Climate Technology

New wave of revelations about Koch Industries' unethical, illegal behavior

Koch Industries, the privately held petrochemical giant whose corporate personality can best be described as obsessive-compulsively evil, is at it again!

As the 99 Percenters gather, 1 percent could make a difference

Vote with your wallet: Invest 1 percent of your savings in local food.

Guitar Antihero 4: Gibson's crusade is off-key with U.S. workers

The Tea Party and Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz say restricting illegal logging overseas will cost jobs, but American companies and unions beg to differ.

Coal is the enemy of the human race, mainstream economics edition

Coal-fired power is a gigantic, blood-sucking parasite that's enriching a few executives and shareholders at the public's expense, a new report suggests.

Here’s a win-win: Geothermal power can make lithium for electric vehicles

Existing geothermal power plants are powered by a hot brine from deep within the earth's crust, which is just lousy with dissolved minerals -- literally "half the periodic table," reports Scientific American. One of those elements is lithium, which can be extracted from the geothermal fluid that existing power plants in California's Salton Sea are already pulling out of the ground.

This is remarkable on many levels at once.

Guitar Antihero 3: How Congress fell for Gibson's bunk crusade

Asian logging interests have become the latest cause célèbre for the Tea Party. Thanks to Gibson Guitar, Republicans seem eager to jump on board.

In Solyndra's wake, polling finds support for clean energy remains strong

Tea Party conservatives have tried to use the Solyndra faux-scandal to tarnish the image of clean energy, but new polling finds that it isn't working.

'Peak Coal' comes to Appalachia

By 2015, coal production in Appalachia will be half what it was in 2008. Some coal industry advocates argue that such a drop is due to increased regulation by the Obama administration (go figure). But geologists and others who work in the industry say it's actually the result of a much more basic fact: Appalachia is running out of coal.

Company makes fuel from wood using nothing but water

A company called Renmatix says it can make ethanol from wood and woody biomass using nothing but water. If they're right -- and they just cut the ribbon on an R&D facility in Pennsylvania in order to find out -- it could mean the unlocking of a vast reserve of biomass previously untouched by the cleantech industry.

Guitar Antihero 2: Lawless logging and slaughtered wildlife didn’t stop Gibson Guitar

A federal action accuses Gibson Guitar of importing wood from Madagascar, even after Chinese logging gangs pillaged the country's national parks.