How is hydraulic fracturing different from drilling for oil? And why is it called 'fracking'? CNN explains it to you.
A Pennsylvania court has struck down a controversial provision of a state law that stopped municipalities from controlling where natural gas companies could drill.
Apple prides itself on being green.
The new MacBook Pro with Retina display has the sharpest screen on the market, but its price may be too high for many.
Mitt Romney gets booed after attacking Obamacare at NAACP convention. What is his plan to court Pres. Obama's base?
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is attempting to flip attacks on his business record by accusing the Obama administration of shipping American jobs overseas, but experts in the industry he's singling out say the truth is more complicated.
Money invested in renewable energy reached new heights last year, topping $257 billion.
Is Poland the "El Dorado" of shale gas? CNN talks to Chevron, which is investing in the controversial energy source.
Poland may be sitting on a vast natural resource that could make it energy independent.
The Obama administration tightened rules on hydraulic fracturing Friday, requiring the disclosure of chemicals used in the process when done on federal and American Indian lands.
Donald Trump threatens to sue Scottish authorities if plans to build a wind farm near his Links course go ahead
It was Donald Trump's long-held dream. To build the best links golf course in the world in Scotland, as a tribute to his late mother who was born in the country.
The battle over hydraulic fracturing in the state of New York pits farmers against environmentalists, neighbor vs. neighbor, as gas companies wait to find out if they'll be able to unlock the natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation thousands of feet below the earth's surface.
The United States needs to overhaul its support for clean energy research to keep recent gains alive as subsidies that have fueled a boom in the field expire, researchers urged Wednesday.
Federal support for renewable power helped the United States reclaim from China the title of the world's biggest investor in clean energy, researchers for the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts reported Wednesday.
Land owners get rich from fracking, but don't know about violations in their backyards. CNN Money's Poppy Harlow reports.
South Africa has an energy deficit on its hands. Too many people want fuel for their cars and electricity for their homes, and the country is struggling to keep up with demand.
When the first sod was laid on Donald Trump's billion-dollar championship golf resort in Scotland last April, few people could have predicted that less than a year later the whole project would be under threat.
Shares of solar power company First Solar dropped in after-hours trading Tuesday following disappointing quarterly results. The Arizona-based company, a leading maker of thin-film solar panels and a developer of solar power projects, posted net sales of $660 million and earnings per share of $1.26, excluding certain charges. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the firm to post earnings of $1.54 per share on $782 million in revenue for the quarter ended in December. When taking into account costs incurred during the quarter from factors including restructuring and loss of goodwill, First Solar sustained a net loss of $413 million. "First Solar's performance in the quarter was impacted by an aggressive competitive environment, an uncertain regulatory environment, warranty-related charges, and restructuring costs incurred to help position our business for the future," Mike Ahearn, First Solar's chairman and interim CEO, said in a statement. The company also lowered
The United States is undergoing an energy boom -- but the oil and gas industry says it could be much, much bigger.
The United States Army is looking at hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, hoping that sometime in the near future they'll play some important military roles, maybe even on the battlefield.
Shares in First Solar fell nearly 9% Friday after the solar panel maker and project developer reported a delay in funding for a massive solar farm the company is building near Los Angeles.
A community meeting Saturday at a school where over a dozen children have developed tic-like symptoms quickly became contentious, further dividing an already-polarized community.
The fracking-led oil and natural gas boom that's received widespread attention in the mainstream press has moved to a new medium: reality TV.
President Obama's half dozen energy proposals will, by and large, benefit nearly all players in the energy space and result in lower prices for consumers, analysts say.
President Barack Obama made a pitch for continued federal support of energy research during Tuesday night's State of the Union address.
For the third year in a row energy played a central role in President Obama's State of the Union address, with the president leaning hard this year on the twin themes of increased domestic oil and gas production and the need to invest more in renewable sources.
Good news for homeowners: Natural gas prices are the lowest they've been in years. And they're expected to fall even further, thanks to growing production and slack demand.
Foreign firms, hungry to cash in on the American energy boom, have invested nearly $6 billion in U.S. gas and oil drilling in the last few weeks.
Ohio hasn't been an oil powerhouse for nearly 100 years.
Shares in solar power company First Solar fell over 20% in early trading Wednesday after the firm lowered its sales forecast for 2011.
The Environmental Protection Agency said this week that chemicals from "fracking," a controversial method of extracting natural gas from the ground, have polluted groundwater in Wyoming.
Just three years after fears of an energy supply shortage, executives of the world's leading oil companies now foresee a bonanza of oil and natural gas on the horizon.
The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers.
Last summer a Halliburton executive did the unthinkable: He took a big ol' swig of hydraulic fracturing fluid.
The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday that it would investigate allegations that Chinese solar cell manufacturers are illegally "dumping" their products on the American market at excessively cheap prices.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is using clean energy to power its country and its economy. Sara Sidner reports.
