U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says many world leaders support a proposal to earmark $100 billion a year to curb greenhouse gases and help countries cope with climate change.
Speaking at a roundtable luncheon organized by the United Nations Foundation, Ban said...
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A month after the demise of "Cash for Clunkers," the first state-level "cash for appliances" programs are starting to take shape.
Lawmakers in Wisconsin have approved a plan to spend about $5 million in federal stimulus money...
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A new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute says that unless nations do more to fight climate change, there will be more hungry children in the world.
It says even without climate change, 113 million children under five years old will...
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Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore met with Mexican president Felipe Calderon in Mexico city to discuss the need for reaching a new United Nations climate agreement in Copenhagen.
Efforts have stalled, largely on unwillingness by nations to commit to firm emissions targets and a refusal by some developing countries...
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Dominion Resources says it is moving ahead with a proposed $600 million project to pipe natural gas from fields in West Virginia to Delmont, Penn. - roughly 25 miles east of Pittsburgh.
The plan includes building 110 miles of pipeline and four compressor stations by 2012.
"Marcellus Shale and traditional production have increased the natural gas available...
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We're getting our first look at what will be included in the Senate climate bill to be released tomorrow.
The Democratic bill is to be released Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with a vote by the panel likely in late October. The sponsors are EPW...
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A veteran environmental cleanup expert from the Department of Energy will be managing the Tennessee Valley Authority's role in the coal ash spill recovery project in Tennessee.
TVA has hired Steve McCracken to oversee its $1 billion cleanup of 5.4 million cubic yards of ash that flooded homes near the Kingston...
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Officials say it could take three weeks to completely clean up the 10,500 gallons of diesel that spilled into the Houston Ship Channel last week.
On Friday, a vessel called The Chemical Supplier collided with a barge near Brady Island...
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Chicago-based Exelon, one of the nation's biggest utilities, says it is leaving the Chamber of Commerce because of its position on climate change.
The Chamber is a major Washington, D.C.-based business lobby, which warns that global warming legislation would cost far more...
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China has become the third country, behind the United States and Canada, to excavate gas hydrates from land.
The country's official news agency says China has excavated combustible ice, a natural gas hydrate in the permanent tundra...
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Average global temperatures may be seven degrees hotter by the mid-2050s if current greenhouse gas trends continue, according to a new study released today Britain's Met Office Hadley Center.
Scientists found that additional factors such as increased carbon release from the soil, could add to the current trends, making the global warming...
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Billions of dollars in funding, thousands of jobs and renewable energy mandates are driving a new battle among states for renewable projects.
USA Today reported Friday that states are in a heated competition to attract solar, wind, geothermal or any renewable energy projects. Arizona, for example, describes itself as the Saudi Arabia of solar. But the state complains that in...
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A federal appeals board has ordered the EPA to reconsider an air permit for a planned coal plant in New Mexico.
Environmentalists and the State of New Mexico have voiced concerns about air quality, CO2 emissions and violations of the...
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Ben and Jerry's is teaming up with General Electric to develop a greener freezer.
The ice cream maker is testing out new hydrocarbon coolers that use propane and butane to chill food. The new freezers take advantage of the way hydrocarbon gases absorb heat when they change from...
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When it comes to getting the rest of the world to catch on to cap and trade, the European Union is facing an uphill climb.
The EU was the first to start a continent-wide carbon-trading system back in 2005. But president of the industry group BusinessEurope told the New York Times Green Inc. blog on Monday that European leaders are desperate...
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The latest round of United Nations Climate Talks is underway in Bangkok, but the prospects for any immediate agreement appear dim.
This two-week gathering is the next-to-last step in the global negotiations leading up to the December meeting in Copenhagen. So far, the unwillingness of major nations to commit to emission reduction targets has prevented...
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The White House is planning to study the environmental impact of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.
The Environmental Protection Agency said in a regulatory notice it will look at water quality, the loss of streams, and effects on aquatic life. The assessment also is expected to evaluate restoration and recovery methods...
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Nine senators have written to Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer, urging her to include provisions benefiting the natural gas industry in her upcoming climate bill.
Boxer and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry plan to introduce the emissions-cutting bill on Wednesday.
Greenwire reported Friday that the bipartisan group wrote to Boxer last week...
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A federal judge says he's reluctant to put global warming on trial in the case of a Utah college student accused of illegally running up bids in a federal oil and gas lease auction for parcels near several national parks.
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson did not rule out the possibility that Tim DeChristopher could...
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For the second time in less than a week, a major power provider has announced it is quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the business group's position on climate change.
The chamber openly questions whether humans are responsible for climate change and has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency to a Public debate on the...
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After three years of wrangling, the City of Vernon, Calif. has agreed to abandon its plans to build a 943-megawatt power plant outside of Los Angeles.
Instead, the city said it will submit a new application to build a plant one third of the size.
Vernon spent years waging a political and public relations campaign for a power plant that...
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu is calling for more loan guarantee authority for the nuclear industry.
Chu tells Dow-Jones News in a story published Thursday that that DOE needs to signal that the U.S. is serious about investing in nuclear power plants.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering 18 new nuclear power plant license...
