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  • Wind power surges forward around the globe

    Scotland expects renewables to meet all of its electricity needs by 2025.Photo: Kari GibsonFor many years, a small handful of countries dominated growth in wind power, but this is changing as the industry goes global, with more than 70 countries now developing wind resources. Between 2000 and 2010, world wind electric generating capacity increased at […]

    Lester Brown Energy

  • Behavior change: we’re already doing it [VIDEO]

    Last week, my enormous head and I did a video interview with the energy-focused cable news show EnergyNow! (which incidentally just got a national distribution deal through Bloomberg TV). The topic was behavior change. They’ve split the video in two. Here’s the first bit: And the second bit: As always, I find my performance on […]

    David Roberts Energy

  • Con: Nuclear power is expensive, risky, and some of its proponents are kind of annoying

    Today, many outlets report that it’s very likely that the #2 reactor at Daiichi is in full meltdown. There is a strong possibility that rising radiation levels from other sources (such as a pool of spent nuclear fuel rods that is heating up) will force the 50 remaining workers at the plant to evacuate. That […]

    Christopher Mims Energy

  • Pro: Japan’s terrible disaster is no reason to stop building nuclear power

    Japan is now facing a worst-case scenario for its Daiichi nuclear power plant. But that’s no reason to stop building new nuclear power plants, say a bevy of pundits. Their reasons are myriad. Some, like one Wall Street Journal editor, make the economic argument that all human endeavors are fraught with risk, so this one […]

    Christopher Mims Energy

  • What will the Japan disaster mean for U.S. nuclear power?

    The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is several miles from a seismic fault.Photo: MaryaCNN just published an opinion piece that I wrote with Richard Caperton, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Here it is: The recent history of the U.S. nuclear industry suggests that nuclear power can be a safe […]

    Joseph Romm Energy

  • Good news: New EPA boiler regs include output-based standards

    Finally the day you’ve all been waiting for has arrived: EPA has released its new boiler emissions rules for hazardous pollutants! (The cool kids call it “the boiler MACT.”) Most review and discussion of these rules so far has been silent on the most significant aspect: they introduce output-based emissions standards. As Grist readers know, […]

    Sean Casten Energy

  • Mistakes economists make, climate/energy edition

    Economist Tyler Cowen has a list of mistakes made by liberal and conservative economists. They are largely of the intellectual, “you’re doing economics wrong” sort. I’m more interested in Ezra Klein’s subsequent list of mistakes economists make in their interactions with journalists and the political class. These are the ones that really grind my gears […]

    David Roberts Energy

  • Japan is not a nuclear conflagration right now. Would we be so lucky?

    Japan has declared a state of emergency at the Fukushima nuclear reactor -- but thanks to good engineering, there's been no radiation leak and there's no risk of one. With more than 50 nuclear plants in the earthquake-vulnerable country, things would have been way worse without earthquake precautions in place. Does U.S. infrastructure have that kind of protection?

    Jess Zimmerman Energy

  • Is the Bloom Box cheaper than solar?

    This is part of a series on distributed renewable energy posted to Grist. It originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. The Bloom Box has received a lot of media attention for its plug-and-play approach to electricity from fuel cells. The 100 kilowatt boxes generate electricity […]

    John Farrell Energy

  • Oil prices soar in spite of sharp increase in U.S. production under Obama

    U.S. oil production last year rose to its highest level in almost a decade … As a result, analysts believe the U.S. was the largest contributor to the increase in global oil supplies last year over 2009, and is on track to increase domestic production by 25 percent by the second half of the decade. […]

    Joseph Romm Energy