Featured Articles

Disasters Offer Warning About Dangers of Nuclear Power in Texas
2012·More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, news continues to unfold about the potential for disease and death from exposure to radiation that continues to contaminate air, water and land. It will take decades to understand the horrendous impact this accident will have on the world. Lessons learned from Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island sound a warning for Texas where the danger of environmental and medical catastrophes are one accident away at two nuclear power plants.

Top Climate Scientists Warn Adaptation to Climate Change Can’t Wait
2011·Many scientists and environmentalists have tried to avoid talking about adaptation fearing the this would diminish efforts toward global warming mitigation. But the need to prepare and put adaptation plans into action can no longer be avoided.

Do We Want to Make Plutonium to Boil Water?
2011·The world has received a wake-up call. Relying on conventional energy sources -- nuclear, coal, oil and natural gas -- is dangerous business. As this article is being written, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster unfolds, bringing to light environmental contamination and health effects of exposure to radiation that will haunt the people of Japan and the world for many years to come. Seventeen radiation injuries have been reported.

Advances in Energy Technology Promise More Than Global Warming Solutions
2010·Advances and breakthroughs in technology this year range from energy efficiency with plug-in electric cars to improving ways to tap into energy from the wind and sun. Most of these technological advances promise ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, reduce global warming gasses, stimulate the economy and create jobs. Implementing these technologies also will mean better air quality. As large cities and businesses begin to use these technologies, the prices will come down for everyone.

Europe Leading Green Energy Race: Larger Wind and Solar Plants in U.S. Future
2010·Countries in Europe are moving out in front of the United States when it comes to transitioning from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy. Portugal, Germany and Spain are showing the world that it is possible to make policy and offer incentives that are effective in encouraging investment in wind, solar and hydro-electric energy.

Clean Coal Fantasy
2010·The true cost of coal as it is extracted, transported and burned for fuel today is outrageous. Extraction involves mountain top removal and strip mining. There are underground mining accidents. Transportation requires diesel and pollutes. Burning coal for fuel creates air pollution and water pollution and harms the environment. Each year the health impact of burning coal -- asthma, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses - results in 21,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths.

Challenge 2010: Climate change solutions require common sense and political will
2010·Climate change is the challenge for this decade. Time is running out to avoid tipping points that can take the planet over the threshold into large, catastrophic environmental changes out of human control, according to Dr. James Hansen director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen was the first to warn the U.S. Congress about the global warming crisis. Leading climatologists and experts in energy and sustainability agree that the best things we can do immediately to address climate change involve common sense rather than rocket science. What is lacking is the political will to act with the urgency appropriate in this very real emergency for the planet.

Grassroots Efforts Versus Big Money for Coal
March 2008·A strong, grassroots effort, powered by concerned citizens, is sweeping the country calling for a moratorium on building new coal-fired power plants. From the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia to the Navajo People’s Land of Desert Rock, Arizona, young and old are calling for a halt to the building of new coal-fired power plants. Almost half of U.S. electricity comes from coal - the most plentiful, dirtiest fossil fuel in the country.

The Dirt on Nuclear
February 2008·NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG) has applied for the licensing of two new nuclear reactors for the South Texas Project in Matagorda County, near Bay City. Seven more new reactors are proposed for Texas. But these plants don’t need to be built.In fact, it is quite possible to have a clean energy future, relying on efficiency, conservation and clean, renewable technology.

Could Waste Fuel Houston’s Future?
May 2007· Houston has the highest incidents of sewage overflows in the country. Recently, legislation was passed to address the issue of built-up grease which causes about half of the obstructions in sewer system. With stricter rules regarding the disposal of waste grease from restaurants and other facilities, much of what was once poured down the drain will now be recovered. Other cities around the country have begun innovative programs to utilize the recovered waste grease in the production of biodiesel and methane for use by municipalities. Perhaps Houston, with its commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency, will follow suit.

Climate Change: It Is Worse Than You Think
April 2007· There is a lot to be said for Joseph Romm’s Hell and High Water: Global Warming – The Solution and the Politics – And What We Should Do. Most of us have read several books about global warming. How is this book different or distinguishable from the rest? Romm’s description showing that things are worse than we think and his explanation of the reasons for the low acceptance of the global warming message are two outstanding contributions.

Ted Turner Visits Houston
February 2007· The day of fossil fuels as a fuel are over. It’s just a matter of how soon everybody recognizes it,” Ted Turner asserted to a crowd of over 800 Houstonians assembled at the Intercontinental Hotel last week. Turner, along with Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and former U.S. senator from Colorado, were in town to deliver a talk titled “Alternative Energy & Houston: Working for a Sustainable Future.”

A brighter future for solar in Texas
January 2007· I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. - Thomas Edison, in conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, 1931

Peak Oil – Peak Opportunity?
Possibility and public policies can harness renewable energy technologies for a bright future
November 2006· Come December 31st, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is set to slam the brakes on biodiesel in the state’s largest markets. The problem, they say, lies with the fuel’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and their contribution to the formation of ground-level ozone in Texas’ eastern counties. According to the TCEQ, biodiesel does not meet the stricter NOx standards recently imposed on diesel and alternative diesel fuels under new regulations.

