Taylorville Illinois Energy Center, a proposed "clean coal" power plant. Image credit:Illinois Times Southern Illinois has vast, easily accessible coal reserves. That coal may be sulfurous and wet and salty; but ,Southern Illinois also has good geologic features for CO2 sequestration, plus Presidential root tendrils are there. These aspects explain, in a last-year kind of way, why Obama's Energy Department supports this $3.5 billion fantasy. (Several major conceptual design changes have been made since the Bush Ad...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Way too many green labels. Image credit:Google image search excerpt. The US FTC is close to updating its original "green guides" which have been the sole legal basis for examining and challenging the validity of various green marketing claims or product "green marks" There is an obvious need for this update, as more green product claims and labels have popped up every year since TreeHugger.com was founded (see links below the fold), many of which are of questionable ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Biting female mosquito. Image credit:James Gathany/CDC , via the Gazeteer Extra. Fear of disease is such a strong motivator. And most people hate insects,. Hence, you will occasionally see reference to the risk of climate-led outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like encephalitis or West Nile as a way to get people to pay attention to climate change. That fear-factor didn't materialize in the political game, nor should it. (Mosquito species which spread those particular diseases do not grow more numerous with passing flood waters.) Forty ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

SPOT emergency personal communicator device, with "SOS" button. Image credit:Amazon ad. Many younger Americans, devoid of such early life experiences as one would get from Boy Scouting or hunting with experienced companions, emboldened by a proliferation of cheap GPS devices, and perhaps encouraged by the recent outpouring of 'survival shows' are doing the dumb dance into the wild. This digitally-driven risk taking by "greenhorns" can be at significant p...Read the full story on TreeHugger

ECD, 5.6 kw UNI-SOLAR® product installation example in Heilbrunn Germany. Image credit:ECD UNI-SOLAR® products web page. Energy Conversion Devices of Auburn Hills MI recently received a $13 million stimulus tax credit to upgrade operations to produce a new, more efficient line of solar cells. The focus would be on mechanical and chemical engineering innovations, I assume. That government supported plan is still on course, apparently, although on a delayed schedule. That's the ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

"The Hoover Dam holds back Lake Mead (left photo accented by a rainbow) in 1983, the year its highest water elevation is recorded. By 2009 (right), Lake Mead's water-elevation level has dramatically declined, revealing the chalky-white structure of Hoover Dam." Caption & image credit:Arizona Republic Falling water levels in Arizona's Lake Mead have Arizona citizens facing an historic turning point, brought on by a 12-year regional drought - effects, as pictured. (Water consumption in the Colorado River wa...Read the full story on TreeHugger

"Billy the environmentalist" .Image credit:WSJ Online Last week I wrote about the zero-emission bow-knife for vegetable garden weed control. For certain tasks the bow-knife is superior to any gasoline powered weed-wacker. It's not very good for trimming on steep slopes and handling woody shrubs, however. For those situations, there are...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit:Hyundai USA A US executive for Hyundai has pledged to have that firm's new cars average 50 mpg by 2025, according to an article in Detroit News. Hyundai will do this with "15 percent to 20 percent of its fleet in 2025 as hybrids and plug-ins, as well as 5 percent as fuel cell or electric vehicles." Analysis: This is a car maker that has successfully targeted the budget buyer. Since 'budget conscious' is an ever-grow...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Southern pine wood chips. Image credit:USDA Southern Research Station. Research Update, Wood to Energy Biomass burning for electricity still looks to be a political and environmental black hole, presenting more dreadful questions than a tree hugger can shake a blog at. Why, for example, are 120 wood burning power plants being planned in multiple US states? Are banks and managing utilities planning for biomass (a euphemism for wood-fired) just to meet state renewable energy goals? Is it a coincidence that the projects are scheduled for upgrading mos...Read the full story on TreeHugger