For the first time, an inventory of the largest stationary greenhouse gas emitters in the United States has made been made publicly available. On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the first-ever inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from large polluters.
Levels of nitrogen in the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Sea of Japan have risen sharply over the last 30 years because of growing industrial and agricultural pollution, according to a new study in the journal Science.
Analyzing data from the 1980s to the present,
Three days ago, much of the American East Coast experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. Fortunately there was not much damage, but the ghost of energy blackouts reared its ugly face when nuclear reactors in Virginia were powered off automatically by safety systems. Meanwhile, wind turbines continued to spin
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected four projects for continued research into developing carbon capture technologies, with the goal of achieving 90 percent carbon dioxide removal.
While existing carbon capture technologies require enormous amounts of energy — adding as much as
The Chinese government has issued a statement admitting that the controversial Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower plant and a centerpiece engineering project for the nation, has numerous problems that are “urgently in need of resolution.”
In the statement, the state council acknowledged that the 600-foot-tall dam, completed in 2006 on the Yangtze River to provide a new source of renewable energy, has produced troubling ecological, human, and geological impacts downriver.
The 1.5-mile barrier produces the electricity equivalent of about 500 Chinese coal-fired power plants, but that energy production has come at enormous human and environmental costs. In addition to the relocation of 1.4 million people and the flooding of more than 1,000 towns and villages, the project has triggered pollution-fueled algae blooms in the reservoir area, landslides, and erosion of slopes.
“Problems emerged at various stages of project planning and construction but could not be solved immediately, and some arose because of increased demands brought on by economic and social development,” the statement says. The government offered no specific plans to address the problems.
Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.
Electric vehicles are often touted as much better for the environment than cars with internal combustion engines. But just what are the environmental costs associated with electric vehicles?
It Starts with Production
For starters, electric cars are still made with materials
In the wake of the deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on Friday which now threatens the possibility of partial or full reactor meltdowns at several Japanese nuclear power plants, many anti-nuclear campaigners are using the opportunity to posit that nuclear power is neither clean, green nor safe, even in the context of its potential to reduce
The last new nuclear power plant came online in the U.S. in 1996 and the next one may be ready as early as 2012, but after that, it’s hard to say when the next nuclear reactor might begin generating electricity in the United States. And though touted as an important source of low-carbon electricity in an energy-hungry world, nuclear power
Before energy became a hot topic, no one cared about the electric meter. It was the box on the house we all ignored except the guy from the utility who dodged the barking dogs to take a reading from it once in awhile.
It is a sign of our times that this box now inspires enough emotion for people to take
In 2009 China became a net-importer of coal. In 2006 the New York Times reported that China was already using “more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined.” Today the amount of coal demanded in China is greater than ever. The coast of China is 7,000 miles (11,265 km) from the
BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, has raised an additional $90 million in its most recent equity financing, according to a U.S. securities law filing.
Keely Wachs, a spokesperson for BrightSource Energy, reports that the Company has now raised $420 million in equity financing to date.
An Indian company has developed a technology that converts discarded rice husks into energy, so far providing electricity to 60 rural villages and more than 150,000 people. Adapting a decades-old biomass gasification method, Husk Power Systems created a design they say is so simple that even a high school-educated villager can be trained to operate it.
Did you notice the air was a little fresher yesterday? It’s because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started the slow process of regulating greenhouse gases in an effort to address climate change.
Earlier this year, President Obama said he would have the EPA regulate greenhouse gases if Congress failed to pass climate
In the absence of any congressional legislative action on regulating greenhouse gas emissions and with political momentum on its side, the Obama administration announced today it would be moving forward with its plan to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions from large point sources, namely refineries and power