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The EPA and the Interior Department are in for big funding increases under a $32 billion spending bill the Senate approved Thursday.
The measure includes $10.2 billion for the EPA -- a 33 percent increase over last...
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China is now the world's largest Greenhouse Gas emitter and that country now says it is taking steps toward developing a voluntary system to limit its emissions.
French company BlueNext is working with the Beijing Environment Exchange to create a voluntary carbon market standard for China, the first step in lowering carbon dioxide...
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Without voting, the Senate has killed Sen. Lisa Murkowski's amendment to the EPA appropriations bill that would have prohibited the agency from regulating greenhouse gas.
Murkowski introduced the amendment Thursday morning as part of the measure funding the EPA, Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service through 2010. Murkowski's spokesman tells...
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Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has announced the completion of the first official original Smart Grid standards.
Locke announced the standard today at GridWeek. Produced by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the approximately...
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The United Nations is striving to make Tuesday's climate conference carbon neutral, purchasing about 450 tons of offsets.
More than 50 presidents, 35 prime ministers and many environment ministers attended the summit in New...
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Tennessee Valley Authority customers will have to pay at least some of the nearly $3 billion in projected cleanup costs and resulting operational changes from last December's coal ash spill.
TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said a resulting utility-wide change to dry storage of coal waste and gypsum over the next eight to 10 years will be paid for gradually...
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Lawmakers are still trying to amend the Senate's EPA funding bill as Majority Leader Harry Reid moves for cloture vote.
Greenwire reported in a story published Wednesday in the New York Times that Reid has filed for cloture, a move that would limit debate on the $32.1 measure...
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Australia's opposition party has been given a deadline of next month to submit its suggested changes to the proposed carbon pollution reduction program.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said in a letter to opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull that was e-mailed to Bloomberg...
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A court decision in Europe is raising doubts about the European Union's emissions trading system.
The EU's Court of First Instance ruled that the EU's executive commission overstepped its powers in forcing Poland and Estonia to accept strict limits in carbon dioxide...
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Pacific Gas and Electric is pulling out of the United States Chamber of Commerce because of the Chamber's position on global warming.
PG&E Chairman Peter A. Darbee told the Chamber of the California utility's decision in a letter last week.
"We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority...
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The Energy Department will lend Fisker Automotive, a California firm that makes luxury electric vehicles, more than $500 million to develop a plug-in hybrid sports car and a new plug-in hybrid vehicle to be built in the United States.
DOE says the the Irvine, Calif., startup will be the fourth automaker to receive loans from from a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient...
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President Obama says governments of the world should end subsidies that encourage the use of fossil fuels.
The White House says the president will propose at the the G-20 summit this week in Pittsburgh that the subsidies be gradually eliminated,
with the time frame to be...
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Aviation emissions could lose altitude as the industry assures the public it will cut emissions in half - a promise British Airways CEO Willie Walsh made world leaders at the New York Climate Summit today.
Airlines, airports and aircraft companies agree to cut emissions 50 percent below...
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Suedeen Kelly will not seek a third term on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The New Mexico Democrat served six years on the five-member commission. Her term expired June 30. President Obama offered her a third term in July that would have ended in June 2014, but Kelly said late Monday...
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is hearing from both sides as he considers whether to adopt a proposal on offshore drilling.
The comment period closed yesterday on a plan released near the end of the Bush administration calling for opening new areas along the Atlantic, Pacific, Alaska and in the eastern...
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The International Energy Agency says global carbon emissions should post their biggest drop in more than 40 years in 2009, as the worldwide recession froze economic activity and cut down on global energy use.
The New York Times says that IEA, which gives policy advice and research to industrialized nations, projects that U.S. emissions...
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A federal appeals court ruled Monday that states trying to combat global warming can sue electric utilities, forcing the companies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan sided with a coalition of eight states, New York City and environmental groups in a case brought under federal common law that accused the several companies of being among the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world and sought to force them to reduce their...
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China's August oil consumption dropped more than 5 percent from July's figures - the first decline in six months, according to an analysis by Platts.
Platts says that China is the world's second biggest oil consumer but the nation is down on imports and crude through-put rates at domestic refiners, bringing total demand to roughly...
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Another twist in reduction standards comes as the Environmental Protection Agency gets set for possible regulation of greenhouse gases - an amendment in the agency's funding bill from Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Senate is considering a $32.1 billion measure that would fund the the Interior...
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The threat of global warming's impact on profits has corporate America taking action.
A new report on climate change expected out today shows companies worldwide are taking steps on their own to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the Carbon Disclosure Project was scheduled...
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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is in New York today ahead of a UN climate summit tomorrow that will draw 100 world leaders.
Blair is touting results of a new report by Cambridge University economists. He says he hopes the report will break the deadlock in global climate talks. It contends that 10 million jobs could be created by 2020, if developing nations agree to big cuts in greenhouse gases...
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A congressional report shows the long-term economic costs of a climate bill would be "comparatively modest" in light of expected overall economic growth over the next 40 years.
In a report released last week for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would cause the Gross Domestic...
