Amanda Little’s Posts

• War and grease

  The U.S. military's battle to wean itself off oil 4

  Posted 3 weeks, 3 days agoThe U.S. military is the largest consumer of petroleum in the United States, and some top brass are very unhappy about that. One general stationed in Iraq, frustrated at seeing lives put at risk in fuel convoys, asked for "a self-sustainable energy solution," including "solar panels and wind turbines." Is the military really ready to embrace clean energy? Amanda Little went to the Pentagon to find out, in this final excerpt from her new book, Power Trip.

• Short circuits

  Our old electric grid is no match for our new green energy plans 4

  Posted 3 weeks, 4 days agoTo understand how electricity gets from a coal plant or wind turbine to our living rooms and cubicles, Amanda Little descended below the heaving streets of Manhattan for a first-hand look at the power grid. It wasn't pretty -- and it doesn't bode well for our transition to a clean energy future.

• Cooking oil

  Can you taste the fuels in your food? 5

  Posted 3 weeks, 5 days agoTo see fossil fuels in action on a farm, Amanda Little paid a visit to a Kansas corn grower and hitched a ride in his high-tech tractor. This is the fourth installment in a series of exclusive excerpts from Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells -- Our Ride to the Renewable Future.

• Road hogs

  NASCAR and the high-octane American dream 11

  Posted 4 weeks, 1 day agoA tour of America's energy landscape would be woefully incomplete without a visit to a NASCAR race, so Amanda Little trekked to the Talladega Superspeedway to get a first-hand view of the action. Don't miss this third installment in our series of exclusive excerpts from Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—Our Ride to the Renewable Future.

• Over a barrel

  Exploring the extreme frontiers of oil drilling 2

  Posted 1 month agoTo witness firsthand the world’s most extreme drilling territory -- the Mount Everest of oil frontiers -- Amanda Little took a 175-mile helicopter trip to Chevron's "Cajun Express" oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. "I found the whole enterprise of deep-sea drilling doggedly ambitious, but also seemingly desperate—like an addict forcing a syringe into the earth’s innermost veins," she writes. Of course, the director of Chevron’s offshore drilling divisions sees it differently, as he explains while giving Little a tour of the rig. This is the second installment in a series of exclusive excerpts from "Power Trip: From… Read More

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