How Biden Can Put the U.S. on a Path to Carbon-Free Electricity
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on a goal of “a carbon pollution-free power sector” by 2035. The United States is now at 38 percent — 19 percent from nuclear, 18 percent…
Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked
As wind and solar power have become dramatically cheaper, and their share of electricity generation grows, skeptics of these technologies are propagating several myths about renewable energy and the electrical…
Beyond Magical Thinking: Time to Get Real on Climate Change
The UN’s first climate conference took place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, and in the intervening decades we have had a series of global meetings and countless assessments and…
How Russia’s War Is Putting Green Tech Progress in Jeopardy
Volkswagen might as well hang a “sold out” sign on the doors of its European and U.S. factories. The world’s second-largest manufacturer of electric automobiles announced last month that any…
Collateral Damage: The Environmental Cost of the Ukraine War
What happens to the environment when a large, industrialized country is consumed by war? Ukraine is finding out. While concern about human lives remains paramount, Russia’s war on that country’s…
Beyond Biden’s Climate Plan, a New Industrial Revolution Is Needed
For all the great news in the Biden administration’s massive new climate spending plan, the hardest work of transforming the economy to stop global warming lies ahead. That’s because nearly…
Will Tech Breakthroughs Bring Fusion Energy Closer to Reality?
Frank Laukien, a U.S.-German physicist and billionaire entrepreneur, typically exudes the calm rationality of a CEO who runs a large, multinational company. In his long career, he has turned his…
A Nuclear Power Revival Is Sparking a Surge in Uranium Mining
After sitting dormant since the 1980s, the Pinyon Plain uranium mine began operating in January on the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, about seven miles south of the Grand Canyon.…
As Pressures Mount, Poland’s Once-Mighty Coal Industry Is in Retreat
In Poland, the nation’s once-mighty coal industry is legend — and a curse. Poland touts itself as one of the major coal-producing countries of the 20th century, and its mining…
As South Africa Clings to Coal, A Struggle for the Right to Breathe
Thomas Mnguni often woke to find the windows and floors of his home covered in a layer of black dust. Living between two coal mines and a landfill in Middelburg,…