Image Credit: BFS Man (CC-BY, flickr) John D. Rockefeller had a growing problem on his hands. His strategic investments in petroleum refinement had given him a near monopoly over that industry; 90% of the market bore his name. Yet, he quickly found a limit to the growth of his business in the cost of transporting crude … Continue reading Why Surging Renewable Energy May Revive DC Electricity
How we Compensate Communities for Hosting our Clean Energy Future Matters
The history of energy development in the United States has always been an exceptionally individualistic affair. For instance, the wildcatters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century applied a winner take all mentality to their oil production. According to the Rule of Capture, if you’re the first to exploit a resource, you own that … Continue reading How we Compensate Communities for Hosting our Clean Energy Future Matters
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The Re-Reemergence of Energy Efficient Houses
We used to have a simple and poignant idea: that structures should be built to harmonize with their surroundings. We took the ideas of our ancestors, people who never knew about electricity, air conditioners, or on-demand-hot water, and incorporated their inherent morality into our own spaces. Then Americans cast it aside our post-war, 1950s scramble … Continue reading The Re-Reemergence of Energy Efficient Houses
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Who’s to Blame for Climate Change Again?
It’s an unfortunate reality that we humans have some critical flaws. One such flaw is our difficulty in recognizing crises if they don’t feel immanent and specific. It is entirely possible that we can see a situation as a serious problem, know that we should do something, and then fail to find the motivation to … Continue reading Who’s to Blame for Climate Change Again?
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Clean Energy’s Corporate Responsibility to the Cultural Landscape
More and more companies are popping into existence on the booming clean energy market. To assist in their projects, they employ an increasing number of experts. Lawyers to work out land leasing contracts. Press relations experts to cast their energy project in the best light possible. And, of course, surveyors to aid in construction. But … Continue reading Clean Energy’s Corporate Responsibility to the Cultural Landscape
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The Environmental Quagmire of Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is in a bit of a bind. With powerful fossil fuel lobbies on one side and anti-nuclear groups on the other, some spectators feel that the U.S. nuclear industry is destined to collapse. Profitability issues, ever present safety concerns, and difficulty providing a per unit price on par with natural gas and wind … Continue reading The Environmental Quagmire of Nuclear Power
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NIMBY and the Social Gap Collide
We need to train ourselves to see our new, clean power plants not as an unsightly necessity, but as a source of local pride and autonomy.
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Community Solar Can Overhaul Utility Assistance Programs
Complacency might well be the most insidious force in the world today. The cessation of the attempt; failing to reach further for what is better. Never yearning to remix and remake our world for the future. Or, just sitting back and failing to acknowledge when the changes that are happening around us are recursive for … Continue reading Community Solar Can Overhaul Utility Assistance Programs
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Our Failed Climate Change Defense
Let’s talk about legal defenses that should not work. You get pulled over. You get asked if you’ve been drinking. You have. You try to deny it. You conjure up all the rationale and excuses you can find in your ethanol addled mind to explain why this isn’t what it looks like. But when the officer … Continue reading Our Failed Climate Change Defense
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The Epitaph of NIMBY
"How dare you stick your liberal-loving, clean-energy-producing, scenic-view-destroying wind turbines on my prime oil land!” Or something like that. I think that’s what I was expecting to hear anyway. For the past year and a half I have been wrestling with an idea that I have come to call energy identity. Having gone to grad … Continue reading The Epitaph of NIMBY
Grant Samms 