Energy

The butter sculpture will be dumped into this pit of rotting fruit and vegetables on the Reinford family's farm. Then, all that food will get ground up and put into the farm's methane digester.

This Butter Sculpture Could Power A Farm For 3 Days

9:49pm January 11, 2013

by Scott Detrow

The biggest attraction at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., is always a giant, 1,000-pound sculpture crafted from butter. Once this year's show wraps up, all that beautiful butter will go right into a manure pit to become methane gas.

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Georgia Power's coal-fired steam-turbine electric generating Plant Bowen in Euharlee, Ga., seen in 2009. The utility is planning on shuttering 15 coal- and oil-fired generating units at its facilities.

Coal Loses Crown As King Of Power Generation

6:31pm January 11, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

A Georgia utility's announcement that it will shutter coal-powered generators in the coming years is part of a national trend of shifting to natural gas. One key factor is low gas prices, fueled by a boom in shale gas production.

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Drilling Rig's Thick Hull Helps Prevent Oil Spill

6:06am January 08, 2013

by Richard Harris

A Shell Oil drilling rig has been pulled of the rocks, where it washed up a week ago during a storm. It has been towed to a bay where divers will inspect it for damage. The incident raises questions about the oil company's controversial plans to continue exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean this summer.

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Wind Industry Secures Tax Credit, But Damage May Be Done

6:10pm January 03, 2013

by Sabri Ben-Achour

Uncertainty over the credit had lingered for a while, causing the industry to put off long-term planning. So while the now-approved tax credit revives prospects for an industry facing tens of thousands of layoffs, don't expect to see many new turbines coming up soon.

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2013: A Tipping Year For Climate Change?

5:55pm December 30, 2012

This year's weather will be one for the record books; 2012 is slated to be the hottest summer on record. "We've already passed all kinds of tipping points," environmentalist Bill McKibben says. He's wondering if President Obama will take a different approach to climate change in the coming year.

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David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.

Texas Man Takes Last Stand Against Keystone XL Pipeline

4:20pm December 25, 2012

by Elizabeth Shogren

The Keystone pipeline is supposed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas — a route that runs right through David Daniel's land. To try to save his woods from bulldozers, Daniel built tree houses 80 feet in the air and protesters climbed up into them.

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Coal Mining Museum Welcomes Solar Panels

11:37am December 20, 2012

The Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum, a former mine in Wales, celebrates the fossil fuel that sparked the industrial revolution. Now it's embracing solar energy. Renewable Energy World reports 200 newly installed solar panels could save the property as much as $650,000 over 25 years on power.

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Is California Up Next For An Oil And Gas Boom?

6:05am December 12, 2012

by Lauren Sommer

The Bureau of Land Management is auctioning off 18,000 acres of oil leases in California Wednesday. The state has one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the country. And it's attracting new attention because of the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing – or fracking.

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