Word: gas
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...like a caricature of the disastrous Czar Boris Godunov, on whose watch Russia suffered hunger and humiliation. Plagued by heart trouble and alcohol abuse, Yeltsin had secured re-election in 1996 only by turning the privatization of the Russian energy sector into a sleazy scam, trading oil and gas fields for campaign contributions. Meanwhile, ordinary Russians had to endure rampant inflation and unemployment. Small wonder Russia's geopolitical standing seemed to crumble during the 1990s. As former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact allies queued up to join NATO, the superpower seemed really to have become--as the cold war joke...
...conference hall, it struck me that his target audience was not necessarily American but rather more European and Middle Eastern. Like Michael Corleone, Putin aspires to be a businessman. His Russia is an energy empire, sitting on more than a quarter of the world's proven reserves of natural gas, 17% of its coal and 6% of its oil. For geographical reasons, the U.S. is not one of Russia's main customers. But two-fifths of Germany's natural-gas imports come from Russia--as do all of Iran's new nuclear reactors. When Putin mentioned energy prices...
...greenhouse gases without large job losses or high costs to industry and consumers. As well, some experts think that with the right settings, a carbon market can curb energy demand and lead to the take-up of new energy technologies (that is, as the Task Group said, "clean coal," gas, nuclear power and renewable sources...
...Taking some of the initiative, on Feb. 9 Labor premiers and chief ministers agreed to implement a national system of carbon trading from 2010-with or without the federal government. Carbon trading is already happening in Australia's suburbs and towns. For instance, in New South Wales, the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme imposes annual reduction targets on electricity retailers; other companies that carry out work to reduce greenhouse gases (by installing energy-efficient light globes and water-saving showerheads or planting trees) can create so-called "abatement certificates." Polluters can buy these to offset their own emissions. Since 2003, about...
...produced will have to change. A report to the Prime Minister last December on nuclear power, by former Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski, estimated that the additional electricity-producing capacity to drive the nation at mid-century will need to use technology with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions (to keep emissions from this sector at today's levels). The Task Group is now taking submissions from the community and will report to the P.M. by the end of May. "Given the scale of the challenge faced," the group says in its issues paper, "there is no room for complacency." A local...