By: Erich Pica

On Feb. 16, while President Obama was in Maryland announcing an $8.3 billion taxpayer-backed loan guarantee for Southern Company to build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia, inspectors at the Vermont Yankee reactor were finding dangerously high levels of tritium, a radioactive cancer-causing chemical, in the groundwater near the plant.

The next week, the Vermont state Senate voted overwhelmingly to shut down Vermont Yankee when its current license expires in 2012.

Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R) called the timing of the nuclear loan guarantee announcement and the Vermont Senate’s decision “ironic.” More than just some coincidence, though, the Vermont Yankee situation demonstrates that from the mining of uranium ore to the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors remain as dirty, risky, and as costly as they ever were. If President Obama’s recent enthusiasm for nuclear reactors has led you to believe otherwise, you’ve bought in to the administration’s greenwashing of nuclear.

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By: Ashley Braun

The internet loves mysterious product unveilings, especially those promising to revolutionize the world and how we live in it. (Think Apple’s iPhone.) But few (except for maybe the iPhone) actually live up to the hype. (Or so I hear. Anyone wanna get me an iPhone?)

CEO K.R. Sridhar is starting to peel back the layers of secrecy from his magic boxes like a Bloomin’ onion.

Now, after nearly a decade of secrecy, Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar is coming out of the shadows to tell the world how his “Bloom Box” will do all of this and more as a “zero-emissions” mini-power plant. Bloom Energy debuted its heady energy dreams in an exclusive interview on 60 Minutes this past Sunday, with the company’s official launch to come on Wednesday at early customer eBay’s California headquarters. Google, Wal-Mart, and FedEx have also been quietly testing these heavily-subsidized magic boxes on their premises, with encouraging energy and cost savings thus far.

But, zero emissions? A backyard power plant-in-a-box? Sounds fancy, but what is a Bloom Box and is it really the next “energy breakthrough”?

The Bloom Box is a fuel cell, not an energy source.

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This is the amount of investment Pike Research estimates could be generated by smart grid infrastructure worldwide between 2008 and 2015. Technologies for grid automation upgrades and smart metering will all represent a huge market opportunity over the next decade.

While electricity grids still remain a marvel of the 20th century, they are highly complex with millions of miles of distribution lines. However, unlike IT and communications networks, they still lack intelligence.

The need for improved reliability, security, and operating efficiencies, lower costs, a better balance between power supply and demand, and a reduction in the electrical system’s impact on the climate, are all factors that are contributing to the build-out of intelligent electricity networks or smart grids.

While significant technical, economic and regulatory barriers to this roll-out remain, government and industry bodies are coming together with urgency to drive the industry forward, and Pike Research forecasts that smart grid infrastructure will attract $200 billion in worldwide investment between 2008 and 2015.

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by Bruce Mulliken

Anyone in Washington who’s gearing up to promote a new energy package or climate change policy to the American people should read the BBC news story “Why do people often vote against their own interests?“

Anyone among the public who’s concerned about the log jam in Washington, how nothing can ever get done, should read the article as well.

The news story looks at the health care debate in the US, but an energy and climate change debate could get just as ugly. For instance, the story asks “Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?” and “Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?”

Similar questions could be asked about energy and climate. Why do people buy oil from nations that are opposed to American ideals? Why aren’t people concerned about long term changes in the weather when an unprecedented storm can ruin their lives?

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It is a criticism frequently leveled at those promoting wind or solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels: what happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?

Well, now there is a smart answer, at least in Europe — we’ll simply and instantly switch to another source of clean, green power.

Plans for a massive electricity grid dedicated to uniting the varied sources of renewable energy available in northern Europe have taken a step forward in January as nine countries formally agreed to work together on the project.

Using thousands of miles of high-tech undersea cables the ’supergrid’ will unite wind farms on blustery British coasts with Dutch and Belgian tidal power, the vast hydroelectric potential of Norway fjords and Germany’s massive solar arrays.

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