The mystery of Antarctica’s speeding glacier
With the possible exception of the ice that covers Greenland, the West Antarctic ice shelf is the most important body of water in the world. If it thaws, the results will be disastrous for millions, raising sea levels and flooding coastal cities such as London, New York, Tokyo and Calcutta. So it is understandable that scientists are alarmed as to why one particular section of it – Pine Island Glacier – is melting so much faster than the rest.

How Green Is The White House?
The election of Barack Obama promises a new era of eco-awareness in the US, says Sarah Wachter These are heady times for environmentalists in America. The initial euphoria of Barack Obama’s White House win hasn’t worn off yet. They say he is the American president with the most clearly-enunciated environmental platform of any in recent memory. Even though the financial crisis has taken centre stage, environmentalists think that’s good news, too, since Obama is talking about creating millions of green jobs to kickstart the spluttering US economy.

Soot tops NASA’s climate blacklist
Governments could slow global warming dramatically, and buy time to avert disastrous climate change, by slashing emissions of one of humanity’s most familiar pollutants soot according to NASA scientists. A study by the space agency shows that cutting down on the pollutant can have an immediate cooling effect and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution at the same time.

EIA Projects a Clean Energy Shift that Stifles Oil Growth
Picture a world where hybrids grow so popular that they comprise more than a third of the new cars, where biofuels meet any growth in liquid fuel demand, and where renewable energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sources. That’s the story of the next 21 years, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).

U.S. will fail to meet biofuels mandate – EIA
The United States will fall well short of biofuels mandates on the uncertain development of next-generation fuels made from grasses and wood chips, the government’s top energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday. “The key risk factor is rate of development of cellulosic biofuels technology,” Howard Gruenspecht, the Energy Information Administration’s acting head, said at press conference in Washington introducing the agency’s annual energy forecast. 

DOE Offers up to $200 Million for Integrated Biorefineries
Over the next six fiscal years, DOE plans to invest up to $200 million to support the development of pilot- and demonstration-scale biorefineries that employ a combination of non-food feedstocks and conversion technologies to produce advanced biofuels

BLM Finalizes Plans to Open 190 Million Acres to Geothermal Power
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has published a Record of Decision and amendments to 114 of its resource management plans to make it easier to offer federal lands for geothermal leasing. The Record of Decision applies to 190 million acres of public lands in the Western United States.

Regulators Slam Duke’s Solar Funding Plan
North Carolina regulators gave a green light for Duke Energy ‘s Carolinas subsidiary to install 10 megawatts of photovoltaic systems at hundreds of commercial and industrial buildings, homes, and schools last week. But the energy company’s plan to recover costs for the $50 million project through rate hikes has come to a screeching halt — setting a precedent for utilities around the country

Progress Energy plans two nuclear reactors in Fla.
Progress Energy has signed a $7.65 billion contract to build two nuclear reactors in Florida, a development that keeps the Raleigh, N.C.-based electric utility at the forefront of a push to build the nation’s first new nuclear plants in more than two decades.

UK to Gather Energy from Gas Pipelines Using Mini-Turbines
Mini turbines will be installed inside the UK’s gas pipeline grid later this year in an attempt to gather energy from pipeline pressure. The set-up will be tested in east London and should produce 20MW by 2010. If successful, future installations across the country could produce up to 1GW. That’s the same amount of power produced by a coal or nuclear power station. 

California Study Shows Shade Trees Reduce Summertime Electricity Use
A recent study shows that shade trees on the west and south sides of a house in California can reduce a homeowner’s summertime electric bill by about $25.00 a year. The study, conducted last year on 460 single-family homes in Sacramento, is the first large-scale study to use utility billing data to show that trees can reduce energy consumption.

Federal Tax Credits Return for Efficiency Improvements to Homes
If a cool breeze hit you in the face as you tried to sleep off your New Year’s Eve celebration, you’ll be pleased to know that the New Year also revives the federal tax credits for energy efficiency improvements to homes. While sealing your home, you might also consider adding solar energy or wind power.

Residential Water Heaters can now Carry the Energy Star Label
The New Year brings with it tidings of joy and energy-efficient hot water, as Energy Star-qualified residential water heaters are now available. High-efficiency versions of the conventional tank storage water heater can earn the label, as well as solar water heaters and whole-house tankless models.

Husqvarna Showcasing Robotic Solar Hybrid Lawnmower at CES
For those of you itching to take a look at Husqvarna’s Automower, the sleek robotic solar hybrid lawnmower will be exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later this week. The Automower uses solar and battery power, and is completely emissions-free. During daylight, the 12MW solar panel allows the mower to extend its cutting periods before needing a recharge.

Cree to Light Up Pentagon With 4,200 LED Fixtures
Durham, N.C.-based Cree, maker of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), will soon illuminate a wing of the Pentagon that’s now undergoing renovations. Defense Department officials signed an agreement today for the company to supply more than 4,200 recessed LED fixtures

Cities May Sprout Vertical Farms
Farming would seem to be a horizontal occupation. Iowa corn or Kansas wheat pokes up from flat fields that stretch to the horizon. That’s why the idea of “vertical farms” seems ripe for humor.

Human Hair Makes Good Fertilizer
All those snipped locks that are swept up after your haircut could be turned into crop fertilizer, researchers now say… Plant yields increased for the hair-fertilized plants compared to the untreated controls overall, but were still lower than for the commercial, inorganic fertilizers in lettuce and wormwood, which are fast-growing plants. Yellow poppy, however, saw higher yields for the hair treatment.

Researchers Create Car Parts From Coconuts
A team of Baylor University researchers who have identified a variety of low-cost products that can be manufactured from coconuts in poor coastal regions have now developed a way to use coconut husks in automotive interiors.

Bush establishes 3 marine monuments in Pacific
WASHINGTON – In the largest marine conservation effort in history,President George W. Bush on Tuesday designated what he called “three beautiful and biologically diverse areas of the Pacific Ocean” as national marine monuments. The areas include the home of a giant land crab, a sunken island ringed by pink-colored coral, and equatorial waters teeming with sharks and other predators and total some 195,274 square miles.

Increase of sick brown pelicans baffles experts
LOS ANGELES – Wildlife experts are trying to figure out why sick, disoriented and bruised California brown pelicans are being found in record numbers along more than 1,000 miles of coastline.