Using less and saving more through ingenuity and efficiency.
Perhaps it’s a reflection of the integral role that energy plays in American life, but energy has also played a big role in Hollywood — from the oilfields in ‘Giant’ to a nuclear time machine in ‘Back to the Future’. A new television show premiering tonight takes a closer look at the connection. Associate Professor [...]
From the Texas Tribune: Texas summers are so hot that in many West Texas reservoirs, more water evaporates than gets used by people. In 2011, more water evaporated out of Lakes Travis and Buchanan in Central Texas than was used by their largest city customer, Austin. So what about storing water underground — in manmade [...]
From the Texas Tribune: In an Austin warehouse, a four-year-old company called Omni Water Solutions is working on a way to recycle water used in hydraulic fracturing. Its technology involves a large container, dubbed a “Hippo,” that purifies water from oilfields via filters and other means. The scrubbed water could potentially be reused in the [...]
New Documentary Looks at the Tiny House Movement While American homes have grown larger and larger over the years on average, a small group has decided to buck that trend to live tiny. Really small. As in, under 200 square feet small. A new film, ‘TINY,’ which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin last [...]
A new report says you’re likely to be feeling less pain at the pump than in years past – and not just because gas prices are down a bit this week. Cars and trucks are getting better mileage than ever, and the air is cleaner as a result. The new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report says [...]
You may have seen the TED talk, or read the book, or just seen an interview with him somewhere like CNN or the Daily Show. He’s William Kamkwamaba, a young man from Malawi, who dropped out of school at a young age and built his family a windmill. From junk. And it worked. In the early [...]
Scientists are developing ways to add non-toxic tracers to drilling fluid so if groundwater is contaminated, investigators would be able to pinpoint if an oil or gas drilling operation was to blame. “What’s impossible at the moment is if you’ve got multiple companies in an area and it’s thought there is contamination, there is no [...]
The small city of Brownwood, Texas could soon have something in common with the African nation of Namibia: a wastewater treatment facility that cleans wastewater (including the stuff from the bathroom) and returns it directly to city water pipes, where it becomes drinking water. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved construction of the wastewater [...]
Just a week after Texas hit another record for wind power generation, the wind industry and the green energy sector are breathing a huge sigh of relief today after Congress extended a tax credit that was set to expire. The Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) has been around since 1992, and gives producers of [...]
The potential for electric cars to reduce pollution and save drivers some gas money has spurred a market for the vehicles (not to mention government investment). But there’s always been a lingering concern about the vehicles, especially in Texas where we often hear about the fragility of our electric grid. The worry goes something like [...]
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