Portside

Europeans, in order to lessen their dependence on Russian oil and gas, are plotting to develop European controlled solar energy in the Algerian (or Tunisian Sahara). These projects would be done in such a manner as to maintain the core-peripheral relations between France and Algeria - using neo-liberal economic models that the Europeans should own and control the energy sources while the North Africans would get nothing out of the deal. Before it was oil, now solar.

Europeans, in order to lessen their dependence on Russian oil and gas, are plotting to develop European controlled solar energy in the Algerian (or Tunisian Sahara). These projects would be done in such a manner as to maintain the core-peripheral relations between France and Algeria - using neo-liberal economic models that the Europeans should own and control the energy sources while the North Africans would get nothing out of the deal. Before it was oil, now solar.

Greece's new government is committed to `ecological transformation'. Syriza's existing programmatic commitments to work towards "the development of a new paradigm of social, environmental and economic development," and the need to build a public sector of a "new type" could transform energy and climate politics in the EU and beyond.

Reader Comments - Boehner, Netanyahu, Israel and Iran; Labor in the 21st Century; Public School Poverty; Billie Holiday; Pete Seeger; The New Europe - SYRIZA and Podemos; 'American Sniper'; Social Security; Agent Orange; Ukraine; Martin Luther - Militant Radical for Our Times; more... Resource: Energy Democracy in Greece; Announcements (New York)- Sri Lanka Killing Fields documentary; Anniversary of Malcolm X Assassination

A proposed dam on the Mekong River would provide energy for the region, but at a significant environmental cost.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is clearly not all about resources. But in an age of expensive energy, competition to dominate regional fossil fuels are increasingly influencing the critical decisions that can inflame war.

The millions of miles of distribution and service pipelines crisscrossing the nation mean that countless Americans - even those living far from gas fields - find themselves on the frontlines of fracking.

The race for renewable sources of energy is far from over, and the winners may ultimately be those that mimic nature rather than subverting it. Because one thing is certain: we cannot change physics.

Unresponsive power institutions are a bad legacy of the 20th century. And they are the biggest obstacle to improved electricity access for the developing world's poor people -- whether women, children, or men.