The much-hyped impending resurrection of nuclear power, driven by concerns about a warming climate, often seems to be repeating the past, but with a refrain of “smaller is better.” The latest downsized reprise from the early nuclear repertoire is floating nukes. In the U.S. in the 1970s, New Jersey utility Public Service Electric and Gas, … More Floating Nuclear: Blips, Not Blasts, From the Past

By Henry Sokolski Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Mark Warner recently described how over-classification of national security-related information is a key and neglected factor behind the latest, disturbing intelligence leak. “We need frankly a system that limits classification to really important documents and then have a process to declassify when appropriate.” His argument: fewer secrets shared with fewer … More Guest Commentary: Protect Secrets? Have Fewer

Chile’s left-wing government has nationalized its important lithium mining operations, casting doubts about the supply from the world’s second largest lithium producer behind China. Reuters reported Tuesday (Apr. 25), “Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric last week announced that control of the country’s vast lithium operations would over time be transferred from Albemarle and SQM (SQMA.SN) to a separate state-owned … More Light Metal Miscellany: Chile, Tesla, China, GM

Germany has closed its last three nuclear power plants, leaving the country without any nuclear generation after 60 years of a nuclear past. The storied French nuclear program continues to be a tale of woe, with continued outages driving up its prices and leading to predictions that the world’s most nuclear nation, once a major … More European Energy Crisis Survived…End of Baseload?

A new, peer-reviewed April scientific article demolishes an earlier claim, largely written by activist opponents of natural gas at the Rocky Mountain Institute, that home stoves burning natural gas cause childhood asthma. That January 2023 article said, “We found that 12.7% … of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use.” … More Restoring the Reputation of Gas Stoves

For natural gas advocates, methane-fueled power plants are ideal: economical, safe, versatile, and reliable. For these advocates, renewables–particularly wind machines — are noisy, intrusive, and – gasp — intermittent and unreliable. The gas case, as stated by its chief Washington lobbying group, the American Gas Association: “Through natural disasters and extreme weather events, the industry’s … More Commentary: Overstating Natural Gas Reliability

California electric customers could be seeing a radical new approach to electricity rates by 2025, if state regulators adopt a plan by the states three large investor-owned utilities. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) have jointly filed a plan to comply with a state law … More California Utilities Propose Customer Income Tax

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, landlord of the federal government’s massive ownership of 615 million surface and subsurface acres, mostly in the West, is proposing a major change in focus. The BLM proposal would update its interpretation of the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to emphasize conservation and protection of … More BLM Moves to Reinvigorate Federal Land Policy

Is the market for electric vehicles, growing gradually but significantly over the last few years, about to boom? The Biden administration, viewing EVs as a key to a lower carbon environment, hopes new public policy will push a step change. The administration’s Environmental Protect Agency, at the direction of the White House, on Wednesday (Apr. … More EVs: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once?

By Henry Sokolski and Andrea Stricker Vladimir Putin seems intent on threatening the West with nuclear war. What’s bizarre is Washington and its allies are helping him. The Russian dictator just proclaimed he may station nuclear bombs in Belarus. The U.S. intelligence community assessed in February that Moscow had “increased its reliance on nuclear weapons” following its … More Guest Commentary: America Helps Fund Russia’s Nuclear Weapons Complex