NewsTrust - Energy - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Unusually heavy snow hits Austria

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Jan. 07 (News) - Heavier than usual snowfall in many parts of Austria has left villages and tourist resorts cut off, and part of a major railway route has also been shut.

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Kim Jong Un Leads Funeral Procession For His Father

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - Dec. 28 (News) - Wailing and clutching at their hearts, tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the snowy streets of Pyongyang on Wednesday as the hearse carrying late leader Kim Jong Il's body wound its way through the capital for a final farewell.

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EPA issues strong limits on mercury emissions from smokestacks

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Neela Banerjee - Dec. 21 (News Report) - The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances from sources such as power plants, a landmark measure that could prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Planet Likely to Become Increasingly Hostile to Agriculture

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By Douglas Fischer - Dec. 07 (News Report) - YTo get a glimpse of the future, look to East Africa today. The Horn of Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in 60 years: Crop failures have left up to 10 million at risk of famine; social order has broken down in Somalia, with thousands of refugees streaming into Kenya; British Aid alone is feeding 2.4 million people across the region. That's a taste of what's to come, say scientists mapping the impact of a warming planet on agriculture and civilization.

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Is the end of the world really nigh?

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Alok Jha - Nov. 20 (Special Report) - All too real are the human-caused threats born of climate change, excess pollution, depletion of natural resources and the madness of nuclear weapons. We tinker with our genes and atoms at our own peril. Nanotechnology, synthetic biology and genetic modification offer much potential in giving us better food to eat, safer drugs and a cleaner world, but they could also go wrong if misapplied or if we charge on without due care.

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Energy Costs to Rise 'Viciously' Without Atomic Power, IEA Says

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:55:55 -0800

Bloomberg - By Lananh Nguyen - Nov. 09 (Special Report) - Energy will become "viciously more expensive" and polluting if governments don't promote renewable and nuclear power in the next two decades instead of burning coal, the International Energy Agency said. Global demand for energy is set to increase 40 percent by 2035, the Paris-based agency said today in its annual World Energy Outlook report. Consumption will rise 1.3 percent a year to 16.96 billion metric tons of oil equivalent in 2035, spurred by China and other emerging economies, the IEA said. The worst atomic accident in 25 years at the Fukushima plant in Japan on March 11 led Germany, Europe's biggest economy, to close eight of its 17 reactors permanently. Nuclear plants generate power continuously while emitting virtually no greenhouse gases. Without nuclear, keeping world temperature gains at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) will cost an extra $1.5 trillion through 2035, the IEA said. "If we do not have an international legally binding agreement soon, and if it doesn't give a boost to a major investment wave of clean energy technologies by 2017, the door to 2 degrees will be closed forever," Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist in Paris, said in an interview yesterday. A shift away from nuclear power "would definitely be bad news for energy security, for climate change and also for the economics of the electricity price."

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GM crops promote superweeds, food insecurity and pesticides, say NGOs

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By John Vidal - Oct. 19 (News Report) - Report finds genetically modified crops fail to increase yields let alone solve hunger, soil erosion and chemical-use issues Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds", according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people. The so-called miracle crops, which were first sold in the US about 20 years ago and which are now grown in 29 countries on about 1.5bn hectares (3.7bn acres) of land, have been billed as potential solutions to food crises, climate change and soil erosion, but the assessment finds that they have not lived up to their promises. The report claims that hunger has reached "epic proportions" since the technology was developed. Besides this, only two GM "traits" have been developed on any significant scale, despite investments of tens of billions of dollars, and benefits such as drought ...

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Obama allies’ interests collide over Keystone pipeline

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Juliet Eilperin, Steven Mufson - Oct. 17 (News Report) - Several key union allies and the Canadian Government are pitted against environmental and youth activists ..

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NRC: Earthquake shook nuclear plant past design limits

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Melanie Mason - Sep. 09 (News Report) - A nuclear power plant in central Virginia may have experienced twice as much shaking as it was designed to withstand during last month’s rare East Coast earthquake , according to federal nuclear regulators, although no major damage has been found.

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Google discloses carbon footprint for the first time

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Duncan Clark - Sep. 08 (News) - At around 1.5m tonnes of carbon, the energy usage of the online giant is on a par with the United Nations Google's carbon footprint is on a par with the United Nations, the internet giant revealed on Thursday as it published its energy usage for the first time. Google says that it emits 1.5m tonnes of carbon annually but claims that its data centres consume 50% less energy than the industry average. The emissions are slightly higher than the country of Laos in south-east Asia and equivalent to the UN's operational footprint. The company said that many of its "cloud-based" services for businesses, such as its popular Gmail system, can be up to 80 times less polluting than traditional alternatives , which require companies to operate their own, potentially more inefficient servers.

