Latest

  • Workplace Drama: Courageous Course Correction

    It’s never fun to realize you’re wrong. But effective leaders know when to admit it and take their lumps.

  • Let’s Dump the ‘Tipping Point’ Metaphor into the Waste Tip

    Climate rhetoric has become increasing obsessed with "tipping points." But this sloppy metaphor risks taking good science over the cliff.

  • TREND: Rare Earth Minerals and Free Markets

    Far from precipitating a crisis in high-tech manufacturing, the Chinese attempt to corner the market on rare earth minerals has instead inspired some healthy competition and adaptation.

  • Application Note: A fresh look at power quality basics

    Understanding the fundamentals of how power quality issues affect the plant, how to detect them, and how to make them go away 

    If the quality of the electricity your plant con- sumes is not what it should be, it’s costing your company more than it should. Poor power qual- ity shortens the life of your equipment;

  • Application Note: The Cost of Poor Power Quality

    Productivity is the key to survival in today’s globally competitive environment. When you think about the basic inputs to production—time, labor, and materials—you can see there isn’t much room for optimization. You have 24 hours per day, labor is costly, and you don’t have much choice in materials. Thus, every company must use automa- tion

  • Moniz Confirmation as Energy Secretary Expected This Week

    The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week voted 21-1 to approve the nomination of Dr. Ernest Moniz to be Secretary of Energy. Moniz, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is expected to win full Senate approval this week—with some minor hurdles.

  • EPA Proposes Revisions to Steam Electric Power Plant Effluent Guidelines

    Revisions proposed on Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards could set the first federal limits on the levels of toxic metals in wastewater discharges from steam electric power plants. The proposed rule would help reduce pollutants in U.S. waterways from coal ash, air pollution control waste, and other power plant waste, but they could come at a cost of between $185.2 million to nearly $1 billion a year, the agency said.

  • Report: Global Renewable Investments in 2012 Tumble 11% as Market Shifts from West to East

    Public and private investment in solar, wind, and other renewables worldwide declined 11% in 2012 from an adjusted 2011 record of $302 billion, a new survey from Pew Charitable Trusts shows. Yet the global renewable sector still registered a record 88 GW of new nameplate capacity last year, and China reclaimed the lead in global renewables investments from the U.S., it says.

  • New York State PSC Approves $2B Transmission Line from Canada

    The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) last week approved the construction and operation of a 1-GW transmission line that could stretch 330 miles from the Canadian border to Astoria, Queens, through Lake Champlain and the Hudson River.

  • Lawmakers Push for Financing Parity for Renewable Projects

    Bipartisan legislation introduced on Wednesday by a bicameral group of lawmakers seeks to give renewable energy project investors access to an existing corporate structure whose tax benefits are now only available to investors in fossil fuel–based energy projects.