Category: Fossil Fuels

This article, I hope, will set the tone for a series of others that will follow by revealing the origins of the petroleum industry in the United States. The main objective of these pieces is to provide the reader with …

From Guest-Blogger Iannick Gagnon — Oil: The First Shocks (1859-1900) Read More »

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Question: How cheaply can we generate electricity if we don’t care what we do to the planet in the process? Answer: Can be found at here: Relevance: A friend told me about his trip to Inner Mongolia (see photo linked …

Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy — Today’s Topic: Inexpensive Electricity Read More »

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We’ve all seen comparisons of the virtues of electric vehicles to their internal combustion counterparts, and noticed that they seem to exclude the many different externalities of oil: lung disease, environmental damage, national security, etc.  Most people believe that we …

The Externalities of Oil Include War Read More »

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Albert Einstein left us a number of gifts, most obviously his landmark breakthroughs in theoretical physics. The other, in my estimation, is the utter truckload of pithy philosophic quotes about mankind’s role in the universe.  If you’re looking for something …

Thanksgiving – An Appropriate Time to Appreciate Mankind’s Benefactors Read More »

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By any standards, the folks at the Sierra Club have been terrifically effective at leaning on government with respect to environmental policy. On November 10, the Obama administration announced that it would order a new environmental review for the Keystone …

New Environmental Review for Tar Sands Pipeline Read More »

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Here’s the latest report of the International Energy Agency, which is run by many of the world’s largest oil-consuming nations. It’s an annual piece called “World Energy Outlook,” and warns that without radical changes in the world’s energy infrastructure in …

World Energy Outlook Roars Out a Warning Read More »

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Earth Policy Institute’s Lester R. Brown credits the Sierra Club and other activist groups for creating the conditions under which U.S. carbon emissions have fallen precipitously over the last couple of years – largely due to our new-found distaste for …

U.S. Carbon Emissions Have Fallen Sharply Read More »

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To my shame, it was just now that I watched the movie “Fuel”; here’s a link to the film on YouTube.  I only wish I had the talent to make media so wonderfully accessible, so beautifully immediate in its impact. …

The Movie “Fuel” — Terrific Flick on the Oil Industry Read More »

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For those interested in keeping up with the debate on natural gas fracking, here’s a terrific article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  Perhaps most disturbing is the underlying message: it’s impossible to know whom and what to believe.   

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