Unless, of course, there are other, non-economic forces at work, pressing for changes to the status quo.Īnd such pressure really began to build in late 20 with the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, which re-invigorated the global conversation. Expensive alternative fuels don’t work economically when traditional fossil fuels are cheap. That’s because in the mid-1980s, crude prices crashed, and interest in alternative energy sources seemed to evaporate overnight. But before the effort to reduce global reliance on fossil fuels could even get up a head of steam, it was over. Government-sponsored financial incentives were committed, and infrastructure development was just getting off the drawing boards. Oil prices soared, and those prices supported serious investment in alternative energy technologies, including hydrogen. Compare the current intensity to one of those earlier cycles when interest cranked up - during the 1973-74 Oil Shock, when OPEC enacted an embargo on western nations perceived to have supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War (we talked about that recently in Been Around A Long Time). Today, we discuss the energy industry’s embrace of carbon capture solutions and how it could shape our energy future.Įnvironmental and climate concerns have cycled into the limelight a few times over the last several decades, but interest in these topics has reached a fever pitch in the past couple of years. Whether we’re talking about refineries, ammonia plants, steam crackers, ethanol plants, or any other carbon-generating industrial process, capturing the CO 2 - making the process “blue” - is seen by many as a way to make significant progress toward climate goals without over-burdening governments or consumers with the sky-high costs associated with some of the more technically challenging energy transition technologies. Across North America, the idea of capturing carbon dioxide to clean up our collective act is quickly gaining momentum and support.

It’s one of the largest recent efforts to marry hydrogen production with CCS - an increasingly popular solution informally referred to as “blue” hydrogen.

Find out five things you didn’t know about U2.A couple of weeks ago, Shell announced a large-scale carbon capture and sequestration initiative at its Scotford refinery complex near Edmonton, AB. It will also show exclusive interviews with artists, including Bono, David Byrne, Dee Snider, Tom Morello, Lars Urlich, Gloria Estefan, Gregg Allman, Jimmy Carter and others.

through rock music, features more than 50 artists and political figures. The exhibit, which explores important socio-political topics in the U.S. The video is part of Louder Than Words: Rock, Power and Politics exhibit, which will premiere at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on May 20th and will run through November 27th. “As a student of non-violence I had a violent reaction to what I was witnessing,” he explains. “I used the language of the Scripture to describe the situation: ‘In the howling wind comes a stinging rain / See it driving nails /Into the souls in the tree of pain / From a firefly, a red orange glow / See the face of fear / Running scared on the valley below/ Bullet the blue sky.”Īs for the character Bono created that’s described in the lyrics as having a “face red like a rose in a thorn bush” and who’s “peeling off those dollar bills”? That was Ronald Reagan. He then went on to explain how the lyrics developed. “We strapped my feelings to the song ‘Bullets the Blue Sky,” he recounts. He spoke with Edge about what he’d been through in El Salvador, and with a “nod to Jimi Hendrix,” Edge put the “fear and loathing” into his guitar solo on the song. “And it upset me as a person who read the Scriptures, to think that Christians in America were supporting this kind of thing, this kind of proxy war because of these Communists.” Later he adds, “I was not a Communist, but I felt it was wrong.” And while he says he didn’t feel they were in danger at the time, he knew lives were being lost nearby.

“I remember the ground shaking and I remember the smell I suppose of being near a war zone,” the singer recalls. The small group he was with went into the country’s hills. Bono says he visited with some Americans who were “offering solace to refugees in the war in El Salvador.” In the clip, Bono details his visit to El Salvador in 1986, which culminated in the band crafting “Bullet the Blue Sky.” At the time, Ronald Reagan was president and the U.S. Musically, myriad U2 songs also reflect their activism, including The Joshua Tree‘s “Bullet the Blue Sky.” In the new video above, Bono discusses the origins of the 1987 song. Among their many charitable works, they’ve been involved in the ONE campaign, which fights extreme poverty, and RED, which provides help for AIDS drugs in Africa. Throughout U2‘s career, they’ve been human rights activists, both through music and deed.