Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/tag/energy/page/15/)
There is nothing more fundamental to the health of economy than energy costs, particularly the price of gasoline. There are more important things in life, especially food, but that cost does not rise and fall as rapidly and unpredictably as the cost of the gasoline that keeps our whole system running.
Natural gas has always been the bane of oil production. The processes deep in the earth that create oil over millions of years tend to produce even more volatile gases than liquid oil. These have typically been “flared”, or burned off to get rid of them, since they are difficult to transport or do anything with.
It’s almost summer and it’s an election season. That means gas prices will be up and there will be a lot of mud-slinging, name-calling, finger-pointing and haranguing from politicians as to why. Continue Reading
Southeastern Minnesota is the next frontier for what energy experts call a ‘modern day gold rush – a $1 billion dollar a year industry with the potential to tap North America’s natural gas reserves, reduce dependence on foreign oil, and create jobs in communities hit hard by the global recession. Suddenly, small units of government are faced with making quick decisions that balance these promised benefits against what critics say will be the plundering of local resources and an impending environmental catastrophe.KFAI’s Nathan Jones has a report. [Audio below] Continue Reading
In 2007, the Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) created a framework for achieving significant energy conservation efforts and implementing renewable energy sources throughout Minnesota. Continue Reading
Two dollar per gallon gas is possible, just not for the reasons recently advocated by Congresswoman Michelle Ba Continue Reading
Alarming research coming out of the University of Minnesota raises concerns over the public health impacts of antibiotic use in ethanol production.
There was an “unusual event” on March 6 at the Prairie Island nuclear plant that seems to have escaped the local media but caught the attention of newspapers in western Wisconsin, the Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle in California and the Miami Herald in Florida.According to the official Xcel Energy statement: “Officials at the Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing, Minn., declared a Notification of Unusual Event today at 6:24 a.m. Plant officials made the declaration when they received indication that there was a decrease in water levels inside the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) in Unit 2, which is currently undergoing a refueling outage.”How could water levels in the cooling system get low enough to reach dangerous levels? There are only two alternatives. Either the operators failed to notice the water level was getting low, or there was a leak in the system. Xcel: “Operators took immediate actions to respond, and further investigation revealed there was not a leak in the system.” Are they sure? How much confidence should we have in their investigation? Continue Reading
As the one year anniversary of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster approaches, Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy recently Continue Reading
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