Bhutan is the last of the Himalayan kingdoms. The small country is situated in the nooks and crannies of the highest mountain range on earth.
Warm seas and blazing sunshine make Antalya a holiday hotspot, but could more be done to harness solar and wind energy?
Gov. Rick Perry touted part of his plan to boost the economy at Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, saying his energy strategy would create 1.2 million jobs. Last week, Perry said his plan would focus on tapping unexplored domestic sources for oil and gas. To do this, he said, regulations on oil and gas producers would need to be changed. Fewer rules would free up drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, and expand clean-coal technology resources, he said.
Crews sprayed foam Wednesday to extinguish pockets of fire remaining at a Texas chemical plant two days after a massive blaze sent bright flames and thick plumes of smoke high into the sky.
Video shows a number of explosions going off in the middle of a fast-moving fire at a chemical manufacturing plant.
The world's largest solar-powered boat sails into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. CNN's Anna Coren meets the crew.
She's traveled more than 35,000 kilometers hugging the equator, powered entirely by the sun.
Google announced another investment in companies selling rooftop solar panels Tuesday, putting $75 million into a fund that solar contractors and designers can draw on to finance solar systems for homeowners.
CNNMoney: The Solyndra curseupdated: Tue Sep 27 2011 21:49:00
To say that the bankruptcy of government-backed solar energy firm Solyndra is a blow to the industry is a massive understatement.
A cloud-computing company is building what it calls "the world's first zero-emission data center" in Iceland.
The subcommittee created earlier this year by President Obama to study shale gas drilling is expected to produce a final report before Christmas. The subcommittee will recommend ways that regulators and the industry can reduce the environmental impact of fracking.
At least three other government-backed solar firms face the same challenging market conditions that brought down Solyndra, the now bankrupt solar panel maker that could cost taxpayers over $500 million.
Global energy use is expected to jump 53% by 2035, largely driven by strong demand from places like India and China, according to a report Monday.
One couple is struggling to determine why their home smells like natural gas and why the tap water ignites. WDTV reports
Residential solar power provider SolarCity and the U.S. government announced a deal Wednesday to put solar panels on military housing units, a move that could double the number of rooftop solar power installed in the United States.
With job creation taking center stage in American politics, the oil industry Wednesday made a pitch for drilling more widely. With looser restrictions, the industry says it could deliver 1.4 million new jobs, boost tax rolls by $800 billion, and increase domestic energy production almost 50%.
Spurred by a desire to save money and lives by reducing the number of vulnerable fuel convoys they depend on, the Marines last month invited 13 companies to their desert base to pitch them the latest in battlefield solar and fuel efficiency technology.
If you've ever thought, "One day, I'm going to put in a solar energy system," today might be the day.
One out of eight U.S. Army casualties in Iraq was the result of protecting fuel convoys.
It was the winter of 2006, and EOG Resources executive vice president Kurt Doerr had to be wondering what the heck he was doing prospecting for oil in the frigid central plains of North Dakota. Sure, wildcatters had been pumping modest amounts of crude out there for decades. However, nobody had ever found a true gusher, and the timing seemed odd given that EOG's core business -- drilling for natural gas, not oil -- was absolutely booming. EOG's net income had just doubled, natural-gas prices were fresh off all-time highs, and cutting-edge technologies were opening up vast new gas fields like Barnett Shale in Texas.
In a surprise move, New York state is likely to lift its ban on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used to extract natural gas.
Big energy company executives and government researchers are firing back at a recent New York Times story suggesting the recent boom in natural gas production from shale rock is unsustainable and perhaps fraudulent.
Bank of America has secured a federal loan guarantee that will allow it to finance the world's largest single effort to put solar panels on rooftops, the company said Wednesday.
When Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley issued an executive order banning fracking earlier this month, the state joined the ranks of New York, Quebec, Germany, France and South Africa to halt the controversial technique for extracting natural gas from shale rock.
Jack Gerard has pretty much been in crisis mode since taking over as president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute in November 2008. Shortly after he arrived at the powerful oil-industry lobbying group, President Obama and a wave of Democrats swept into office, promising to fund alternative energy sources and take action on climate change. Last year the BP disaster poured more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and Gerard spent the summer prepping his members for more than 50 congressional hearings and eight separate investigations related to the spill and its aftermath. Then, in mid-May, executives from five oil companies appeared before a committee of the U.S. Senate and defended their earnings, which could hit record highs in 2011. "Don't punish our industry for doing its job well," Chevron CEO John Watson said. The performance was, by all accounts, a public relations disaster.
Google and rooftop solar power company SolarCity announced a $280 million investment deal Tuesday, the largest such deal for home-based solar power systems in the United States.
A new study from Duke University found potentially explosive levels of methane in drinking water supplies located close to natural gas wells.
The United States wins when China invests in renewable energy.
Google is helping build a massive undersea power cable along the East Coast that's designed to ferry clean power from offshore wind farms to the country's most populous region.
