US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 07/31/14 By Michael Shank and Kate Edelen Oil thefts are growing in Nigeria and threaten stability in the region. An SEC rule could help stem oil-related violence in the Niger Delta. As America’s news coverage of Nigeria continues to focus on the plight of kidnapped […]
Tag: oil
Renewable Energy’s Nonviolent Future (Case: Somalia)
NATIONAL JOURNAL 08/12/13 By Michael Shank Having just returned from Somalia last week, and after meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources, the imperative to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy is increasingly becoming a moral one, not merely an environmental or financial one. In Somalia — where the […]
Climate Change Fight Includes Private Sector
ROLL CALL 01/25/12 By Michael Shank and Melissa Powell With last month’s climate talks in South Africa postponing specific carbon cuts until 2020, it is clear that something more than mere nation-state commitments will be needed to counter climate change and reduce global warming. With nations reluctant to recommit to […]
Drill Here, Drill Now? No: Sustainability Lies Elsewhere
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH 08/30/08 By Michael Shank and U.S. Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) To drill or not to drill, that is the question. But is it? Offshore oil reserves, once online — a feat that would come long after the new president’s first term — will garner less than three years […]
Larger Meaning of ‘Use it or Lose it’
THE HILL 07/10/08 By Michael Shank That Congress is pressuring oil companies to “use it or lose it” on public lands is understandable enough given constituent discontent with rocketing petrol prices (article, “Energy bill out of gas,” July 8). But this narrow and nebulous agenda is near-sighted for two reasons. […]
Congress’s Goals on CAFE, Biofuels Don’t Go Far Enough
THE HILL 12/06/07 By Michael Shank Coinciding with the United Nations climate change conference in Bali this week, Congress remains mired in energy bill deliberations. And it appears that foreign leaders abroad are the more formidable fighters against global warming. In the article “New groups get in ring as energy […]
Pioneers Can Secure Our Future
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH 09/13/07 By Michael Shank and US Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) Russia, Canada, and the United States are rushing to the North Pole in a pioneer-like land grab for an estimated 25 percent of the world’s unknown oil and gas reserves. One wonders when we will learn. Oil and […]