Mention the phrase “hydrogen economy” these days, and most people will laugh at you. That’s because the phrase reminds most people of the endlessly unfulfilled promises of fuel cell–powered cars and hydrogen refueling stations. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his famous hydrogen powered Hummers, has dropped talk of the Hydrogen Highway in favour of something a bit more practical: […]

Another year, another disagreement on a pan-provincial approach to climate change. You can almost set your watch to what Ontario and Alberta will say at the annual premier-fest (a.k.a. Council of the Federation meeting). Ontario will talk about closing its coal-fired generating plants, Alberta about its opposition to any plan to put a price on […]

In their decades-long efforts to develop effective and affordable climate change policy, most western governments have put a lot of money and effort in two areas: (1) hydrogen, and (2) carbon capture and sequestration. They are on the right track, but they’re going about it in a roundabout way. That could set back progress by decades

Gasoline, diesel, and heating oil are all hydrocarbon fuels. Almost every drop of them available on the planet today comes from petroleum. But that isn’t written in stone. Each of these fuels is, at bottom, a different combination of hydrogen and carbon. You can make all of these fuels without using any petroleum. You just […]

Are oil company–sponsored windmill ads about to disappear from our TV screens? Oil giant Shell has decided to abandon investments into renewable energy like wind and solar. A Shell executive told the Guardian that the company will no longer put money into investments that don’t compete with Shell’s core business, which is producing and marketing […]

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Section 526 of the 2007 U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act prohibits U.S. federal agencies from buying fuels whose lifecycle emissions are higher than those of conventional petroleum. This means U.S. agencies cannot buy Alberta oilsands petroleum the way it is produced today. Which is […]

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has been touted as a way to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. In North America, coal plants emit around 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Storing 2 billion tonnes of CO2 every year will be a bit tricky, to put it mildly. But what if there were a way to […]