California’s refinery sector is contracting, and the reasons are not as complicated as operators often suggest. When refinery owners announce closures, they usually point to the burden of environmental regulations, the costs of compliance, or fines from state agencies. Those factors are real, but they are not decisive. The more … [continued]
I recently read Why Nations Fail, the 2012 book by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for Economics for their work on how institutions shape economic prosperity, and was struck by how confidently it placed the United States on a path of enduring greatness. … [continued]
Canada is preparing to spend potentially half a trillion dollars on major infrastructure projects that will shape the economy and society for decades. The list spans ports, high speed rail, hydroelectricity, nuclear, mining, oil and gas, carbon capture, offshore wind, and transmission. On paper it looks like a bold nation … [continued]
Vermont is getting the Americans For Prosperity treatment, which promises prosperity for only a favored few.
The US is trying to bend the nations of the world to its will — and threatening massive retaliation if they refuse.
The alleged US government is hellbent on destroying renewable energy as a way of expanding the use of fossil fuels. The administration, led by true believers like Chris Wright, the current Energy Secretary, and Doug Burgum, the current Interior Secretary, likes to pooh pooh climate change. Recently, Wright acknowledged that … [continued]
At the end of my engagement with TenneT, the Netherlands’ transmission system operator, who I assisted with 2050 scenario planning for their target grid, I had the opportunity to sit down with a couple of members of the workshops to discuss our findings. What follows is a lightly edited transcript … [continued]
At the end of my engagement with TenneT, the Netherlands’ transmission system operator, who I assisted with 2050 scenario planning for their target grid, I had the opportunity to sit down with a couple of members of the workshops to discuss our findings. What follows is a lightly edited transcript … [continued]
Someone asked me recently about a Houston-based startup called Gold H2. That was enough to send me down the rabbit hole. After a few hours of reading, checking some chemistry, and doing a few back-of-the-envelope calculations, I had enough material that it was worth pulling together in one place. This … [continued]
Wall Street’s six largest banks have cut their financing to oil, gas and coal projects by 25% year-on-year through August 1, 2025. In dollar terms, that means about $73 billion this year versus roughly $97 billion in the same period in 2024. The pullback is uneven. Morgan Stanley reduced its … [continued]
