Source: Wikipedia

The United States Mountain West has long been a hotbed of experimentation and innovation, due in no small part to a decades-long partnership between government, universities and private enterprise. Throughout the 20th century, the federal government invested in dams, transportation infrastructure and military installations that facilitated economic expansion and the emergence of new private industries. And according to a new report released today by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, the Mountain West has a pivotal role to play in securing our nation’s clean energy future. Click here to read why the Mountain West region is so pivotal to our nation’s clean energy future.

Source: CNNMoney.com

According to a new Columbia study, Americans are pretty clueless about energy efficiency. How is your energy IQ? What saves more energy, a truck or a train? A laptop or a stereo? Recycling glass or recycling aluminum soda cans? Think you know the answers? Click here to take this energy test and find out how much you really know (or don’t know) about energy use!

Source: Drexel University

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, students and faculty advisors are trying to develop sustainable innovations that improve quality of life, push the envelope in terms of what’s already out there and offer innovations that are commercially viable and also acceptable to the public. They’re doing it through a living laboratory called the Drexel Smart House. Founded four years ago, the house is a student- led initiative designed to explore cutting edge technologies that are environmentally friendly. Click here to read more about this exciting student-led project!

Source: John Locher/Getty Images

Yes, the stimulus has cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, bailed out every state, hustled record amounts of unemployment benefits and other aid to struggling families and funded more than 100,000 projects to upgrade roads, subways, schools, airports, military bases and much more. But in the words of Vice President Joe Biden, Obama’s effusive Recovery Act point man, “Now the fun stuff starts!” The “fun stuff,” about one-sixth of the total cost, is an all-out effort to exploit the crisis to make green energy, green building and green transportation real; launch green manufacturing industries; computerize a pen-and-paper health system; promote data-driven school reforms; and ramp up the research of the future. “This is a chance to do something big, man!” Biden said during a 90-minute interview with TIME. Click here to read why the Recovery Act is believed to be the most ambitious energy legislation in history!

Source: Green Energy Guru

The United States expends a lot of energy studying green energy. There’s no shortage of ideas. For example, San Francisco considered installing giant turbines under the Golden Gate Bridge and harnessing tidal power to generate electricity. There are all kinds of research projects, coalitions and advocacy groups touting renewable energy, but the country is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Only 7% of energy consumed is from renewable sources. So why haven’t we made more progress and what can be done to change the numbers? Click here to read more!

Source: hotindienews.com

The White House said yesterday that the US is on track to double its renewable energy generating capacity – as well as its renewable energy manufacturing capacity – by 2012. Releasing a new report summing up progress under the Recovery Act, Vice President Joe Biden predicted that the cost of solar power would be cut in half by 2015, putting it “on par” with the cost of retail electricity from the grid. And he forecast a 70% cut in the cost of electric vehicle batteries between 2009 and 2015, leveling the costs of an electric vehicle with non-electric counterparts.The Vice President said the “game-changing” breakthroughs would not be possible without the $23 billion in investment from the Recovery Act. Click here to read more about this energy update.