Reuters reported from the prestigious CERAWeek energy conference this month: “Some 900 million people in the world, most of them in Africa, still have no access to energy for basic needs, Nigeria’s oil Minister Timipre Marlin Sylva said during the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. “‘We are still in transition from firewood to gas,’…
Tag: renewables
Zeal for Renewables May Be on the Wane
The all-out effort to push renewables is heading for demise, says Francis Menton in the Manhattan Contrarian. “I have long predicted that this [renewable] program would come to an end when (absent some miraculous innovation that nobody has yet conceived) the usage of the renewables got to a sufficient level that their costs and unworkability…
Burning Wood Is Zero Emissions? Yes, in Climate-Speak
Millions of wood pellets from trees grown in North Carolina are providing fuel for the United Kingdom. Under current international climate-change rules, burning wood does not produce carbon-dioxide emissions. Of course it does, but the claim is that it is offset by carbon sequestration when the trees are replaced. “Billed as a clean fuel that…
U.S. Coal Use Surged by 35 Percent in First Six Months of 2021
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released statistics on energy production for the first six months of 2021, comparing it to the same period in 2020. Coal was the winner. Commenting on the figures, the Institute for Energy Research wrote recently: “Coal is up an impressive 35 percent while the higher price of natural gas…
People Will Die This Winter. But Don’t Blame the Greens, says Thomas Friedman
Instead, says the New York Times columnist, blame governments for mishandling the switch to renewables.. On the one hand, they are doing the right thing: “phasing out dirtier fuels like coal.” On the other, they are doing it in “totally uncoordinated ways.” He predicts a cold winter with sky-high energy prices, people dying in Europe…
No Oil from Federal Lands but Low-cost Leases for Renewables
Last January, a week after he became president, Joe Biden suspended oil and gas leasing on public lands, pending a full Interior Department review. That suspension was put on hold by a federal court in June after 14 states sued to overturn it. Now, the Biden administration is trying to open up federal lands for…