Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Category Archives: Energy

This Hot Summer Is One of the Coolest of the Rest of Our Lives

Scientific American: “Extreme heat has been a constant in the news this past summer: In July a punishing heat wave in Europe pushed temperatures across parts of the U.K. above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) for the first time in history. That same month was viciously hot across China, including in Shanghai—home to 26… Continue Reading

Climate Change Remains Top Global Threat Across 19-Country Survey

Pew – Concerns about climate, misinformation and cyberattacks predominate across 19 countries, but people are also concerned about the global economy and spread of infectious diseases. “With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, a hot war between Russia and Ukraine ongoing, inflation rates rising globally and heat records being smashed across parts of the world, countries… Continue Reading

Project Drawdown: The World’s Leading Climate Solutions Database Is Growing

Earth.org: “Founded in 2014 by Author and Entrepreneur Paul Hawken in collaboration with over 200 researchers, Project Drawdown is one of the most influential research-backed databases of climate solutions on the planet.  The project’s mission is to help the world reach ‘drawdown’ – the point in time where levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere… Continue Reading

The Inflation Reduction Act Drives Significant Emissions Reductions and Positions America to Reach Our Climate Goals

U.S. Dept. of Energy Report: “The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 represents a historic, $369 billion investment in the modernization of the American energy system. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) preliminary assessment finds that this law—in combination with other enacted policies and past actions—will help drive 2030 economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 40%… Continue Reading

Climate Liability Suits: Is There a Path to Federal Court?

CRS Legal Sidebar – Climate Liability Suits: Is There a Path to Federal Court? August 12, 2022: “Many of the most prominent court cases related to climate change in recent years have been decided by federal courts, including the Supreme Court, based on federal law. A growing number of cases,however, allege state-law claims against fossil… Continue Reading

More dangerous heat waves are on the way: See the impact by Zip code

Washington Post: “…Across much of the United States, millions of people are expected to experience extreme temperatures more frequently and for longer periods of time — a threat that will grow as climate change worsens. The new data, released Monday by the nonprofit First Street Foundation, calculates the heat risk facing each property in the… Continue Reading

Massachusetts just passed a massive climate and clean energy bill

Washington Post: “Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Thursday signed a major climate and clean-energy bill that contains sweeping policies targeting renewables, transportation and fossil fuels — a move that lawmakers and advocates say is critical to supporting the state’s goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Baker’s decision to sign the bill, which was… Continue Reading

Preliminary Report: The Climate and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

Suggested citation: Jenkins, J.D., Mayfield, E.N., Farbes, J., Jones, R., Patankar, N., Xu, Q., Schivley, G., “Preliminary Report: The Climate and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” REPEAT Project, Princeton, NJ, August 2022 “This report describes the national-scale energy system and greenhouse gas emissions impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as… Continue Reading

How the US Gave Away a Breakthrough Battery Technology To China

NPR: ” When a group of engineers and researchers gathered in a warehouse in Mukilteo, Wash., 10 years ago, they knew they were onto something big. They scrounged up tables and chairs, cleared out space in the parking lot for experiments and got to work. They were building a battery — a vanadium redox flow… Continue Reading

Open-source flight trackers have been repeatedly used to break news over the last few weeks

Vice: “More than 700,000 people were tracking the flight path of the U.S. military plane believed to be carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning. She touched down in Taiwan at 10:50 pm local time, making Pelosi the first high-ranking American official to visit the self-governing island in 25 years, amid threats of a military… Continue Reading

How flood maps can illuminate the risk from toxic waste sites

Fast Company: Climate science is clear: “Floodwaters are a growing risk for many American cities, threatening to displace not only people and housing but also the land-based pollution left behind by earlier industrial activities. In 2019, researchers at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated climate-related risks at the 1,571 most polluted properties in the… Continue Reading