March 2012

Fracking Gas Is Writing America's Energy Policy

Much of what the United States might have achieved through a visionary energy policy—lower prices, lower carbon emissions, less reliance on dirty coal and foreign oil—is coming to pass as a result of abundant natural gas from hydraulic fracturing,…

Railroads, Republicans Muscling Out Amtrak

America’s leading freight railroads are plotting their return to passenger service as Amtrak faces a threat from privatizing politicians in Congress, a former Amtrak CEO said in Chicago Wednesday.
“This is a difficult time for Amtrak,” former Amtrak…

U.S. Poised For Passenger Rail Boom

Of planes, trains, and automobiles, only one can accommodate America's growing need for urban and intercity transportation, according to a panel of transportation officials who gathered in Chicago Wednesday.
Transportation officials from Chicago,…

Senators Spar Over $50 Lightbulb

A tiff over the true cost of energy-efficient lightbulbs stumbled Tuesday into Senate chambers, where Republicans grilled Energy Secretary Steven Chu over his department's favorite new bulb—a Philips LED that retails for about $50.
Chu was testifying…

The world's pioneering climate scientists doubted humans were causing the changes they noticed in the Arctic, a Swedish environmental historian said in Chicago Friday—and so climate scientists themselves were among the first to resist emerging…

The Arctic Is Heating Up — Politically

After briefly considering ways the Artic might be peacefully shared, governments have again begun eying the thawing region more strategically, both for new shipping lanes and for increasingly accessible resources, a Swedish historian said in Chicago…

UK Parliament Group to Study Thorium Reactors

Two dozen members of Parliament from all major parties have formed an informal committee to study the potential of thorium reactors, according to a thorium advocacy group led by a member of the House of Lords.
Baroness Bryony Worthington, a Labour…