Common Resources

The Jefferson Memorial, from Space

A set of NASA images from the Suomi polar-orbiting satellite has been getting some traffic today, driven by an article by Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich. It shows bright lights from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota, looking like a metropolis where maps show little settlement. The images are very cool, especially for energy/infrastructure nerds. There’s obvious points to […]

LNG As A Truck Fuel Just Got Cleaner

Replacing diesel fuel in heavy-duty (18-wheeler) trucks with liquefied natural gas has been getting more attractive with every drop in natural gas prices, to the point where the time it takes to pay back a $70,000 added investment cost is under two years (as these trucks are driven 125,000 miles per year). Yet, aside from […]

Matt Damon, Energy Cassandra

In 2005’s critically acclaimed Syriana, Matt Damon plays Bryan Woodman, an energy analyst who becomes a policy adviser to a fictional Gulf emirate. In a classic scene, Woodman challenges his royal employers by speaking frankly about the country’s economy and warning that outsiders (particularly Americans) will try to exploit the emirate while keeping it in poverty.   […]

Promised Land

Unlike the documentary Gasland, the Matt Damon/Jon Krasinski “fracking movie” Promised Land is a Hollywood drama, with a plot twist that’s pretty shocking and not meant to be believable. So, be charitable when it comes to holding it to the truth. The movie is really about the trade-offs of living in a rural area vs. a […]

Can Fracking Help Achieve Climate Stabilization and Long-term Energy Independence?

In some recent posts, Joel Darmstader and I discussed aspects of North American energy independence, with a focus on oil independence. In the last post in the series, Joel looked at environmental consequences of the rapidly changing continental energy picture. I think that issue is worth a second look. The development of natural resources often […]

Does a Natural Gas Bridge Go Anywhere?

(a few very minor edits have been made since this post was written. -ed). Michael Levi has a great and provocative new paper on natural gas as a bridge fuel – that is, shifting from coal to gas generation now, with a future shift to zero-carbon renewables. At the risk of oversimplification, the main finding is […]

RFF Feature: Policy Options for Encouraging Home Energy Efficiency Improvements

New research by RFF’s Margaret Walls identifies the tradeoffs associated with choosing among loans, subsidies, and standards as policies to encourage energy efficiency improvements in homes. Read the full feature here.

Energy Independence - What Then? (Part Four: The Environment)

This post is the last in a four-part series on energy independence and its significance (or insignificance). Click to read the first, second, and third installments. Note also that while earlier posts in this series were jointly authored with Roger Sedjo, this post represents only the views of its author. As we’ve explained in earlier […]

Why the Wind Tax Credit is a Bad Way to Cut Carbon

Eligibility for the wind energy production tax credit (PTC), established by Congress in 1992, is set to expire at the end of this month, causing calls for action and inaction. Is this policy change a big deal for carbon emissions? Let’s take a closer look. Currently, the PTC provides renewable power projects with a corporate […]

States Push EPA to Regulate Methane from Oil & Gas Operations

New York and six other eastern states announced this week that they intend to sue the EPA, seeking to force the agency to regulate methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. Specifically, they claim EPA is required by the Clean Air Act to issue new source performance standards (NSPS) for methane emissions from wells, […]