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Though four buildings at the Oak Ridge National Lab were supposed to have been made more energy efficient a decade ago, they are still burning energy like 1950s sedans, according to a new report today from the Energy Department's Inspector General.
Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the Department of Energy agreed in 2001 to pay Honeywell $256 million to retrofit the old...
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Taiwan's Advanced Power and Energy Sources Transportation has unveiled a new battery that uses a zinc-air fuel cell to power plug-in vehicles.
The main byproduct of the reaction is zinc oxide, which could then be converted back into zinc fuel or sold as a chemical.
APET has created several fuel cells and...
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The Department of Energy has granted Ford Motor Company a $5.9 billion loan to help it retool factories, with the goal of producing more fuel efficient vehicles.
Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the conditional loan commitment to Ford would finance up to 80 percent of the company's qualified expenditures toward energy...
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Twelve coal miners are dead and dozens more are injured in a methane gas explosion today in Poland, a country that retains nearly 95 percent of its energy from coal.
A spokeswoman for the state body that oversees Polish coal mining says that the explosion occurred this morning more than 3,450 feet below ground in the southwestern...
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One key player in world climate negotiations says he's dismayed by Arctic ice conditions.
In an opinion piece for Thursday's New York Times, entitled "The Ice Is Melting," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon talked of his trip.
Ban said he saw the remains of a glacier that was...
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Sempra Energy says it is investing in a 200-megawatt wind farm that BP is developing in Indiana, marking the company's first operating wind farm investment.
The farm will not only generate power for approximately 60,000 homes but will also signify equal partnership with BP Wind...
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New numbers show the melting of arctic sea ice over the summer made it the third biggest melt on record, but not quite as bad as the previous 2 years.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center says Arctic sea ice reached its annual low last week.
The range of ocean still frozen over the northern polar region reached a minimum...
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BrightSource Energy Inc. says it has scrapped a controversial plan to build a solar farm in the eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument.
The proposed 5,130-acre solar power plant was to be built on Broadwell Dry Lake, which lies within Sleeping Beauty Valley...
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Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is being investigated over federal oil shale leases issued to Royal Dutch Shell in 2006, months before she went to work for Shell.
Norton was the Interior chief under former President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2006, when she joined Shell as a lawyer...
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If you buy a TV in California after next year it will be an energy efficient one, now that the California Energy Commission is proposing new standards to crack down on so-called energy guzzling big screen TVs.
These are first-in-the-nation TV efficiency standards, requiring electronics retailers to sell only energy-sipping models starting...
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The White House has signed off on the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to establish a national greenhouse gas registry.
Greenwire reports in a story published in Thursday's New York Times that the Office of Management and Budget says it has completed its review of the proposal to require 13,000 facilities nationwide to report their carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA says those sources...
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With international climate talks in Copenhagen fewer than three months away, and prospects dimming for a Senate climate bill beforehand, White House officials are now talking about pushing a world climate deal into 2010.
The December talks are aimed at producing a worldwide emissions deal that will replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires...
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The heads of some U.S. natural gas producers are in DC trying to influence climate change legislation.
They're members of ANGA, America's Natural Gas alliance, a newly formed group of 28 companies, all natural gas supporters trying to push the benefits of gas on...
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While most point to power plants and vehicles for global warming, now condoms are getting the blame - or a lack thereof.
The World Health Organization says a lack of condoms in sub-Saharan Africa is making the effects of climate change worse.
A WHO report to be published later this year says that unwanted pregnancies in poor countries have caused runaway population growth, causing a higher demand for land and water, which exacerbates drought and straining fresh water...
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Solukhumbu, NEPAL —The Sherpas living here at the foot of Mount Everest worship the big lakes in the mountains as God—a temperamental one.
“It was some 25 years ago, and the flood came in the afternoon,” said 60-year-old Loma Sherpa. From her living room window, she gazed at the direction of the river nearby and made a downward sweeping motion with one arm. “It came so fast and chopped trees along its way. I ran and ran and ran to higher ground, but the water took my house, my plants and my...
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With the internatinal climate change talks in Copenhagen just three months away, international voices are making a final push to influence a climate bill here in the United States.
Investors managing more than $13 trillion in assets called for new global emissions laws during a meeting Wednesday in...
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If China continues to grow at its current pace, the amount of power it would consume would be unsustainable by the middle of this century, according to the finding of a new study sponsored by the Unites States Energy Foundation along with international environmental group World Wildlife Fund.
The study calculates that China's greenhouse gas emissions would hit 17 billion tons annually...
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The Department of Energy will soon make an announcement on a blue-ribbon panel to study how to deal with the country's growing nuclear waste.
In April, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he would appoint a panel to determine the country's future nuclear waste policy, but there has been...
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EPA will be giving an update this evening about the dumping of million of pounds of Tennessee coal ash in a west Alabama land fill.
Officials will be holding a public meeting in Perry County, Alabama, about the disposal of the coal ash that spilled in December at the TVA's Kingston Fossil...
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Supporters of a cap-and-trade regime are firing back after the release of documents showing supposedly high costs for the program.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a group that questions whether humans are responsible for climate change, on Wednesday released a Treasury Department memo through the Freedom of Information Act. The memo estimates revenues from a cap-and-trade climate bill would...
