Energy & Fuel

Southerners are looking to their forests for alternative fuel.

"The Department of Energy has released the first third of its $25 billion advanced technology loan fund for automakers to 'create thousands of green jobs while helping reduce the nation's dangerous dependence on foreign oil.'

Tesla Motors' chief executive, whose company has been mired in legal actions, predicted in a blog post that the company would become profitable next month.

"For decades, diesel trucks and buses have spewed large amounts of soot, smog-causing gases and carcinogens into the air. But new diesel engines are more than 90 percent cleaner than a few years ago, far exceeding the emission reductions required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new independent study released Thursday. Data show new diesel technologies are working even better than expected."

Estimated U.S. gas reserves have increased by 35 percent, according to a group of experts connected with the Colorado School of Mines -- although much of that increase would come from hydraulic fracturing of shale, a technique whose effects raise environmental concern.

"The Senate approved a $1 billion program yesterday to give vouchers to consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for more fuel-efficient models -- a move that dealers hope will revive slumping auto sales."

Small-scale, local power generation could reshape our energy system.

"By the middle of next year, the nine campuses that make up the nation's largest community college system plan to be completely energy self-sufficient. It's a huge step, and it will begin saving money immediately."