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  • Radioactive monkeys will patrol Fukushima

    Scientists have a new approach to monitoring radiation levels around Fukushima: They're outfitting local monkeys with radiation-measuring collars, then releasing them back into the wild. The monkeys will spend a month frolicking around the (potentially) nuclear forest, collecting data about radiation levels on the ground. The experimental device, which will also include GPS tracking and […]

    Jess Zimmerman Energy

  • Shale gas ‘profits’ are based on accounting trickery

    When you add up all the costs — monetary costs, not even environmental — of fracking for shale gas, it turns out the entire business is horribly unprofitable, reports energy analyst Chris Nelder at SmartPlanet. So why are companies engaged in an unprofitable business if it's also a fairly unneighborly way to pollute the local […]

    Christopher Mims Energy

  • Oil companies have invested 50 times more in tar sands than in renewables

    The oil industry talks a big game about looking toward the future and investing in renewable fuels. But a bit of number crunching from NRDC shows that oil's commitment to renewables isn't much more than talk. According to the enviro group's analysis, the oil industry has spent about 50 times more on tar-sands development alone […]

    Sarah Laskow Energy

  • Chevron admits that it hasn’t been able to stop the Brazil oil leak

    Remember how last month Chevron spilled more than 100,000 gallons of oil off the coast of Brazil? The oil industry likes us to think that spills like this are no big deal: They'll clean that right up! But this spill's not following that script. The company tried to plug the offending well with cement, but […]

    Sarah Laskow Energy

  • Alexi Arango: Teaching solar to take a quantum-dot leap

    Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]

    Andrew Leonard Energy

  • Might and Maine: One state brings renewable power back to the people

    Maine citizens are taking renewable power into their own hands.Photo: Matthew David PowellAs the Durban climate talks come to a disappointing (if predictable) close, Politico takes a look at prospects for federal action on energy issues and breaks the news that with a deadlocked Congress — in a presidential election year — no one should […]

    Adam Browning Energy

  • Why is Canada withdrawing from Kyoto? Two words: Tar sands

    Canada is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, ostensibly because it's so far from meeting its goals it'll have to pay high penalties. Also it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. In reality, though, this is all about tar-sands oil. For starters, it’s not exactly true that fines would be inevitable if Canada can’t meet its goals […]

    Sarah Laskow Energy

  • Market forces, not EPA standards, killing new coal plants

    Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepares the first-ever national standards for carbon pollution from new fossil-fuel power plants, the coal industry is embarking, predictably, on its latest disinformation campaign to try to block these desperately needed public health and climate safeguards. New coal plants are dirty, risky, […]

    Dave Hawkins Energy

  • Sea change: Asian Americans and seafood in the gulf [Part 2]

    This is the second half of a feature story from Hyphen Magazine’s Survival Issue. Read the first part here. Recipe: South Vietnamese Bitter Melon This is the kind of dish we have only at home, never in restaurants: Mix shrimp paste, sugar, red pepper and lots of lime juice into a sauce. Shave raw bitter […]

    Nina Kahori Fallenbaum Energy

  • Group purchase gets residential solar to grid parity in Los Angeles

    This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Back for a second round, the Open Neighborhoods organization in Los Angeles has organized another group purchase of residential and commercial solar PV, bringing the lifetime cost of solar well under the cost of grid electricity […]

    John Farrell Energy