September 9, 2010 | ModeShift

Grassroots Opposition to Clean Energy Power Lines in Texas

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 9, 20100

Kate Gailbraith, a reporter for the very accomplished non-profit and online Texas Tribune, has a report from the Lone Star state about grassroots opposition to a new $5 billion transmission line to carry power from all those windmills down there. Texas is the largest wind generating state in the country, with a capacity of nearly 9,500 megawatts at the end of 2009, or roughly equal to 10 big coal-fired plants. Opposition to new transmission lines, …

Energy Department Blocks Disclosure of Road Map to Relieve Critical U.S. Energy-Water Choke Points

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 9, 2010September 9, 20100

The Illinois River Energy biofuels plant in Rochelle releases plumes of steam at sunrise. The ethanol plant processes over 40 million bushels of corn into 115 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol annually. Earlier this summer my colleagues and I began probing the tightening environmental and economic choke points around the United States caused by rising energy production and diminishing quantities of fresh water. This week we broke a new chapter in the story that …