New column day
Here, on how the politics and economics of energy production are changing around the world – and how Canada is being left behind due to governments focused solely on pushing…
renewable energy
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Linda Tirado writes about life in poverty – and the real prospect that anybody short of the extremely wealthy can wind up there:…
A Wee Design Flaw
The BrightSource Energy plant, a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert, works on the principal of focusing sunlight on a bunch of towers full of water until the water…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Ralph Surette suggests that Nova Scotia’s tax and regulatory review pay close attention to the fact that it can do more than simply…
World’s Largest Private Bank, UBS, Says Fossil Energy is Toast
The Swiss banking giant, UBS, says renewable energy is the hands down winner and conventional power generation is finished. In a briefing paper sent to clients and investors this week,…
The Lethal Dysfunction Of The Far Right: A Mound of Sound Guest Post
Problem: you’re already getting hammered by early-onset climate change. Solution: deny it’s happening, look the other way, think happy thoughts. It sounds ridiculously dysfunctional and it is but that is…
Some Real Hope For Renewables
I only have time for this quick post, but allow me to direct you to this story about what appears to be a breakthrough in solar power generation and this…
A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: The Relentless Growth of CO2
I put this item together a while ago but I was reminded of it today while reading a report from the WMO, the World Meteorological Organization, that April will go…
Kathleen Wynne’s environmental ups and downs
Feature image: Ontario Rangers youth gather at Queen’s Park in January, 2013 to protest cuts to a Ministry of Natural Resources program many former participants claim changed their lives. Ontario…
Field naturalists granted construction stay at Ostrander Point
The south shore at Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County (Photo by Terry Sprague.) The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists were awarded a stay of construction at Ostrander Point this…
Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in…
Alberta creates a Minister of Renewable Energy
Occasionally a spark of hope interrupts the dreary flow of environmental news. Such a spark occurred in Alberta last week with the announcement by Premier Redford that Donna Kennedy-Glans would…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – It shouldn’t be a surprise that more people are pointing out the importance of effective regulation in preventing disasters like the Lac-Mégantic explosion.…
Electron democracy
A long-belated companion to Steven Chu’s “Time to fix the wiring” essay I posted earlier, this is the white paper I co-authored for the same McKinsey & Company series. Given…
The 0.01% Oppose Renewable Energy Because You Can’t Suck Rents From It
It doesn’t get much more naked than this (AP): A political group founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch wants Georgia’s utility regulators to reject a plan requiring Southern…
On Environment Ministers And Petcoke
From Impolitical: CTV was reporting that Peter Kent may be moving on and therefore would be out as Environment Minister. Not sure there’s much a new Canadian minister might do…
Canada’s tar sands are the fifth largest climate threat in the world
By Greenpeace International | Jan. 22, 2013: TORONTO – Canada’s tar sands ranked fifth of the 14 largest carbon intensive projects in the world, according to a new report from…
Our Renewable Future part 1: clearing “myth”conceptions
With Obama talking the talk on climate action in his State of the Union address yesterday, now seems a good time to start compiling a planned set of blog entries…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Paul Dechene interviews Marc Spooner about Saskatchewan residents left behind in the province’s boom: One way that our growing income gap can be…