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European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report by green groups warned. That estimated area equals the size of the Republic of Ireland. As a result, the extra biofuels that Europe will [...]
The petroleum industry sued the federal government Monday to try to force action on a backlog of hundreds of unissued federal oil and gas leases in the Rocky Mountain region. The Denver-based Western Energy Alliance and six companies based in Colorado, Wyoming and Oklahoma filed suit in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The lawsuit focuses [...]
In the future, you might not have to worry about wasting fuel while waiting at traffic lights. A new technology will equip traffic lights to control your vehicle’s engine and improve its fuel efficiency. IBM has already filed a patent on the system that will help minimize fuel consumption. The system would be able to [...]
The U.S. government threatened on Sunday to remove BP from efforts to seal a blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico if it doesn’t do enough to stop the leak, though it acknowledged only the company and the oil industry have the needed know-how. The Coast Guard said that over 65 miles (110 kms) [...]
The massive oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico abruptly turned into a national crisis yesterday, when scientists realized oil is probably gushing from the seafloor at five times the rate they first thought. The expanding slick began washing ashore in the Mississippi River Delta last night. The leak — estimated to be bigger [...]
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will rule this month on Cape Wind, a proposal to invest more than $1bn placing 130 wind-powered turbines in the shallow waters of Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts. A federal advisory council recommended on April 2 that Salazar reject the project because of the “destructive” effects on historic sites. US [...]
Your informative report on the remarkable Gibe hydro-electric power project on the Omo river in Ethiopia (Report, 26 March) is of particular importance for a number of reasons. In a country which usually hits the headlines with news of droughts and famine disasters, the development of this massive potential source of energy is a great [...]