Climate Technology

Tepco bulldozed hill that could have prevented Fukushima disaster

When engineers first assessed the future home of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that would eventually melt down in response to a tsunami, the site featured a striking, 82-feet-high bluff that overlooked the ocean below.

It was more than high enough to have withstood the tsunami that struck the site in March.

GOP rep hopes to shatter his own lightbulb legislation

Republican Fred Upton is pushing the repeal of his 2007 lightbulb efficiency measure after the Tea Party attacked it.

Thomas Edison would have loved energy-efficient bulbs

Thomas Edison's great-grandson, David Edison Sloane, is not mincing words when it comes to the GOP wanting to repeal energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs:

As an inventor, Edison would have no interest in turning back the legislative clock. The wizard of Menlo Park dedicated himself to advancing human comfort, not freeze life as we knew it in 1879.

Oh snap! Edison's great-grandson just called you retrogressive.

Trash trucks powered by trash gas reduce emissions by 80-90 percent

Waste Management Inc. owns 1,000 trash trucks that run on natural gas, plus a bunch of landfills that are constantly pumping out natural gas as a natural product of the decomposition of organic waste. Closing the loop on this cycle is a no-brainer, but it took Waste Management a decade to perfect the technology required. Now they’ve got trash trucks that run on gas from the trash they carry.

Critical List: Australia will tax carbon; U.S. cars kill 32.5 trillion insects each year

This is a carbon tax: Australia is going to put a tax of $23 per metric ton on carbon emissions from 500 companies.

Hybrids and electric vehicles may no longer be legally allowed to slink quietly down the street, surprising pedestrians and dogs everywhere. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing a rule requiring that the near-silent cars emit some sort of sound at low speeds.

The EPA is not happy with ExxonMobil and the company's plan to clean up the Yellowstone River. I mean, it’s in favor of cleaning up, it just thinks this particular plan stinks.

Industrialized countries are now losing the clean energy race

Developing countries now lead investment in clean energy -- representing about $72 billion in spending in 2010, versus $70 billion in rich countries.

A discussion of clean energy innovation, with me, and beer [VIDEO]

Grist and energyNOW held a cleantech panel featuring McKinstry's Dean Allen, Ross Macfarlane of Climate Solutions, Bill Rebozo, and David Roberts.

Correcting faulty math on renewable energy

Scientists agree that clean energy is the basis around which we can build a low-carbon, sustainable, global energy economy.

Does James Murdoch hate climate skepticism as much as phone-hacking?

James Murdoch took decisive action to shut down phone-hacking. Might he shut down the climate skepticism that's rampant in the Murdoch media empire?

Cap-and-trade could spur faster cleantech investment than carbon tax

An interesting new paper suggests that you can get earlier investments in cleantech under a cap-and-trade system than under a carbon tax.