Subsidizing carbon pollution

Does this make any sense? A proposed coal-gasification plant in Indiana would capture it’s CO2 output and sell it to a big oil company who would build a pipeline costing more than a billion dollars to pipe the gas to the Gulf of Mexico to be used to force oil out of depleted oil wells. [...]

Another ace for A.C.E.S

Moving Montana away from dirty extractive energy production will not only help the earth, it will help Montanans. A new study by a team of researchers at the University of California, using a state-of-the-art forecasting model predicts that “comprehensive clean energy and climate policies would create jobs, increase consumers’ income, and strengthen the U.S. economy [...]

Coal Kills Kids

On Monday, the Montana State Land Board decided to delay a decision on leasing the state-owned parcels of coal in the Otter Creek tracts. “The board said more time is needed for the public to examine the proposed bid-letting.” The real reason was likely to let them figure out how to maximize the monetary return, [...]

Carbon hush money

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is a recently discovered technology that will allow energy companies to reduce that large, uncomfortable bulge in your wallet. We have been burning coal for a couple of hundred years, but it seems that we have only recently realized that carbon-based fuels are dirty. They kill millions of people a [...]

Otter Disaster

To those of you who wrote to the State Land Board to let them know how you feel about leasing the Otter Creek coal tracts: Thank you and take heart, I think they may be beginning to hear tiny voices in their ears. The board decided yesterday to delay a decision on leasing the state-owned [...]

Clean Coal, Hard Cash

AP released a brief article this morning outlining the real emphasis behind the push for “Clean Coal“. Governor Brian Schweitzer, in Bismarck on Tuesday for an energy seminar said, “clean coal technology could help generate billions of dollars for his state and North Dakota.“
Therein is revealed the real purpose behind our support for “Clean Coal“. [...]

CCS questions remain

Climate legislation in both the Senate and House seek billions of dollars to fund carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects nationwide. Is this technology safe? Is it cost effective? Does it work? Does it even exist? These are the questions that we need to answer before we begin to just lob money at energy companies.
At [...]

NUMBY Californians

Here’s another reason why carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is not really such a good idea. The basic idea is that we will just capture all the CO2 produced by coal-fired power plants, pump it under high pressure across the country and shove it thousands of feet underground where it will stay for infinity and [...]

Coal ash conundrum

Last week, the Bugle published an article concerning a recent National Research Council study on the hidden health and environmental consequences of power production in the U.S. The study found that we pay, as a nation, about $120 billion per year, mostly in increased health problems and early deaths for our reliance on fossil fuels.
Along [...]

There ain’t no free lunch

It is imperative for the health of the planet that we move away from extractive, carbon-based energy and toward more environmentally friendly alternatives. However, an article in the New York Times this morning reminds us that there are always going to be consequences to the planet no matter how we get our electrical power. Two [...]