It seems like it was only yesterday that politicians, coal executives and even some environmentalists had agreed on the benefits of clean coal technology. Among other duties, it takes the polluting carbon dioxide byproducts of coal-fired power stations and sequesters it deep underground, where its greenhouse gases cannot enter the atmosphere. (For a good overview, [...]

Government support for solar is seeing one of its standouts slide backwards, as Germany is cutting back on solar subsidies. This is obviously extremely disappointing, and while this isn’t entirely new news, the human end economic cost of the goverment’s change in policy is becoming much more apparent. Solar installers are having to deal with [...]

I just returned from San Diego last night after a very interesting week listening to many of the pioneers of solar electric power at the ASES Solar 2008 Conference. Brad Collins, Executive Director of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) gave a very interesting talk about what he learned at the first World Future Energy [...]

Yesterday, the U.N. and the World Blank announced plans for a task force to address skyrocketing food prices worldwide (Forbes.com).
The food price shock now roiling world markets is destabilizing governments, igniting street riots and threatening to send a new wave of hunger rippling through the world’s poorest nations. It is outpacing even the Soviet grain [...]

Hundreds of scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have reported political interference in their work, according to a report released on April 23 by the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Interference at the EPA: Science and Politics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” draws from the anonymous responses of 1,586 EPA scientists, 889 (56 percent) [...]

In the face of slumping housing prices and a slew of pending foreclosures, some California homebuilders are expanding efforts to incorporate solar-power systems into residential projects. The latest deal comes from a partnership between the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and Woodside Homes, a Utah-based homebuilder. In all, 1,487 solar-powered homes will be built in [...]

A growing energy industry will obviously produce jobs, and renewables like solar have been a crucial part of that growth. RedOrbit has put out the latest in a string of articles about the positive effect of the energy industry on national job growth. With worries of an upcoming recession having turned into worries about the [...]

Facing increased roadblocks to financial success and growth stateside, the U.S. coal industry is taking its business elsewhere: overseas. Coal exports jumped from a little over 49 million short tons (mmst) in 2006 to 53 million in 2007, according to the National Mining Association, and the New York Times reports that coal executives predict exports [...]

With the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol just under way, European Commission (EC) ministers met recently to nail down post-2012 climate policies. The so-called 20-20-20 benchmark—reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1990 levels, and producing 20% of all electricity from renewable sources, both by 2020—remains a cornerstone of EC efforts. As for [...]

Telegraph UK reports that the British government will soon reverse its existing policy and will move to solar feed-in tariffs. The upshot is that Britain consumers will now be in a far better position to pursue economically feasible solar installations for their homes.

This is fantastic news by any standard. This also appears to be the [...]