It’s not every day that the weatherman reports on atmospheric river storms…but we may be hearing the term more frequently now as researchers have linked climate in the Pacific Ocean and West Coast mountains to these distinctive storms.
Nevada’s biggest utility, NV Energy, quietly took a big step this week that could help repower the Western grid with affordable renewables. In a letter to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), NV Energy stated its intent to seek approval from the Nevada PUC to join the CAISO’s Energy Imbalance Market (EIM). The EIM will allow
C5.6 Technologies of Middleton (WI) and the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology (WIST) at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point recently won the grant to continue work on developing bacteria that will ferment sugar into isoprene, a high-energy molecule that can be used to make jet and other alternative energy fuels. The financial
The Federal Trade Commission announced six enforcement actions last week, including against companies that marketed supposedly biodegradable plastic rebar cap covers, plastic golf tees, and plastic shopping bags, as part of the agency’s ramped up crackdown on environmental claims.
When a speaker at yesterday’s CleanTechLA event presented what Deutsche Bank calls its “three pillars of a successful market,” I could see some of the main challenges associated with the migration to renewable energy. Abbreviated “TLC” (something that everyone and everything needs to receive), they are Transparency, Longevity, and Certainty.
Most major companies have embraced the power of CSR to drive brand affinity while also effecting tangible positive social and environmental impact, but some corporations remain conspicuously absent from the CSR landscape. Amazon.com, dubbed by its own hometown as a “corporate scrooge,” is one of those companies notably turning a blind eye to
As China forges ahead with its goal to generate 120,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020, they are damming more and more rivers. According to China, this is a safe strategy that will curb pollution, control floods, and minimize climate change. Conservationists and scientists across the globe however, disagree.
Baltimore City is poised to adopt a new zoning code that is among the most ‘green building friendly’ land use ordinances in the country.
A green building friendly zoning ordinance is significant when so many local codes including land use ordinances across the country stand in the way of sustainability efforts.
What the Sierra Club has done with its “Beyond Coal” campaign is pretty impressive, making a huge swath of the American public aware of the health and environmental issues associated with coal-fired power plants – not only their CO2 emissions, but also their heavy metals, SOx, NOx, etc. It’s really one of the most effective public education efforts I can
Today, delivering on commitments made in his Climate Action Plan, President Obama signed an Executive Order (EO) to strengthen the Nation’s preparedness for and resilience to the impacts of climate change. Actions directed by the EO include:
- Establishing a new Task Force on Climate
A new report published recently in the journal PLOS ONE shows a steep rise in rates of renewable energy patenting over the last decade. Of course, that in itself is not novel or interesting.
What is new and interesting is the study’s key findings about the determinants of such patenting activity.
People buy hybrids for a variety of reasons: to save money on gas, reduce environmental harms, or project an image as a socially-conscious driver. But on a pure economics basis, are hybrids really the way to go? Does using less gas actually translate into real savings over the life of a hybrid?
Every year, American building owners lose billions of dollars as they overpay for energy to power their lighting, heating, and cooling systems, as energy is wasted in obsolete equipment or leaks out of a porous building envelope. The right energy efficiency measures can reduce costs by 20% to 40%, but they can also require substantial upfront sums. Additionally,