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A new government report says the Bureau of Land Management took liberties with a federal law intended to expedite oil and natural gas drilling in the West.
The Government Accountability Office says BLM frequently misinterpreted parts of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which allow some exceptions for detailed environmental reviews on new...
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The heads of 18 doctors' associations are warning that failure to reach a climate change agreement in Copenhagen could be "catastrophic" for health.
They wrote an editorial published in both the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, calling on governments to act decisively to reduce the threat from global...
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The Environmental Protection Agency is scrapping a controversial Bush-era rule, setting stricter limits for smog - though it did not come up with any scientific recommendations.
In a brief filed in a federal appeals court, the Justice Department says the EPA believes the revision made by the Bush administration does not adhere to federal air pollution...
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A newly uncovered analysis says the Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade system would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year - the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.
This previously unreleased analysis by the Treasury Department says that the cost per American household could be an extra $1,761 a year, though House Republican Leader...
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At the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show today, Ford unveiled its new Battery Electric Vehicle based on the Focus.
Ford is teaming up with Scottish and Southern Energy and Strathclyde University to test drive a fleet of 15 prototype Focus BEV cars. The charging infrastructure will also be evaluated, which will be installed...
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Turbines may soon appear off the shores of Maryland.
The Maryland Energy Administration is reaching out to developers for help in planning a wind farm off the state's coast.
The Baltimore Business Journal says the MEA is seeking information about expected capacity, technology, economic development...
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Australia's Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is on her way to the United States to attend the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.
The Forum comes at a critical time for negotiations in the lead up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Wong says Australia wants to attend...
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The auto industry's green efforts could get a boost from a bill in Congress.
The House will consider a bill today allowing the Department of Energy to spend up to $550 million a year for advanced research on alternative...
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The Environmental Protection Agency is taking public comments on a plan to loosen rules on underground carbon dioxide injections.
Public Power Weekly reports that the EPA is considering a more flexible approach that would allow utilities and others to inject CO2 above and between underground sources of drinking water in certain...
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World climate talks in Copenhagen could come and go without U.S. legislation on climate change.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says with the chamber's busy fall schedule, the Senate may not act on comprehensive energy and climate change legislation until next...
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The Obama administration is calling for higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks as well as tougher rules on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the plan announced today by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, new vehicles will need to average 35.5 miles per gallon by...
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The world's largest offshore wind farm is expected to go into operation Thursday at a site 18 miles off the coast of Denmark.
Horns Rev 2 was built by Danish utility Dong Energy and consists of 91 Siemens turbines spread over a 21-square mile...
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Europe's wind industry is calling for a major investment in offshore turbines, with the European Union aiming to generate a fifth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
The European Wind Energy Association says offshore wind could replace coal-fired plants with the right investments.
The group says that government needs to spend more than $82 billion over the next 20 years...
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One of the world's top economists says despite pledges from world leaders five months ago, the world has yet to see the large investment in green jobs and technologies.
It was part of a plan back in April by the G20 to spur global economic recovery.
But Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at Columbia University in New York who advises U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said: "The green recovery ... was a good idea. It became a slogan; it is not a reality in any sense right...
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Secretary of Energy Steven Chu stresses the need to make buildings more energy efficient, and the Department of Energy has just added $454 million to boost the programs designed to work toward that goal.
The Retrofit Ramp-Up Program will make up to $390 million available to applicants that can show their neighborhood-scale projects can save big on building energy...
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The race is on to make cleaner European cars.
Environmental group Transport and Environment is praising Italy's Fiat SpA and France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen SA, the only two car markets to hit a voluntary European Union target to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by last year.
Both car makers produce small...
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving forward with his plans to veto a bill with the the nation's most aggressive renewable energy standard and sign an executive order with the same goals.
The governor wants utilities to generate one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 -- the same target set in a bill...
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The Department of the Interior is now launching a plan to prepare for the effects of climate change, a plan designed to ready the nation's parks, endangered species, and their refuges.
Secretary Ken Salazar signed the order establishing a Climate Change Response Council, eight regional response centers and a network of Landscape Conservation...
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You might not guess by the name but the E-Up! isn't a new soft drink -- it's a new plug-in.
Volkswagen is unveiling the electric car this week at the 63rd International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, along with several other new hybrids.
At 10.5 feet long, the E-Up! will be the smallest Volkswagen of all time, "comfortably" fitting...
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Two German cargo ships have successfully navigated across Russia's Arctic-facing northern shore from South Korea to Siberia without the help of icebreakers.
Beluga Shipping says the two freighters were able to make the cost-saving voyage by the fabled Northeast Passage because of the reduction in the polar ice cap, due...
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Communities affected by December's Tennessee coal ash spill who requested money from the Tennessee Valley Authority to restore the area's image and economy are getting what they asked for.
The TVA announced on Monday that they will provide $40 million to do just that.
The TVA payment to the community is in addition to cleanup costs estimated to total $1 billion.
An eight-member foundation board of county officials and TVA representatives will decide how...
