Wind-energy customers pay less than those buying fossil-fuel power Customers of Xcel Energy in Colorado who purchase wind power got a pleasant announcement last week: Not only would they not be paying a premium for their clean energy -- they would be paying less than customers getting electricity from natural gas and coal-power sources. Xcel subsequently signed up as many new wind-energy customers in one day as they typically do in two months. Wind programs in Oklahoma and Texas are also becoming competitive with gas and coal, and wind turbine manufacturers say they're sold out until 2008. Many industry observers …

Major new study says severe weather is likely on the way Winter as we know it in the northeast U.S. will vanish. Summers across the country will be hotter, particularly in the parched Southwest. Rain will be less frequent but more torrential when it happens. Loss of property will be "catastrophic," exotic diseases will spread, species will die off. Skippee doo! These apocalyptic scenarios are predicted for the end of the century by a major new study from researchers at Purdue University. The study, which assumes that carbon dioxide emissions will roughly double over the next 100 years, lines up …

Dear Umbra, I am lucky enough to live across the street from a farmers' market, and I shop there all summer. But when summer's done, the market closes and I am left to buy produce from California. Would it be better for me to buy a small freezer and freeze farmers' market veggies for winter, or to forgo the freezer and buy from the grocery store? Which is worse: long-distance transportation or the juice used by a freezer? Anne McKibbinChicago, Ill. Dearest Anne, Don't be so sure your produce comes from California. It could come from South America. One of …

A refinery at Anacortes, Wash. "Shame, shame, shame, shame!" That's the furious chant that erupted from the Democratic section of the House of Representatives last Friday after Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) managed to eke out a victory for his Gasoline for America's Security (GAS) Act, which would loosen environmental laws and boost industry incentives to accelerate the expansion of oil-refinery capacity in the U.S. Now the onus is on Senate leaders who must decide whether they will help parlay Barton's much-contested victory into law. Strongly backed by President Bush, the GAS Act has been framed by Barton as a response …

Fans of the hit TV show Lost might have been wondering how the hatch/bunker gets its power. Last night we found out: geothermal energy. Another example of a green energy source being mentioned during prime time television -- granted, it was for about five seconds, but we'll take what we can get! And visitors to the Lost message boards can get a brief science lesson on how geothermal energy works from poster SlowElectron.

2005 shaping up to be the warmest year on record Is it warm in here? Readings from about 7,200 weather stations worldwide indicate that 2005 will probably be the hottest ... year ... ever -- breaking 1998's record by about one-tenth of a degree Fahrenheit. The Northern Hemisphere is heating faster, with the average 2005 temperature two-tenths of a degree warmer than in 1998. David Rind from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies says it would take something pretty major, like a big volcanic eruption, to keep 2005 from setting the record. These findings come hot on the heels (ha) …

What does hell look like to an environmentalist? In the classic Encounters With the Archdruid, writer John McPhee imagines this particular inferno. The outer ring, he writes, is a moat filled with DDT. Inside lies another moat brimming with burning gasoline, and still deeper are masses of bulldozers and chainsaws. In the middle -- at "the absolute epicenter of hell on earth" -- stands a dam. "Conservationists who can hold themselves in reasonable check before new oil spills and fresh megalopolises," McPhee writes, "mysteriously go insane at even the thought of a dam." Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, …

Canada's oil sands boom for business, bust for environment We have seen our energy future, and it's very, very dirty. By some estimates, the oil sands of northern Alberta, Canada, contain 175 billion barrels of crude, reserves second only to Saudi Arabia's. Problem is, getting usable oil out of the tarry, sticky sand requires clearing vast swaths of forest, burning tons of natural gas, polluting millions of gallons of water, and spewing untold amounts of greenhouse gases. It is, says environmental policy analyst Dan Woynillowicz, "a form of oil extraction where the intensity of environmental impacts is at an order …

[W]hen Canada announced in 2004 that it has more recoverable oil from tar sands than there is oil in Saudi Arabia, the world yawned. There is estimated to be about as much oil recoverable from the shale rocks in Colorado and other western states as in all the oil fields of OPEC nations. Yes, the cost of getting that oil is still prohibitively expensive, but the combination of today's high fuel prices and improved extraction techniques means that the break-even point for exploiting it is getting ever closer. --From "The Oil Bubble," Wall Street Journal editorial, Oct. 8, 2005 Actually, …

Kudos to The Seattle Times and reporter Sandi Doughton for an extensive report on climate change that cuts through the bullshit. Dominating the front page of the Sunday paper, this headline and subhead: The truth about global warming Scientists overwhelmingly agree: The Earth is getting warmer at an alarming pace, and humans are the cause -- no matter what the skeptics say. In a nice touch, the main article highlights some initially skeptical climate scientists who've been swayed by the weight of the evidence.  "The most important thing to realize is that most scientists didn't originally believe in global warming," …