Climate Energy

Rick Perry is running as the anti-climate-science candidate

If you thought a field full of anti-science blowhards was scary, just wait until you get a load of GOP presidential johnny-come-lately Rick Perry, currently governor of Texas.

Why selling off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a good idea

Here's how releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can lower gas prices and help get the U.S. off of oil.

A flooded nuke plant in Nebraska can’t be good, right?

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.10774971&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D43504156%26amp%3Bwidth%3D400%26amp%3Bheight%3D320] The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha is basically sitting in a puddle of water after recent floods. That … that can't be good, right? I mean, granted, nuclear fuel sort of sits in a puddle of water at the best of times — that's how you keep it cool — and […]

Drilling company's coloring book sells fracking to kids

Kids! Are you worried about natural gas companies pumping mysterious chemicals into the rocks near your house, leaking methane gas, poisoning cattle, and making your water flammable? Well, don't be! A coloring book from Talisman Energy says everything will be fine, and afterwards there will be deer and rainbows. 

Why tapping the strategic petroleum reserve is a bad idea

When it comes to oil, this is what the U.S. looks like to the rest of the world

The Obama administration has decided over the next two months to release 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is kind of like giving Bubbles from the Wire $5 when he's in the middle of one of his smack binges -- it's not really going to affect consumption, and it sure as hell doesn't address the root problem, which is our seemingly insuperable addiction to oil.

How utilities make money while investing in cleaner generation

Calling the EPA's mercury reforms "anti-business" is good for exciting a political base during the campaign season, but it doesn't match reality.

Harnessing the mighty Mississippi for power

If you’ve been anywhere near a newspaper recently, you know that the Mississippi river has an unbelievable amount of kinetic energy, which lately it has mainly been using for wreckin’ stuff. It’s like an angry teenager who discovers he’s a superhero. But hydropower advocates are hoping to convince it that with great power comes great responsibility, cooking up plans to put enough small hydroelectric plants on existing dams to rival the total hydro production of the Pacific Northwest.

Critical List: U.S. nuclear plants leak radioactive materials; Big Oil is the bad guy in Cars 2

Three quarters of nuclear power plants in the U.S. have leaked radioactive tritium.

The White House promised to put solar panels on its roof by the end of spring but didn't. Come on -- the environmental community can’t even get a symbolic gesture now? Throw us a bone, dude!

Global warming was supposed to save a few lives by creating milder winters in which fewer people would freeze to death. But by 2040, deaths from heat waves will outstrips lives saved in the winter.

Rick Perry signs weirdly reasonable fracking disclosure law

Rick Perry must have a secret plan to recapture George W. Bush's long-squandered image as an aisle-crossing Texas governor and run for president to the left of the Tea Party-addled Republican field. Or maybe he just decided to something right for a change. Whatever his motivation, the Texas guv signed into law a bill that requires natural gas drillers to disclose the chemicals they're pumping into ground during hydrofracking.

Do we have to choose between big or small clean energy projects?

The choice comes from the reality that financial resources are limited, the system of regulations and incentives are skewed toward big, centralized solutions, and choosing one strategy (long-distance transmission of centralized generation) necessarily reduces the money available and future prospects for expanded distributed generation.