• The Wall Street Journal has a long and fascinating piece that expands the "smart" conversation beyond the grid to discuss smart infrastructure generally, including smart transportation and smart water infrastructure. Turns out information technology can help out all sorts of places!
• Largely unnoticed by the media, EarthJustice won a big victory in court recently:
A federal court has ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must close a loophole that — for more than 25 years — has made it easy for mining companies, coal ash dumps, and a host of other polluting industries to skip out on costly cleanups by declaring bankruptcy. The case concerned EPA’s failure to issue "financial assurances" standards that ensure that polluting industries will always remain financially able to clean up dangerous spills and other contaminated sites.
• Homebuyers are starting to specifically request green, energy-saving features.
• PBS recently did an excellent hour-long documentary on "clean coal" called Dark Energy: The Clean Coal Controversy. You can watch the whole thing online at the linked site.
• This is pretty cool: the first zero-emission research station in the Arctic. Nice video:
