Nuclear Power Cannot Compete with Cheap Shale Gas
Nuclear power stations in Canada and the United States are closing because they cannot compete with cheap power being produced from shale gas. This revolution in the way North America produces its electricity is sending shock waves through the nuclear industry in Europe too. New nuclear build will be spectacularly uneconomic if a fracking industry… Read More
Community Rallies Against Proposed Trash Incinerator
The farm town of Gonzales, in the center of the Salinas Valley, has been known throughout its 140-year history as "Little Switzerland," the "heart of the salad bowl," and, today, the "wine capital" of Monterey County. Now a proposal from a Canadian energy company could change Gonzales' moniker yet again: It hopes to build a commercial-scale plant… Read More
UK’s Nuke Plans Lose Traction with Shift to Renewables
The UK government's plan to build a new generation of 10 nuclear power stations suffered another severe blow this week when the British utility Centrica pulled out of the program, writing off a £200 million ($315M) investment in the process. To prop up the industry the government is faced with breaking two important electoral pledges and may face… Read More
U.S. Carbon Emissions Fall to Lowest Levels Since 1994
Carbon dioxide emissions fell by 13 percent in the past five years, because of new energy-saving technologies and a doubling in the take-up of renewable energy, the report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) said.… Read More
Politicians Urged to Unite on Climate Change Laws
A Harvard professor is challenging America's environmental leaders to learn from their failures on climate change. Theda Skocpol accused Washington environmentalists in a research paper of grossly under-estimating the resistance to any environmental measures from Republicans in Congress and the conservative Tea Party movement. That miscalculation … Read More
Nuclear Snow? Power Plant Yields Snow in Pennsylvania
You've probably heard of lake-effect snow and ocean-effect snow, but now you should add "nuclear snow" to the list of strange winter weather phenomena. As the Midwest and East shivers under a bitterly cold air mass, waste heat given off from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant near Shippingport generated a narrow band of snow. Up to an inch of sn… Read More
Energy, Water, Land Intertwined & Threatened, Says Report
Water resources, energy and land use are so mutually dependent that climate-related disruptions to any one of them could lead to economically devastating ripple effects — especially as a growing population puts increasing strains on all three. That’s one conclusion of a recent report issued by a federal advisory committee charged with assessing how… Read More
Warmer Winters Threaten Northeast’s Smaller Ski Areas
The scene is something no ski resort operator wants to see early in the season: Sunlight glaring off the sloppy snow pooling like dirty mashed potatoes at the base of the high-speed six-person chairlift. The thermometer at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in western Massachusetts reads 59 degrees Fahrenheit on this mid-November day, and Brian Fairbank,… Read More
