Study Shows 25% of Cars Are Responsible for 90% of Air PollutionMotor vehicles are among the largest contributors to air pollution, by emitting some of the most common pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter. However, emissions released by vehicles have a significantly lower effect on air quality than they used to have a couple of years ago, largely thanks to the fact that automakers have been developing much more efficient internal combustion engines lately, and because of the introduction of electric vehicles. (more…)

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Pope Francis: A Real LeaderI thought I’d publish a conversation I just had with a reader, who commented on my piece Sour Grapes from ExxonMobil’s CEO.

Reader:  You sent me the story of a pathetic anti-leader.  Here is some hope for a Friday….from a real leader:

Thank God, finally we have found a leader among the world’s mindless, money drunk, short sighted minions who call themselves “leaders.” (more…)

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Electric Transportation, Solar PV, and the EnvironmentHere’s an article that takes us back to what I believe is an important discussion: how environmentally clean are electric vehicles? The basics:

In the U.S. right now, EVs are a net negative environmentally, because an incremental load on the grid is met almost always by burning more coal, whose ecological consequences are far worse than oil.

Having said that, (more…)

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Is Halliburton a "Buy?"  I'm the Wrong Guy To AskA friend who follows the stock market writes:

I just purchased TNK (an oil and gas transportation company).  I also see some potential upside in HAL (Halliburton); this JPM article says they do too.

(more…)

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Coal and Natural GasTo summarize a conversation that is happening in the comment to my post called Bans on Fracking:

Senior energy analyst Glenn Doty supports fracking insofar as every kilowatt-hour of energy that doesn’t come from natural gas will come from coal, which is far worse environmentally, and he foresees this situation remaining in place for at least 30 years.

BreathOnTheWind writes: (more…)

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Do We Need an “Apollo-like” Mission To Replace Fossil Fuels with Renewable Energy Resources?Here’s an article that mirrors my main take on the migration to renewable energy: it’s going to happen very rapidly, whether we have an “Apollo-like” mission to do it or not.

Now, there are a few things that government could do to facilitate the process:

• Remove subsidies for fossil fuels (more…)

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Maryland Leads in Solar PV ContestA reader from Maryland asked me to post this infographic, illustrating his state’s leadership over neighboring Virginia. I didn’t know there was a competition going on; one learns something new every day. Hooray for whoever wins.  (more…)

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Quick Note on the Koch BrothersIn my piece just now about the Koch brothers, a reader notes:  What you call “pathologically selfish” they would call “responsibility.”

They can call it whatever they like.  I’m reminded of a quote that supposedly came from a debate featuring Abraham Lincoln who found himself in a similar circumstance.  He asked “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?  The answer is four.  A tail is not a leg; it doesn’t matter what you call it.” 

 

 

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Craig’s Clean Energy PicksOver the past six years, I’ve sunk an enormous amount of time and other resources into vetting literally thousands of renewable energy business concepts to winnow out what I believe to be the very best investment opportunities in this arena.

Pick a technology.  Maybe you’re looking for a fund composed of privately held run-of-river hydro projects, or publicly traded solar PV concerns, or literally any other technology in this space. Perhaps you’d like to bet on alternative energy as a whole, or something on the periphery: energy storage, efficiency, alt-fuel transportation, smart grid, etc.

Or pick a geography.  I have very tight ties to an analyst who do nothing but study Brazil, to choose one at random.

In any case, I invite anyone who wants my viewpoints on any of this to call or write me anytime.

I’m not a broker/dealer, so I can’t get involved in marketing securities, but there’s no law against offering an educated opinion, and I’m not at all shy about that—neither (at the risk of sounding immodest) am I uninformed.

If you want to talk, here’s the place to start.

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Fraudulent Energy ProductsI often mention all the clean energy products I come across on a daily basis, and how some of them are fraudulent.  Here’s a typical company/concept that makes my point: AI Power.

I just got off the phone with the guy who told me that it uses the energy in magnets (there isn’t any) to take a 6 Watt input and turn it into a 100 Watt output.  (more…)

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