Last week’s vast oil spill just 50 miles into the Gulf of Mexico is already being called one of the most significant oil spills in U.S History; and yesterday, President Obama and the White House made it clear that they have moved clean up efforts to the top of their priority list.
President Obama announced Tuesday that he approved a loan guarantee to underwrite construction of two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. These would be the first new reactors built in the United States since the 1970s. Will this be the start of a new wave of nuclear energy in this country?
This week, Exxon acquired XTO Energy, one of the largest domestic producers of natural gas. Natural gas is considered a cheaper and greener form of energy due to its somewhat lower carbon footprint... but the companies who may own the natural gas market may wind up being the same oil giants we already know. Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, is joined by Lisa Margonelli, from the New America Foundation, to explain what these developments in the natural gas market signify.
As we look for alternatives to oil and try to develop new technologies, we are tapping into an entire periodic table of new important commodities. These rare earth metals are the basis of a whole range of new "green" products. Lisa Margonelli is here to help us understand them. She's a regular Takeaway contributor who writes the energy blog for The Atlantic and is the author of Oil on the Brain.
"We're going to need to think about how we recycle the car even before we build it."
—Lisa Magonelli on developing new technologies
We’ve been on a Power Trip all week to talk about the future of energy. Today we’re digging down into some of the water-cooler wisdom surrounding energy use. Are cloth diapers really more energy efficient than disposables? Does shutting off the lights really waste more energy than just leaving them on? We’re here to debunk myths—or maybe to confirm them. To help us do that is Matt McDermott, an alternative energy writer for TreeHugger.com and Planet Green.com.
Okay, okay, we heard you. You, our listeners, smartly pointed out that with all the energy efficient appliances in the world (and thousands of pounds of algae) future energy consumption will continue increasing because population is increasing. The Power Trip was shaking it's head — how could we forget to talk about this? Today, we'd like you to meet David Biello, an associate editor at Scientific American online who joins The Takeaway to talk to about population, energy, and why when one goes up, it's still possible for the other to come down. (Come on, you're as surprised as we are.)
Before every new technology there comes the moment of invention. Before there was ethanol, someone had to look at biomass and say, "There's energy in them thar leaves." For the last day of our Power Trip energy series, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla joins The Takeaway from the TED conference in Long Beach, California. Khosla, whose company risks millions of dollars every year to fund upstart energy technologies, ruminates on creating billion dollar industries out of wild ideas.
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and philanthropist, addressed the crowd at this year's TED conference with his thoughts on saving the world with a new kind of philanthropy. It's long, but funny. Really.
Just how power hungry is internet giant Google? The Takeaway's Power Trip heads to the Google campuses in Mountain View, California to find out. John Hockenberry sits down with Bill Weihl, the company's green energy czar (that's his title, no joke). On the interview agenda: the company's top picks for which alt-energy sources will rule the future clean energy economy, including solar with a twist. Plus, Weihl talks about the need for government energy subsidies, and why the company still ain't talking about the power consumed by a Google search
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If you knew where all the energy zooming into your house was being used and wasted, would you change the way you consume power? One company is banking on it. Our Power Trip heads to Redwood City, California to talk to Joe Polastre, CTO and co-founder of Sentilla. The company has invented an unassuming rectangular box that tracks —dollar by dollar, watt by watt—how much energy the appliances in your home are using. Clothes dryers and air conditioners beware: your energy guzzling ways are secrets no more.
Energy experts have a theory: It won't be a fancy new technology straight out of a science fiction novel that will help us reduce our energy consumption. Rather it will be something simple, sleek, a mere re-design if you will. The concept that will slow down how much energy we eat? Energy efficiency. Some energy efficient products are already out there—CFL lightbulbs and Energy Star refrigerators. Others are in the pipeline. As part of The Takeaway's Power Trip energy series, John Hockenberry heads to Novato, California, where some wacky guys are using the human lung to create better air conditioners.
While green investors are throwing money at solar, wind and nuclear technology, researchers are exploring some innovative and surprisingly attractive alternatives to the alternatives.
Read our top ten list, including notes on the possible impacts of the technologies in 2020 from The Energy Roadmap's Garry Golden.
The Takeaway is on a Power Trip, taking an in-depth look at the future of energy: technologies, ideas, innovators, and your stories about the one thing that you won't give up to save energy.
All this week, The Takeaway is on a Power Trip, taking an in-depth look at the future of energy: technologies, ideas, innovators, and your stories about saving energy.
Political and industrial leaders are now in near consensus: The world must change how it produces and consumes energy to address the geopolitical and environmental challenges of our current energy systems. The transition will take decades, but the vision is starting to come into focus.
Continue reading...
President Barack Obama has pledged to reduce our carbon emissions by 80 percent come 2050, and that means saying goodbye to carbon-spewing coal and oil plants. But we can't wave a magic, rhetoric wand to change from black energy to green. So how do we move forward in establishing a new, clean power economy? To launch our Power Trip energy series, The Takeaway is joined by Garry Golden, a futurist and energy blogger who lays out the yellow brick road toward green energy.
Listen to more from Garry Golden in The Takeaway's Power Trip series:
More on the future of energy from Garry Golden and Introducing the new energy economy.
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