Tesla no longer owns the federal government a dime. On Wednesday the company announced it had repaid the outsanding balance of $451.8 million, with interest, on its 2009 Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan from the Department of Defense. That means taxpayers earned a very, very small $12 million profit on the loan.
Nearly every day of every year, even in tornado-prone areas, tornadoes don't strike. If you live in Moore, Oklahoma, 99.99 percent of the time, there's no threat that you'll be killed by a tornado. The question, as it so often does, becomes: How much do we spend to save a life? Here's a look at prevention techniques, and the politics therein.
Tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma, are neither new nor uncommon. Monday's massive twister may be the worst the city has seen, but it's also the 22nd since 1890. We put the data for all of them on a map.
The Week on the coming solar energy boom, Time on the Oklahoma tornado and climate change, The Daily Beast on Chris Christie's take on Sandy, Grist on why utilities need to evolve, and Reuters on where the shale boom lags behind.
Was Oklahoma's massive storm an inevitable side effect of higher atmospheric temperatures, or was it simply a bad storm, like so many before? Here's a survey of opinions so far.
The Daily Beast on the second life of landfills, Ars Technica on "climigration," The Washington Post on the left's reaction to Obama's energy deliberations, Reuters on how fracking caused a battle over water, The New Yorker on the Keystone XL pipline's impact.
For decades, the High Plains Aquifer has provided irrigation for the nation's breadbasket. But we're depleting it far faster than it's being filled — just as the prospect of climate change-related drought becomes more evident.
Farai Chideya on minority representation in the media, Lindsay L. Rodman on the data of sexual assault in the military, Pankaj Mishra on wealth and freedom in China, George Packer on the 21st century celebrity, Elizabeth Kolbert on the danger of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Grist on the information vacuum around fracking, The Atlantic Cities on Google's personalized maps, ABC News on the impact of climate change on human allergies, The Guardian on the threat of flooding in London, CNN on the specter of oil manipulation.
Advocates of action on climate change hold a trump card. When the Supreme Court in 2007 determined that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, the EPA got a mandate to regulate it. But, what the court giveth, the court can rescind in a tightly contested vote.
National Geographic on how cell phone can help fight pirate fishing, London Review of Books on the recent literature of climate change, The Huffington Post on the reality of our environmental harm, The New York Times on how insurers are dealing with increasingly catastrophic weather, and Forbes on the future of energy storage.
Hey, great news, everyone. It's finally starting to warm up, which means it's almost time to open up those swimming pools. And we'd recommend you get to the pool quickly, before all of the other swimmers contaminate it with fecal bacteria.
It is true that there is not unanimity in the scientific community over the role of humans in climate change. But with nearly every scientific paper for 20 years agreeing that warming is linked to human behavior, we're as close to unanimity as we'll get.
The 41-floor New Yorker Hotel on Eighth Avenue in New York City has 912 rooms. That's only one room short of what it would take to house the 913 New Yorkers still living in hotels in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The Atlantic on the future of human oil consumption, Associated Press on the new supply (and demand) of global oil, National Journal on the Republican boycott of the Obama's EPA nominee, Smart Planet on the United Kingdom's fracking envy, National Geographic on the recent destruction of Mayan ruins.
There are few industries more exposed to financial risk from climate change than insurance. Unsurprisingly, the industry at large is trying to figure out how to limit its losses from extreme weather events. Individual insurers are a little slower to act.
On Sunday, the low temperature was 22 degrees in Aberdeen, South Dakota — that's ten degrees below freezing. The next day, according to the National Weather Service, the high hit 92.
Slate on why we need to remove, not just cut, CO2 emissions, Quartz on Tesla cars as status symbols, Time on recent troubles of the green movement, National Geographic on an anti-fracking activist in South Africa, and The Independent on the failure of the Clean Development Mechanism.
If you're looking for a way to simultaneously criticize the president and renewable energy, it doesn't get much easier than the phrase, "Obama is allowing wind companies to kill eagles." Which is true. But a more nuanced assessment is probably in order.
In case you weren't sure what climate change looks like, here's a preview: It looks like tens of millions people displaced from their homes due to climate- and weather-related events each year.
Geekosystem on North Carolina's attempt to ban Tesla cars, National Journal on how Washington should make climate policy, The Guardian on how the energy politics drive conflict in Syria, The New York Times on the Earth's temperature, The Atlantic on Kazakhstan's nuclear legacy.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization wants to be clear about its report today. "We are not saying that people should be eating bugs." Just that global changes may necessitate it.
CNN on the myth of energy independence, The New York Times on the new carbon milestone, The Washington Post on how the World Bank can mitigate climate change, Treehugger on how young people flock to public transportation, and Scientific American on the produce industry's safety strategy.
Fertile lovers a plus, gills a must and relocation fees included — only other Mangarahara cichlids or Ptychochromis Insolitus, need apply.
It has happened. For the first time, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels passed a daily average of 400 parts per million. There is now more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point since 2.9 million years before humans existed.
