Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Imagine the environmentally conscious socialite and their new cottage at the Hamptons. That is the feel that Virginia Tech’s Lumenhaus gives in their, quite simply, luminous website and presentation of their entry into the  DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Thursday on the Mall in Washington, DC, and which I had a chance to visit earlier […]

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No, we’re not speaking about Cold Fusion, but Penn State’s entry into the DOE Solar Decathlon, which opens Friday on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Let’s take a look at some of Natural Fusion’s features from its website, which is dynamic, enabling rapid connection of concepts and approaches with the home’s physical layout.

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Simply put, it is hard to exaggerate the reasons for enthusiasm about the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. This is a truly Energy COOL ten day period in DC, with literally 100s (1000s?) of truly impressive people from universities around the world having a chance to show off their innovative approaches to solving real problems […]

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The Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) (or, perhaps, simply staff) has embraced anti-science syndrome with a fervor that should astound anyone with the slightest regard for the scientific method and for the scientific community (communities). .  Here is an excerpt from an RPV-email attacking Democratic Party candidate for Attorney General Steve Shannon: In Shannon’s only […]

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This is a guest post from the very thoughtful citisven about the potential that actions within and by cities have for changing the game when it comes to climate change.  This is the “real world” (compared to the interesting fantasy of Ecopolis)  of what is happening to change the world for the better. Our challenge, […]

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Another in the series of guest posts from the ever-thoughtful BruceMcF (who is Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence) re rail transport.     The people’s choice award in the Re-Burbia “Rethinking Suburbia” design competition was the entry titled Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing The Urban Fabric. But I want to adapt these ideas from the repair of […]

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All too often, those engaged in examining options for “greening” a new or existing building are constrained in a stove-piped cost analysis which (in a very simplified fashion) goes something along these lines: How much more will it cost to build? And, how fast will energy and other operating cost (water usage/sewers, maintenance) savings pay […]

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One of the real pleasures for reality-based observers of the Obama Administration is the number of thoughtful members of the Administration members, who are not just worth listening to, but who can make seeing the world in different ways an interesting and enjoyable experience.  Dr. John Holdren, the President’s Science Advisor, took his quite significant […]

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Yesterday, during a panel on Assuring Access to Clean and Competitive Energy in the Council on Competitiveness‘ National Energy Summit, Arch Coal President and ACCCE Vice President Steven Leer made a strong appeal for government policy to put a price on carbon. I think a price on carbon is necessary.

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That title provides a reasonable summation of Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources: 2002-2008, a report released today by the Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars looking at U.S. subsidies for energy, the relationship of fossil fuel to renewable energy subsidies, and how this relates to foreign production of […]

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