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  • Upcoming congressional hearings at which a fetus should testify

    Source photo: Lunar CausticThe Ohio state legislature is preparing to hear testimony from a 9-week-old fetus, which I assume will actually be a lawyer making a squeaky voice from behind a picture of an ultrasound. The fetus is testifying about whether it should be able to freeload off a woman’s organs while it’s waiting to […]

    Jess Zimmerman Energy

  • Pittsburgh’s drinking water is radioactive, thanks to fracking. Only question is, how much?

    The drinking water of tens of millions of Pennsylvanians is threatened by natural-gas fracking — including the 2.3 million who live in Pittsburgh.Photo: Via Tsuji Residents of Pittsburgh — as well as potentially tens of millions of other everyday citizens in the Northeast corridor who rely on their taps to deliver safe water — are […]

    Christopher Mims Energy

  • EPA lets natural gas industry brazenly pollute my state’s drinking water

    That’s some fracked up sh*t: a natural gas rig does its thing in Dimock, Pa. Photo: Helen Slottje, via arimooreIn a perfect world, everyone would read The New York Times’ frankly terrifying exposé on the EPA’s rather timid oversight of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania — and public outrage would force the EPA to […]

    Tom Laskawy Energy

  • Sen. Sherrod Brown and the Clean Air Act

    Sen. Sherrod Brown.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. There are things to like in Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) letter to President Obama today about the Clean Air Act and carbon pollution. However, the letter is off base in its concern about EPA’s reasonable steps to assure that big new plants reduce their pollution to […]

    David Doniger Energy

  • Wind production in Gansu, China

    As of the end of 2009, according to the China Renewable Energy Industries Association, more than 10,000 utility-scale wind turbines had been installed nationwide. And in 2010, according to figures released last month by the China Industry Energy Conservation and Clean Production Association, China spent approximately $US 45.55 billion on 378 big wind power projects, […]

    Keith Schneider Energy

  • Solar production in Gansu, China

    In 2009, China launched a program to build the nation’s first big solar power projects, which produced two 10-MW photovoltaic power installations in Dunhuang, at Gansu’s far northern end. More than a dozen other solar energy projects -- totaling 280 MW -- will be completed this year.

    Keith Schneider Energy

  • New wind and solar sectors won’t solve China’s water scarcity

    JIUQUAN, China — Business for wind and solar energy components has been so brisk in Gansu Province — a bone-bleaching sweep of gusty desert and sun-washed mountains in China’s northern region — that the New Energy Equipment Manufacturing Industry base, which employs 20,000 people, is a 24/7 operation. Just two years old, the expansive industrial […]

    Keith Schneider Energy

  • Rebounding to a smarter energy efficiency perspective

    It’s easy to tangle up ideas, especially when we approach an issue from a narrow perspective. That seems to be the case with the newly published report by the Breakthrough Institute. Their topic? The “rebound effect.” Their target? Greater levels of energy efficiency. Their conclusion? The rebound effect will negate most of the energy and […]

    John A. "Skip" Laitner Energy

  • The shaky foundations of free-market environmentalism

    Photo: Steve RhodesCross-posted from Sightline Daily. [CORRECTION: As mentioned in the comments under this post on Sightline, this discussion of the “Coase theorem” contains several errors — most notably, that Coase himself did not present his arguments mathematically. In fact, according to a number of sources, there really is no single “Coase theorem” — instead, […]

    Clark Williams-Derry Energy

  • Why it’s a good idea to put sugar water in your gas tank

    Photo: Alexander KaiserWouldn’t it be awesome if we could solve our waste problem and our fuel problem simultaneously, by turning one into the other? Okay, we’re nowhere near the stage where you can just scrape your plate into your car, but there are an increasing number of procedures for turning useless crap into fuel. Most […]

    Jess Zimmerman Energy