Putting the brakes on biodiesel
November 2006· With the growing concern that the global oil production has peaked, making hydrocarbon resources more difficult and more expensive to recover, researchers, policy-makers, and concerned individuals are examining discarded concepts and discovering viable, sustainable energy sources that can never be depleted. From water to wind, from plants to sunlight, they are developing technologies that actually can eliminate this country’s need to import oil.

Peak Oil: Actions everyone can take to prepare for the possible end of an era
September 2006· From fossil fuel plus nuclear sources, worldwide we use the energy equivalent of a billion barrels of oil every five days, said Jeffrey J. Brown, an independent petroleum geologist from the Dallas area, addressing a recent conference hosted by the Houston Peak Oil Progressives. We burn through the energy equivalent of Prudhoe Bay every 60 days. We are consuming a staggering amount of energy in this country and worldwide.

The Twilight of the Petroleum Age
Julyr 2006· In the middle of the 19th century, a curious dark liquid oozing from the ground in northwestern Pennsylvania began to attract attention. Upon examination, it was determined that the stuff could be used as an illuminant, replacing expensive whale oil in lamps and candles. In 1859, the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and an energy adventure that would change the world had begun.

Cellulosic Ethanol: a greener alternative
June 2006· Midwestern corn supplies 90 percent of ethanol produced domestically, but many environmentalists and energy experts would like to see corn’s hold on the ethanol market replaced with more eco-friendly, higher energy yielding sources known as cellulosic biomass.

The Outlook for Energy- an Industry Perspective
May 2006· Today the world is using 40,000 gallons of oil a second. We use it in our cars, trucks, buses, boats, planes, and trains. We use it to power equipment. We rely on it not only for transportation, but also for food, warmth, and water. A day without oil is unimaginable. And yet we must begin to contemplate it. We are running out. The question is: how much is left?

Corn-Based Ethanol: The Energy Answer?
May 2006· General Motors has a new advertising campaign called "Live Green, Go Yellow" commercial. The TV commercials show young people running around handing out yellow shirts to passersby as an announcer asks "What if we could turn the whole world yellow? We'd have cleaner air and an energy source that grows back every year. Yellow is the color of corn, refined into E85 ethanol. A fuel that lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and can reduce our dependence on oil."

Houston Group Tackles Climate Change
March 2006· After spending nearly a year and a half listening to lectures and reading about peak oil, Nan Hildreth began to realize that our energy future is going to change. Hildreth discovered that there is a growing consensus among scientists that climate change is already having disastrous effects. This inspired Hildreth to confront this issue head on by spearheading the formation of the Houston Climate Protection Alliance (HCPA), a group that works with local government leaders and educates the public on methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Houston Biodiesel
March 2006· That french fry smell on the highways no longer is just your average fast food restaurant. It could be a car that uses biodiesel for fuel. Biodiesel is a growing industry and more people are filling their diesel cars with this fuel to reduce environmentally damaging emissions. Houston has its own biodiesel company, Houston Biodiesel.

Wind plant off Baffin Bay could lower electric bills
January 2006· A new wind plant proposed on the coast for Kenedy County off Baffin Bay is stirring up a controversy. It could cut rising electric costs, but it could also impact the birds and butterflies that fly cross Texas.

A Real Energy Answer In Our Backyard
July 2005· For anyone perusing the Sunday, July 17th Houston Chronicle, he or she might have noticed an article in the Business section entitled “An Energy Answer In Our Backyard.” Unfortunately, the title is misleading, which was obvious to anyone who kept reading.

Energy and the Environment
By Henry Kelly, President of the Federation of American Scientists
June 2005· Finding a sustainable way to provide the 9 billion likely people to be alive at the end of this century with a reasonable level of prosperity presents an extraordinary scientific, technical and political challenge.

Hubert's Peak
May 2004· More than 50 years ago, King Hubert a geologist for Shell Oil Company posited his theory on the depletion of finite resources like fossil fuels. Now commonly known as Hubert's peak, his theory explains that production rates of oil and gas will increase to a peak and then rapidly taper off as reserves are depleted. The highlight of the a global Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston last week was a panel discussion on Hubert’s Peak. Panelists analyzed the international debate between “depletionists” who subscribe to more dire projections of decreasing reserves, and industry advocates who downplay the potential crisis.

Action urgently needed to prevent global warming disasters
February 2004· By 2050, without immediate action to curb carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions, atmospheric concentrations will be twice their pre-industrial levels. Carbon dioxide contributes more to the greenhouse effect than any other gas produced by human activity. It is called the greenhouse effect because CO2 traps much of the sun’s energy within the earth’s atmosphere.

The Hype About Hydrogen
March 2004· For hydrogen cars to become practical for consumers and desirable for the environment, several major technology breakthroughs will be required and the nation will have to shift its energy policy towards clean energy sources.

An Evening with Joe Romm, Author of “The Hype About Hydrogen”
May 2004· In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush announced a $1.2 billion research initiative, “so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” The April 2003 issue of Wired magazine proclaimed, “How Hydrogen can save America.” General Motors has said the promise of hydrogen cars justifies delaying fuel-efficiency regulations.