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Ken Silverstein

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Colorado, West Virginia
As seen in: LinkedIn, Forbes, MSN, MSN Brasil, UOL Notícias, Daily Mail, Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News, Yahoo News Australia, Yahoo News Malaysia and
Covers:  Energy transition, AI Infrastructure, Grid Reliability, and Geopolitics
30-Year-Energy Transition & Geopolitics Columnist | @Forbes. Syndicated to 300+ papers via @InsideSources. MBA @Tulane | Cited by US Senate ⚡️🌍
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Fueling America's Economic Engine - Forbes

Fueling America's Economic Engine - Forbes

Forbes — When President Carter gave his "Crisis of Confidence" speech in 1979, he exclaimed that he, too, was feeling America's economic pain while expressing the fear that the suffering was also threatening to destroy both the social and political fabric of the United States. The people, he said, were losing faith not just in their elected leaders but also in themselves and their ability to shape their own democracy. As history unraveled, however, America did regain its sense of purpose and for nearly two decades running, the country experienced unparalleled prosperity.
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Unearthing the Truth Behind Environmental Regulations - Forbes

Unearthing the Truth Behind Environmental Regulations - Forbes

Forbes — As environmental regulators are continuing to write new rules, questions are getting posed as to whether government is overstepping its bounds or whether it is acting with the public's interest in mind. As such, the presidential candidates are taking opposing views, with each citing studies to support them. Be wary. The research being used by President Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is often selective and underwritten by special interests that are trying to move public opinion. To that end, those studies will use variables and assumptions that lead to conclusions to bolster a political position.
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Nuclear Power Shaken But Still Standing A Year After Fukushima - Forbes

Nuclear Power Shaken But Still Standing A Year After Fukushima - Forbes

Forbes — When the Fukushima Daiichi facility crumbled a year ago, many were left wondering whether the nuclear sector would ultimately stay standing. Although the industry is shaken, much of the global community remains resilient and is determined to cross cultural barriers to enact sound safety protocols. While the plant's three working nuclear units survived the initial earthquake, the subsequent tsunami knocked them all out by killing the backup power that cools the radioactive fuel rods. Without such power, the reactor's core suffers a meltdown and deadly radiation can escape. Just after the disaster, U.S.
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Political Graft Shrouds Climate Debate - Forbes

Political Graft Shrouds Climate Debate - Forbes

Forbes — Academics are not lobbyists. Or are they? The Heartland Papers are teaching us that the field of science is awash in cash - money that is being supplied by vested interests that are trying influence public policy, and even the school curriculum. People of goodwill often disagree passionately about scientific hypotheses and subsequent conclusions. It's true for any policy debate and it's true when it comes to understanding climate science, which is at issue here. But this type of honest dialogue has been hijacked and obfuscated by those with a financial stake in its outcome.
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Journalists Don't Back Down from Raw-Knuckled PR Tactics

Journalists Don't Back Down from Raw-Knuckled PR Tactics

www.energybiz.com — Harken back to the deepest and darkest moments of the California energy crisis. Utilities' rates were tightly regulated and neither the governor nor the state legislature would lift the rate caps so that utilities could recoup their costs. Instead, they insisted that power traders were manipulating markets while the elected leadership pleaded with federal regulators to limit wholesale electricity prices. Eventually, unethical traders combined with a flawed regulatory design to upend the California energy scheme as well as to end the job of its then-sitting governor. It also forced Pacific Gas & Electric into bankruptcy and it pushed Southern California Edison to the precipice of disaster.
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Gales of November Have Come Early

Gales of November Have Come Early

www.energybiz.com — How Sandy Has Crystalized the Presidential Race The collision of Hurricane Sandy and the national presidential election is literally the perfect storm, reminiscent of the Gordon Lightfoot classic called the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and when the "Gales of November came early." The infamous shipwreck may metaphorically link one of the meanest battles for the Oval Office with one of the most fiery storms to make landfall in the Northeastern United States: The hurricane is encapsulating the candidates' management styles and their energy-related philosophies. Indeed, Mother Nature is defining the 2012 presidential contest just as Gordon Lightfoot adeptly characterized "The Wreck" in 1976.
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Southern California Edison Playing Hide-And-Seek With Public And Regulators

Southern California Edison Playing Hide-And-Seek With Public And Regulators

Forbes — It's a PR debacle. And it's becoming a huge legal headache as well. It's the case of Southern California Edison and the gradual revelation that it had prior knowledge of issues that could cause radiation leaks at its facility dotting the Pacific coastline. Letters surfaced this week illustrating that the utility had discussed the possibility of disruptive vibrations that could wear down tubes that hold radioactive material. One was written in November 2004 and the other in June 2005, both by the former vice president of the nuclear division who left his job later in 2005.
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Is SoCalEd Mired In Crisis Or Controversy?

Is SoCalEd Mired In Crisis Or Controversy?

