The Obama administration is considering a new fuel economy standard that would require cars and light trucks to achieve an average of 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025, an ambitious target that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions but drive up the cost of automobiles. (more…)

While every forward-thinking company has certainly become aware that it’s good business to be more efficient, to create less waste, and to monitor energy usage and expenses closely, what’s going to drive real changes in behavior that lead to those ends: public policy from federal and local governments, or (more…)

Do you remember the show Knight Rider, featuring David Hasselfhoff and KITT, the smooth-talking Trans Am, that aired back in the early ‘80s?

I remember going over to my friend Art’s house and finding his dad glued to the TV set every Friday night watching what I thought was a lame show. But maybe (more…)

Over the past year or so, I’ve written a few pieces on the levels of job creation that can be expected as we “go green,” i.e., move to greater levels of energy efficiency, renewables, electric transportation, etc.

Last week I met Tom Konrad, one of the world’s most visible proponents of the green economy, at a (more…)

In the wake of the recent economic downturn, many industries have taken a much harder look at their core business functions. Initiated by compliance and/or business sustainability necessity, today’s executives can no longer accept ‘business as usual’. Beginning with reform in financial monitoring (more…)

Natural gas has been widely promoted across the political spectrum as a key to solving U.S. energy problems. “The potential for natural gas is enormous,” President Obama said recently, referencing an estimate that the United States has enough gas to supply the country for more than a century. (more…)

Prudential Locations, a leading real estate agent in Hawaii, made a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint when it installed solar panels in 2008. Since then, the new 87-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system at the company’s Honolulu office have reduced CO2 emissions by an estimated 650,721 kg, and (more…)

OPEL Solar Asia (OSA), a supplier of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar panels and other solar power products earlier this week announced a second deal for its HCPV panels and dual axis trackers in China.

The company signed an agreement with a second of (more…)

Recent advances in the complexity of microgrids currently being installed are stimulating a rush to increase the versatility and function of a technology platform originally conceived around the notion of hyper-reliability. This is why the Department of Defense (DOD) is so enamored by the prospects of (more…)

Few places in the U.S. are as well suited to developing renewable energy as the contaminated sites known as “brownfields.” But as communities from Philadelphia to California are discovering, government support is critical to enable solar and wind entrepreneurs to make use of these abandoned lands. (more…)