Hydrogen Storage Could Be Key to Germany’s Energy Plans

Hydrogen storage tanks presently used in hydrogen-powered vehicles

If Germany is to meet its ambitious goals of getting a third of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, it must find a way to store huge quantities of electricity in order to make up for the intermittency of renewable energy. … Continue Reading

Obama announces new limits on carbon pollution from power plants

The EPA seal (Pic via sentryjournal.com)

The EPA today proposed new limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. Environmentalists say the move will be a boon to Floridians, who get about 25 percent of their electricity from coal, but utility reps say the rules will “crush jobs” and arrest America’s economic recovery. … Continue Reading

Obama Carbon Pollution Rules Boost Cleaner Power

By Daniel J. Weiss

The Washington Post reported this evening that the Obama administration plans to propose the first nationwide standard to reduce carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants:

“The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants as early as Tuesday, according to several people briefed on the proposal. The move could end the construction of new conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States.” … Continue Reading

Far Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India Than Previously Estimated

More than 95 percent of the wind potential is concentrated in five states in southern and western India. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

A new assessment of wind energy in India has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates — about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India’s renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity. … Continue Reading

New Solar Panels Blossomed Despite a Tough Year for the Industry

Solar is becoming very affordable for buyers

By DIANE CARDWELL - Last year seemed like a dark one for the solar industry: Stiff competition from China drove American manufacturers to layoffs and even bankruptcy, while the low price of natural gas and the loss of a critical government subsidy weakened incentives for new solar developments. And then there was the long shadow of Solyndra, whose bankruptcy after receiving federal loans cast a pall over other green-energy endeavors. … Continue Reading

The War Against Oil is Being Won

by Dana Blankenhorn – With natural gas prices having tanked, and the President being given stick on the campaign trail over high gas prices and failed subsidies at Solyndra and elsewhere, it may be hard to see that the War Against Oil is being won.

But it is.

The War Against Oil is a long-term project, begun some years ago, meant to wean the market from its dependence on fossil fuels and create a new era of sustainable abundance. It is at the heart of today’s politics, oil interests having taken command of our politics 12 years ago and retaining an absolute stranglehold on the Republican Party. But this is, in the end, an economic struggle, and what ultimately matters is cost. … Continue Reading

Congressional Republicans and Media Debate Contraception Issue

GOP leaders from left to right, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor

With so many major items before the U.S. and the rest of the world, the main topic during the past few weeks in the U.S. has been about contraception and birth control. One would think Women’s Rights and related issues have long been settled.

Aren’t there more pressing and immediate concerns Congress and therefore, the Media should be discussing. For example; What about Energy? How about an Energy Policy which includes renewable energy standards; and as an extension, what about Gas Prices – how high is it going and why? What about our Importing Oil  – how do we eventually become independent of foreign oil? Are we simply suppose to “drill baby drill” or as others decry, immediately and totally cease all oil and coal exploration and its’ use, or as President Obama requested, have an “all-of-the-above” strategy?

The issues of expanding drilling capacities, the expansive inclusion of solar power, wind power, biomass/biofuels, hydropower, geothermal power, natural gas, and nuclear power are far more pressing to the nation and the world at large, both immediately and also to our future. Instead we’re left to hear talk and argument about old and long settled matters, and of impossible ways to “fix” the past.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Agree or Not, Leave Your Comment…

Renewable Energy Rises 27% Since Obama Took Office, But Clean Car Policy Isn’t Working

Since President Obama entered office three years ago, renewable energy production in the US has climbed 26.9%, according to the Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) latest “Monthly Energy Review.”

For the three years ending November 30, 2011, domestic oil production has also risen, by 13.7%, natural gas production grew 13.4%, nuclear power decreased by 2.8% and coal production plummeted by 7.3%.

For the first 11 months of 2011, renewables accounted for 11.76% of domestic energy production, up from 10.83% for the same period in 2010.

In terms of actual production, renewables rose 13.4% in 2011, with hydropower supplying 34.9%, followed by biomass (26.6%), biofuels (22.0%), wind (12.7%), geothermal (2.4%), and solar (1.3%). … Continue Reading