Climate Energy

Land use is not a barrier for distributed renewable energy

A column in The New York Times last Tuesday suggested that land use is the greatest environmental problem facing new renewable energy.

Ex-nuclear engineer says it can never be safe

Back when Italy was trying out nuclear power for the first time, Cesare Silvi was one of the guys who had to figure out how to make it safe. Sometimes crazy things would happen -- once, an oil pipe burst, fouling the cooling water intake of a nuclear power plant miles away, shutting it down. Soon Silvi discovered there were many other pipes even closer to that plant; his attempt to study them was stymied by the moneyed interests who own them.

The longer he looked, the more small, improbable, but potentially disastrous scenarios piled up -- war, terrorism, plane crashes, missiles, extreme weather -- leading him to eventually conclude that if you armored a nuclear power plant against all potential disasters, you could never produce power for a reasonable amount of money.

One-third of Indonesia's electricity could come from geothermal energy

Here's an old clean energy maxim: If life gives you volcanoes, make geothermal power. That's Indonesia's strategy, anyway, and it's working for them. By 2025, the country could get a third of its electricity from geothermal sources, and Al Gore has said it could be the first "geothermal superpower."

Renewable v. Renewable: Oregon wind and hydro fight over grid space

The Northwest coast right now has a problem most places in the country could only wish for: too much renewable energy. And while hippies would like us to believe that clean energy sources will work flawlessly in harmony to edge out coal and oil, this abundance is pitting wind producers and hydroelectric producers against each other.

Alongside the Columbia River, in Oregon, wind power is becoming a big player, working in concert with dams on the river to produce renewable energy. But right now the Bonneville Power Authority, which controls the dams, is ordering wind farms to generate less power, saying it needs more space than usual on the grid to handle the power the dams are producing.

Wind farms are, understandably, peeved.

Memo to the White House: Closing coal plants is a good thing

Rather than running away from the closure of a coal plant, the White House should be throwing a big party every time a coal plant closes.

Your tax dollars subsidize the sh*t out of coal

If you're a fan of a certain dried-leaves-boiled-in-water-related political party, you might believe that renewable energy is the recipient of huge amounts of government largesse, and that the first thing we should do once we get our guy or gal into office is slash all that wasteful spending.

But wait! It turns out coal gets way, way more subsidies for electricity generation.

When will we see solar panels on the White House?

Bill Mckibben reminds President Barack Obama that he promised to put solar panels on the White House by the end of spring. He only has a week left.

American Electric Power threatens firings to stop pollution controls

The Kammer Power Plant, which spewed 364 pounds of mercury in 2009, is one of the AEP’s plants slated to be closed. Photo: OZinOHCross-posted from the Center for American Progress. This post was coauthored by Valeri Vasquez, special assistant for energy policy at the Center for American Progress. On June 9, American Electric Power (AEP), […]

Rage of a dying dinosaur: Why is AEP really shutting down five coal plants?

American Electric Power's shutting down five of its coal plants because they aren't profitable. But rather than admit that, it's putting out press releases blaming the "job-killing EPA."

Don’t you dare blow up this mountain: Defending a historic spot against Big Coal [VIDEO]

Hundreds of activists from around the country joined local unionized coal miners in standing up to the coal industry last week, marching for five days and 50 miles through West Virginia. Their protest culminated on Saturday at Blair Mountain, the site of a violent clash in 1921 between 15,000 striking coal miners and a hired […]