海角大神

听written by Monitor reporters David J. Unger and Jared Gilmour.

Antitrust:听, reflecting the sense that Moscow needs European customers more than Brussels needs Russian energy. After years of strengthening its own pipeline interconnections, expanding alternative sources, and using all those sources more efficiently,听. The term 鈥渆nergy security鈥� is often thrown around, but this is a real world example of what it means and why it matters.

Restart: A path to a nuclear renaissance in Japan is paved with legal ups and downs. Last Wednesday,听, just a week after a separate court delayed the startup of reactors in Fukui prefecture. Meanwhile, grid operators scramble to fill the gap left by the country鈥檚 mothballed reactors, which once accounted for more than a quarter of it鈥檚 power.听, hitting a record high for the fiscal year ending March 31.

Everglades: The Obama administration has long tried to shift energy and climate issues from the future to the present and from the political extremes to stabler middle ground. And听in southern Florida鈥檚 tropical wetlands, climate change is a kind of here-and-now problem, blind to local politics.听It explains why听, which emphasized contemporary challenges in a conservative state 鈥� replete with听.听

In the pipeline

• Tuesday, April 28: WASHINGTON 鈥撎�听to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, security, and climate change. A bill is working its way through Congress that would give Mr. Obama authority to negotiate a deal with听.
• Tuesday, April 28: WASHINGTON 鈥撎�听on his department鈥檚 Quadrennial Energy Review, which diagnoses problems with decaying US energy infrastructure and suggests some fixes 鈥� many of which would require appropriations from a GOP Congress.
• Thursday, April 30: HAWTHORNE, CALIF. 鈥撎�听in CEO Elon Musk鈥檚 latest venture beyond electric cars. Big names like听.

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Drill deeper

Why one town in oil-rich Texas is ditching fossil fuels听
[海角大神]
By 2017, Georgetown, Texas will get all its electricity from renewables 鈥� and the decision is an economic rather than environmental one. 鈥淢ake no mistake, this was a business case,鈥� Mayor Dale Ross tells the Monitor. Though nearly 鈥渆verybody has an oil derrick in their backyard鈥� in Texas, Ross says, sun and wind power are abundant and cheap, and don鈥檛 experience the same price volatility as fossil fuels.

[Council on Foreign Relations]
鈥淢oore鈥檚 Law is a consequence of fundamental physics. Clean technology cost declines are not,鈥� writes Varun Sivaram. 鈥淢oore鈥檚 Law is a prediction about innovation as a function of time. Clean technology cost declines are a function of experience, or production.鈥�

听[BBC]
China and Pakistan are bolstering ties with mutually beneficial infrastructure and energy deals. Pakistan will reap billions in investment; China will gain easier access to Middle East oil and gas. It鈥檚 part of China鈥檚 鈥淕o West鈥� strategy to expand influence in Eurasia and the Middle East. Though the US and India fret that China鈥檚 new development bank and its aggression in the South China Sea could stoke unrest, new money in Pakistan is more likely to stabilize a region sorely needing investment.

Energy sources

• : "In a situation where we still import 7 million barrels of crude oil per day, I don鈥檛 think an overly compelling argument has been made on the basis of pragmatic economics"
• : "2015 is a critical year for humanity. Our civilization has never faced such existential risks as those associated with global warming, biodiversity erosion and resource depletion. Our societies have never had such an opportunity to advance prosperity and eradicate poverty."
• : "Here we are thinking about lifting the sanctions on Iran and letting them export, and yet here we have sanctions in America that we can鈥檛 export our oil. What鈥檚 going on?"

Unplug

鈥淩esearch has identified 17 areas in the central and eastern United States with increased rates of induced seismicity. Since 2000, several of these areas have experienced high levels of seismicity, with substantial increases since 2009 that continue today.鈥�
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