Latest Articles

What the U.S. power industry thinks about the future of the U.S. power industry

David Roberts shares what utilities say is the future of U.S. power.

A virtual vacation: Stroll the world with Robot Flâneur

Can't travel the world? A new website will take you to some of its most stimulating cities, and saunter with you down their streets -- with a little help from Google Street View.

Hey, Vilsack: Big Ag won't feed the world or make jobs

USDA secretary Tom Vilsack supports global Big Ag despite job loss, environmental dangers, threat to sustainable global farming.

Mass. Transit bans ad on Scott Brown’s vote to gut Clean Air Act

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ruled an ad highlighting Scott Brown's vote to gut the Clean Air Act is too controversial for riders.

Farm pork not going anywhere

To read The Washington Post is to believe farm subsidies are headed for the chopping block. Not so fast. The subsidies aren't going anywhere after all

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.

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.

How close are you to the country's dirtiest coal plants?

If you live west of D.C. and east of Omaha, there's a good chance you're pretty close to one of the 25 dirtiest coal plants in the U.S. Twenty of them are 50 to 100 miles away from major urban areas, according to Climate Progress.

Introducing the booze-fueled power plant

Bourbon's birthday was yesterday, but if you're anything like me, you're still celebrating. So you'll be glad to know that whisky -- we'll go with the Scottish spelling, because this is happening in Scotland -- is the newest addition to the Unlikely Biofuels Club. Helius Energy is building a 7.2-megawatt plant in Scotland that will run off of waste from whisky distilling. Isn't that so much classier than powering your car with Four Loko?

You might have a climate crisis if …

It's hard for me to fathom how naysayers still refuse to acknowledge that increased carbon pollution is to blame for increasingly hostile weather. Maybe some jokes in the style of Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck" riff can win them over.