Author Archives: Mike Mulvihill

China Clean Air Champion…What?

By Mike Mulvihill
In Monday’s The Harvard Crimson two staff writers posited an interesting macroeconomic/green tech play that could transform China – and the U.S. – through a modern day space race for green technology supremacy. (A role no nation seems too invested in pursuing at this juncture.)
The article Green Dragon: China’s $200 Billion Clean Energy [...]

Clean, Green… Army?

By Mike Mulvihill
“We’ve got the land and the demand.”
That’s the catchphrase of the Army’s new Energy Initiatives Office, which was created to attract $7 billion in private investment to build 20 “utility-scale” renewable energy installations on Army bases.
These plants will generate a mix of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power with the estimated 2.1 million [...]

Hazy World Energy Future

by Mike Mulvihill
In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that China and India will drive up worldwide energy consumption by as much as 53 percent by 2035 with a corresponding increase in carbon dioxide emissions of 43 percent.
The EIA 2011 International Energy Outlook predicts energy from renewable and alternative sources will [...]

Can Energy Jobs Lead The Way?

In a nationally broadcast speech last week, President Obama announced his $447 billion American Jobs Act plan. Unlike prior speeches, he didn’t mention clean-energy jobs once, but if you read between the lines, there are areas where the sector could gain.
Putting that aside for a moment, it is also worth noting President Obama’s decision to [...]

When Brand Is Not King

By Mike Mulvihill
The King is dead. (Not Elvis. Well, yes Elvis is dead…never mind.) As of this past weekend, the bizarre royal icon conjured from some creeper van nightmare no longer fronts for the Burger King brand. He’s been dropped for a new ad campaign that focuses on BK’s food. (However, he is still [...]

Brownouts on the Way?

by Mike Mulvihill

Great news! New EPA regulations coming down the pike will force many utilities to reduce emissions. The bad news? These same regs could cause us to lose as much as 7 percent of the nation’s electricity generation pretty quickly.
The E.P.A. estimates its rule on air toxins and mercury expected out in November will [...]

Weibo Out-Socials Socialism

by Mike Mulvihill
Isn’t it interesting how social media empowers people in socialistic countries where the government neither protects nor encourages a free press?
On July 30, China Media Project Director Qian Gang delivered a radio address to the journalists of China and Hong Kong. His remarks highlighted the remarkably candid, bold and broad coverage by mainland [...]

The $29 Million Battery

By Mike Mulvihill
This is not a NASA toilet seat story. (There’s no fun in whipping up on NASA any more.) This is about West Virginia, coal central for the Eastern U.S., which has cleared the way for AES (the nation’s second largest energy company) to construct a 32 MW electric storage device to provide [...]

Word Play Politicizes Energy

by Mike Mulvihill
An excellent blog post Sunday by Kate Galbraith in the New York Times (Word Choice Matters for Energy Policy) points out the depth of our nation’s political obfuscation on energy policy.
Ms. Galbraith points out that when President Barack Obama speaks about the fuels of the future; his term of choice is usually “clean [...]

Social Media Juggernaut Rolls On

by Mike Mulvihill
Some days, the marketplace just spews out interesting mile markers about social media and the steroid-infused future of social media (i.e., mobile social media). Here are a few or the more strategically significant tidbits from the past several days:
· Nearly half (43 percent) of all businesses have used social media networks to acquire [...]