So what does it mean when America’s premier sports event goes dark for 34 minutes? Was Beyoncé just too electrifying? Or does the Super Bowl blackout signify deeper problems with electrical infrastructure?

First, we now know Beyoncé is off the hook. The halftime show used its own generator. So was the utility to blame? Entergy says a monitoring device detected a power surge in the system, and automatically shut down a feeder to half the stadium. That was to prevent any problems from spreading. Ironically, while the event spurred calls, such as this one at The Daily Beast, for a smart grid, that was a pretty smart piece of grid automation at work. Utility officials, in fact, place the problem within the Superdome’s own power system, giving the poster child for Katrina’s humanitarian crisis a new source of notoriety.

While the particulars are a bit blurred, the blackout does make the case for a different shape of power-grid architecture that is indeed an advanced form of smart grid. The vision is one of a network of smart microgrids served by distributed energy sources.

Here are two headlines from the past week that blew me away (no pun intended): #1- Wind was the top new energy source to come online in 2012. #2- "Renewable-energy capacity in the U.S. almost doubled from 2009 to 2012, helping reduce the nation's carbon-dioxide emissions last year to the lowest since 1994..." With every passing month, more polluting coal plants are  being retired -- like these plants in Minnesota, just announced last week -- and more clean energy continues to come online to replace it. The statistics from the American Wind Energy Association are phenomenal. There more than 60,000 …

There are two major events being organized by the US climate movement over the next month. The first and most immediately significant event is what is being described (accurately) as the biggest climate demonstration in US history, taking place February 17th in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of people have already signed up indicating their intention to take part, and momentum is building. This action was called by the Sierra Club soon after the November elections. The official call to action that went out in December came from them, 350.org and the Hip Hop Caucus. Since that time close to …

The following presentation by ILSR Senior Researcher John Farrell examines the five major barriers to the expansion of community-based and conventional distributed renewable energy.  The barriers range from the challenge of raising capital to forming a legal structure that allows for local ownership and for access to tax incentives.  It also examines the uphill struggle against utility and regulatory inertia toward large scale power generation and utility hostility to local power generation because of its threat to their market share. There are also several examples of community-based projects that have succeeded despite the challenges, and that offer models for promoting clean, local …

It is ironic that despite relatively progressive clean energy policies the West Coast is paying an unusually high price for global carbon emissions. Ocean water off the Pacific coast has absorbed so much carbon that it is becoming acidic enough to melt the shells of sea creatures. Our national and global addiction to fossil fuel and unwillingness to seriously reduce carbon emissions is taking its toll, right here, in real time, with profound implications for the Pacific Ocean. The oceans act like a massive sponge soaking up airborne carbon. As carbon dissolves in the ocean it forms carbonic acid. Once …

In the two weeks since the Sierra Club launched our Obama Climate and Clean Energy Legacy campaign, Sierra Club volunteers, chapters, organizers, and allies have held more than 30 inspiring (and fun!) launch events nationwide. The events they organized from coast to coast kick off 100 Days of Action, from the Inauguration to Earth Day, calling on President Obama to take bold action on the many climate and clean energy decisions before his Administration in his second term. From Owensboro, Kentucky to Olympia, Washington and from happy hours to Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches, a movement is growing. Each …

By J. Matthew Roney The fish near the bottom of the aquatic food chain are often overlooked, but they are vital to healthy oceans and estuaries. Collectively known as forage fish, these species—including sardines, anchovies, herrings, and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill—feed on plankton and become food themselves for larger fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Historically, people have eaten many of these fish, too, of course. But as demand for animal protein has soared over the last half-century, more and more forage fish have been caught to feed livestock and farmed fish instead of being eaten by people directly. A growing …

A spot of good news: If Chuck Hagel is confirmed as defense secretary, he will resign his seat on the board of Chevron. While it seems likely that the oil company would prefer he remain, helping guide its strategy as he simultaneously made determinations about the deployment and structure of the largest military in the history of the world, others disagreed.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Chuck Hagel will shed hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in Chevron Corp. CVX -0.46% and private equity firm McCarthy Group LLC if the Senate confirms him to be the next defense secretary, according to his financial disclosure. …

Mr. Hagel’s assets were valued between $2.9 million and $6.1 million in total. … In addition to his stock holdings, Mr. Hagel earned $116,000 in director fees from Chevron and between $5,001 and $15,000 in dividends.

In addition to divesting Chevron and McCarthy holdings, Mr. Hagel said he would resign his positions with both firms and 25 other entities.

Waking up in my hotel room across the street from the 13th annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference Monday, I hit the light switch.  Nothing.  I try a few other switches and then look out at the hall to confirm it’s a blackout. But I can see out the window the lights of the Oregon State University campus shining into the still darkened sky.  It turns out that while a blackout has engulfed Corvallis in darkness, the campus location is lucky 13 for the conference.  The original location in a building on the edge of campus is dark, but the conference …

In late 2011, citizens of Boulder, CO, voted to boot their incumbent electric utility, Xcel Energy, and form a municipal electric utility.  It was the culmination of a multi-year battle to get more clean, local energy from their corporate electric overlord.  In the end, city leaders and citizens agreed that the only credible option for significantly reducing their contribution to climate change was to go it alone.  Now, the city is embarked on the long, complicated process of localizing their electricity system. Susan Osborne was the mayor of Boulder at the time of the climatic vote, and she came to …