When you fiddle with spreadsheet cells or engineering models all day in pursuit of clean energy, the sound of stasis can clang in your ears. So after local and national politicians blamed wind turbines for a power outage that interrupted water supplies and left people freezing for days across the state, we decided to document who really pays when legacy asset owners refuse to update their energy plans. Our reporter took breaks from checking on her family in Austin to round up stories about real people's real chills and real hunger.
What can a flurry of executive orders and an inch of partisan advantage make stick?
For four years, federal stimulus and standards pushed money backward toward fossil fuels. Since January, a new president whose party controls Congress has signaled that federal capital will rush toward the sector. But Congressional lawmaking support looks breakable. What can a clean-energy leader expect and do?
Our partners at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University turn up more evidence that American voters demand forward motion on carbon reduction. Their new voter survey finds two-thirds of respondents convinced that legislators should prioritize investment in fossil-free energy.
Energy without emissions causes more job creation and less climate risks. To expand across the recovering nation, energy needs to come with priorities, prices and placements that emphasize justice for people who have lived with systematic racism. In this summary and exploration, scholar Dan Kammen lays out the case for a justice-driven recovery. CBEY will explore this case more fully with Shalanda Baker and other scholars later this month.
Is this the direction for decarbonizing- and for big hydrocarbon concerns? (Image courtesy of Pixabay.)
Equinor Strategy Summit, Norway, 2019 – Executives of Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) were holed up in a room drinking hot chocolate after a day of skiing. Strategy staff members presented them with a list of unidentified companies (“Company 1,” “Company 2,” “Company 3”) along with historical and projected returns. One had 10% return ambitions; another roughly the same, etc. The executives were asked: Which companies do you think these are? Shell? Ørsted? Exxon? What happened next remains a mystery; but, according to Michael Wheeler, Equinor’s Principal of Corporate Strategy, who told the tale at a conference last year, the...
Surveying China's plan to send carbon emissions way down, the IEA forecasts broader uptake of carbon capture, hydrogen and other decarbonization tools on the strength of China's manufacturing.
