Climate Energy

What the Nobel Prize tells us about oil

The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded for work on cause and effect, highlighting the difficulty of understanding how oil prices affect the economy.

Local solar could power the Mountain West right now, all of America in 2026

If the U.S. had kept pace with German solar installation, we'd be on our way to being a 100 percent solar-powered nation.

Keystone-pipeline protestors link their movement to Occupy Wall Street

In keeping with the Occupy Wall Street movement, activists in Washington, D.C., on Friday protested the Keystone XL pipeline outside the State Department.

Look! Up in the sky! It's an inflatable wind turbine!

In the department of cool inventions you'll probably never use, the inventor of the Segway has come up with an idea for an inflatable wind turbine.

Its main advantage is that it's mobile: imagine parking your EV and sending your inflatable wind turbine up into the sky to charge it while you're at work. It could be moved to take advantage of the best winds as they shift, and, more to the point, It could also be mounted on top of a building or on the side of the road in order to double as a billboard.
 

Pipeline? We don't need no stinkin' pipeline

Arguments against the tar-sands pipeline focus on the environmental dangers it poses. The more fundamental question is: do we really need that oil?

Koch Industries stands to profit off Keystone XL

Every step the Obama administration takes towards approving the Keystone XL pipeline means a step towards putting more money into the pockets of Koch Industries. Although the company has denied having an interest in the pipeline (it has "nothing to do with any of our businesses," company reps have told Rep. Henry Waxman's staff), Inside Climate News has uncovered documents proving that a Koch Industries subsidiary has a business interest in the approval of the pipeline.

Critical List: E.U. could ban tar-sands oil; solar industry ‘a real mess’

Yesterday, an E.U. commission got behind environmental standards that could keep tar-sands oil from being used in Europe.

Another nuclear reactor in Japan shut down.

Clean energy investments can only go so far in keeping China's emissions down. The country will meet its environmental goals in the short term, researchers say, but it’s growing too fast for its emissions to stay manageable for long.

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.

Wind power: a growing source of green manufacturing jobs the U.S. is trying to botch

Wind provides what everyone wants: high-skill, high-wage jobs with potential for huge growth. Why aren't U.S. policymakers doing more to support it?

World's second tallest structure will power 100,000 homes a day with hot air

If a clean energy project in the Arizona desert goes forward, the second tallest structure on Earth will be a 2,600-foot solar updraft tower, which could last 80 years and generate 200 MW of electricity each day -- using only hot air. (Insert your own joke about how we could power Cleveland with Bill O’Reilly.)

The tower works on the principle that hot air rises. In this case, it rises through the tower, turning turbines as it goes. The tower uses no water, and it works pretty much all the time, unlike wind and solar projects. (At night, the ground is still letting off the heat it captured during the day, so there's still hot air available to float upward.)