Recently, Tesla passed General Motors as the most valuable U.S. automaker. Last week, my writing partner came back from Beijing, talking about how the Chinese were developing new electric cars. The Chinese are predicted to the lead the “NEV” or New Energy Vehicle cycle in a decade. Hayward now has a hydrogen refueling station, and […]
Grant Cooke: Benicia’s future at stake in local election
In August, I wrote a column about Benicia’s future, the New Economy and why Elizabeth Patterson, Steve Young, and Tom Campbell were the best choices to led our city as mayor and councilmembers respectively. At the time, I was disheartened by the majority of council members’ lack of political will to put a halt to […]
Grant Cooke: CBR permit denied and new Green Inudstrial Revolution developments impact Benicia
History, or at least precedence, was made Tuesday evening when the Benicia City Council denied Valero a land use permit to bring in volatile Bakken and Tar Sands crude oil from North Dakota and Canada by train. In what appeared to observers to be a stunning change of heart, the council unanimously agreed with the […]
Grant Cooke: Benicia’s future is with Patterson, Young and the new economy
If Valero’s crude-by-rail, or CBR, project goes through, it will do irreparable damage to Benicia. If the three councilmembers—Mark Hughes, Christina Strawbridge and Alan Schwartzman— continue their support for the project, they will do an extraordinary disservice to the city. I respect those who work on behalf of local government; however, in this case, the […]
Grant Cooke: Our Age of Discovery threatened by new demagogue
Coming from a cloistered Central Valley farm town to the Bay Area of the late 1960s was a transformational experience—a personal age of discovery. At UC Berkeley, I realized that it wasn’t just me, but in fact, the world stood at the beginnings of a remarkable new era of discovery. A few decades later, we […]
Grant Cooke: Benicia: Not exactly a smart, green city
THOMAS HOBBES, THE GREAT 16TH-CENTURY British political philosopher, wrote in “Leviathan” that humans living without legitimate government would eventually dissolve into a “state of nature.” This state of nature was brutish with violent chaos, evil discord and civil war. Legitimate government, Hobbes believed, had a “social contract” to wield power and authority. Hobbes’ vision that […]
Grant Cooke: Remember when Republicans liked the environment?
IN WHAT MUST SEEM LIKE THE GREATEST OF IRONIES to the current Republican Party, President Richard Nixon, the most infamous Republican president of all time, has become, in retrospect, a huge hero for the environment. Nixon, following in the tradition of another Republican president, the iconic Teddy Roosevelt — whose love for our land’s natural […]
Big Oil’s endgame: What it all means for Benicia
Editor’s note: Last of three parts to run on consecutive Sundays. Read part one by CLICKING HERE and part two by CLICKING HERE. IN APRIL 2014, THE HIGHLY RESPECTED Paris-based financial company Kepler Chevreux released a research report that has rippled through the fossil fuel industries. In it, Kepler Chevreux describes what is at stake […]
Grant Cooke: Big Oil’s endgame: While fossil fuel costs keep rising, renewable costs fall
Editor’s note: Second of three parts to run on consecutive Sundays. Read part one by CLICKING HERE. “The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil.” — Sheikh Ahmed-Zaki Yamani THREE KEY […]
Grant Cooke: Big Oil’s endgame has begun
Editor’s note: First of three parts to run on consecutive Sundays. “THE STONE AGE CAME TO AN END, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil,” said Sheikh Ahmed-Zaki Yamani. The former Saudi oil minister is arguably the […]