In a country that prides itself at being the best at everything, our most recent achievement is nothing to boast about. The United States tops every other industrialized nation in the world when it comes to wasting energy. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, what the U.S.…
One thing that has been a constant companion during a combined business and pleasure trip to Hawaii has been wind…a luscious, thick, wet lick of a wind. In some places, this abundant resource is being put to work. On the pleasure part of my trip, my son and I took…
It was a cute bit of theatrics when Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told a group of water managers last March that he, in fact, had swigged fracking fluid with the CEO of Halliburton. For those who don’t know, fracking is a drilling technique in which water, sand and chemical additives…
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and energy companies are pushing to take away Alaskans’ voice in how oil and gas drilling, mining, road building and other development is balanced with protection for clean water, fish and wildlife. Several bills now being debated in the Alaska Legislature would strip public input and…
Watching President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, Steven Spielberg’s recent movie was fresh in my mind (I finally got to the theater to see Lincoln this past weekend). With the speech on TV, smart phone handy, and laptop open to…
More than 2300 people packed last night’s coal export hearing at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle; about 95 percent of them came to say no to the proposed coal port near Bellingham. Lots more photos here. Officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state Department of…
Once a political poster child for economic recovery, energy efficiency took a back seat in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election. President Obama and Mitt Romney barely mentioned the potential of energy efficiency to address the nation’s energy needs while campaigning, even though both have strong track records supporting…
Two weeks out from Election Day, there is hardly a national issue that is not, to some degree, solved by clean energy. Jobs, the economy, public health, national security and – of course – the environment, all have roads leading back to clean energy. But since the biggest issues of…
At a time when scientific evidence is mounting that burning trees for electricity will actually result in increased carbon emissions when compared to coal over the next 30 to 50 years, utilities in Europe are making a mad dash to convert coal burning power plants to wood, all in the name of “renewable…
We all know that coal is a dirty business—it pollutes our air and water and poisons our bodies. Communities around the country are banding together to fight new coal plants and champion cleaner alternatives. But when the coal plant is already in a community, providing jobs and power, and sponsoring…
