Latest Articles
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Google announces expansion of philanthropic goals beyond alternative energy
Google has announced it’s expanding the goals of its philanthropic arm, Google.org, beyond alternative energy to include fighting disease, averting pandemics and other mass crises, and alleviating poverty in the developing world. Along with the expansion of its mission, Google.org announced some of the recipients of the first round of grants and investments yesterday, totaling […]
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Google invests in solar thermal company eSolar
Today, Google announced it’s investing $10 million in eSolar, a solar thermal company, as part of its RE<C project. (Speaking of the latter, we’ve got an excellent interview on it coming up soon.) Here’s what esolar has to say about itself (PDF): To serve the renewable electricity needs of utility-scale energy providers, eSolar has developed […]
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Coal company penalized for Clean Water Act violations
Massey Energy Co., the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer, has agreed to a $30 million settlement with the U.S. EPA over allegations of Clean Water Act violations. Massey was accused of polluting streams and waterways in West Virginia and Kentucky with the detritus of mountaintop-removal mining on at least 4,500 occasions between 2000 and 2006. The […]
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Hillary Clinton brings an environmental issue to the fore in Nevada
Hillary Clinton is taking pains to make sure all Nevadans know her views on — gasp! — an environmental issue: She would stop plans to store nuclear waste at the state’s Yucca Mountain repository. “This is not just, ‘We’re in Nevada, so we’ll talk about an issue Nevadans care about,'” Clinton assured voters. “This is […]
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Can the Kansas governor show toughness under assault from Big Coal?
A certain faction of young progressive bloggers is fond of the notion of Barack Obama picking Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his running mate. She is a successful, popular, progressive governor in a red state, and has shown a real talent for bringing people together to produce practical results. That would compliment Obama’s core message. […]
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Put a grid on it
Sweet. Xcel Energy is going to spend $100 million creating a grid city, which will serve as a test bed for smart grid techniques and technologies. It will likely be in Colorado, have a population of around 100,000, and be filled with dirty hippies. If that sounds like your town, maybe you should contact Xcel […]
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Is it important to push climate legislation through this year?
Now that Congress is back, there’s been a mini-flurry of stories about the prospects of climate legislation this year. See Politico here and here, a really superb analysis of Lieberman-Warner’s chances by Darren Samuelsohn (sub rqd), and another E&E story today on trade groups panicking. Politico‘s reporting is characteristically sloppy, but it does get at […]
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Former Hollywood madam to open wind-powered brothel
Heidi Fleiss. Ten things I didn’t know about former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss until I read this awesome Elle story: She’s a vegetarian. She calls herself a tree hugger. She owns 24 parrots. She runs a laundromat called Dirty Laundry in Pahrump, Nev. (Pahrump!) Her next business venture will be wind-powered. It will be a […]