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Super Committee Debt Solution: Get Rid of Energy Subsidies

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

U.S. News & World Report - Sep. 02 (News) -

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Bachmann energy claims oversimplified

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Matthew Daly - Aug. 31 (Fact Check) - America’s energy future can’t be unlocked as simply as Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann makes it sound when she depicts the nation as the “king daddy dogs” of energy. Even if environmentalists folded and Washington regulators got out of the way, much of the energy is too expensive for companies to develop. “The radical environmentalists have demanded that we lock up all our energy resources,” she told a town hall meeting in Florida. “President Bachmann will take that key out of the door. I will unlock it.”

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UK sails ahead in offshore wind power

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - Jul. 27 (News) - The UK has sailed ahead in offshore wind power generation in the past six months, building more offshore windfarms than any other country in the world, and accounting for almost all of the turbines erected in European waters this year.

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Wind farms multiply, fueling clashes with nearby residents

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Tiffany Hsu - Jul. 24 (News Report) - Demand for clean energy has led to a wind turbine building boom. But many living in their shadow decry the electricity generating projects as pesky eyesores.

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Quest for renewable power turns back to water

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - Jul. 18 (News Report) - The powerful flow of the Mississippi River, which brought destruction to scores living near its flooded banks this spring, is viewed by a new generation of energy entrepreneurs as a reliable alternative way of generating electricity.

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Rush for Arctic's resources provokes territorial tussles

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - Jul. 06 (News Analysis) - US, Canada, Russia, Denmark and Norway are becoming embroiled in disputes over boundaries on land and at sea Two nations on opposite sides of the Nato military alliance divide – Russia and Norway – have signed a deal over who owns what in the Barents Sea. But there are plenty of other territorial tussles going on – some between good friends. The United States and Canada still disagree on the setting of the boundaries in the Beaufort Sea – an area of intense interest to oil drillers . Similarly, Canada has yet to resolve a dispute with Denmark over the ownership of Hans Island and where the control line should be drawn in the strait between Greenland (whose sovereignty remains with Denmark) and Ellesmere Island. But of even greater significance in a world of melting ice floes is control of the North West Passage . Canada insists that it has sovereignty over the sea route and therefore must be asked about usage. The US sees it as a potential area of open water which gives it automatic ...

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NRC and industry rewrite the history of nukes

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Jun. 29 (Investigative Report) - As part of a yearlong investigation of aging issues at the nation's nuclear power plants, the AP found that the relicensing process often lacks fully independent safety reviews. Records show that paperwork of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sometimes matches word-for-word the language used in a plant operator's application.

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Obama’s focus on visiting clean-tech companies raises questions

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carol D. Leonnig, Joe Stephens, Alice Crites - Jun. 26 (News Report) - With trips that began two months after he took office, President Obama has devoted more than half of his out-of-town private-business visits to promoting a single industry: clean technology, which the president says will lead the nation back to economic prosperity.

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Future of ethanol looks cloudy in Congress

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

American Public Media - Jun. 25 (News Report) - The ethanol industry has had many friends in Congress over the years who have given it preferential treatment, but a key vote last week in the U.S. Senate suggests a tight federal budget is making those friends more scarce.

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Supreme Court has given firms a stronger hand

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By David G. Savage - Jun. 25 (News Report) - This year, it gave firms a stronger shield against class actions. But it also ruled for several individuals suing employers and made it easier for car crash victims to sue automakers.The Supreme Court, which winds up its term Monday, has once again shown itself to be highly skeptical of large lawsuits against big business, regardless of whether the suits are intended to protect workers, consumers or the environment.

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Americans may hit gas again after reserve release

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Tom Brown, Peter Henderson - Jun. 25 (News Report) - MIAMI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Going lightly on the gas pedal, getting a few dollars of gas rather than filling up, cutting out the cruising, and swapping the BMW for a Dodge Caliber -- those are ways Americans are coping with gasoline prices well above $3 a gallon.

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Fuel Economy Standards Necessary But Not Sufficient to Cut Oil Demand

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Scientific American - By Louis Nelson, ClimateWire - Jun. 24 (News Report) - Simply forcing the U.S. automotive industry to comply with tougher fuel economy standards won't be enough to create substantial cuts in either greenhouse gas emissions or oil use, says a new report from the National Research Council.

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Obama administration taps Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Dan Berman - Jun. 23 (News Report) - The Obama administration will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to offset oil supply disruptions in the Middle East, the Energy Department announced Thursday morning.

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Global Oil Reserves Tapped in Effort to Cut Cost at Pump

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jackie Calmes - Jun. 23 (News) - The United States will lead an international effort to release 60 million barrels of petroleum reserves to world markets, replacing some of the oil production lost because of the conflict in Libya, the International Energy Agency announced in Paris on Thursday.

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US nuke regulators weaken safety rules

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Jeff Donn - Jun. 20 (Special Report) - Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

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