Energy policy

Photo: GoogleGoogle is now using geothermal energy to meet the massive power needs of its data centers. Google announced a first-of-its-kind geothermal project is now operational in Nevada in a blog post on Tuesday, using heat from the Earth’s core as energy.Like It or Not, Your Doctor Will Use AI | AI UnlockedThe tech giant has been carbon neutral since 2007, meaning it purchased carbon offsets but still uses fossil fuels, but Google has bigger goals on the horizon. By 2030, the company intends to run on carbon-free…

The Biden Administration is proposing a bill to hold cryptocurrency mining companies accountable for the amount of energy costs they expel with a new 30% tax on their electricity costs. The Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax was announced on the White House website on Tuesday, explaining that cryptomining firms should be paying higher energy taxes for the exorbitant amount they consume. Tour the Museum of Failure’s Best Tech TrashAccording to the proposed legislation, cryptomining firms have a largeimpact on…

Most people in the U.S. pay private or investor-owned power companies—fueled by profit motives—for their electricity. It’s a system that makes advancing renewable energy secondary to advancing corporate revenue. But public utilities offer an alternative that divorces peoples’ energy needs from companies’ bottom lines. Often, these state or municipal run-entities offer more affordable rates, and they’re accountable to the taxpayers who fund them. As a result, environmental advocates and policy experts tend to agree that…

Some of the world’s largest most influential nations have formed an alliance to create new supply chains for nuclear energy—the same weekend that another country announced it had completely weaned itself off the energy source.This Summer’s Hottest UmbrellaAt the meeting of the G7 this weekend, leaders of nuclear trade associations from the U.S., UK, Canada, Japan, and France announced they will work together to create supply chains for nuclear fuels that do not rely on Russia.When it comes to nuclear fuel, Russia’s supply…

Fishermen in a boat on the Laguna Madre in front of giant wind generators on the mainland near Port Isabel, Texas.Photo: Jon G. Fuller / VWPics (AP)Electricity generated from renewable energy sources surpassed electricity created by coal for the first time ever in the U.S. in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced yesterday. Is This Product Actually Vegan?Coal-fired electricity generation dropped from 23% of total generation in 2021 to 20% in 2022. Meanwhile, the increase in renewable electricity…

An American Airlines plane lands at Logan International Airport, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in Boston.Photo: Michael Dwyer (AP)The world emitted more carbon dioxide last year compared to any other year on record, according to data released Thursday from the International Energy Agency. And while the growth of emissions was slower last year than it had been in past years—thanks to an explosion of renewable energy around the world during the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine—the report finds thatemissions from…

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.In early February, lawmakers in Minnesota passed a law requiring the state’s power utilities to supply customers with 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 — one of the more ambitious clean energy standards in the United States. Democrats, who clinched control of the state legislature in last year’s midterm elections, were euphoric. But not everyone in the region is enthused about Minnesota’s…

It’s getting harder to avoid AI-generated images and text—and harder to spot them in the first place—and that’s true even on Shutterstock, one of the world’s leading providers of stock photography. Last month, Shutterstock rolled out a tool for paying users that allows them to generate AI images based on their searches, in addition to finding pre-generated AI images available in the library.I write about climate change every day, but it’s sometimes a topic that’s hard to illustrate. Should I includea photo of a wildfire…

Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)Several grassroots groups opposed to solar projects in local areas may have one thing in common: a Virginia-based group with powerful GOP connections advising them on strategy. National Public Radio and environmental news collective Floodlight published an expose Friday on a group called Citizens for Responsible Solar, a nonprofit founded in 2019, and its substantial influence in fighting renewable energy across the country—and connections to polluters and prominent climate deniers.The…

A coal plant burns in Cheswick, Pennsylvania.Photo: Jeff Swensen (Getty Images)Nearly all of the coal plants operating in the U.S. are now more expensive to keep online than it would be to build entirely new renewable energy facilities in their stead, according to a new analysis by Energy Innovation, an energy and policy firm. The analysis found that 99% of U.S. coal plants supply energy that would be cheaper if those plants were shut down and replaced with wind farms or solar fields.“Coal is unequivocally more expensive…