fossil fuels

  • Mark Webber driving a 2016 Porsche 919 Hybrid in London

    Norway and The Netherlands started the trend a few years ago, though they're relatively tiny car markets. Then France and the U.K. joined in. China, the world's largest new-car market by far, is doing it—though the country hasn't decided when. All of those countries plan to ban, or work the end of, sales of new vehicles with internal-combustion engines. DON'T MISS: 2017's most important story: internal-combustion engine ban in China While such an idea remains unthinkable on a national level in the U.S., a bill to that effect was introduced in California in January. Now there's pressure...

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
    How much does it matter that Trump officials deny climate science? Twitter poll results

    It is now abundantly clear that the Trump administration in the U.S. is staffed with climate-science denialists and committed promoters for the greater extraction, sale, and combustion of fossil fuels. That includes coal, the dirtiest major fossil fuel of them all, with the highest emissions of...

  • Flooded Cars 01
    Trump to slash clean-energy funding 72 percent, lauds "beautiful clean coal"

    If a marketer talked enthusiastically about "healthy delicious cyanide," what would you think? You may wish to apply those judgments to mentions of "beautiful clean coal" by President Donald Trump, who used the phrase in Tuesday's State of the Union address. Trump claimed his administration had...

  • Coal trains by Flickr user Kimon Berlin (Used under CC License)
    Trump promised to save the coal industry; it hasn't happened

    You may recall that President Donald Trump made some ambitious and audacious campaign promises about his plans to revive America's dwindling coal industry. Two weeks ago, The Washington Post fact-checked the president's delivery on those promises after his first year in office—in multiples of...

  • U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry in 2008, when he was governor of Texas
    Trump administration to work with Saudis on carbon capture for fossil fuels

    Last month, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry signed an agreement with Saudi Arabian officials to research "carbon capture" technology for fossil fuels, the Department of Energy announced. Perry and Khalid Al Falih, the Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources, signed a memorandum...

  • ExxonMobil oil refinery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by WClarke [CC BY-SA 4.0]
    Exxon and climate change: two lawsuits, in opposite directions, on same grounds

    One of the world's largest oil producers is about to enter a tit-for-tat battle over climate change with government officials from multiple states. New York, Massachusetts, New York City, and a slew of cities in California have brought multiple lawsuits against oil producers for a lack of...

  • Achates 2.7-liter opposed-piston gasoline compression-igntion engine in Ford F-150 test pickup truck

    As nations, automakers, and utilities contemplate how to tackle climate change in real terms, a perfect storm of competition is brewing that will—ideally—produce positive change for the rest of us. Automakers and electric utilities have been incentivized to build electric vehicles and install vast numbers of public charging stations to support those vehicles' deployment. But they aren't the only parties involved in cleaning up the air and cutting carbon emissions from vehicles. Now, Big Oil is investing money to clean up its act, too. DON'T MISS: Achates engine in Ford F-150...

  • California state capitol, Sacramento
    California bill to ban new fossil-fueled car sales by 2040 introduced

    A California lawmaker has submitted a bill that will ban the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles in the state starting in 2040. Assemblymember Phil Ting, a Democrat representing much of the Bay Area, introduced the bill on Wednesday, when lawmakers returned for the new legislative session...

  • Electricity grid substation (Image: FirstEnergy Corp on Flickr, used under CC license)
    Under Paris agreement, electric cars will hurt oil demand well before power supply: report

    Electric vehicles have the potential to upend energy markets as their adoption becomes more widespread. But how much of an effect will they have? And on which specific markets? According to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie, the global power grids are likely safe for quite a while, but another...

  • Coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station, Ontario, Canada, now being converted to 44-MW solar farm
    World Bank will stop funding oil, gas exploration in 2019

    It's not just the world automotive industry that's grappling with rapid changes brought about by the need to reduce the effects of climate change. The world's fossil-fuel extraction, refining, and delivery industries are also faced with the reality that two centuries of burning their core products...

  • China’s all-electric cargo ship will deliver coal to powerplants. China News/Peng Yonggui
    All-electric Chinese cargo ship will be used to haul coal

    A shipyard in China has built what it says is the world's first all-electric cargo ship, capable of hauling 2,000 metric tons of lading some 50 miles on a single charge. The ship, built and operated by CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) Company Ltd under the China State Shipbuilding...

  • California state capitol, Sacramento
    Bill could ban gasoline-car sales in California by 2040

    California, long a leader in emission reduction and electric-car incentives, may be ready to take the next big step: a full ban on the sale of new cars powered by gasoline or diesel. Such a ban would follow India, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and others around the world with...

