Open Letter to Former EPA’s Gina McCarthy in Retirement: A Full and Complete Disclosure of EPA’s Communications and some humility, please. An opinion about the EPA’s overall performance for the last 4 years, from the loyal opposition

Open Letter to Former EPA’s Gina McCarthy in Retirement: A Full and Complete Disclosure of EPA's Communications and some humility, please.  By Stephen Heins, The Word Merchant, LLC As a more active member of the loyal opposition, I cannot help noticing your appointment as a fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and John [...]

“Fracking Wastewater is Mostly Brines, Not Man-Made Fracking Fluids”: “They are retained in the shale deep underground.”

Thought Piece  [The effect on ground water of horizontal drilling and fracking is de minimis, a new Duke University study has found. It is reasonable to expect the emerging Internet of Things and other environmental innovations in the shale reserves will continue to benefit American's private sector for many decades.  Steve].   Fracking Wastewater is Mostly Brines, Not Man-Made Fracking Fluids Published January, 2017 Contact: Contact: [...]

By |2017-04-25T21:00:13-05:00April 25th, 2017|Categories: Energy, Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

A ‘Red Team’ Exercise Would Strengthen Climate Science: Put ‘consensus’ to test and improve public understanding, through an open, adversarial process

Thought Piece [Paranoid politics almost never achieves its goal. The obvious prejudices, hyperbole, rhetoric, and shrillness gives it away. Name-calling, smearing, and sneering are not arguments. The idea of a Red Team Exercise--which will tolerate a loyal opposition, a civil debate, a thoughtful discussion, and a well-reasoned dissent—seems like a civilized idea for a civilized society. Steve]  [...]

By |2017-04-22T22:29:52-05:00April 22nd, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , |Comments Off on A ‘Red Team’ Exercise Would Strengthen Climate Science: Put ‘consensus’ to test and improve public understanding, through an open, adversarial process

An Open Letter To Rick Perry On Natural Gas Exports: Natural Gas provides strong environmental and economic benefits.

Thought Piece [The following piece from James Taylor is spot on! While it is reasonable to expect a former Texas Governor to understand energy issues, this piece adds some intellectual firepower to the expansion of the whole hydraulic fracturing revolution. If it makes geopolitical and economic sense to export US oil (and it does), it certainly [...]

Real science must guide policy: Climate alarmists use faulty science and bald assertions to demand end to fossil fuels

Thought Piece [Paul Driessen recaps the testimony by four scientist witnesses at the recent House Science Committee hearings on assumptions, policy implications and scientific principles of climate change.  He makes a thought-provoking and compelling case that the supposed “consensus” or “settled” science on “dangerous manmade climate change” is still much in dispute and has been driven [...]

By |2017-04-18T21:04:44-05:00April 18th, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

Fracking comes to the Arctic in a new Alaska oil boom: This comes at a time of low oil prices, when observers felt the Arctic would remain off-limits.

Thought Piece [While the discovery of 5 to 6 billion oil and untold natural gas is good news for Alaska, the U.S. and the global energy markets, the logistics of the harvesting the oil will require vast quantities of water and sand needed for fracking, which will be challenging, and probably more expensive than the lower 48 states. Of the [...]

By |2017-04-14T21:58:37-05:00April 14th, 2017|Categories: Energy, Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on Fracking comes to the Arctic in a new Alaska oil boom: This comes at a time of low oil prices, when observers felt the Arctic would remain off-limits.

Legal Group Wants ‘Partisan’ AG Punished Over Handling Of High-Profile Public Records Request: Another New York Attorney General without boundaries?

Thought Piece "Legal Group Wants ‘Partisan’ AG Punished Over Handling Of High-Profile Public Records Request." Another New York Attorney General without boundaries? [Below, you will find two pieces about New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman. In many ways, his AG office's activities have been  reminiscent of Elliot Spitzer's attack on Wall Street: Highly political, very ambitious and utterly [...]

By |2017-04-14T21:48:53-05:00April 13th, 2017|Categories: Energy, Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Legal Group Wants ‘Partisan’ AG Punished Over Handling Of High-Profile Public Records Request: Another New York Attorney General without boundaries?

Julia Olson founded Our Children’s Trust with the idea of having children front the campaign against climate change and making them plaintiffs

Thought Piece [Lily Tomlin was right: "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." Steve] Hide Behind Kids in Oil and Gas Lawsuit by Aileen Yeung 12:12pm EDT April 10, 2017 aileen@energyindepth.org, Denver, CO In what the industry has called a flawed decision that imperils jobs and incomes, the Colorado Court of Appeals [...]

By |2017-04-14T21:41:28-05:00April 11th, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , , , , |Comments Off on Julia Olson founded Our Children’s Trust with the idea of having children front the campaign against climate change and making them plaintiffs

The role a melting glacier played in Exxon’s biggest disaster: “Global Warming, is there anything it can’t do?” Homer Simpson

Thought Piece [Ordinarily, I would have provided some editorial comment to a story like the one which appeared in the LA Times today, but I have been rendered almost speechless.  Making Exxon a silent corporate conspirator, hiding its early knowledge of global warming, in the Valdez oil spill is an one-sided journalistic disaster of biblical proportions. [...]

By |2017-04-06T20:31:58-05:00April 6th, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , |Comments Off on The role a melting glacier played in Exxon’s biggest disaster: “Global Warming, is there anything it can’t do?” Homer Simpson

“Atlantic Coast Pipeline Protestors Shut Down FERC Chair’s Lecture at Duke University”: “Enviros Shut Down Duke U Meeting Where FERC Chair to Speak”

Thought Piece [In the wake of the interview with NYU Professor Johnathon Haidt in Saturday's Wall Street Journal and his discussion of recent examples of the "new religion that drives the intolerance and violence at places like Middlebury and Berkeley," I can't help noticing that these two pieces, one by the Duke University protestors and the other by a Marcellus [...]

By |2017-04-06T20:38:02-05:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Environment, Thought Piece|Tags: , , |Comments Off on “Atlantic Coast Pipeline Protestors Shut Down FERC Chair’s Lecture at Duke University”: “Enviros Shut Down Duke U Meeting Where FERC Chair to Speak”