Technology | Grist

It Ain't Leviticus, but it is deuteronomy

Gore on the Daily Show: extended dance remix 0
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago The ex-veep turned in a stunning performance on The Daily Show last night, revolutionizing his own image and the -- oh, who are we kidding. He was solid, smart, and painfully right, as always. Take a look.
The must-read solutions book by Al Gore 1
Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago Al Gore’s new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, is not just a broad overview of the key strategies for preserving a livable climate -- it's also a truly beautiful book, replete with lush photos and simple but powerful charts. It's the anti-SuperFreakonomics, and it's sure to be widely attacked by the climate deniers and delayers.
Clean tech reality check

Paging Dr. Chu, venture capitalist 2
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Despite all the entrepreneurial buzz around clean energy companies, it's going to take very deep pockets to get projects online at utility scale. That's why Energy Secretary Steven Chu may be the industry's most important venture capitalist.
Downright Paltry Private Spending

National Institutes of Energy needed to fill energy research and development gap 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The U.S. biomedical and pharmaceutical industry invests between 10-20 percent of revenues in research and development (R&D) and new product development, spending $58.8 billion on R&D in 2007. The U.S. government adds an additional $30 billion per year investment in biomedical R&D through the National Institutes of Health. In contrast, the U.S. energy sector invests well below $3 billion annually in R&D in an industry with well over a trillion dollars in annual revenue.
Open for Business

Cleantech Open has $100,000 for a green startup idea 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The Cleantech Open has helped more than 100 startup companies find their footing since it launched in California three years ago. Now it's expanding in some interesting ways. Competitors in Cleantech's new "ideas competition" stand to win $100,000 in support and advice from business experts.
Rule will require use of best technologies to reduce greenhouse gases from large facilities when “constructed or significantly modified” — small businesses and farms exempt

New EPA Rule Requirements 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Rooting for the underdog

For Khosla, clean tech is all about scale 0
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla believes "clean tech" is all about greening "old tech."
Leno's shocking conversion

Ford goes Hollywood to tout electric cred 3
Posted 2 months ago
As part of his new show on NBC, obsessive car collector Jay Leno aims to strike an eco chord in Hollywood ... and then on Main Street USA. Mr. Petrolhead is out to become Mr. Electric Car.
Jumpstarting Clean Energy

Report Pushes for More Research Investment and New National Institutes of Energy 0
Posted 2 months ago
Whip it? Go for it ... move ahead ...

Wheego joins the ranks of electric car startups 4
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
A decade after General Motors killed the electric car, big automakers and startups are revving up to put battery-powered vehicles on the road over the next couple of years. One of the latest entrants is Wheego, an Atlanta company that is about to launch the Whip.
Wind in Wall Street's Sails

Investment rushes into wind, but can we make it last? 2
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
After falling into the doldrums for the past six-months, the wind industry is roaring back to life thanks to direct public investments enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Removing roadblocks to the growth of renewables 0
Posted 3 months ago
CURRENT EVENTS

If the site is right, researchers could bring tidal energy to Puget Sound 1
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
The problem with wind power—one of them, anyway—lies in the phrase "fickle as the wind." Ocean tides, by comparison, are a paragon of reliability. Grist's Jon Hiskes spent a day on the Puget Sound recently talking with researchers building a pilot tidal energy project.
Everyone's got a lobbyist

Tally of interests on climate bill tops a thousand 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
More than 460 new businesses and interest groups jumped into lobbying Congress on global warming in the weeks before the House neared its historic vote on climate change legislation, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of just-disclosed lobbying records shows.
Green growth

Tony Blair, Climate Group, and CAP call for strong technology deployment policy 2
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
While Tony Blair and the Climate Group endorse strong investment in technology development, it is squarely focused on the crucial role that strong government regulations and standards play in achieving the rapid technology deployment needed to meet key 2020 greenhouse gas targets.
Star power

Mass. startup uses biotech smarts to take the corn out of ethanol 2
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Joule Biotechnologies mixes bioengineered micro-organisms with carbon dioxide and solar energy to produce corn-free ethanol.
Radiant Cities: Drive Through This

Can we really make the drive-thru a source of power? 3
Posted 4 months ago
Drivers drooling as they wait for Big Macs and Whoppers could be a promising energy source, if one company has its way. Find out whether the latest scheme will work -- and who's trying to stand in its path.
Bag it

Better ways to spend $1 million on plastics 4
Posted 4 months ago
A plastics industry trade group plans to drop $1 million to fight Seattle's 20-cent tax on shopping bags. We suggest some better uses for the money.
From this VantagePoint

Silicon Valley VC sees bright future for green tech—and a need to engage policy makers 6
Posted 4 months ago
VantagePoint Venture Partners is making big bets on green tech by funding nearly two dozen startups involved in everything from LED lighting to algae biofuels to water to the smart grid. CEO Alan Salzman talks about what his firm sees ahead.
Twenty ideas that could save the world 3
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
We hear endlessly about the havoc unabated climate change will wreak, about long-term emissions targets and diplomatic wrangling over who will commit to them. But the countless ingenious ideas for tackling the problem emanating from universities, thinktanks, front rooms and sheds across the planet get rather less attention. So the Guardian teamed up with the Manchester International Festival to mount a search for the best of them.