USA

Is this the beginning of the end for biofuels ?

To TreeHugger : “A measure that would remove roughly $6 billion in annual ethanol subsidies just passed the U.S. Senate, signaling, among other things, a shift in public attitude towards the once-heralded alternative fuel. ” It wasn’t so long ago that corn ethanol was considered a plausible replacement for oil – but that was before […]

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Tackling the methane from landfills

Sometimes, the simplest things work best. To Grist : ” Bill Clinton urged mayors at the Large Cities Climate Summit to go after a pollutant 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide: methane.” ” By capturing it from landfills, from which it leaches in prodigious amounts, cities could use it to generate power. Wrestling CO2

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GE : Solar cheaper than fossil fuels by 2016

After the quite depressing news from the International Energy Agency yesterday, here is something that might cheer you up. If proven true, this could literally change everything. According to Bloomberg : ” Solar power may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and nuclear reactors within three to five years because of innovations, said

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Hydropower strikes back, with a controversy

To the New York Times : ” Hydropower, a renewable energy source often overshadowed by excitement about wind and solar power, is enjoying something of a global resurgence.” ” Huge, controversial dam projects have recently made headlines in Brazil, Chile and Laos. Many developing countries, hungry for energy to supply their growing economies (…) are

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Global weirding is already a reality in the USA

To the Huffington Post : ” Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a “new normal” of extreme U.S. weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday. “It’s a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe

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Subsidies and drilling won’t solve our problems

You know probably know it : America – and to be fair, many other countires –  is giving a lot of subsidies to Big Oil and companies that are making billions of profits. This doesn’t make sense economically nor environmentally. You might also remember that I have been advocating changing this for years and have

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Is climate change to blame for more tornadoes ?

To BusinessWeek : ” The tornado outbreak that killed 327 people in the Southeast last week may have been the largest in U.S. history, with an estimated 305 twisters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. “ “More than 600 tornadoes formed in all of April, compared with the previous record of 267 set in

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Total to invest one billion euro in SunPower

To Reuters : ” French energy major Total SA’s landmark $1.37 billion (note : one billion euro) offer for a majority stake in U.S. company SunPower Corp gave fresh impetus to hopes of more deals, lifting global solar stocks. ” ” Total’s move is one of the biggest ever by an oil and gas giant

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One year after the BP oil spill

You would have thought that the United States have learned from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which took place a year ago. To the Huffington Post, this is absolutely not the case. “In the year since the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history, Congress hasn’t adopted any major laws on

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President Obama gets more serious on efficiency

CleanTechies often republishes blog posts from the Official White House blog. This enabled me to learn about a significant series of measures designed to help America cut its oil dependence and energy consumption. Indeed, new standards will enable future cars to cut their oil consumption (not by much though…). US households will also be able

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