July, 2010 | ModeShift

A Natural Gas Gusher in Michigan Could Mean Big New Play, and Trouble

by Keith SchneiderJuly 31, 2010July 31, 20100

Photo Â© Heather Rousseau / Circle of Blue The aptly named Pioneer natural gas well, near Lake City in Missaukee Countyâ€™s Pioneer Township, is a stack of gauges and metal piping that rises about 7 feet from a bed of crushed stone at the center of a five-acre clearing surrounded by Michigan hardwoods. The only sound in the clearing is of songbirds hidden in the trees. The sole scent from the straight-as-a-gun-barrel well–drilled and tested …

Copenhagen’s Fallout: Senate Drops Climate Action From Energy Bill

by Keith SchneiderJuly 22, 2010September 9, 20100

Until December 2009, the idea of acting to cool the Earth was on a roll. High points included 2007 Nobel Prizes for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s breakthrough science and for Al Gore’s astonishing work to elevate global warming to an international priority, They also included Barack Obama’s winning 2008 presidential election, and the formation of global online grassroots activism led byÂ 350.org and TckTckTck, a project of the Global Campaign For Climate …

Obama To Visit Holland, Michigan For Battery Plant Groundbreaking

by Keith SchneiderJuly 13, 2010July 13, 20100

President Obama will be in Michigan on Thursday for the groundbreaking ceremony of a new LG Chem-Compact battery plant, which will make the power sources for the Chevy Volt, expected to be introduced later this year. The plant is one of 17 new manufacturing facilities in Michigan connected to battery production for electric vehicles. On May 26 ModeShift published a full account of the federal and state-financing that leveraged the more than $6 billion total …

Climategate Is Over, The Moment to Act on Warming and Energy is Here

by Keith SchneiderJuly 8, 20100

As cities on the East Coast sweltered in the sort of dispiriting record-breaking heat that climate scientists accurately predicted, the Obama administration’s lawyers were in a federal appellate court in New Orleans today to reinstate the moratorium on deep sea oil and gas exploration the Interior Department issued in May. Last month a federal district judge with investment interests in the energy industry struck down the temporary ban on new drilling. It’s been that kind …

Science Vindicated as Senate Edges Toward Climate and Energy Debate

by Keith SchneiderJuly 7, 2010July 7, 20100

The 20-year global campaign to cool the planet, one of the most influential civic movements in human history, was built on two points of reference. The first is visible evidence on every continent of escalating temperatures, melting ice, more ferocious storms, fiercer droughts, and deadlier floods. The second is the wealth of scientific data that proves Mother Nature’s erratic behavior is no accident. It’s the result of the combustion of fossil fuels that is steadily …

On Climate and Energy, Pressing For Inevitability

by Keith SchneiderJuly 2, 2010July 2, 20100

Following a 90-minute White House meeting Tuesday on climate and energy legislation with a bipartisan group of senators and President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid emerged to issue this assessment: “The President led a spirited, productive discussion this morning about how to move forward on clean energy legislation. Our caucus is energized on this issue and our resolve to act on energy legislation this summer remains strong.” In holding the meeting, the president and …