Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Energy and financial companies caught up in a scheme involving fraudulent renewable energy credits could now face civil fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.The EPA has issued 24 notices of violation to more than a dozen companies, including units of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Morgan [...]

Building a submarine pipeline in the Baltic Sea to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany contradicts targets to reduce fossil fuel dependency and seems to ignore a long history of environmental challenges in the area. This article examines the tensions between the environmental, economic, and national security arguments framing the Swedish government decision to [...]

Australia’s carbon tax has finally received approval from the country’s Senate after years of bitter political wrangling. The Australian prime minister Julia Gillard called it one of the most important environmental and economic reforms in Australia’s history. However, the opposition leader has promised to repeal the law if his party wins the next election, due [...]

WASHINGTON — The leading American effort to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants has hit a stumbling block that could imperil the project and set back a promising technology for addressing global warming, people involved in the venture said. Ameren, the Midwestern power company that was to be the host for the project, has told [...]

A set of 13 US based experts in post-combustion and oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture systems responded to an extensive questionnaire asking their views on the present status and future expected performance and costs for amine-based, chilled ammonia, and oxy-combustion retrofits of coal-fired power plants. This paper presents the experts’ responses for technology maturity, ideal plant [...]

One of the thorniest regulatory issues these days is how to pay for necessary clean-ups and remediations. CERCLA includes provisions for recovery of these costs, but often, responsible parties are long defunct or insolvent. The Chevron oil spill litigation in Peru is another example of how difficult it is to assign responsibility for and then [...]

In an important contribution in Ecological Economics, van de Bergh (2010) correctly concludes that sustainability does not imply zero externalities. However, he continues with the Delphic statement “(Delphic statements were uttered by the renowned oracle of ancient Greece at Delphi. They were phrased in such a way as to be self-fulfilling because alternative interpretations covered [...]