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The leading utility for a major coal-fired power plant project in South Dakota has pulled out, citing concerns about the economy and uncertainty in Washington on climate change legislation.
Otter Tail Power Company of Minnesota has pulled out of the Big Stone II project and taken its $400 million investment with it. The project is valued at more than $1.5...
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The price of carbon has fallen again in the latest greenhouse gas auction by a coalition of 10 Northeastern states.
Allowances in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's latest quarterly auction sold for $2.19 each -- down from $3.23 in June and $3.51 in March.
Analysts blame the poor economy and uncertainty about the fate of a climate...
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Australians have passed Americans as the world's biggest individual producers of carbon dioxide.
AFP reported Saturday that Australia topped a list of 185 countries in a report from the British firm Maplecroft, with a per capita output of 20.58 tons a year. That's 4 percent higher than the United States.
Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia rounded out the top five. China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter...
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Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, died Saturday in Dallas of cancer complications at the age of 95.
The scientist is credited for advances in plant breeding that led to spectacular success in increasing food production in Latin America and Asia.
Borlaug breeded high-yielding crop varieties that helped to avert mass famines that were...
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A major environmental coalition is asking the U.S. government to better protect two of the West's most popular oil and natural gas drilling sites.
In a report last week, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development placed Utah's Uinta National Forest and the Book Cliff's region in eastern Utah on a list of the West's 10 most imperiled places to hunt and fish because of the increased oil and gas development over...
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Lawmakers say they've uncovered one more forged letter to lawmakers from a lobbying form representing coal companies, urging them to vote against the Waxman-Markey climate bill, but the lobbying firm at the center of the controversy says this one is legitimate.
The House Select Committee on Energy and Independence and Global Warming has documented 13 forgeries -- all from lobbying...
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A Tennessee county wants more money than was offered after last December's massive coal ash spill.
An estimated $1 billion is already being spent to clean up the spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston, Tenn., plant. Now, local leaders say that is not enough.
Roane County wants millions more to repair their economy and image after 5.4 million cubic...
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California lawmakers have approved a plan to increase the use of renewable energy in the state but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a better idea.
The governor's office says Schwarzenegger will veto a bill requiring a third of the state's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 and another bill that expands incentives...
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A section of the Emory River in Tennessee will remain closed for another month, according to a statement released today by the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA says that the section of the river will remain closed for an additional 30 days - beginning today - to continue the removal of coal ash from last December's spill at the Tennessee...
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The Environmental Protection Agency says it will take a closer look at 79 pending coal permits where mountaintop removal mining could take place.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says her agency wants to make sure the mines will not cause water pollution or violate the Clean...
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A new $1.2 billion nuclear fuel order from utility giant Exelon could help global energy company USEC Inc. get a federal loan guarantee.
The Bethesda, Md.-based uranium supplier has been trying to seal the deal on a $2 million Department of Energy loan guarantee since last year to complete the nation's first commercial uranium enrichment...
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The nation's car dealers and business leaders want an appeals court to overturn forthcoming EPA rules allowing California to set the nation's first greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks.
The National Automobile Dealers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the California waiver...
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The European Union is trying to tamp down expectations that it expects rich countries to hand over huge amounts of money to developing countries to help them deal with global warming.
The New York Times reported Friday that EU commissioner Stavros Dimas is trying to clarify details of a plan announced Thursday, where the EU would pay up to $32 billion annually...
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With the uncertain prospects for a climate bill this year, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with its own plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The proposed "endangerment finding" was issued in April, in response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that EPA has the authority to regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act. EPA staffers have been sorting through hundreds...
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If the Commodity Futures Trading Commission gets jurisdiction over a cap and trade system for the U.S, it may operate under a new commissioner.
President Obama has nominated Senate staffer Scott O'Malia to serve as commissioner.
Former President Bush nominated O'Malia to the same post last year, but the nomination was blocked last year by Sen. Maria...
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France is putting a price on carbon, with President Nicolas Sarkozy introducing a new carbon tax next year.
The tax is initially set at $24.78 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted, to encourage industry and households to cut consumption - that is $4.36 higher than earlier reports reports suggested and...
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Thousands of walruses are congregating on Alaska's northwest coast - a sign, the U.S. Geological Survey says, that their Arctic sea ice environment is changing due to climate change.
Chad Jay of the USGS says that walruses for years came ashore intermittently during their fall southward migration, but not typically so early in the year and not in such...
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Worried that a global climate deal may be at risk, five EU ministers announced they would step up efforts to make sure that nations around the world face up to global warming.
Lately, the group has been concerned that the the possibility of a treaty may be overthrown by the complexity of disputes between industrialized and developing nations over how to cut greenhouse gas...
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The third biggest U.S. oil giant is going after shale gas in Poland.
Reuters reported Thursday that ConocoPhillips has signed an exploration and evaluation deal for natural gas there with Lane Energy. The deal gives ConocoPhillips a 70 percent earning option, and allows it to operate on up to 1 million...
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Citing a lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector, Google is working on a new mirror technology to lower the costs of solar power.
Google's green energy czar, Bill Weihl, told Reuters in a story published Wednesday that the company's engineers have been looking to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that have to track the sun, by "ideally...
