Climate Energy
All Stories
-
![]()
![]()
U.S. nuke regulators repeatedly weakened safety rules
The Associated Press has a blockbuster study of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC has been working closely with the nuclear industry to keep aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards.
-
![]()
![]()
Pipeline industry funded two-thirds of pipeline safety studies
Wondering whether natural gas and oil transportation pipelines are safe? Why not ask a neutral objective party -- like, say, the pipeline industry? The federal government’s Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is supposed to study and regulate pipeline safety. But as the San Francisco Chronicle discovered, in practice, the agency tends to hand that responsibility back over to the pipeline industry.
-
![]()
![]()
NY Times lets dirty energy soil its op-ed page
Robert Bryce got a seat last week next to Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof on the Times’ opinion page, with a piece of pro-dirty energy propaganda
-
![]()
![]()
Pump fiction: U.S. gas is artificially cheap
What's the true price of gasoline? This animated feature from the Center for Investigative Reporting explores the external costs of oil use in the US.
-
![]()
![]()
The Senate likes ethanol slightly less than it used to
For years, Washington has been really gung-ho about putting corn (America’s crop!) into cars (America’s bikes!), and has supported corn ethanol production with a suite of subsidies. But now senators are ready to say: “With food prices rising, we're not so comfortable with that! Maybe people should eat the corn instead, in the form of some kind of high-fructose syrup.” esterday, the Senate passed a measure that would end a 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol producers.
-
![]()
![]()
1 million Bangladeshis use solar as sole source of electricity
It's the fastest expansion of solar power ever, says the government of Bangladesh: From 7,000 households in 2002 to 1 million in 2011. Ninety million of Bangladesh's 150 million people have no access to electricity at all, so access to small-scale solar is transformative for this population.
-
![]()
![]()
SciAm op-ed: Kill biofuels to solve the food crisis
With the Senate successfully passing an amendment to end the 45-cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy for American refiners and the 54-cent tariff on imported ethanol, I thought I'd point to this terrific op-ed in Scientific American on how to solve the food crisis. According to author Timothy Searchinger of Princeton University, it's the biofuels, stupid.
-
![]()
![]()
New map of NYC shows how much you could save with solar
Solar power in New York could meet half of the city's peak energy demands. The city's been fully assessed for solar capability, using a plane-mounted radar system called Lidar that checks out whether rooftops are suitable for solar panels. Turns out a full 66 percent of them are, and the city and its inhabitants could be saving a buttload of money and energy by making use of that fact. If New York could harness all its rooftop potential, it would triple the amount of solar energy currently installed nationwide.
-
![]()
![]()
Geothermal power is heating up worldwide
Geothermal power has grown at just 3 percent annually over the last decade, but the pace is set to pick up substantially, with close to 9,000 megawatts of new capacity projected for 2015.
-
![]()
![]()
Breaking news: Energy-efficiency programs work, save us millions
Since 2004, 26 states have put efficiency standards into place to reduce demand and help customers save energy. Nineteen of those programs have been in place for over two years. And guess what? Thus far, the programs are working.
