It’s annual June “Hurricane Season” prediction time, and the hoopla accompanying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) regular look at a common weather phenomenon has become more predictable than the storms: greater death and destruction driven by a changing climate. Here are some of the headlines: Axios: Climate change to make for threatening hurricane … More Commentary: It Helps to Be a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Climate Goes

IEA: Coal Demand Grows While worldwide investment in “clean” energy – solar, wind, hydro, and by some definitions, nuclear – is growing faster than dollars spent on fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency’s “World Energy Investment 2023”, coal is far from down and out. The IEA report noted, “Global coal demand reached an … More Coal Collection: Dusky Diamonds’ Death Greatly Exaggerated

European energy policy is a mess, more about appearance than performance, according to a new study from a regional educational institution. James Woudhuysen, a visiting professor at London South Bank University, argues in a paper for MCC Brussels that the European Union’s “focus on the dogma of environmentalism has seriously distracted it from the foundational … More EU Energy: Appearance over Performance?

Work has begun on the largest hydroelectric dam removal project in U.S. history, with construction crews upgrading access roads for heavy equipment to reach the four Lower Klamath Project dams on the Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California. “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved this project — the largest dam removal in American … More Klamath River Dams Removal Begins

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at a Politico energy meeting warned the Biden administration last week she will use “every tool” she has available to prevent a high-level nuclear waste site in the Land of Enchantment. She may get some help from the local oil and gas industry, whose practices have raised the … More Seismic Challenge to Holtec’s N.M. Nuke Waste Site?

The Department of Energy has rolled out a multibillion-dollar series of carbon capture and storage awards. The announcement last week (May 17) follows almost immediately the Biden administration’s announced Environment Protection Agency program to remove or displace carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants. The EPA program relies heavily on technology to reduce CO2 emissions, … More DOE Rolls Out Big CCS Spending Package

The controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada got what is likely a final green light from the Biden administration’s Interior Department this week, allowing full scale development to proceed in the face of protests by local environmentalists and native tribes. Local Indian groups have been protesting peacefully at the mine site as an … More Thacker Pass Lithium Passes Mining Law Hurdle

The Biden administration’s plan to make big cuts in powerplant CO2 emissions faces tough technical, legal, and political challenges. These are likely to interact, occur simultaneously, and maybe soon. Here’s what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing as the path to dramatically reduced CO2 emissions from the nation’s electric power plants in the next … More EPA Power Plant Rule: Wonder Where It’s Bound?

A bevy of energy dignitaries, including often-clueless Energy Secretary Energy Jennifer Granholm, assembled at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay area May 8 to celebrate the lab’s December success in achieving a highly-hyped fusion energy hurdle: achieving more energy output from the input required. “If you can … More Commentary: Fusion ‘Breakthrough’ Less than Meets the Hype

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week (May 9) licensed an “interim” monitored retrievable nuclear spent fuel storage facility proposed by New Jersey-based Holtec International for New Mexico. The multi-billion-dollar facility’s fate is in doubt. The state of New Mexico is adamantly opposed to the project near Carlsbad. Unlike the last battle over nuclear waste, … More Smoldering U.S. Nuke Waste War Rekindled in N.M.?