About twice a year, Yale University's Project on Climate Change Communication releases a survey assessing how Americans feel about the environmental threat. On Thursday, it released the latest version. We've extracted the four most important graphs.
Time on human developments as seen from space, New York on Obama's climate change strategy, Slate on the future of China's climate, CNN on reaction to Tesla's Model S car, and Media Matters on The Wall Street Journal's climate change coverage.
Republican members of a key committee announced that they were not going to attend a hearing meant to advance Gina McCarthy to head the EPA. Which problem is trickier to solve: Senate chicanery or environmental pollution?
A preliminary tally indicates that almost a third of all of the managed bee colonies in the United States — 31.1 percent — didn't survive the winter. That makes it the fourth-worst winter since 2006.
Voters in Ohio and New York made their own decisions on fracking. Expect more; one of the biggest environmental fights in America is increasingly happening at the country's lowest political level.
U.S. News & World Report on natural gas-powered cars, The New York Times on the future of nuclear energy in Japan, Grist on the hidden history of spills in the Gulf of Mexico, Business Insider on how to make money off the fear of climate change, and Nature on the threat of Beijing's air quality.
The massive wildfires flattening thousands of acres in Southern California were predictable. As was the cause that Governor Jerry Brown blamed yesterday: climate change.
The Guardian on how climate change affects British wine, National Journal on the difficulty of regulating carbon, The Daily Beast on who works where in the energy sector, The Nation on New York City's fracking threat, and The New York Times Magazine on the economics of food trucks.
The latest data from the Department of Energy indicates that the same loan guarantee program which was roundly criticized after the failure of Solyndra has now created more than 20,000 jobs in clean energy, with several companies already paying back their obligations.
Mother Jones on lead-filled lipstick, USA Today on how the military could go green, The Atlantic Cities on the future of public roads, MIT Technology Review on how much oil we have, and National Geographic on Pakistan's energy crisis.
Call off the last rites: the coal industry in the United States isn't quite on death's door. New data suggests that the industry has seen some recent growth — thanks in part to laws mandating cleaner air.
For twenty-seven years, the world's average temperature has been hotter than the average during the second half of the 20th century. Last year, it was the ninth-warmest in recorded history — but still cold for the past ten.
The New York Times on honeybee deaths, The Atlantic on oil in North Dakota, The Nation on what it means to be natural, Vice on oil in the Amazon, and NBC News on 'climate whiplash.'
Despite its straight-from-science-fiction premise, it's real: A group of scientists meeting at the White House to discuss a brand-new ocean. Impending Arctic ice melt makes this just another day in the geopolitics of climate change.
A look at government data on alternate-fuel vehicles offers an interesting perspective on the popularity of the vehicles across the country. It does not, however, indicate that ExxonMobil and Shell need to stay awake at night in worry.
The Arizona Republic on the Grand Canyon's uranium mine, The New York Times on water conservation in the U.A.E., Forbes on the future of coal, The Guardian on bribery-based energy policy, and The Atlantic Cities on the vulnerability of sewage plants.
A key fight over efforts to curb climate change is happening in the relative anonymity of various state legislatures. Colorado just voted to increase its use of renewable energy. North Carolina voted to do the opposite. But only one side wins.
The United States government drastically underestimated the amount of oil and natural gas in North Dakota and Montana. And its new estimates may still be too low.
Time on the Fukushima power plant cleanup, The Atlantic Cities on pedestrian energy, USA Today on climate change and precipitation, Politico on Obama's Keystone deliberations, and New Statesman on the climate effects of the recession.
When you buy gasoline, as you know, you're paying for more than the gasoline itself. Twice a year, the government tracks how much people in each state are paying in tax — and the highest taxes may not be where you'd think.
During the second half of last year — the hottest recorded year in U.S. history — ocean temperatures off the East Coast also hit their highest temperatures in the 150 years measurements have been kept. It's not a comforting record.
NBC on the marketing of energy-efficient light bulbs, The New York Times on burning garbage in Oslo, The Washington Post on Fisker Automotive, The American Prospect on Obama's green record, and National Geographic on solar nanotechnology.
Two recent disasters — the tsunami at Fukushima and Hurricane Sandy — show that shoreline infrastructure can easily result in extensive ocean pollution. With sea levels rising rapidly, this problem could quickly become significantly greater.
For the first time, measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide taken at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii exceeded 400 parts-per-million on an hourly basis. It's a symbolic benchmark, but an important one, suggesting that efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have not yet shown any significant effect.
MSNBC on Queens after the hurricame, The Atlantic on the true impact of coal, MarketWatch on our readiness for climate change, The Guardian on the U.K.'s climate change curriculum, The Associated Press on fracking's impact on climate change
New estimates from the EPA indicate that methane leakage from natural gas production is substantially lower than previously believed. Or, translated to English: Natural gas may be a better solution to rampant global warming than anyone believed.
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