Energy and Climate Change

Coskata says its ability to use a wide variety of feedstock to produce ethanol sets it apart from competitors locked into feedstock such as corn or sugar cane. The company, which is backed by General Motors, is focused on using waste materials instead of food crops, thereby side-stepping the whole food-for-fuel debate.

Ron Hunter’s electric bill reached $1,363 in July. His suspicions about the meter grew in September, after a blackout hit his Bakersfield home. The Web page that allows SmartMeter users to see how much electricity they consume, hour by hour, showed that his electricity use actually rose during the blackout.

How a smarter grid works as an enabling engine
for our economy, our environment and our future.

NorthWestern Energy and the Montana Community Development Corporation (MCDC) are partnering with eight Montana sawmills and public and private landowners to help develop community-based biomass power in Montana. The partnership will create a coordinated business plan to enable the production of wood-fueled power in the state.

Three trillion cubic feet of methane leak into the air every year, with Russia and the United States the leading sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s official estimate. (This amount has the warming power of emissions from over half the coal plants in the United States.) And government scientists and industry officials caution that the real figure is almost certainly higher.

Teams from across the USA, Canada and Europe are competing to design and build the most attractive and efficient solar home.

The Zero Energy Idea House, built to demonstrate how a home can produce almost as much energy as it consumes, will be open to the public from 10/15/09 to 11/15/09.

Another plus: wood-burning boilers can churn out a steady supply of electricity. Solar power is only made when the sun shines, and windmills turn only when the wind blows.

In Rock Port, Mo., spinning turbines already are producing more than 100 percent of the town’s annual energy requirements.

Proposed Station Would Connect Separate Grids, Enabling Electricity Generated in Remote Sites to Reach a Wider Market