Electric vehicle batteries may get much more valua...

A new study shows they can help the grid without being degraded. One of the hottest questions among energy nerds these days has to do with the interaction of electric vehicles and the electricity grid. Will EVs remain passive consumers of electricity, like toasters or refrigerators, the way they are now? Or will they be able to communicate with the grid and send power back to it when needed? The answer depends on both...

The Dubious Case for Appalachian Coal Subsidies

As technologies for renewable energy and grid management advance, the special position that coal has held since Thomas Edison’s first power plants in the 1880s has become much harder to defend. The call to subsidize coal is a sign of how the economics of power generation have been transformed. Just five years ago, it was renewable sources that needed subsidies to compete, but their costs have been plummeting. Now the US is...

Toyota says it’s on the cusp of a major electric v...

The automaker revealed last week that it had achieved a sought-after improvement in existing lithium-ion technology by developing a “solid state” battery. Solid-state batteries — which, as you may have guessed, have solid electrolytes rather than the usual liquid — are more expensive than traditional lithium-ion cells, but they can charge incredibly quickly and store a lot more power. (Plus, they’re less likely to explode.)...

Lithium-ion batteries finally have a rechargeable ...

The rise of electric vehicles and the quest to find solutions to energy storage for the renewables industry have created a breeding ground for tech experts to develop battery technologies. Last week, Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy and the company he currently backs, Ionic Materials, unveiled a solid-state alkaline battery design that they claim would be cheaper and safer than the lithium-ion battery. “What people...

Leakers Drop Climate Change Report To New York Tim...

Armageddon is upon us. A study warning of the supposedly dire effects of man-made climate change was leaked to The New York Times out of fear that the Trump administration would suppress it. The study was conducted by scientists from 13 federal government agencies as part of the required National Climate Assessment every four years, and it requires permission from the Trump administration to be officially released, which is...

Record number of oil and gas firms go bust as rene...

The world’s largest private power production company warns the sector that renewables could drive the oil price as low as $10 a barrel. A record number of oil and gas companies became insolvent last year, according to a new study which environmentalists said highlighted the need for the UK to prepare for the move to a low-carbon economy. They warned that the loss of jobs in the sector when it becomes clear that fossil fuels...

The company behind Keystone XL isn’t even sure if ...

Pipeline developer says it is looking for more customers before moving forward with the project. Towards the end of March, President Donald Trump, surrounded by Republican lawmakers and TransCanada CEO Russ Girling, announced that his administration had decided to approve a key permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, effectively allowing the stalled project to begin moving forward once again. “The bottom line:...

UK to ban gas and diesel cars by 2040

Electric cars will soon be as cheap as gas ones, “signaling economic turmoil for oil-exporting countries.” The UK will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040 to reduce pollution and improve public health, its government is announcing Wednesday. The UK joins a growing list of countries — including India, France, and Norway — with similar plans to phase out fossil fuel-burning cars. Peak oil demand is now...

Investors Grow Wary of Big Oil

 Three years into an oil-price slump, investors want the world’s biggest oil companies to do something they have historically struggled with: Maintain some financial discipline. The companies are under pressure to show they are continuing to move on from budget-busting projects once common in the industry, as they head into second-quarter financial disclosures that begin on Thursday with Royal Dutch PLC and Total SA. Shell,...

Editorial: ‘Keystone XL Pipeline Runs Afoul of the...

Editorial Board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The company that is building the controversial Keystone XL pipeline no doubt wishes Energy Secretary Rick Perry had been right last week when he explained the law of supply and demand. At a coal-fired power plant in West Virginia on Thursday, Perry dismissed worries about the future of coal by saying, “Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out...

Trump’s Paris Agreement withdrawal: What it means ...

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published shortly before President Trump’s announcement on the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, anticipating that outcome. It has since been updated to reflect the decision. Today, President Donald Trump announced that he will withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. It was adopted in 2015 by 195 nations, with 147...

Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of greenhou...

The most polluting investor-owned companies on the list are ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron Just 100 companies are responsible for more than 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions over the last three decades, new research has revealed. The Carbon Majors Report, from the Carbon Disclosure Project, found that just 25 of those companies are the source of more than half of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 – the year...

Hot Spots – Climate change will not affect e...

restricted water supplies It could have been the edge of the Sahara Desert or even Death Valley, but it was the remains of a large orchard in the hills above the city of Murcia in southern Spain last year. The soil had broken down into fine white, lifeless sand, and a landscape of rock and dying orange and lemon trees stretched into the distance. A long drought, the second in a few years, had devastated the harvest after...

IEEFA Op-Ed: Blind Faith in Fossil-Fuel Industries...

Markets Continue to Outpace Retro Government Policies What’s missing from Donald Trump’s economically ludicrous promise to revive failed Rust Belt industries in the U.S. is an honest discussion of the economic and technological transition that is rapidly unfolding. New industries are growing that have already created many millions of jobs around the world and that will provide clean energy to power the 21st century. This is...

Trump administration takes a ‘drastic’...

The Trump administration is ramping up efforts to quash a climate change lawsuit brought by 21 young people. Trump’s legal team on Friday took an unusual step that shows just how determined the Justice Department is to keep Juliana v. United States from going to trial. Lawyers filed a “writ of mandamus” petition with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review a federal judge’s decision from...