Energy and Climate Change

Men with guns I’m used to. But kids without books, teachers or classes for a long time — that’s trouble. Big trouble.

Most scientists believe the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is helping cause the rapid rise in carbon dioxide levels. This greenhouse gas traps heat, changes weather patterns, and raises sea levels.

Parts per million. The expected proportion of the atmosphere that carbon dioxide is expected to break this month. Our atmosphere has not seen such levels in 3 million years.

Hertsgaard focuses on BP’s use of Corexit, the "dispersant" substance used to break up the oil, which is thought to have sickened hundreds of cleanup workers and local residents, damaged gulf wildlife and ecosystems, and helped conceal the true extent of the disaster.

Does wind-energy production lead to higher incomes and more jobs for local residents? A study of counties in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains indicates that answer may be yes.

These kinds of batteries can "deliver far more power than anybody ever thought."

Electric car batteries connected to the grid as a piece of the system needed to stabilize energy peaks and valleys that come when wind and solar generators cannot produce on command.

This is not wild-eyed hippie talk. It is the assessment of the utilities themselves.

"We have developed an electric grid reliability test bed at INL where full-scale, cost-effective commercially sensitive testing and evaluation can occur safely and securely."

"This is a mechanism that could really allow renewable energy to be scaled much more quickly, because it would enable the purchasing of large amounts of renewable power. It also brings in many other players in to the mix and gives them access to renewable energy from utilities."