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This week corporate America is gearing up for a possible Senate debate over climate legislation, after a dozen major U.S. companies have signed an open letter to lawmakers, urging them to take swift action.
A Corporate Coalition
This effort comes from all sectors of the economy - ranging from consumer products like Bumble Bee Foods and Johnson and Johnson - to technology companies like Dell and Google, to utilities like Pacific Gas and...
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A new carbon sequestration test is underway in West Virginia.
The government's first-ever field trial for enhanced coal-bed methane recovery, with simultaneous CO2 sequestration in an unmineable coal seam, started Wednesday in Marshall County.
CONSOL, West Virginia University and the National Energy Technology Lab are...
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House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would create a new agency at the Interior Department to administer oil and gas leasing on federal lands. The bill would also overhaul the federal royalty system.
In a story published in Thursday's New York Times, ClimateWire reports that the new Office of Federal Energy and Minerals Leasing...
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American energy company Chevron is extending its reach into Asia, signing a multi-billion dollar deal to supply liquefied natural gas from Australia to Japan and South Korea.
The Australian arm of the company will supply nearly 3 million tons to the two countries -- most of which will come from the Gorgon gas field.
Chevron owns a 50 percent stake in the field and will sell an equity share of more than one percent in the development to Osaka Gas and one percent to Tokyo Gas. Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch...
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Sen. Barbara Boxer says nuclear power will be a part of senate energy and climate legislation.
The announcement from the Environment and Public Works chairman is seen as a sign that compromise is underway.
The California Democrat has so far resisted efforts to push nuclear power, saying it would have an automatic advantage if...
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The nation's biggest independent oil refiner, Valero Energy, is cutting operations and up to 950 jobs.
The company says it is getting rid of "underperforming" operations, including the coker unity and gasifier complex at its Delaware City refinery.
Citing price differential between crude oils, Valero also said it will let go of 700 contract...
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After recurring leaks at nuclear plants, federal regulators are upping their oversight of buried pipes at the nation's 104 nuclear plants.
An effort to find better ways to find leaks comes after a report of radioactive water oozing from some of the nation's oldest plants, including two leaks of radioactive trituim at Oyster Creek in New Jersey this...
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Japanese businesses are reacting to strict carbon emissions targets announced by incoming prime minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Some of Japan's leading industrial companies are expressing concern that hatoyama's pledge to cut emissions there 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 may be unworkable.
The president of Honda says the company faces a potentially daunting task and that Honda would have to undertake extra projects to meet the requirements despite its focus on gas...
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the Obama administration still expects the Senate to pass climate legislation.
In an interview at the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit, Salazar said that although the focus has been on health care lately, the president wants both health care and climate bills, and that both issues are big for the...
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To achieve success in Copenhagen, the world must reach an agreement to cap aviation emissions, according to Britain's chief climate adviser.
The Committee on Climate Change said a global agreement must bring carbon dioxide emissions from developed nations' air travel at or below 2005 levels by 2050.
The group's CEO David Kennedy said, "We are calling for a cap that would not require people to fly less than today, but would constrain...
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The world's first floating full scale offshore wind turbine is officially ready to start generating power.
Clean Skies News brought you the word a few weeks ago that the floating turbine was launched.
Popular Science magazine now reports that it is on station and ready to produce power six miles off the southwest coast...
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The Envionmental Protection Agency wants the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider the permit it gave Arch Coal to dump debris into stream valleys at a West Virginia mining site.
The move stems from EPA's promise in June to take a closer look at the controversial practice of mountaintop removal mining, prompting the agency to send the request in a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers last...
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Two top staffers at the Florida Public Service Commission have resigned amid a debate over proposed electric rate increases and surcharges for new nuclear power plants.
The commission is considering whether Florida Power and Light and Florida Progress Energy should be allowed to charge higher rates overall, and additional tariffs to pay for ongoing engineering of four proposed nuclear...
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The EPA says it disapproves of three air pollution permitting processes run by Texas, the nation's largest greenhouse-gas producing state.
Texas lets polluters exceed emission limits in particular areas so long as they meet an overall emissions average. And polluters can make some changes at plants without public hearings.
But the EPA says those flexible permits aren't in line with the...
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Oil prices rose more than 5 percent today to post their biggest gain since the end of July, as a falling dollar pushed investors to seek out commodities.
PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn says investors often turn to commodities as a hedge against inflation and dollar weakness, and gold seems to be pulling oil along for the ride.
The jump in oil prices comes a day before the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets - oil leaders have signaled they...
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Coal giant Massey Energy blasted supporters of climate-change legislation at a rally over the weekend in southern West Virginia.
Headliners of the $1 million event included country star Hank Williams Jr., Fox News' Sean Hannity and musician Ted Nugent.
Massey's CEO Don Blankenship said the rally would show people at the event how government regulation is hurting the coal industry...
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Oil prices rose this morning, near $70 a barrel, despite growing expecations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will not cut output at its meeting this week.
Today Saudi Arabia's oil minister said crude markets are in good shape, boosting optimism that OPEC will keep the spigot where it...
