We've all heard the expression about turning swords into plowshares.  How about turning coal plants into solar farms as the energy equivalent?  Here's an example that we hope will be widely emulated.

At Greentech Media, Pulse Energy CEO David Heliwell has some excellent, helpful tips about "cutting through the noise in cleantech." Here's an excerpt.

We strongly recommend this superb op-ed by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, in which he makes a strong case: a) against the Keystone XL pipeline; b) for clean energy; and c) against dirty energy. Note that this op-ed first appeared in The Hill, and is reprinted here with the permission of Sen. Kaine's office. Also note that a rapid clean energy transition strategy is in direct antithesis to one that favors offshore oil drilling, "fracking" in the GW National Forest, mountaintop removal coal mining, etc.

The following press release is from NextGen Climate Action, "a political advocacy organization founded by clean-energy advocate and philanthropist Tom Steyer to champion policies that will help to address climate change and promote clean energy, preserving American prosperity." Polling released today by NextGen Climate Action indicates a great degree of skepticism among the American people towards the Keystone XL Canadian tar sands export pipeline.

by Tigercomm Executive Vice President Mark Sokolove

Do we really need to hear more drivel from the fossil lobby on the cost of pro-clean energy policy? We should start factoring this into the cost of fossil fuels and then see how "cheap" they really are.

To put it mildly, Jeremy Grantham is a lot smarter than you're average pro-dirty energy blowhard on Fox News. A lot. Check this out.

This is pretty much what we've been saying for ages now - clean energy is ready and able to transform the world.

We've written many times here at Scaling Green about the enormous potential which energy efficiency holds. We've addressed the question of whether energy efficiency is condemned to be an "eat your peas" technology, or whether it's just not "sexy" enough to compete with other, flashier energy sources for attention.  We've talked about the International Energy Agency report focusing on energy efficiency, which asks the question, "Is energy efficiency not just a hidden fuel but rather the world's first fuel?" And we've highlighted a McKinsey & Company report which found that "by making the manufacturing sector more efficient, the United States could reduce primary industrial energy consumption 21 percent by 2020 — saving U.S. industry $47 billion per year."

Image courtesy of the Rainforest Action Network. Poisoned river courtesy of the coal industry.

Did the pro-Keystone XL Canadian government secretly fund a supposedly "independent" report boosting the tar sands pipeline? This article certainly seems to be saying that.

Another day, another fossil fuel-related mess.

February 2, 2014