31 item(s) were returned.
Professor of Physics
City College of the City University of New York
For decades many have considered nuclear fusion to be the brass ring of energy technologies, believing that – were it to be successful and commercially viable – it would offer sustained electricity production with no CO2, particulate pollution, or radioactive waste. Research into safely and consistently harnessing fusion’s potential for civil use has been ongoing since the mid-Twentieth Century. Yet to date no viable commercial applications have been developed. Two prominent fusion research efforts – ITER and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) – are facing potential problems. ITER may be at risk of diminished U.S. funding due to tightening Congressional… [more]
View InsightOn March 27, 2012 the Environmental Protection Agency, under the authority of the Clean Air Act, released proposed greenhouse gas standards for newly constructed power plants. The rules would require that “new fossil‐fuel‐fired power plants meet an output‐based standard of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt‐hour (lb CO2/MWh gross).” Combined-cycle natural gas plants should be able to meet this requirement, and coal- or petroleum coke-fired plants would be able to with emerging technologies such as carbon capture and storage. The proposed rules elicited varied response from advocacy groups, many of which were highlighted in this Los Angeles Times article. Environmental… [more]
View InsightLast week The Economist called attention to growing demand for rare earth minerals, their importance in clean energy technologies, and rising tension over their global supply. Two of these minerals – dysprosium and neodymium – are essential components of the magnets used in wind turbines and electric motors. According to The Economist, for these technologies to play the role expected of them in reducing CO2 emissions, world supply of neodymium and dysprosium would need to increase “more than 700% and 2,600% respectively during the next 25 years.” China, which produces around 90% of the world’s rare earth minerals, has recently… [more]
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A paper by researchers at the University of Alberta, Edmonton found that the impact of Canadian oil sands mining, and subsequent land restoration, on carbon release has been significantly underestimated. This is due to the mining process’s destruction of peatland – bogs, swamps, etc. that host partially decayed organic matter – which, when destroyed, releases high levels of carbon. From the paper’s abstract in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science: “We quantified the wholesale transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Contrary to… [more]
View InsightSenate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012, which would require electric utilities to derive increasing percentages of their supply mix from low-CO2 sources. The bill would take effect in 2015, and would require that by 2035 84% of power from large utilities come from low-CO2 sources. Sources eligible under the legislation include: renewables, such as wind and solar, “qualified” renewable biomass and waste-to-energy, hydropower, natural gas, and nuclear. Facilities with CO2 capture and storage, and some combined heat and power facilities, are also eligible. The bill establishes a market-based… [more]
View InsightOn February 28th and 29th a federal appeals court in Washington, DC will hear oral arguments in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, an aggregation of lawsuits challenging U.S. EPA’s authority to regulate climate change pollutants. The suits have been brought by industry and free-market groups seeking to overturn EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding, clean car standards crafted under the Clean Air Act, and efforts to reduce industrial emissions. EPA’s endangerment finding for climate change pollutants, required by the Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA, established that “greenhouse gases … in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of… [more]
View InsightThe UN climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, wrapped earlier this month with two notable accomplishments: a pledge to create a new international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2020, and the creation of a multi-billion dollar fund to help developing nations adapt to the effects of climate change. Some have expressed disappointment in Durban’s outcomes, and have pointed to the challenges inherent to the current UN negotiating framework. Among the challenges: asking national environmental ministers to hammer out an international framework that must go well beyond environmental concerns to be effective, and the tiered system of “developed”… [more]
View InsightA Call to Action: Executive Summary by Herschel Specter President, RBR Consultants, Inc. mhspecter@verizon.net This report is a call to action, and it presents a multi-faceted national energy plan that would address the twin threats of petroleum usage and climate change that pose severe, imminent risk to the U.S. economy, environment and national security. It lays out specific goals and actionable approaches – both low-tech and high-tech – that would allow America to avert this looming crisis. By 2036, implementation of this plan should lead to over $11 trillion (2008) dollars in savings through reduced oil consumption and to the… [more]
View InsightNote: Synopsis adapted by OurEnergyPolicy.org from report summary. Synopsis intended solely for purposes of generating discussion. Alternative Fuels for Military Applications By James T. Bartis & Lawrence Van Bibber, RAND Corporation The U.S. military has expressed interest in being early users of alternative fuels in their tactical weapon systems. Doing so would supplement the services’ use of gasohol and biodiesel in administrative and other nondeployable vehicles. Each of the services has established programs geared toward reducing dependence on the use of fossil fuels in tactical weapon systems, such as aircraft, combat ships and vehicles, and supporting equipment. If the services… [more]
View InsightNote: Synopsis drawn from report’s executive summary. Synopsis intended solely for purposes of generating discussion. The Future of Natural Gas: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study By the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative Natural gas has moved to the center of the current debate on energy, security and climate. This study examines the role of natural gas in a carbon-constrained world, with a time horizon out to mid-century. The overarching conclusions are that: Abundant global natural gas resources imply greatly expanded natural gas use, with especially large growth in electricity generation. Natural gas will assume an increasing share of the U.S.… [more]
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