New York state currently has five nuclear power plants, and they all face mounting financial losses and pressure from activists. But closing them is not an environmentally good idea. The FitzPatrick plant in Oswego is scheduled to be shut down in 2017, and Exelon Corp. has announced that the nearby Nine Mile Unit No. 1…
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Methanol has been largely overlooked in the biofuels debate, perhaps that is because that is because it is typically produced from coal and natural gas and is often considered a fossil fuel product. But it is more accurate to think of methanol as a synthetic fuel that can be produced from all manner of carbon…
Continue reading →Last week in Riyadh at the 6th CSLF Ministerial Meeting, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi issued a joint statement identifying the critical need for carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies (CCS) as a solution to reduce rising levels of greenhouse gasses. Both the USA and Saudi Arabia are…
Continue reading →New York is engaging in an ambitious effort called REV (Renewing the Energy Vision) to update the state’s electricity grid to support renewable energy and microgrids. Unfortunately, this vision fails to see the importance of the state’s largest source of low-carbon electricity, nuclear power. Anyone who is concerned about climate change and the need to…
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As the 2015 Paris Climate Summit approaches it appears that some positive steps will be taken in the fight against climate change, but one of the most important steps will again fail to be realized. Voices from governments, industry, academia, and activism have called for a price on carbon to help drive deep cuts in…
Continue reading →Under the new rules for the Clean Power Plan the EPA is now mandating the use of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology on all new coal power plants, but CCS is not given the kind of subsidies and support that are lavished on wind and solar. This lack of policy parity makes it very…
Continue reading →My response to anti-gas critics. As a New Yorker, a voter, and a landowner in the Marcellus Shale, I believe that New York’s fracking ban as well as knee-jerk opposition to every proposed natural gas pipeline project is bad for New York. Anti-gas opposition is based on a constant drum-beat of worst case scenario fear…
Continue reading →Laying out realities of pipeline Albany Times-Tribune By Dennis Higgins, Commentary Thursday, August 13, 2015 In his recent op-ed, technology consultant Edward Dodge accuses Yoko Ono of failing to see the value of the Constitution Pipeline and fracked gas. Dodge claims Ono’s concerns amount to fear-mongering. However, peer-reviewed scientific reports — including studies cited by the state Department of Health in…
Continue reading →Anti-gas activists continue their campaign to halt construction of the much needed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline intended to bring natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania into Massachusetts and neighboring states. Despite the fact that residents of New England pay some of the highest prices for natural gas and electricity in the country, pipeline…
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Anti-gas activist Yoko Ono recently ran a full page ad in the New York Times urging opposition to the Constitution Pipeline. The Constitution Pipeline is a proposed 120 mile natural gas line that will bring Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania up to a distribution point in New York that will allow the gas to be…
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