January 23rd, 2013

Concerned about the heavy toll that carbon pollution is taking on the planet, students across the US are petitioning their colleges to divest from fossil fuels….By clicking on the link to their school, students are connected either to a petition they can sign, or a website for their campus group working for fossil fuel divestment.

[Read more →]

July 19th, 2012

The U.S. Navy this week held military exercises in the Pacific Ocean that used an expensive blend of biofuels and conventional fuels to power 71 aircraft and three warships, part of an ongoing effort by the Navy to develop alternative fuels for its glo…

[Read more →]

April 11th, 2012

NASA has developed a system capable of growing large amounts of algae for biofuel production within a network of floating plastic bags, an innovation its developers say could ultimately produce a new fuel source. By pumping wastewater and carbon dioxid…

[Read more →]

March 29th, 2011

As Congress threatens to punch holes in domestic spending with its latest budget resolution, 34 clean tech and clean energy CEOs have come together to fight for the federal loan guarantees their projects depend upon.

Without the loan guarantees from the Department of Energy, many pending clean energy projects will stall or be shuttered, creating huge job losses in several states and pushing back American progress on developing new, domestic sources of power, the CEOs wrote to Congressional leaders today.

Their letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Majority Leader John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

Dear Leader Reid, Speaker Boehner, Leader McConnell and Leader Pelosi:

As the Senate considers a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for the remainder
of the 2011 fiscal year, we urge you to continue funding the Department of Energy?s (DOE)
renewable energy loan guarantee programs (Sec. 1705 and Sec. 1703). In addition, we request
your support for program changes that would allow viable Sec. 1705 project applications to
transfer into the Sec. 1703 program. As chief executive officers of 34 companies, we are
investing in projects with pending loan guarantee applications based on the good faith notion
that the DOE programs would function as stipulated in law and as Congress intended.

[Read more →]

March 3rd, 2011

A team of chemical engineers at the University of Arkansas has developed a method for converting common algae into butanol, a renewable fuel that can be used in existing combustible engines. The green technology benefits from and adds greater value to a process being used now to clean and oxygenate U.S. waterways by removing excess nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer in runoff.

[Read more →]

October 18th, 2010

Syracuse University today announced a partnership to advance the use of biofuels by the U.S. armed forces as an alternative energy source.

[Read more →]

October 14th, 2010

The EPA’s decision to increase the allowable percentage of ethanol in gasoline to 15 percent has ignited a fiery debate among America’s mega-industrial interests. Watching the Titans queue up on their respective sides of this issue has been almost embarrassing; there are so many nakedly exposed agendas and odd alliances.
What’s not so amusing are the serious environmental consequences of both the production and combustion of ethanol. But first let’s sort out the teammates.

[Read more →]

September 23rd, 2010

Much progress has been made in recent years in the development of biofuels made from microalgae, animal fat and other non-petroleum-based substances, and they likely will be approved for use in aircraft by the middle of next year, according to a report in the new Aviation Week & Space Technology.

[Read more →]

September 23rd, 2010

Much progress has been made in recent years in the development of biofuels made from microalgae, animal fat and other non-petroleum-based substances, and they likely will be approved for use in aircraft by the middle of next year, according to a report in the new Aviation Week & Space Technology.

[Read more →]

September 17th, 2010

(The following is adapted from Lester R. Brown’s Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), which is available at the Earth Policy Institute website. Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute.)

Lester Brown

As oil and natural gas reserves are being depleted, the world’s attention is increasingly turning to plant-based energy sources. These include food crops, forest industry byproducts, sugar industry byproducts, plantations of fast-growing trees, crop residues, and urban tree and yard wastes—all of which can be used for electrical generation, heating, or the production of automotive fuels.

[Read more →]

May 24th, 2010

Ninety of America’s leading scientists have urged Congressional leaders to be certain that any climate/energy bill or regulation accurately accounts for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from bioenergy sources, including biofuels such as ethanol.

In a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Majority Leader Harry Reid, and key Obama Administration officials, the group says that ignoring the carbon impact of bioenergy can actually lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions because not all forms of bioenergy produce less carbon dioxide pollution than fossil fuels.

[Read more →]

April 26th, 2010

SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development institute, will host Greentech Media’s Nordic Green II conference on April 27 – 28, 2010, in Menlo Park, Calif. Nordic Green II will feature keynote speeches from thought leaders from the Nordic and San Francisco Bay regions, and will showcase innovative companies. The event will also feature cutting-edge research and high-level discussions on emerging green technologies and new entrepreneurial opportunities in California and the Nordic region.

[Read more →]