Climate Energy

Utilities cash in when you go solar

Net metering offers a lot to utilities and very little to ratepayers and solar array owners.

What wind turbines can learn from fish

Wind turbines are loners. They need to give each other space to be effective. But a new design for wind farms, using a different type of turbines than the giant-fan kind going up all over the place, takes a page from a very social group of animals -- schooling fish -- to create the same amount of energy with shorter turbines, in a smaller area of land.

These wind farms use vertical-axis turbines, which are often described as looking like egg-beaters.

What life is like inside the Fukushima evacuation zone

Photographer Max Hodges has a photo essay on Google+ about his travels in the Fukushima evacuation zone. This mysterious ninja, Shoji Kobayashi, had been living there since the nuclear disaster began, gardening and trying to salvage tsunami-damaged keepsakes. 

Critical List: Al Gore curses about climate skepticism; garden thieves steal tomatoes

Sometimes even Al Gore can’t resist cursing when he talks about climate skeptics. Listen here.

EPA's scientific integrity policy doesn't do a particularly good job at its intended purpose: protecting scientists from political influence.

Heavy-duty trucks have to meet fuel efficiency standards too. No word yet on monster trucks.

Why Washington state's coal fight matters

Activists in the Northwest are fighting plans to build a coal-export terminal in Washington state. The outcome of this battle could have lasting, substantial effects on China's energy habits and emissions.

Record heat, no solar means Texas is paying 40 times more for power

Texas is hotter than balls right now, and it's not just the state's farmers and wildlife that are paying the price for it: Last week, the state set a record for electricity usage that led to its grid operator paying a whopping $3,000/MWh for peak electricity. To give you some perspective on this, $3,000/MWh translates to $3/KWh, or 40 times the $0.08/KWh a resident of that state normally pays for electricity at home.

Concentrated solar power plants are all wet

Concentrating solar has promised big additions to renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy storage -- but there's a catch.

BP funds push for more offshore drilling in oil-soaked Louisiana

A little more than a year after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP is funding a right-wing lobbying group that opposes regulation of offshore drilling.

By God, Donald Trump will not let this wind farm stand

Not satisfied with making (more of) a mockery of the electoral process, Donald Trump is now going after wind power, vowing to use "any legal means" to block a planned windfarm near his golf course in Scotland. Trump claims it's not simple rich-white-guy opposition to renewable power, or the fact that he's worried the turbines […]

EPA found over 20 years ago that fracking contaminates water

Fracking companies like to say that there’s never been a single case of fracking contaminating a water well. But, well, there has, and they’ve known that for over 20 years. An EPA report released in 1987 said that a tainted well in West Virginia was contaminated by fracking.

The report, which covers an 1984 incident, resurfaced this week in a New York Times article and a report from the Environmental Working Group.

The report details how fracking fluids or gels migrated from the fracking well to an active water well on a neighboring property, rendering it unusable.