nav-left cat-right
cat-right
The Green New Deal Is What Realistic Environmental Policy Looks Like

The Green New Deal Is What Realistic Environmental...

In the 21st century, environmental policy is economic policy. Opinion Everyone is lining up to endorse the Green New Deal — or to mock it. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand have all endorsed the resolution sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts. Conservative critics predictably call it “a shocking document”...
Read More
Help Protect Perry State Forest from Coal Mining!

Help Protect Perry State Forest from Coal Mining!

To: Friends of Perry State Forest <friendsofperryforest@gmail.com> Thanks to everyone that joined us for our meeting on Saturday! I’m attaching notes from the meeting, which summarize what we discussed along with next steps. On Saturday, we approved an organizational structure document, which is also attached. As you know, ODNR will hold its second public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 26 at New Lexington...
Read More
One thing you can do: Rethink the roses

One thing you can do: Rethink the roses

Another Valentine’s Day is here, and we all know what that means: paper Cupids, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and the classic bouquet of red roses. Lots and lots of roses. This year, Americans are expected to spend $1.9 billion on flowers alone, according to the National Retail Federation. But those beautiful blooms may come with an environmental price tag. Most of the fresh flowers sold in the United States are grown in...
Read More
Since Trump tariffs, solar jobs have atrophied

Since Trump tariffs, solar jobs have atrophied

Solar jobs slip for the second year in a row, says The Solar Foundation annual report. This week, an advocacy group called The Solar Foundation released its ninth annual solar jobs report. In 2018 the industry contracted, shedding 8,000 solar jobs, or a loss of about 3.2 percent from 2017. The solar industry employed 242,343 people in 2018, the report said. The solar industry is the largest renewable energy employer in the...
Read More
Investigation: Clorox Selling Pool Salt Made From Fracking Wastewater

Investigation: Clorox Selling Pool Salt Made From ...

You might be shocked to learn that a Clorox product used to treat swimming pools came from fracking wastewater. Public Herald has discovered that Eureka Resources, a company based in Pennsylvania, has been treating wastewater from shale gas development — a.k.a. “fracking” — and packaging the crystal byproduct as “Clorox Pool Salt” for distribution since 2017. The way it works is fracking wastewater gets trucked to Eureka...
Read More
Economics professor discovers concerning effects for oil and gas boomtowns

Economics professor discovers concerning effects f...

Oil and gas “boomtowns,” such as Ohio’s Belmont County, may be bearing the costs of drilling without reaping all of its benefits, according to a newly published paper by Dr. Amanda Weinstein, assistant professor of economics at The University of Akron. Weinstein, along with coauthors Mark Partridge and Alexandra Tsvetkova from The Ohio State University, researched the flow of money in energy boomtowns...
Read More
We need an ecological civilization before it’s too late

We need an ecological civilization before it’s too...

In the face of climate breakdown and ecological overshoot, alluring promises of “green growth” are no more than magical thinking. We need to restructure the fundamentals of our global cultural/economic system to cultivate an “ecological civilization”: one that prioritizes the health of living systems over short-term wealth production.  We’ve now been warned by the world’s leading climate scientists that we have just twelve...
Read More
Has U.S. shale oil entered a death spiral?

Has U.S. shale oil entered a death spiral?

The bad news coming out of the shale oil fields of America could all be put down to slumping oil prices. That is certainly a big factor. But as investment professionals like to say, when the tide goes out, we all find out who’s been skinny-dipping. The pattern of negative news from shale country is not just related to price, however. Oil production, it seems, is being overstated industry-wide by 10 percent and 50 percent in...
Read More
German coal phase-out plan will shutter first 12.7GW of capacity by 2022

German coal phase-out plan will shutter first 12.7...

Germany should shut down all of its coal-fired power plants by 2038 at the latest, a government-appointed commission said on Saturday, proposing at least 40 billion euros ($45.7 billion) in aid to regions affected by the phase-out. The roadmap proposals, a hard-won compromise reached early on Saturday after more than 20 hours of talks, must now be implemented by the German government and 16 regional states. They embody...
Read More
Global corporate renewable purchases hit 13.4GW in 2018, breaking old record

Global corporate renewable purchases hit 13.4GW in...

Fueled by a growing corporate appetite for clean energy, 121 companies around the world signed long-term deals for 13.4 GW of wind, solar and other renewables in 2018, smashing a prior record of 6.1 GW in 2017, BloombergNEF said in a report released Jan. 28. More than 60% of the newly contracted power, or 8.5 GW, is in the United States, where nearly three dozen first-time buyers expanded the non-utility market for...
Read More
Warning Signs Flash For U.S. Shale (2019)

Warning Signs Flash For U.S. Shale (2019)

The shale tidal wave may finally be starting to ebb. The largest oilfield services company in the world says that shale drilling activity is slowing, creating an uncertain outlook for 2019. The recent volatility in oil prices has created “less visibility and more uncertainty” on spending by shale companies in 2019, Schlumberger’s CEO Paal Kibsgaard said on an earnings call on January 18. Shale drillers are “generally taking...
Read More
New Ohio law would allow the sale of drilling brine for use on roads

New Ohio law would allow the sale of drilling brin...

A new Ohio House bill would allow the sale of commercialized brine produced during fracking and oil drilling for use on roadways — something Athens’ city officials plan to oppose. Ohio House Bill 393, introduced by Ohio State Representatives Anthony Devitis, R, and Michael J. O’Brien, D, would allow the “sale of brine as a commodity for surface applications.” That would mean that brine, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling,...
Read More
2019 Atmospheric CO2 Increase ‘Will Be One of the Biggest on Record’

2019 Atmospheric CO2 Increase ‘Will Be One of the ...

In 2019, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will make one of their highest leaps in the past 62 years of measurement, the UK’s Met Office predicted Friday. This is because the tropical Pacific ocean is expected to be warmer this year, which leads to hotter and drier conditions that make it more difficult for plants to grow and absorb the excess carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels, which is fueling...
Read More
To stay below 1.5ºC, we must massively scale solar, wind and batteries (and hydrogen?)

To stay below 1.5ºC, we must massively scale solar...

A new study by the University of Technology Sydney maps routes for massive decarbonization and 100% renewable energy to reach Paris Agreement goals. In North America, as the rest of the world, we must move quickly. January 21, 2019 Christian Roselund One generation decarbonisation without carbon capture and storage (CCS) or geoengineering, including anthropogenic and natural carbon sinks and sources. Image: Malte...
Read More
China Is Set To Become The World’s Renewable Energy Superpower, According To New Report

China Is Set To Become The World’s Renewable...

The continuing growth in renewable energy around the world is set to boost the power of China while undermining the influence of major oil exporters such as Russia and Middle East states like Saudi Arabia, according to a new report on the geopolitical implications of the changing energy landscape. With a leading position in renewable energy output as well as in related technologies such as electric vehicles, Beijing now...
Read More