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The West Virginia Supreme Court is set to hear a controversial case involving Massey Energy -- this time without Chief Justice Brent Benjamin.
A 5-4 United States Supreme Court decision said Benjamin should have stepped down in Caperton v. Massey Energy. The Court said Massey Chief Executive Don Blankenship's contributions to Benjamin's 2004 campaign gave the appearance of bias.
Massey is appealing a $50 million verdict won by Harman Mining and its...
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Japan's incoming prime minister is promising to aim for a 25 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020, one of the most ambitious goals proposed by a developed nation.
The standard, set by Yukio Hatoyama, is much stricter than Japan has now - an 8 percent cut proposed by Prime Minister Taro Aso.
The new proposal is also stricter than the Waxman-Markey bill, which would cut...
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Iran will import 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day from Venezuela under a deal signed during visit to Tehran by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Iran has vast oil resources, but it lacks the refinery capacity to meet its own demand, so it must buy vast quantities of commercial-ready fuel on the open market.
Iranian state television reports that during his visit, Chavez pledged to deepen ties between the two nations and stand together against what he called the imperialist powers of the...
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The Commonwealth of Virginia and environmentalists aren't seeing eye to eye on coal dust.
After testing by health experts hired by environmentalists suggested that the dust from coal trucks posed a health hazard, the state's department of environmental quality reviewed its own...
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Ethanol backers in Washington, DC say Americans should know where their fuel comes from, and Growth Energy is calling for country of origin labeling, or COOL, on all fuel sold in the United States.
The group's leader, General Wesley Clark, says it will help people understand what U.S. dependence on foreign oil costs our country and what they can do to help stop...
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A federal judge in Colorado has indefinitely blocked any drilling in a wildlife refuge next to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
U.S. District Court Judge Walker Miller granted a preliminary injunction, ruling that environmental groups presented adequate evidence that oil and gas drilling would cause irreparable injury to Colorado's Baca National Wildlife...
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At an event today in Fremont, Calif., the Department of Energy will announce that its first-ever federal loan guarantee will be issued this afternoon.
The loan guarantee - which will be for $535 million - is going to Solyndra, Inc., to build a solar panel manufacturing plant.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to make the announcement at the Fremont site...
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A key U.S. senator says President Obama is likely to sign a bilateral climate change deal with China during his visit to Beijing in November.
Maria Cantwell of Washington, a Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is in Beijing talking clean energy issues with Chinese officials. She was scheduled to meet today with China's top climate change official...
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Gov. Sean Parnell (R-Ala.) is calling on the federal government to allow offshore oil and gas drilling along Alaska's northernmost coastline.
In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Parnell wrote that Alaska's shelf contains an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil and 130 trillion cubic feet...
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A new climate forecasting system could help countries adapt to climate change and prepare for natural disasters.
Delegates at the United Nations World Climate Conference, wrapping up today in Geneva, approved a plan to create the system.
The director of the National Climate Data Center at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Thomas Karl, says the Global Framework for Climate Services will provide forecasts on weather patterns months or even...
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The United States plans to call on the Group of 20 to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies in five years and increase oil market transparency when the group meets at the end of the month.
A person familiar with the proposal, who asked not to be named, tells Reuters that the government intends to argue fuel subsidies distort oil and product markets and artificially raise fuel demand, leading to higher...
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A Chinese official is trying to calm nerves about curbs on exports of rare earths used in clean energy products, saying sales will continue but will be limited.
The country produces nearly all rare elements -- known as rare earths -- used in batters for hybrid cars, mobile phones and other high-tech products. But recent reports that the country would cut this year's...
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For the first time, EPA scientists have found potentially dangerous chemicals in drinking water near a natural gas drilling site in Wyoming.
The findings raise new questions about hydrofracking -- a drilling technique where water and chemicals are injected into rock formations to release natural gas.
The agency says it found chemicals that could cause cancer, kidney failure, anemia, and other medical problems in water from 11 of 39 wells tested around the Pavillion, Wyo. The tests were...
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A number of dangerous refrigerator explosions in the UK are believed to be caused by leaks of environmentally-friendly coolant.
British newspapers are reporting that at least five refrigerators have blown up, all using what is called "Greenfreeze" technology.
At least four similar explosions have been reported in the last three years in the UK - two since May of this year - and The...
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The Obama Administration's first major test of geothermal energy has hit a snag - or rather a rock - and has now been suspended.
AltaRock Energy, a geothermal energy technology startup, has stopped drilling on its $17 million project to extract vast amounts of heat from the earth's bedrock because it fears the drilling could cause earthquakes in the Northern...
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KATHMANDU, Nepal - Government officials from South Asian countries met to call the world’s attention to the vulnerability of the people and ecosystems in the Himalayas in a changing climate. It’s the first time that the Himalayan countries sought to forge a unified message to bring to this December’s United Nations climate change talk in Copenhagen.
After two days of talks, participants settled on broad principles, such as regional cooperation and demand for more assistance from rich countries, rather than concrete goals. Representatives from seven countries, including India and Pakistan, attended the conference. China was invited as an observer, but didn’t send anyone. Participants stressed the message that people in the Himalayan Range are already living with the consequences of global warming.
