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Entries from May 2017

Really, really, REALLY great news (#solar #wind, #pv #WarOnCoal in PRC, …)

May 27th, 2017 · 1 Comment

This guest post from Martin Smith provides a taste (and, truly, just a taste)  of the things happening around the world, related to clean energy and reducing fossil foolish dependences. If Team Trump would get their minds out of promoting 19th century energy, leveraging knowledge of 20th century energy, and turn to 21st century realities […]

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Tags: coal · Energy · solar · wind power

.@BretStephensNYT is upset w/@HillaryClinton: “I voted for her and she says …”

May 26th, 2017 · Comments Off on .@BretStephensNYT is upset w/@HillaryClinton: “I voted for her and she says …”

Cue the world’s smallest violin for climate science denier/confuser Bret Stephens. Hillary Clinton is emerging into more public engagement. There was her strong speech at Wellesley earlier today (full video after the fold).  And, here is an engrossing New York magazine article Hillary Clinton Is Furious. And Resigned. And Funny. And Worried. Much of that article […]

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Tags: Energy

Some thoughts re #LNG exports: environmental and financial risks/opportunities

May 26th, 2017 · 1 Comment

Since about the middle of the Obama Administration, with the Shale Revolution driving down natural gas prices, exporting of natural gas via liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities has been ‘hot and heavy’. The Russian seizure of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine along with use of gas as pressure on the Ukraine (and others around Europe) […]

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Tags: analysis · natural gas

Deep Faith and Climate Change

May 26th, 2017 · Comments Off on Deep Faith and Climate Change

This guest post from AstroCook is from just before Donald Trump took over the Oval Office but that timing is fundamentally irrelevant to the core of the discussion: an example of the challenge of leaping divides to spark changed thinking on climate science (and climate-science denial) even in a ‘civil’ conversation. From it: “God gave […]

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Tags: guest post · religion and global warming · SciComm · Science Communication

Musings on “Energy Independence” …

May 23rd, 2017 · Comments Off on Musings on “Energy Independence” …

The mistaken priority of “Energy Independence” is in vogue in no small part because of the recklessly dangerous and backwards-thinking Trump Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. The EO does not directly define the term “energy independence” (the word “independence”, for example, is only in the title) but the implication is clear. […]

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Tags: Energy · Trump

Team Trump directly censors climate science statement

May 22nd, 2017 · Comments Off on Team Trump directly censors climate science statement

The US Geological Service issued a press release last Friday on an article/study about the threats sea-level rise create for US coasts, In Next Decades, Frequency of Coastal Flooding Will Double Globally. Global climate change drives sea-level rise, increasing the frequency of coastal flooding Those words did not appear in the above-linked USGS press release — though they were […]

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Tags: Sea Level Rise · Trump Administration

Polluting Industry Front Group’s Press Release Fails to Mention Key Result From Poll

May 22nd, 2017 · 1 Comment

According to the topline data from a recent poll, 89% of the Virginian poll respondents support “Renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind power” … 69% strongly.  The press release from the (self-proclaimed, astroturf) Consumer Energy Alliance (“a front group for the energy industry that opposes political efforts to regulate carbon”) somehow failed to mention […]

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Tags: Energy

Ranking: What does it mean to be #1 on climate

May 20th, 2017 · 3 Comments

Associated with a recent announcement about an Executive Order for the drafting of potential regulatory structure for a carbon-trading program to be put out for public comment and then consideration under Virginia’s next Governor, Governor Terry McAuliffe tweeted out that this would “keep VA #1 on climate issues”. So I'm signing this directive to build […]

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Tags: Energy

The Power of Refugee Camps going Clean Energy

May 19th, 2017 · Comments Off on The Power of Refugee Camps going Clean Energy

The UNHCR has announced that the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan is now 100% powered by solar energy. This is (putting aside, I guess, places that were ‘powered’ by burning wood …) “the first refugee camp powered by renewable energy.”   The 2-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) plant will allow UNHCR to provide affordable and sustainable […]

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Tags: solar · UN

When it comes to boxed vs bottled water, choose the tap …

May 19th, 2017 · Comments Off on When it comes to boxed vs bottled water, choose the tap …

Internet advertising … any who goes into those internet tubes encounters (far too much of) it.  Most of the time, it just slips past us though there are those items that jump to the attention. Yes, I — like 100s of millions of others — have bought things due to such advertising. (Wow, advertising works […]

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Tags: advertising · water