U.S. Clean Energy Policies Risk Losing Lead Over China

Alex Morales, Bloomberg News  – The U.S. government is creating a “boom and bust” in renewable energy investment that threatens to undermine its lead over China, the Pew Charitable Trusts said in a report.

U.S. investment reached $48.1 billion in 2011, largely in wind and solar power, the Washington-based research group said last night in a report based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data. Those funds trumped the $45.5 billion China allocated to renewables, for lead for the U.S. since 2008. … Continue Reading

Coalition seeks to protect public lands, launches “Energy Democracy” sign-up

 By Ariele Johannson – (San Diego’s East County)–Driving through the southwestern deserts, I’ve long been impressed by the ocotillo, a cactus-like tree with straight branches angling upwards to the sun, ablaze with red blooms. This thorny desert tree is an apt metaphor for the ways different people view energy issues– especially proposed industrial solar and wind power projects in remote wilderness areas. Like the ocotillo, these programs and policies have a wide array of angles from which to be viewed. … Continue Reading

U.S., Canada, Mexico Vow ‘Continental’ Energy Grid

A holistic, renewable electricity system would generate millions of good jobs

WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) – The leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada today pledged to develop “continental energy, including electricity generation and interconnection” across national borders and welcomed “increasing North American energy trade.” … Continue Reading

Obama announces new limits on carbon pollution from power plants

The EPA seal (Pic via sentryjournal.com)

The EPA today proposed new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. Environmentalists say the move will be a boon to Floridians, who get about 25 percent of their electricity from coal, but utility reps say the rules will “crush jobs” and arrest America’s economic recovery. … Continue Reading

Obama Carbon Pollution Rules Boost Cleaner Power

By Daniel J. Weiss

The Washington Post reported this evening that the Obama administration plans to propose the first nationwide standard to reduce carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants:

“The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.” … Continue Reading

Republicans rain on Obama’s Keystone parade

None of the oil produced from Keystone Pipeline will stay in the U.S.

Republicans worked Thursday to undercut President Obama’s attempt to regain control of the narrative over the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
In a barrage of statements, television interviews and news conferences, Republicans dismissed Obama’s energy tour as a public relations stunt. … Continue Reading

Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and Koch-Fueled Cato Agree: “It’s Not Obama’s Fault That Crude Oil Prices Have Increased”

How obvious is it that oil prices, set on a world market, are all but impervious to government policies? So obvious that even Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ and the Koch-fueled Cato Institute feel compelled to make the case.

Wall Street Journal: “U.S. gasoline prices, like prices throughout the advanced economies, are determined by global market forces. It is hard to see how Mr. Obama’s policies can be blamed.”

Cato Institute: “Is President Obama responsible for spiraling price of gasoline? Republicans say yes, but the facts say no.”

The WSJ was responding to Newt Gingrich’s claim, “The price of gasoline when Barack Obama became president was $1.89. All of this gigantic increase came from his policies.” In its debunking of “Gingrich’s Gaseous Argument,” The Journal offers an especially telling statistic:  Continue reading more…

Reid: Republicans exaggerating benefits of Keystone XL pipeline

The current Keystone pipeline has already had 14 spills since its operations began in June, 2010.

Republican claims about the benefits of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are greatly overblown, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Sunday.

“It won’t lower the price of oil. Construction won’t be complete for a long, long time,” Reid said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the proposed Alberta, Canada, to Texas pipeline. “And under the way it’s constructed now, all the oil would be sold elsewhere. We can’t have that. When I say elsewhere, I mean to some other country.” … Continue Reading