French Environment Minister’s Resignation: A Frustrated Call for Climate Action

French Environment Minister’s Resignation: A Frustrated Call for Climate Action

On Tuesday, August 28, French environment minister Nicolas Hulot announced he was quitting Emmanuel Macron’s government—on live radio. During his interview with France Inter, a frustrated Hulot explained, “I don’t want to give the illusion that my presence in government means we’re answering these issues properly—and so I have decided to leave the government.”
Hulot, Macron’s most popular cabinet minister and former television presenter and environmental activist, said that his decision was “the most difficult decision of my life,” and was made on the spot—neither Macron nor Hulot’s wife were aware that he was going to resign.

China’s Gas Shortage

China’s Gas Shortage

Recent strategies and policies to phase out coal in China have led to an increase in demand for natural gas. In October 2017, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection unveiled plans to cut harmful air pollution, especially the particularly damaging fine particulate matter known as PM2.5. The plan, or “Coal Ban,” has set strict targets on air quality levels in addition to a ban on burning coal in 28 of its northern cities, including Beijing. However, while the air quality improved significantly in Beijing this past winter, the rapid ban on coal burning and the transition to natural gas has left thousands without heat.

SCOOP & STACK Causing Cracks: Oklahoma Tightens Regulations to Curb Fracking Earthquakes

SCOOP & STACK Causing Cracks: Oklahoma Tightens Regulations to Curb Fracking Earthquakes

After a slew of earthquakes triggered from shale oil and gas operations, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), the state’s oil and gas regulator, released new rules designed to reduce seismic activity. Hydraulic fracturing—fracking—is being used in combination with horizontal drilling to extract shale oil and gas in what has been called the “US’s hottest new area for horizontal development” in the state’s SCOOP and STACK shale plays, located in the Anadarko Basin.

Networking, New Skills, and Learning from Others: An Interview with Spencer Schecht

Networking, New Skills, and Learning from Others: An Interview with Spencer Schecht

This coming week at our 5th Annual Green Jobs Forum, Spencer Schecht, co-owner of Green Drinks DC, will be running a workshop entitled “Fear is Your Copilot: Networking in Washington DC”.
We wanted to take the time to catch up with Spencer and hear about his experience as an early-career climate and energy professional in the DC area, and his tips and suggestions for clean energy jobseekers.

France’s Energy Future with Macron at the Helm

France’s Energy Future with Macron at the Helm

France is in the enviable position of having among the lowest energy costs in Europe, coupled with low carbon emissions--thanks to 58 nuclear plants that provide 75% of France’s total energy consumption. As a result of nuclear investment, France is currently the largest net-exporter of energy in the world, bringing in revenues estimated at 3 billion euros annually.

But the French nuclear plants were designed with an expected 40-year life-span, and their average age is now 35 years. And France, while using a high percentage of recycled nuclear fuel in power production, still faces the problem of how to handle waste products. Thus, the government faces a choice: invest in renewing the fleet of nuclear plants or invest in renewables—or support a mix of the two. Decommissioning old nuclear plants, building a new generation of plants, developing a system of renewables—all these options come with significant price tags.

Car Dealerships as a Barrier to Electric Vehicle Uptake

Car Dealerships as a Barrier to Electric Vehicle Uptake

A recent study conducted by Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and published in Nature Energy has found that car dealerships are a key impediment to the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) compared to diesel- and gasoline-fueled vehicles in Northern Europe. The study, which focusses on Nordic countries, found that this outcome stems from sales personnel failing to mention EVs and providing customers with misinformation about electric vehicle specifications, with a "bias towards selling traditional, internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) instead." Importantly, the study found that of the 126 car dealerships examined and that sell EVs, over three quarters neglected to mention electric vehicles.

Green Organizations ‘On the Inside’–Challenges and Opportunities

Green Organizations ‘On the Inside’–Challenges and Opportunities

On Thursday, June 14th, Leaders in Energy held the fourth Green Career Momentum (GCM) event at Green America.  The GRM series has been held to assist Leaders in Energy members in find or create a dream green job. Each session has a specialized topic, speakers, skill, and green economy focus area. 

Limitless: The Race to Create the Sun on Earth

Limitless: The Race to Create the Sun on Earth

A research group at MIT says nuclear fusion is within years of being commercially viable. And a European project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is also aggressively moving toward development of nuclear fusion power. Is this the dawn of a new nuclear age—safe, sustainable energy from nuclear fusion?

The joke about energy from nuclear fusion is that it is always just 20 years away. In the 1950s, researchers hoped that they could solve our energy crisis by building a sun on earth. They predicted that it would be possible to harness the sun’s energy-making processes, known as nuclear fusion. If successful, this process would allow humans to use the abundant hydrogen on earth to provide limitless energy, while avoiding the potential catastrophic risks of nuclear fission reactions and generation of toxic nuclear waste.

Fossil Fuel Swap: New Study Shows ‘Overlooked’ Benefits of Switching from Coal to Gas

Fossil Fuel Swap: New Study Shows ‘Overlooked’ Benefits of Switching from Coal to Gas

A recent report published in Nature Energy by researchers at two UK institutions, the University of Sheffield and Imperial College London, considers the “enabling conditions in Great Britain and the potential for rapid fuel switching in other coal-reliant countries.” The report found that the United Kingdom’s overall carbon emissions dropped by 6% in 2016, thanks to “cleaner electricity production.” Importantly, the report found that the reduction was not due to an increase in lower-carbon nuclear or renewable energy sources, but rather, the underestimated benefits of switching from coal to natural gas energy generation. If a fuel switch can be encouraged to make better use of existing gas infrastructure, the fuel switch may be able to scale up quickly and produce significant near-term emission reductions.

MethaneSAT: Monitoring Methane Emissions From Space

MethaneSAT: Monitoring Methane Emissions From Space

On April 11, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) President Fred Krupp announced the organization’s plans to create and launch a new satellite to monitor and measure global methane emissions—from space.

The ‘groundbreaking’ MethaneSAT plans were unveiled in a TED talk in Vancouver, BC.. The satellite will measure only emissions of methane, the powerful greenhouse gas responsible for roughly one quarter of the manmade global warming we currently experience. Methane is a particularly important cause of climate change because of its potency;while it is not as long-lasting in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it is “far more devastating” because it traps over 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first twenty years after its release.