  • U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry in 2008, when he was governor of Texas

    The Trump administration hasn't been coy about trying to champion traditional fossil fuels while downplaying the importance and falling costs of renewable energy. Earlier this year, Department of Energy secretary Rick Perry, previously governor of fossil-fuel producer Texas, called for a 60-day review of the United States' energy grid. The stated goal was to understand why traditional fuels such as coal and nuclear power were falling out of favor—and what that might mean for grid stability. DON'T MISS: Trump DoE to critique renewables against coal for grid reliability The department's...

  • Oil field (Image: Flickr user johnny choura, used under CC license)
    Texas fossil-fuel industry made state more vulnerable to hurricane

    Hurricane Harvey will go down as one of the most destructive and costliest natural disasters in the United States. While the storm has dissipated, with this week's attention focused on Hurricane Irma, the effects and damage tolls will last for years—and one thing already seems clear: Texas'...

  • Gas pump
    Death of engines overstated, fully electric world a 'comic book' fantasy: Japanese test company

    Most analysts agree the future of the automobile will slowly but increasingly come to rely on battery power. Electric cars will slowly displace internal combustion engines, many researchers suggest, and peak demand for fossil fuels used in transportation could arrive as soon as the next decade...

  • Oil field (Image: Flickr user johnny choura, used under CC license)
    Big oil firms fear Trump rules rollback: not for environment but for PR

    Efforts to loosen regulations on the oil industry now underway have met with public approval from fossil-fuel companies. But while the Trump administration has moved swiftly to create a more friendly regulatory environment for big oil, some executives have urged a slowdown behind the scenes. That's...

  • Oil well (photo by John Hill)
    Exxon knew climate change was real, ads told public it wasn't

    Sometimes it's best not to dare the public to do the research, especially if you're trying to persuade them of something that isn't true. Almost two years ago, Inside Climate News published a significant expose that confirmed Exxon's own scientists had agreed that human carbon emissions contributed...

  • The White House, Washington, D.C.  [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]
    Energy Dept disappoints US coal industry: no order keeping plants open

    The Trump administration has reneged on one aspect of a promise widely discussed throughout the 2016 presidential campaign: reviving the coal industry. President Donald Trump declared the United States coal industry would thrive under his watch, but the Trump administration and the Energy...

  • BMW engine

    Continental, a major supplier for automakers around the world, has come out with a bold prediction: internal-combustion engine development by German automakers will essentially end by the year 2025. The supplier, which makes exhaust-gas-cleaning systems for diesel cars and nitrogen oxide-measuring sensors, lists several factors contributing to its prediction: the increasing costs of development, the end of diesel's dominance, and an overall shift to electric cars and other alternative propulsion methods. Specifically, Continental CFO Wolfgang Schaefer predicts 2023 will be the final hurrah...

  • Highway sign for electric-car fast-charging station at BP in Metrolina area of Charlotte, NC
    BP follows other gas-station brands, adds electric-car charging

    Major oil companies are beginning to take the threat of electric cars seriously, and the latest evidence comes from British Petroleum. BP has begun discussions with electric-vehicle makers to partner on a network of charging stations. The move comes as many European countries announce plans to ban...

  • Oil well (photo by John Hill)
    Decline of oil: Bloomberg suggests what it could look like

    Predictions on the future of global energy vary greatly, but many analysts largely believe that peak demand for the oil industry is coming relatively soon. The world's largest oil companies, however, see it differently: they say their business will only continue to grow through the year 2040. Exxon...

  • Coal trains by Flickr user Kimon Berlin (Used under CC License)
    'Fossil fuels are dead,' says CSX railroad chief: no more new trains for coal, ever

    The industrial revolution that began around 1750 was powered in large part by coal, and the carbon-rich fuel had 200 good years after that. By the middle of the last century, however, serious studies had begun of its deleterious effects on human health—and that was before the climate-change...

  • Diesel taxis in London (Image by Flickr user Lars Ploughmann, used under CC license)
    UK to ban diesel, gasoline car sales by 2040; follows France, Norway, Holland bans

    The United Kingdom will follow in the footsteps of some European countries as it announced plans to ban the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars by the year 2040. The initiative closely follows a similar announcement from France, which also declared 2040 as the year it will phase out...

  • Tesla Model S at Supercharger site in Ventura, CA, with just one slot open  [photo: David Noland]
    Propaganda video claiming 'dirty electric cars' debunked

    For years, electric-car skeptics raised concerns about what was cleverly dubbed "The Coal Tailpipe": the idea that plug-in vehicles produced just as many harmful emissions as gasoline cars, but in a different place. That's not remotely true for carbon dioxide, as multiple studies over the years...

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