Wind energy is often harnessed in large fields and land across the U.S. and around the world. What about offshore wind energy? What if we used the ocean and waterways to expand where we collect wind and take advantage of coastal winds? Would it be an eyesore or harm wildlife?…
The further you may be from the electrical grid, the more likely it is that you recognize the importance of energy storage. If you have access to abundant, reliable energy, then consider how far you would travel without a cell phone battery pack. An extra battery allows you to turn…
As Congress grapples with how to deal with the immediate health and public safety impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic, including making tests kits available and helping states with additional funding for safety efforts, many are also beginning to think about how to best mitigate any economic fallout resulting from the…
The Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) or COVID-19 is in the process of reshaping the order of things at home and abroad. As we all react to the spread of the virus, there are many obvious considerations – groceries, work, event cancelations, hand washing, and apparently toilet paper. But a less obvious…
Residential solar systems are becoming an increasingly popular trend in the United States. By the end of 2018, the U.S. had installed enough solar panels to power 12.3 million homes, and the solar industry managed to generate a $17 billion investment in the economy. These statistics indicate that the implementation…
Despite years of lobbying from the U.S. to stop the Russian natural gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, it is all but complete as we enter 2020. And with it, Germany and others may have made themselves dependent –to one degree or another– on Russia for their natural gas supply for…
To many, the Tesla brand has become synonymous with sustainability, an unprecedented feat considering the automobile industry has often been deemed the antithesis of a ‘green’ enterprise. Even when disregarding Tesla’s SolarCity subsidiary and other sustainable ventures, Tesla has pioneered the production of innovative electric vehicles and has prevented over…
Everyone makes mistakes, but regulators have a higher responsibility to be careful and deliberate. Institutional speed bumps help keep the pace slow, reducing the speed at which bad decisions can be made and forcing more deliberation over good ones. Some of these features like checks and balances or notice and…
Miami University, a public research university located in the small city of Oxford, OH, has been making unprecedented progress in the field of geothermal energy. Up until 2010, Miami had relied on carbon-intensive steam to heat almost all buildings on its 2,100 acre campus. Currently, 49 percent of those buildings…
Summer temperatures and tensions were high across the state of Texas, at least for some. While every resident of the Lone Star State dealt with immense heat during August, some Texans found themselves with ludicrously high electricity bills as well. This spike in price only affected a certain sector of Texas’…
Environmentalists and activists on the further reaches of the green movement occasionally go as far as to say ‘leave all fossil fuels in the ground.’ While a legitimate fear of climate change may make this view understandable, it is ultimately misguided. Modern life unequivocally requires fossil fuels, but that doesn’t…
Will FERC Consider Cumulative GHG Impacts of New Pipeline Projects? It’s Complicated The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made a little noticed determination over the course of 2018’s summer that modified how the commission performs environmental reviews moving forward – specifically, how and if they consider cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG)…
We asked: Do you think pipelines are safe? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, “more than 2.6 million miles of pipelines safely deliver trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of billions of ton/miles of liquid petroleum products each year.” 166…
Defining Infrastructure To engage in comprehensive and intelligent discussion regarding our nation’s infrastructure policy, we first need to be thoughtful about what qualifies as “infrastructure.” There is no unanimously adopted definition of infrastructure across sectors or policy lexicon. Many definitions describe “infrastructure” as the physical components of various systems that…
While power is back on at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the question remains: what happened to make the busiest airport in the world lose power for 11 hours on Sunday and strand tens of thousands of passengers for days?[1] Basically, an electrical fire in a tunnel beneath the airport…
