Energy & Fuel

"As America's petroleum heartland, Texas isn't known for being environmentally sensitive. But its oil-boom, energy savvy attitude could put the state in a surprising position--leading the charge to alternative energy in the U.S."

"The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it would probably increase the amount of ethanol that gasoline retailers could blend into ordinary fuel, to 15 percent, if tests established that the blend would not damage cars."

"A large Southern utility said Tuesday that it would close 30 percent of its North Carolina coal-fired power plants by 2017, a step that represents a bet that natural gas prices will stay acceptably low and that stricter rules are coming on sulfur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain."

"The Environmental Protection Agency has put off, until the middle of next year, any decision about whether to increase the amount of ethanol allowed into the nation’s fuel."

Hoping to please the farm lobby, Congress ordered the nation's gasoline refiners to blend more ethanol into the fuel Americans use. But fuel demand falling because of the recession and more efficient vehicles has made this impossible.

"The Canadian and Alberta governments said on Tuesday they will invest as much as C$558 million ($525 million) in a pipeline project to carry carbon-dioxide from an industrial region near Edmonton, Alberta, to aging oil fields."

"Areas hard-hit by the U.S. automakers' slump are pitching themselves to green technology firms. Workers and machines that used to crank out cars are now making parts for solar and wind power plants."

"The spread of wind and solar power is being held back by fragmented policies on paying for new transmission lines to carry renewable energy, said a group of leading transmission providers in a petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission."

"In a 5-0 vote, The California Energy Commission today approved the country's first efficiency regulations for TVs of up to 58 inches. The new Appliance Efficiency Regulations will require new televisions sold in California to consume 33 percent less electricity by 2011 and 49 percent less electricity by 2013."