When it comes to alternative power, NRG CEO David Crane is pumped about solar energy and, despite the naysayers, believes the U.S. can still compete with China.
As Japan's earthquake and tsunami ripped through the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the wind turbines at nearby Takine Ojiroi Wind Farm did what they were designed to do: They swayed, they stopped, and they electronically checked themselves.
CNN's Anna Coren looks at the continuing problems caused by the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan.
The business lobby, derided by environmentalists for opposing last year's climate change bill, put out an energy plan Tuesday that drew praise from fossil energy industries and threw a few bones to the renewable sector.
Five Congolese women have travelled to India to take part in an initiative to become experts in life saving solar technology.
At a solar power company in downtown San Francisco, Edward Fenster plans on doubling his workforce to 8,000 people in the next year.
It turns out that subsidies -- not the sun -- are what really drive solar projects. Photovoltaic plants simply aren't cost-efficient without tax breaks and other government carrots. California leads the country in photovoltaic projects, thanks to a 2006 act that offers rebates to homeowners and businesses that go green. But the Northeast is also, somewhat counterintuitively, a big solar player. In 2009, 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states formed an alliance that aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions 10% by 2018. New Jersey is the fastest-growing state in terms of solar development. The sunny South has meaningful solar projects only in Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. The same solar-in-the-shade phenomenon is happening globally: Germany and Japan -- not exactly hotbeds of, well, heat -- lead the world in photovoltaic projects. And until solar power is as cheap to produce as fuels like gas and coal, it is likely there will continue to be nothing new under the sun.
Stealth technology for wind turbines is just one of the latest examples of advances in wind power that aim to make the renewable resource more competitive with fossil fuels.
Good news for everyone who loves a barbecue: soon you could be helping save the world as you flip your burgers.
The midterm elections made it clear that Americans want a government that works for the people.
Companies in renewable energy industries are trying to figure out how to navigate the swing rightward from the midterm elections. Starting with the worst casae scenario, projects that received some of the $16.8 billion in stimulus funding allocated to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in 2009 could now be left to wither, without getting the chance to return the promised green megawatts per dollar invested.
Solar panels and a solar hot water heater will soon be installed at the White House, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday.
CNN's Jim Boulden travels out to sea to witness the opening of the world's largest wind farm.
The world's largest offshore wind farm opened Thursday off the British coast, with 100 wind turbines capable of supplying enough electricity for 200,000 homes a year.
Five miles off the coast of Shanghai, the Chinese recently completed the country's first offshore wind farm.
After decades of watching good jobs disappear, we need solutions that will provide continuous economic growth. The U.S. unemployment rate is hovering around 9.5 percent; for African Americans, around 17 percent.
If you're looking for the future of American business, our annual list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies isn't a bad place to start. Of course, as they say on Wall Street, past performance doesn't guarantee future results. But every year companies like Genentech and Starbucks appear on this list before moving on to bigger and better things.
Imagine outfitting your house with small, affordable solar panels that plug into a socket and pump power into your electrical system instead of taking it out.
The Pocono Raceway turns on its new 3-megawatt solar farm, the first sports facility in the U.S. to use solar energy.
Forget about Philadelphia -- Brandon Igdalsky hopes it's always sunny in the Poconos.
The creation of new power capacity from renewable energy has exceeded new fossil fuel power generation in the United States and Europe for the second year running, according to two United Nations reports published Thursday.
It's much easier to look for a magic solution than it is to adapt to reality. Take energy, for instance. These days "clean energy," also known as "green energy," is being presented as the magic solution for global warming, our dependence on foreign oil, and the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe even for warts and bad breath. A typical example of the hype, from one of President Obama's speeches about BP: "The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now."
The BP oil spill in the Gulf is shaping up to be the worst environmental crisis in American history. Climate change activist groups have every reason to stand on a soapbox and tout their message about the dangers of oil now, while Washington and the world are listening. But for the most part, they haven't.
A professor who invented low-cost solar cells that may be incorporated into energy-producing windows has been awarded the Millennium Technology Prize.
"The sunshine bores the daylights out of me."
Two leading senators on Wednesday introduced a sweeping energy and climate change bill intended to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions while reshaping the energy sector for the 21st century.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approves a controversial wind project on Nantucket Sound.
Jim Gordon struggles to lift a book. It's 4,000 pages, more than a foot thick and one of the dozens of government reports over the last decade assessing the nation's first offshore wind farm.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday approved the nation's first offshore wind farm, signing off on a project that has bitterly divided Cape Cod over the last nine years.
The Rev. William Eddy stands at the bow of his 53-foot sailboat nestled in the postcard setting of Cape Cod.
Wednesday's speech from President Obama unveiling his new strategy on offshore drilling, which will keep some sensitive coastal areas open for drilling, hits close to home for me.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar talks with CNN's John King about new offshore drilling plans.
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