“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” -H. L. Mencken The popular level discussion of climate and energy policy often oversimplifies renewables to the point of parody. Many well-meaning, educated, and intelligent people believe renewables will solve global climate issues, power the…
When it comes to decarbonizing the U.S. economy, one could be forgiven for thinking the answer is as simple as ramping up wind and solar. While that is an option – albeit one that on its own would take decades – a more realistic approach is to identify what the…
Blue, Grey, Green – oh my! The road to the emerald city of the future seems to feature a number of alternative energy projects with varying levels of promise. Perhaps the most touted yet least utilized at scale is hydrogen. But there seem to be many variations of hydrogen comprising…
The relationship between pipelines and land is a central point of discussion whenever pipelines are in the headlines. Those who oppose pipelines may argue that pipelines infringe on private land, and those in favor of pipelines may point to the legal process designed to protect private citizens’ land from being…
Our 3.8 million square-mile nation uses its space for a lot of purposes. About 50 percent of U.S. land is used for agriculture. Roads run for over 4 million miles across the country. Forests occupy nearly 300,000 square miles. But this vast and dynamic country requires abundant energy to…
When you see a tree, you know it has roots. When you pull weeds, you aim to get all of those roots spread across the whole garden just beneath the ground. What you may not think of quite as intuitively is that modern infrastructure has roots too. This month, Aii…
The power pulsing into your home right now probably comes courtesy of an antiquated system of power plants and transmission lines thought up while horse and buggies were still common on the streets. Even with the advent of the Internet age, we largely still use this one-way power network, and…
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’…
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…
On July 12, we published “Building a Smarter Electric Grid: How Investing in Smarter Electricity Infrastructure Will Energize America,” a white-paper focused on the opportunities presented by a “smarter” electric network and the specific investments that should be made to take full advantage of tomorrow’s energy technologies without sacrificing the…
