Energy Literacy Advocates Newsroom
Energy Literacy Advocates (ELA) is a non-partisan, non-profit, public education and advocacy group dedicated to improving the energy literacy of all sectors of our democracy in order to empower a comprehensive national energy policy that is responsible and sustainable. Stay tuned for updated energy news!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tipping Point for Consciousness is Economic
Is sheer market economics dictating the recent surge in hybrid and compact flourescent light bulb purchases? The U.S. is at a "tipping point," with people beginning to factor energy use into everyday decisions, says Lee Schipper in The Wall Street Journal. Schipper, who has studied energy consumption for decades, declares the driver isn't ecology, bur rather "Sadly, it's economics. No pain, no gain."
Columnist Jeffrey Ball attributes Europe's energy consumption patterns - where the average resident consumes less than half as much oil each year as the average American - to high energy taxes, rather than environmental awareness. These economic penalties make conservation rational and not just virtuous.
For the full text of this article, click here.
Columnist Jeffrey Ball attributes Europe's energy consumption patterns - where the average resident consumes less than half as much oil each year as the average American - to high energy taxes, rather than environmental awareness. These economic penalties make conservation rational and not just virtuous.
For the full text of this article, click here.
Labels: economy, energy sources, environment, oil price, oil supply/demand
posted by Amanda Voss at 8:51 AM
0 comments
Monday, May 19, 2008
Michael Klare's New Energy Order
"Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live - trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become more pronounced as energy supplies dwindle and the global struggle over their allocation intensifies."
So begins Michael Klare's article chronicling the end of the energy world as we know it. Klare identifies intense competition over energy sources among economic powers, insufficiency of existing energy supplies, the delay in developing alternative energy sources, migration of wealth and power to energy-rich nations and a growing risk of conflict as factors shaping our new energy reality.
For the full text of this article, click here.
So begins Michael Klare's article chronicling the end of the energy world as we know it. Klare identifies intense competition over energy sources among economic powers, insufficiency of existing energy supplies, the delay in developing alternative energy sources, migration of wealth and power to energy-rich nations and a growing risk of conflict as factors shaping our new energy reality.
For the full text of this article, click here.
Labels: energy, energy policy, energy sources, oil price
posted by Amanda Voss at 4:10 PM
0 comments
Monday, March 24, 2008
U.S. Air Force Mulling "Green" Fuel Options
Great Falls, Montana and the nearby Malmstrom Air Force Base are centerpoints in the U.S. Air Force plan to develop a private coal-to-diesel plant. This plan also includes goals to increase synthetic fuel consumption, so that by 2016 alternatives account for half of the fuel supply. Currently, the Air Force allocates $4.5 billion annually to aviation fuel alone, a price tag that only continues to rise.
Tests in 2006 demonstrated that synthetic fuels can perform at high altitudes, prompting the Air Force to begin seeking a supplier. Proponents of coal-to-liquid technology hail the Air Force's strategy as a jump-start to the industry.
To read more about these developments, click here.
Tests in 2006 demonstrated that synthetic fuels can perform at high altitudes, prompting the Air Force to begin seeking a supplier. Proponents of coal-to-liquid technology hail the Air Force's strategy as a jump-start to the industry.
To read more about these developments, click here.
Labels: energy sources, National Security
posted by Amanda Voss at 2:13 PM
0 comments
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Joule Standard
While fairly technical in nature, this article about adopting a joule standard in order to easily compare energy sources is well put...
Read the article.
Read the article.
Labels: energy sources
posted by Jamie Lang at 1:36 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Winds of Change: Corporations Lend Names to Wind Farms
In this New York Times article, a new trend in corporate branding is revealed - companies rushing to provide their names and funds to wind farms. Businesses from John Deere to Steelcase furniture are investing both in construction and energy credits from these farms, hoping to reap the profits both from alternative energy and a responsible corporate image.
For the full article on this green corporate trend, click here.
For the full article on this green corporate trend, click here.
Labels: economy, energy sources, environment
posted by Amanda Voss at 12:30 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Oil From a Stone
This article about the potential of oil shale brings the reader up to speed on the latest technology advances in the difficult field of oil shale recovery. Oil shale may play an important role as a fossil fuel source in the future, with reserves located in the US that are three times that of Saudi Arabia. However there are limitations and drawbacks, including an extraction process that is far more intensive than conventional oil, leading to environmental concerns. A more intensive process also means fewer barrels can be easily extracted per day (witness the Canadian tar sands, who have worked for 30 years to reach the current level of production). In short oil shale, as with all other energy sources, is by no means a silver bullet.
Read the article here...
Read the article here...
Labels: economy, energy policy, energy sources
posted by Jamie Lang at 3:52 PM
0 comments
