Natural Gas Overtaking Coal as Top Electricity Generating Fuel
Next time you flip the light switch, you might consider the monumental switch that’s happening in the way your electricity is made. In 2012 – for the first time since the U.S. Energy Information...
View ArticleThe Energy Outlook for President Obama’s Second Term
As the most expensive race on record, the 2012 presidential election consumed a vital resource: energy. Most of that energy – in the form of transportation and electricity (to produce all those TV ads)...
View ArticleCalifornia’s Cap-and-Trade Debut
Cap-and-trade? Cap-and-dividend? CARB? AB32? Carbon tax? Confused? Cap-and-trade legislation began as a simple idea – setting limits on pollution and having companies buy or trade offsets. A greenhouse...
View ArticleMoney May Not Grow on Trees, but Energy Does Fall From the Sky
Did you know that solar panels have dropped in price by roughly 80 percent over the last five years? And did you know that, according to a New York Times opinion piece last month, they can provide...
View ArticleUpgrading Our Aging Energy Infrastructure Will Require Some Creative Thinking
Our nation’s infrastructure is like a kid on the verge of flunking out of school. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues its Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,...
View ArticleIs Breakthrough Solar Pricing on the Horizon?
It might sound too good to be true: Cut your electric bill in half without cutting your energy usage in half. But if you live in certain parts of Texas or New Mexico, you might be in luck. As reported...
View ArticleSafer Nuclear Power: Could Thorium Be An ‘Energy Miracle?’
When Bill Gates talks, people listen (with apologies to E.F. Hutton). And when he talks about the future, he says we need “energy miracles.” Speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference last year,...
View ArticleAn Energy Future Marked by Beer-Powered Beer and Homes Heated With Bathwater?
What if you could use the waste from making beer to make even more beer? Or pull waste from a sewage treatment plant, feed it into a pond of algae, and then pour the algae biofuel into your car’s gas...
View ArticleHybrid Vehicles Keep Getting Better; Could 1,000 MPGe Be Within Reach?
“A thing made by combining two different elements; a mixture.” That’s the simple definition of “hybrid.” But when it comes to hybrid cars, things get a bit more complicated: plug-in hybrids, plug-in...
View ArticleCan Federal Effort on Energy Innovation Recreate Space Race Magic?
You might not know the acronym DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – but you should. It gave us the internet. We can only hope that its modern-day cousin, ARPA-E –Advanced Research...
View ArticleWhat Lies Beneath: Concerns About Securing Our Energy Infrastructure
We don’t give much thought to what’s buried under us because we can’t see it. But to get an idea of what’s underground, picture a route map in the back of an airline in-flight magazine. There are more...
View Article
