September 2017 / In the 2013 science fiction thriller Under The Skin Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who comes to earth and seduces unwitting men in Glasgow into becoming foodstuff for her BFFs hungrily waiting in the next galaxy back home. As we go to press, Trump is also facing off against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a life-and-death situation, which could very well challenge...
August 2017 / In Theodore Dreiser’s The Titan, he described the energy landscape in New York City at that time as follows (and which I have paraphrased) : Frank Algernon Cowperwood does not believe in the people; he does not trust them. To him they constitute no more than a … coal seam which is to be exploited …They present but a mass of bent backs, their knees and faces in the mire...
June-July 2017 / “The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is. — KHALIL GIBRAN The U. S. State Department once called the vast oil reserves beneath the sands of the Arabian desert in Saudi Arabia the most valuable commercial prize in the history of the planet. Fast forward around 75 years and the five most valuable listed firms in the world...
May 2017 / Coming out of this election cycle, we can seemingly make sense from the campaign rhetoric that the Trump administration intends to spur both GDP and job growth by investing in vital infrastructure projects in clean energy, information technology, high-speed rail, bridges and tunnels, even including drinking water, all to the tune of one trillion dollars. So far missing is more details...
April 2017 / In this issue I want to turn away from global considerations and start looking closer to home at New York City’s energy infrastructure. I’ve often wondered where the electricity comes from which charges my cellphone. Deep in the recesses of my memory I remember a faint reference in an elementary school class to a power grid covering North America. This grid is relatively...
Best-selling financial author, Wall Street investment banker, social commentator, award-winning poet, energy consultant, off-Broadway producer, and community organizer in Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign, Ron Spurga is the ultimate Renaissance Man.