Energy

Froma Harrop’s Genius Economic Cure-All

By Justin Katz | November 17, 2007 |

And to think — as the cost of driving my work van, carting around the tools and materials of a jobsite carpenter, resumes its upswing — Froma Harrop had the solution all along: Take oil. It’s not Bush’s fault that fast-growing China and India have fired up the global demand for oil, thus boosting its…

Preliminary Rhode Island Wind Farm Planning

By Carroll Andrew Morse | November 9, 2007 |

Michael Souza of the Narragansett Times has an initial report on sites being considered for a electricity-generating wind farm for Rhode Island…Monday night’s monthly marine fisheries council meeting featured a presentation by Dan Mendelsohn of Applied Technology and Management Inc. of Newport. The topic of discussion was the possible location of offshore windmills. The company…

Re: A Misplaced Focus

By Monique Chartier | September 18, 2007 |

Justin’s post about the contaminated land in Tiverton provokes a comparison to the major complication of nuclear energy — the issue of long-term storage of spent nuclear materials — and the advisability of augmenting our generation of nuclear energy which would, naturally, increase the amount of highly toxic waste product to be dealt with. After…

Let’s Hope Our Senators Didn’t Sleep Through Econ 101

By Mac Owens | June 12, 2007 |

I’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks, so I’m only now catching up. This piece ran in the Newport Daily News of 30 May. Of course, the title is wishful thinking. By the way, I believe gasoline prices will drop from their high point at the end of May. The last couple…

Mama Don’t Allow No Petroleum Cartels Around Here

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 23, 2007 |

I’m all for hawkish actions by the United States Congress, but this one seems a tad strange. From the Associated Press…Decrying near-record high gasoline prices, the House voted Tuesday to allow the government to sue OPEC over oil production quotas. The White House objected, saying that might disrupt supplies and lead to even higher costs…

End Ethanol Tariffs and Subsidies, Says Da Governator

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 21, 2007 |

Isn’t California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expressing the right basic idea about ethanol policy in this report from Reuters…California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday he wants markets to set policies on low carbon fuels, and called for eliminating subsidies and tariffs related to ethanol. “We need to take down the barriers we have created,” Schwarzenegger…

Rhode Island Getting Ready for Ethanol

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 14, 2007 |

A Worcester Business Journal story on the expansion of the Providence & Worcester Railroad (including P&W receiving new automobiles “for the first time [in] the company’s history” for transport to New England dealerships via the port at Davisville) hides the news with the most potential long-range impact at the bottom of the page…P&W is also…

Brazilian Ethanol Backgrounder

By Carroll Andrew Morse | April 17, 2007 |

Here’s the background on the ethanol spat between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Brazilian President Lula da Silva going on at the South American energy summit being held this week. Brazil is a major importer of Bolivian natural gas. About a year ago, Bolivian President Evo Morales, a Hugo Chavez lackey, nationalized his country’s natural…

The Situational Pragmatism of Congressman Langevin

By Marc Comtois | April 5, 2007 |

In addition to talking about Iraq with Dan Yorke, Congressman Langevin also talked about Speaker Pelosi’s recent botched Syrian excursion and said she was following the precepts of the Iraq Study Group report (PDF). While Langevin condemned the regimes of both Iran and Syria, he also offered that–as per the Iraq Study Group–pragmatic diplomacy was…

Biofuel Pact = Latest Bush Conspiracy!!!!

By Marc Comtois | March 9, 2007 |

Well, silly me, here I thought that the Biofuel Pact that will be signed by President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would be viewed as a good thing. Here’s what I thought would be the main storyline: President Bush sees the new agreement with Brazil on ethanol as a way to…