Forbes — Is the radiation leak at a nuclear reactor in Southern California a crisis or is it a controversy? The facts are not yet in. But crisis experts are saying that in all instances, the best policy is one of openness and transparency, revealing the underlying facts early and often. Indeed, no matter how detrimental events might become, the price of hiding them is even more devastating. Certainly, legal interests enter the equation but oftentimes, they conflict with those of communications consultants. In such cases, corporate leaders can be caught in the middle, opting to "take the Fifth."
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Enron, Ethics And Today's Corporate Values

Enron, Ethics And Today's Corporate Values

Forbes — Enron's heyday has long ended. But its lessons will long endure. The global business community is now watching a painful new chapter is this saga - one where its former high-riding chief executive officer, Jeff Skilling, is getting a decade shaved off of his prison term that should now end in 2017. The company's failure in 2001 represents the biggest business bankruptcy ever while also spotlighting corporate America's moral failings. It's a stark reminder of the implications of being seduced by charismatic leaders, or more specifically, those who sought excess at the expense of their communities and their employees.
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Unfazed by environmental challenges, coal industry mounts PR assault

Unfazed by environmental challenges, coal industry mounts PR assault

Christian Science Monitor — Social benefits of carbon outweigh costs at least 50 times, according to new coal industry report. But even coal's friends say it should push to clean up its fuel. Instead of pushing into the future, the embattled US coal industry has reached into the past with a new public relations assault, emphasizing how its product powered the Industrial Revolution and can do the same for today's emerging nations.
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Why Obama's push for climate means trouble ahead for coal

Why Obama's push for climate means trouble ahead for coal

Christian Science Monitor — President Obama signals he'll push forward with tougher regulations on carbon-heavy fuels, like coal, in his bid to reduce climate change and create green jobs. That means tough times ahead for coal. While President Obama did not mention coal Tuesday night, it nevertheless played a central role in his State of the Union address. You could tell by the way he talked about climate change. "The debate is settled," he said. "Climate change is a fact." Skip to next paragraph Ken Silverstein Recent posts Subscribe Today to the Monitor It wasn't just what he said.
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Commentary: Bridging the red-blue divide on climate

Commentary: Bridging the red-blue divide on climate

The Spokesman-Review — Heather Reams, the president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), stepped onto the stage at Breckenridge's Mountain Towns 2030 summit - a room full of progressives accustomed to negotiating with Republicans on climate policy. She faced an audience from Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado - areas that often depend on Republican-controlled legislatures to achieve local ...
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Commentary: When electricity becomes a weapon of war

Commentary: When electricity becomes a weapon of war

Kansas City Star — It's tempting to dismiss peace talks between Russia and Ukraine when missiles and drones continue ta...
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Ken Silverstein - When electricity becomes a weapon of war

Ken Silverstein - When electricity becomes a weapon of war

Jewish World Review — Foreign Affairs Published Feb. 19, 2026 SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. It's tempting to dismiss peace talks between Russia and Ukraine when missiles and drones continue targeting power plants, leaving people to freeze with no lights. That is the reality in Ukraine today.
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The Iran War's Hidden Victim: The Green Energy Supply Chain

The Iran War's Hidden Victim: The Green Energy Supply Chain

Yahoo News Malaysia — The minerals powering solar panels, EV batteries, and wind turbines travel through the same maritime chokepoints as crude oil. Escalation puts them at risks too.
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The Green Grid's Hidden Backdoor: Who Controls Europe's Clean Energy?

The Green Grid's Hidden Backdoor: Who Controls Europe's Clean Energy?

Yahoo — Europe traded its dependence on Russian gas for a new vulnerability hidden inside its clean energy infrastructure. Here's who controls the switch - and why it matters.
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Why isolationism is detrimental to America’s Heartland

Why isolationism is detrimental to America’s Heartland

The Seattle Times — When Washington, D.C., debates international alliances, the conversation usually sounds like a corporate ledger sheet. Critics often treat the North Atlantic Treaty Organization like a bad business transaction, complaining that European nations must “cover their own asses” and stop relying so heavily on American military dollars. It is a message that resonates across major metros and rural main streets, where citizens are understandably tired of paying for distant global problems. This transactional view of global security misses a critical, dangerous reality: NATO is not an act of U.S. charity. It is a shield. And right now, our European allies are paying a massive, quiet dividend that keeps the homeland safe from unseen threats. Look no further than the frigid waters of Northern Europe.
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Infrastructure as Destiny: Japan’s Contest with China for the Future of Central Asia

Infrastructure as Destiny: Japan’s Contest with China for the Future of Central Asia

The Asia-Pacific Journal — Peer-reviewed foreign policy analysis examining how Tokyo and Beijing compete through trans-Caspian transport corridors, critical mineral ventures, and grid software to shape Eurasian energy sovereignty and infrastructure pluralism.
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