Author: Ben Jervey

Another year, another U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) assessment report that makes the agency’s own forecasters look foolish.
In the latest Electric Power Monthly report, which covers all twelve months of 2015, the EIA revealed that renewable ene…

Another year, another U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) assessment report that makes the agency’s own forecasters look foolish.
In the latest Electric Power Monthly report, which covers all twelve months of 2015, the EIA revealed that renewable ene…

Thanks to a bombshell investigation reported over the weekend by The New York Times, The Guardian, Inside Climate News and more, we now know that the prominent climate denialist Willie Soon, oft-cited by climate denying politicians and industry figures, calls his publications “deliverables” to his fossil fuel funders. Some of these “deliverables” have

Thanks to a bombshell investigation reported over the weekend by The New York Times, The Guardian, Inside Climate News and more, we now know that the prominent climate denialist Willie Soon, oft-cited by climate denying politicians and industry figures, calls his publications “deliverables” to his fossil fuel funders. Some of these “deliverables” have

Back in November, President Obama took a Beijing stage, shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and pretty well shook up the geopolitics of climate change. The presidents of the two largest polluters of greenhouse gases announced a game-changing climate deal that few saw coming. Even the most plugged-in climate policy experts—and

TransCanada has bought some unlikely support for the company’s public relations astroturf offensive aimed at winning support for the Energy East pipeline. Erin Jacobson, the recent director of communications for the NDP, Canada’s official opposition party, will be helping advise TransCanada on developing the astroturf campaign, bringing her expertise in

TransCanada has bought some unlikely support for the company’s public relations astroturf offensive aimed at winning support for the Energy East pipeline. Erin Jacobson, the recent director of communications for the NDP, Canada’s official opposition party, will be helping advise TransCanada on developing the astroturf campaign, bringing her expertise in

Over the course of a single short week in late September, one Silicon Valley tech giant after the next cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a libertarian, free market think tank that actively fights against clean energy and climate-focused policies on the state and local level. Google Chairman

For the past five months, activists from the Utah Tar Sands Resistance have camped out on the sage-swept, high plateau lands known as PR Springs in eastern Utah. From the site—where the first tar sands mine in the United States is planned, and preliminary clearing work is already underway—you can’t

Climate campaigners and tar sands blockaders widely celebrated the announcement last month that the Norwegian energy company Statoil was halting plans for a multi-billion dollar tar sands project in Alberta, Canada. The company cited rising costs of labor and materials in Alberta, and also blamed “limited pipeline access” for “squeezing

Climate campaigners and tar sands blockaders widely celebrated the announcement last month that the Norwegian energy company Statoil was halting plans for a multi-billion dollar tar sands project in Alberta, Canada. The company cited rising costs of labor and materials in Alberta, and also blamed “limited pipeline access” for “squeezing

Last week, one tech giant after the next cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), creating a mass exodus from the anti-government front group that routinely drafts legislation to bolster the fossil fuel industry and inhibit climate action and clean energy development. While the withdrawal of Google, Yahoo, Facebook

Still own some Exxon Mobil stock and been dithering about divestment? You’re leaving money on the table, and exposing your portfolio to severe risks that the company itself is underestimating. That’s according to a new report published by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, which finds that the stock’s recently sub-par performance can

This morning, a District Attorney in Massachusetts made history as he recognized the “necessity defense” of climate-related civil disobedience, and reduced the charges for two activists charged in their Lobster Boat Blockade. Some quick background. Back in May 2013, Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara boarded their lobster boat, navigated to

Last week, supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline got all worked up about a study that purported to find that the delay in approving the project has actually increased greenhouse gas emissions. The narrowly-focused study was based on faulty assumptions (that the tar sands would always find a way to

Last December, the first full train carrying tar sands crude left the Canexus Bruderheim terminal outside of Edmonton, Alberta, bound for an unloading terminal somewhere in the United States. Canadian heavy crude, as the tar sands is labeled for market purposes, had ridden the rails in very limited capacity in years

Helen Slottje has redrawn the map of fracking in upstate New York. Since 2010, Slottje and her husband David, both attorneys, have battled to keep fracking out of New York communities using local zoning laws. Since pioneering this novel legal strategy in the town of Ulysses, near their home town

Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a clear and present danger. That’s the main takeaway from the third installment of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), released this week by the White House. The report itself is a feat of both exhaustive climate science and creative science communications. The

Don Blankenship’s hubris is surpassed only by his greed. The “Dark Lord of Coal Country,” as the former CEO of Massey Energy has been called, is using the fourth anniversary of the tragic Upper Big Branch Mine explosion not to honor the lives of the fallen mines, but to absolve himself of

The oil industry and its well-compensated apologists in Congress like to complain that the Obama administration is stalling oil production on public lands. The problem with that argument: it’s demonstrably false. While plenty of environmental advocates may wish that President Obama was actively working to keep the fossil fuel reserves underground,