supply problem for Japanese cars has extended from new cars to the one you may be driving: Toyota is rationing repair parts for its dealers in the U.S. Japanese Oil Ports Still Open to World’s Five Largest Crude-Tanker Lines The world’s five biggest oil-tanker companies will still travel to the ports of Tokyo Bay, joining other shipping lines in judging them safe for crew and vessels. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., Frontline Ltd., Teekay Corp., Nippon Yusen Kaisha and NITC Co., whose ships can hold enough oil to supply Japan for 100 days, all said there is no disruption to their services. All vessels are avoiding a 30-mile exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, about 220 miles to the north of Tokyo. Japan PM urges clean energy push OSAKA, Japan (AFP) – Japan's Premier Naoto Kan said Tuesday the country must push alternative energy sources as it recovers from its quake and tsunami disaster and struggles to contain a nuclear emergency. "Taking this as a lesson, we have to lead the world in clean energy, such as solar and biomass, and make it a major pillar of a new Japan," the centre-left leader told a parliamentary committee. Gulf presses ahead with nuclear energy Despite the disaster in Japan, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are to continue with their investigations into adopting nuclear energy. Nuclear Curbs Will Hurt Climate, Energy Security Goal, IEA Economist Says Slowing the expansion of nuclear power will harm efforts to fight climate change, push up energy prices and set back goals to secure power supplies, said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency. UB to host 8 free lectures on hydraulic fracturing The controversial hydraulic fracturing natural gas drilling technique and its potential impact on the state’s environment and economy will be the subject of an eight-week series of free lectures arranged by the University at Buffalo. Saudis consider power export Saudi Arabia is considering exporting surplus electricity to Europe in the winter months, when some power capacity lies idle. The kingdom is conducting a feasibility study on a high-voltage line to connect to the European grid in the next decade, the deputy electricity minister said at a conference in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Abu Dhabi's electricity demands to grow at faster pace this decade Abu Dhabi's demand for electricity will rise an average of almost 13 per cent a year this decade, a rate that is one-third faster than the increase in power use in the last five years, a government official said. US Energy Dept. program to cut costs for start-ups U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is making it easier for start-up companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by the National Laboratories. Chu announced Tuesday the department will reduce the total upfront cost of licensing patents in a specific technology to a $1,000 fee for portfolios of up to three patents. 2 Mass. utilities make very different power deals BOSTON – State lawmakers gave every Massachusetts utility the same order in 2008: go buy more power from renewable energy sources. But the state's two largest utilities came back with vastly different deals — especially in price. Russian upper house ratifies Norway border deal Russia's upper house of parliament on Wednesday approved a maritime border delimitation agreement with Norway. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg brought a long-standing dispute over dividing the Barents Sea and part of the Arctic Ocean to an end last year by signing an agreement that paved the way for oil and gas exploration in the lucrative region. Alaska Clash Over Resources and Rights Heats Up Resisting Washington is “part of the cultural fiber of Alaska, but it has definitely been taken to a new level by this administration,” said Tom Waldo, a staff lawyer here for the environmental law firm Earthjustice.“You see this particular eagerness to respond even to imagined provocations.” He pointed to a lawsuit that the state filed last year seeking to block a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling in Alaska that did not actually exist. The state filed the case after the United States secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, suggested during a news conference that a moratorium would be put in place, but it was never carried out. Rich hunters, poor town clash over power plant FULTON, Ark. — The barbed-wire fence surrounding the Hempstead County Hunting Club divides more than property lines. It separates rich from poor. On one side: wealthy duck hunters who have preserved a private forested paradise largely untouched by chain saws. On the other: the people of this struggling Arkansas town where jobs are scarce and families live in run-down trailers. The hunters are now waging a bitter legal battle over construction of a coal-fired power plant, and the dispute has laid bare the class tensions that have long beset this rural area. Cozy pocket neighborhoods have sprawl on the move Big houses get families to put all their needs under one roof, often isolating them from neighbors, he says. Now that gas prices are soaring, large homes that need lots of energy to heat and cool are losing their appeal. Homes in pocket neighborhoods may be small but are designed to feel big and airy. Many feature high ceilings and skylights. Parking spaces and garages are usually out of sight to encourage residents to walk home through the shared gardens. Democrats may compromise on EPA WASHINGTON — Democrats indicated Tuesday they may be willing to accept Republican-backed curbs on the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal regulators as part of an overall deal on spending cuts, a rare hint of compromise in private negotiations marked by public rancor. Dolphin toll from BP oil spill far higher: study WASHINGTON (AFP) – The discovery of more than 100 dead dolphins on Gulf of Mexico shores likely reflects only a small fraction of the total killed by the BP oil spill last year, a study suggested on Wednesday. The actual toll among cetaceans, a group of mammals that includes whales, narwhals and dolphins, may be as much as 50 times higher, said the Canadian and American research team in the journal Conservation Letters. U.S. drops to 3rd in clean-energy investment: Pew WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States fell one spot to third place in clean-energy investment last year as the lack of a national energy policy hurt purchases in wind and solar power and other technologies, a report said on Tuesday. China came in first and Germany second, according to the report "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race" by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent, nonprofit group. S.Africa takes heat for burning coal JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – The global fight over fossil fuels has hit home in South Africa as the coal-dependent country debates its energy future before hosting UN climate talks later this year. On Global Warming, No Clear Skies For Most 2012 GOP Contenders When news broke of Jon Huntsman's serious consideration of a run for president last month, several conservative pundits, including the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, dismissed the former Utah governor's chances by pointing to his moderate record on global warming, which they predicted would play poorly among the GOP's conservative base. Study: Emissions trading doesn't cause pollution 'hot spots' BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Programs that allow facilities to buy and sell emission allowances have been popular and effective since they were introduced in the U.S. two decades ago. But critics worry the approach can create heavily polluted "hot spots" in low-income and minority communities. A new study by Evan Ringquist, professor in the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, finds the problem hasn't materialized -- that the efficiency gains of allowance trading have not come at the expense of equitable treatment of minorities and the poor. NASA detect extensive drought impact on Amazon forests A new NASA-funded study has revealed widespread reductions in the greenness of the forests in the vast Amazon basin in South America caused by the record-breaking drought of 2010. "The greenness levels of Amazonian vegetation- a measure of its health decreased dramatically over an area more than three and one-half times the size of Texas and did not recover to normal levels, even after the drought ended in late October 2010," said Liang Xu, the study's lead author from Boston University.

