Pioneer Green Energy

06/29/2016

This article addresses the "implicit subsidy" given to fossil fuels as a result of them not having to pay for the full costs of the pollution caused by their products. The results are pretty startling. For example:
"For all companies and all years, the economic cost to society of their CO2 emissions was greater than their after‐tax profit, with the single exception of Exxon Mobil in 2008". In other words, if these fossil fuel companies had to pay the full cost of the carbon emissions produced by their products, none of them would be profitable.

It's even worse for pure coal companies, for which "the economic cost to society exceeds total revenue in all years, with this cost varying between nearly $2 and nearly $9 per $1 of revenue." Total revenue, Hope and colleagues note, represents "employment, taxes, supply purchases, and indirect employment" — everything that coal companies contribute to the economy. It turns out the costs they impose through carbon emissions are larger than all those contributions combined. (For oil and gas companies, carbon costs generally range from 10 to 50 percent of total revenue.)"

These are the same fossil fuel companies that constantly hammer renewables for receiving subsidies, yet make their profits by pushing their own costs of doing business onto the rest of us...and they spend very heavily to buy votes in Congress and at all levels of government as they have done for a century. It's long past time to call them out on it!

Climate change impacts exceed fossil fuel profits.

05/19/2016

Spiralling global temperatures I hope the new link to the animation now works again (pointing to a twitter version) – there has been a severe load on our servers! Spiralling global temperatures. Click for full size animated version. The animated spiral presents global temperature change in a visuall...

05/06/2016

Truth!

For Maine independent Sen. Angus King, answers about the basic science of climate change are just a pocket away.

04/16/2016

"...companies no longer are purchasing wind-generated electricity — and other renewable energy, for that matter — simply to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability or to bolster their images as environmentally conscious organizations. Increasingly, they are turning to wind because it makes financial sense..."

Wind power now accounts for about 5 percent of energy generation in the United States,

03/22/2016

"Humans are releasing planet-warming carbon dioxide at about 10 times faster than the most rapid event of anytime in at least the past 66 million years. This leaves us without a historical analogue to guide predictions for how climate change will affect the world in coming years, a new study has found."

Planet-warming carbon dioxide is now increasing at the fastest rate of anytime in 66 million years.

03/18/2016

NASA data proves that global warming is not due to natural factors...

Climate deniers blame natural factors; NASA data proves otherwise

02/23/2016

Seas are rising at fastest rate in last 28 centuries! Make sure your representatives in government are doing something about it...

Scientists reported Monday that flooding in coastal communities was largely a result of greenhouse gas emissions, and likely to grow worse.

02/22/2016

While many politicians keep their heads in the sand, the earth continues to warm rapidly.
"This January was the warmest January on record by a large margin while also claiming the title of most anomalously warm month in 135 years of record keeping."

January continues a streak of freakishly hot months for the globe as 2016 picks up right where 2015 left off.

02/22/2016

There was a huge spike in global methane emissions over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study.

02/19/2016

Scientists say the region has been 'absurdly' warm lately, perhaps due to the influence of El Niño.

02/18/2016

"The central problem for the climate is that natural gas is mostly methane (CH4), a super-potent greenhouse gas, which traps 86 times as much heat as CO2 over a 20-year period. That’s why many studies find that even a very small leakage rate can have a large climate impact — enough to gut the entire benefit of switching from coal-fired power to gas for a long, long time.

Even worse, other studies find — surprise, surprise — natural gas plants don’t replace only high-carbon coal plants. They often replace very low carbon power sources like solar, wind, nuclear, and even energy efficiency. That means even a very low leakage rate wipes out the climate benefit of fracking."

02/15/2016

Cheap gas is actually quite expensive

California just capped one of the biggest known natural gas leaks in the U.S., but Texas fracking regulators are doing nothing about an even bigger problem.