Growth in Energy Use Could Drop 22 Percent by 2030 Under Right Conditions: Report
PALO ALTO, Calif. — With the help from efficiency programs, energy users in the U.S. could reduce the growth rate of consumption by 22 percent in the next 20 years — a reduction equivalent to 14 times the electricity used annually in New York City, according to a new report.

Energy Efficiency: The Massively Multiplayer Online Game
Wouldn’t lowering your home energy consumption be easier and more fun if you could compete against your neighbors for bragging rights? At least one Stanford professor thinks so . At a recent climate change conference, Professor Byron Reeves proposed incorporating smart meter data into a MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game). Energy consumption in the real world would be linked to energy consumption in the game, with real-life energy savings reaping game points.

Senate-passed lands bill includes Ice Age flood trail
WASHINGTON — A massive public lands bill approved by the Senate on Thursday would create a geologic trail that would track the route of catastrophic Ice Age floods that swept across and scoured the landscape of the Northwest from the Idaho Panhandle to the Pacific Ocean.

NASA to fly unmanned drone for science research
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – There will be a powerful new scientific eye in the sky come summer. NASA and Northrop Grummanon Thursday unveiled two unmanned drones that will be used foratmospheric research. One of the two Global Hawks, a version of the Air Force’s top-of-the-line unmanned spy plane, will be outfitted with science instruments this spring and conduct its first earth science mission in June for NASA. The planes, which are capable of staying aloft for more than 30 hours, will sample greenhouse gases responsible for ozone depletion and verify measurements by NASA’s Aura atmosphere research satellite.

OMA Planning North Sea “Energy Super Ring” of Wind Farms
Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture announced a plan earlier this week to build a massive offshore wind farm in the North Sea. If completed, the ring of wind parks could generate 13,400 TWh of energy and help lead to European energy independence by 2050

A Wind Turbine for Every Rooftop?
These days, there are more and more options for those of you who want a small wind turbine out in the yard or on your roof. They range from the standard to the somewhat bizarre, and come in sizes that can power several major appliances all the way up to your whole house and beyond. In the right conditions, wind power can be much more economical than other renewable energy options such as solar or geothermal. Traditional propeller-type wind turbines remain the best options for residential settings outside of urban areas.

Study Says Home Wind Turbines Are Often Useless
Before buying a small wind turbine for your roof, consider this: a recent British study claims that many home turbines generate only a fraction of what manufacturers promise, and some don’t even generate enough power to run their own electronics.

Rolls-Royce Testing the Waters with Tidal Power Turbines
The venerable Rolls-Royce, maker of some of the finest motorcars, engines and turbines in the world, will be sea-testing tidal power turbines off the coast of the UK beginning this summer.

Advanced car battery makers seek juice from stimulus plan
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is struggling to catch up with China, Japan and Korea in a race to build the advanced batteries needed to power the electric cars of the future.

“Cash for Clunkers” program a good, sensible idea
Three U.S. senators — two Democrats, one Republican — introduced a bill today that would create a national incentive program for the voluntary retirement of inefficient vehicles. The four-year program would apply to anyone who had a driveable vehicle registered for four months or longer that got no more than 18 miles per gallon. The vehicle owner would have the option of turning in the car, truck or SUV to be scrapped in exchange for a credit of $2,500 to $4,500. 

DryerMiser Promises to Cut Dryer Energy Use in Half
ORLANDO, Fla. — Hydromatic Technologies’ DryerMiser device, which uses heated fluid to warm air inside dryers, has passed safety tests from Underwriters Laboratory.

Freshwater and Electricity Through Osmosis
Robert McGinnis, Yale doctoral student and Menachem Elimelech, Chair of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, have developed systems that can harness the power of osmosis to transform non-potable water sources like seawater to freshwater and generate in the same time electricity.

Report calls on EPA to ban coal-waste storage in mines
WASHINGTON — A day after the nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency promised to look into the problem of coal ash storage in ponds such as the one that burst in Tennessee last month, a new report says another disposal strategy is just as dangerous: using the coal waste to fill in active or abandoned mines.

Government makes decision on gray wolf protection
BILLINGS, Mont. – The Bush administration on Wednesday announced plans to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains regions from the federal endangered species list.

Alaska to sue over beluga whale protection
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The state of Alaska says it will go to court to challenge the federal decision to protect beluga whales in Cook Inlet under the Endangered Species Act.

Dung deal: Elephant count surprises in Malaysia
[T]he new method of counting dung piles came up with an estimate of 631 animals living in Taman Negara National Park, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and Malaysia Department of Wildlife and National Parks said. The survey showed Taman Negara to be “one of the great strongholds for Asian elephants in Southeast Asia,” said Melvin Gumal, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s conservation programs in Malaysia.

Tropical rainforests are regrowing. Now what?
The world’s tropical rainforests are making a comeback, but young vegetation may not be able to sustain as much diverse wildlife or lock up nearly as much climate-warming carbon dioxide as old trees did, scientists report.