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President Obama Decides Time is Right for Climate Change Plan
June 27, 2013 8 min. read

As immigration legislation is prodded through the U.S. Senate then likely to collect mothballs in the U.S. House of Representatives, and major Supreme Court decisions are announced, the executive branch has garnered a portion of the headlines. Ready to take on another challenge, President Obama laid out his plan to combat Climate Change – a […]

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Norwegian Company Starts Thorium Reactor Test
June 24, 2013 3 min. read

Ever since the nuclear power industry was born, its proponents have tried to find safer ways of using nuclear fission to generate electricity. And there is no doubt that the reactors built today are safer than those erected in the 1950s. However, the main problem with nuclear power as it stands is the inherently dangerous […]

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Can a Solar Tariff Spark a Trade War?
June 10, 2013 5 min. read

  The struggle for positioning in the solar energy marketplace took another turn. On June 4 Karel de Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, announced a new 11.8 percent tariff to be applied to imported Chinese made solar panels, and photovoltaic cells and polysilicon wafers, two system components. To avoid an additional increase escalating to […]

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Will Ghana Overcome its New Energy Challenge?
May 16, 2013 5 min. read

Ghana has been forced to cope with increased energy shortages as a result of damages to the West African Gas Pipeline, dating back to Aug. 28, 2012. The $1 billion, 650 kilometer long pipeline, built to carry gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana, was severely damaged during an incident between a Togolese Navy […]

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Will there be SDGs to transition to from the MDGs?
April 24, 2013 5 min. read

April 5 symbolized a significant date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), as it marked 1,000 days remaining to Dec. 31, 2015, the agreed upon date to reach its targets. The MDGs encompass eight targets that span the spectrum of human development from eradicating poverty to promoting sustainable development, health, education, and economic and social […]

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EPA Slams State over XL Pipeline
April 23, 2013 3 min. read

In addition to being Earth Day, yesterday was the end of the State Department’s 45-day comment period on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project. Among the 800,000 comments is a letter to State from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is not particularly happy with the analysis State has done, and this gives the environmental […]

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U.K. Energy Shortage: A Cautionary Tale
March 24, 2013 3 min. read

Britain is suffering its worst winter in 50 years. Everyone is grumbling about their fuel bills and wondering what has happened to spring. Soccer and rugby matches and horse-racing fixtures have been canceled. The government has warned that if the weather persists like this for another couple of weeks, rationing may be necessary. While Prime […]

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Coal Continues to Fuel Poland’s Growth
March 12, 2013 5 min. read

  From the time that Poland was selected as the host country for the next round of the United Nations climate change negotiations this upcoming November, there have been many skeptics. Poland is one of the nations most reliant on coal, the most carbon intensive of the fossil fuels, for its electricity – especially in […]

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State Department Says XL Pipeline Won’t Affect Oil Sands Development
March 6, 2013 3 min. read

The Department of State has released a 2000-page draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement regarding the XL Keystone Pipeline. In the words of the executive summary, the report “concludes that approval or denial of the proposed Project is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands, or on the […]

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EU-U.S. Free Trade Agreement – Why the American Push Forward Now?
February 27, 2013 4 min. read

  Not too long ago President Barack Obama announced in his State of the Union address in February the start of free trade negotiations with the European Union (EU). These negotiations are expected to take at least two years while any deal would have to be approved by the European Parliament. On the surface, that […]

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Estonia Taking Charge With Its New EV Network
February 26, 2013 5 min. read

  Estonia, which joined the EU in 2004 and the Eurozone in 2011, officially unveiled its nation-wide electric vehicle (EV) network last week. The ex-Soviet republic designed its pioneering new fast-charging, web-connected network to eliminate “range anxiety,” improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The network’s current infrastructure includes 151 fast-charging stations with 14 additional […]

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American Energy Independence Might Not Change Things Much
February 20, 2013 3 min. read

Thanks to fracking and the oil rush in North Dakota, many analysts predict energy independence for North America, and even for the U.S. itself. The most recent high-profile prediction came from Citigroup’ s global commodities research team, headed by Edward Morse. They issued an 85-page report, which sadly is not available for free, on the […]

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