Energy

Chris Paine is a filmmaker whose documentaries include "Who Killed the Electric Car?" ,"Charge" and "Revenge of the Electric Car. " The troubles of electric-car-maker Fisker Automotive have fueled another round of debate about whether plug-ins can live up to their promises. The California start-up, which had already halted production and laid off most of its employees, missed a federal loan payment Monday and told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that bankruptcy may be unavoidable . This is likely the end of the road...

The Energy Department gave a terminal near Freeport, Tex., permission Friday to ship liquefied natural gas to Japan, providing a new outlet for rising U.S. production of shale gas despite qualms of environmentalists and many domestic manufacturers. The permit marks another step in the sudden reversal of fortune in the natural gas business. Less than five years ago, anticipating a worsening shortfall in domestic supplies of natural gas, the Freeport terminal on Quintana Island began operations as an import facility.

When someone in the Washington area begins to type the president's last name into the search box of Google's home page, the top three terms it suggests as the most popular selections are Obama, Obamacare and . . . Obama phone. Obama phone? A hotline, maybe, to the Oval Office? Hardly. "Obama phone" is the widely used — and misleading — nickname of a 28-year-old federal program known as Lifeline . It provides discounts, averaging $9.25 a month, on phone service for 13.3 million...

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department on Friday conditionally approved a Texas company's proposal to export liquefied natural gas, only the second such project allowed to move forward amid a production boom that has led to glut of domestic natural gas. The action would allow Freeport LNG Expansion L.P. to export up to 1.4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day from its terminal near Freeport, Texas, south of Houston. The DOE said granting such a permit for shipments to countries...

A few weeks ago, after a major study showed that organically grown food offers little or no nutritional benefit over the cheaper, conventionally grown equivalent, I began investigating the other major reason people buy organic: saving the environment. The environmental impact of a product is too complex to cover comprehensively in a few hundred words, so I began with one aspect of it, land use, and looked at how recently released data shows that conventional farming produces more food on less land than ...

If you leave out mosquitoes, soggy french fries and 100-degree afternoons, I love everything about summer. Well, almost everything. There is one more summer pastime I can live without: roller coasters. Don't get me wrong. Like most people, I think roller coasters are a marvel of modern engineering. They are spectacular machines that allow riders to soar through the air like birds. Not like normal birds, of course, because only crazy birds would fly loop-the-loops just for the heck of it. Most birds engage in aerial...

WE'VE ALREADY said that President Obama's State of the Union address didn't convince us that he had a real plan to improve the tone of politics in Washington. But on energy, Mr. Obama did reach out to Republicans -- not just rhetorically, but with substantive concessions meant to revitalize a foundering legislative effort. The president spoke of "building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants" and "opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. " Mr. Obama made Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's response -- that "this...

Elizabeth Razzi's column in the July 19 Business section, "Keep Your Energy Dollars From Going Up in Smoke," overlooked two points: A home energy audit is the best way to pinpoint where energy dollars can be spent most effectively, and energy improvement projects may qualify for tax incentives. In my case, an audit showed that a problem in a utility closet allowed air from the attic -- not heated or cooled -- to mingle with heated or cooled air in the rest of the house. My audit cost a bit over $300; acting on its recommendations cost about $1,400.

In the June 25 Metro story about the proposed coal plant in southwestern Virginia ["Debating Coal's Cost in Rural Virginia"], Dominion Virginia Power's chief environmental officer was quoted as saying, "You just wouldn't be able to do enough wind to meet our energy supply [needs]. " Definitive though that may sound, it is not true. We have plenty of wind and solar resources in this country, and we have all the technology we need to begin phasing out coal. All it takes is turbines, transmission and energy storage.

Regarding the June 17 front-page story "McCain Seeks to End Offshore Drilling Ban": I am extremely disappointed in the Democratic Party's approach to energy issues. The Democrats seem determined to undermine our way of life by eliminating all rational means of producing energy. We need two things: a portable energy source for transportation and a nonpolluting way to produce electricity. Until we can change to an alternative fuel, such as hydrogen, we must use oil for transportation, and we need to produce more of it. But Congress is...

RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Ken Cuccinelli proposed cuts to taxes and regulations on energy in the second policy statement of his campaign for governor Thursday in Virginia coal country. In outlining his energy policy proposals in Bristol, Va., Cuccinelli also said he would compel the state's ecological watchdog agency, the Department of Environmental Quality, to cushion adverse environmental findings about pending infrastructure projects with "positive indirect results" such as job creation...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II on Thursday sketched the outlines of a comprehensive energy policy that would promote all available sources, from nuclear energy to biomass, while emphasizing the importance of coal and the pursuit of offshore oil. Cuccinelli, a Republican who is hoping to succeed Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), is in a tight race with Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and fundraiser who has touted his record as an...

WASHINGTON — Physicist Ernest Moniz won unanimous Senate confirmation Thursday to be the nation's new energy secretary. Moniz, 68, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, replaces Steven Chu, who served as energy secretary in President Barack Obama's first term. Moniz served as an energy undersecretary in the Clinton administration. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, called Moniz "solution-oriented" and said he is "smart about energy...

HOUSTON — Hess and Elliott Capital Management say they have reached an agreement that gives board seats to three people nominated by the activist hedge fund. Hess Corp. said Thursday that in turn for getting its nominees on the board, Elliott will support five of Hess' nominees. The board's size will remain at 14 members. The announcement comes on the day of Hess' annual meeting in Houston. Elliott, which has a 4.52 percent stake in New York-based Hess, has...

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey says its state-run petroleum company has reached a deal with U.S. company Exxon Mobil to explore for oil in northern Iraq.  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the deal was a "step toward exploring for oil" in Iraq's Kurdish region. He said details of the deal would be revealed after his visit to the United States on Thursday. Both the United States and the Iraqi central government oppose allowing Iraq's Kurdistan...

I don't have a dog in the Senate fight in Massachusetts between 18-term Rep. Ed Markey (D) and Republican Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL. But if energy policy matters to voters up there, they should hold Markey accountable for not adapting to new realities that have emerged since he came to Congress in the 1970s. In particular, Markey has been one of Congress's most vocal advocates for the wrong-headed idea of limiting U.S. exports of natural gas. A decade ago, U.S. companies were preparing...

No deputy secretary of energy has been announced, but the nominee could well come from among the suits pictured here as they attended Secretary-designate Steven Chu 's confirmation hearing yesterday. On the far left is Trudy Vincent , who is helping with the confirmation process. To Chu's right, working our way left, are Dan Utech , who handled environmental issues for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.); Jason Grumet , a campaign energy adviser; Dan W. Reicher ; former assistant energy secretary and now at Google; and ...

Regarding the Sept. 10 editorial " Low on energy ": The editorial's subhed was "Neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Romney has a workable plan to reduce carbon burning. " Yes, and isn't it wonderful? If President Obama's plan had worked, energy prices would have already "necessarily" skyrocketed, as he predicted in a 2008 interview, thus handicapping any chance of the economy recovering this decade from the depredations of the president's other policies. The real distinction between the two candidates is huge.

Humans Exploring the critical role of bodily waste — in history and now " The Origin of Feces " by David Waltner-Toews Bodily waste is widely considered a topic not to be discussed in polite company; it's something to be flushed and forgotten. But a new book argues that waste, in all its human and animal forms, is worth getting to know intimately. " The Origin of Feces " (not to be confused with the 1992 Type O Negative gothic metal album "Origin of the...

WASHINGTON — A Michigan company that received a $50 million federal loan to make vans for the disabled has stopped production and laid off its 100 workers. Vehicle Production Group, or VPG, suspended operations in February after its finances dipped below a minimum level required as a condition of the federal loan. The Allen Park, Mich., company received the loan in 2011 under the same clean-energy program that provided a $529 million loan to electric car...