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Like oil and water in the gulf

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Sarah Stephens - Mar. 14 (Opinion) - As Cuba explores for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. embargo could hurt both countries. Cooperation and engagement, however, could benefit American firms and protect the environment.

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Wall St. and gas prices

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

MSNBC - By Ed Schultz - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - As we predicted, Republicans are blaming President Obama for not drilling enough for oil, even though production is at an eight-year high, and supplies are at an 18-year high.

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On Libya, too many questions

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By George F. Will - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - In September 1941, Japan's leaders had a question for Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto: Could he cripple the U.S. fleet in Hawaii? Yes, he said. Then he had a question for the leaders: But then what?

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Can we get off oil now?

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By Mark Fischetti - Feb. 28 (Opinion) - How many wars, deaths, recessions and environmental disasters will it take before Americans, and their Congress, finally make a decisive move to reduce the country's dependence on oil?

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If Not Now, When?

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Thomas L. Friedman - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - Any road to democracy in the Arab world will be long and rocky.

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Cyprus to license offshore oil and gas search

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - Jan. 04 - A top Cyprus energy official said Tuesday that the Mediterranean island will go ahead with a second licensing round for offshore oil and gas exploration later this year in a move that could stoke tensions with Turkey.

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10 to watch: GOP freshmen on energy

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Robin Bravender - Dec. 28 (Editorial) - House Republican freshmen looking to make names for themselves on energy issues in the next Congress have some goals in common: Ramp up domestic energy production, roll back the Obama administration’s environmental rules and ensure that cap-and-trade stays dead.

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Mikhail Khodorkovsky: The latest victim of Vladimir Putin's vendetta politics

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Simon Tisdall - Dec. 27 (Opinion) - Vladimir Putin's unforgiving brand of vendetta politics today claimed another prominent victim with the guilty verdict against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil magnate who dared oppose the Kremlin strongman. There was never going to be any other result. In modern-day Russia, challenging Putin is like standing in front of a tank. Either get out of the way or expect – sooner or later – to be flattened.

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