At the Frontlines of the Global Transition
“The beauty of switchgrass is how hearty it is and how fast it grows,†said Dr. Suleiman Bughrara, a plant breeder at Michigan State University. “One acre can yield 12 or 13 tons of grass. That can produce 500 gallons of ethanol. We have work to do. But that kind of production is possible, and pretty quickly.†Credit: Gary Howe Across Midwest labs race to break down cellulose EAST LANSING, MI – Amid row after …
Energy and climate change are at the top of the list of priorities for both major presidential campaigns this year. In Denver, almost every prime time speaker at the Democratic National Convention noted the need for a new clean energy economic development strategy. In his historic speech on Thursday night Senator Barack Obama committed, if elected, to ending the nation’s addiction to foreign oil within a decade. How? By replacing foreign oil with clean biofuels, …
DENVER –– Beyond what the Democrats contend is the epic misrule of the Bush administration, and beyond what the Obama campaign asserts is Senator John McCain’s obeisance to a belligerent president lies Senator Barack Obama’s new frame for the 2008 presidential election. Here are its pieces. America is in peril. Obama is the man to fix it. And the most powerful tool at his disposal is developing a clean energy, good jobs economy that ends …
One of the most noticeable features on Newton, Iowa’s Web site is a map of the Newton Union Cemetery. For a time over the last two years, the map seemed a fitting metaphor for the town of 16,000, which lies 35 miles east of Des Moines. After all, the Whirlpool Corporation in 2006 purchased, and a year later closed the Maytag Corporation’s offices and plants in Newton, putting 1,800 people out of work and ending …
Last November Senator Hillary Clinton delivered a major policy speech in Iowa, during which she described her clean energy and jobs proposal. Three months later, in a speech in Seattle, Senator Barack Obama outlined his clean energy plan. Every week now, in many of their public appearances, both Democratic presidential candidates mention the millions of “green-collar jobs†they anticipate from an energy strategy that stresses clean renewable sources. Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, who’s …