emissions

28Oct

The Issue Remains Affordability

With less than a week to the election, it’s worth reminding the candidates – and ourselves – what voters really think about energy issues. Despite the rhetoric about energy mixes of the future or what will and will not be banned, the issue that matters most to voters is affordability. Time and again, in poll […]
17Sep

The Urgency Continues to Build for U.S. Leadership on CCUS

The clean energy technologies we will need tomorrow hinge on innovation today. That is the bottom line of a new International Energy Agency (IEA) study that analyzes what is needed to achieve global emissions reduction goals. What’s abundantly clear from IEA’s analysis is that the favorite technologies of American climate hawks – namely wind and […]
24Jun

Coal Remains the World’s Leading Fuel for Electricity Generation

The world needs U.S. coal technology leadership more than ever. And if the U.S. is indeed concerned with tackling the global emissions challenge, coal technology can’t be an afterthought in the climate equation, it needs to be a centerpiece of the effort. The 2020 BP Statistical Review of World Energy highlights a trend that is […]
20Feb

Guidance to Get Going

It’s not every day when a notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is cause for excitement. Yesterday was one of those rare exceptions. The IRS finally issued guidance on the 45Q carbon capture tax credits. It was guidance the energy industry has been anticipating for two years, ever since Congress passed bipartisan legislation creating […]
27Jan

Pumping the Brakes on Power Grid Jenga

Indiana is right to be concerned. Coal has been indispensable in providing the low-cost, reliable power that has fueled industry in one of the nation’s leading manufacturing states. The sudden and accelerating loss of coal power in Indiana, and in surrounding states – without a plan to reliably replace it – has lawmakers and energy […]
18Dec

Campaigning on a Platform of Job Losses and Power Outages

Presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg recently announced that if elected he will phase out coal power in the U.S. by 2030. He made this proclamation standing in the pouring rain in front of a retired coal power plant, telling the handful of people gathered that the photo-op was “one of the dumbest things we’ve ever done,” […]
13Dec

Investors First, Ratepayers Second

New natural gas power plants are being added to the electricity grid at a remarkable speed and scale. And while it’s been fashionable to believe the overwhelming impetus for this building spree has been cheap natural gas that could potentially save consumers money, while also reducing emissions, that line of thinking now has nearly as […]
21Nov

Breaking News: Fuel Targeting Doesn’t Work

A report issued this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that U.S. carbon emissions from energy increased in 2018. You heard that right. Emissions are up, despite the near constant vilification of coal and hundreds of millions spent by activists like Michael Bloomberg. And to be clear: that’s hundreds of millions spent not […]
09Oct

Think Innovation, Not Fuel Targeting

For the better part of a decade, U.S. emissions reduction efforts have largely consisted of fuel switching from coal to natural gas. Driven by regulatory policies that singled out coal-based electricity generation as the target, the natural gas industry seized the opportunity for a PR push to brand gas generation as “clean” power.   Despite […]
02Jul

Trillions with a “T”

According to new analysis from Wood Mackenzie, transitioning to an all renewables grid in the U.S. by 2030 would cost roughly $4.5 trillion. Remarkably, that cost – estimated at about $35,000 per household – does not account for the costs of prematurely closing hundreds of existing power plants, the inevitable supply chain bottlenecks that would […]