Articles by Jess Zimmerman

Jerry Brown wishes we could treat clean energy like we treat stuffed lions

California Gov. Jerry Brown (whose full first name is Edmund, who knew) has reached across the aisle for the sake of dead mountain lions. Now he'd like to gently suggest to the California senate that things like clean energy might be almost as important.

German state minister: The Kochs are ruining U.S. renewables

Ever wonder why Germany has a robust renewables economy, while the U.S. keeps claiming it's not achievable? Here's a theory from Franz Unterskeller, German state minister for the environment, climate, and energy:

We don't have the situation like you have in the U.S., where you have this Koch brothers.

How climate change denial lets the fuel industry run politics, in one handy chart

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the climate change denial machine.

Germany has so much wind energy, they'll pay you to take it

How much will switching to renewables raise your utility bill? How about NEGATIVE ALL OF IT? In Germany, wind and solar projects have regularly been generating so much surplus energy that utilities are paying consumers to take it off the grid. High winds -- although not that high, only 15 mph -- led to negative-price wind energy for nine hours on July 24, bringing Germany's total to 31 hours of below-zero-cost energy this year.