Fossil fuel spills, messes, accidents and even disasters occur all the time, but it's highly likely that most aren't reported by the media. In this feature on Scaling Green, we're going to keep an informal, running tally of notable oil, natural gas, and coal messes in the United States that were reported in the news media. And just for run, we'll also throw in any solar spills, aka "sunny days," that happen to come along. For instance, today (April 3, 2014) is a beautiful, sunny day in Arlington, Virginia, where Scaling Green is headquartered.

Let's hope that this $3 million award for fracking damages is the first of many more to come.

On April 11, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) held a fascinating media roundtable at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. ACORE President Michael Brower set the tone for the panels with his introductory remarks, in which he stressed that "renewable energy resources have historically held the goodwill of the majority of the American public," but that media coverage doesn't necessarily reflect that - or "align with the reality of the marketplace." As Brower explained, the media has over-reported the relatively infrequent cleantech failures, while under-reporting its overwhelming successes. And, Brower added, many of those successes are happening in the states, where from "Maine to Georgia, to Kansas to Oregon and all those states in between," we see "a new emergence of bipartisan-ism on clean and renewable energy."

Recently, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported that Prime Minister David Cameron "wants to go into the next election pledging to 'rid' the countryside of onshore wind farms." The Telegraph article added, "Conservative plans would have put a limit on the total amount of energy generated in the country by onshore wind, meaning that future projects could be blocked." Apparently, Prime Minister Cameron and his Conservative Party see this assault on wind power as a popular move.  If so, it's unclear where they're getting their polling information from, as this article reports.

An article in the Washington Post, "Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say," got us thinking: What impact, if any, might this change in the way we process information in the digital, social media age impact cleantech marketing? We'll share our thoughts in a minute, but first, here are a few key points from the Post article.

When federal environmental cops look the other way, the outcome is not good. We're left cleaning up the mess decades later. For instance, see a frightening map of where Kerr-McGee polluted.

A few weeks ago, we highlighted a blog post by Elon Musk of Tesla Motors calling out New Jersey for having "ended your right to purchase vehicles at a manufacturer store within the state." In Musk's open letter, he said that if you believe the auto dealer lobby's rationale that this is about "consumer protection," then "Gov. Christie has a bridge closure he wants to sell you!" Musk also said that "Tesla is 'evaluating judicial remedies to correct the situation.'" Now Tesla has moved ahead on that front.