Temperatures in the Himalayan regions have increased by an average of 0.06 degree Celsius since 1970. Accelerated snow and glacier melt has created rapidly expanding glacier lakes...
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The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity had little to say about the departure of utility giant Duke Energy from its coalition this week.
Duke pulled out of the coalition on Wednesday, citing concerns over ACCCE's opposition to national climate change legislation. The utility said the coalition, which has been at the center of a controversy over forged letters to members of Congress, is influenced...
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The Chinese government has raised retail prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel by 4 to 5 percent - its seventh adjustment and fourth increase this year.
The decision was announced late Tuesday by China's National Development and Reform Commission.
The latest move, spurred by a rise in crude oil import costs, brightens the earnings prospects for Sinopec and Petrochina after share prices fell earlier in the week following news that retail prices...
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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it will issue its first expanded trader reports Friday as the regulator in part of a larger effort to clamp down on speculation in the markets it regulates.
The CFTC, which oversees the trading of oil, gas and other commodities as well as financial instruments, decided this summer to overhaul its weekly Commitments of Traders...
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Duke Energy is pulling out of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal industry lobbying group, which has been the center of a controversy over forged letters to members of Congress.
Duke spokesman Tom Williams says his company has concerns over the group's opposition to climate legislation in Congress. He says some individual members of the coalition are working to pass climate change legislation, but Duke believes the coalition is being influenced by companies...
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Pipeline transportation and energy storage company Kinder Morgan is buying Crosstex Energy for approximately $266 million.
KMP, a leading North American energy storage company, has an enterprise value of approximately $25 billion and hopes to increase its company value with the purchasing of Crosstex Energy, a company involved in the gathering, transmission, treating...
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A foreign-based company is the big winner in the first round of federal stimulus grants for renewable energy projects.
Iberdrola Renewables of Spain says it has won the majority of the money, about $295 million of the $502 million distributed Tuesday.
The money includes $114 million for the Penascal Wind Farm in Sarita, Texas, and $59 million to the Locust Ridge 2 wind farm in...
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A new study says climate change is a special threat to people on the continent of Asia.
The International Food Policy Research Institute says melting Himalayan glaciers are a threat to water and food security for more than 1.6 billion people living in Asia's southern regions.
The study says India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal will be most vulnerable to falling...
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Colorado's governor is warming on natural gas - an economic adviser to Bill Ritter reportedly says he now sees natural gas as more than a bridge fuel until more renewable energy is available, but as a clean fuel for generating electricity and not just as a stopgap until more renewable energy is available.
According to Don Marostica, director of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, says Ritter believes colorado will need natural gas because wind and solar cannot supply...
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Members of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance - public-private partnership to design, build, and operate the world's first coal-fueled, near-zero emissions power plant - have gathered for meetings in Champaign, Ill., looking for cost cuts and new partners to share expenses.
Nine companies - mainly coal mining firms including Peabody Energy, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto - have reached an agreement...
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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used a visit to the Arctic Circlke to renew his plea to politicians to set a global climate pact this year.
Ban said the Arctic was "ground zero" for climate research and should be a warning for politicians to move faster on setting a climate deal.
He referred to the preservation of the Arctic as the "political responsibility required...
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BP, the largest producer of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, announced a giant oil discovery in the its Tiber Prospect well in the Gulf after drilling one of the industry's deepest-ever wells.
The well was drilled to about 35,055 feet, revealing a discovery larger than BP's Kaskida find in the same geological area three years ago, which contained around three billion barrels...
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August car sales numbers are out, proving a banner month for US automakers thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program.
Ford released numbers first, selling nearly 182,000 vehicles - a 17.2 percent increase over last August.
The Focus and Escape were among the top sellers in the program, with overall sales of the Focus rising 56 percent and sales...
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Brazil's Petrobras has recovered some but not all of the stock value it lost yesterday after the country's president raised the spectre of more state control.
Common and preferred shares plunged an average 4% -- for a net loss of $7 billion -- after President da Silva sketched out a plan to control the country's newly discovered offshore...
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The United Nations has just quadrupled the ante in international climate treaty talks.
A new U.N. report says wealthy nations must spend $500 to $600 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change and grow sustainably.
Until now, advocacy groups have been saying $100 to $160 billion was needed annually...
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Scientists are predicting that the pace of global warming might hinge on marine "snow" - each year, phytoplankton floating in the seas take in 10 billion tons of carbon from the air.
Their shells and excretions rain down from the surface, providing a feast for creatures that recycle up to 90 percent of the carbon back into the water as carbon dioxide, though only a light dusting lands on the ocean...
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Another possible division on a climate bill could be growing in the agriculture community, now that farmers and ranchers are arguing over whether the bill would be an economic windfall or a financial burden.
Opponents say it could lead to skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer costs and cut into profits, pointing to a USDA report predicting income loss...
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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders Monday to take urgent action in combating climate change for the sake of "the future of humanity."
He asked them to come up with a treaty that is comprehensive, equitable and balanced, sending the message while touring the Svalbard, a region of the Arctic which he says may have no ice within 30 years if climate trends...
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